Monthly Archives: June 2020

The EU cannot agree on a list of “safe countries” from where travellers could visit Europe in July, with some member states requiring more time to decide, diplomats said Saturday.

After days of talks, EU envoys on Friday agreed to propose a list of 14 countries to their national governments, with the United States, where the coronavirus is still spreading, to remain excluded.

Croatia, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, requested that countries offer feedback by Saturday at 1600 GMT, with hopes the matter could then be put to a vote among the 27 member states.

“There are still ongoing consultations, which will continue until Monday,” an EU source told AFP.

“There is no visibility on where this will go, but the presidency still hopes to put this matter to a vote on Monday,” the source added.

The proposed “safe” list contains just 14 countries: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.

Crucially, travellers from China would be approved to enter, but under the condition that Beijing would do the same for Europeans.

Non-essential travel to the EU has been banned since mid-March, but only after member states closed their national borders in confusion and without coordination as the pandemic grew.

The restrictions are to be gradually lifted starting July 1, as the infection rate recedes — at least in Europe — and some countries hoped for close EU coordination.

Whatever is decided in Brussels will exist only as a recommendation since border control remains a national competence and a limited number of flights to and from banned countries have continued throughout the crisis.

Talks dragged on with some EU members wanting to limit the reopening to countries with an epidemiological situation “comparable or better” than that in the bloc — that is with 16 or fewer cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two weeks.

Under that criteria, travellers from the United States, Brazil and Canada would remain banned.

However, the health-based criteria has collided with geopolitics, with some countries reluctant to collectively ban the US while welcoming visitors from China, where the pandemic began.

The United States is currently the country most affected by Covid-19 with more than 125,000 deaths — while Europe believes it has passed the peak of its outbreak.

(28. 6. 2020 via thelocal.at)

A green wave swept over France on Sunday as the environmentalist party and its left-wing allies won control of a clutch of major cities including Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg and Bordeaux.

The centrist party of President Emmanuel Macron, La Republique En Marche (LREM), however, failed to capture any major cities, prompting talks of a governmental reshuffle.

In Paris socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo — endorsed by the greens — was re-elected with 48.7% of the vote.

The far-right Rassemblement National (formerly Front National), meanwhile, won in Perpignan. It is the first time it will be at the helm of a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants.

But while the Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV) party toasted their unprecedented triumph, it came amid a record abstention rate of 59% across the country.

‘A giant step’
EELV described the results a “historic”.

“Today, ecology is taking a big step. A giant step,” the party’s secretary Julien Dayou said in a statement, adding that “it is THE mandate to act for climate and social justice.”

“The French are ready for change. Great, so are we,” he went on.

The party, which formed alliances with mostly left-wing formations including La France Insoumise, the Communists and the Socialists, also won a clutch of second-tier cities including Grenoble, Poitiers, Annecy, and Tours.

The alliances they formed will also see them play key roles in other local councils across the country, including in Montpellier but also in Paris.

The capital was easily secured for another six-year term by Hidalgo, providing the Socialist party with its first spot of respite since 2017 when it was all but wiped out in presidential and parliamentary elections. It also came in sixth place in last year’s European ballot.

But Sunday’s poll showed the party retains a strong local anchoring — Socialist mayors held onto cities such as Lille, Nantes, Brest, and Rennes.

LREM ‘taking root’
Its poor local implantation may have been one of the reasons LREM was routed in these elections. The centrist party, formed by Macron in 2016, did not win any of the big cities it hoped to secure and gathered just over 13% of the votes in Paris.

The party’s campaigning has also been beset by infighting. In the capital, LREM’s chosen candidate, Benjamin Griveaux, withdrew following a sex scandal but the LREM vote was split after Cedric Villani rebelled against the party to run.

In Lyon, LREM initially endorsed Gerard Collomb, a former close ally of Macron who ran France’s third most populous city for 17 years, but withdrew its backing in May over his decision to form an alliance with the right-wing Les Republicans party.

Commenting on the results, Stanislas Guerini, LREM’s general secretary, argued that the party had taken “its first step towards local establishment.”

“We would, of course, have preferred to move the lines more but a new generation of local elected representatives is taking root. From this generation will future LREM mayors be born,” he added.

The only bright spot for the ruling party was the re-election of Prime Minister Edouard Philippe in the northern city of Le Havre where he won with almost 59% of the votes against the Communist Party deputy Jean-Paul Lecoq.

A majority of French people are now keen for a government reshuffle, according to an IPSOS poll, although most respondents declared themselves in favour of a “limited” one.

(29. 6. 2020 via euronews.com)

Incumbent President Andrzej Duda has won the first round of Poland’s presidential election, garnering 45.73%, partial results showed. The vote had been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Poland’s incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, backed by the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, won the most votes, according to partial results released early Monday, the day after the election.

Duda got 45.73% of the vote, according to the first indications, falling short of the 50% needed to claim victory in the first round.

If the projection is confirmed by official results, Duda will face a runoff vote in two weeks’ time against Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

Trzaskowski, who is standing for the largest opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO) got 30.4% of votes, the poll by the Ipsos polling firm showed.

Opinion surveys conducted last week indicated that Duda could have a more difficult time in a runoff.

“There were nine other candidates fighting for [the presidency], DW’s Wojciech Szymanski said. “There was a candidate of the leftist party, for example, so […] who will the voters of a leftist party support in the second round?”

“It is, of course, more possible that they would vote for Mr Trzaskowski than Mr Duda — a candidate of a right-wing national conservative party.”

Polls based on actual results were expected to be released around midnight and 3 a.m. Poland’s state electoral commission said it would release the final official results by Wednesday evening.

Clash of values

Duda campaigned on a conservative social agenda, and a pledge to safeguard traditional family values in the predominantly Catholic country.

He backed anti-abortion legislation and echoed PiS attacks on LGBT rights and liberal values.

“I believe that the Law and Justice Party […] knows that scaremongering is always a powerful weapon in a campaign in Poland, so they used this to mobilize its very hard-core electorate,” said DW’s Wojciech Szymanski.

Trzaskowski instead supported gay rights and said he is open to the idea of same-sex civil partnerships.

Campaigning with the slogan “Enough is Enough,” Trzaskowski promised a different Poland, although many see his PO party as weak and ineffectual.

No candidate was expected to gain the level of 50% plus one vote, which they would need to secure the presidency in the first round.

Duda is expected to lead, but is likely to go head-to-head with Trzaskowski in a July 12 run-off, opinion polls show.

Contentious reforms

Since winning power in 2015, both Duda and the PiS have stoked tensions with the EU and provoked repeated street protests at home for controversial laws giving the party control over the top courts and other key judicial bodies.

While PiS insists the changes are needed to weed out judicial corruption, critics and the EU insist they erode judicial independence and democracy just three decades after Poland shed communism.

(28. 6. 2020 via dw.com)

Serbia’s president declared a landslide victory for his right-wing party on Sunday night, in a controversial parliamentary election held amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and a boycott by much of the opposition.

Aleksandar Vucic told jubilant supporters that his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won over 60% of the vote, or some 190 seats in the 250-seat Serbian parliament.

This would confirm estimates from polling agencies including IPSOS, which suggest the SNS — which came to power in 2012 — has cemented its grip. Vucic’s allied Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) are predicted to get around 10% in second place, adding another 30 or so seats to the coalition.

The initial unofficial results indicate that Serbia’s parliament will have virtually no opposition and only three or four parties out of the 21 which were running.

“I have long been in politics, but I have never experienced such a moment,” Vucic said. “I’m talking about a historic moment in which one party can find itself. We have won everywhere, where we have never been winning in the past.”

Opposition parties boycotting the vote said less than half the electorate of 6.6 million turned out. They complained of corruption and said the election would not be free and fair amid Vucic’s grip on power.

But although turnout was lower than in other elections, the mass boycott they were hoping for did not materialise.

Although voters were not choosing a president, Vucic’s name appeared on ballot papers as head of the SNS and he dominated the campaign via mainstream media which he controls.

Sunday’s vote was the first national election in Europe to take place since the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the continent.

The voting — initially planned for April but postponed because of the pandemic — came as Serbia was still reporting dozens of new cases daily after completely relaxing its strict lockdown rules.

Boycott attempt
Opposition parties boycotting the vote said less than half the electorate of 6.6 million turned out. They complained of corruption and said the election would not be free and fair amid Vucic’s grip on power.

But although turnout was lower than in other elections, the mass boycott they were hoping for did not materialise.

Although voters were not choosing a president, Vucic’s name appeared on ballot papers as head of the SNS and he dominated the campaign via mainstream media which he controls.

Serbians were electing a new parliament, as well as representatives in the provincial legislature in Vojvodina and local municipalities.

What’s the background?
Elections were originally scheduled for April 26 but were postponed after a state of the emergency was declared to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

The ruling government decided to push ahead with the ballot, even after the first cases of COVID-19 in Serbia were detected at the beginning of March.

The seriousness of the health crisis, however, forced the coalition government to postpone the election, after its legitimacy had been called into question by the opposition and democracy watchdogs.

The largest block of parties in the fractious opposition — including the Serbian Radical Party, the Democratic Party, the Party of Freedom and Justice, The Doors (Dveri), the People’s Party and the Let’s not drown Belgrade movement — decided to boycott the election amid fears that the elections could be rigged.

What does Serbian politics look like?
There is no clear delineation between the political left and right in Serbia. The ruling populist and right-wing Serbian Progressive Party are more open to migrants and refugees than some of the left-leaning parties in opposition, for instance.

Both ruling and opposition coalitions are gathered from nominally left and right-wing parties. Since the biggest opposition parties boycotted the elections, new movements and parties were created to fill the vacuum.

Electoral laws have been changed, lowering the threshold for entering parliament to 3 per cent of the vote, from 5 per cent previously. There were 21 parties, movements and coalitions on the ballot, but only a few look likely to enter parliament.

Who’s who in the ruling parties?
Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić headed the list of the ruling Progressive Party (SNS). Also on the electoral list are also the Pensioners Party (PUPS), the Social-Democratic Party (SDP), the Serbian Renovation Movement (SPO) and others.

Their coalition partners, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) were second on the ballot. They also have other parties represented among their candidates, including the right-wing United Serbia (JS) party.

The Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians, a partner of the ruling coalition at the municipal and provincial level, also participated in the elections, as did another minority party and government partner, the Party of Justice and Reconciliation.

Who’s who in the opposition?
The Serbian Radical Party (SRS), whose leader Vojislav Seselj was convicted for war crimes in the Hague, was third on the ballot. Seselj is the “political father” of President Vučić who started his political career in the Radial Party as secretary-general. In 2008. President Vučić broke ranks and formed Progressive Party with former Serbian president, Tomislav Nikolić.

Former water polo player, Aleksandar Šapić is making his debut in national politics as the leader of the Winning for Serbia list. He was involved in local politics in Belgrade.

The Party of Democratic Action is a Bosniak minority party which co-operates with the government from time to time. Whether is it in the government or not influences the party’s policy on whether the Serbian region of Sandzak (mostly populated by Bosniaks) should be autonomous or not. Usually, when the party is in the government, the party does not advocate for home rule.

United Democratic Serbia, whose members are mostly from the Democratic Party and who left because they were unhappy with the decision about boycotting the election, also participated in the elections. The party was formed just months before the election.

The Movement of Free Citizens is the largest opposition party to decide not to boycott the election. Despite the party declaring that it would be fighting for liberal values, a leaked video released a week ago showed its highest-ranking officials singing ultra-nationalist and fascist songs in a pub. Leader party and actor, Sergej Trifunovic said it was “funny video” mocking nationalists.

What did pollsters expect to happen?
Ahead of the vote, polls did not expect any big surprise and put the ruling coalition comfortably in the lead.

“Despite there being practically no campaign, we know who will win the elections – the Progressive Party,” Dušan Spasojević, a political scientist at the University of Belgrade, told Euronews. “Everything else is highly unusual. We can only guess which of those parties that are participating in the election will also enter the Assembly,” concluded Spasojević.

In light of the opposition boycott, the Progressive Party was predicted to take over 50 per cent of the vote.

How did coronavirus impact the vote?
Professor Zoran Radovanović, an epidemiologist who was part of the Yugoslav team which fought a smallpox outbreak in 1972, believes that the government prematurely eased measures deliberately so that the elections could take place.

“In May, almost all measures were cancelled, because if you permit political activities, you have to allow also work of restaurants, clubs, freedom of movement and even football matches,” Radovanović said ahead of the vote.

Serbia is the only country in Europe so far to allow fans to return to watch football matches. More than 15,000 people watched Partizan play Red Star two weeks ago without masks or social distancing in place.

“There is no drop in the numbers of cases. After the elections, we could expect another surge in numbers. Today, the number is roughly 100 newly-discovered cases per day,” he said. State emergency and curfew in Serbia, which were introduced in March, were justified with the fact that 100 cases were discovered daily.

“We already have new hotspots, like in the city of Novi Pazar and elsewhere, but until the election, there has been no talk about it. The health situation is already worse then it used to be”.

While he admits they are necessary, Radovanović doesn’t think strict measures will be reintroduced.

“Simply that country cannot take it, economically speaking. There are already severe problems with the economy, so lockdown or similar measures would finish the economy. From my professional point of view, festivals and similar activities should not be taking place, but you see, nothing is cancelled”, he concluded.

What were the key voter issues?
“For ordinary citizens, the biggest issue is as always, the economy. However, the political elite is trying to ‘push’ the big topics, like Kosovo’s independence. This is leaving citizens confused and easy to manipulate,” said Spasojevic.

“After the elections, we can expect the further degradation of the institutions, which has become the trademark for the rule of the Progressive Party. It will continue until citizens of Serbia decide to react.”

There are over half a million unemployed people in Serbia but the incumbent government claims that the number is the lowest it has been in decades. In recent years, the method for measuring the unemployment rate has changed twice, leading to conflicting statistics.

Dejan Bursac, from the Belgrade-based Institute for Political Studies, said: “I think that opposition, the one that is going to elections and the one that is boycotting, is mistaken for not addressing economic problems.”

The recognition of Serbia’s neighbour, Kosovo is subject to a heated debate. Spasojevic added that there is a possibility that after the elections, the Constitution of Serbia could be changed to remove references to Kosovo as being part of Serbia. The move would be seen as a stepping stone in negotiations with the Kosovan government when representatives meet at the White House on June 27.

Bursac believes that should the Progressive Party win a majority of votes as expected, Serbians are giving it legitimacy to tighten its grip on the country.

“Election irregularities have been going on for so many elections that we have ‘normalised’ them. We have got used to them,” said Bursac. He agrees with Spasojević that the economy worries the most voters in Serbia and besides the ruling party, the opposition parties are not addressing those issues properly.

(22. 6. 2020 via euronews.com)

Polish presidential contenders have squared off in a televised debate ahead of an election later this month.
During the debate on Wednesday evening, incumbent Andrzej Duda and 10 rivals fielded a variety of questions from an anchor, while also trading jabs over topics such as social policy, migration, gay rights and the response to the coronavirus.

The 80-minute debate was aired by state broadcaster TVP.

Poland’s presidential election is scheduled for Sunday, June 28.

If none of the 11 candidates wins more than 50 percent the vote, under Polish election rules a second round will be held two weeks later, on July 12.

Under a set of rules approved by parliament and signed into law earlier this month, the election will be conducted via a mixed system of postal and traditional in-person voting.

Conservative incumbent Andrzej Duda, who has been president since 2015, is seeking re-election and appears to be the front-runner in the race.

Duda’s rivals in the presidential race include middle-of-the-road politician Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, leader of the rural-based Polish People’s Party (PSL); leftist Robert Biedroń; far-right hopeful Krzysztof Bosak; and celebrity journalist Szymon Hołownia.

Poland’s main opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), in mid-May chose Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski as its new pick for head of state to replace deputy parliamentary Speaker Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska.

The Polish presidential vote was originally scheduled for May 10, but failed to go ahead amid the coronavirus pandemic.

(18. 6. 2020 via the news.pl)

The European Commission would like to see €13 billion more per year from Europe’s largest economy. EU leaders, including Angela Merkel, are meeting Friday to discuss the bloc’s future budget.

Germany’s annual contribution to the EU budget would increase by 42% based on the current proposal from the European Commission, German newspaper Die Welt reported Monday, citing government calculations.

The budget proposal, which covers EU finances for the seven years from 2021 through 2027, would have Germany contributing an average of €13 billion ($14.6 billion) more per year than it currently does, according to calculations from the country’s finance ministry.

Germany currently contributes an average of €31 billion a year to the EU budget. The proposal for the new budget would raise that contribution to €44 billion — an increase of 42%.

Covering the corona bailout

According to Die Welt, the proposal from Brussels says member states need to contribute around 1.075% of their gross domestic production(GDP) — based on 2018 figures — to the budget over the next seven years, a total volume of €1.1 trillion.

The newspaper report was based on figures provided in response to a request from a German lawmaker from the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP).

EU state and governing leaders will meet for a video conference on Friday to discuss the commission’s budget proposal as well as the €750 billion coronavirus bailout that is to fall under the umbrella of the bloc’s next seven-year budget.

(15. 6. 2020 via dw.com)