European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 1069

On March 11 2018 23:24 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote:
The pattern is already complete since they will remove the referendum law completely after this, and said that a final referendum about removing referendums would also be a no-go.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. These referendums get high-jacked by all sides to assign all sorts of meanings other than the actual referendum topic to the votes (nobody cared about Ukraine during the referendum about Ukraine treaty), and every side claims the results of non-voters for their own cause. (ie 'oh 60% didn't vote that means they were against the proposal', while that is totally not a clear cut conclusion). So it was a pretty shitty way to use referendums any way.

I hate the spying law that this referendum is about though so it would be nice if voting had the power to stop it, but it doesn't. There's absolutely not a big enough safety problem that we should all open our buttholes to the intelligence agencies but that's the plan now I guess.

On March 11 2018 18:36 a_flayer wrote:
So apparently there's municipal or some such (provincial? I can never tell) elections coming up in the Netherlands (I received another ballot in the mail, at least). Along with the regular elections the government has allowed a referendum to take place. One that will be ignored by our government, according to our government.

Here's a biased perspective in mediocre English because I can't be bothered to improve upon it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/83lnpn/a_comprehensive_guide_to_the_dutch_referendum_on/dvirlqm/


That's going to be the second referendum in a row that's ignored by our government. A pattern appears to be emerging.

Under the 2015 law, a Dutch referendum is triggered if 300,000 people sign a petition. The outcome is non-binding, but politicians treat the vote as valid provided that the turnout exceeds 30 per cent.

The law’s disruptive effects became clear in April 2016. In the first vote held under its provisions, Dutch voters paralysed EU foreign policy by rejecting an EU-Ukraine association accord.

Turnout was just above 30 per cent, making the vote an unsatisfactory democratic exercise. Still, the Dutch government felt compelled to slam the brakes on the EU-Ukraine deal. It then secured concessions, including a promise that the accord did not confer EU candidate membership status on Ukraine. Last year it finally ratified the deal.

Meanwhile, another Dutch referendum is looming — this time, on an intelligence and security services act. Activists, angered at surveillance powers granted to government agencies, collected almost 400,000 signatures, triggering a referendum to be held on March 21.

Pro-EU politicians and constitutional experts have had enough. Last year’s annual report of the Council of State, a Dutch state body which advises on legislation, criticised referendums as likely to undermine representative democracy and the rule of law.

Jean-Claude Juncker’s European commission has been thrown into crisis as the unorthodox appointment of his chief of staff, Martin Selmayr, to lead the EU’s civil service, was attacked during a fiery European parliament debate.

Günther Oettinger, the German commissioner for human resources who was the commission’s representative in the chamber, was accused of treating MEPs as fools when he insisted the commission had done “everything by the book”.

An investigation is to be launched by one of the parliament’s committees into the process that led to Selmayr’s elevation to secretary general. A vote will be held at a later date on whether the parliament will call for Juncker to reverse the appointment of the man he jokingly refers to Selmayr as the “monster” of the Berlaymont due to his tough work ethic and attention to detail.

The issue has been a source of consternation across the political spectrum since details started to leak last month. There have been claims, vehemently denied by the commission, that institutional norms were ignored and obstacles to the appointment removed through charm, menace and favour.

The German-born official had been appointed deputy secretary general at a meeting in February, just minutes before Juncker informed the 28 commissioners that the current secretary general, Alexander Italianer, from the Netherlands, was quitting. Juncker then told the commissioners that he would like Selmayr, a member of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union, to take Italianer’s place.

The college of commissioners, which had no previous discussion of the issue, was asked to make an immediate decision, and a press conference was organised shortly afterwards.

On March 18 2018 05:32 Sent. wrote:
Here's what I got by googling "social democratic parties in europe"

https://euobserver.com/political/140635

I think only France, Greece and Czech Republic qualify as sudokus. The rest looks like a slow (but not irreversible) decline.

Btw, shouldn't we start calling Czech Republic Czechia?

Security was stepped up outside Russian government installations in Ukraine after Kyiv announced that only diplomats would be allowed access to vote in Russia’s presidential election.

Ukrainian police guarded the Russian Embassy in Kyiv and consular offices in Odesa, Lviv, and Kharkiv on March 18.

Members of Ukrainian national groups gathered on a street near the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, having previously pledged to prevent Russians from casting their ballots in the election on Ukrainian territory.

Russia accused Ukraine of violating international norms.

"It is an open interference into the purely domestic affairs of the Russian Federation, which can entail escalation of tension in the already strained bilateral relations," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement quoted by TASS on March 18.

The Ukrainian government announced on March 16 that only Russian diplomats in Ukraine would be allowed to cast ballots in the election, which Vladimir Putin is set to win.

Ukraine's National Police said that there were no major disruptions of public order in the country on March 18.

Millions of ethnic Russians live in Ukraine, but it is unclear how many are registered to vote in Russia.

Russia's Central Election Commission says that 72,000 Russian citizens have registered with the Russian consulate in Ukraine, Gazeta.ru reported.

Ukraine is protesting voting in Crimea, the Ukrainian Peninsula seized by Russia exactly four years ago in a referendum largely rejected by the international community as illegitimate. That came just a month after Moscow sent in troops without insignia to secure military bases and other key sites on the peninsula.

Kyiv is also angry with Russia’s support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, where more than 10,300 people have been killed in fighting since April 2014.

France has voiced opposition to the Russian presidential voting in Crimea.

"Challenging borders by force is contrary to international law, including commitments made by the Russian Federation," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement on March 18.

"Four years after the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and [the city of] Sevastopol, France remains firmly attached to the full restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within internationally recognized borders," the French statement said.

Russia election: Vladimir Putin wins by big margin

A Russian state exit poll gave him 73.9% of the vote, easily defeating his closest competitor.

The main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was barred from the race.

The scale of victory - which had been widely predicted - was a marked increase in his share of the vote from 2012, when he won 64%.

A state exit poll put the turnout at 63.7%, down on 2012. Mr Putin's campaign had hoped for a large turnout, to give him the strongest possible mandate.

Reacting to the exit poll, his campaign team said it was an "incredible victory".

"The percentage that we have just seen speaks for itself. It's a mandate which Putin needs for future decisions, and he has a lot of them to make," a spokesman told Russia's Interfax.

In some areas, free food and discounts in local shops were on offer near polling stations.

Video recordings from polling stations showed irregularities in a number of towns and cities across Russia. Several showed election officials stuffing boxes with ballot papers.

On March 18 2018 21:32 xM(Z wrote:
meh, he should've made (at least)a judgement call on the value of that "populists code rewrite"; predictions are worth more than hindsight 20/20.

On March 19 2018 05:08 Nyxisto wrote:


yes the analysis from Blyth is quite straight-forward but I'd wish he'd offer any kind of alternative vision in the talks.

On March 19 2018 08:03 Slydie wrote:
The far right in Norway is under fire, and the right/far right/liberal government might fall, trying to protect Sylvi Listhaug, the minister of law and immigration. She is not the leader of the right populist party, but by far the best media troll in Scandinvian politics.

This time, however, she crossed an important line:

The context is that the government got downvoted suggesting a law that would make it possible to strip fighters foreign wars from their citezenship without going by the legal system. Listhaug posted this on her facebook account, and it reads: "The Labour party thinks the rights of terrorists are more important than the security of our nation. -Like and share." However, that very same Labour party was attacked by Anders Behring Brevik in 2011, and a movie about that attack came out the very same day as the facebook message. Brevik was member of Listhaugs party for a while (left because it was not radical enough,) and his main motivation for his attack was that the Labour party helped the Muslim invation of Europe.

The Christian conservative party will be on the tipping point of deciding her, and probably the whole government's destiny tomorrow...

On March 19 2018 04:45 maybenexttime wrote:


My bet would be on Putin.