Displaying items by tag: Europe

Clashes between anti-fascist and far-right activists have increased ahead of a general election on 4 March. Recently, police in Milan used batons as left-wing demonstrators tried to break through a police cordon. The Anti-immigration League party leader, Matteo Salvini, told supporters that defence of the country was a ‘sacred duty’. There have been protests in Milan, Rome and Palermo as campaigning enters its final week. The right-wing Forza Italia party, backed by 81-year-old Silvio Berlusconi, could be in the lead. The anti-establishment Five Star Movement opposes Berlusconi, as does the far-right League and the Brothers of Italy parties. Former prime minister Matteo Renzi joined a National Partisans organisation with the slogan ‘Fascism Never Again’.

The state has again blocked the long-delayed election of a new Armenian Apostolic patriarch, arguing that an election would be contrary to the community's traditions. Yet freedom of religion protects the right of religious communities to elect leaders in accordance with their traditions as they interpret them. The Istanbul governorship (a state institution under the Interior Ministry responsible for state administration in Istanbul province, where the patriarchate is based) argues that a new leader cannot be elected because the previous patriarch, unable to fulfil his functions since 2008 because of illness, is still living.

Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orbán has called Christianity the ‘last hope’ for Europe, as the continent struggles to integrate millions of Muslim migrants who have fled their countries of origin. Orbán also accuses some Western European governments of facilitating the ‘decline of Christian culture’, and paving the way for Islam's advance. In his annual state of the nation speech he warned these nations that they will be overwhelmed with Muslim migrants and their culture will drastically change for the worse. He said that if millions of young Muslims move north, large European cities will have a Muslim majority. The prime minister is expected to win a third term when Hungarians go to the polls in April. Pray for an end to the fear of declining Christian culture, and for Muslim refugees to have divine appointments with Christians in European cities and encounter Christ.

At midnight on 21 February Serbian Dalibor Jaukovic, formerly of the Yugoslav People's Army, threw a grenade into the US embassy compound and then blew himself up. According to Facebook publications he was against Montenegro's accession to NATO. Montenegro, the youngest member of NATO, has for a long time been politically torn between her historic friend Russia and the USA. Historically, on the eve of the 2016 election, long-serving prime minister Duško Marković stepped down after suggesting that Russia had a role in an election plot. He said that there was a ‘strong connection of a foreign factor’ in a conspiracy to take over the Montenegrin parliament on election day. Those arrested by the police for planning this coup included more Russians and Serbians than Montenegrins. See

Two American destroyers have sailed into the Black Sea, the first time since 2014 that more than one US warship has operated in this tense region other than in an exercise. ‘Our decision to have two ships operate simultaneously in the Black Sea is proactive, not reactive’, said vice admiral Christopher Grady. ‘We operate at the tempo and timing of our choosing in this strategically important region.’ Russia has viewed US ships transiting these international waters as provocative, ever since it annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014. ‘The US is sending a message that it will defend its allies, uphold maritime laws and protect its offshore interests in Europe and Asia’, said a Naval War College professor of strategy. ‘We're putting Russia on notice in the Black Sea and China on notice in the South China Sea that we will not be deterred from going into those waters, and doing so in force.’

Recently a bill was approved that makes it illegal to accuse Poland of complicity in crimes committed by Nazi Germany, including the Holocaust. The bill bans the use of terms like ‘Polish death camps’ in relation to Auschwitz and others located in Nazi-occupied Poland. To become law, the bill must be signed by President Duda, who has expressed his support. Historians agree that Polish individuals and groups collaborated with the Nazi occupiers, but recent Polish governments have sought to challenge that narrative. This legislation will outlaw any remark that attributes responsibility to Poland for the Nazi crimes. Benjamin Netanyahu called the bill ‘baseless’, saying, ‘One cannot change history, and the Holocaust cannot be denied.’ Death camp survivors fear Holocaust deniers are winning. The new legislation risks blurring the historical truths regarding the assistance the Germans received from the Polish population during the Holocaust. There is no doubt that the term ‘Polish death camps’ is a historical misrepresentation.

Viktor Orbán’s government has outlined plans for a new law giving it powers to ban any NGOs that ‘sponsor, organise or support a third-country national’s entry into or stay in Hungary via a safe third country in order to ensure international protection’. Mr Orban has campaigned heavily on the issue of immigration to Hungary. He says that the law will prevent the giving up of ‘national independence’ and hinder politicians who he claims want to ‘transform Hungary into an immigrant country’. His party is expected to win a huge victory in the 8 April election. NGOs would need a permit to operate, and even then could be prevented from working on ‘national security’ grounds. NGOs with approval would pay a special 25% tax on any international funding aimed at helping migrants and refugees. Some could be labelled activists and be issued with restraining orders to prevent them from going near Hungary’s borders.

The 2018 annual Munich Security Report cited growing pressure on nuclear disarmament treaties and ongoing security concerns in eastern and central Europe as a cause for concern, and most worryingly the erosion of arms control agreements. ‘Deployment of additional weapons and tensions over military exercises has increased the risk of an inadvertent armed clash’, the report warns. ‘In this dire state of affairs, miscalculations and misunderstandings could lead to unintended military clashes. The Ukraine conflict was a stumbling block to de-escalation of tensions between Russia and the West.’ America’s decision to provide lethal arms to Ukraine would cement the current stalemate as countries in eastern Europe struggle in an environment of contested security, with the EU and NATO on one side and Russia on the other, at a time when the EU's Eastern partnership policy has ‘lost its steam’.

Far-right Polish groups are using links to religion to gain mainstream influence. A terrified onlooker saw hooligans chanting overtly racist and fascist slogans, calling for ‘White Poland’, and shouting ‘Beat the red scum’. He saw priests simply moving to the rhythm of these chants, doing nothing about them. Approaching two of them, he asked, ‘Is this what your Catholicism looks like?’ They lowered their heads, but said nothing. The church’s hard-line nationalist wing is out of control, and nobody is able or willing to stop it. Observers point to the close connections between the Catholic Church and two high-profile nationalist movements. The messages that Catholicism is the only true religion and that Poles are superior to other nations are thinly veiled by shallow humanitarian slogans.

In 2017 anti-Putin rallies attracted thousands in remote regions where people opposed Kremlin-run politics and called for credible opposition to be allowed to stand in elections. Alexei Navalny planned to face President Putin in March’s Presidential election, but was banned after dubious fraud accusations. On 28 January he was freed from a twenty-day jail term for organising anti-Putin protests, but was re-arrested the same day. Thousands protested against government corruption outside the Kremlin and across Russia, calling the election a farce and urging people not to vote. Kremlin-controlled media are not covering the protests. Putin is expected to win, but his main concern is getting enough people voting to make the election appear credible. For INSIGHTS into unethical, corrupt elections due in 2018 click the ‘More’ button.