This Week in Europe: 06/05/2018
Let's have a look at what's been going on this week in Europe.
It was International Workers' Day this week. The celebration of workers' rights, more commonly celebrated in Europe than in other Western democracies like the United States, saw its usual left-wing marches and demands for better conditions. In France, this turned violent as the anarchist black bloc (often hangers-on at left-wing demonstrations) attacked shops and set cars on fire.
The same day a very different political group was also having a get-together. The far-right Front National organised a meeting of various far-right European parties. The aim was to put together a coherent and organised strategy for the upcoming European elections, though the wind was somewhat taken of their sails by the absence of big hitters like the German AfD, Italy's Lega or the Netherlands' Geert Wilders.
In Ireland, campaigning is heating up ahead of the referendum this month on repealing the constitutional ban on abortion. The contest is becoming a symbolic fight in a global culture war, with progressive and conservative groups pinning their hopes on one side or the other. Learning from other recent elections, there is a new focus on the use of data and Facebook dark ads, with unknown sources of funding, possibly from abroad, are raising concerns over the integrity of the vote. The podcast, Irish Passport, also did a full report on this issue.
It's busy again in Romania, with the latest conflict between the offices of President and Prime Minister (held by different parties) fuelled by proposed judicial reforms. President Iohanis has said he will challenge the proposal at the Constitutional Court, arguing that the changes would undermine judicial independence. The plans have also been criticised by the EU, who keeps a close watch on Romania's rule of law to ensure corruption is being properly dealt with.
On the topic of controversial judicial reforms, the EU and Poland may be approaching new territory for compromise after Poland offered new concessions on its own proposed changes. The Polish government has said that it may change one of the pieces of legislation that has been the focus of criticism: a law allowing groups to ask for closed court cases to be reopened. The new version would limit these requests to only the prosecutor-general and the ombudsman. Ultimately both sides want to avoid formal Article 7 proceedings but it remains to be seen if this will be concessions enough or whether the EU will ask for more.
The UK held local elections across England on Thursday. The results turned out to be largely inconclusive, with a slight gain for pro-EU Greens and Liberal Democrats, while the two main parties held steady, neither being able to make an electoral breakthrough.
The political deadlock in Italy continues. None of the three main political forces, Lega, M5S or the Democratic Party, can seem to form a government. Repubblica journalist, Antonello Guerrera, explains how the two populist parties (Lega and M5S) are still at odds over key questions, not least the place of Berlusconi in any future government - this has made a populist coalition government increasingly unlikely. One possible resolution to this may be a transitional government, a national unity executive brought together by the President who would then carry out the necessary processes for holding new elections.
As a bonus this week, Trump kept up his strategy of denigrating Europe in order to further his domestic political agenda. During a speech to the NRA convention, Trump started out by falsely claiming that a London hospital has become a 'war zone' as a result of knife crime and then followed it up by saying that there would have been fewer victims after the 13th November terrorist attack in France if civilians had been armed with guns. His decision to reenact the execution of civilians was received particularly badly.
It was International Workers' Day this week. The celebration of workers' rights, more commonly celebrated in Europe than in other Western democracies like the United States, saw its usual left-wing marches and demands for better conditions. In France, this turned violent as the anarchist black bloc (often hangers-on at left-wing demonstrations) attacked shops and set cars on fire.
The same day a very different political group was also having a get-together. The far-right Front National organised a meeting of various far-right European parties. The aim was to put together a coherent and organised strategy for the upcoming European elections, though the wind was somewhat taken of their sails by the absence of big hitters like the German AfD, Italy's Lega or the Netherlands' Geert Wilders.
In Ireland, campaigning is heating up ahead of the referendum this month on repealing the constitutional ban on abortion. The contest is becoming a symbolic fight in a global culture war, with progressive and conservative groups pinning their hopes on one side or the other. Learning from other recent elections, there is a new focus on the use of data and Facebook dark ads, with unknown sources of funding, possibly from abroad, are raising concerns over the integrity of the vote. The podcast, Irish Passport, also did a full report on this issue.
It's busy again in Romania, with the latest conflict between the offices of President and Prime Minister (held by different parties) fuelled by proposed judicial reforms. President Iohanis has said he will challenge the proposal at the Constitutional Court, arguing that the changes would undermine judicial independence. The plans have also been criticised by the EU, who keeps a close watch on Romania's rule of law to ensure corruption is being properly dealt with.
On the topic of controversial judicial reforms, the EU and Poland may be approaching new territory for compromise after Poland offered new concessions on its own proposed changes. The Polish government has said that it may change one of the pieces of legislation that has been the focus of criticism: a law allowing groups to ask for closed court cases to be reopened. The new version would limit these requests to only the prosecutor-general and the ombudsman. Ultimately both sides want to avoid formal Article 7 proceedings but it remains to be seen if this will be concessions enough or whether the EU will ask for more.
The UK held local elections across England on Thursday. The results turned out to be largely inconclusive, with a slight gain for pro-EU Greens and Liberal Democrats, while the two main parties held steady, neither being able to make an electoral breakthrough.
The political deadlock in Italy continues. None of the three main political forces, Lega, M5S or the Democratic Party, can seem to form a government. Repubblica journalist, Antonello Guerrera, explains how the two populist parties (Lega and M5S) are still at odds over key questions, not least the place of Berlusconi in any future government - this has made a populist coalition government increasingly unlikely. One possible resolution to this may be a transitional government, a national unity executive brought together by the President who would then carry out the necessary processes for holding new elections.
As a bonus this week, Trump kept up his strategy of denigrating Europe in order to further his domestic political agenda. During a speech to the NRA convention, Trump started out by falsely claiming that a London hospital has become a 'war zone' as a result of knife crime and then followed it up by saying that there would have been fewer victims after the 13th November terrorist attack in France if civilians had been armed with guns. His decision to reenact the execution of civilians was received particularly badly.
Comments
Post a Comment