European Politics discussion
Technically, should we not have a separate thread for UK politics?
/s
We could hold a vote and then get around to it eventually.
You joke, but I am up for starting the first round of negotiations on how to withdraw England from this thread.
You sir, win a crumpet for distinguishing England from Britain.
Is this the European Union politics thread now?
Shadout wrote:You joke, but I am up for starting the first round of negotiations on how to withdraw England from this thread.
You sir, win a crumpet for distinguishing England from Britain.
Pfffft. One out, all out. We’re taking the Union with us!
Shadout wrote:You joke, but I am up for starting the first round of negotiations on how to withdraw England from this thread.
You sir, win a crumpet for distinguishing England from Britain.
Going to find some good Bailiwick of Guernsey politics news just to really shake things up.
Oo, give us the tea from a small Humberside town!
I thought she was brought down by a lettuce?
The lettuce was part of the left-wing economic establishment. Duh.
I wasn't that the lettuce brought her down, it just did a less bad job as Prime Minister.
OPENING UP NEW PORK MARKETS
Soros working overtime, eh?
Thank God for that!
Left-wing economic establishment: working as intended.
lol. I am reminded of Brian Billick talking about the Ravens 2000 defense and how folks like to argue about whether or not it was the greatest of all time. His response is "I don't mind having that conversation because I have the math on my side".
That's how I feel about these right wing folks who claim that economics is "biased" against them.
The math don't lie.
"Left-wing economic establishment" doing alot of work to cover everyone to the left of fascists and xenophobic bigots.
Yeah. It's a rich coalition lol.
Moldovan PM resigns blaming ‘crises caused by Russian aggression’
Moldova’s pro-western government has resigned after 18 months in power following a series of economic and political crises that have engulfed the country in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The prime minister, Natalia Gavrilita, told a news conference on Friday that the “time has come for me to announce my resignation”, adding that no one could have expected her government “to manage so many crises caused by Russian aggression”.
Hours earlier, the government said a Russian missile had violated Moldovan airspace and summoned Russia’s ambassador to protest.
Moldova’s intelligence service said on Thursday that Russia was acting to destabilise the country, after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Kyiv had intercepted a “plan for the destruction of Moldova” by Russian intelligence.
“Subversive activities with the aim of undermining the Republic of Moldova, of destabilisation and violating the public order were identified,” the country’s Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) said in a statement.
The SIS statement said the agency could not give any further details “because of the risk of jeopardising different ongoing operational activities”, adding it wanted to “reassure Moldova’s citizens that all the state’s institutions are working”.
The president, Maia Sandu, accepted Gavrilita’s resignation. “Thank you so much for your enormous sacrifice and efforts to lead the country in a time of so many crises,” Sandu said. “In spite of unprecedented challenges, the country was governed responsibly, with a lot of attention and dedicated work.”
Sandu’s choice of a successor – her pro-European security adviser Dorin Recean – is likely to be approved without hurdles.
The former Soviet republic of 2.5 million people has suffered a string of problems including soaring inflation, a large influx of Ukrainian refugees, and an acute energy crisis coupled with power cuts after Moscow dramatically reduced supplies.
The steep price increases – in particular for Russian gas – led to street protests last year in the small country, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, in which demonstrators called for the government and president to resign.
At first I thought that said "Moldova’s pro-wrestling government" and you cannot imagine how disappointed I am.
Hungary’s staging of War and Peace puts spotlight on its Russia stance
The Hungarian State Opera, which presented a new production of the opera last week, has been at pains to note that the scheduling and staging of the opera were planned long before Vladimir Putin took the decision to invade Ukraine.
But the bombastic music and patriotic Russian-language libretto have an unnerving resonance as the first anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine approaches, especially when performed on a stage just a three-hour drive from Ukraine’s border.
Budapest, however, has emerged as the friendliest European Union capital towards Russia since the war broke out last year.
Moldovan PM resigns blaming ‘crises caused by Russian aggression’
Moldova’s pro-western government has resigned after 18 months in power following a series of economic and political crises that have engulfed the country in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The prime minister, Natalia Gavrilita, told a news conference on Friday that the “time has come for me to announce my resignation”, adding that no one could have expected her government “to manage so many crises caused by Russian aggression”.
Hours earlier, the government said a Russian missile had violated Moldovan airspace and summoned Russia’s ambassador to protest.
Moldova’s intelligence service said on Thursday that Russia was acting to destabilise the country, after the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Kyiv had intercepted a “plan for the destruction of Moldova” by Russian intelligence.
“Subversive activities with the aim of undermining the Republic of Moldova, of destabilisation and violating the public order were identified,” the country’s Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) said in a statement.
The SIS statement said the agency could not give any further details “because of the risk of jeopardising different ongoing operational activities”, adding it wanted to “reassure Moldova’s citizens that all the state’s institutions are working”.
The president, Maia Sandu, accepted Gavrilita’s resignation. “Thank you so much for your enormous sacrifice and efforts to lead the country in a time of so many crises,” Sandu said. “In spite of unprecedented challenges, the country was governed responsibly, with a lot of attention and dedicated work.”
Sandu’s choice of a successor – her pro-European security adviser Dorin Recean – is likely to be approved without hurdles.
The former Soviet republic of 2.5 million people has suffered a string of problems including soaring inflation, a large influx of Ukrainian refugees, and an acute energy crisis coupled with power cuts after Moscow dramatically reduced supplies.
The steep price increases – in particular for Russian gas – led to street protests last year in the small country, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, in which demonstrators called for the government and president to resign.
Moldova president accuses Russia of plotting to oust pro-EU government. It looks like Gavrilița stepped down and dissovled the government so Recean, the new PM, can pick his own cabinet and Sandu, the President, is all OK with that. Basically a war cabinet. This could have legs yet.
And remember, Presidents in Europe are glorified chairmen. They just ensure the constitutional order and/or rules are followed. Also are popularly elected. France does it completely differently because France always has to be creative and challenging 
In slightly surprising news, Nichola Sturgeon has stepped down as Scotland’s first minister.
Reasoning is a little vague beyond ‘politics is brutal’ and ‘she’s had enough’. I can’t help thinking there’s probably something we don’t know about yet that’s about the crawl out of the woodwork.
On a similar theme, Kier Starmer has made it very clear that Jeremy Corbyn will not be permitted to stand as Labour candidate in the next general election.
New pension strikes grip France as MPs wage legislative battle (France24)
A bit fewer people in the strikes, but school winter break has started in some places, so it's hard to tell exactly. Unions have called for a massive general strike on March 7th and the talks in Parliament should close at midnight tonight, so we'll know what the next step is then. The proposed minimum of 1200€ monthly pension has been completely scrapped by the government (we all knew it was a lie from the start, they would announce this, give no specifics and be very wishy washy when asked about details - I'm thinking specifically about Dussopt, our Labor Minister). They tossed a bone with their "okay, we'll exempt women who had children before 2011" regarding their policy which tanked mothers.
All in all, it's a mess because the government deliberately tried to pass this law in a specific way (as a projet de loi rectificatif du financement de la sécurité sociale, an addendum to rectif the law which outlines how social security is funded), which means that the Assemblée Nationale, our Parliament, had something like two weeks to discuss the law and different articles. The far left and the left added a bunch of articles (about twenty thousand) to obstruct and protest the crazy quick time constraint. Some were added, some were pulled, and here we are, 90 minutes or so from the deadline. Since it won't pass (no way they'll get the vote for it), it'll go as is to the Senate, before it gets bounced back to the Assemblée where the government will most likely forcefully ratify it with the 49-3. Wait and see...
Serbia nationalist protests spike tensions over Russia
Pro-Russia activists in Serbia joined nationalist protesters outside the presidency this week, in the latest indication of rising Russian influence.
Chanting "no surrender" and "treason", they threatened to riot if Serbia backed an EU plan to normalise relations with Kosovo.
President Alexander Vucic denounced the protesters as "anti-Serbian".
The government said it did not believe Moscow stoked the protests but the war has heightened tensions in Belgrade.
Death threats were made towards the president if he signed a deal on Kosovo and three men have been charged with calling for a violent change of Serbia's constitutional order.
Among them is Serbian far-right leader Damjan Knezevic, who organised the protests. He has publicly backed Russia's Wagner mercenary group, which has played a big role in Russia's war in Ukraine.
He was recently pictured visiting Wagner's Russian headquarters in St Petersburg. Another man was arrested apparently taking a sniper rifle to the protest.
Mr Vucic went on TV to accuse the protest organisers of being paid for with foreigners' cash, vowing that Serbia would never be defeated by lies, threats and a few rifles. "I don't need someone from Wagner to tap me on the shoulder and tell me what I can and can't do," he said.
The Russian ambassador condemned threats against the Serbian leader. But almost a year into the war in Ukraine, it is clear Serbia is struggling to maintain ties with Moscow while moving closer to the EU.
Emmanuel Macron criticised for ceremony giving Jeff Bezos Légion d’honneur ( Thé Guardian)
Yeah, I know, the Guardian, but I couldn’t find any other English speaking news outlet that was reporting on this.
Anyway, here’s further evidence of how much of an awful being our president is. And he KNOWS how it would look so he tried to do it in secret. Despicable.
Serbia is not ready for EU, and won't be in the foreseeable future. It's still largely hung up on greater serbia ideals, pandering to russia, refusing to take up any responsibility of the atrocities of Balkan wars and all in being possibly worst of the many bad EU hopefuls.
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