INTL Europe: Politics, Economics, Military - March 2024

[Plain Jane]

February thread -

INTL - Europe: Politics, Economics, Military - February 2024

January thread: https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/europe-politics-economics-military-january-2024.641433/#post-10029390 https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-war-russia-hungary-eu-summit-budget-6d0f11bc16b4b21073f92925de2046e4 The EU agrees a new €50 billion aid package for...

www.timebomb2000.com

Ahead of EU elections, is Europe's social model at risk? – DW – 03/02/2024

Socialist parties are campaigning for the European Parliament, with social justice big on their agenda. But, as the bloc continues to face a threat from Russia, defense — not social spending — may have the momentum.

www.dw.com

POLITICSEUROPE

Ahead of EU elections, is Europe's social model at risk?​

Alexandra von Nahmen in Rome
5 hours ago5 hours ago
Europe's Socialists are kicking off their EU elections campaign, with social justice big on their agenda. But as the bloc continues to face a threat from Russia, defense — not social spending — may have the momentum.

[

There's a heavy police presence in the center of the Eternal City. The headquarters of Partito Democratico, Italy's social democratic party — only a stone's throw away from the Spanish Steps — has been cordoned off. Socialist heavyweights from across the continent, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are in town to rally Europe's center-left lawmakers.

In a packed room inside the building on Friday, Iratxe Garcia Perez, the leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, delivered a passionate briefing on the upcoming campaign.

"The key issue for the campaign is to defend our values, our democracy and our safety," said Garcia ahead the party congress on Saturday. "That is what we are proposing to Europeans in all 27 countries: we are proposing a future based on solidarity, equality and opportunities for all."

​

Socialists gear up for election campaign​

Socialists are leading governments in Germany, Spain, Romania and Denmark and a caretaker government in Portugal, and they are expected to remain the second-largest force in the European Parliament after the elections, which will take place in all 27 member states of the European Union in early June.

But the key values they promote and promise to Europe's working class, such as social justice or shared prosperity, might be at risk of dropping out of sight. As the bloc struggles to continue supporting Ukraine against Russia and to spend more for its own defense, calls are growing to shift priorities and finance the new challenges the EU is facing through cuts in social spending.

Do Europeans support higher defense spending?​

"Public support to pay the bill for defense is fragile," said Marcel Schlepper, an economist and defense policy expert at the Ifo institute, a Munich-based research institution. Together with fellow researchers, he recently published a policy paper on the topic. Its conclusion: While Europeans are generally aware of the need for higher defense spending, their attitude changes when it comes to their own country's contribution.

"At the moment, it's only four countries in Europe," including Sweden, Bulgaria, Germany and non-EU member Norway, where more than 50% of the people are in favor of their own government spending more on defense, Schlepper told DW.

But, he added, the real question people are avoiding is, "are you willing to give up spending on other areas or are you willing to pay higher taxes?"

​

It's a difficult debate, acknowledged Joachim Schuster, a Social Democrat from Germany and member of the European Parliament. But the issue is being discussed "irrationally and hastily," he said.

After all, he told DW, European members of the NATO alliance already spend three times more on defense than Russia. Schuster suggested scrutinizing where that money is being spent and whether some is being wasted.

Europe has a 'quite comprehensive welfare state'​

It's "absurd for some members of conservative and liberal circles" to rule out issuing new debt and to call for cuts in social spending instead, said Schuster. Why not introduce higher taxes for high income salaries, he proposed.

Schlepper disagrees. He argued that in Europe "we have a quite comprehensive welfare state," with countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain allocating between 27% and 32% of their GDP on social spending, in comparison to 2% or less on defense.

He believes that because of its share in public finances, social spending has to play some role in financing defense. "This could either be by actually consolidating social spending or by at least not increasing social spending further," Schlepper suggested.

A bitter pill to swallow​

But for the European Socialists, that would a bitter pill to swallow. "We have to defend our security and the European model — which is the social model," Garcia said in her speech in Rome. But she also insisted that there needs to be a debate first about resources and fiscal policies to accommodate that.

"It's not inevitably social welfare that needs to be cut," said Sven Mikser, Estonia's former defense minister, who now represents his country’s Social Democrats in the European Parliament.

Mikser pointed out that events such as the recent COVID pandemic or the energy crisis tend to exacerbate preexisting divisions and social inequalities in societies. And that's why, he told DW, it's important to help those who are more vulnerable and put a bigger burden on those who are less at risk.

But Mikser also said he hopes voters understand that Europe is dealing with a very immediate threat to its security.

"It is imperative that we do more for our military and our security, because otherwise we might find ourselves in a totally unbearable situation in only a few years time," he said. "And that's something I shall not lie about to my voters."

Edited by: Martin Kuebler

 

[Plain Jane]

An election for control of Serbia's capital is to be rerun following opposition fraud claims

Officials say a key vote for control of Serbia’s capital, Belgrade is to be rerun later this year. The announcement follows months of soaring political tensions over claims that the ruling populists of President Aleksandar Vucic orchestrated a fraud in the vote for Belgrade’s city assembly.

apnews.com

An election for control of Serbia’s capital is to be rerun following opposition fraud claims​

FILE - Opposition lawmakers hold banners reading: “Stole the elections” during a Serbia’s parliament constitutive session in Belgrade, Serbia, Feb. 6, 2024. Officials say a key vote for control of Serbia’s capital, Belgrade is to be rerun later this year. The announcement follows months of soaring political tensions over claims that the ruling populists of President Aleksandar Vucic orchestrated a fraud in the vote for Belgrade’s city assembly. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)
Read More
BY JOVANA GEC
Updated 6:50 AM EST, March 3, 2024

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A key vote for control of Serbia’s capital, Belgrade — a focal point of widespread fraud reports after last December elections — is to be rerun later this year, officials said Sunday.

The announcement follows months of soaring political tensions over claims that the ruling populists of President Aleksandar Vucic orchestrated a fraud in the vote for Belgrade’s city assembly.


The right-wing Serbian Progressive Party was declared the winner of the Dec. 17 election. But the main opposition alliance, Serbia Against Violence, have insisted they were robbed of a victory in Belgrade and that the parliamentary vote that took place at the same time was also marred by widespread irregularities. The dispute has led to large street protests.

It was not immediately clear when the new vote would be held. Sunday marked the formal deadline to form the Belgrade city authorities following the vote in December. The outgoing assembly will remain in place until the new election.

Vucic and his party have denied any wrongdoing, dismissing fraud claims as fabrications aimed at destabilizing Serbia.


International election observers, however, said earlier this week that the December election was held in “unjust conditions,” in part because of the president’s involvement and systemic advantages for the ruling party.

The report by an office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also said the ballot was “marred by harsh rhetoric, bias in the media, pressure on public sector employees and misuse of public resources.” It listed a set of recommendations for Serbia to fulfil before its next vote.

Opposition politicians said the announcement of the new vote showed that Vucic’s party was defeated in Belgrade after his decade-long tight grip on power.

“Today they admitted they lost (the election) despite the robbery of enormous proportions,” said Vladimir Obradovic, an opposition candidate for the Belgrade mayor. “The citizens of Belgrade have shown they don’t want them (populists).

The opposition and some local election monitors have claimed that voters from abroad were added to voters’ lists in Belgrade and were bused in on election day to vote for the ruling party.

Serbia is a candidate for European Union membership, but Vucic has faced accusations of curbing democratic freedoms since taking a firm grip on power in the Balkan country over a decade ago.

 

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"Incorporating Sharia Law into European Legal Systems": A State in India Bans Sharia​

by Uzay Bulut
The Gatestone Institute
March 4, 2024 at 5:00 am

• Lawmakers in an Indian state... have approved landmark legislation to... [ban] discrimination against women based on Islamic sharia law... personal laws that would be common for all citizens, regardless of religion.
• Replacing sharia law with a universal civil code across all of India would vastly ensure more rights for women and children and secure gender equality, and would be most welcome in other nations on the grounds of humanitarian fairness.
• "By 2030, there will be 60 million Muslims living in Europe. We are witnessing the process of the Islamisation of Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden.... Mosques financed by Islamic countries are the backdrop for Muslims' lives in Europe... Koranic schools are financed mainly by the rich Gulf states." — Elżbieta Kruk, Member of the European Parliament, July 7, 2020.
• Three choices are offered to non-Muslims: conversion to Islam, sword or dhimmitude, an inferior status in which non-Muslims are allowed to survive as long as they pay tribute.... Western nations must choose a fourth path: freedom. And this new choice would require more courage, resolve and strength as opposed to appeasement and surrender.

Lawmakers in an Indian state... have approved landmark legislation to... [ban] discrimination against women based on Islamic sharia law... personal laws that would be common for all citizens, regardless of religion. Pictured: Muslim women, wearing sharia-compliant hijabs and niqabs, take part in a demonstration in Hyderabad, India on February 9, 2022. (Photo by Noah Seelam/AFP via Getty Images)
Lawmakers in an Indian state ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have approved landmark legislation to unify personal laws across religions, a move that bans discrimination against women based on Islamic sharia law.
Approval by the State of Uttarakhand makes it the first in the country since independence from Britain in 1947 to pass a Uniform Civil Code (UCC). The bill provides uniformity in personal laws regarding inheritance, marriage, divorce and adoption, amongst others, across various communities in Uttarakhand. The new bill mandates a set of personal laws that would be common for all citizens, regardless of religion.
According to India Today:

"The Uttarakhand UCC bill makes it mandatory to register live-in relationships and puts a complete ban on polygamy and child marriage. It also recommends a common marriageable age for girls across all faiths and similar procedures for divorce."

India, a secular democracy with a majority Hindu population, also hosts a population of more than 200 million Muslims. It is the world's third-largest "Muslim country."
While Muslims in India are allowed to follow sharia law in matters such as family or inheritance, India's central government could end this by adopting a Uniform Civil Code for all citizens of India, on a national scale.
Sharia law in Islam is, sadly, not favorable to women, their status, or rights. Under sharia law, Muslim men are allowed to marry up to four wives and have been granted the upper hand when it comes to supremacy in the home, divorce, and spousal and child support.
In addition, while the legal age of marriage in India is 21 for men and 18 for women, sharia law in the country states that those who have attained puberty are eligible to be married.
Replacing sharia law with a universal civil code across all of India would vastly ensure more rights for women and children and secure gender equality, and would be most welcome in other nations on the grounds of humanitarian fairness.
Reuters reported on February 7:

"'The Uniform Civil Code will give the right to equality to everyone without any discrimination. ... We must make history by clearing it,' said Pushkar Singh Dhami, the [Uttarakhand] state's chief minister, just before BJP lawmakers and some others voted in favor of the bill.
"Rooted in the framework of the Indian Constitution, the code puts an end to religious interpretation of laws guiding marriage, divorce, maintenance, inheritance, adoption and succession.
"Dhami said it 'provides security to women and empowers them.'
"The code sets a minimum marriageable age for both genders. It guarantees equal rights to men and women on issues pertaining to divorce, share in ancestral property and offers rights to adopted children, those born out of wedlock or were conceived through surrogate births.
"A legal expert working on the UCC bill in Uttarakhand said Islam's Sharia laws permits polygamy and has no stringent rules to prohibit marriage of minors."

Although America's First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," in fact, Utah was not able to become a state in 1896 until, in Congress's Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887, it had banned polygamy. The passing of this landmark civil code in the Indian state of Uttarakhand sets a crucial example for the West, which increasingly appears caught between universal rights for everyone or the right to restrict universal rights in favor of religious rights.

End of Part 1 of 2

 

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Part 2 of 2

Sharia courts, or councils, have been established in many countries in the West, such as Canada. In 2004, Margaret Wente writing for the Globe and Mail reported:

"The province of Ontario has authorized the use of sharia law in civil arbitrations, if both parties consent. The arbitrations will deal with such matters as property, marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance. The arbitrators can be imams, Muslim elders or lawyers. In theory, their decisions aren't supposed to conflict with Canadian civil law. But because there is no third-party oversight, and no duty to report decisions, no outsider will ever know if they do. These decisions can be appealed to the regular courts. But for Muslim women, the pressures to abide by the precepts of sharia are overwhelming. To reject sharia is, quite simply, to be a bad Muslim."

Under sharia, if women do not do what the men in their family tell them – regarding, for instance, "dressing too Western," undergoing genital mutilation, where, how and with whom they can spend their leisure time, or being in the unsupervised company of an unrelated man -- the consequences can be severe, from being beaten to being killed. Some women, notes the author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, "not only comply with those rules but ... also enforce them."
Where, one wonders, are the women in the West, the self-described "feminists," to help protect these women, or even to even to speak out against such abuse? Instead, many claim that they "choose" to wear a hijab; that it is "empowering." In Iran, however, women are being imprisoned, raped, tortured and killed, for "choosing" not to wear a hijab.
What happens if a Muslim woman "chooses" not to, such as the BBC journalist Bella Hassan -- in London?:

"I no longer feel accepted in my own community and I no longer feel that I am safe.... After I took off my hijab, I started getting death and rape threats from men. They were criticising me, slut shaming me - men I didn't know.... There is no specific punishment for women who don't wear the hijab. It says in the Quran that God will deal with them, but Muslim men from my country decided to deal with me, instead of God."

Sharia law is creeping into Europe through Islamist parties and organizations, accompanied by the problem that some of the extremely religiously observant would reportedly like to "impose sharia" on everyone. In 2013, more than a decade ago, Mara Bizzotto, a member of the European Parliament, informed the European Commission that:

"In Spain, Norway, Sweden and Finland, Islamist parties whose manifestoes revolve around the ultimate goal of incorporating sharia law into European legal systems, are growing increasingly stronger. In the most recent local elections held in the Belgian capital Brussels, two members of an Islamist movement who have publicly stated that they want to do all they can to impose sharia in Belgium within the next 20 years, were elected as town councillors in the municipalities of Molenbeek and Anderlecht.
"In an interview, the newly elected town councillors said, in reference to imposing sharia, that it was still too soon as society was not ready and that they would have to cut too many people's hands off. They also propose banning mixed-sex working environments and reintroducing the death penalty."

Britain seems to be one of the most striking instances. Sharia councils – also known as Sharia courts – have existed in the UK since the early 1980s. The Islamic Sharia Council, based in Leyton, East London, was established in 1982.
"These organizations are accused of operating a parallel legal system in the UK," reported Susanna Lukacs, a researcher, in 2023.

"While their rulings have no legal validity, they have a decision-making capacity. Currently, there is no reliable statistic on the number of sharia councils in England and Wales, estimates vary between 80-85 and they are growing in number."

According to a 2019 report by David Torrance, an expert on constitutional law at the House of Commons Library:

On 22 January 2019, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe agreed the text of Resolution 2253: Sharia, the Cairo Declaration and the European Convention on Human Rights. Paragraph 8 states that the Assembly is:

"'concerned about the 'judicial' activities of 'Sharia councils' in the United Kingdom. Although they are not considered part of the British legal system, Sharia councils attempt to provide a form of alternative dispute resolution, whereby members of the Muslim community, sometimes voluntarily, often under considerable social pressure, accept the irreligious jurisdiction mainly in marital and Islamic divorce issues, but also in matters relating to inheritance and Islamic commercial contracts. The Assembly is concerned that the rulings of the Sharia councils clearly discriminate against women in divorce and inheritance cases. The Assembly is aware that informal Islamic Courts may exist in other Council of Europe member States too.'"

Sharia is Islamic law. It is based on the sunnah -- the "path" or way of life of Islam's prophet Muhammad as recorded in the Hadith (the sayings and deeds of Muhammad, passed down orally and written roughly 200 years after his death). It is an organized body of rules derived from various Quranic verses and historical narrations.
According to sharia, leaving or criticizing Islam is punishable by death. Jihad (warfare in the service of Islam) is a communal obligation; homosexuals must be killed; a husband is allowed to beat his wife to discipline her; a woman is not allowed to marry or get a divorce on her own free will; non-Muslims have to pay a special "poll" tax (the jizya) to Muslim authorities; marrying children at the age of puberty is permitted and, the sexual slavery of non-Muslim women is condoned.
The website "thereligionofpeace.com" summarizes what sharia law entails according to Islamic scriptures by referencing the classic manual, Reliance of the Traveller, considered one of the soundest translations of Islamic law:

"Sharia is explicitly opposed to religious freedom, freedom of conscience and the free exchange of ideas. It is violent, openly bigoted toward non-Muslims, discriminatory, and unflinchingly sexist. Large sections deal with the practice of slavery. None of this changes by affixing a 'phobia' label or otherwise insulting detractors."

The website quotes from "the classic manual, Reliance of the Traveller, considered one of the soundest translations of Islamic law":

Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada signifying warfare to establish the religion...
The scriptural basis for jihad... is such Koranic verses as:
-1- "Fighting is prescribed for you" (Koran 2: 216);
-2- "Slay them wherever you find them" (Koran 4: 89);
-3- "Fight the idolators utterly" (Koran 9: 36)...

According to the (Koran 9: 29):

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day... (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

Sharia has strict rules discriminating against women. According to thereligionofpeace.com, citing Reliance of the Traveller:

"A woman may not 'conduct her own marriage', meaning that she is not free to marry by choice. A male guardian is required to validate the marriage agreement.
"A woman is not free to choose her guardian. It is assigned by family relation. Once she is married, she becomes the charge of her husband's guardianship.
"A Muslim woman may not marry a non-Muslim man (Quran 2:221).
"An untranslated portion of the Sharia even forbids an Arab woman from marrying a non-Arab man.
"A woman has no right to custody of her children from a previous marriage when she remarries.
"It is obligatory for a woman to let her husband have sex with her immediately when he asks her... and she can physically endure it.
"It is not lawful for a wife to leave the house except by the permission of her husband.
"When a husband notices signs of rebelliousness in his wife, he warns her in words. If she commits rebelliousness, he keeps from sleeping with her without words, and may hit her, but not in a way that injures her, meaning he may not break bones, wound her, or cause blood to flow.
"The indemnity for the death or injury of a woman is one-half the indemnity paid for a man.
'Divide the universal share so the male receives the portion of two females (Rule of inheritance based on the Quran 4:11)
"It is unlawful for women to leave the house with faces unveiled."

The website cites Reliance of the Traveller on Sharia law rules regarding non-Muslims:

"The indemnity paid for a Jew or Christian is one-third of the indemnity paid for a Muslim. The indemnity paid of a Zoroastrian is one-fifteenth of that a Muslim.
"It is not permissible to give zakat [almsgiving] to a non-Muslim.
"It is offensive to use the vessels [dishes] of non-Muslims or wear their clothes.
"A non-Muslim may not touch the Quran.
"Non-Muslims are not allowed to 'mix' with Muslims at certain events.
"It is permissible for a Muslim to visit a non-Muslim who is ill, but not recommended. (Same with visiting the grave of a non-Muslim relative.)
"A non-Muslim may not inherit from a Muslim. (or vice versa)
"There is no penalty for a Muslim who kills a non-Muslim.
"Non-Muslim subjects of an Islamic state may live free from harm if they:
- pay a special 'poll' tax (the jizya)
- comply with certain Islamic rules, specifically the penalty for adultery (stoning) and theft (amputation)
- distinguish themselves from Muslims by dressing differently
- keep to the side of the side of the street when Muslims pass
- accept a lesser form of greeting
- agree not to build new churches or ring church bells
- do not build houses higher than those of Muslims
"The agreement is broken if the non-Muslim breaks the rules, fails to pay the poll tax, 'leads a Muslim away from Islam', 'mentions something impermissible' about Islam, or marries or has sex with a Muslim woman. If this happens, then the non-Muslim is treated as a prisoner and may be lynched -- provided they do not first 'convert' to Islam before the sentence is rendered."

Last year, in Cameroon, for example, 30 fishermen were kidnapped and 10 others murdered for refusing to pay their "taxes" (jizya).

According to thereligionofpeace.com, citing Reliance of the Traveller, the rules of sharia law regarding art and music include:

"Musical instruments are condemned.
"One should know that singing or listening to singing is offensive (with the exception of songs that encourage piety).
"Every maker of pictures will go to the fire, where a being will be set upon him for each picture he made, to torment him in hell
"Pictures imitate the creative act of Allah (when they are of animate beings).
"It is unlawful to decorate walls with pictures (generally interpreted as pictures of animate beings)."

In 2020, Elżbieta Kruk, a Member of the European Parliament from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, presented a written question to the European Commission. She said:

"By 2030, there will be 60 million Muslims living in Europe. We are witnessing the process of the Islamisation of Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden. Muslims are living in closed communities, mainly in the suburbs of cities, which are de facto not subject to the law of the land. In these communities, Sharia law applies and families living there pay Islamic taxes in accordance with Sharia law.
"According to a report by France's Directorate-General for Internal Security (DGSI), commissioned by former French Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner, as many as 150 urban districts are controlled by Islamic fundamentalists. In France, the police have virtually no access to these districts, and they must be protected by the French Army if they wish to enter 'no go' zones.
"Mosques financed by Islamic countries are the backdrop for Muslims' lives in Europe. In Muslim-controlled districts and micro-territories there is discrimination against girls in public schools, and children and young people are subjected to Islamic indoctrination. Koranic schools are financed mainly by the rich Gulf states.
"1. What steps is the Commission taking to better integrate Muslim communities?
"2. What steps is the Commission taking to combat discrimination against Muslim women and girls in Europe?
"3. What measures will the Commission propose to reduce the phenomenon of Islamic radicalisation inside Europe, which takes place under the guise of religious education?"

Effective measures the European Commission could implement include banning sharia courts or councils across Europe, strictly monitoring mosques and Islamic schools, banning any foreign funding to Islamist organizations, banning the foreign funding of mosques and schools, and deporting radical Muslims who call for jihad or sharia law.

As recent marches across Europe in support of the terrorist group Hamas have made clear, Europe is facing a serious, intermittently violent, jihad. The surge of migrants can also be understood not just as hope for a better economic opportunity, also as "emigration for the sake of Allah."

India shows the West an alternative path: to protect the rights of everyone, especially women and children, and to ensure the human rights of liberty and freedom for everyone.

As Bat Ye'or, the author of eight books on the history of Islam and dhimmitude, six of which are available in English, said in an interview:

"Every European is aware of Europe's transformation under the pressure of massive Muslim immigration. Some Muslims are perfectly integrated and oppose the Islamization of European school teaching, culture, law, society. No European or American well integrated in its Western and Judeo-Christian culture could possibly welcome its replacement by a Koranic shariah society, imposing its religious conception of history which affirms that jihad is just and resistance to jihad is aggression. Nor could he accept the discriminated condition of the women, the denial of the equality of human beings, and the restrictions on knowledge."

As the increasing number of Islamists in the West demonstrates, the future of Western civilization is threatened by Islamization. The Islamic ideology of conquest demands that a land, once conquered for Islam, belongs in perpetuity to Muslims. Three choices are offered to non-Muslims: conversion to Islam, sword or dhimmitude, an inferior status in which non-Muslims are allowed to survive as long as they pay tribute.

All these options are against human dignity. Western nations must choose a fourth path: freedom. And this new choice would require more courage, resolve and strength as opposed to appeasement and surrender.

"Incorporating Sharia Law into European Legal Systems" vs A State in India Bans Sharia

Lawmakers in an Indian state... have approved landmark legislation to... [ban] discrimination against women based on Islamic sharia law... personal laws that would be common for all citizens, regardless of religion. Replacing sharia law with a universal

www.gatestoneinstitute.org

 

[northern watch]

 

[northern watch]

France's Skyrocketing Threat​

by Guy Millière
The Gatestone Institute
February 21, 2024 at 5:00 am

• January 30, 2024. The French weekly, Le Journal du Dimanche, publishes the most comprehensive and detailed survey on what French Muslims think. Not surprisingly, the results are disturbing.
• Every year, Muslims of France [the main French Muslim organization, and the French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood] organizes a conference that attracts hundreds of thousands of Muslims from all over Europe. The group also invites radical imams who speak to the crowd.
• The survey further showed that 49% of French Muslims want Catholics to convert to Islam, and that 36% percent want churches to be transformed into mosques... The survey also discloses that 25% of French Muslims said that the word "France" is a word they reject.
• France is a country where more than 70% of prison inmates are Muslim. According to reports, the crime rate among the Muslim population is high.... There are also more than two hundred rapes every day in France, most perpetrated by Muslim men who entered France illegally. Only 7% of illegal immigrants ordered to leave France are ever actually deported
• A similar situation to that of France can be found in other Western European countries, where the Muslim population may be smaller but is quickly growing.
• If Europeans wish to avoid such a future and keep their culture, they need to start making that outcome unmistakably clear to everyone, not just by words but by actions. If not, what we are seeing could well mean the end of the European civilization as we know it.

According to a new comprehensive survey, 49% of French Muslims want Catholics to convert to Islam, 36% percent want churches to be transformed into mosques, and 25% of French Muslims said that the word "France" is a word they reject. Pictured: Thousands of Muslims arrive to attend the morning Eid al-Adha prayers at the Great Mosque of Paris on June 28, 2023. (Photo by Zakaria Abdelkafi/AFP via Getty Images)

January 30, 2024. The French weekly, Le Journal du Dimanche, publishes the most comprehensive and detailed survey on what French Muslims think. Not surprisingly, the results are disturbing.

The first question in the survey was about Jews. 17% of French Muslims admit that they hate Jews. 39% say they have a bad, or very bad, opinion of Judaism.

France is the only country in 21st-century Europe where Jews regularly have been murdered simply because they are Jews. Since the kidnapping, torture and murder of Ilan Halimi in January 2006, all Jews murdered in France have been killed by Muslims. Sammy Ghozlan, the president of the National Office for Vigilance against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), which lists anti-Semitic acts and helps their victims, has emphasized year after year, for more than twenty years, that almost all violent anti-Semitic acts committed in France are committed by Muslims.

When it comes to Israel, the results are even more disturbing. Feelings go beyond hatred. 45% of French Muslims say they want the total destruction of Israel. An equivalent number of French Muslims define the massacre rape, torture, beheadings and burning alive of Jews by Hamas terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023, as an "act of resistance".

So, almost half of a religious community in a Western democracy openly wants the destruction of a group of people who were just massacred in another country, and in the greatest number since the end of the Holocaust.

19% of French Muslims say they have sympathy for Hamas. That so many French Muslims have sympathy for an organization whose leaders say that they will repeat the October 7 attack time and again until Israel is annihilated, and unabashedly state that they want the genocidal destruction of the only Jewish state, should sound an alarm that French Jews, and French non-Jews, are in an extremely perilous situation.

Other figures showed that 42% of French Muslims place respect for Islamic Sharia law above respect for the laws of the French republic (the percentage rises to 57% among young Muslims aged 18 to 25).

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2003 that Sharia law is incompatible with the values of democracy. Sharia law stipulates that Allah has dictated all the rules that human beings must obey, and that all rules contrary to Sharia law must be rejected. 37% of French Muslims say they support the Muslim Brotherhood -- also not surprising: the main French Muslim organization, Musulmans de France ("Muslims of France") is the French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Every year, Muslims of France organizes a conference that attracts hundreds of thousands of Muslims from all over Europe. The group also invites radical imams who speak to the crowd.

The survey further showed that 49% of French Muslims want Catholics to convert to Islam, and that 36% percent want churches to be transformed into mosques. Some churches already have been transformed. The survey also discloses that 25% of French Muslims said that the word "France" is a word they reject.

These figures are best seen and understood in conjunction with other facts.

France is one of the only countries in the Western world where men have been beheaded by radicalized Muslims. (The other is the United Kingdom, where two Muslims tried to behead British Soldier Lee Rigby in 2013.) Samuel Paty, a schoolteacher, was beheaded on October 16, 2020. Herve Cornara, a small business entrepreneur, was beheaded on June 26, 2015 in Romans-sur-Isère, a small town in the southeast of France. And Father Jacques Hamel had his throat slit and was beheaded on July 26, 2016 in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, while saying mass in an almost empty church.
France also happens to be the country in Europe with the largest number of "no-go zones". There are at least 751 designated Zones Urbaines Sensibles ("sensitive urban zones"), where Muslim gangs and radical imams are in charge.

Non-Muslims can still live there, on the condition that they accept the status of dhimmi (tolerated second-class citizen), bow their heads, and admit that they live in a territory ruled by Islam. Members of Muslim gangs no longer respect the police. If an incident between a police officer and a member of a gang breaks out, riots follow, and the police receive orders that if the situation risks escalation, they are not to arrest anyone.

France is a country where more than 70% of prison inmates are Muslim. According to reports, the crime rate among the Muslim population is high.

Three decades ago, Seine-Saint-Denis, a French district in the Paris suburbs, had a large Jewish community. Almost the entire Jewish population of the district, after being subjected to incessant threats, moved away to live elsewhere. The few Jews who remain hide that they are Jews.

Throughout France, Jewish men conceal their skullcaps under a hat. Jewish women tuck their Star of David necklaces inside their clothing. Many Jewish families no longer place mezuzahs at the entrance to their homes.

For more than 20 years, it has been impossible to talk about the Holocaust in French schools. When Georges Bensoussan, in 2004, published The Lost Territories of the Republic, a book denouncing the Muslim anti-Semitism widespread in educational establishments, Jewish students were already experiencing harassment and discrimination. Today, most Jewish families in France, out of caution, have abandoned the public education system and have enrolled their children in private schools. For years, when a Jewish student is bullied in a public school, the authorities take no disciplinary action against the bullies; instead, they might ask the Jewish child's parents to place him in another school.

French Christians visibly wearing a cross on the street receive insults. Every year, dozens of French churches are desecrated and ransacked.

More than 120 knife attacks take place in France every day and can happen anytime, anywhere. Most of these attacks are committed are by Muslim men who then tell the police that they did it because they hate infidels and hate France. Only the knife attacks that result in death appear in the newspapers; the others are passed over in silence. In the main French cities, muggings and beatings have become commonplace. There are also more than two hundred rapes every day in France, most perpetrated by Muslim men who entered France illegally. Only 7% of illegal immigrants ordered to leave France are ever actually deported.

The poll in Le Journal du Dimanche received little comment.

Only one French political leader, former journalist Éric Zemmour, has dared to say that the situation is increasingly alarming and that a growing Islamic danger is threatening France. His comments have led to his being sentenced to pay heavy fines several times for "provoking discrimination and hatred towards the Muslim community". In the May 2022 presidential elections, he received only 7% of the vote; his message was apparently either not widely heard or not widely accepted.

The president of the National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, has limited herself to denouncing the presence in France of an "Islamist ideology totally distinct from Islam", and insists on saying that only a tiny minority of Muslims adhere to this ideology. She adds, perhaps wishfully, that Islam is "fully compatible" with the French institutions.

La France Insoumise ("France Unsubmitted"), the main left-wing political party in France, is violently anti-Israel. Its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, calls Hamas a "resistance" movement. He received 21.9% of the vote in 2022, but 69% of the Muslim vote.

Several members of the French National Assembly have denounced the positions of La France Insoumise and Mélenchon, but only one, Meyer Habib, has spoken out about the leftist and Muslim anti-Semitism, as well as the increasingly serious threats weighing on French Jews and on France itself. As a result, he has received death threats by the hundreds and his family and he now live under 'round-the-clock police protection.

End of part 1 of 2

 

[northern watch]

French President Emmanuel Macron said, in October 2020, that he wanted to fight what he called "Islamic separatism", but seemed not to want to see that Muslims tempted by Islamism do not want to "separate" themselves from the rest of the population, but to conquer others and have them submit. "Islam," Macron added is "in crisis". His statement provoked vehement protests from all of the French Muslim organizations, and demonstrations in several countries of the Muslim world. Since then, he has avoided talking about Islam altogether.

No Islamic organization appears to have called anyone to come to the demonstration against anti-Semitism that took place in Paris on November 12, 2023. The only reaction from the imam of the Great Mosque of Paris, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, to Hamas's massacre on October 7 was, "With all these bombs, these deaths, and this frustration generated over the years there, what are we creating? Hate of the other" – which was not exactly a ringing condemnation of the massacre. He then accused Israel of attacking the civilian population of Gaza: "Islam totally condemns the attack on civilians in an armed conflict."

French Muslim online magazines were more virulent. Evidently basing what they publish on Hamas propaganda, they accuse Israel of committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip. They never say that Hamas uses Palestinian Arabs as human shields or that the Israel Defense Forces do their best to avoid killing civilians while often putting their own lives at great risk.
The French journalist Ivan Rioufol, in his book The Coming Civil War, published in 2016, wrote:

"The question of the Muslim presence in France must be posed without artifice.... the rise of strict Islam in France would imply emergency decisions. If decisions are not taken very quickly, and if the almost generalized voluntary blindness of the country's leaders does not cease, the future of France will be tragic and violent."

France is the country in Europe with the largest number of Muslims: around 10% of a population of 67.75 million. By 2050, the figure is expected to increase to 17%, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

A similar situation to that of France can be found in other Western European countries, where the Muslim population may be smaller but is quickly growing.

In Londonistan, a book by the British journalist Melanie Phillips published in 2006, she noted the existence of Sharia-controlled zones in London, and that "sixty percent of British Muslims would like sharia law to be established in Great Britain". In 2019, she wrote in the UK's Jewish Chronicle: "A frighteningly high number of British Muslims subscribe to extremist or anti-Semitic views".

In Germany, Sharia-controlled zones have begun to appear. They have also been emerging in Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands. The recent victory of Geert Wilders in the Dutch elections could be the sign of a turning point and an awakening in Europe. It is too early to draw conclusions, and almost three months after his victory, Wilders has still not succeeded in forming a government.

In 2015, the Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, in the novel 2084: The End of the World, described a totalitarian future in which Muslim extremists establish an oppressive caliphate where freedom of thought and action is abolished. When a television journalist asked him what, in his opinion, France will be in 2084, his immediate response was: "France will be Islamist". "Europe too," he added.

The former head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, said in a recent interview that "Europeans will succumb to Islam".

If Europeans wish to avoid such a future and keep their culture, they need to start making that outcome unmistakably clear to everyone, not just by words but by actions. If not, what we are seeing could well mean the end of the European civilization as we know it.

France's Skyrocketing Threat

January 30, 2024. The French weekly, Le Journal du Dimanche, publishes the most comprehensive and detailed survey on what French Muslims think. Not surprisingly, the results are disturbing. Every year, Muslims of France [the main French Muslim

www.gatestoneinstitute.org

End of part 2 of 2

 

[Plain Jane]

As recent marches across Europe in support of the terrorist group Hamas have made clear, Europe is facing a serious, intermittently violent, jihad. The surge of migrants can also be understood not just as hope for a better economic opportunity, also as "emigration for the sake of Allah."

There has been a bi election in the UK that is really roiling the establishment there. Far left George Galloway won a seat in Parliament over the weekend. The constituency is roughly half Muslim and half working class whites. He won overwhelmingly on a platform of being pro Palestine and pro working class. The Duran discussed the why and the implications of this.

R/T 24 minutes

View: https://youtu.be/ybsRRB7PHfc?si=4f6TLzDfbTDcMpmQ

 

[Housecarl]

French President Emmanuel Macron said, in October 2020, that he wanted to fight what he called "Islamic separatism", but seemed not to want to see that Muslims tempted by Islamism do not want to "separate" themselves from the rest of the population, but to conquer others and have them submit. "Islam," Macron added is "in crisis". His statement provoked vehement protests from all of the French Muslim organizations, and demonstrations in several countries of the Muslim world. Since then, he has avoided talking about Islam altogether.

No Islamic organization appears to have called anyone to come to the demonstration against anti-Semitism that took place in Paris on November 12, 2023. The only reaction from the imam of the Great Mosque of Paris, Chems-Eddine Hafiz, to Hamas's massacre on October 7 was, "With all these bombs, these deaths, and this frustration generated over the years there, what are we creating? Hate of the other" – which was not exactly a ringing condemnation of the massacre. He then accused Israel of attacking the civilian population of Gaza: "Islam totally condemns the attack on civilians in an armed conflict."

French Muslim online magazines were more virulent. Evidently basing what they publish on Hamas propaganda, they accuse Israel of committing "genocide" in the Gaza Strip. They never say that Hamas uses Palestinian Arabs as human shields or that the Israel Defense Forces do their best to avoid killing civilians while often putting their own lives at great risk.
The French journalist Ivan Rioufol, in his book The Coming Civil War, published in 2016, wrote:

France is the country in Europe with the largest number of Muslims: around 10% of a population of 67.75 million. By 2050, the figure is expected to increase to 17%, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

A similar situation to that of France can be found in other Western European countries, where the Muslim population may be smaller but is quickly growing.

In Londonistan, a book by the British journalist Melanie Phillips published in 2006, she noted the existence of Sharia-controlled zones in London, and that "sixty percent of British Muslims would like sharia law to be established in Great Britain". In 2019, she wrote in the UK's Jewish Chronicle: "A frighteningly high number of British Muslims subscribe to extremist or anti-Semitic views".

In Germany, Sharia-controlled zones have begun to appear. They have also been emerging in Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands. The recent victory of Geert Wilders in the Dutch elections could be the sign of a turning point and an awakening in Europe. It is too early to draw conclusions, and almost three months after his victory, Wilders has still not succeeded in forming a government.

In 2015, the Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, in the novel 2084: The End of the World, described a totalitarian future in which Muslim extremists establish an oppressive caliphate where freedom of thought and action is abolished. When a television journalist asked him what, in his opinion, France will be in 2084, his immediate response was: "France will be Islamist". "Europe too," he added.

The former head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, said in a recent interview that "Europeans will succumb to Islam".

If Europeans wish to avoid such a future and keep their culture, they need to start making that outcome unmistakably clear to everyone, not just by words but by actions. If not, what we are seeing could well mean the end of the European civilization as we know it.

France's Skyrocketing Threat

January 30, 2024. The French weekly, Le Journal du Dimanche, publishes the most comprehensive and detailed survey on what French Muslims think. Not surprisingly, the results are disturbing. Every year, Muslims of France [the main French Muslim

www.gatestoneinstitute.org

End of part 2 of 2

When, not if, that kettle boils over it is going to make the Terror look tame.....

 

[Plain Jane]

Newly enlarged NATO starts drill in Finland, Norway and Sweden in defense of its Nordic turf

NATO kicked off an exercise on Monday to defend its newly expanded Nordic territory when more than 20,000 soldiers from 13 nations take part in drills lasting nearly two weeks in the northern regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden.

apnews.com

Newly enlarged NATO starts drill in Finland, Norway and Sweden in defense of its Nordic turf​

BY JARI TANNER
Updated 6:45 AM EST, March 4, 2024
Share
HELSINKI (AP) — NATO kicked off an exercise on Monday to defend its newly expanded Nordic territory when more than 20,000 soldiers from 13 nations take part in drills lasting nearly two weeks in the northern regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden.

With over 4,000 Finnish soldiers taking part, the Norway-led Nordic Response 2024 represents the NATO newcomer’s largest ever participation in a foreign exercise, according to Finland’s military.
“For the first time, Finland will participate as a NATO member nation in exercising collective defense of the alliance’s regions,” the Finnish Defense Forces said in a statement.

The Swedish Armed Forces said about 4,500 personnel from its air force, army and navy would take part in the drill, which is being conducted in demanding Arctic winter conditions.

Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia, joined NATO in April 2023 in a historic move following decades of military non-alignment. With its bid now ratified by all NATO members, neighboring Sweden is currently finalizing formalities to enter the military alliance as its 32nd member — most likely in March.

Both Sweden and Finland had developed strong ties with NATO after the end of the Cold War, but public opinion remained firmly against full membership until Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Nonalignment was seen as the best way to avoid tensions with Russia, their powerful neighbor in the Baltic Sea region. But the Russian aggression caused a dramatic shift in public opinion in both countries, and they applied jointly for NATO membership in May 2022.


For years, the biannual NATO drill, which has been conducted in the Arctic extremes of northern Norway, was called “Cold Response.”

However, “thanks to the NATO expansion with Finland and eventually Sweden, we are now expanding the exercise to a Nordic Response,” the Norwegian Armed Forces said on its website. This year, the drill is hosted equally by Finland, Norway and Sweden.

The pan-Nordic drill is part of Steadfast Defender 24, NATO’s biggest exercises in decades, with up to 90,000 troops involved over several months of drills that are aimed at showing that the alliance can defend all of its territory up to its border with Russia.

The participating nations in the current exercise that runs through March 15 are Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United States.

Roughly half of the participating troops will drill on land. The rest will train at sea, with over 50 participating submarines, frigates, corvettes, aircraft carriers, and various amphibious vessels, and in the air with more than 100 fighter jets, transport aircraft, maritime surveillance aircraft and helicopters, according to the Norwegian military.

The combined joint training will focus on the defense and protection of the Nordic region, Norwegian military officials said.

“We need to be able to fight back and stop anyone who tries to challenge our borders, values and democracy,” said Brigadier Tron Strand from the Royal Norwegian Air Force, Commander of the Norwegian Air Operations Center, in a statement. “With the current security situation in Europe, the exercise is extremely relevant and more important than ever before,” he added.

“The High North represents an important and strategically located area for NATO” and the Nordic Response 2024 exercise “increases Nordic preparedness and the capability to conduct large-scale joint operations in challenging weather and climate,” NATO said on its website.

Finland’s new president, Alexander Stubb, will inspect the drill together with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in northern Norway on March 7. It’s the first foreign trip for Stubb since he was sworn in as Finland’s new head of state and its supreme military commander on March 1.

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden is to visit an airbase in northern Sweden on March 11, the country’s military said.

 

[Plain Jane]

Moldova warns against Russian meddling as it gears up for EU referendum and presidential election

Moldova’s national intelligence agency warns against “unprecedented” Russian interference as the country gears up for a referendum on joining the European Union and a presidential election.

apnews.com

Moldova warns against Russian meddling as it gears up for EU referendum and presidential election​

BY STEPHEN MCGRATH AND ANDREEA ALEXANDRU
Updated 10:34 AM EST, March 5, 2024
Share
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Moldova’s national intelligence agency warned Tuesday against “unprecedented” Russian interference as the country gears up for a referendum on joining the European Union and a presidential election.

The Intelligence and Security Services, or SIS, released a report saying it has gathered data indicating Russia plans to launch vast hybrid attacks against Moldova through 2024-2025 to try to bring the former Soviet republic back under Moscow’s influence.

Head of the SIS, Alexandru Musteata, said in a press conference that Russia sought to undermine the democratic polling this year in the eastern European country.

“There is information about an attempt to compromise the referendum on European integration, the presidential elections, to denigrate institutions and candidates who will promote the idea of European integration,” Musteata said.


The report said part of Russia’s strategy would be the “extensive use of social networks,” such as Telegram and TikTok, to back pro-Moscow political figures, create socio-political and economic crises, encourage anti-government protests, as well as provoke “social clashes to incite inter-ethnic hatred” on top of sprawling disinformation campaigns.

Musteata named pro-Russia Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor as a central figure in Russia’s fresh campaign. Shor, the head of the outlawed Russia-friendly Shor Party, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in jail last year on fraud and money laundering charges.



“According to the data, Shor’s main task for 2024 is to compromise the results of the (EU) referendum,” the SIS head said. “Protests will continue to be used as a tool to undermine trust in the current government.”

Moldova, which neighbors Ukraine and Romania, was granted EU candidate status in 2022 and is scheduled to hold a nationwide referendum on joining the 27-nation bloc. The presidential election will follow in the fall.

Last week, officials in Moldova’s Russia-backed breakaway region of Transnistria appealed to Moscow for protection against economic pressure, as tensions escalated with Moldova’s pro-Western government over new customs duties implemented in the New Year.

Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moldova’s relations with Moscow have soured significantly. Moldova’s leaders have routinely accused Russia of conducting campaigns to try to destabilize the country.

There was no immediate comment from Russian officials.

___​

McGrath reported from Sighisoara, Romania.

 

[Plain Jane]

'Orbán's Revenge' - Hungary Rejects Dutch PM Rutte's Candidacy To Head NATO | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

'Orbán's Revenge' - Hungary Rejects Dutch PM Rutte's Candidacy To Head NATO​

BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, MAR 07, 2024 - 02:00 AM
Authored by Denes Albert via ReMix News,
Rutte once said that Hungary “no longer has a place in the EU” and that he wanted to bring the country “to its knees”...


Mark Rutte and Viktor Orbán at the European Council roundtable in Brussels, June 30, 2023. (Credit: European Union/ European Council)

Hungary does not support Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s candidacy for NATO secretary-general, said Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó. Given his history of threats against Hungary, there is little surprise from analysts about Hungary’s stance.

Commenting on the possible election of Rutte as the new head of NATO, Szijjártó said that the government could certainly not support the election of someone who “wanted to bring Hungary to its knees in the past.”



In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, right, and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte pose for a photo after signing documents in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 1, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

“It would be very strange if the Hungarian government were to support the candidacy of such a person,” he said.

Current NATO head Jens Stoltenberg’s second mandate — extended twice by one year due to the war in Ukraine — will expire in October, and most NATO member states want to have a new person in the position before the EU elections. To be elected, a candidate needs the vote of all member states.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1765312319943291144

View: https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1765312319943291144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1765312319943291144%7Ctwgr%5Ee1947712195e7ba8d0638be9c501c20064965f23%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Forbans-revenge-hungary-rejects-dutch-pm-ruttes-candidacy-head-nato


German magazine Der Spiegel wrote in a recent opinion piece that “Rutte has strong opponents, especially in the eastern part of NATO territory, above all (Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orbán.”

That is why Spiegel columnist Marlus Becker wrote that the military alliance is threatened by a nasty row over the next secretary-general. Last week, NATO’s four major member states backed Rutte in a coordinated action. According to several diplomats, Rutte has the backing of about two-thirds of the 31 NATO members, but the eastern members are resisting, according to the German magazine.

The magazine claims that the unanimous election of the new secretary-general could be a problem for “Hungary’s autocratic prime minister” Viktor Orbán, among others. However, Rutte is not innocent either, the article adds, as in 2021, Rutte said that Hungary “no longer has a place in the EU.”

Rutte also said, “We want to bring Hungary to its knees.” Now, Becker writes that Rutte has to fear “Orbán’s revenge,” and this time Orbán is not isolated. Becker argues that other states in the eastern part of NATO feel they have been deceived by the West.

Orbán has commented on Rutte’s offensive comments in the past, saying in 2020: “I don’t know what’s the personal reason for the Dutch prime minister to hate me or Hungary, but he is attacking us so harshly and making very clear that because Hungary, in his opinion, does not respect the rule of law, it must be punished financially. That’s his position. Which is not acceptable, because there is no decision about what is the rule of law situation in Hungary.”

 

[northern watch]

 

[northern watch]

 

[Plain Jane]

Irish prime minister concedes defeat in a vote over constitutional amendments about family and women

Opponents argued that the wording of the changes was poorly thought out and some voters said they feared changes would lead to unintended consequences.

apnews.com

Irish prime minister concedes defeat in a vote over constitutional amendments about family and women​

1 of 4 |
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar speaks to the media at Dublin Castle as counting for the twin referendum to change the Constitution on family and care continues, in Dublin, Saturday March 9, 2024. Varadkar has conceded defeat in the vote over two constitutional amendments that would have broadened the definition of family and removed language about a woman’s role at home. Vote tallies Saturday showed both referendums failing in a blow to his government. (Damien Storan/PA via AP)
Read More


BY MICHAEL KEALY AND BRIAN MELLEY
Updated 3:25 PM EDT, March 9, 2024

DUBLIN (AP) — Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar conceded defeat Saturday as two constitutional amendments he supported that would have broadened the definition of family and removed language about a woman’s role in the home were headed toward rejection.

Varadkar, who pushed the vote to enshrine gender equality in the constitution by removing “very old-fashioned language” and tried to recognize the realities of modern family life, said that voters had delivered “two wallops” to the government.

“Clearly we got it wrong,” he said. “While the old adage is that success has many fathers and failure is an orphan, I think when you lose by this kind of margin, there are a lot of people who got this wrong and I am certainly one of them.”

Opponents argued that the amendments were poorly worded, and voters said they were confused with the choices that some feared would lead to unintended consequences.

The referendum was viewed as part of Ireland’s evolution from a conservative, overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country in which divorce and abortion were illegal, to an increasingly diverse and socially liberal society. The proportion of residents who are Catholic fell from 94.9% in 1961 to 69% in 2022, according to the Central Statistics Office.

The social transformation has been reflected in a series of changes to the Irish Constitution, which dates from 1937, though the country wasn’t formally known as the Republic of Ireland until 1949. Irish voters legalized divorce in a 1995 referendum, backed same-sex marriage in a 2015 vote and repealed a ban on abortions in 2018.



The first question dealt with a part of the constitution that pledges to protect the family as the primary unit of society. Voters were asked to remove a reference to marriage as the basis “on which the family is founded” and replace it with a clause that said families can be founded “on marriage or on other durable relationships.” If passed, it would have been the constitution’s 39th amendment.

A proposed 40th amendment would have removed a reference that a woman’s place in the home offered a common good that couldn’t be provided by the state, and delete a statement that said mothers shouldn’t be obligated to work out of economic necessity if it would neglect their duties at home. It would have added a clause saying the state will strive to support “the provision of care by members of a family to one another.”

Siobhán Mullally, a law professor and director of the Irish Center for Human Rights at the University of Galway, said that it was patronizing for Varadkar to schedule the vote on International Women’s Day thinking people would use the occasion to strike the language about women in the home. The so-called care amendment wasn’t that simple.

While voters support removing the outdated notion of a woman’s place in the home, they also wanted new language recognizing state support of family care provided by those who aren’t kin, she said. Some disability rights and social justice advocates opposed the measure because it was too restrictive in that regard.

“It was a hugely missed opportunity,” Mullally said. “Most people certainly want that sexist language removed from the constitution. There’s been calls for that for years and it’s taken so long to have a referendum on it. But they proposed replacing it with this very limited, weak provision on care.”

Varadkar said that his camp hadn’t convinced people of the need for the vote — never mind issues over how the questions were worded. Supporters of the amendment and opponents said the government had failed to explain why change was necessary or mount a robust campaign.

“The government misjudged the mood of the electorate and put before them proposals which they didn’t explain and proposals which could have serious consequences,” Sen. Michael McDowell, an independent who opposed both measures, told Irish broadcaster RTE.

Labour Party Leader Ivana Bacik told RTE that she supported the measures, despite concerns over their wording, but said the government had run a lackluster campaign.

The debate was less charged than the arguments over abortion and gay marriage. Ireland’s main political parties all supported the changes, including centrist government coalition partners Fianna Fail and Fine Gael and the biggest opposition party, Sinn Fein.

One political party that called for “no” votes was Aontú, a traditionalist group that split from Sinn Fein over the larger party’s backing for legal abortion. Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said that the government’s wording was so vague that it will lead to legal wrangles and most people “do not know what the meaning of a durable relationship is.”

Opinion polls had suggested support for the “yes” side on both votes, but many voters on Friday said they found the issue too confusing or complex to change the constitution.

“It was too rushed,” said Una Ui Dhuinn, a nurse in Dublin. “We didn’t get enough time to think about it and read up on it. So I felt, to be on the safe side, ‘no, no’ — no change.”

Caoimhe Doyle, a doctoral student, said that she voted yes to changing the definition of family, but no to the care amendment because “I don’t think it was explained very well.”

“There’s a worry there that they’re removing the burden on the state to take care of families,” she said.

___​

Brian Melley reported from London.

 

[Plain Jane]

'Madness!': West Is Conducting 'All-Out Militarization' To Defeat Russia, Serbian President Warns | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

'Madness!': West Is Conducting 'All-Out Militarization' To Defeat Russia, Serbian President Warns​

BY TYLER DURDEN
SUNDAY, MAR 10, 2024 - 07:35 AM
Last week we detailed that during Ukrainian President Zelensky's visit to Albania where he appealed for more weapons from Balkan countries, he pushed the idea that all Western-friendly Balkan states should have a pathway to the EU and NATO. And at the same time French President Emmanuel Macron has been busy floating the possibility of Western troops deploying to Ukraine.

Albania is of course a chief regional rival to Moscow's close ally and friend Serbia. Jahja Muhasilovic, a political analyst on the Balkans, had commented of Zelensky's rare Balkan trip that "Albania is known to be one of the staunchest supporters of limiting Russia’s influence here in the region."

"In a way, Zelensky’s visit in Albania is having that geopolitical connotation. He is probably counting on the Western Balkan countries not to help them militarily because they are limited, but through their lobbying part that they can play in continuing the armament of the Ukrainian troops," he explained.

In fresh comments this weekend, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has weighed in and responded to ongoing calls from Western officials to urgently send more weapons to Kiev. Vucic has accused the West of pursuing a policy of "total militarization" toward defeating Russian, which puts the region and the world on the brink of disaster and stumbling to WW3.

Russian & Serbian Presidents at a meeting in 2019, via AP.
"What is happening now is madness," he was cited in regional media as saying. "They all thought that Putin would be easily defeated. Now they see that this is not so."

"The current trend is toward total militarization and a five-fold build-up in all respects," the Serbian president said further during a visit to the Belgrade Military Technical Institute.

Vucic has also warned against European countries sending their troops to Ukraine to confront Russian forces, saying this would immediately and unpredictably escalate the war.

According to Politico on Friday, France is behind a new push for a serious 'option' of Western boots on the ground in Ukraine:

France is building an alliance of countries open to potentially sending Western troops to Ukraine — and in the process deepening its clash with a more cautious Berlin.
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné was in Lithuania on Friday, where he met his Baltic and Ukrainian counterparts to buttress the idea that foreign troops could end up helping Ukraine in areas like demining.
"It is not for Russia to tell us how we should help Ukraine in the coming months or years," Séjourné said at a meeting chaired by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis and attended by his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba. "It is not for Russia to organize how we deploy our actions, or to set red lines. So we decide it among us."

Coming off Macron first raising the issue at an international security conference last month in Paris, French FM Séjourné said further, "Ukraine did not ask us to send troops. Ukraine is asking us to send ammunition at the moment." But then he emphasized, "We do not exclude anything for the coming months."

It is these kinds of ultra-provocative statements which Serbia's Vucic is precisely calling "madness" which sets the stage for nuclear-armed confrontation between Russia and NATO. The trend also seems to be that the more clearly Ukraine forces are losing, the more unhinged and bellicose some Western officials become.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1763466670155116841

View: https://twitter.com/Glenn_Diesen/status/1763466670155116841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1763466670155116841%7Ctwgr%5Eea78ae39988487da28dc0d41e4f3185074b80056%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fmadness-west-conducting-all-out-militarization-defeat-russia-serbian-president-warns


All of this comes as Ukraine is in retreat, following Russia's capture of the eastern city of Avdiivka last month. Several other smaller towns and cities have also fallen, with Ukraine's front lines in disarray. This has resulted in what might be called empty threats being issued from the West, as it sits helplessly while watching Russian forces advance.

 

[Plain Jane]

Another strike by German train drivers coincides with a walkout by Lufthansa cabin crew

Many of Germany’s train drivers are staging a 24-hour strike in the latest installment of a long-running and bitter dispute over working hours with the country’s main railway operator, while a walkout by cabin crew at Lufthansa is adding to disruptions for travelers.

apnews.com

Another strike by German train drivers coincides with a walkout by Lufthansa cabin crew​

Updated 5:44 AM EDT, March 12, 2024
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BERLIN (AP) — Many of Germany’s train drivers staged a 24-hour strike on Tuesday in the latest installment of a long-running and bitter dispute over working hours with the country’s main railway operator, while a walkout by cabin crew at Lufthansa added to disruptions for travelers.

The GDL union called on drivers of state-owned Deutsche Bahn’s passenger trains to walk out starting at 2 a.m. It called the strike only on Sunday evening, making good on an announcement last week that it would no longer give 48 hours’ notice.

The main sticking point in the dispute is GDL’s demand for working hours to be reduced from 38 to 35 hours per week without a pay cut. Some smaller private operators that operate regional services have agreed to the demand.

In several weeks of talks between the union and Deutsche Bahn, moderators suggested a reduction from 38 to 36 hours by 2028, but details of their proposal didn’t satisfy GDL. The union demanded a new offer by Sunday evening, which wasn’t forthcoming.

The latest GDL walkout — the sixth in a dispute that started last year — coincided with a separate 19-hour strike by Lufthansa cabin crew on flights departing from Frankfurt, the German airline’s main hub.

The UFO union called on cabin crew to strike from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday as it seeks a 15% pay increase and one-time payments of 3,000 euros per employee to offset inflation.



A similar walkout by cabin crew on flights departing from Munich is to follow on Wednesday. Lufthansa estimated ahead of the walkouts that a total of 1,000 flights would be canceled over the two days.

Those strikes follow a walkout last week by ground staff for Lufthansa in a dispute involving a different union.

 

[Marthanoir]

While voters support removing the outdated notion of a woman’s place in the home,

Still wearing the blinkers, the section of the Constitution in question reads.

THE FAMILY​

ARTICLE 41​

1​

1. The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law.
2. The State, therefore, guarantees to protect the Family in its constitution and authority, as the necessary basis of social order and as indispensable to the welfare of the Nation and the State.

2​

1. In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.
2. The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.

3​

1. The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded, and to protect it against attack.

It's states in plain English ( or Irish if your reading the Irish version)
That mothers will not be forced out to work because of economic necessity.

FFS can none of these Leftists read.

 

[Marthanoir]

People’s push for change to Constitution may have been overestimated – Tánaiste​

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has defended the resounding No votes in two referendums on the Constitution as a democratic choice.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs also admitted that it was possible the degree to which people were pushing for the articles to be changed was overestimated.

The Government’s proposals on family and care votes were overwhelmingly rejected in a vote on Friday that saw a 44 per cent turnout.

The family amendment, which proposed extending the meaning of family beyond one defined by marriage and to include those based on “durable” relationships, lost 67.7 per cent to 32.3 per cent.

The care amendment, which proposed deleting references to a woman’s roles and duties in the home and replacing it with a new article acknowledging family care, lost 73.9 per cent to 26.1 per cent.

The care vote is the highest no vote in any referendum.

Speaking to reporters in Limerick, Mr Martin said he did not accept the resounding no votes were a message to the Government, adding that he believed people voted on the proposal put to them.

He said the change to the constitutional article that refers to a mother’s duties in the home was recommended in a constitutional convention in 1996.

He added: “Suffice to say, this issue has been on the agenda a long, long time and what this Government did was put it to the people.

“The people said we’re happy with the existing provisions in the Constitution – or certainly didn’t accept the propositions or weren’t persuaded to accept the propositions that were put before them.”

He said that although it was worth reflecting on what happened, there “may be” some overreacting over interpreting the defeat of the Government’s proposals.

He added: “I’m comfortable with the people making a decision on something that’s been around for 30 years.

“Successive governments, successive Oireachtas members of all parties, have always advocated for changing these, and maybe it was overestimated the degree to which the people actually were pushing for change to these articles and I think the people gave an answer on Friday which I fully accept.”

Polling information and interviews suggest that among the reasons for the rejection were the lack of clarity around the terms “durable relationships” and “strive” to support family care, as well as the consequences of inserting those words into the Constitution.

Discussions have been taking place on how the referendums were lost, with Fianna Fáil junior minister Mary Butler admitting that not everyone in the Government got behind the campaign.

Asked if the scale of the losses posed issues for the coalition, Mr Martin said: “I’m certainly not approaching it that way.”

He said that in countries where parliaments amend the constitution, it has led to the powers of governments growing.

He added: “We’ve put a proposition before the people, the people have said no, we don’t like what you put forward. I’m comfortable with that.

“If you engage in sort of blame games or whatever, what you’re actually saying is the people got it wrong. As far as I’m concerned, the people made their decision and the people’s will is paramount in a democracy. That’s it. One accepts it and moves on.”

Mr Martin was in Limerick to announce Dee Ryan as Fianna Fáil’s candidate for Limerick’s first directly elected mayor, the vote for which will take place alongside the local elections in June.

People’s push for change to Constitution may have been overestimated – Tánaiste | BreakingNews.ie

Micheál Martin said he does not accept that the referendums' rejections were a symbol of dissatisfaction with the Government

www.breakingnews.ie

 

[Marthanoir]

5 REASONS FOR THE LANDSLIDE NO TO CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES TO FAMILY AND WOMEN​

It was a resounding, emphatic, landslide: a double NO. The people couldn’t have spoken more clearly in opposing the deletion or amendment of the provisions in the Constitution which recognise the value of the work done by mothers at home, and the importance of the family.
The final results are quite astonishing: A 67% NO to changing the constitutional recognition of the family based on marriage, with every single constituency opposing except for the old remnant of the Pale, Dún Laoghaire, which managed a squeaky yes of 50.7%. It was, for a couple of hours, the largest NO vote in the history of the state.

But then the final vote from the referendum on care in the home were announced – and blew even that historical result out of the water, to set a new record. A massive 74% NO – reaching the dizzying heights of almost 84% in Donegal.
This was not the predicted outcome. All the major political parties and a host of establishment NGOs supported a Yes-Yes vote, and until recently polls suggested both referenda would pass easily. However, at least one of those earlier polls showed that voters felt they knew very little about the proposals. It seems that when the debates opened up, and people became more informed, they didn’t like what they heard. In fact, an Irish Times poll did indicate a month before the vote that “voters may be potentially up to twice or three times more likely to vote No in the referendums if they know a lot about them”.

Reams of ink have been spilt, or at least acres of online frontage filled, in analyses seeking to explain why the proposals got such a drubbing – much of it continuing to display that extraordinary arrogant attitude towards voters that landed the government in such hot water in the first place. The response that the electorate were too confused, or too disinterested, or just too ill-informed to realise that a YesYes should have been the answer, is not likely to win back voters.
In fact, Minister Mary Butler, far from being humbled by the 73% No on the care amendment in her constituency of Waterford, seemed outraged that the NoNo message wasn’t subject to a moratorium on social media. While recognising that the people had spoken, she said: “There’s no moratorium across social media and that’s something that we’re certainly going to have to look at going forward”. Seeking to restrict the message of your opponents isn’t a good look the day after losing a referendum by a walloping majority.

However, restricting the reach of campaign groups, isn’t likely to be the focus of Fianna Fáil or the other major parties – including Sinn Féin whose strange lapse into silence as the public mood swung towards a No all last week hasn’t gone unnoticed – who have been left licking their wounds.
The establishment would have you believe the huge No votes were a result of ‘lacklustre’ campaigns, or a failure to engage voters as to just how even more marvellous and progressive the changes would make Ireland, but that’s not the real story of how the amendments were lost.

1. Both amendments were bad proposals, and there was no significant public demand for change

This wasn’t just about “sloppy wording”, as Senator Michael McDowell pointed out, describing the referenda as being “all wokeism” and “demeaning window-dressing”. These were simply bad proposals: which were not brought forward because of any public clamour for changing the Constitution.

This is what happens when political parties and NGOs live in a bubble to the extent where they lose sight of what actually matters to the electorate, and feel that their well-heeled concerns are shared by people who are actually worried half to death about the startling rise in the cost of living, or the crisis in healthcare, or that their kids are emigrating because they can’t find housing or afford a family here.

But the amendments weren’t only largely irrelevant, it was argued by No campaigners that they were potentially harmful in a whole myriad of ways – and the Yes absolutely failed to reassure voters that wasn’t the case. Maybe because they couldn’t.
2. There was a strong resistance to “erasing” women, and to the contempt shown for mothers,
The recent madness from the establishment seeking to redefine what a women is has fueled strong resistance from women from right across the political spectrum – and from those who have never been politically engaged at all.
JK Rowling is the most famous example, but in this country a growing number of women have been speaking up against demeaning descriptions like “anyone with a cervix” (used to promote cervical cancer screenings!); against placing dangerous homicidal males in women’s prisons; against the push for gender neutral toilets in schools – despite evidence from other jurisdictions that could have horrific outcomes for girls; and against allowing biological males into girls’ sports and their dressing rooms.

Women are sick and tired of what they see as efforts to erase them, and to have them diminished in public spaces and public life. They pulled their boots on and hit the campaign trail for the NO, with the kind of genuine grassroots endeavours entirely missing from the NGO-led YES campaign.
In addition, as I wrote last week in the run-up to the referendums, one was a vote on removing mothers from the constitution. It was rightly seen by mothers as a move urged on by the state’s embrace of nebulous but pernicious gender identity ideology, where women are “chest-feeders” and mothering is belittled and demeaned. The current government and most in Oppositon seem wholly captured by this nonsensical ideology.

Women were told that references to the importance of mothers were “sexist” and “outdated”, often by men who showed no apparent understanding of the power of a fundamental human connection as old as time – a force running deep in blood and bone, love and sacrifice.

As one mother told Red FM – in a phone show dominated by women callers opposing the referendums – the constitution gives mothers acknowledgment, adding she felt the government’s proposal was an “attack on motherhood”, and that families were already unsupported by the state in having and raising children.

So much of this woke nonsense has real-world, harmful impacts on women, and the palpable anger and resistance from mná na hÉíreann was felt in the 3 to 1 rejection of removing the only reference to mothers and woman in the Constitution.



3.The government was caught out being untruthful – and clueless

It’s fair to say that before any referendum on social issues takes place in Ireland, most media platforms seem to line up the arguments in favour of what they’ve decided is the progressive view.

Thus, for years before the referendum, national media platforms, including RTÉ misled voters by saying that the Constitution told Irish women that their place was in the home, thus laying the basis for the proposed removal of the offending article.

But the claim was untrue – and various government ministers and NGOs were caught out and challenged in propagating a claim they should have known was untrue.

Responding to Ben Scallan of this platform, Supreme Court Judge and Chair of the Electoral Commission, Marie Baker, clarified the Constitution does not say “a woman’s place is in the home,” but merely that mothers provide an “important support” to society and shouldn’t “have to go out to work” due to “economic necessity.”

The incorrect claim had been made by Yes campaigners such as the National Women’s Council of Ireland and by Ministers Roderic O’Gorman and Catherine Martin – with Martin being embarrassingly corrected in Community Notes on X in relation to her dogged persistence with a false assertion.

In addition, the government, in what many saw as a lazy and arrogant campaign, failed to provide voters with a definition of ‘durable relationships’ – and were perceived as being secretive about advice from the Attorney General on the referendums.

At a time when trust in government is low – with one study finding that 48% of Irish people surveyed saying they don’t trust the Government to be honest and truthful, and 58% thinking it communicates inaccurate and biased information – being caught out spreading misinformation does not inspire voter confidence.

Voters I spoke to in the last days in the run up to the vote also took issue with what they saw as a false claim being made about the Constitutional support for marriage. One young woman told me that while everyone wanted to see single parent families supported, that didn’t mean marriage wasn’t the gold standard. “If you make marriage unimportant, no-one will get married,” she said, adding that the most of those arguing for a Yes on this provision seemed to be enjoying the stability and benefits that marriage bring to individuals and to families.

It’s astonishing really that in the NGO bubble in which Ministers now exist, they had never stopped to consider things that clearly.



4. A backlash on issues such as immigration and woke politics

The effect of the discontent and anger felt by voters on other issues is hard to measure, but its undeniable that people are upset and angry at the government’s chronic mishandling of immigration, with polls showing huge majorities believing that Ireland has taken in too many refugees.

Curiously enough, it was a government Minister who first brought immigration into the debate. Neale Richmond confidently asserted on Virgin Media’s The Tonight Show that the proposed constitutional change, if passed, would not only provide the constitution with “modern time vernacular,” but would have “serious consequences” regarding immigration.

“It has serious consequences, particularly when we think of immigration law, and proving that someone is a family member, or family reunification,” he said.

“This would allow that to be accommodated as well.”

When asked by the host if this was because the new definition of family would be based merely on the loose description of “durable relationships,” the Minister replied: “Absolutely, yeah.”

Richmond probably made the fatal error of speaking honestly on the likely effects of the referendum. He was more or less flatly contradicted by his party leader who described warnings regarding the amendment leading to more immigration as “red herrings”:

But at that stage, the clip had gone viral. And Senator Michael McDowell assertion that he rejected completely the idea that the family referendum won’t impact immigration law – and that it would be “in the interest” of “economic migrants” to mount legal challenges regarding family re-unification was attracting huge attention.

An anti-government vote will also have sought to send a message on housing, cost of living, the crisis in healthcare, and anger at an out of touch and indifferent government. But TDs right across the country will likely look at some really astonishing results, such as a 95% NO in Cherry Orchard, and massive rejections in areas like Finglas andDonegal, and understand this at least part of the vote was anger at the government’s immigration policies.



5. The quiet heroism of disability campaigners

The referendum on care was being sold as an opportunity to support carers and people will disabilities, but that’s not how many people living with disabilities saw it. It is a disgrace that those most in need of support in this country have to fight tooth and nail for any assistance grudgingly given, while the same government is flinging money about like drunken sailors when it come to their pet projects.
The Equality Not Care campaign said that the amendment fell far short of ensuring the State had a duty to ensure people with disabilities had a right to lead a full, independent life.

A spokesperson for the group, Ann Marie Flanagan said the proposed amendment “seeks to deny our autonomy, dignity and equality. It also seeks to deny us the right to state support such as personal assistance services”.

“We have a Disability Act 2005 that is still not fully commenced, already forcing parents into court for a Needs Assessment for their children. What is required is constitutional obligations to provide support services to enable everyone to participate in economic, social and cultural life,” she said.

Their smiles at Dublin Castle when the NO was announced said it all: they had got the “vindication” they wanted.

More than anything else, the NONO vote is a warning to government of the danger of taking the electorate for granted: and a caution against the lazy presumption that the passage of previous referenda (often won by raising fears around hard cases) is a basis to assume that the voters are also behind the latest fad in ‘diversity and equality’ that seeks to upend fundamental cultural norms.

These were two bad ‘progressive’ proposals rejected by women, and by voters who have concerns around real-word issues like immigration and raising families, and by all who are fed up with the obsession with woke politics

Will the landslide rejection now give the government pause on issues such as the controversial hate speech bill, transgenderism in schools, further immigration surges, and euthanasia – supported by politicians and NGOs but largely adamantly opposed by doctors and disability activists? Time will tell, but the scale of this defeat may certainly give them pause.

Meanwhile, women are still celebrating.

5 reasons for the landslide NO to constitutional changes to family and women - Gript

Two bad 'progressive' proposals rejected by women and by voters who are fed up with the obsession with woke politics, and with immigration

gript.ie

 

[Plain Jane]

These were two bad ‘progressive’ proposals rejected by women, and by voters who have concerns around real-word issues like immigration and raising families, and by all who are fed up with the obsession with woke politics

Ireland fortunately has the desired protection of women and families written in their Constitution. But if the Second Amendment in the United States is any guide, these people will will work to get around the Constitution somehow.

 

[Plain Jane]

Young French Voters Are Flocking To The Right Ahead Of EU Elections | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Young French Voters Are Flocking To The Right Ahead Of EU Elections​

BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, MAR 14, 2024 - 03:30 AM
By Thomas Brooke of Remix News

An increasing number of young French voters are preparing to vote for right-wing parties in the upcoming European Parliament elections in June, the latest polling has revealed.

According to an Ipsos survey published on Tuesday, 31 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds in France are lending their vote to Jordan Bardella’s National Rally (RN) — the anti-immigration party still heavily influenced by nationalist firebrand and former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.

A further 3 percent of young people in France are backing Éric Zemmour’s hard-right Reconquête, for whom Marion Maréchal, the niece of Le Pen, is the party’s lead candidate.

National Rally’s popularity among young voters has risen considerably since the previous polling from December, with the party up 9 percentage points, while Reconquête has fallen from 8 percent to 3 percent.
https://twitter.com/EuropeElects
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France, Ipsos poll: European Parliament election Among 18-24 year-old voters RN-ID: 31% (+9) EELV-G/EFA: 18% (+2) LFI-LEFT: 17% PS/PP-S&D: 9% LR-EPP: 6% (+2) PCF-LEFT: 6% (+1) Bd'E-RE: 4% (-6) REC-ECR: 3% (-5) PA-LEFT: 1% (n.a.) LO-*: 1% (-3) PRG~S&D: 1% AR-*: 1% (+1) DLF→ECR: 0% (-1) UPR-*: 0% (n.a.) LP~NI: 0% n.a.) +/- vs. 29 November-12 December 2023 Fieldwork: 1-6 March 2024 Sample size: among 5,169 ➤ https://europeelects.eu/france

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1767627558672007533

View: https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1767627558672007533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1767627558672007533%7Ctwgr%5E8856571f1e13a0e664494b59782a2ae1b0bb0643%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fmarkets%2Fyoung-french-voters-are-flocking-right-ahead-eu-elections

Bardella’s RN currently sits with the Identity & Democracy (ID) parliamentary grouping, which is made up of conservative parties across Europe including Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands, Matteo Salvini’s Lega party in Italy, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), and Herbert Kickl’s Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ).

The key takeaway from the current polling is the disillusionment with establishment parties felt among French youth as young voters drift towards both the left and right of the political spectrum.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party is expected to attain just 4 percent of the vote — a clear rejection of the governing centrists — while 41 percent continue to support the long-held tradition of young voters being left-wing by backing far-left parties such as the Greens, LFI, and the Communists.


Among the electorate as a whole, RN continues to enjoy mass support and remains the frontrunner as it successfully taps into wider concerns about mass immigration, economic woes, and the culture wars. At 31 percent among all French voters, Bardella’s party is 13 percentage points ahead of Macron’s coalition parties, which have fallen by 4 percentage points in the last three months.

 

[Plain Jane]

Catalonia calls an early regional election that could add to Spain’s political uncertainty

The regional president of Catalonia has called an early election for May 12 after his minority government failed to pass a budget for Spain’s wealthy northeast region that includes Barcelona.

apnews.com

Catalonia calls an early regional election that could add to Spain’s political uncertainty​

FILE - Catalan President Pere Aragones addresses the media in front of the Spanish Parliament in Madrid, Spain, Thursday, April 21, 2022. The leader of Spain’s Catalonia called a snap election for May on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 after his minority government failed to pass a budget for the wealthy northeast region surrounding Barcelona. The election will be held on May 12. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
Read More
BY JOSEPH WILSON
Updated 5:35 PM EDT, March 13, 2024

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The regional president of Catalonia has called an early election for May 12 after his minority government failed to pass a budget for Spain’s wealthy northeast region that includes Barcelona.

The move by Pere Aragonès on Wednesday came on the eve of a vote in Spain’s national parliament on a contentious amnesty law that could pardon hundreds of leaders and supporters of the separatist movement, including those involved in Catalonia’s unsuccessful bid to declare independence from Spain in 2017.

Some separatists leaders were jailed at the time, and others like ex-regional President Carles Puigdemont fled the country.

The amnesty proposal has aroused the ire of millions of Spaniards. Those who oppose the bill believe that the people involved in provoking one of the country’s biggest crises since the transition to democracy after the death of Gen. Francisco Franco in 1975 shouldn’t get away with charges including sedition and rebellion.

But Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government in Madrid relies on Catalan separatist parties to approve laws in Spain’s parliament. The central government is also trying to win the backing of those parties to pass a national budget.

Sánchez’s Socialist party and his allies are expected to give their initial backing to the amnesty law in a parliamentary vote on Thursday, while the conservative Popular Party and hard-right politicians will oppose it.

The Catalan regional election had to be held before the end of the year. Catalonia has been governed by separatist parties for more than a decade, but Sánchez’s Socialists have polled strongly in the region recently.

 

[Plain Jane]

Denmark plans to expand military draft to women for the first time and extend service terms

Denmark's government wants to increase the number of Danes doing military service by making conscription mandatory for women and by increasing the time of service to 11 months for both genders.

apnews.com

WORLD NEWS

Denmark plans to expand military draft to women for the first time and extend service terms​

BY JAN M. OLSEN
Updated 8:59 PM EDT, March 13, 2024
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark wants to increase the number of young people doing military service by extending conscription to women and increasing the time of service from 4 months to 11 months for both genders, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday.

“We do not rearm because we want war. We are rearming because we want to avoid it,” Frederiksen told a press conference. She said the government wants ”full equality between the sexes.”

Denmark currently has up to 9,000 professional troops on top of the 4,700 conscripts undergoing basic training, according to official figures. The government wants to increase the number of conscripts by 300 to reach a total of 5,000.

The country is a member of the NATO alliance and a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion.

Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen stressed that “Russia does not pose a threat to Denmark.”


“But we will not bring ourselves to a place where they could come to do that,” Løkke Rasmussen said.

All physically fit men over the age of 18 are called up for military service, which lasts roughly four months. However, because there are enough volunteers, there is a lottery system, meaning not all young men serve.

 

[Plain Jane]

Muslims Will Become Majority In Swedish Cities In Just 1 Generation, Boasts Pakistani-Born Theologian | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Muslims Will Become Majority In Swedish Cities In Just 1 Generation, Boasts Pakistani-Born Theologian​

BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, MAR 15, 2024 - 03:30 AM
By John Cody of Remix News
Swedish women have never had so few children as in 2023, new data shows. Based on the childbearing gap, Yasir Qadhi, a Pakistani-born American theologian, predicts that in just one generation, half of Malmö’s population will be Muslim.

“Walking through the streets of Malmö is like walking through Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, or Damascus, the capital of Syria,” said Yasir Qadhi, a Pakistani-born American theologian, as reported in the Swedish newspaper Samnytt.

Qadhi, who has a doctorate in theology from Yale University, gave lectures on Islam to young Muslims in Stockholm and Malmö. He says he asked himself during his visit to Malmö whether he was in Sweden, according to a video he posted on YouTube.



He also shared his theory with the world that the towns he mentioned would become Muslim towns because while Swedes have few children, it is not uncommon for a Muslim family to have five or six. In a generation’s time, Malmö will not be dominated by Swedes, according to the theologian.

As Remix News previously reported, ethnic Swedish children are already a minority in the school system of Malmö, with one Swedish academic reacting to the massive demographic transformation known as the Great Replacement by claiming that schools should be taught in Arabic, as Swedish is now a minority language.

Associate professor of social work, Erica Righard, who works at Malmö University, wrote in her report for the Growth Commission, that the demographic changes present “new challenges for integration.”

Conservatives in Sweden have long pointed to Malmö as a harbinger of a future that the majority of Swedes remain opposed to, as the city has completely transformed from nearly all ethnic Swedes into a multicultural area marked by urban decay, no-go zones controlled by migrant clans, and a city unsafe for women in many areas.

Data also shows that migrants and those of a migrant background are responsible for the vast majority of murders, shootings, gang rapes, and robberies in Sweden.

 

[Plain Jane]

404 | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

The Portuguese Continue European Trend Of Veering Right Ahead Of EU Elections​

BY TYLER DURDEN
MONDAY, MAR 18, 2024 - 03:30 AM
By Gregorz Adamczyk of Remix news
In Portugal, the election results led to several conclusions.


First, they demonstrated how Europeans are reacting to the EU-enforced Green Deal: Two environmental parties did not even make it into the parliament, which aligns with disastrous polls for the Greens across Europe.

One of these Portuguese eco-parties, in a bid for survival at all costs, formed an alliance with the Communists, who had been strong in the country for many years after the Salazar era. It turns out that the Portuguese do not want the left in government, nor the radical left in parliament.

Additionally, it is evident that the socialists are in retreat, as is also the case in many countries across Europe.

For the center-right to govern, it must have the support of the right-wing Chega party, which quadrupled its number of parliamentary seats.

We’ve seen this previously in Scandinavia (Sweden and Finland) and to some extent in Italy, although there the right (Brothers of Italy) is a stronger coalition partner than the center-right (Forza Italia).

With few exceptions, Europe is turning to the right, even if – as is the case in Poland and Spain – despite an electoral victory, it is not in a position to govern.

This is an excellent prognostic before the European Parliament elections, which will take place between June 6 and 9.

 

[Seeker22]

Iraq, Turkiye seal landmark security deal to uproot Kurdish militia​

The neighboring nations are preparing to take joint action against the PKK as they make progress in building a major economic corridor that could connect Asia to Europe
News Desk
MAR 15, 2024

Iraq, Turkiye seal landmark security deal to uproot Kurdish militia​

The neighboring nations are preparing to take joint action against the PKK as they make progress in building a major economic corridor that could connect Asia to Europe
News Desk MAR 15, 2024

The governments of Iraq and Turkiye on 14 March agreed on a landmark security deal that will see the neighboring nations take joint action against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group Ankara and its NATO allies have labeled a “terrorist” organization.

As part of the new deal, Baghdad officially labeled the PKK a “banned organization," with reports on Arabic media saying that high-ranking officials from the two countries are planning a “major military operation” to uproot the group from northern Iraq.

According to sources in Ankara who spoke with Asharq al-Awsat, this operation would reportedly include creating a “buffer zone” within Iraq’s borders and could involve the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

Iraqi sources who spoke with the Saudi-owned daily revealed that the operation could receive political support in exchange for deals on water and energy resources.

A high-level Turkish delegation, which included Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defense Minister Yasar Guler, and Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Turkiye's intelligence agency (MIT), visited Baghdad on Thursday for the second round of a top security meeting with their Iraqi counterparts. The first round was held in Ankara in December.

“Both sides stressed that the PKK organization represents a security threat to both Turkiye and Iraq, and it is certain that the presence of the organization on Iraqi territory represents a violation of the Iraqi constitution,” reads a joint statement issued by the foreign ministries of the two nations.

“Turkiye welcomed the decision taken by the Iraqi National Security Council to list the PKK as a banned organization in Iraq. The two sides consulted on the measures that must be taken against the organization and its banned extensions [PKK’s alleged offshoots] that target Turkiye from within Iraq’s territory,” it added.

Both sides also discussed preparations for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Baghdad, which is expected to take place "after the holy month of Ramadan."
The agreement comes as the two nations progress toward developing a major trade route connecting Iraq to Europe and restarting a critical oil pipeline from northern Iraq to Turkiye's coast.

As part of this strategy, Baghdad and Ankara hope to convince Gulf states to help finance the $17 billion project, arguing that this corridor—stretching from Iraq's southern Basra province to Turkiye and then Europe—could provide an alternative for sending goods from Asia to Europe at a time when the US support for Israel's genocide in Gaza has significantly disrupted trade in the Red Sea.[ICODE][/ICODE]

 

[Plain Jane]

Interesting commentary from the UK and freedom of the press.

Curiouser and Curiouser - You Decide - The Last Refuge

Within the U.K the timing of the 2024 election is decided by the Prime Minister [LINK]. “Prime Minister Rishi Sunak can call an election at any time up to Dec. 17, with the election taking place 25 working days later.” Most political followers expect PM Sunak to hold the election in the Autum...

theconservativetreehouse.com

Curiouser and Curiouser – You Decide​

March 18, 2024 | Sundance | 144 Comments
Within the U.K the timing of the 2024 election is decided by the Prime Minister [LINK]. “Prime Minister Rishi Sunak can call an election at any time up to Dec. 17, with the election taking place 25 working days later.” Most political followers expect PM Sunak to hold the election in the Autum of this year.
R/T 4:41


Now watch:

View: https://youtu.be/dT5qeH161Rc


Transcript] – “GB News is under threat. The other broadcasters don’t like it. Adam Boulton, long-time veteran of Sky News, said that GB News was damaging the ecosystem of broadcasting, by which he means it’s our little club and we don’t question climate change or mass immigration. We thought EU membership was wonderful, how dare you come along and give us a hard time.

Now the problems are getting very, very real. The industry is regulated by Ofcom. They have decided to put my programme under investigation on the basis they say that I’m a politician. Well, you know what? Even I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here had me as an ex-politician. I am not actively involved in politics at all, but they don’t like it. And some more of the great and the good are hosting a conference in Sheffield. Have a look at this. It’s absolutely bizarre.





They’re saying that GB News is a threat to democracy, so it must be closed down. No sense of irony from these people whatsoever. They don’t agree with much of what is said. Therefore, they simply want the channel closed down. And I also think that the big political parties perhaps don’t like GB News too much, because it does genuinely question many of the things that are going wrong in this country and around which there is a huge consensus in Western.

Worse than that, we have a situation where commercial television and radio survives through advertisements. That model has been there for a very, very long time. But there’s an organisation called Stop Funding Hate who seem themselves to have quite a lot of money. And if anybody advertises on GB News, they will get dozens of emails every day from Stop Funding Hate saying you’re funding a channel that is damaging democracy, you are funding a channel that is causing division. And frankly, you know, if you’re a marketing officer for a holiday company and you’re bombarded by nasty, aggressive emails, you probably think, you know what, we can’t be bothered with this. So we are under assault from the regulator.

We’re under assault from the rest of the industry. We’re under assault in terms of our advertising, without which keeping the channel going long term is not easy. But there’s a reason, folks, why all this is happening. You won’t really hear much about this, but here goes. You might have noticed that GB News.com is growing rapidly.

In fact, it is the fastest-growing news website in the country and has been for the last ten consecutive months. We are now the 12th most-read news website in this country, and within a couple of weeks, I think we’re going to be in the top ten. So they don’t like the fact we’re doing so well online. But what really depresses them is what’s happening with live viewing.

Look, I get it. Lots of you now watch things on, catch up. Lots of you watch things on clips. But there are still people that still tune in. So my show goes out on GB News, 7 to 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday. If you look at these figures, these are the figures for the last week or so and they will show you that my show every single night beats the BBC News channel. It beats Sky News. It beats what’s left of Talk TV. In fact, on several of those evenings, if you add up all the other news channels, even together, their number is not as high as my show and across the whole day, we had a period just gone where for six out of eight days the channel beat Sky News across the whole day.

Our numbers are going up both live, on catch-up, on YouTube, on all forms of social media. The industry now sees us as a threat. The political establishment see us as a challenge. I sense there is an epic battle coming between now and the general election. There will be every attempt made to get me off air and every attempt made, frankly, to even get GB News off air.

You know, all these people in Westminster, the political class, the media class, they don’t believe in choice. They don’t believe in real debate. They basically think that anybody with a different point of view should be cancelled and shut down. Well, let me assure you, we are going to fight like hell and we’re not going to let them win. And if you believe in free speech, open debate, where you hear both sides of an argument. Please, please support us in whatever way you can at GB News because we are under serious attack.”

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/suspicious-cat-russian-blue.jpg

 

[Plain Jane]

Wow! Free speech is really under attack in UK.

Scottish Police Trained To Target Actors And Comedians Under Hate Crime Laws; Report | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Scottish Police Trained To Target Actors And Comedians Under Hate Crime Laws; Report​

BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, MAR 20, 2024 - 05:00 AM
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,
Police in Scotland are being trained to target actors and comedians under new hate crime laws set to be activated next month, reports The Herald, citing leaked police documents.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1770081873013637626

View: https://twitter.com/ModernityNews/status/1770081873013637626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1770081873013637626%7Ctwgr%5E0a9dfcd083aee797a66a04e7d00761ebb074598c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fscottish-police-trained-target-actors-and-comedians-under-hate-crime-laws-report



Training materials obtained by the outlet state that content deemed to be “threatening and abusive” under the Hate Crime and Public Order can be communicated “through public performance of a play.”

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1770081960439795759

View: https://twitter.com/ModernityNews/status/1770081960439795759?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1770081960439795759%7Ctwgr%5E0a9dfcd083aee797a66a04e7d00761ebb074598c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fscottish-police-trained-target-actors-and-comedians-under-hate-crime-laws-report


A slide from the leaked training material titled “stirring up hatred” also lists ‘protected’ characteristics including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity.

In other words, under First Minister Humza Yousaf’s new law, any performer who for example ‘misgenders’ trans people, jokes about race or religion, or even criticises migrants can potentially be prosecuted.

The training material further states that even those forwarding or sharing material deemed to be ‘hateful’ can also be targeted under the law.

It states “The different ways in which a person may communicate material to another person are by: displaying, publishing or distributing the material, for example on a sign, on the internet through websites, blogs, podcasts, social media etc., either directly, or by forwarding or repeating material that originates from a third party, through printed media such as magazine publications or leaflets.”

So, essentially retweeting a Dave Chappelle or Ricky Gervais skit, like the one below, could land you with a hate criminal charge in Scotland.

Commenting on the training material, Shadow justice secretary Russell Findlay said “If this is genuine Police Scotland training material, it appears to be at odds with the legislation which excludes plays from its scope. This revelation adds to widespread concerns about Humza Yousaf’s hate crime law and needs to be explained.”

Findlay added that “The Scottish Conservatives remain committed to binning this dangerous law which threatens free speech and risks causing chaos for hard-working police officers.”

The Scottish Daily Express previously reported that police had been given mandatory training in how to deal with alleged hate crimes, including a question asking “A high profile, male politician who is a strong supporter of the LGBT community is abused in the street during campaigning and called a ‘Deviant’. What aggravators would be recorded for this crime?”

The multiple choice answers provided were “Disability – physical impairment; Racial – white Scottish; Transgender Identity – female to male; or Sexual orientation – Gay man.”

The Scottish government, led by Yousaf, has also floated proposals to punish parents who refuse to accept their children identifying as transgender with up to seven years in jail under a separate new law.


Yousaf was previously labelled “a blatant racist” by X owner Elon Musk, who was commenting on a video posted to the platform of Yousaf, complaining that the “most senior positions in Scotland are filled almost exclusively by people who are white” and stating it is “not good enough,” and that that Scotland has a problem of structural racism,” despite being demographically 96% white.

Yousaf has been pushing this agenda for some time. In his previous position as Justice Secretary, he lobbied for a hate crime bill that would have seen even private conversations subject to prosecution should they be reported and deemed to be ‘offensive’.
(More tweets at the link)

 

[Plain Jane]

Illegal Immigration Soars 541% On West African Route Into EU | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Illegal Immigration Soars 541% On West African Route Into EU​

BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, MAR 22, 2024 - 03:30 AM
Authored by John Cody via ReMix News,
Europe’s illegal immigration crisis shows no signs of slowing, with the first two months of 2024 showing 31,200 irregular border crossings, which is the same level as last year’s near-record numbers, according to data from Frontex, the EU’s external border agency.


One of the standout data points was the explosive growth along the Western African route into Europe, which jumped 541 percent in the last two months.

“The Western African route remained the busiest migratory route in the EU, with arrivals in January and February reaching nearly 12,100. This was the highest total for these two months since Frontex began collecting data in 2011,” wrote the agency.

In recent months, criminal groups based in Mauritania that focus on human trafficking have been sending sub-Saharan migrants transiting through the country to the Canary Islands, which belong to Spain but lay off the coast of Africa. People smugglers cram these people in ever greater numbers into “cayuco” boats, representing a serious threat to their lives but higher profit margins for the gangs.

R/T 2:00

92% Of Illegal Migrants Are Men, According to EU’s Frontex

A whopping 92% of illegal migrants are men, according to new data from Europe’s border agency Frontex.

rumble.com

Other routes also saw big jumps, including the Eastern Mediterranean route, which saw a 117 percent increase. Meanwhile, the Central Mediterranean route, which saw the largest number of irregular crossings in 2023, “continued to show a downward trend from the recent months, with a year-on-year drop of 70 percent to slightly above 4,300. In January, there were around 2,000 detections on the route.”

Last year saw an immigration tsunami, with more illegal immigrants arriving in Europe than any year since the records set in 2016.

The new numbers are sure to sow worries that the EU will continue to refuse to enforce its borders, especially with the new Frontex chief, Hans Leutens, arguing that immigration is unstoppable. As Remix News reported in January of this year, he said: “Migration is a reality. Nothing can stop people from crossing a border. No wall, no fence, no sea, no river.”

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1749740039116816597

View: https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1749740039116816597?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1749740039116816597%7Ctwgr%5E03cbbbd37da95e44c8951509b40bade20bf97a82%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Fillegal-immigration-soars-541-west-african-route-eu

 

[Plain Jane]

Fugitive Catalan chief Puigdemont pledges he will return to Spain if he can be restored to power

Fugitive Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont says that he will return to Spain for the first time since leading a failed 2017 breakaway bid if he has a viable chance to be restored as regional president following upcoming elections.

apnews.com

Fugitive Catalan chief Puigdemont pledges he will return to Spain if he can be restored to power​

ADDS SECOND SENTENCE. FILE - Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont speaks at a press conference in Alghero, Sardinia, Italy, Oct. 4, 2021. Puigdemont says that he will return to Spain for the first time since leading a failed 2017 breakaway bid if he has a viable chance to be restored as regional president following upcoming elections. Puigdemont is still a wanted man in Spain and hoping that a contentious amnesty bill that was crafted by Spain’s left-wing government to clear him and hundreds of other supporters successfully makes it through the Madrid parliament in the coming months. (AP Photo/Gloria Calvi, File)
Read More
BY JOSEPH WILSON
Updated 4:50 PM EDT, March 21, 2024

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Carles Puigdemont, the former leader of the Spanish region of Catalonia who fled the country after a failed secession attempt six years ago, said Thursday that he will return to Spain if he has a viable chance to be restored as regional president following upcoming elections.

Puigdemont, 61, ran to Belgium after leading a 2017 breakaway bid that quickly collapsed and is still a wanted man in Spain. A contentious amnesty bill, crafted by Spain’s left-wing government to clear him and hundreds of other supporters of Catalan independence, is slowly making its way through the national Parliament.

“I will run in the next elections for the Catalan Parliament … now that I have the chance to restore my presidency,” Puigdemont said at a rally in Elna, France, near the Spanish border, when he announced his candidacy. “The countdown until my return begins today.”

It appears that Puigdemont will campaign from abroad for his party in the May 12 regional ballot, that was called by Catalan’s regional president Pere Aragonès, a political rival of Puigdemont inside the separatist camp, after he failed to pass a regional budget last week.

It is still unclear, however, if Puigdemont will be able to avoid legal trouble if he returns — and he would need to physically be present in Barcelona to be able to become the regional president. Puigdemont admitted that the risk would still exist that, in his words, a “judge could rebel” and try to bring him before a court even if the amnesty is in effect.



Puigdemont has continued his political career as a self-styled political exile from Waterloo. He won a European Parliament seat in 2019 and maintained the leadership of his Junts “Together” party while cultivating an almost cult-like status as the figurehead of the movement in exile.

He appeared to be fading in relevance until an inconclusive national election in Spain in July, which left his Junts and Aragonès’ party holding the keys to power. They were able to secure an amnesty for hundreds of Catalan separatists in legal trouble in exchange for allowing Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to form a new government.

The amnesty has received initial approval from the lower house of Spain’s Parliament, but it will likely be rejected by the Senate and not finally pushed into law by the lower house until mid- to late May. Spain’s conservatives oppose the amnesty and have organized several protests against it.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Puigdemont on charges of the misuse of public funds during the 2017 secession attempt. And in recent months another investigative judge has opened a probe examining the possibility that Puigdemont was the leader of a shadowy Internet-based group called Tsunami Democratic that organized protests in Barcelona and other parts of Catalonia that turned violent in 2019.

“I believe Mr. Puigdemont is in a very sticky situation,” Mario Pereira, professor of law at the University of Navarra, told The Associated Press.

“The checkmate against him is the case against the Tsunami Democratic,” he said. Because it is a terrorism probe and Puigdemont has a record as a flight risk, Pereira said the politician could be placed in pre-trial custody, perhaps for months, if he comes back to Spain.

Puigdemont also has his work cut out to secure the backing of a majority of lawmakers in forming a new regional government in Barcelona.

He successfully campaigned for Junts from Belgium in an election in 2017 weeks after fleeing, helping a member of his party then be named regional president. But after a 2021 ballot, Republic Left of Catalonia beat out Junts and took power, and Junts performed poorly in the July national elections.

Polls show Junts trailing both Sánchez’s Socialist Party and Aragonès’ Republic Left of Catalonia, but political watchers expect Puigdemont to draw some votes from Republic Left of Catalonia to Junts – and perhaps also boost the vote for the Socialists and conservatives among Catalans who fear his return to power. Puigdemont maintains his goal of carving out a new state in northeast Spain.

“Junts still appeals to its electorate thanks to his (Puigdemont’s) charismatic pull,” Lluís Orriols, a political science professor at Madrid’s Carlos III University, told the AP. “Carles Puigdemont can still cash in on his epic status as the leader who went in exile.”

The priorities of Catalans have also changed. A record drought is their number one concern, according to the most recent survey by Catalonia’s public opinion office. The survey also said 51% of Catalans are against independence while 42% are for it. When Puigdemont left in 2017, it was 49% in favor of independence and 43% against.

 

[Plain Jane]

Germany: 5 Pakistani Family Members Arrested After Setting Fire To Their Own Home And Then Blaming 'Nazis' | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Germany: 5 Pakistani Family Members Arrested After Setting Fire To Their Own Home And Then Blaming 'Nazis'​

BY TYLER DURDEN
MONDAY, MAR 25, 2024 - 04:15 AM
Authored by John Cody via ReMix News,
The Pakistani family was described as “well-integrated” by the town’s left-wing mayor. Now, they are accused of burning down their own house for insurance money...



In December of last year, the story broke in Germany of a Pakistani family targeted in an arson attack by right-wing extremists on Christmas Day.

It had the makings of a perfect story for use by the left, including “Nazis” targeting an innocent foreign family on Christmas day.



The Pakistani family actually wrote the slogan “Foreigners out” twice on the walls of the burned-out house, according to the public prosecutor’s office.

Police now say it was all a lie and that the arson attack was carried out by the foreign family against their own house for insurance money.

Five family members have now been arrested, including the house owner and his brother-in-law.

They are also accused of spraying racist graffiti in the house, including “foreigners out” twice.

After the house fire in Wächtersbach, which is located between the cities of Frankfurt and Fulda, politicians from the Greens and the left attended candlelight vigils denouncing racism, while outpourings “solidarity” against “Nazis” came in from all directions.

Police and fire department investigators initially suspected right-wing extremists were responsible for the arson attack.

The Pakistani family was not home during the incident and told police they were visiting a friend, which meant none of them were injured in the attack.

The fire, which investigators now say was set by the family, raged for eight hours on Christmas day in 2023, with damage estimated at €350,000.

Prosecutors say that the family used the right-wing slogans to lead investigators away from the Pakistani family, according to German newspaper Bild.

The investigators focused their efforts on the 47-year-old homeowner, who police noticed had fresh burns on his arm despite claiming he was not home during the fire. Prosecutors believe the family set the fire to claim insurance money.

AfD reacts to the arson arrests​

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Hesse, the German state where the arson attack took place, has since commented on the case in a statement:

“It was a slap in the face to many thousands of AfD voters. Just a few weeks ago, the citizens had placed their trust in us with a great election result (in Hesse). In some communities, we are even the strongest force, even ahead of the governing parties. For our political competitors, the house fire was obviously a welcome opportunity to inflict hatred and agitation on our party and our voters. Almost reflexively, the SPD, the Left and the Greens classified this crime as politically motivated.
“Waechtersbach’s mayor (a member of SPD), who is said to have known the affected Pakistani family to be well integrated, took the same line. At this point, we can also answer the question of what the AfD would do differently. In this case, we would raise the bar for successful integration a little higher. Anyone who attracts attention with criminal acts in their freely chosen host country at least raises doubts about successful integration. But we now trust that the German judiciary will make an appropriate assessment. And an apology from the protagonists of the vigil is now in order.”

Far worse arson attack last year​

It would not be the first time foreigners in Germany have put lives at risk with an arson attack to claim insurance money. Just a month before this attack, in November 2023, a father and son stood trial for injuring 17 people when they intentionally burned down their poorly performing fashion business to claim insurance money.

Both men were sentenced to life in prison for the heinous attack in December 2023.

The regional court in Aachen heard how the son, 22-year-old Karsan K., poured 13 liters of gasoline into the fashion store in Eschweiler back in March this year and set it on fire, causing a mass explosion that left dozens injured and resulted in millions of euros in damage.

The two men required an interpreter during their trial.

 

[Plain Jane]

They figured out how to keep Chega out of power. Something similar happened in Spain last year.

New Portuguese Parliament elects house speaker after deal between 2 main parties

Portugal’s newly-elected Parliament has elected a new house speaker, following a deal between the country’s two main centrist parties.

apnews.com

New Portuguese Parliament elects house speaker after deal between 2 main parties​

BY HELENA ALVES
Updated 1:37 PM EDT, March 27, 2024
Share
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s newly-elected Parliament on Wednesday voted in a new house speaker, following a potentially important deal between the country’s two main centrist parties.
The chamber elected José Aguiar Branco of the Social Democrats by 160 votes in favor, well above the 116 needed.

The vote came after the Social Democrats reached a deal whereby Aguiar Branco will hold the post for two years after which a Socialist Party candidate will take over.

The agreement indicates the Social Democrats and Socialists could work together to guarantee government without the far-right Chega (Enough) party intervening.

The center-right Social Democrats won the country’s Mar. 10 general election narrowly, taking 78 seats and two more from an allied party to make 80 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, as head of state, called on the leader of Social Democrats, Luis Montenegro, to form a government. It is to take office April 2 and then present policy proposals to Parliament. If other parties object and bring about a successful vote of no confidence, another party leader will be invited to try to form a government, or another election will be held.

The center-left Socialist Party placed second, also with 78 seats but has said it will not stand in the way of the Social Democrats forming a minority government.

The vote came a day after the Parliament voted three times for house speaker with no winner, raising the specter of fresh elections.

The house speaker oversees a presiding council that monitors Parliament sessions and sets the legislative calendar.

The radical-right populist party Chega came third in the election with 50 seats, an increase from 12 seats in a 2022 election. That surge upended a trend in Portugal where the Social Democrats and Socialists have alternated in power for decades.

Montenegro has so far ruled out any deal with the populists, many of whose policies are unpalatable for many Portuguese. But his hand could be forced by political circumstances because his minority government may not be able to push through legislation on its own.

André Ventura, Chega’s populist leader, has threatened to make life difficult for the new government in key votes, such as the state budget, unless Montenegro yields to his demands. He reacted to the deal between the two main parties Wednesday, saying Chega would now be the main opposition party.

Chega has made common cause with other radical-right parties across Europe. It ran under an anti-graft banner after a slew of recent corruption scandals tarnished the Socialists and Social Democrats.

The election was called after a Socialist government collapsed in November during a corruption investigation. The scandal included a police search of then Prime Minister António Costa’s official residence and the arrest of his chief of staff. Costa has not been accused of any crime.

INTL - Portugal Election - March 10, 2024

https://apnews.com/article/portugal-campaign-begins-early-election-march-10-781173c00fe310d9c6dc665f0be329c8 Corruption scandals cast a shadow over Portugal’s early general election and may favor populists BY BARRY HATTON Updated 12:09 AM EST, February 25, 2024 Share LISBON, Portugal (AP) —...

www.timebomb2000.com