INTL Europe: Politics, Economics, Military - December 2023

[northern watch]

Polish president says he'll veto a spending bill, in a blow to the new government of Donald Tusk​

Poland’s president says he intends to veto a spending bill which includes money for public media and raises for teachers, dealing a blow to the new pro-European Union government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk
By The Associated Press
December 23, 2023, 2:59 PM

FILE - Poland President Andrzej Duda speaks at an event in support of tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050 during at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Poland’s president says he intends to veto a spending bill which includes money for public media and raises for teachers, dealing a blow to the new pro-European Union government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. President Andrzej Duda said Saturday, Dec. 23 he would veto the bill that includes 3 billion zlotys ($762 million) for public media and would propose a bill of his own. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, file)

WARSAW, Poland -- Poland's president said Saturday that he intends to veto a spending bill which includes money for public media and raises for teachers, dealing a blow to the new pro-European Union government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

President Andrzej Duda said he would veto the bill that includes 3 billion zlotys ($762 million) for public media and would propose a bill of his own instead.

It comes after Tusk's government this week week fired the directors of state television, radio and the government-run news agency, a step it said was necessary to reestablish independent media in Poland.

Public media in Poland is funded by taxpayers and is legally required to be free of political bias. However, Law and Justice, the populist right-wing ruling party that held power for eight years until this month, used media as a propaganda mouthpiece that spread disinformation and xenophobic and homophobic content.

Tusk won power on promises to restore democratic norms, including through the reform of public media. But Poles have been debating whether his government was setting new negative examples in the way it took control over public media.

The culture minister replaced the heads of state media and TVP Info, a 24-hour news network, which went off air on Wednesday and is not yet broadcasting again.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw said Friday that it had doubts about whether a member of the government should be making decisions about changes in leadership positions in public media.

“We realize that political and legal conditions make such reforms very difficult,” the human rights group wrote. “However, we cannot help but notice that the manner of initiating changes in public media raises serious legal doubts.”

Some others defended the Tusk government's move, saying it had to act to stop media that were producing propaganda, and that the government should ultimately be judged on whether it manages to establish objective media outlets free from political bias.

Duda, who is politically aligned with Law and Justice, harshly condemned the government's takeover of public media, warning that he won’t accept moves that he believes to be against the law.

The president has the right to veto legislation and can propose legislation of his own. Duda remains in office for another year and a half, and his veto is an early sign of difficulties Tusk is likely to face in putting forward his agenda.

“There cannot be consent to this in view of the flagrant violation of the Constitution and the principles of a democratic state of law. Public media must first be repaired reliably and legally,” Duda tweeted in announcing his planned veto.

In response, Tusk tweeted that Duda's move would block raises for preschool and other teachers.

"Shame on you. Merry Christmas, President. I reassure those affected: we will deal with it,” Tusk said.

It was not clear how Tusk would manage to overcome the obstacle. His coalition holds a majority of 248 seats in the 460-seat Sejm, or parliament, but is short of the three-fifths majority needed to override presidential vetoes

Polish president says he'll veto a spending bill, in a blow to the new government of Donald Tusk

Poland’s president says he intends to veto a spending bill which includes money for public media and raises for teachers, dealing a blow to the new pro-European Union government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk

abcnews.go.com

 

[Plain Jane]

Here's what to know about Turkey's decision to move forward with Sweden's bid to join NATO

Sweden edged closer toward joining NATO after the Turkish Parliament’s foreign affairs committee greenlighted a protocol for the Nordic country’s membership in the military alliance.

apnews.com

Here’s what to know about Turkey’s decision to move forward with Sweden’s bid to join NATO​

FILE - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waits for the start of a round table meeting of the North Atlantic Council during a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11, 2023. Sweden edged closer toward joining NATO after the Turkish Parliament’s foreign affairs committee greenlighted a protocol for the Nordic country’s membership in the military alliance. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dropped his objection to Sweden’s membership during a NATO summit in July, but it took him several months to send the bill to parliament for ratification and weeks for the committee to give its consent. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)
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BY SUZAN FRASER
Updated 6:36 AM EST, December 27, 2023
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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Sweden edged closer toward joining NATO on Tuesday after the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee greenlighted a protocol for the Nordic country’s membership in the military alliance.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dropped his objection to Sweden’s membership during a NATO summit in July, but it took him several months to send the bill to parliament for ratification and weeks for the parliamentary committee to give its consent.
The long-delayed protocol now needs to be approved by the full general assembly and it remains to be seen how quickly the issue will be taken up by the floor.

Sweden and Finland abandoned their decades-long neutrality and sought membership in NATO amid heightened security concerns following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Finland became NATO’s 31st member earlier this year, after Turkey’s parliament ratified its bid.

Here’s a look at the issues that have delayed Sweden’s entry into NATO, why Turkey finally agreed to the bid and what to expect next:

WHY HAS TURKEY DELAYED APPROVING SWEDEN’S NATO BID?​

Turkey’s opposition to Swedish membership in NATO stemmed from its belief that the Nordic country has been too soft toward supporters of Kurdish militants and other groups in Sweden that Ankara views as security threats. These include people associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK, which has waged a 39-year insurgency in Turkey, and people with alleged links to a coup attempt in 2016 against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

Turkey, Sweden and Finland reached an agreement last year to tackle Ankara’s security concerns and Sweden subsequently took steps to tighten its anti-terrorism laws, making support for extremist organizations punishable by up to eight years in prison.

But a series of anti-Turkey and anti-Islam protests held in Stockholm, some of which involved the burning of the Quran, has also angered Erdogan’s government and the Turkish public.

Although these demonstrations were condemned by the Swedish government, the Turkish government criticized Sweden — which has laws protecting free speech — for allowing displays of anti-Muslim sentiment.

WHAT MADE TURKEY LIFT ITS OBJECTIONS?​

While Sweden strengthened its antiterrorism laws to address Ankara’s security concerns, NATO agreed to establish a special coordinator for counterterrorism and appointed Assistant Secretary General Tom Goffus to the position.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the alliance’s summit meeting in July that Sweden had agreed “to support actively the efforts to reinvigorate Turkey’s EU accession process.” Sweden announced it would seek improved customs arrangements and take steps to implement visa-free European travel for Turkish citizens.

Turkey’s EU membership talks came to a standstill in 2018 because of the country’s democratic backsliding and poor record on human rights.

Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly linked Sweden’s NATO membership to Ankara’s efforts to purchase U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets and also called on Canada and other NATO allies to lift arms embargoes on Turkey.

During Tuesday’s debate at the parliamentary committee, opposition legislator Oguz Kaan Salici questioned whether the government had received assurances from the United States concerning the F-16s’ sale.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration backs Turkey’s F-16 request but within the U.S. Congress there is strong opposition to selling arms to Turkey. Turkey wants to buy 40 new F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits for its existing fleet.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?​

The approval by the parliamentary committee paves the way for Sweden’s accession protocol to be debated and ratified by the general assembly. It would then have to be signed off by Erdogan to come into effect.

It was not clear when the full assembly would debate the bill.

Erdogan’s ruling party and its allies command a majority in the 600-seat parliament. However, Erdogan has said the decision rests with lawmakers. His ruling party’s nationalist allies remain uneasy with Sweden’s membership and accuse NATO members of indifference toward the PKK threat to Turkey.

This week, Kurdish militants attempted to infiltrate a Turkish base in northern Iraq, killing 12 soldiers in two days of clashes.

Islamist parties, frustrated by what they perceive to be Western nations’ silence toward Israel’s military actions in Gaza, may vote against the bill.

WHAT ABOUT HUNGARY?​

Hungary’s governing Fidesz party — led by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is widely considered one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s only allies in the EU — has stalled Sweden’s NATO bid since July 2022, alleging that Swedish politicians have told “blatant lies” about the condition of Hungary’s democracy.

Yet neither Orbán nor his senior officials have indicated what kind of redress they require from Stockholm to allay their reservations over Sweden joining the military alliance.

Some critics have alleged that Hungary is using its potential veto power over Sweden’s accession as a tool to leverage concessions from the European Union, which has frozen billions in funds to Budapest over concerns over minority rights and the rule of law.

Hungarian officials have said repeatedly that their country will not be the last NATO member to endorse Sweden’s bid. But Ankara’s move toward ratification suggests that the time for further holdups may be running out.

Some opposition politicians in Hungary — who have argued for immediate approval of Sweden’s bid — believe that Orbán’s party is following Ankara’s timetable and will vote to approve once it seems clear that Turkey will imminently do the same.

__​

Associated Press Writer Justin Spike contributed from Budapest, Hungary

 

[northern watch]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1736518446030921944

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1736518446030921944


RT: 0.35 minutes

 

[northern watch]

 

[Plain Jane]

A frantic push to safeguard the Paris Olympics promises thousands of jobs and new starts after riots

Organizers of the Paris Olympics urgently need thousands of security guards to help keep athletes and spectators safe.

apnews.com

A frantic push to safeguard the Paris Olympics promises thousands of jobs and new starts after riots​

BY JOHN LEICESTER
Updated 1:35 AM EST, December 29, 2023
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PARIS (AP) — With a name that doesn’t ring old-school French like Jean, Pierre or Jacques, and a home address in a tough suburb of Paris where riots flared, Salah Benkadmir is discovering how hard it can be to make prospective employers in France see beyond their prejudices.

Despite having a high school diploma in sales and work experience as a vendor on his resume, the 19-year-old job seeker says that when he sends it to stores making hires, often no one calls him back.

“I feel like I’ve got a label stuck to me. It is very unpleasant,” he says.

But with the Olympic Games soon to hit Paris, Benkadmir thinks his fortunes may be about to improve. Organizers urgently need thousands of security guards to help keep athletes and spectators safe and reduce the likelihood of another deadly extremist attack in the French capital.

Demand for people at checkpoints, to scan tickets and help manage crowds is so great that France’s state employment agency is offering free and expedited security guard training courses, with no specialist qualifications required.



The “We need you!” approach and promises of plentiful paid work from July to September during the Summer Games and Paralympics are a welcome change for job seekers who feel ostracized from the labor market. Benkadmir hopes that by training for and then working in the huge Olympic security operation, his skills afterward will be more evident to employers in the retail industry than his mix of French-North African roots and his post code: 92000 Nanterre.

Nanterre was the epicenter of rioting that spread across France over the summer after a police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old in the town just west of Paris. The death of Nahel Merzouk during a traffic stop hit Benkadmir close to home: Some of his brothers were friends with the youngster, he says.

Job seekers line up to get the application papers during the Olympics jobs fair at sport center in Paris, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.

Like other suburbs of Paris with large immigrant populations, Nanterre is blighted by inequality, disadvantaged housing projects and young people who feel the odds are stacked against them, in part because they’re Black and brown. Benkadmir hopes to bust through those obstacles with an Olympics security job that will “show we are versatile, that we invest ourselves in different projects, that we don’t just stay in one place, that we really want to succeed.”

Proof of that: He and about 30 other young men from Nanterre invested a morning of their time earlier in December to attend an Olympic jobs presentation in Paris. Benkadmir and his friends got a ride there from one of their dads. Others traveled by public transportation. Gathering in a semicircle, they listened intently as an introductory speaker explained: “The Olympic Games are coming and there’s a huge lack of personnel.”

In the Paris region alone, state employment agency Pole Emploi is looking for at least 6,000 people in the next four months to take a free three-week training course that will qualify them to work as security stewards at the Olympics and other public events like concerts. That’s on top of the 14,000 security workers who have already been newly trained.

“It’s rare to have so much work all at one time,” said Najat Semdani, in charge of the recruitment drive. She said it will “benefit people who have been left by the wayside a bit” and those who have experienced “the accidents of life” — including people who left school with no qualifications, youngsters from underprivileged neighborhoods and those who have long been unemployed.

After more than 20 years of living on the streets and in assisted housing, Starsky-Aldo Fandio thinks an Olympics security job might be his ticket to longer-term work afterward. A Pole Emploi adviser wearing a “We are here for you!” badge on his lapel walked the 45-year-old Fandio through how to apply for the training.

“Then you’ll get job offers and be asked if you’re interested in working for the Olympic Games,” the adviser, Stephane Lange, explained.

The Olympic security operation will be unprecedented in scale for France, with tens of thousands of police officers and thousands of soldiers to be bolstered by an additional 17,000 private security guards, rising to 22,000 on the Games’ busiest days.

Bruno Le Ray, the organizing committee’s security director, said he can’t yet gauge whether they’ll fall short and, if so, by how many. In an interview, he described the security operation as “colossal.” If private stewards can’t be recruited in sufficient numbers, the military could be called upon to provide additional resources.

Mourad Kassir, who runs one of the private security firms that has contracted with the Paris Games’ organizers, is confident that he will find the 1,000 stewards he needs for a half-dozen of the Olympic venues. He already has more than that number of candidates signed up to WhatsApp groups that he’s set up in preparation.

The training for new recruits includes how to pat people down and how to react if they’re armed, how to interact with crowds, some first aid and the legal do’s and don’ts of security work, Kassir said. He expects the layers of security will be so dense that Olympic sites will be practically impregnable.

“For someone with a knife, a gun, a grenade, to get to a venue, well, bravo,” he said.

 

[northern watch]

 

[northern watch]

 

[Plain Jane]

Between this and post 45 above, all I can think of is the Munich Olympics.

France heightens security for New Year’s Eve, with 90,000 police officers to be mobilized

French officials say security will be tight across the country on New Year’s Eve, with 90,000 law enforcement officers set to be deployed.

apnews.com

France heightens security for New Year’s Eve, with 90,000 police officers to be mobilized​

1 of 2 |
FILE - Police vans are parked on the Champs Elysees avenue during the New Year’s Eve, in Paris, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. Security will be tight across France on New Year’s Eve, with 90,000 law enforcement officers set to be deployed throughout the country, domestic intelligence chief Céline Berthon said Friday Dec.29, 2023. 6,000 will be deployed in Paris, where French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said over 1.5 million are expected to attend celebrations on the Champs-Elysees. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

Updated 9:37 AM EST, December 29, 2023
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PARIS (AP) — Security will be tight across France on New Year’s Eve, with 90,000 law enforcement officers set to be deployed, domestic intelligence chief Céline Berthon said Friday.
Of those, 6,000 will be in Paris, where French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said over 1.5 million people are expected to attend celebrations on the Champs-Elysees.

Speaking at a press conference, Darmanin cited a “very high terrorist threat” because, in part, of “what is happening in Israel and Palestine,” referring to the Israel-Hamas war.

Darmanin said that police for the first time will be able to use drones as part of security work, and that tens of thousands of firefighters and 5,000 soldiers would also be deployed.

New Year’s Eve celebrations in Paris will center on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, including DJ sets, fireworks and video projections on the Arc de Triomphe.

The security challenge ahead of the Olympics was highlighted when a tourist was killed in a knife attack near the Eiffel Tower on Dec. 2. Large-scale attacks — such as that at the Bataclan in 2015, when Islamic extremists invaded the music hall and shot up cafe terraces, killing 130 people — also loom in memory.

The knife attack raised concern in France and abroad about security for the Games that begin July 26, in just under seven months. But law enforcement officials appear eager to show off a security-ready Paris.

 

[northern watch]

REPORT: Over 7,000 German Women Raped or Assaulted by Migrants Since 2015.​

The National Pulse
Staff Writer
December 30 2023





Migrants, especially those who entered Germany illegally during Europe’s migrant crisis, have raped and sexually assaulted over 7,000 German women since 2015, according to a report in the 243-year-old Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper.

The numbers are drawn from police crime statistics, which reveal more than 8,590 reported cases of rape and sexual assault by migrants. Over 90 percent of victims of sexual crimes are female.

Migrants are wildly over-represented in the rape statistics in the nation, given that they only account for 2.5 percent of the population.For example, there were almost 12,000 reported cases of rape or sexual assault in 2022, with around 10,000 identified suspects, 3,679 being non-German, and recent migrants accounting for at least 1,155 of those — an
11.5 percent rate.

Migrants from Syria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are named as particularly notable in these statistics.

The United States has now surpassed Germany’s intake in 2015 through its own southern border crisis, as a percentage of total population.

REPORT: Over 7,000 German Women Raped or Assaulted by Migrants Since 2015.

Migrants, especially those who entered Germany illegally during Europe’s migrant crisis, have raped and sexually assaulted over 7,000 German women since

thenationalpulse.com

 

[northern watch]

Germany: AfD a growing threat to democracy, says minister​

DW
December 28, 2023

The interior minister of Thuringia state has warned of dangers to democracy as the far-right AfD gains support. His warning comes as his state and two others face elections next year, with the AfD leading in surveys.



The AfD is considered as a threat to democracy by many in mainstream German politicsImage: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa/picture alliance

The interior minister of the eastern German state of Thuringia, Georg Maier, has warned that "democracy is under pressure" as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party seems set to score major successes in state elections next year.

The AfD came in first in recent popularity polls in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg, all of which are to hold elections in 2024.

What did Maier say?​

Maier, a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats, told the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung that "right-wing extremists of the AfD under Björn Höcke are trying to undermine democracy from within by all means."

"We democrats must face up to a fight for which we are so far ill-equipped," Maier said.

Höcke is the head of the Thuringian chapter of the AfD and the leader of its parliamentary party in the state. The Thuringian AfD branch has been classed as "proven right-wing extremist" by Germany's domestic intelligence agency, as have those in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.

Maier called for a more precise formulation of the procedure for selecting a state premier in Thuringia. He said that the current stipulation allowed a candidate to be chosen in a third round with a single vote even if all other parliamentarians voted against him or her.

"We have to make the constitution weatherproof," he said, adding that he sometimes has "the feeling that we are sleepwalking into a kind of disaster and will wake up in an authoritarian system on September 2."

Social problems​

Maier pointed to manifold social problems in Germany's former communist eastern states as contributors to the AfD's rise in popularity, saying that people in the east earned 25% less on average than in the west, for example.

He said many people were very worried by the crises facing the world at present, and even sometimes had concerns about whether they had enough money to pay for heating.

"These are social problems that cry out to the heavens. And if we do not address these problems, politics will lose a part of the population," he said.

tj/rc (dpa)

Germany: AfD a growing threat to democracy, says minister – DW – 12/28/2023

The interior minister of Thuringia state has warned of dangers to democracy as the far-right AfD gains support. His warning comes as his state and two others face elections next year, with the AfD leading in surveys.

www.dw.com

 

[northern watch]

 

[Plain Jane]

The interior minister of the eastern German state of Thuringia, Georg Maier, has warned that "democracy is under pressure" as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party seems set to score major successes in state elections next year.

Boo hoo!

 

[northern watch]

Germany mulls reintroduction of compulsory military service​

Volker Witting
DW
December 29, 2023

The Bundeswehr is facing a dramatic shortage in personnel. Now Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has rekindled the debate over reintroducing conscription.

At the end of October, the Bundeswehr said it counted 181,383 soldiers in its ranks — that's still some distance from the target of 203,000 that the German military hopes to reach by 2025. This has given rise to concern in times of Russia's war against Ukraine, which has once again reminded Germans how quickly conflicts can erupt in Europe.

Since taking office at the beginning of 2023, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has been thinking about ways to make the Bundeswehr more attractive as a career. He said he has received 65 concrete proposals from his ministry on recruitment and reforming training methods.

Even conscription, something Germany ended in 2011, is also up for debate. "There were reasons at the time to suspend compulsory military service. In retrospect, however, it was a mistake," Pistorius told newspaper Die Welt earlier in December.

He also cited the case of Sweden, where compulsory military service was suspended and then reintroduced. "I'm looking at models, such as the Swedish model, where all young men and women are conscripted and only a select few end up doing their basic military service. Whether something like this would also be conceivable here is part of these considerations," said Pistorius.

In 2011, the Bundeswehr was being reformed and downsized. The conservative-led government under Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted to save money and professionalize the Bundeswehr at the same time. It seemed that keeping a large number of soldiers was no longer necessary — instead, the plan was for a smaller, well-trained army specializing in foreign missions. The assumption was that numbers could be increased again in the event of tension or defense.​

​

A volunteer army, without the volunteers​

During the Cold War in the 1970s and 1980s, there were almost half a million soldiers in the West German armed forces, the Bundeswehr. Meanwhile, the National People's Army (NVA) in East Germany still comprised around 168,000 soldiers at the end of 1989.

With the post-World War II rearmament of West Germany's Federal Republic in the mid-1950s, all men from the age of 18 were drafted into military service. The idea was that soldiers should be citizens in uniform, a part of the democratic new society. For five and a half decades, almost all young men did either military service or opted for civilian service in retirement homes or hospitals.

From 1962, the GDR also introduced general compulsory military service for all men between the ages of 18 and 26 for a basic military service of 18 months. The only recognized reason for refusal was religious conviction.

With German reunification, the NVA was disbanded and partially integrated into the Bundeswehr. Some 18,000 soldiers were transferred, including 3,000 officers. Due to international agreements following German reunification in 1990, the German Bundeswehr then had to be reduced to 370,000 soldiers.

Today, the Bundeswehr is a professional army made up of volunteers — but the volunteers are no longer coming. As journalist and defense and security policy expert Thomas Wiegold told DW: "A major frustration in the Bundeswehr is the bureaucracy. Applicants often wait six months for a reply to a letter of application," he said. And the Bundeswehr is not seen as an especially attractive employer in a job market already short of workers.​

Pistorius faces criticism over conscription idea​

When Pistorius floated his ideas about conscription in December, he faced a barrage of criticism, including from within his own center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). Party co-chair Saskia Esken said it would be impossible to implement mandatory recruitment on an ad hoc basis "because the training units required for this are no longer available."

Criticism also came from the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), the smallest member in the three-way coalition that makes up the federal government. "The reintroduction of compulsory service would be a serious encroachment on the freedom of young people who want to orient themselves professionally," FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr warned in an interview with the Funke Mediengruppe.

But there has been support from the conservative opposition. Johann Wadephul, deputy leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) parliamentary group, told DW: "The CDU's position here is clear: we are in favor of general compulsory service, i.e. service in the Bundeswehr, but also in other emergency services." The latter would include fire departments, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief and a number of charitable organizations set up to help in crisis situations.​

"Now is the time for young people to be asked what they can do for our country and for our society," added Wadephul.

So will compulsory military service come back?​

"That question is difficult to answer," said Wiegold, pointing out that the security situation has changed radically, especially since Russia's war against Ukraine.

Wiegold believes compulsory military service, as it existed in Germany before 2011, will probably not be reinstated. If only because back then, it did not include women. However, he does not want to completely rule out other forms of compulsory service.

"Who would have thought around two years ago that the Bundestag would decide on setting up a special fund of €100 billion for the Bundeswehr against the backdrop of a Russian war of aggression?" Wiegold asked.
"I am examining all options," Pistorius said. "But every model, no matter which one, also needs political majorities to implement it."

This article was originally written in German.

Germany mulls reintroduction of compulsory military service – DW – 12/29/2023

The Bundeswehr is facing a dramatic shortage in personnel. Now Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has rekindled the debate over reintroducing conscription.

www.dw.com

 

[northern watch]

Boo hoo!

Just because the polls are not going some-ones way, they claim threat to democracy. Where have I heard that before?

 

[northern watch]

EU Fears Another 2016 Moment in 2024.​

The National Pulse.
Jack Montgomery
December 27 2023



Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, is afraid of a national populist surge in 2024, due to the worsening migrant crisis. Such a resurgence would represent a second major moment for the populist right, similar in nature to the Brexit and Trump victories in 2016.

“I am afraid of fear, I am afraid Europeans vote because they are afraid. It’s scientifically proven that fear in the face of the unknown and uncertainty generates a hormone that calls for a security response. This is a fact,” claimed Borrell, who like many top EU officials was appointed to his post without reference to voters.

The European Union (EU) establishment is increasingly concerned that national conservative and populist parties could make gains in the European Parliament elections scheduled for June 2024, with the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) having already made significant progress at the local and regional level in the EU’s socialist-governed economic powerhouse in 2023.

Overall, the populist right in Europe has seen mixed success in recent years. Viktor Orban won a fourth consecutive term in Hungary in 2022. Italy elected what was supposed to be its most conservative prime minister in decades, Giorgia Meloni. Though she was quickly subverted.

This year also saw populists lose ground in Spain’s elections, and the Socialist government cling to power despite the establishment right pushing it into second place. Similarly, Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS) was ousted by Donald Tusk, a former EU president, despite placing first, after a coalition of globalist parties cut a deal to seize control.

Populist stalwart Geert Wilders placed first in the Dutch elections, although negotiations over the Netherlands’ next government, which will be some form of coalition, remain unresolved.

EU Fears Another 2016 Moment in 2024.

Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, is afraid

thenationalpulse.com

 

[northern watch]

Russia wants evidence before discussing object that entered Poland airspace​

Russia’s top diplomat in Poland says Moscow won't provide any explanations about an unidentified object that briefly entered Poland’s airspace until it receives evidence that shows the object was a Russian missile
By The Associated Press
December 30, 2023, 9:25 AM

Chief of Poland's armed forces Gen. Wieslaw Kukula tells to the media that everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in eastern Poland's airspace and left after a short time, following a national security meeting over the incident in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, Dec. 29, 2023. (AP Photo)

WARSAW, Poland -- Russia will not provide any explanations about an unidentified object that briefly entered Poland’s airspace until it receives evidence that shows the object was a Russian missile, Russia’s top diplomat in Poland said Saturday.

Poland’s defense forces said an unknown object traveled 40 kilometers (24 miles) into the country’s airspace Friday from the direction of Ukraine before leaving minutes later and vanishing off radars. The head of the Polish armed forces, Gen. Wiesław Kukuła, said “everything indicates” it was a Russian missile.

Poland’s Foreign Ministry demanded explanations from Moscow. Russia’s charge d’affaires in Warsaw, Andrei Ordash, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on Saturday that Poland's claims were “unsubstantiated.”

“We will not give any explanations until we are presented with concrete evidence, because these accusations are unsubstantiated,” Ordash told RIA Novosti.

Some 500 Polish Territorial Defense troops combed an area between the city of Zamosc and the border with Ukraine for any traces of the object Saturday, but officials said nothing suspicious was found.

Poland’s border with Ukraine is also the European Union and NATO's border with Ukraine.

Russia wants evidence before discussing object that entered Poland airspace

Russia’s top diplomat in Poland says Moscow won't provide any explanations about an unidentified object that briefly entered Poland’s airspace until it receives evidence that shows the object was a Russian missile

abcnews.go.com