France led by caretaker administration since July snap election
Eric Ciotti, a right-wing politician who had allied himself with the far-right ahead of the elections, has expressed his opposition to Xavier Bertrand.
BFMTV reports that Emmanuel Macron will hold new phone consultations with different political groupings.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Alternative für Deutschland have deployed Nazi rhetoric throughout their rise – and they are pulling the mainstream further to the right
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Good morning. For the first time since the second world war, a far-right party has won a regional election in Germany. As well as finishing first in Thuringia, where it won nearly 33% of the vote, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) finished second in Saxony, with 31% – and it did so with none of the normalisation strategy that similar parties have deployed in France or Italy. Instead, the AfD uses Nazi slogans and calls the Berlin Holocaust memorial a “monument of shame”.
While the AfD demanded to be included in coalition negotiations in both states yesterday, a “firewall” designed to keep the party out of government is likely to hold for the foreseeable future. Even so, its success is undoubtedly a seismic moment in German politics. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to the Guardian’s Berlin correspondent Deborah Cole about how the AFD did it, and whether this is a regional phenomenon or a signpost to something larger. Here are the headlines.
Israel-Gaza war | The UK has broken with the Biden administration by announcing it is suspending some arms export licences to Israel because of a “clear risk” the materiel may be used in violation of international humanitarian law. It came as Benjamin Netanyahu defied protests at home and criticism from Biden by vowing that Israel would not relinquish control over the strategic Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egyptian border.
Grenfell inquiry | Companies found at fault over the Grenfell tower fire are facing calls to be banned from public contracts. Ahead of the final public inquiry report’s publication tomorrow, it emerged that about £250m in deals have been made in the past five years with firms involved in the high-rise’s refurbishment.
Politics | Jeremy Corbyn is to form an official parliamentary alliance with four independent MPs who were elected on pro-Gaza platforms, and has issued a call for more MPs to join. The group will have the same number of MPs as Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist party, who each have five MPs, and more than the Green party and Plaid Cymru, who each have four.
France | A husband who allegedly drugged his wife and invited more than 80 strangers to rape her at their home for almost a decade will go on trial on Monday in a case that has shocked France. Fifty men accused of taking part in the abuse of the woman are also on trial at the court in Avignon.
Society | Pride in Britain’s history has fallen sharply over the past decade as the country has become more reflective about its place in the modern world, according to a leading barometer of the British public mood. The proportion of people saying they were proud of Britain’s history fell from 86% to 64%.
Continue reading...The centre ‘may be holding’ but if the far right continues to win elections, the European project faces a rocky few years
Alternative für Deutschland’s stunning success in Germany’s regional elections was described as “bitter” and “worrying” by chancellor Olaf Scholz. It is also concerning for the EU, which is grappling with existential problems, from Russia’s grinding war on Ukraine to the climate crisis, while at the beginning of a new five-year cycle after the European elections earlier this summer.
“A dark day for Germany is a dark day for Europe,” said French centrist MEP leader Valérie Heyer. While the results in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony were not a surprise after the AfD’s strong showing in June’s European parliamentary vote, they confirm the steady rise of parties once considered beyond the pale.
Continue reading...Fifteen suspected assailants, members of the Turkey Youth Union, were detained after attack in port city of Izmir
Two US military service members were “physically attacked” in the port city of Izmir in western Turkey on Monday by members of an anti-American youth group, authorities said.
Fifteen suspected assailants were detained in the attack on the two service members, who were dressed in civilian clothing at the time of the incident. Five other US service members joined in the incident after seeing the violent encounter, officials said.
Reuters contributed to this report
Continue reading...Dominique Pélicot, 71, being tried with 50 other men over alleged abuse of woman for years at couple’s Provence home
A husband who allegedly drugged his wife and invited more than 80 strangers to rape her at their home for almost a decade went on trial on Monday in a case that has shocked France.
Fifty men accused of taking part in the abuse of the woman are also on trial at the court in Avignon. More than a dozen feminists dressed in black protested outside the courthouse as the trial opened.
Continue reading...State election results for Sahra Wagenknecht Allianz mean Russia-leaning populists could play decisive role
It was, Sahra Wagenknecht declared on the social media platform X on Sunday, “a historic result” achieved from almost a standing start. Within eight months, her leftwing-conservative Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) has gone from an upstart party of breakaway populists to a decisive player with the potential to upend the German political scene.
The BSW party’s third place position in state elections in the eastern states of Thuringia (16%) and Saxony (12%), behind the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), now puts it in the position of kingmaker.
Continue reading...Plans underline European carmakers’ problems in switching from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric models
Volkswagen is considering shutting two German factories, in what would be the carmaker’s first closures ever in its home country, as it struggles with the transition away from fossil fuels.
The Wolfsburg-based manufacturer on Monday informed its works council, which represents employees, that it was looking at closing “at least one larger vehicle manufacturing plant and one component factory in Germany” in order to find cost savings worth billions of euros.
Continue reading...Dmytro Kuleba calls on Kyiv’s Asian partners to consider increasing military aid to Ukraine after Moscow stages missile attack on Kyiv
Russian forces are fighting in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Selydove and Ukrainsk, pro-Russian bloggers said on Monday, as Moscow’s forces try to smash through part of Ukraine’s defensive line.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the purported Russian advance, Reuters reported.
Continue reading...Election results in Germany causes consternation across Europe as German chancellor says preliminary results in Thuringia are ‘bitter’
Here’s the updated seat distribution in Saxony.
The state election commission corrected the preliminary results.
Continue reading...State-owned company halts initiative after warnings over opening up ‘right to roam’ laws to large numbers of visitors
A Norwegian tourism campaign aimed at promoting the country as a destination for outdoor activities has been suspended after warnings that opening up the country’s “right to roam” laws to mass tourism could lead to environmental destruction.
Allemannsretten – which gives Norwegians the legal right to camp, swim, ski and walk freely in nature, regardless of who the landowner is – provides the basis of friluftslivet (outdoor life), seen as foundational to the mountainous country’s culture.
Continue reading...Alternative für Deutschland leader speaks of ‘historic success’ of top place in Thuringia and second in Saxony
A far-right party became the biggest force in a German state parliament for the first time since the second world war, preliminary results showed on Sunday, while a new populist force on the left established a firm foothold in the country’s political landscape.
Voters in two closely watched elections in the former communist east made their dissatisfaction with Germany’s mainstream political parties clear, putting the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party in the top spot in Thuringia, with 32.8% of the vote, and second place in Saxony, with 30.6%, according to preliminary results.
Continue reading...Two men and one woman accused of carrying out robberies at night and using gas to make residents groggy
The string of robberies, spanning years and all following a similar pattern, had left Spanish police perplexed.
Late at night as residents slept, the thieves – dressed in black and with their faces covered – would gain entry to some of Ibiza’s most exclusive homes, often making off with thousands of euros in stolen goods. The victims frequently reported the same groggy feeling when they woke up, leading police to suspect that the perpetrators were using some sort of gas to induce drowsiness.
Continue reading...Likely win in Thuringia and second place in Saxony highlight how eastern voters are asserting their own political identity
After the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989, the former West German chancellor Willy Brandt predicted that reunification would finally allow “what belongs together to grow together”.
How optimistic that image of organic healing sounds 35 years on. Tonight’s historic election results from Thuringia and Saxony paint a picture of a Germany whose eastern and western regions are, if anything, drifting further and further apart.
Continue reading...Exit polls show strong performance for far-right Alternative für Deutschland in both German state elections
The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has taken a narrow lead in Saxony, with the far right Alternative für Deutschland following closely in second place, according to the first exit polls.
Saxony ZDF exit poll
Continue reading...Russia plays down overnight strikes as its forces make incremental gains in Donbas and launch missiles at Kharkiv
Ukraine has carried out one of its biggest ever drone attacks on Russia, with videos showing a series of explosions and fires at power stations and refineries including in Moscow.
Russia’s defence ministry played down the overnight strikes. It said it had intercepted and destroyed 158 unmanned enemy aerial vehicles. These were shot down over 15 regions, it claimed.
Continue reading...Maria Sibylla Merian’s beautiful and disturbing illustrations, which shaped how we look at the natural world, will be on show at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum
More than three centuries after she made a perilous transatlantic voyage to study butterflies, a rare copy of the hand-coloured masterwork by the great naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian is returning to Amsterdam.
The Rijksmuseum, which holds more than half-a-million books on art and history, last week announced it had acquired a rare first-edition copy of Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname (Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium), described as a high point of 18th-century book production when the Dutch Republic was “the bookshop of the world”.
Continue reading...Unconventional marriage of Princess Märtha Louise and Durek Vellet celebrated with three-day schedule of events and a documentary to follow
She is the clairvoyant daughter of one of Europe’s longest-serving monarchs; he is a self-styled sixth-generation shaman from California. The wedding of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway to Durek Verrett on Saturday on Saturday afternoon wasn’t your conventional royal affair, but that didn’t stop spectators lining the overcast streets of Geiranger in the hope of catching a glimpse of the bride.
The eldest daughter of Crown Prince Harald and Queen Sonja, 52-year-old Märtha Louise is fourth in line to the Norwegian throne. She married Verrett, 49, in a traditional church of Norway ceremony attended by royals and celebrities at the four-star Hotel Union in a small village beneath the Geiranger fjord.
Continue reading...Official says strike hit a house and a high-rise building, killing five young men
The US has decided against a proposal to deploy American contractors to Ukraine to maintain Western military equipment, including F-16 fighter jets.
A Wall Street Journal report carried by Euromaiden stated that the Biden administration elected not to send contractors due to safety concerns, after Ukraine lost the first F-16 fighter jet it received from Western allies earlier this month.
Continue reading...One person still missing after aircraft that was returning from a firefighting mission crashed into river
Portugal has declared a day of mourning after a firefighting helicopter crashed in the Douro River leaving at least four dead and one missing.
The pilot survived the accident, which happened in Lamego a little after 12.30pm on Friday afternoon while the helicopter was returning from fighting a fire near Baião, just inland from the city of Porto.
Continue reading...Bus was heading to festival in Siegen near Cologne when incident took place on Friday evening
A 32-year-old woman has been arrested after six people were hurt in a knife attack on a bus headed to a festival in western Germany. Authorities said there was no evidence of a political or religious motive.
Three of those attacked are in life-threatening condition, police said on Friday evening.
Continue reading...