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Deutschlands schockierende Intervention zur Rettung des Verbrennungsmotors hat die Leser von Euractiv im Jahr 2023 in ihren Bann gezogen. Deutschland als Automobilriese änderte in letzter Minute seine Meinung und stellte die üblichen Regeln der EU-Politik auf den Kopf.

Die marokkanische Armee hat nach eigenen Angaben in der Silvesternacht (31. Dezember auf 1. Januar) mehr als 1.100 Migranten abgefangen. Diese hatten versucht, die spanischen Exklaven Ceuta und Melilla zu erreichen.

Angesichts der Angst vor einer Deindustrialisierung wollte Deutschland 2023 eine Industriepolitik nach französischem Vorbild einführen, einschließlich massiver Subventionen und protektionistischer "Buy European"-Klauseln. Doch es wurde früher als erwartet von seinen Beschränkungen eingeholt.

While being strong supporters of democracy, young people are far from feeling naïve about the current state of democracies in their own countries, a survey of young citizens from Austria, Greece, Ireland, and Slovakia shows.

Russia fired scores of missiles and drones at the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Tuesday (2 January), killing at least five civilians, wounding dozens and causing widespread damage, officials said.

La contestation des « élections volées » ne faiblit pas en Serbie, mais le président Vučić promet que le pays aura bientôt un nouveau gouvernement. Pour cela, l'Union des Hongrois de Voïvodine sera de nouveau un partenaire incontournable. Cette formation sert de pont entre Belgrade et le régime de Viktor Orbán.

- Articles / Une - Diaporama, Radio Slobodna Evropa, Serbie, Vucic, Orban Balkans, Statut de la Voïvodine, Politique intérieure, Populations, minorités et migrations, Relations régionales, Questions européennes

La contestation des « élections volées » ne faiblit pas en Serbie, mais le président Vučić promet que le pays aura bientôt un nouveau gouvernement. Pour cela, l'Union des Hongrois de Voïvodine sera de nouveau un partenaire incontournable. Cette formation sert de pont entre Belgrade et le régime de Viktor Orbán.

- Articles / Une - Diaporama, Radio Slobodna Evropa, Serbie, Vucic, Orban Balkans, Statut de la Voïvodine, Politique intérieure, Populations, minorités et migrations, Relations régionales, Questions européennes, Une - Diaporama - En premier

Les portes de l'espace Schengen vont s'entrouvrir pour la Bulgarie et la Roumanie en mars 2024, mais seules les frontières aériennes et maritimes seront concernées. Sofia et Bucarest revendiquent toujours une adhésion de plein droit.

- Le fil de l'Info / Courrier des Balkans, Questions européennes, Une - Diaporama, Libéralisation des visas, Bulgarie, Roumanie, Migrants Balkans

The Moroccan army said it intercepted more than 1,100 migrants attempting to reach the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on New Year's Eve.

Rescue teams in Japan on Tuesday (2 January) struggled to reach isolated areas hit by a powerful earthquake on New Year's Day, with reports of more than 20 people dead in a disaster that toppled buildings and knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes.

A slim majority of the members of Germany's Free Democrats have voted in a non-binding membership poll to stay in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's fractious three-way governing coalition.

By Daud Khan and Leila Yasmine Khan
ROME and AMSTERDAM, Jan 2 2024 (IPS)

The recent elections in the Netherlands signals the increasing power of the far right in Europe. The populist party of Geert Wilders, the Party for Freedom, won a decisive, albeit unexpected, victory taking 37 seats out the 150 seat in parliament. Wilders will likely be the head of the next Government. His policies include stopping all immigration into the Netherlands, holding a referendum on leaving the EU, and banning mosques and the Quran.

Daud Khan

Welder’s victory is part of a general shift to the far-right in Europe. It follows that of Giorgia Meloni in Italy who has been heading a coalition, headed by the strongly anti-immigrant Brother of Italy, for over a year. In Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been increasing its power at both national and regional level. In France there is already talk of the far-right, anti-immigrant leader, Marie Le Pen being the next president.

So what explains the success of far-right, anti-immigrant parties in countries that have a long history of being relatively liberal and inclusive. And, more importantly what will happen now that they are in power, or are increasingly influential.

A key factor in their rise to power is their ability to peddle the narrative that the problems of the Common People are largely due to immigrants, and to an ill-defined political and economic Elite that is only interested in maintaining their power and profits.

According to the populist right, Europe is being overrun by people of a different skin color, with different language or accents, and with a different culture or religion. These foreign people are taking our jobs and businesses, depriving us of housing and acting as a drain on the welfare system. They are also responsible for most of the crimes, in particular theft, drugs and violence against women.

This narrative had strong appeal in economically deprived areas, among the lesser educated, and among workers who has lost jobs due to the globalization, automation and outsourcing. These people form the core support group of the right wing populist parties. However, their recent successes have been largely due to their appeal to the middle classes that makes up the bulk of the population in Europe.

Leila Yasmine Khan

This middle class is increasingly fearful and apprehensive with regard to the future. The reasons include growing inequality and stagnant real wages; economic difficulties due to rising prices and high interest rates; anxieties about the impact of climate change, automation and AI; and uncertainties about the future due to rising international tensions and the fragmentation of global supply chains that had brought trillions of dollars of cheap consumer good into Europe. Many people in Europe now believe that the next generation may have a lower standard than this one.

This middle class has been disillusioned with the traditional parties of the left and of the right. They see little real difference between the two and are looking for what they consider real change. Initially the choice fell to parties that were new, but not too radical – parties such as Emmanuelle Macron’s En Marche! Party, or the Five Star Movement in Italy. However, as perceived problems deepened, the choice has shifted to the more radical right.

But now that the far-right parties have power and influence, what should one expect they will do particularly with regard to immigration which was a major aspect of their appeal. Will they really try to fulfill their election promises to stop or reduce immigration. The scope for maneuver is limited.

Due to slower population growth, there are fewer people of working age in most of Europe. Moreover, they tend to avoid jobs that imply long hours and hard physical effort, such as unskilled and semi-skilled jobs in agriculture, industry, construction and logistics. There is also little interest in jobs that require unsocial hours, such as home help, cleaning, care for the elderly and nursing. Immigrants are essential to fill these gaps.

In addition, immigrants are increasingly propping up the welfare state in most western European countries. Notwithstanding the rhetoric about “scroungers” on the welfare state, immigrants are net contributors to state coffers – they generally pay more in taxes than they draw in benefits. And, as low reproductive rates continue and populations continue to age, Governments expenditures on pensions and health care will rise. The tax contribution of immigrants will be critical to fund this.

For these reasons it is simply not possible to stop immigration or to send immigrants back. Given the limited space for maneuver, anti-immigrant parties will most likely not make any serious attempt to get rid of immigrants or even to reduce immigration. They may soften or even backtrack on their positions on immigration. Maybe they will come up with qualifiers such as “we are only against illegal immigrants; only immigrants involved in criminal activities will be expelled; and actually, all honest, hardworking immigrants are welcome”.

However, explicitly backtracking may be politically risky. It is more likely that these right wing parties will continue with their anti-immigrant rhetoric. This would serve several purposes. It will instill uncertainty and fear in the minds of immigrants; ensure that they do not organize and ask for higher wages or benefits; and that they stay in the shadows and not try to occupy political space.

These actions will very much appeal to unemployed workers and the apprehensive middle classes who voted in the right wing parties. More critically, it will also appeal to “big business” who are now caught between a tight domestic labor markets and rising costs.

If correct, does this mean that the swing to the far-right in Europe is here to stay? It would be such a pity as it would mean that one of the bastions of liberal values will transform into a classist society with a low wage sub-proletariat who have few rights and privileges.

Daud Khan a retired UN staff based in Rome. He has degrees in economics from the LSE and Oxford – where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College of Science and Technology.

Leila Yasmine Khan is an independent writer and editor based in the Netherlands. She has Master’s degrees in Philosophy and in Argumentation and Rhetoric from the University of Amsterdam, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from the University of Rome (Roma Tre). She assisted in the preparation on this article.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Debates and policymaking around agriculture and food are traditionally emotional and often highly polarised, but 2023 saw new levels of gridlocks and drama in EU agrifood policy.

Destruction in Gaza Strip. Credit: UNICEF/Hassan Islyeh

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 2 2024 (IPS)

When US President Joe Biden lambasted “the largest aerial assault,” which hit “a maternity hospital, a shopping mall and residential areas killing innocent people”, he was not talking of the devastating Israeli attacks on Gaza but criticizing the most recent Russian military assault on Ukraine.

Biden obviously has one yardstick for the Russians and another for the Israelis –displaying sheer hypocrisy and political double standards.

The statement that came out of the White House last week read: “It is a stark reminder to the world that, after nearly two years of this devastating war, Putin’s objective remains unchanged. He seeks to obliterate Ukraine and subjugate its people. He must be stopped.”

Perhaps from a more realistic angle, his statement could have read: “…Netanyahu’s objective remains unchanged. He seeks to obliterate Palestine and subjugate its people. He must be stopped.”

And the more contrasting picture are the 21,700 civilian killings in Gaza, including 8,697 children and 4,410 women, compared to the scores of civilians killed last week by the Russians. Still, the bottom line is there is no justification for either.

Destroyed buildings in Odesa, a port city in southern Ukraine. Credit: UNOCHA/Alina Basiuk

Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy and National Director, RootsAction.org, told IPS Biden’s rhetorical steps have landed with both feet in an Orwellian zone that is inadequately described as “hypocrisy.”

He gets it only half-right when condemning Russia while supporting Israel.

“In reality, the president has plunged the USA into an immoral abyss so deep that he has created huge revulsion and disgust inside the United States and in much of the rest of the world”.

Biden is so eager to help the Israeli military continue to kill Palestinians en masse in Gaza that he has twice bypassed Congress to authorize large shipments of weaponry to Israel, while knowing full well that the U.S. government is thus directly aiding and abetting the systematic large-scale killing of children, women and other civilians, said Solomon, author of “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine”

Last month, Biden’s fleeting comment that Israel should stop its “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza was swiftly walked back by the White House. And the U.S. has notably assisted with that indiscriminate bombing by shipping 5,000 2,000-pound bombs to Israel since October.

In short, said Solomon, Biden’s condemnations of Russia fully apply to Israel and also to the U.S. as a direct participant in carnage that has already taken upwards of 20,000 civilian lives in Gaza during the last three months.

“The world desperately needs a single standard of human rights and actual adherence to international law. Biden makes a mockery of both concepts as he justifiably denounces Russia’s war on Ukrainians but powerfully helps Israel to engage in genocidal warfare on Palestinian people in Gaza”.

“All over the world, we need sustained outcries and intense diplomatic pressure for an end to the carnage, beginning with an immediate and permanent ceasefire”, he declared.

In an analytical piece published in Common Dreams, a US website, Jessica Corbett, a senior editor and staff writer, says while the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip are different for myriad reasons, Western leaders have been called hypocrites for opposing the Russian invasion but backing what global experts warn is a “genocidal” Israeli operation—criticism that was renewed last Friday in response to a statement from U.S. President Joe Biden.

Biden’s statement came after Russia launched its “most massive aerial attack” since invading Ukraine in February 2022, killing dozens, injuring more than 150, and hitting “over 100… private houses, 45 multistory residential buildings, schools, two churches, hospitals, a maternity ward, and many commercial and storage facilities,” according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

After noting the impact of the “massive bombardment,” Biden took aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that his “objective remains unchanged. He seeks to obliterate Ukraine and subjugate its people. He must be stopped.”

Journalist Mehdi Hasan—whose MSNBC show was just canceled after offering rare critical coverage of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on civilians in Gaza—shared that portion of the president’s remarks on social media with a suggestion, writes Corbett.

“I challenge you to read this statement from the White House today… but… change the words Russia, Ukraine, and Putin to Israel, Gaza, and Netanyahu,” he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Go on. Do it. See for yourself.”

In an interview with Connor Echols, a reporter for Responsible Statecraft, Kenneth Roth, the former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the Biden administration has been far too deferential to the Israeli Government, despite the pretty clear commission of war crimes in Gaza.

“And while the administration has pushed to ameliorate some of those war crimes — by pressing for humanitarian access, by urging greater attention to avoiding civilian casualties — that rhetorical push has not been backed by the use of the leverage that the administration has that might have really put pressure on the Israeli government to stop– whether that would be withholding or conditioning ongoing arm sales or military assistance, or even allowing a Security Council resolution to go forward.”

Asked what a better approach would look like, Roth said the initial problem was that Biden pretty unconditionally wrapped himself in the Israeli government’s response to the horrible October 7 attacks by Hamas. If you look at his initial comments, while there were caveats written in about the need to respect humanitarian law, there was no emotional punch behind them.

“It was pretty clear that Biden simply stood with Israel and was giving it a green light to proceed with its military response to Hamas without much effort, at least during the first few weeks, to ensure that that response really did comply with humanitarian law.”

“So, I think the Israeli government got the message that the references to humanitarian law were necessary for certain audiences, but that the administration’s heart was not in them,” he pointed out.

Asked if U.S. officials could be legally complicit if Israel is found to have committed war crimes in Gaza, Roth said: “Well, they could be. Biden’s references to the Israeli military conducting indiscriminate bombing were clearly not just a verbal slip. It probably reflected the internal conversations that the administration has. The second one even seems to have been somewhat deliberate.

And the significance of that is that indiscriminate bombardment is a war crime. As any administration lawyer would know, continuing to provide weapons to a force that is engaged in war crimes can make the sender guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes.

“That is not some crazy, wacko theory. That was the basis on which former Liberian President Charles Taylor was convicted by an internationally backed tribunal, the so-called Special Court for Sierra Leone, for providing weapons to the Sierra Leonean rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front, a group that was notorious for chopping off the limbs of its victims,” Roth said.

Because Taylor kept providing arms in return for the RUF’s diamonds while he knew the RUF was committing these war crimes, this internationally-backed tribunal found him guilty of aiding and abetting, convicted him, and sentenced him to 50 years in prison, which he is currently serving in a British prison, he declared.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Russian drones attacked a university and a museum linked to two of the most prominent 20th century defenders of Ukrainian national identity on Monday (1 January), leaving locals vowing to repair the damage.

Americas Bell Boeing won a $21.3 million order, which provides for the production and delivery of 59 line clearance kits, 18 integrated aircraft survivability equipment (IASE) A-Kits, and installation of 16 IASE A-Kits, allowing increased infrared countermeasure and radar warning capability and aircraft survivability, in support of the MV-22 Osprey aircraft sustainment efforts for the […]

(click to view full) In March 2008, the Bell Boeing Joint Project Office in Amarillo, TX received a $10.4 billion modification that converted the previous N00019-07-C-0001 advance acquisition contract to a fixed-price-incentive-fee, multi-year contract. The new contract rose to $10.92 billion, and was used to buy 143 MV-22 (for USMC) and 31 CV-22 (Air Force […]

After scoring a global hit with her summer anthem Water, Tyla comes fourth in the BBC Sound of 2024.

Die Abteilung Klimapolitik des Deutschen Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW Berlin) sucht zum nächstmöglichen Zeitpunkt

eine studentische Hilfskraft (m/w/div)

für 10 Wochenstunden.