Category Archives: Europe

This election shows Ireland has moved on from Sinn Féin’s past | Siobhán Fenton

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Voters now appear more concerned about social justice and housing than the party’s historical connections

For almost a century, political power in Ireland has been held by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The two centrist parties have ruled in some form or another, be it through coalitions or confidence-and-supply arrangements with other smaller parties. Saturday’s general election has upended this political duopoly.

Sinn Féin topped the poll in first-preference votes for the first time, with a share of 24.5%. Fianna Fáil received 22.2%, while Fine Gael, in government since 2011, came third with 20.9%. Under Ireland’s proportional representation voting system, it will take several days for the calculations to be made to establish exactly how many seats each party will win. Once that’s clear, negotiations will begin to see who can somehow form a government.

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Demise of AKK throws Merkel’s placid path to retirement off course

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Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer resignation rips up CDU’s plans for post-Merkel era

The year 2020 was meant to be a relatively quiet time in Europe’s largest economy.

With regular elections only scheduled for the city state of Hamburg, where the centre-left remains strong and the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) is projected to get an underwhelming 7% share of the vote, Angela Merkel’s last full year in power promised to be a stable pathway into her political retirement. A good time to focus, at last, on urgent geopolitical challenges: Trump, China, the eurozone.

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What does the Irish election result mean for Brexit?

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A Sinn Féin coalition will rattle unionists, who consider Boris Johnson’s EU deal a betrayal

Sinn Féin won the most first-preference votes in Saturday’s Irish general election, delivering a shock to the country’s political landscape after decades of domination by the centrist rivals Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

However, the fragmented results will produce a hung parliament with no party close to 80 seats, meaning there could be weeks – possibly months – of negotiations between party leaders before a government is formed.

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Macron’s post-Brexit nuclear ambitions are destined to fail | Rebecca Johnson

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With Britain out of the picture he has spied an opportunity. But France is not going to be Europe’s nuclear shield

Now that Britain has left the European Union, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has moved swiftly to put French nuclear weapons front and centre of EU defence policies. In an hour-long speech on Friday to L’École de guerre (School of War) in Paris, the French president called for a European dialogue about defence and deterrence based on France’s force de frappe of nuclear weapons launched by air and submarine, and invited other EU states to participate in exercises by his country’s nuclear forces.

This is the post-Brexit revival of a vision held by successive French leaders, who itched to establish EU defence policies that would rely on European nuclear weapons rather than the US and Nato. For decades, this aim was marginalised by other EU members. Brexit, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have emboldened Macron to put it back on the table – and this time he is getting more attention.

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Sinn Féin declares victory in Irish general election

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Party leader Mary Lou McDonald calls for talks with main rivals to form coalition

Sinn Féin has declared victory in Ireland’s general election and called for talks with other main parties to form a coalition government.

Its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, urged Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to start negotiations with the republican party as the scale of its breakthrough confirmed a realignment of Irish politics.

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Russian anti-fascist group given ‘monstrous’ jail terms

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Rights activists criticise trial, saying members of the Network group were tortured

A Russian court has sentenced a group of anti-fascists to between six and 18 years in prison on terrorism and other charges, with rights activists describing the punishment as monstrous.

Sergei Morgunov, a lawyer for one of the seven defendants, said a military court in the central city of Penza had handed down the verdict in the Network case. All seven had denied the charges.

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Irish general election: who won and what happens now?

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Weeks – possibly months – of negotiations are likely to follow Sinn Féin’s strong showing

Sinn Féin won the most first-preference votes – 24.5% – making it the most popular party and a strong contender to be included in the next government. Leo Varadkar’s ruling Fine Gael party slid to 20.8%, coming third, and Fianna Fáil, the main opposition party, also slipped, falling to 22.1% in second place. The rest of the vote was split between the Greens, on 7.1%, and small leftwing parties and independent candidates.

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EU clamps down on free ports over crime and terrorism links

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Moves comes as Britain launches consultation on creation of up to 10 of the zones

Brussels is clamping down on 82 free ports or free zones after identifying that their special tariff and duty status has aided the financing of terrorism, money laundering and organised crime.

A set of new rules was introduced by the European commission just weeks before the launch on Monday of a UK government consultation on the creation of up to 10 free ports in post-Brexit Britain.

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Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to quit as CDU leader amid far-right ‘firewall’ row

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Successor to Angela Merkel also says she won’t run for chancellorship of Germany

Angela Merkel’s designated successor has announced she is not planning to run for the German chancellorship at the next federal election and plans to step down as leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), German media reported on Monday morning.

The surprise announcement comes in the middle of a major row over the centre-right party’s “firewall” against the far-right, after CDU delegates in eastern Germany defied the party headquarter’s ban on cooperating with the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

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Fires and floods: maps of Europe predict scale of climate catastrophe

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Without urgent action, rising sea levels by end of century could leave cities under water

A series of detailed maps have laid bare the scale of possible forest fires, floods, droughts and deluges that Europe could face by the end of the century without urgent action to adapt to and confront global heating.

An average one-metre rise in sea levels by the end of the century – without any flood prevention action – would mean 90% of the surface of Hull would be under water, according to the European Environment Agency.

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Sinn Féin to try to form ruling coalition after Irish election success

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Party disrupts Ireland’s centrist tradition by taking almost a quarter of votes

Sinn Féin will try to form a government in Ireland after apparently winning more votes than any other party in Saturday’s general election – a historic result that upended the political system.

The party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, told cheering supporters on Sunday that a “revolution” had occurred and she would try to form a ruling coalition with other parties. “This is no longer a two-party system,” she said.

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Swiss vote to approve legislation to protect LGBTQ+ rights

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Referendum approves law that was passed in 2018 but was opposed by rightwing parties

Swis voters have given their backing in a referendum to extending anti-racism legislation to cover sexual orientation, defying critics who had claimed such a move would be an infringement of free speech.

Unlike many of its western European neighbours, Switzerland has no law in force that specifically protects LGBTQ+ people from discrimination or hate speech.

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Italy alarmed after Egyptian studying in Bologna arrested in Cairo

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Case of Patrick Zaky doing master’s on gender and human rights echoes that of murdered Italian student Giulio Regeni

An Egyptian researcher who is studying in Italy has been arrested on arrival in Cairo on charges of “harming national security”, sparking alarm among Italy’s authorities who fear a repeat of the case of murdered Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni.

Patrick Zaky, a graduate student at the University of Bologna, was arrested at Cairo airport during a visit to see family. Zaky is a researcher on gender and human rights at the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), which said he was covertly taken from the airport and interrogated at facilities belonging to Egypt’s national security agency in Cairo and Mansoura, his home town.

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Tired of a two-party system, Irish voters have made Sinn Féin mainstream

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Issues such as high rents and homelessness fuelled party’s 22.3% exit poll result

Sinn Féin’s breakthrough in Ireland’s general election was decades in the making, but not even Sinn Féin saw it coming.

Once a revolutionary party associated with guns and balaclavas, a toxic brand, it slowly edged from the fringe into the mainstream, inch by inch, and then on Saturday made a giant leap.

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Ireland general election: Sinn Féin surges to 22% in exit poll

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Republican party level with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in Saturday evening’s poll

Sinn Féin has scored dramatic gains in Ireland’s general election, according to an exit poll on Saturday night, realigning Irish politics and boosting the party’s chance of joining the next government.

The republican party won 22.3% of the vote while Leo Varadkar’s ruling Fine Gael party slumped to 22.4%, the poll said, potentially spelling an end to Varadkar’s tenure as taoiseach. Fianna Fáil, the main opposition party, won 22.2%.

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Coronavirus: five new cases in France are British nationals

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Child among ski chalet group who came into contact with Briton who had been in Singapore

Five British nationals including a child have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in France, after staying in the same ski chalet and coming into contact with a Briton who had been in Singapore, the French health minister said.

Agnès Buzyn said none of the patients were in a serious condition.

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Ireland election: polls open with Sinn Féin poised to play key role

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Republican party is hoping poll surge will translate into a parliamentary breakthrough

Voters are going to the polls in Ireland after a tumultuous general election campaign during which Sinn Féin has surged into contention as a potential party of government.

The republican party hopes a rise in popularity among young and urban voters will translate into enough parliamentary gains to make it a kingmaker or participant in Ireland’s next coalition government.

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Tidjane Thiam: the man who traded politics for finance after military coup

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Ousted Credit Suisse chief transformed Prudential before City regulator censured him

Tidjane Thiam is the scion of an influential family whose political connections and history spread across two West African countries: Ivory Coast and Senegal.

The 57-year-old came to prominence in the UK when he was named as the head of Prudential in 2009, making him the first black chief executive of a major British company.

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EU states clash over use of toxic mercury in light bulbs

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Lighting industry’s exemption from 2011 ban may jeopardise climate goals, says Sweden

A row over lamps is emerging as a first major test of the EU’s commitment to its much-vaunted European Green Deal and the bloc’s target of carbon neutrality by the middle of the century.

A debate over the continued use of mercury in fluorescent lighting has split the 27 member states with Germany’s industrial interests being pitted against the environmental concerns of Sweden, according to leaked correspondence.

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