Report 2021. No. 2

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Report 2021. No. 2.

Report on conservative and right wing Europe January 20, 2021

GERMANY

1. DW.com

Germany 2021:

1. Fighting COVID and replacing Angela Merkel (translated)

What will define Germany in 2021? The fight against the coronavirus pandemic? Or rather the political battles as the country faces several elections — and the task to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel.

At the moment, nothing in Germany is more important than the coronavirus pandemic, and that's likely to remain so in the new year. Resistance is growing to the curbs on individual freedoms brought about by rules made to combat COVID-19. "A social movement is brewing, in which right-wing and left-wing extremists, but also esotericists and science deniers, are gathering," political scientist Florian Hartleb told DW. 2

Seven elections The balancing act between protecting public health and people's rights to freedom will also influence elections, and there are plenty of those in Germany in 2021.Citizens will head to the polls in six of Germany's 16 states. In Baden-Württemberg, popular Premier Winfried Kretschmann — the first and only state premier from the environmentalist Green party — is standing for reelection in March. April will be interesting in Thuringia, where Bodo Ramelow is currently the sole state premier from the Left party.In Saxony-Anhalt, it will be decided, at the latest, by the election in June whether the troubled coalition of the conservative Christian Democrats, center-left Social Democrats, and Greens will endure.But the most important election of the year won't be until September — the federal election, when the era of Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to come to an end. After 16 years and four terms in government, the Christian Democrat wants to step down. Merkel would then have been in office almost as long as the current record holder, Helmut Kohl.

Adieu, Angie!

What will the Germans miss with her departure? "Her will to persevere, the irrepressible, almost inhuman work ethic, the inner discipline and the scientific element in politics," believes Florian Hartleb. He sees as negative points of her time in office "her nebulous, cliché-ridden language" and "her stubbornly pursued refugee policy, accompanied by a naïve welcoming culture," which allowed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to grow. Merkel was also viewed abroad as a crisis chancellor, valued as a figure of stability in turbulent times, including the European sovereign debt crisis, Brexit and the US presidency of Donald Trump, and now with the coronavirus pandemic.

Chancellor Söder?

That's why one of the most important questions in the new year will be who will take her place. With her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) polling consistently at around 35%, far ahead of any other party, the next CDU head has a good chance of also becoming the next chancellor.There are three candidates who want to face the CDU delegates at a digital party conference to be held in mid-January: former party whip Friedrich Merz, North Rhine- Westphalia Premier Armin Laschet and Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee head Norbert Röttgen. But whether one of them will become a candidate for the chancellorship in addition to party head remains to be seen. According to opinion polls, a relative majority of Germans would rather have Bavarian Premier Markus Söder from the CDU's smaller "sister party" as chancellor. It has happened 3 before that the CSU fielded the conservative candidate for the chancellorship, but if Söder were to prevail, it would be the first time that a German chancellor would come from the regional Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU.)

Building blocks in Berlin

No matter who is chancellor, the union of CDU and CSU will most likely need at least one coalition partner to form a government after the election. The current partner, the Social Democrat (SPD), is not only struggling in the polls but seems tired of being in government after two terms in a grand coalition under Merkel. The up-and-coming Greens are putting themselves forward. Under popular co-leaders Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, they have set aside some of their more fundamentalist positions and want to join in the government. Habeck told a party conference in late November: "We're working optimistically on solutions. And for these solutions, we are fighting for power."Söder, however, warns CDU/CSU supporters that they shouldn't take for granted that there will be a conservative-Green government. "Some people think that would be rather nice. But you need to be careful that in the end, you don't wake up to another scenario: namely Greens, SPD, and the Left." But according to current polling, those less conservative parties would not have the numbers to form a majority coalition.

A polarized society

The far-right AfD, currently the strongest opposition party in parliament, is seeing its support sink. However, the restrictions imposed because of the pandemic could drive new voters toward them. "We're experiencing a divided country," said Hartleb. "If economic decline follows the coronavirus trauma, then the social polarization will remain."In any case, the political scientist is convinced that the COVID-19 pandemic will remain the most important topic of 2021. "Coronavirus is the biggest crisis since 1945, with a significance which affects all levels of politics, from the local to the global."

2. Express (by Steven Brown) 4

Merkel faces nightmare exit with rival poised to take ‘late revenge’ and replace her

Back in 2018, the German Chancellor announced she would stand down as leader of the Christian Democrat Union (CDU) at the party convention and would not seek a fifth term this year. But her long-time rival Mr Merz is preparing to stand in internal party elections and claimed he is the most “modern” of the three candidates. Mr Merz said: “There is nothing retro about me.“In fact, I would say I’m the most modern of the three candidates, even though I’m the oldest. “How come? Because all the problems Germany will face in the next decade - a rising China, the new great power rivalry, deep technological change - I have ben facing them for years.”He continued: “For the first time in our post-war history, we will have an election where the outgoing chancellor does not run as a candidate. “We cannot keep saying; have both x and y.“We cannot keep saying yes and no at the same time.”But some CDU members have claimed his leadership bid is personal.

One source told Financial Times: “It’s a belated revenge on Merkel, who dropped him like a hot potato.” Mr Merz and Ms Merkel have had a turbulent relationship after the Chancellor drove him out as head of the party’s group of MPs in the Bundestag in 2002. The lawyer dismissed the accusations he has a score to settle with Ms Merkel as “absurd”.He said: “Ms Merkel and I had an arrangement, and she didn’t stick to it.“But it’s okay. That was 20 years ago.“I recovered a long time ago.” Back in February last year, Ms Merkel’s chosen successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, resigned. Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer announced she would step down as CDU leader following a controversial election in the German state of Thuringia.The centre-right CDU voted with the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Deutschland (AFD).Sudha David-Wilp, a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund, said at the time: “A lot of political commentators have said the ‘dam has been breached, this is a turning point, we should never cooperate with the AfD’.“But they are faced with reality, on the conservative side of the aisle, that nearly a quarter of the voters in Thuringia and some other states, like Brandenburg, have voted for the AfD in state elections.”Following the outbreak of coronavirus, Mr Merz raised eyebrows for his remarks on homosexuality to the virus.

When asked in September whether he had any objections to a gay person becoming chancellor, he said: “Sexual orientation is none of the public’s business.“As long as it is legal and doesn’t involve children - an absolute limit for me - it isn’t a subject for public discussion.”Andreas Rodder, a historian at the University of Mainz, said: “The Merkel wing of the CDU says you would gain fewer conservative voters than you would lose by moving away from Merkel’s centrist line.“There is a real conflict of strategy here.”

3. Junge Freiheit (translation) 5

After the storm on the Capitol

Union and SPD want to pass law against „hate _nt he net” quickly

BERLIN-Representatives of the grand coalition have urged that the law to combat right-wing extremism on the Internet be passed as quickly as possible. "The storming of the Capitol once again makes clear the power of impact inherent in social networks," the deputy leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei (CDU), told the Rheinische Post newspaper. The events showed that words from social media were becoming deeds.On Wednesday (local time), supporters of outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump had stormed the Capitol in Washington. Five people were killed in the unrest.SPD parliamentary group vice chairman Dirk Wiese supported the plan. "The clear message to enemies of democracy and agitators can only be: We do not accept your acts and oppose your hatred at all levels - online and offline," he said, according to ARD.

Thuringia's Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns against imitators

The law, which had previously been passed by the Bundestag and Bundesrat, had been stopped by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier because of requirements by the Federal Constitutional Court. The judges criticized that companies such as Facebook and Twitter should report so-called "hate comments" to the Federal Criminal Police Office.In the coming week, the amended law is to be discussed in the Bundestag and this is to be passed at the end of January. Then the Bundesrat could confirm it at the beginning of February.Meanwhile, the president of Thuringia's Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, warned that the events in Washington could also motivate right-wing extremists in Germany to commit similar acts, referring to the occupation of the stairs of the Reichstag last August. Extremists could now hope that "if something like that is possible in the U.S., the showcase country of democracy, and the security forces couldn't stop the storm, then it's all possible here," he told the Tagesspiegel newspaper. (ag)

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FRANCE

1. leparisien.fr (translated, original: Alexandre Sulzer 13.01.2021)

Jean-Marie Le Pen had the Covid-19 6

"An assault that I felt in a moderate way" The former FN president had an attenuated form of the virus and found this out thanks to the presence of antibodies revealed by a blood test.

Through a blood test, the former president of the National Front found he had antibodies against the virus. “We don't call it the Menhir for nothing! Exclaims those around him. Jean- Marie Le Pen contracted the coronavirus in an attenuated form during the last quarter, according to our information. It was thanks to a blood test, taken about two weeks ago, that the former president of the National Front discovered that he had antibodies against the virus. "An aggression that I felt in a moderate way", explains to the Parisian the 92-year-old patriarch who had "not guessed" when it was the coronavirus.

The nonagenarian, who has been hospitalized several times and who has a pacemaker in particular, has reduced his social life since the appearance of the virus. His Foundation project, which would bring together his personal archives, was moreover several months late. But Jean-Marie Le Pen has not completely given up on receiving his closest friends, which may explain why he contracted the virus. On what occasion precisely? He does not know it. The only certainty: during a previous blood test three months ago, no trace of antibodies had been found.

He does not plan to be vaccinated

Now, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who had documented a lot about vaccines, does not plan to be vaccinated. “If the need arises, I will. But I do not inflict the pleasure of an injection, since I feel relatively protected now! Slips the one who “hates injections”. His daughter Marine Le Pen said she was "ready" to be vaccinated last Saturday, on the sidelines of a trip to Portugal.

The day before, the president of the RN had also said on BFMTV that she would encourage her “relatives in fragile situations” to be vaccinated. But Jean-Marie Le Pen says she has not told him about it. “I am not a fragile loved one, I am a strong loved one! He laughs.

2. bvoltaire.fr (translated, original by Frédéric Sirgant 16.01.2021)

In the myriad of bans, deletions, closures such as we had not seen since the Occupation - and this is not an easy reductio ad hitlerum, these are the facts -, next to curfews, the fate of bookstores, restaurants, universities, there is that of the elections.

After the municipal fiasco of last March and June, what about the departmental and regional planned, normally, next March? It went a bit unnoticed, but in the pack of proposals examined by the Council of Ministers on December 21, in the middle of the Christmas holidays, next to the explosive provision granting exorbitant powers of constraint to the Prime Minister, there was a text organizing, again for health reasons, the postponement of departmental and regional elections from March to June. This text must be examined by the Senate, in first reading, from January 25, then by the deputies on February 9. Until then, given the bad experience of last March and the health situation, everything is (almost) fine. Almost, because 7 even Le Monde underlines that the postponement of elections, in contemporary democratic France, is an extremely rare fact. Under Emmanuel Macron, the exceptional tends to become commonplace.

But in recent days, many elected officials in the councils affected by these elections have expressed their concern over this postponement which could hide another. Indeed, the text submitted to Parliament provides for a review clause. The Scientific Council will have to submit a report before April 1 according to which a further postponement - via a new bill - could be decided if the situation so requires.

In the oppositions of right and left, given the dramatization of the health situation orchestrated by the government, one believes more and more in this option of a new postponement. “June 2021? I do not believe it then as we are considering the question of a possible re-containment or an extended curfew against the English variant. All this leaves me very doubtful, ”confides LR deputy Sébastien Huyghe to Le Figaro.

And, above all, we no longer hesitate to express out loud our suspicions about Emmanuel Macron. Le Figaro: "The opposition is convinced that the majority - which approaches this deadline with difficulty - will seek to find any means of postponing them beyond 2022." In South-West, the president (PS) of the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine puts its feet in the dish: "The postponement of regional after the presidential elections would lead to suspicion with regard to the political strategy of the President of the Republic. […] I have the impression that what can annoy part of the state apparatus and the majority is that the regions are elected by direct universal suffrage. "

What is certain is that these interim elections, usually difficult for the government in power, will be formidable for Emmanuel Macron's party: they will be the first democratic opportunity to hold him to account for his management of the crisis. . A real outlet. So much so that one of his sponsors in 2017, Alain Minc, advises him, in Le Parisien, to ignore these regions by not presenting a candidate, like Jean-Michel Blanquer in Île-de-France who would emerge "damaged" from this announced defeat, thus weakening the entire Macronist system. This is, for him, "a major mistake". So, even if it means blurring the line, why not postpone these polls again?

Christian Jacob, a man of common sense, recalled in Le Figaro that we now had the means to organize these elections in a secure manner: "In the name of what could we prevent people from going to vote? We are forced to live with the virus. Life doesn't have to stop. "He added, with the same common sense:" In that case, we can also block the presidential election. "

Uh ... and extend Emmanuel Macron's term? The virus should not be pushed too far.

3. bvoltaire.fr (translated, original by Nicolas Gauthier, 14.01.2021)

Against the colonization of our universities by indigenist theories, resistance is finally being organized! 8

Can a minority, even an active and determined one, indefinitely terrorize a majority, even if it is languishing and tired? For a long time this was the case in the academic world, even though modest attempts at resistance finally saw the light of day. Today, a few dozen professors seem to be rebelling for good, united in an Observatory of Decolonialism and Identity Ideologies; hence the online petition and coverage of the Point making the headlines of their struggle.

Needless to say, indigenous theories are not based on anything concrete, be it historical, scientific or statistical. Whatever the case, the argument of authority - anti-racism, in this case - has long been enough to silence the recalcitrant: bourgeois tormented by the fear of being downgraded or simply haunted by the fear of no longer being in the loop.

To better silence them, this argument was once used in left-wing circles, when this question was inevitably asked whenever the debate became heated: "Where are you talking from, comrade? "This meant that the presumed social origin of this or that person was enough to delegitimize his or her speech. As relevant as it may have been at times, this argument has now reached its dialectical limits, as Le Point points out, "this teacher was prevented from taking up her position as a specialist in the history of slavery in Reunion Island, on the grounds that she was not born there and therefore had no right to write this history. There, it is no longer the "dialectical limits" that are reached but those of clinical madness.

For, according to these people, one would have to be black to talk about blacks, but this would not prevent some blacks from talking (generally speaking badly) about whites. On that count, do you have to be gay to talk about homosexuality? Do you have to be Jewish to talk about Israel? Do you have to be a Catholic to praise or smear the Vatican? Or, as long as you push the logic of the absurd to its ultimate limits, do you have to be a proven racist to talk about alleged racism?

Questioned by the same weekly, Pierre-André Taguieff, a rightly recognized historian of all these questions, raises a rather pretty hare by recalling that we have almost moved, there, from the political question to that, otherwise less subject to discussion, of religion: "There are believers, priests, a liturgy, prayers, rites of entry. ...] The decolonial Church also has its own catechism, its own pantheon with its high priests, its mysteries. »

And our man continued: "Decolonialists consider that, biologically, race does not exist, but that racial identities exist socially. Therefore, race does not exist, but it exists anyway. "In short, "this is not a pipe," as René Magritte or Brigitte Lahaie could have confirmed. So, decolonialism? It is still the decolonialists who speak best of it. Houria Bouteldja, co-founder of the Indigenous Party of the Republic, for example: "The emergence of the decolonial movement is the greatest political success in France since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the appearance of the environmentalist movement. »

We will note that once again, all this comes from our blissful Americanism. As long as Johnny Hallyday thought he was Elvis Presley, no man died. But since VGE thought it was JFK, since DSK saw itself as the Gallic President after his time at the IMF, and since our ancestral Sorbonne considers itself a subsidiary of Berkeley or Yale, it might be time to reconsider our positions. 9

The fact that the self-righteous press is finally getting on with it, with a little delay, is finally not bad news. And it would be yet another good one, to dare to think for ourselves as well. That is to say in French.

4. AFP (15.01.2021)

Marine Le Pen "strengthened" by the "tests" according to Bardella

Marine Le Pen comes out "strengthened, seasoned, legitimized" of the "tests" encountered during his 10 years at the head of the National Gathering, to lead his party "to the shores of victory," said Friday the number two of RN Jordan Bardella.

"These trials encountered during the years spent in the service of the French, Marine Le Pen has gone through them with a resilience that forces admiration," said in the weekly Valeurs Actuelles the party's vice president, Jordan Bardella, whose name is cited to take over the leadership of the RN that Marine Le Pen plans to leave the time of the 2022 presidential campaign.

The president of the RN "came out strengthened, seasoned, legitimized to lead the ship at the dawn of a great battle. Within a few months, the wave that carries us will have to lead her to the shores of victory," adds her faithful lieutenant.

Marine Le Pen celebrates Saturday its 10 years at the head of the RN (ex-Front National) that she has dedicated and carried to the second round of the presidential election in 2017. But its failure, after a calamitous debate against Emmanuel Macron, has led to disappointment and departures in the RN.

LePen "would be able to make an audible opposition party, a spur to French political life in many ways, a platform for gathering and government, marked by many ideological and electoral victories, but also hardened and strengthened by the battles lost," said Mr. Bardella in this forum broadcast Friday.

"The presidential election of 2022 will be a choice of civilization. It is a leader that France will need; not the leader of an archipelago but that of a Nation, capable of uniting it and making it radiate, guided by authority and instinct", he concludes.

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ITALY

1. lanotiziagiornale.it (translated, original by Giuseppe Vatinno, 16.01.2021)

The last lie about the Premier's party…

…Which is not there. Insinuating that Conte is working on a movement of his own (which has always been denied) is actually holding back the government's stability.

In Peter Pan, James Barrie's masterpiece, there is talk of the "Neverland" and yesterday a survey carried out for Porta a Porta by Noto Sondaggi launches the "Neverland Party" led by Giuseppe Conte, which is given at 12%. And since the votes would all come from the PD it is clear that this is a clumsy maneuver to sow discord in the government team. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the poisoned meatball has been promptly relaunched by a part of the right-wing press. The destabilizing attempt is aimed at causing friction between the Five Stars and the Democratic Party and only serves to make it more difficult to rebuild a majority that is working a former Christian Democrat weight as Dario Franceschini.

Andrea Orlando, number 2 at the Nazareno, speaks of reconstruction of the majority in a "political framework" and with this it must be understood not only that there will be no "party of Conte" (which moreover has denied), but also that the support of the "builders" or "responsible" will take place with a criterion of political homogeneity both Italian and European and could not be otherwise. When there will be elections, the Prime Minister could decide to present himself - given the high popularity he enjoys among the Italians - with his own party, but it is something clearly very different from the news about a "party of Conte".

Meanwhile, in the Senate there is a new parliamentary group, Maie-Italia23 in place of the Italians Abroad group, as Ricardo Merlo, President of Maie, Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, explains. A group with the function of containing senators who feel they share a political project and not only to numerically guarantee a majority in the Senate. Then there is the group of Riccardo Nencini, national president of the council of the Italian Socialist Party, which had allowed in the Senate to Renzi to have its own group called "Psi-Italia Viva". In fact, in the Upper Chamber - contrary to the Chamber - there is a new regulation that prevents the construction of party groups that have not been presented in the elections.

Nencini broke away from Renzi and opened up the possibility of changing his name to support Conte. At this point, among the side effects, there would also be that of the renziani - in the Senate there are 18 - who would be forced to move to the Mixed group. The third tributary that would feed the new parliamentary majority in the Senate would then be that of those inside Italia Viva who do not agree with its leader and both out of interest and conviction would be willing to leave and support Conte. Because it must be said that Matteo Renzi is a man politically finished since his party was given before the crisis to 2% and now is in free fall because no one escapes that a crisis now with the vaccine plan in a delicate phase means acting only for hunger of personal power.

Renzi, like Matteo Salvini before him, seems to have miscalculated when he said that the votes in the Senate "do not have them". But while the leghista has behind - polls in hand - the first party in Italy, the former premier has nothing. In the meantime Elena Bonetti, Teresa Bellanova and Davide Faraone of Iv make it known - provoking the wrath of Clement Mastella - that if Conte agrees to "dissolve some knots we are there," a last attempt without dignity that reveals the whole bluff that Renzi had tried, not having in hand any playable card. Other votes - 161 are needed - could come from former 5S, Mastelliani and Udc. In the House, the majority is more solid.

2. ilgiornale.it (translated, original by Francesca Galici, 16.01.2021)

There is the poll on the crisis Grows Forza Italia. And Renzi...

The government crisis modifies the Italians' voting intentions: the moderate wing grows with Forza Italia and Renzi's party falls in the consensus. From the point of view of consensus, Matteo Renzi's was a gamble.

The decision to leave the majority and withdraw his ministers from Conte bis has not been greeted with enthusiasm by the supporters of Italia viva, which continues to decline in preferences. As reported by the Corriere della sera, the percentage of voters who did not understand the reasons for the tear (42%) is almost equal to that of those who say they understood (45%). A clear division of the Italians, who for the most part (44%) believe it is still the result of the ambitions of the scrapper, for himself and for his party. And among those who said they understood the reasons for the rupture, this percentage rises further to touch 52%. Inevitable repercussions on the consensus of Italy alive.

The center-right flies in the polls The most critical towards Matteo Renzi are the voters of the Democratic Party and of the 5 Star Movement, a widely predictable scenario. Milder are the judgments of the voters of the center-right, that even if they largely believe it was a move made for Renzi's personal interests, they also attribute ample responsibility to Giuseppe Conte. The Courier, moreover, points out that the majority of those who claim not to have understood the reasons for Matteo Renzi's tear, attribute the responsibility to the leader of Italia viva. A reasonably biased judgment. And this is perhaps the reason that led 43% of those interviewed to declare that the government experience of Giuseppe Conte should go on with a third term. 36%, on the other hand, believe that the professor's government experience is over.

Although the scenario that foresees early elections in 2021 is one of the least likely in the current situation, the parties are looking with great interest at the photo intentions of the Italians. The results of the survey conducted by Corsera are entirely favorable to the center- right. Forza Italia gains ground and passes the 10% threshold (10.2%), an important goal for Silvio Berlusconi's party, which comes from the increase of moderates. This result is matched by Fratelli d'Italia's 15% and the League's 23.1%. The three main parties of the coalition have together 48.3% of the consensus in the voting intentions of the Italians, almost the absolute majority.

3. secoloditalia.it (translated, original by Valerio Falerni, 16.01.2021)

The "builders" are scarce. And the PD tries to hide behind Europe and Mattarella

There is a bad air on the Palace. There are rumors that Conte will resign before the vote, as requested by Italia Viva. And this forces the protagonists of this crazy crisis to cling a bit 'to everything (and everyone) in an attempt to hide what the Italians have long understood, namely that Italy is in the hands of a gang of peracottari. Yesterday they sang victory and today they seek refuge behind Mattarella's jacket or behind the screen of the EU Commission. The bishops and the Pope have brought them up in the previous days, but never say never. On the day in which the Udc calls itself out of "operation builders" and Mastella deletes his fingerprints, in the PD calls the usual pattern of the barbarians at the door. This time in the form of an attack on the Quirinal.

Borghi on Mattarella: "He is not impartial".

No "bomb" against the head of state, that would be missed. Just a little wallop - a stinker, as Totò would say - signed by Claudio Borghi, one of the many who would give up everything, except a provocation. Especially if launched at the wrong time. And so, in an interview with iNews24.it, he said papal papal to doubt the impartiality of Mattarella. And that was enough for the left to sound the trumpets. "There was really no need for the League's attack on the Quirinal," says Andrea Romano. Without any scorn for the ridiculous, he even claimed that "it is irresponsible and anti-Italian to question the balance and impartiality of President Mattarella as the League does".

Center-right summit. "If they don't have the numbers, no more games. We have an alternative team" Zennaro The League blows an MP to M5s: Zennaro arrives. And the renziani lose a deputy Gentiloni tries: „The EU wants stable interlocutors”.

Unfortunately for him, Borghi's words do not prove sufficient to corroborate the thesis of the "dangerousness" of the right. All the more so that in the same hours Giorgio Mulè makes it known that Forza Italia relies on the "wisdom of President Mattarella" to resolve the crisis. Another round, another race. The Quirinal comes out, Europe arrives. At stake are the 209 billion of the Recovery Fund, and the left is afraid that Renzi can slip out from under his nose. So he sends ahead Paolo Gentiloni, commissioner in Brussels. The script requires him to say that "the EU Commission always hopes to have stable and committed interlocutors in the common European challenges". And he does. Of course, he would have been better off telling Conte, who is now more unstable than ever. But this was not written in the script.

4. tempi.it (translated parts, original by Luigi Amicone, 16.01.2021)

Can a government of Scilipoti "builders" work, with in opposition the parties that added together represent the absolute majority of voters?

Imagine the fable of Beppe Conte. Captured at Palazzo Chigi by grace received. Saved by a renzian pirouette once. And now at risk of sinking due to the slap of the same Rottamatore. Who would be fed up - says Renzi to the Press - of a Count who works on his own. The fable now provides, in view of the vote of confidence in the Senate on Tuesday, January 19, the Count insignito da-non-si-sa-chi even leader of a party that does not yet exist. But already clinging to the already very existing seats of the Palace.

Can you imagine a government of scilipotists led by a cat who looks in the mirror (Casalino's) and sees himself as a tiger, facing a two-year period that will make your veins shake - the pandemic, the economic default, the explosive unemployment ... and, last but not least, the direction for next year's presidential election to choose Mattarella's successor - having in opposition all the major charismatic leaders (and not only) of politics? A Conte ter modulated in the manner of a Monti bis, but with Giggino di Maio glued to the Foreign Ministry, which is a bit like having the baby soaking in the Mediterranean while the Turkish Sultan "stabilizes" Libya, China is eating up Africa and coming up to cook Italy's Mediterranean ports, the Russians are coming and going between the Strait of the Dardanelles and the port of Tartus (in Syria) and who knows how Biden's troops will be arranged between Russia, Belarus and Ukraine?

"Ask yourself questions," Sabino Cassese would also say to the Cei sponsoring Conte ter in the same words used by Conte himself and the director of Civiltà Cattolica in the Fatto quotidiano. "It's time for builders." Sure, Cassese would tell you, but who are the "builders"? Psalm 127 does not say Scilipoti. On the contrary. It says that "if the Lord does not build the city, in vain do its builders toil." Wouldn't it have been preferable for the bishops to quote the psalm rather than insert themselves into a political game?

Can it work - if not to bring us to the brink of collapse - a government of house-changers (and they call them "responsible"), standing outside, in opposition, the political parties of Salvini and Meloni, Berlusconi and Renzi, who added together represent the absolute majority of the consensus of Italians estimated by pollsters? A crazy thing. But it is presented to us as "builders" and "responsible" in the name of MIAO or MAIE, the new party that came out of Beppe Conte's pocket cylinder.

Why would the cylindrical stunt be good? Because there is a pandemic. Like when President Napolitano invented Monti as senator for life and then as Prime Minister because there was the General Spread.

Sorry, we all have it in our eyes the United States world record of infected and dead from Covid. Well, it was never seen as under this pandemic emergency so much turnout of voters at the polls. Why? Because the solid argument is exactly the opposite of the hairy Cacciari argument ("opening the crisis with the pandemic is crazy"). With the pandemic, it would be insane to go ahead with the party of Conte and his attachés. It would be foolish to go on with an executive that everyone is a virologist to his own mother and held up by the Meow or Maie of parliamentarians elected in Argentina rather than Australia. Foolish would be to continue the slope of commissioners and Dpcm - as seen in cases like "masks" reported by journalistic investigations - with the money of the Italians managed (at least) with great mess and approximation. 14

I put the ultimate question - believe it or not - to a number one of the establishment (whose name I would not reveal even before a firing squad):

"I submit to your intelligence a princely argument, as substantial as Newton's observation about the force of gravity, independently of any electoralistic calculation: the systemic problem - political, economic, social, etc. - that we have is distrust. How can a President of the Republic, who is the glue of a country on its knees, instill confidence in its citizens if he gives the green light to a government of the Meow or Maie party? You could already hear the people's angry chuckles, right? "Those people are glued to their seats, imagine if they let us vote." However, they voted in the United States with the record of dead and infected people. And we can not vote us keeping six months of government Conte or Cartabia purpose, then in June polls? Only then can you talk about builders, trust and unity, giving a sign that you respect the Italians, erasing the calculations of the armchair and paving the way for a strong government that comes from the vote of the Italians".

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SPAIN

1. larazon.es (translated, original by Belén Bajo, 14.01.2021)

Boomerang effect

Pablo Iglesias presented himself as the savior of democracy and the restorer of rights and realized, late, that words are not carried away by the wind.

They say from Podemos that the vice president is silent because he has no competence to alleviate the economic crisis, the effect of Filomena or the consequences of the Covid. It seems that ensuring communications, food supply, electricity supply, operation of shelters, hospitals, are not social issues, but arithmetic or minor, we are unimportant. What is important is the harassment and overthrow of the Monarchy.

Pablo Iglesias is under the boomerang effect of his deeds and words. He presented himself as the savior of democracy and the restorer of rights and realized, late, that words are not carried away by the wind, that "el verba volant, scripta manent" of Gaius Titus to the Roman Senate was said light years of the technological revolution and that perhaps he should have kept in mind that: "Be careful what you say, where you say it and to whom you say it".

If there is a political leader who does not shut up even under water, it is Pablo Iglesias and this silent attitude, without protagonism, nor self decoration of medals to which he has accustomed us, must be causing him such an anxiety that there is no series or film that he has not devoured and he is even capable of listing the next releases that will take place on digital platforms.

But even if he threatens with the Monarchy or with interference in the Judiciary, and since he forgot the "eye, watch what you say", he should keep in mind Pérez Galdós' phrase: "The preacher who does not practice what he says is not a preacher, but a pulpit that speaks". To rehabilitate himself, perhaps he should recuse himself in Parliament because the boomerang effect can also have electoral consequences.

2. abc.es (translated, original by Ana I. Sánchez, 16.01.2021)

The PNV, against the gagging of judges: "We don't share it"

It marks distances with the left and does not discard to present an amendment to the totality

Ten members of the CGPJ ask Lesmes for a plenary session to confront the Congress

The PP will force a new debate on the Judiciary at the Congressional Table The unilateralism with which the PSOE and United Nations Podemos have proposed the reform of the General Council of the Judiciary threatens to take its toll. Not only is it an affront to the judges, who were denied a say in the new law by the partners on Wednesday, and it increases the vigilance of the European Commission, but it also opens a gap in the majority of the investiture. And it does so from the side of the most loyal partner of the coalition, the PNV. Sources from this group assure ABC that they do not share the decision of the Congressional Bureau to refuse to allow judges, prosecutors, and the Venice Commission to report on the reform. "We were in favor of requesting these reports because we believe that the more reports the better, since they could provide a broader view," the same sources underline.

"Unacceptable"

The PNV considers that an "express reform, without taking into account the reports and opinions both internal and from European organizations" to alter the structures of the Judiciary, is not "the best way" to "face the problems that have arisen in the election of its members". The Basque Group condemns what it considers an "unacceptable blockade" of the Popular Party and asks for a "reflection to all so that a renovation of the organ can take place in a conventional way". "It is not acceptable that among more than 5,000 magistrates and judges and numerous prestigious jurists we are unable to find twenty members. And it is not acceptable that the debate on the candidates and on the procedure continues through the media and that those who do not want to solve the problems through a respectful and constant dialogue devote themselves to fester with justifying trompe l'oeil", said the Basque deputy Mikel Legarda last December 15 from the tribune of speakers of the Congress.

What to do

Now the Basque Group weighs up what to do in the face of the gag imposed by the PSOE and the United Nations We can all the agents affected by the legal change. The Congress has just opened the amendment procedure so that the opposition can present its proposals to the text and the PNV can present a total amendment or propose partial changes. With the first option, it would request the return of the reform to the Government, something that it does not rule out, but that would be very hard on the socialists since they would remain defending the text together with the most radical formations of the House, Podemos and the independentistas. The alternative of the partial amendments would be aimed at trying to modify the text, but it implies communicating with it if they are accepted.

The Basque Group will have to decide what to do before January 25, for the "express" processing of the law The group led by Aitor Esteban will have to decide before January 25, when the short deadline given for this phase will end. On Wednesday, the Bureau approved the processing of the law by urgent way and, with it, the reduction of the times to half.

3. libertaddigital.com (translated, original by Maite Loureiro, 16.01.2021)

Abascal: "Trump's demonization shows globalists' fear of a future that doesn't belong to them

Vox leader participates in the debate The Future of Patriotism in the US and Europe.

Vox has close alliances with the conservative European and American parties, in the midst of the fall of Donald Trump due to his defeat in the elections against the Democrat Joe Biden and, especially, after the assault on the Capitol carried out by the supporters of the American president.

The leader of the party, Santiago Abascal, has participated in the debate The Future of Patriotism in Europe and the United States, together with Georgia Meloni, leader of the Italian conservative party Fratelli d'Italia, who does not stop growing in the Italian polls, with a speech similar to that used by Marine Le Pen in France or Viktor Orban in Hungary.

Also speaking at the conference were Grover Norquist, member of the Republican Party and president of Americans for Tax Reform, Ted R.Bromund, member of the conservative American Heritage Foundation, Matias Karlson, president of the think tank Oikos and José Antonio Kast, president of the Republican Party of Chile.

The dialogue table, moderated by Vox's political vice president, Jorge Buxadé, has allowed the conservatives to show strength and unity in full attack on Donald Trump, who has seen network giants such as Twitter or Facebook close their personal accounts and, entities such as Deutsche Bank, have broken relations with their companies.

Criticism of Twitter or Facebook censorship

A fact that Abascal has defined as an "attack on the desperate", fruit of "hatred", that "shows the fear of the globalists, of the left, who have perceived that the future does not belong to 17 them, it belongs to the patriots". The Vox leader has reiterated his condemnation of the assault on the Capitol, but has assured that it has been used as an "excuse" by the Democrats to attack their political adversaries, comparing what happened to the Black Lives Matters movement.

"People like Zuckerberg have said that they don't care about democracies, about sovereignties, that they are the judges of good and evil and that we have to obey them," he insisted on criticizing Abascal, in line with the rest of the speakers, who also highlighted the attack on the West and its Judeo-Christian roots, through illegal immigration to Europe or the US, or through gender policies.

This is precisely the idea around which the debate has revolved, and which Vox has been defending for some time, by assuring that the traditional division between left and right has disappeared to give way to a battle between globalists and anti-globalists, between patriots and federalists. A distinction for which, they have complained, they are accused of being anti- European, by opposing an EU that "does not respect the sovereignty" of the member countries.

A confrontation before which everyone has proclaimed the defeat of the globalists. "We know that for that we have to work, coordinate and be united," defended Abascal, who assured that the left has demonstrated its "weakness" by "gagging" millions of people by promoting censorship with "fury" and in an "arbitrary" manner.

4. voxespana.es (translated, original by voxespana.es, 04.01.2021)

Garriga: "Separatism knows that VOX is its main enemy"

He describes Salvador Illa as "the worst minister in the history of democracy" and warns that "he is coming to reissue the tripartite".

Ignacio Garriga, VOX's candidate for the presidency of the Generalidad, today described Catalan separatism as "mafia", which, he denounced, "has robbed all Catalans for years". In the face of this, he explained, "we are not going to take one step back". On the contrary, "we are going to put them in the dock for trying to break the constitutional foundations". "The years of impunity are over," he said.

The VOX candidate explained that "separatism knows that VOX is its main enemy". "We have come to recover that Catalonia which separatism and the totalitarian left have taken from us". "We are going to dismantle all the beach bars," he said.

The PSOE, worried about the chairs

With respect to the rest of the parties competing in the elections, Garriga has lamented that "they are more worried about the changes of seats and the landing of failed ministers. Thus, he has qualified the current Minister of Health as "the worst Minister in the history of Democracy: inept and negligent". And he has warned that the intention of the PSOE in placing him as a candidate for the Generalidad is "to reissue the tripartite". "In a moment of 18 resurgence, the maximum responsible for managing the pandemic is campaigning in the elections," he has failed, and has asked that he "resign.

On the other hand, the VOX candidate for the Presidency of Catalonia has denounced that "separatism is not capable of managing the vaccination system", as "we have not reached even a third of the forecast". And he has reproached that "the separatist mafia" is "incapable of dismantling an illegal party and an Islamic funeral of more than 700 people". This occurs, he explained, because separatism "is permissive with Islam". "It wants to convert Moroccan immigrants into the new Catalans through the indoctrination of the language".

He has also referred to the economic situation of the region, and has directly blamed separatism for bringing the hotel and catering sector to ruin because "they are more concerned with their ideological delusions, of financing beach bars, than giving direct aid to the sector and to small merchants and self-employed people".

Finally, and with respect to the attacks suffered by the charges, affiliates and sympathizers of the training in Catalonia, Garriga has announced that "VOX will present a complaint to the JEC against ERC and the Generalidad".

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Portugal

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Austria

1. heute.at (translated, original by heute.at, 16.01.2021)

Chancellor's party and Kurz himself lose ground 19

The current "Sunday poll" brings several surprises: the ÖVP loses approval in the poll, the chancellor himself even more.

As the current Sunday poll of the news magazine "profil" shows, the ÖVP is losing ground. The SPÖ, the Greens and the FPÖ are benefiting. The report attributes this to "much criticism of the Corona crisis management and the plagiarism affair surrounding the resigned minister Christine Aschbacher". According to the report, the ÖVP is losing three percentage points in approval and has been below 40 percent of the vote for a long time with 37 percent.

If National Council elections were held on Sunday, the SPÖ in particular could benefit from the ÖVP's buckling. As the survey conducted by the Unique research institute shows, the SPÖ would gain two percentage points to 22 percent. The FPÖ, at 16 percent (plus 1), and the Greens, at 14 percent (also plus 1), are also likely to enjoy an increase. The Neos, on the other hand, have been stuck at ten percent for months.

Chancellor scratched

If Austrians were to vote for the chancellor directly, five percent fewer would do so than in the last chancellor question. Nevertheless, Sebastian Kurz can still build on a cushion of 35 percent, which no one even comes close to. Pamela Rendi-Wagner (SPÖ) has risen from a low level to 12 percent (plus 2), Norbert Hofer (FPÖ) is now at 10 percent (minus 1), Werner Kogler (Greens) and Beate Meinl-Reisinger (Neos) are unchanged at 6 percent.

The "profil" survey also shows that one third of respondents (a total of 801 people) say they do not work from home despite lockdowns, and almost another third (29 percent) say they have "no possibility of working from home". A new one-fifth (21 percent) work almost entirely from home. And: 37 percent want normal schooling despite lockdowns, while 24 percent want to see schools closed until the end of the lockdown.

2. unzensuriert.at (translated, original by unzensuriert.at, 17.01.2021)

That's the ÖVP: Mayor donates for "refugees" - not for locals

In the middle of the biggest economic crisis of the Second Republic, the mayor of Breitenfurt in Lower Austria, Wolfgang Schredl, shows heart. On the "Page of the Mayor" of the current ÖVP municipal newspaper, he addresses the population and presents to them on one and a half pages the deplorable fate of Orientals who are waiting in camps on Greek islands to finally reach Europe. Schredl is pleased to announce that the ÖVP-Breitenfurt is donating 3,000 euros for the "refugees" in Greece. Austrians fobbed off with lukewarm expressions of sympathy

At the end of the long article about the poor strangers, Schredl then remembers who hoisted him into the mayor's chair when he writes the one-liner:

Of course, we must not forget that there are also needy people here in Austria and Breitenfurt whom we have to help. But there is no donation for them, only a lukewarm appeal to the people of Breitenfurt to perhaps also help them. Fits into the picture of municipal politics in Breitenfurt

There the slogan fits, which the municipality Breitenfurt presents in bold letters on its official Internet side:

It is never too colorful for us.

3. unzensuriert.at (translated, original by unzensuriert.at, 10.01.2021)

Serious suspicion: ÖVP top politician from Upper Austria as sex offender

An explosive criminal trial will take place on January 14 at the Criminal Regional Court in Wels. There, an ÖVP member of the provincial parliament and mayor will have to stand trial on charges of multiple rape, sexual harassment and defamation.

The Upper Austrian ÖVP top politician, for whom the presumption of innocence applies, has "suspended" his parliamentary mandate for the period of the criminal proceedings. In the mayor's office of a municipality in the Hausruckviertel, where according to the victim the acts should have taken place among other things, the "ÖVP-Urgestein" has remained, however. The ÖVP politician, whose identity is not mentioned, denies all accusations.

Wels public prosecutor's office assumes period of crime 2014 to 2016

In its indictment, the Wels public prosecutor's office assumes a crime period from 2014 to 2016. During this period, the ÖVP mandatary is alleged to have sexually harassed a female employee twice and even raped her three times. After a long period of silence, the victim is said to have made the whole affair public and even reported it at a municipal council meeting.

The ÖVP top politician then allegedly tried to "silence" the alleged victim and covered her with a civil lawsuit. A criminal complaint for defamation was also filed with the criminal court against the employee.

Public prosecutor's office focused investigation on ÖVP mayor

However, the public prosecutor's office in Wels, which was investigating the employee because of the defamation charges, then turned the entire matter around and concentrated its investigations on the ÖVP mayor. This then resulted in November in an indictment against the ÖVP provincial politician.

Among other things, DNA traces of the alleged perpetrator, which had been kept by the municipal employee after a sexual contact that was in the room, are also the subject and basis of the indictment. The proceedings for defamation against the employee were discontinued despite a request for continuation. 21

Accused ÖVP top politician speaks of manipulation

According to a statement by the lawyer of the ÖVP top politician, he will not plead guilty. He rather denies all criminal charges and even denies that there had been consensual sexual acts between the female employee and him. The defendant describes the DNA traces in the file as manipulation.

The trial is to be held largely in camera because of the need to protect victims and offenders. The penalty for the most serious charge in the criminal indictment is prison sentences of five to 15 years. Loss of mandate is provided for by law in the event of a verdict with a sentence of more than one year.

4. ots.at (translated, original by ots.at, 17.01.2021)

FPÖ - Kickl: Kurz takes a knee to Merkel's Corona line.

Lockdown extension contradicts legal requirements and is useless in terms of health policy and economically irresponsible - Mahrer leaving ÖVP would be consistent Vienna (OTS) - "Kurz is hanging on Angela Merkel's coat-tails and is being remote- controlled from Berlin. He does what Berlin creates for him - the already expected extension of the lockdown by ÖVP and Greens is now being hyped up as a big difficult decision, accompanied by ever new experts who prepare the ground for the chancellor. And all this just to cover the tracks of the weeks and months of stalling by the Austrians. It would not be surprising if there will be no opening up after February 8 - neither for trade nor for schools. The only thing Austrians can count on from Kurz is that they can't count on anything. In truth, Merkel has already told Kurz that the lockdown will last until Easter. Kurz will leave behind a social and economic shambles in Austria," said today FPÖ Klubobmann NAbg. Herbert Kickl and also referred to the study of the renowned Stanford scientists John Ioannidis and Jay Bhattacharya, according to which lockdowns cause enormous damage, but would have no influence on the infection event, so epidemiologically are completely meaningless. "But Kurz completely ignores this, preferring to genuflect to Merkel's Corona line," Kickl said.

The victims of Merkel-Kurz's policies, he said, are families, children and young people, workers and small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. In addition, a resignation of WKÖ President Mahrer, who cannot support the Kurz line after the statements of the last few days, from the ÖVP would now be consistent and a proof of his credibility, said the liberal club chairman.

Kickl again referred to the five-point program presented by the Freedom Party. It includes an immediate end to the lockdown accompanied by the consistent and faster protection of the population over 75 years and the risk groups, the increase in treatment capacities and the capacities of the health authorities, as well as the presentation of honest and transparent data as a basis for decision-making and the mandatory review and appraisal of all previous and future measures. 22

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Greece

1. greekcitytimes.com (by Paul Antonopoulos, December 2020)

Velopoulos: The only driving force for the EU is Germany’s interests

President of the Hellenic Solution Party, Kyriakos Velopoulos, opened fire against the ruling New Democracy government during a debate in Parliament.

In particular, from the podium of Parliament, he turned his fire against the Minister of Finance, Christos Staikouras, saying that “you are the ‘Houdini’ of the economy”.

He also spoke about “borrowing policy”, explaining that “this is how we got to the memoranda” in reference to the economic destroying policies imposed on Greece during the financial crisis last decade.

“Do not be fooled, more will come”, Velopoulos warned.

At the same time, Velopoulos blamed the government for saying something at noon and something else at night regarding the opening of certain sectors of the economy. He stressed that Greece needs a plan, while criticizing the financial staff for forecasts that were not confirmed in basic terms. Regarding financial management during the COVID-19 pandemic, Velopoulos blamed the government for “doing social policy with our own money”, while “throwing the ball to the owners.”

Referring to the state fines for violators of the protection measures against the pandemic, Velopoulos pointed out that “in the Netherlands, whoever does not wear a mask, the fine is 90 euros, the basic salary is 1,700 euros. Germany, 150 euros fine, basic salary 1,500 euros. Greece, a fine of 300 euros, a basic salary of 600 euros”.

Regarding Greek-Turkish relations, German-born Velopoulos stressed that “in the EU, unfortunately, the only driving force is Germany’s interests. We want a Europe, we want a different Europe of peoples and nations, but not a German one. We went for sanctions and came out with a haircut.”

In fact, he predicted that the head of Greek diplomacy, Nikos Dendias, who “whispers various things about Germany”, will probably “go home in a short time”.

“Anyone who talks about Germany goes home. The only nuclear weapon that Greece has is its veto. Only Papandreou used it in 1983”, concluded the head of the Hellenic Solution.

2. dimokratianews.gr (translated, original by dimokratianews.gr, 15.01.2021)

The Foreign Minister said it bluntly to his Skopje counterpart during the official statements after their meeting yesterday

In a language we had not heard so far from the Mitsotakis government, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said bluntly to the people of Skopje that they must finally stop pretending to be the descendants of Alexander the Great.

During official statements after the meeting with his Skopje counterpart, Bujar Osmani, he told him verbatim: "One thing is clear. With all due respect, your compatriots - and you have accepted it - were not in the campaign of Alexander the Great, they were not present in the Granikos River, they were not present in Issos, they were not present in Gavgamila. More progress is needed.

On the one hand, in terms of implementation and consistent use of the name and terminology by all public institutions and private bodies, including websites. On the other hand, to eliminate the "antiquisation program". The removal of the Vergina Sun from all public spaces and uses, the change of the names of public roads and facilities ".

With these words, the Greek Foreign Minister put the issue on the right footing, demanding the obvious: not to continue the hatred of Greek history. On the other hand, of course, Mr. Dendias did not avoid mentioning "we seek full, systematic and good faith implementation of the Prespa Agreement. That is what our countries and our people deserve. " In this way he himself ratified the treacherous agreement that SYRIZA had signed and called N.D. while he was in opposition as detrimental.

Nikos Dendias, however, emphasized the potentially strong relationship between the two countries, stressing that Greece can be the best ally and best friend of our northern neighbor.

He stressed that a vacuum of stability could not be allowed in our region, as this could be filled by other non-European forces supporting extremism and revisionism or seeking to revive empires that once belonged to Turkey.

Similar reports on the importance of the Prespa Agreement were made by Mr. Mitsotakis himself in his own meeting with Mr. Osmani. Let us not forget that the Greek Prime Minister was "nailed" by Zaef himself months ago, saying publicly "thank you for fighting for Northern Macedonia".

However, the fact that, apart from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bouzar Osmani met yesterday morning with the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, is a fact that proves an inexplicable institutional mobilization on the Greek side.

Which, as expected, assured that Greece remains a constant helper in the European perspective of Skopje, but stressed that the full, consistent and bona fide implementation of the Prespa Agreement is crucial both for the accession process of Northern Macedonia to the European Union and for our bilateral relations.

3. dimokratianews.gr (translated, original by dimokratianews.gr, 18.01.2021)

Loverdos for Adonis: "He is my little brother" - Georgiadis: "I thank the fighter"

Adonis Georgiadis and Andreas Loverdos are now "flirting" publicly and irrevocably, proving that the "Novartis party" is here, as the "democracy" revealed a few weeks ago with a revealing article.

The two men are no longer able to hide their close relationship, with the beheaded parliamentary representative of the Movement for Change giving a new interview on Saturday, in which he "overflowed" with restraint towards the "blue" minister, even going so far as to call him "His little brother"!

And yet, Andreas Loverdos spoke about his relationship with Adonis Georgiadis, with whom, as he said, they have been playing tennis together for over a decade, while, when asked if he has friends from parties other than KIN.AL., he answered verbatim : "Not many. Georgiadis, however, is my little brother. "We have been playing tennis together since 2008." In fact, Adonis Georgiadis hurried to return the compliments, writing on social networks that Andreas Loverdos "is a true fighter of both life and politics, and this can be seen in the stadium we play. I thank him for what he said about me. "

What do the New Democracy and the Movement for Change have to say about the fact that the two men now go public "hand in hand"? Especially if one considers that the "salivations" in public view can only be related to the various scenarios for the "party of Novartis", brought to light by the "democracy", which are gaining more and more ground, as the joint presence of politicians involved in the pharmaceutical giant scandal. Everything shows that those involved in the scandal no longer even keep up appearances, which is also proven in the context of the recently published book by Andreas Loverdos, which is the number one guide to the entanglement of recent years, as, among other things, describes in detail how any political and ideological differences that are demolished in the name of safeguarding interests…

4. parapolitika.gr (translated, original by parapolitika.gr, 15.01.2021)

Unbelievable: Kasidiaris makes ... a radio show from inside his cell

Elias Kasidiaris, convicted and imprisoned for directing a criminal organization in Domokos prison, has a regular political radio broadcast, and he uploads his radio messages on social media.

Kasidiaris, one of the members of the Golden Dawn board, uploads to YouTube shows where he presents his views on various issues, most recently the one commenting on January 13, the possibility of elections, immigration, the Turkish provocation, but also the vaccine against of the coronavirus. The last capacity of the former MP was recently mentioned by the author and former MP Petros Tatsopoulos, in a post on Facebook.

He also quotes a collage of three photos of the "lads", as he names them. The "first lad" who is Elias Kasidiaris, the "second lad" referring to the MEP Giannis Lagos and the "third lad", the fugitive Christos Pappas.

However, as recorded, the radio shows of Ilias Kasidiaris that he posts on YouTube as president and of the party he has founded for the "Greeks for the Homeland" seem to have an impact as in his last show on January 13 he gathered 42,000 views.

According to a report by ANT1, Kasidiaris engages in frequent posts on Twitter, where he takes a position on current issues, such as the attitude of the priests at the Epiphany, who "defied government terrorism," as he wrote.

Detainees have the right to use the media in prison, although cell and computer use is not allowed.

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The Netherlands

1. sgp.nl (translated, original by sgp.nl, 16.01.2021)

Van Meeuwen new party chairman

During the online election conference, Dick van Meeuwen is the new party chairman by the delegates. After the congratulations by deputy. ds. G.W.S. Mulder addressed the new party chairman to the meeting:

Dear fellow party members,

First of all, thank you very much for the trust you have placed in me. And to you, Rev. Mulder: thank you for your kind and encouraging words. I hope not to betray your trust and with God's help and in dependence on His blessing I will dedicate myself to this responsible but also beautiful task.

During my introductory visit with the entire board, Kees van der Staaij, as fluent as ever, said that the difference with my predecessor, Maarten van Leeuwen, is only one letter. Instead of Van Leeuwen, my name is Van Meeuwen. But as Kees said, it is not that big of a difference, because they both belong to the animal kingdom. By "she" he meant of course our names. That may be the case, but as far as I am concerned the comparison does end here: Because what can a seagull do compared to a lion? In other words, take me as I am ...

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our interim chairman Maarten van Leeuwen for all his efforts to lead the board and the party. This happened at a time when it was not always easy. Dear Maarten: Thank you very much for that and it is great that you want to stay until the meeting in May to help me with the transfer of tasks. If we had gathered live in a large hall, I would have had to stop now, because there would undoubtedly have been a loud applause, I'm sure.

Party members, it is my intention to provide open and transparent leadership. Collaboration is a keyword for me. Cooperation with the employees at the Party Bureau, with all levels, but I would also like to stay in touch with you who represent our supporters in our country. We need each other very much at this time. Don't we all feel that?

These are uncertain times due to the corona crisis…. But one thing we know: Everything changes at His will, but God Himself does not change. That gives peace of mind. At the same time, we are called to do our job as SGP. I want to say 2 things about that.

In the first place, it is an election year, which is always exciting for a political party. Especially now that we cannot campaign in the normal way. The election campaign team nevertheless organized original and innovative events to promote the SGP. I would like to thank all those involved (including many young people) from this place. We all hope, of course, that as many votes as possible will be cast on the SGP. Let us deal with this actively, for example by helping the elderly or people who cannot vote themselves.

Second, our time poses some probing questions to the SGP. Questions about the protection of life, about gender ideology, about fundamental rights such as freedom of education….

In recent weeks we have learned in an almost shocking way that politics based on Biblical values and norms are no longer understood. In fact, is actually no longer tolerated. There is a turning point in our time. Now it is precisely Biblical values and norms that connect us. They are the soul of our beliefs. For 103 years.

It is my wish to stick with it, to reflect on it permanently and to let our political voice be heard from there. We have a word for the world, the Word, we need not be ashamed of that. As Christians we have come to a time of "showing color". In politics, but that applies to all of us in society. Let us also be allowed to do that in dependence on the Lord.

I'm going to close.

During one of the interview meetings, our vice-chairman, Rev. Mulder, read a few verses from psalm 25 to open it. One of them was: (David) Let sincerity and piety protect me, for I expect you. I hope that this prayer your prayer may be: for yourself, for the party, for all its representatives and also for this new chairman. I thank you. I look forward to seeing us again for real. 27

2. nltimes.nl (original by nltimes.nl, 09.01.2021)

PVV releases election program: "country without headscarfs, but with traditional Dutch coziness"

The Freedom Party (PVV) presented its election program on Saturday. The party’s points of view are explained in over 50 pages, with keywords such as culture and traditions, care and safety, and climate realism.

In the preface, the party leader Geert Wilders writes that his party is proud of its own culture. “We will not let ourselves be talked into racism.” He wants to return to “a country without headscarves, but with traditional Dutch coziness, such as the Sinterklaas tradition with Zwarte Piet.”

The PVV wants to “de-Islamize” the Netherlands. Among other things, it wants to stop the spread of “Islamic ideology.” The party wants to close the borders to “fortune seekers and immigrants from Islamic countries.” There must be a “Ministry of Immigration, Remigration, and De-Islamization,” and people with dual nationality should no longer have the right to vote, argues the election program. Temporary asylum permits for Syrian refugees should be withdrawn.

Dutch flag

Furthermore, the party wants the Dutch flag to be raised in schools every day. Article 23, which ensures the freedom for special education, should be retained. However, education on an Islamic basis should be abolished, according to the PVV.

The party also wants to “take control of our own money” and leave the European Union. Public broadcasting should also be abolished, says the party.

In addition, much more money should go to healthcare, for example, for a substantial, structural salary increase. Tens of thousands of care workers must also be added, including tens of thousands of new places in nursing homes.

More police officers

The party wants to add 10,000 officers to the police force, and the army should be deployed “where necessary” to “reclaim the streets of the Netherlands.”

The PVV still opposes changes to the pension system. The state pension age should be reduced to 65, they argue. Entrepreneurs who are the victims of the coronavirus crisis should be 100 percent compensated. Furthermore, the party wants to reduce the VAT on groceries.

“Climate realism”

Finally, the party is advocating for “climate realism.” They argue that “CO2 is an energy source for everything that grows and thrives. Climate policy, which revolves around the reduction of CO2 emissions, therefore, has very little to do with nature or the environment.” The party thus wants to push back against climate regulation.

3. nieuws.nl (translated, original by nieuws.nl, 16.01.2021)

SGP remains open to cooperation with Forum

The SGP remains open to cooperation with Forum for Democracy and other populist parties, says leader Kees van der Staaij. The new party chairman Dick van Meeuwen does not see the point.

In the Nederlands Dagblad Van Meeuwen says that, in his opinion, cooperation with FVD "is not possible". "When it comes to cooperation, the ChristenUnie is my first choice, then the CDA. Populist parties are a lot further away from us."

According to Van der Staaij, however, the SGP does not exclude any party in advance. "That's what we are maintaining," he said. The interview is "not an announcement of another line." However, the kinship is greatest with the other Christian parties, he says.

Van Meeuwen points out in ND that FVD's positions on issues such as euthanasia and abortion differ greatly from those of the SGP. "They are not a natural ally for us. Absolutely not."

According to Van der Staaij, the new party chairman wanted to emphasize the "essential differences" with the populist parties in the interview. Van Meeuwen was elected the new chairman by 98 percent at a digital election congress on Saturday.

4. express.co.uk (by Joel Day, 08.01.2021.)

EU exposed as Wilders claimed bloc 'doesn't want children to leave'

THE EU is afraid of other European countries leaving the bloc, Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders claimed.

Ever since the UK's historic EU referendum vote in 2016, countries in Europe have threatened to leave. Brexit appeared to have a domino effect on the continent, with several states going through a spike of discontent with Brussels. Even before the vote, unhappiness with Brussels was rife.

Respondents to the University of Edinburgh survey in other countries found a similar sentiment: In Spain, 47 percent of those asked favoured a referendum, in Germany, 46 percent, in France, 53 percent - the highest yet.

And while this feeling slowly diminished as the Brexit process slogged on, one Dutch lawmaker said the EU still fears other countries will uproot and pursue independence. Geert Wilders, leader of the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom, said the bloc did not want to help realise that anxiety.

Speaking to CNBC in 2019, Mr Wilders explained: "It started long ago. Mrs May, as you remember, was against Brexit.

"So, the negotiations started with a Prime Minister who herself was against Brexit, and I believe that's a very bad start.

"On the other hand you had the European Union. The EU really does not want one of the children to leave the house, they do not want that. They are afraid that, if they allow it, maybe another country would follow. Maybe Italy, Holland, France - whatever country that thinks, 'Well, it might not be such a bad idea: the US saying we will have a lot of trade agreements.'

"I believe that from the European part - I'm sure Britain has so far made a mess of it - but also from the EU, there was no incentive to get a good deal. They wanted to make an example to any country in Europe that if you try to leave, it will be a mess. So it's a big disincentive to leave the EU."

His idea that the EU has a hold over member states, unwilling to allow their freedom, is one that has been shared by other political figures.

In 1988, then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher gave a damning speech to the College of Europe. In what was then known as the European Community, Mrs Thatcher boldly compared the bloc's financial reforms to those of the Soviet Union.

She said: "It is ironic that just when those countries such as the Soviet Union, which have tried to run everything from the centre, are learning that success depends on dispersing power and decisions away from the centre, there are some in the Community who seem to want to move in the opposite direction.

"We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re- imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.

"Certainly we want to see Europe more united and with a greater sense of common purpose.

"But it must be in a way which preserves the different traditions, parliamentary powers and sense of national pride in one's own country: for these have been the source of Europe's vitality through the centuries."

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Belgium

1. sceptr.net (translated, original by Wijnand Meeus, 13.01.2021)

Party chairman of Vlaams Belang Tom Van Grieken reacts in an interview with Het Laatste Nieuws after the fuss that some of his tweets allegedly caused. Earlier today he posted some messages on Twitter in connection with the new figures that show that one in three inhabitants of Belgium has a foreign background.

"The outrage should not be about the term, but rather about the figures," Van Grieken responded to Het Laatste Nieuws. "I have also asked several journalists what term they would use if the native population is replaced by a new Fleming over time. Give me another term and I will use it, but the term 'omvolking' describes the phenomenon fairly well. Municipalities such as Borgerhout or Molenbeek - actually a Flemish and Brussels municipality - have been completely repopulated in fifty years."

"In France they have a French culture, in Flanders a Flemish culture and in England an English culture," he continues. "That's not very surprising. We understand well that there is a Congolese culture in the Congo, but for me to advocate that there should be a Flemish culture in Flanders is apparently revolutionary. I don't understand that."

Van Grieken fears especially for the situation in Brussels. "If you look at the periphery around Brussels, we see that Dutch-speaking schools are under pressure because there is an influx from Brussels of French speakers," he echoes. "That's not Jean and Jean-Pierre going to the Dutch-speaking schools, but often children of non-European foreigners. Let's call a cat a cat. You may shoot at me that I may have used a naughty term, but of course the problem remains."

2. sceptr.net (translated, original b y Wijnand Meeus, 12.01.2021)

One in four preschoolers do not speak Dutch at home

Statistics Flanders figures show that 25 percent of preschoolers do not speak Dutch at home. Also 22 percent of elementary school students speak another language outside of school hours. In ten years' time there has been an increase of ten percentage points.

Ten years ago, 'only' 17.2 percent of pre-schoolers did not speak Dutch at home. For elementary school pupils this was 13, percent. A marked increase. "You cannot look away from this evolution. You cannot maintain that we have to do nothing," responds Flemish Minister of Education Ben Weyts (N-VA) in Het Nieuwsblad. "More effort will have to be put into the knowledge of Dutch. With a language screening in kindergarten and tightened final attainment levels that put more emphasis on our language."

In addition, the figures from Statistics Flanders show that, moreover, four in ten preschoolers and elementary school children received a school allowance in 2019-2020. In the reform of the old school allowance to the new 'Growth Package', the selection criteria were broadened and the granting procedure adjusted. As a result, the number of students who received a school allowance increased.

3. sceptr.net (translated, original by Pieter Van Berkel, 13.01.2021)

Playing cards is also sexist and racist nowadays

Dutch psychology student Indy Mellink said she came to the conclusion that playing cards is racist and sexist and therefore created a gender-neutral card game. AD writes that.

"Why is the gentleman actually worth more than the woman," Mellink wondered. "In almost all card games it's like that. [...] The card game reflects 16th- and 17th-century class society. That's bizarre and completely out of date, in fact there should be an alternative."

"Lord, lady and peasant are always white, that's also inequality"

"Partly because of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations I thought: the gentleman, woman and farmer are always white, that is also inequality. That's when I knew: I have to get away from people", she says. Mellink ultimately opted for a card game without human figures, with the colors gold, silver and bronze to indicate rank.

The psychology student emphasizes that she is "not an activist" and that she does not want the traditional card game to disappear from stores. She does hope that her initiative can grow into a full-fledged alternative.

4. tijd.be (translated, original by Bart de Wever, 15.01.2021)

Essay Bart De Wever: 'Freedom cannot survive by restricting it'

It is herculean as task, but anyone who wants to do something useful to reverse Trumpism will have to find solutions to the growing loss of confidence in Western societies.

The world was shaken up by an event that, in the final analysis, was more burlesque than dramatic: a large group of hotheads gained unlawful access to the U.S. Congress in order to kick up a fuss. A video of this by Arnold Schwarzenegger was viewed tens of millions of times in no time.

In it The Terminator actually compares the events to Kristallnacht in Germany in 1938. Putting a bunch of rabble rousers whipped up by Trump on a par with a state-organized terror attack on a well-defined group of citizens as a phase in a process that would lead to a legalized, systematic and large-scale genocide... That's quite something.

While a storm of excited outrage over these events swept through the Belgian Chamber, the democratic worldview was much more decisively challenged by illiberal China. Almost simultaneously with the misbehavior in the Capitol, democracy in Hong Kong was skillfully nipped to death.

Actually, the defenders of the existing democratic consensus should be rubbing their hands together at the storming of the Capitol. That in Spain, in its own European Union, popularly elected politicians have already spent three years in jail for organizing a plebiscite is hardly considered worthy of a mock disapproval, as unobtrusive as possible, by many of those outraged. If they don't already try to silence it or justify it. Or as one put it to me during "The Deal" when I brought that up, "Okay, but we really do want to talk about Trump now.

The positive thing about the past four years and the exploit of storming the Capitol is that American democracy passes Trump's stress test with flying colors. In fact, the question is more whether Trump is passing American democracy politically. The Capitol misadventure has dealt his presidency the final blow. If this was to pass for a planned putsch, it was surely one of the worst attempts of all time.

Big words

Nevertheless, big words and deeds were thus not shunned. By analogy with the countries that quickly declared war on Germany in 1945, Facebook and Twitter deleted the accounts of the American president. The leader of the free world must remain silent. In Belgium, criticism of 33 the democratic and institutionally dilapidated Belgium was decried in parliament as an expression of dangerous Trumpism. Politicians conjured up images of ready-made mobs that might also storm into parliament here. The Minister of Justice, although belonging to a party that once honored liberalism, took to his pen to say that he is tired of the invective and that our own Trumpist whiners must henceforth be brought before the criminal court.

Perhaps we can take our cues from the Roman Republic and reinstate two censors who can reprimand citizen misconduct with a nota censoria or - even better - remove citizens' right to vote. The history of Christianity also offers much inspiration. If a new communication technology, like the printing press at the time, allows wrongdoers to reach many people, you can make an index of what is not allowed, like the Holy Office in 1559. Along with the persecution of wrong ideas through the Inquisition, this has proven useful for centuries. Galileo Galilei got off lightly with eight years of house arrest and the compulsory recitation of penitential psalms for spreading his heliocentric fake news.

Perhaps we can take our cues from the Roman Republic and reinstate two censors who can reprimand citizens for misbehavior with a nota censoria or - even better - remove citizens' voting rights. The liberals among us can then again delve into the early stages of the French Revolution, for then, too, wrong thinking was vigorously dealt with by the Comité de salut public. Somewhat more delicately, because fresher in the memory, the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century - Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union - also showed how to keep citizens in step with desired ideas and how to deal with dissent.

It leads us to ask why right-thinking people today are again leaning toward the malodorous spurs that have already brought us so much stupidity, death and destruction. So is the individual freedom that the seeping in of Enlightenment values brought us really too far gone? Do we need more government repression and enlightened big tech CEOs to protect us from ourselves? Of course not!

Pensée unique

Actually, the defenders of the existing democratic consensus should be rubbing their hands together at the storming of the Capitol. The sight of the roughest face of Trumpism offers an excellent opportunity to drive these ideas back to the political margins.

But that is precisely where the shoe pinches. The eager indignation of right-thinking people and their wishful thinking about a new kind of digital censorship with a capstone in the courts mainly shows the frustration about one's own inability. Despite the general support of the classical media, of virtually all opinion makers and cultural bearers, large groups of people color outside the lines of their elite consensus. Digital technology, moreover, enables these groups to compartmentalize in a new way into a dissenting voice over which one no longer has any control.

The eager indignation of right-thinking people and their wishful thinking about a new kind of digital censorship with a capstone in the courts shows above all the frustration about one's own inability. It is herculean as task, but those who want to do something useful to reverse Trumpism will have to find solutions to the growing loss of confidence in Western societies in the good outcome of globalization, the technological revolution and the ecological transition. There are 34 a lot of people who are quite comfortable with these evolutions and voluntarily take on the challenges that arise from them. They dominate the elite consensus and like to give their pensée unique the character of moral elevation. Much lived empathy for dissenters is not forthcoming.

During 'De afspraken', Liesbeth Van Impe, editor-in-chief of Het Nieuwsblad, objected that the traditional media have done nothing but write about these people. Perhaps that is true, but then mainly as the subject of analyses and opinions produced by editors who are by now completely interchangeable, and who are governed by the urge not only to describe the truth as they see it, but also to preach 'the good'.

Anyone who is concerned about mass migration, which is particularly tangible at the bottom of society and does not always lead to great joy there, is quickly dismissed as a racist and thus warmly handed over to the salesmen of the nonsensical population theory. Those who see the speed with which new technology completely capsizes old business models and fearfully wonder whether there will be room in tomorrow's labor market for those who are no longer with us are dismissed as old and/or poorly educated and so warmly handed over to those who put up images of economic certainties or systems that never really existed or functioned. Those who are more afraid of the end of the month than of the end of the century are, in turn, driven as genocidal egotists into the arms of those who maintain that climate change is, after all, fake news.

As if all of this were not enough, wealthy people and their spoiled children have now elevated the practice of looking down on what Hillary Clinton has come to call deplorables to an art form that goes by the name of woke. Would all readers of Het Laatste Nieuws have applauded when the newspaper reported to us this week that a Dutch student has improved the world by launching a "genderless card game" that no longer exclusively features "white" figures, nor the sexist indoctrination that the Lord as a figure is higher than the Lady?

The message is clear: wrong people not only have no future, they have always been wrong and therefore responsible for everything that is crooked in the world. The message is clear: wrong people not only have no future, they have also always been wrong and are therefore responsible for everything that is crooked in the world. So please do not imagine that the free West is a beacon of human civilization, let alone that you should take pride in the identity you have imagined in it fake news-wise. No, rather face it: 'You are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic.' (Dixit Hillary Clinton on the Trump supporters during the 2016 campaign.)

Civil Rights

2020 was a year in which our civil rights and freedoms were suspended because of corona with a stroke of a pen by a minister or an official. Regardless of the discussions on effectiveness, no one will question the good intentions of the measures taken. But the ease with which closing borders, imposing curfews (a form of collective house arrest), and curtailing social life are implemented without a constitutional framework for such exceptional situations is astonishing. That people are using the pandemic as an argument to dismiss legitimate criticism of this country's government as Trumpism is disturbing. That one uses the pandemic as an argument to dismiss legitimate criticism of this country's government as Trumpism is troubling. That one accepts that CEOs of big tech companies who 35 are de facto monopolists are turning themselves into modern, global censors is incomprehensible. That one simultaneously earnestly advocates the creation of government truth-seeking institutions and the unleashing of the correctional judge on opinions that would fall too far outside the elite consensus is downright frightening.

Surely let us learn something from our past and from the arduous path we have taken on the compass of Enlightenment values to a freedom, equality and solidarity that we have never before been able to experience so unbridled as we do today in the free West. Excesses that truly systematically preach hatred and violence must be combated. But great caution and restraint are required. Freedom cannot survive by restricting it. Only the power of our conviction, of our pen and our word is legitimate to fight within democracy for what we hold dear.

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Ireland

1. tuairisc.ie (translated, original by tuairisc.ie, 14.01.2021)

‘A day for our lives’ - opinion given in the first ever Irish language case in the Court of Justice of the European Union

Clarification sought on a case brought by Peadar Mac Fhlannchadha, Deputy Secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge, against the Minister for Agriculture and the State

‘Lá dár saol’ - opinion given in the first ever Irish language case in the Court of Justice of the European Union. An opinion has been delivered in the first case ever dealt with by the Court of Justice of the European Union in Irish.

Around 9.30am, in the courtroom 3 on the 6th floor of the Court in the city of Luxembourg the opinion of the Czech general counsel Michal Bobek was presented to the judges.

This is the first time since Ireland became a member of the EU in 1973 that the court has dealt with a case in Irish and the most important part of the situation from a linguistic point of view is that it has now been proven that the EU can deal with, without any difficulties, with a case in Irish.

Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher said "today is a day of our lives" and argued that the situation would enhance the status of the Irish language in the Union.

The case has been referred to the court for clarification as to whether a court in an EU member state has the option of refusing to grant relief in a case involving rights under European law.

Michal Bobek was of the opinion that it was up to the courts in Ireland to decide. Bobek 's opinion will now be considered by five judges, but the opinion of the advocate general is generally accepted in cases like this.

Peadar Mac Fhlannchadha, who is Deputy Secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge, took the case against the Minister for Agriculture and the State, claiming that the use of Irish on medicinal products in this country is also a breach of European directive .

The High Court in Dublin ruled in July 2019 that this state is in breach of a language obligation under European law as the use of English only on the labels and packaging of medicinal products for animals. A decision in the High Court at the end of 2019 decided to take a question arising from Mac Fhlannchadha's case to the court in Luxembourg. High Court Judge Úna Ní Raifeartaigh needed clarification on the question of law under European directives.

According to the preliminary opinion presented to the Court of Justice of the European Union this morning, it is up to the High Court in Dublin to decide. “It is for the court which made the referral to ensure, in the facts and context of each individual case before it, that there is a reasonable correlation between the nature of the rights claimed, the seriousness of the infringement or injury suffered, and the nature of the remedy. sought, and, as a consequence, the type of relief she decides to grant (or, as the case may be, not to grant), in favor of the applicant, ”said Michal Bobek.

It will be some time before judgment is given in the case but it would be unusual if the preliminary opinion was not accepted. Peadar Mac Fhlannchadha has already received the confirmation of the High Court in Ireland that the State was not yet fulfilling its obligation under the European directive. He received this confirmation when Judge Úna Ní Raifeartaigh ruled that European law had not been properly applied in this case.

But if today 's preliminary opinion is accepted, the implications of that judgment will now have to be decided in the High Court.

This was the European Directive (2001/82 / EC) concerning medicinal products for animals.

Subject to that directive, issued by the European Union in 2001, data relating to animal medicinal products must be in the official language or languages of the Member States in which the products are sold.

From 2022, the member states of the Union will have freedom of labeling and the State will be allowed to choose English or Irish for the labels.

Judge Úna Ní Raifeartaigh said that it may not be worthwhile to start making the packaging bilingual now that the new guidance on the subject will be introduced in 2022. There was a question as to whether it was up to the court to decide on that, Judge Ní Raifeartaigh said.

A clear view on that issue was given in the Court in Luxembourg today.

2. tuairisc.ie (translated, original by Pádraic Ó Ciardha, 13.01.2021)

A county council has decided that it would be ‘cumbersome’ to put Irish on new signage

Councilor Gobnait Ní Mhuimhneacháin says that the County Council has made efforts to promote the Irish language but that a recent decision is a ‘huge step in the wrong direction’.

A county council has decided that it would be ‘cumbersome’ to put Irish on new signage

A County Councilor in Cork has expressed disappointment with the County Council 's decision not to use Irish on new signage to be introduced throughout the county.

Cork County Council intends to provide dedicated parking spaces for older people in towns around the county and these spaces will be marked with new signage. However, the Council refused to use Irish in spaces outside the Gaeltacht.

Spaces in places outside the Gaeltacht will only appear ‘Age Friendly’ and those in the Gaeltacht will be ‘Age Friendly’ only.

It was stated at a meeting of Cork County Council on Monday that an attempt had been made to use bilingual signage but it was said that the combination of Irish and English was "cumbersome" or ambiguous.

Gobnait Ní Mhuimhneacháin, Fianna Fáil County Councilor, says that it is not right that the Irish language will only be used on spaces in the Gaeltacht.

"I feel that the Irish language has been put in a box and that God did not allow the Irish language to go outside the Gaeltacht," said Ní Mhuimhneacháin.

""It's a pity. People outside the Gaeltacht who speak Irish, who are interested in the Irish language and who are proud of the Irish language are being completely forgotten. ” 38

Ní Mhuimhneacháin says that Cork County Council is trying to promote the Irish language but that this decision is a "huge step in the wrong direction".

Councilor Ní Mhuimhneacháin was one of the councilors who wanted these parking spaces to be made available to older people outside of shops, post offices, chemists' shops and the like, but she was not happy with a particular aspect of the report. presented to Council this week.

“I welcomed the report but were not happy that Irish would be used only in the Gaeltacht and English only outside it. I asked if something different could be done. ”

"The director of the road came in and said that they had tried to write it in both Irish and English but that it was sort of 'cumbersome' and that it would be difficult to read them."

Ní Mhuimhneacháin accepts that explanation, but says that the other options put forward at the meeting were not accepted.

“I put ideas in front of them. They were told that they could all be put in Irish, that would be great, or put a logo in it.

"I was very pleased with Councilor [Sheila] O'Callaghan's suggestion to use the letter 'A' for 'Age Friendly' and 'Aois' but they were unwilling to accept that," said Ní Mhuimhneacháin.

The recommendations contained in the report were put to a vote at a meeting of Cork County Council on Monday and were accepted by a majority of councilors.

Ní Mhuimhneacháin says that there is now a danger that signage like this will be accepted in English only outside the Gaeltacht throughout the country.

Ní Mhuimhneacháin said that ‘Age Friendly Ireland’, an organization that works to help older people, was monitoring Cork County Council's report so that they could use the model recommended in the rest of the country.

“I have already written to Age Friendly Ireland to tell them that if they are to use this report, they should consider using that 'A' instead of English as I would be concerned that this would be the case. so everywhere henceforth. I'm disappointed it will be all around the county but it would be even worse if it was all around the country. ”

3. independent.ie (by Eilish O Regan, Senan Molony, Gabija Gataveckaite and Anne Lucey, 19.01.2021)

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly under fire over claims of ‘inadequate’ vaccination protocols

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is under pressure over the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine amid claims that official guidance was not available or insufficient. 39

As a second Dublin maternity hospital admitted vaccinating relatives of staff, the minister was struggling to get on top of the situation last night. His spokesman said vaccines were operational matters that would not be notified to the minister, with issues first being addressed by the HSE. But the HSE only issued new protocols on what to do with leftover doses in the middle of last week.

This was after the Coombe hospital gave 16 doses of the vaccine to relatives of family members because it said it was unable to get direction from health authorities and did not want to see the vaccines go to waste.

Yesterday the Rotunda said it had also given vaccines to the relatives of staff members, while Tallaght Hospital said jabs went to management and administration staff. It also emerged last night that 10 construction workers who are doing building work at University Hospital Kerry in Tralee received the Covid-19 vaccine.

The hospital said they needed to work in clinical areas and were involved in time-critical construction projects. Opposition leaders are set to ramp up the pressure on the Mr Donnelly from today. Questions will be raised in the Dáil over the minister’s handling of the vaccine rollout.

Labour leader Alan Kelly told the Irish Independent the fact that vaccines were being given to family members of hospital staff was “very undermining for the vaccine programme”.

“There are a series of questions that need to be answered by the hospital and the minister. What did the HSE protocol say, and why wasn’t it followed?” he said.

“Minister Donnelly doesn’t seem on top of this, and one of the reasons I wanted a dedicated minister for vaccines was for when issues like this that arise.”

Social Democrats spokeswoman Róisín Shortall said what happened was completely unacceptable and a “slap in the face” for priority groups still waiting. There were anecdotes of other examples, she said. Many frontline workers facing daily risk have still not received a vaccine despite two hospitals giving surplus jabs to relatives of staff. However, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said that spare vaccines should be used for those with the “highest priority”.

The HSE issued revised guidelines to hospitals and healthcare settings last Tuesday saying that any planned vaccination session has to include a standby list with contact details of 120 healthcare workers who could receive any additional vaccines.

Hospital groups have been unable to say how hospitals are prioritised for receiving the vaccine.

4. independent.ie (by Sarah Collins, 19.01.2021)

Hauliers warn of empty shelves if imports don’t speed up

The Government will not give way and relax customs checks on UK imports even as hauliers warn that shoppers will face empty supermarket shelves unless there is action to reduce delays.

Britain left the single market at the end of last year, ushering in a period of uncertainty and delays over new trading rules and customs forms, with an immediate impact on foodstuffs.

“The UK left the European Union on the 31st [of December]. That’s a fact. So there is no scope for pause. The date has passed,” said Tom Talbot, the head of customs operations at Dublin Port. Last week the Freight Transport Association of Ireland asked for a six-month suspension of certain customs declarations to allow hauliers to get up to speed with the new rules. But the Government said it was an EU requirement to apply the rules in full.

“We’re guardians of the EU. We safeguard the food market, the internal market – jealously and rightly so – and that’s our job. So legally, we can’t pause for six months,” Mr Talbot said.

Hauliers say they are facing disruptions because UK suppliers are not filling in customs forms properly, leading to backlogs at UK warehouses and delays at Irish ports. Stricter rules – including health certification, 24-hour pre-notification, and physical checks at Irish ports – apply to food products. Hauliers say Irish shoppers could face empty supermarket shelves within weeks if the problems are not solved.

Declan Hughes at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, told reporters yesterday that there had been “isolated issues with individual products”.

The Revenue Commissioners said that more than 80pc of goods arriving into Dublin Port are now being cleared for customs.

Mr Talbot said that of the 20pc of trucks stopped for checks, no driver had been held for longer than five hours. However, the Port is operating at only 50pc of normal trade volumes because of the backlogs in the UK.

“It’s not having a really big impact now, but we need to unblock those before it does have,” said Eddie Burke of the Department of Transport’s Brexit unit.

Hauliers say there is also a lack of trained customs agents to process paperwork and complain that Revenue’s IT systems are too complex.

Revenue has offered traders a temporary fix to fast-track their safety and security declarations, but it will only be in place for a few weeks. “Increased trade over the coming days and coming weeks is expected, and is expected to bring challenges, but we have planned for that,” said Mr Talbot.

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Denmark

1. jyllands-posten.dk (translated, original by Mads Bonde Broberg, 14.01.2021)

Thulesen Dahl longs for Jakob Ellemann-Jensen

Kristian Thulesen Dahl finds it cross-border that the Liberal Party supports a case against Inger Støjberg. He sees the blue block as divided and is ready to welcome Støjberg to DF.

The bourgeois bloc is divided and extra challenged, after the Liberal Party, at the request of chairman Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, has chosen to support a national court case against the party's legal spokesman and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration, Inger Støjberg. Mette Frederiksen, on the other hand, can look forward to it.

This is how the chairman of the Danish People's Party, Kristian Thulesen Dahl, describes the situation, at the same time as he calls the Liberal Party's treatment of Støjberg "cross-border".

“There is someone who is happy with this whole situation, I think. This is Mette Frederiksen. She is facing a corona challenge, which she is obviously not happy about, but which she has the opportunity to handle in a way where she is strong in the consciousness of the voters and in the Danes. And then she has a bourgeois opposition, which in many ways is really challenged. And this case, of course, only makes the challenges even greater, because we have a Liberal Party that is divided and does not agree on Inger Støjberg, but on the contrary has a majority who want a federal court case against their own now former deputy chairman. It is really a wild development in Danish politics, "says Thulesen-Dahl.

He believes that it was Elleman-Jensen who created the momentum to bring charges against Støjberg at the Supreme Court, when he between Jyllands-Posten between Christmas and New Year said that he was ready to support a Supreme Court case against Støjberg, if the Folketing's independent lawyers saw the basis of a case - which they later did.

“What I think is the most cross-border is, of course, that her own party is not behind her and trying to back her up, but has almost become advocates for the Supreme Court. It was Jakob Ellemann who, during the Christmas period, created this atmosphere here, which also made it easier for the Social Democrats today to support a national court, "he says. 42

Inger Støjberg said after the Liberal Party's group meeting on Thursday that it was "the biggest declaration of no confidence one can get" that Ellemann supported a federal court case against her. She currently has 'reflections' on her future, including whether she wants to stay in the Liberal Party.

Støjberg must be extremely welcome in the Danish People's Party, says Thulesen Dahl, who emphasizes that there is great commonality between Støjberg and DF when it comes to foreigners and value policy.

"If she chooses to knock on our door, the door will be open immediately," he says.

Even though she e.g. is an EU supporter?

“Yes, but one can also ask what is really most important to her? What is her political heart beating for? And there is no doubt that it is foreign and value policy. And she has no problem advocating border control and that we should have a return policy. So on all the big things, we will be able to easily find the melody if we want it. "

As the DF chairman sees it, it is out of proportion to raise a national court case against Inger Støjberg.

"It is a wild overreaction," he says, adding that the Danish People's Party will now propose that the Folketing appoint a lawyer to investigate previous cases where a "nose" has been given to ministers. A "nose" is Christiansborg jargon to express criticism of a minister.

He mentions as an example that the Social Democrat Morten Bødskov, as Minister of Justice in the Thorning government, "fabricated an emergency lie" to the Folketing in the so-called Christiania case.

“He is not facing a federal court, he is sitting as a minister today. What is the connection between that and then a national court case against Inger Støjberg? ”Asks Thulesen Dahl.

2. dr.dk (translated, original by Caroline Clante, 13.01.2021)

Rasmus Paludan on attempted murder: 'I was in a state of shock'

Two men are accused of killing the Stram Kurs founder last year.

Security was high when Stram Kurs founder Rasmus Paludan today had to give an explanation in a case where two men are accused of wanting to kill him.

Because as the prosecutor said at the beginning of the case to DR News, it is not 'everyday food' that you have attempted murder of politicians.

On Constitution Day last year, Rasmus Paludan held a demonstration in Digterparken in Åbyhøj in Aarhus.

The demonstration developed dramatically when one of the accused, a 53-year-old mentally ill man, ran through the police barricade with a knife in his hand, resulting in the man being shot in the leg by police.

I have been exposed to a lot. But this day was different.

According to the prosecution, a 41-year-old co-defendant played a major role in the attempted murder when, according to the prosecution, he gave the knife, showed videos and appointed Rasmus Paludan to the 53-year-old.

Both men plead not guilty to the attempted murder.

Paludan: I was in a state of shock

Already early this morning, several police cars and police dogs arrived at the courthouse in Aarhus, which had to be inspected before today's court hearing could begin.

Inside the courtroom itself, there were several uniformed officers as well as PET guards, who were to protect the party leader when he was the first to testify.

'I've been exposed to a lot. But this day was different, Rasmus Paludan told about the incident, which is a little over half a year back.

In court, Rasmus Paludan explained that he had reported a demonstration to the East Jutland Police a few days before Constitution Day.

He would have liked to have kept it in Gellerupparken, but it will instead be moved to Digterparken.

I was in a state of shock. I got very bad afterwards. I cried a lot. I did that several times that day.

Rasmus Paludan said he invited the 53-year-old accused man to dialogue. Various things were said, but along the way, the 53-year-old took out a knife.

’I remember it like he comes with a knife to stab it in me and to kill me. It goes fast. I step back towards PET's car and one of the bodyguards pulls me back and says 'into the car', he said in court.

’We drove quickly away from the place. 30 seconds inside the drive I ask when we can return to the demonstration. A bodyguard says I should just take it easy because they do not think it's piss fun this.

’I was in a state of shock. I got very bad afterwards. I cried a lot. I did that several times that day, he says of the episode.

He also told the court that he subsequently became very tearful, which he usually is not. 44

The defense attorney for the 53-year-old defendant, attorney Henrik Hougaard, wanted to know how Rasmus Paludan had perceived the incident before the defendant held a knife in his hand and whether his client could have misunderstood something.

’You shouted at each other, the lawyer asked.

’I did not shout at him, Rasmus Paludan replied.

’But you invite him in for dialogue?

"I do not remember," said Rasmus Paludan.

’Could he have misunderstood it?

’That he should kill me with a knife? No, it certainly sounded from Paludan.

The defense lawyer subsequently kept an interrogation report by Rasmus Paludan, in which the party founder has previously said that the accused might have misunderstood that he had to go through the barricade without being examined.

Police officer: 41-year-old defendant was angry before demonstration

In addition to Rasmus Paludan, several police officers had also been summoned as well as a witness who had been with the two defendants before the demonstration.

One of the officers works in the area around Gellerup. He told the court that on the day he had met the 41-year-old defendant by chance.

’He said, among other things, that he would burn the constitution off when Paludan would burn off the Koran. He was angry at his demeanor. He could not understand that Rasmus Paludan had been allowed to demonstrate, the officer told one in court.

The officer also met him after the 53-year-old had been shot, where they had a brief conversation.

’He said to me: 'when you knew he (53-year-old defendant ed.) Had a knife on him, how can can then be allowed to go through so many barricades, the officer said.

He wrote a week after the report of his observations, but only when the case has begun to roll.

The defense attorney for the 41-year-old defendant, Karina Skou, wanted to know how the police officer had perceived it.

’I interpret it either as meaning that he has known that he has had a knife, otherwise he has been there and seen it. My interpretation can be both ways.

They said nothing would happen to me because I am mentally sewn.

3. altinget.dk (translated, original by Erik Holstein, 14.01.2021)

Støjberg's five options

ANALYSIS: After the Folketing has decided on a Supreme Court case, Støjberg is facing a crucial decision: Should she continue in the Liberal Party or try her luck in one of the parties that are ready to welcome her? Her choice could have major political consequences.

After the harsh assessment of Inger Støjberg (V) from both the Instruction Commission and a couple of independent lawyers, there was not much to play for for the Folketing's two dominant parties, the Liberal Party and the Social Democrats. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) had to support a federal court case, even though she would have preferred to be free, and with Jakob Ellemann-Jensen's (V) markings shortly before the New Year, he was also forced to vote in favor.

For the Social Democrats, the case is a distraction, and Mette Frederiksen may fear that there will be a precedent for federal court cases that can be transferred to the mink case. In addition, a federal court against a border-seeking politician like Støjberg does not fit well with Mette Frederiksen's agenda that politicians must take power back from the officials. For Jakob Ellemann, it is guaranteed to create further division and unrest in his already hard-pressed party.

But how will the protagonist herself react when the majority of her own parliamentary group has voted in favor of a federal court case? Støjberg has a range of options to choose from, but the choice will be difficult, because none of the options are ideal for the controversial voice- swallower.

Støjberg stays in the Liberal Party

Inger Støjberg has on every occasion described herself as "a Left-wing girl", and she has largely been since she could walk. Her father was an incarnated Leftist, Inger folded her folds in the Left Youth and has since become extremely popular in the Left Jutland hinterland.

The legal experts disagree on whether Støjberg can be convicted in a federal court case, and if she is acquitted of the most serious charges, she can come back strongly in the Liberal Party. Especially in a situation where Jakob Ellemann (V) has been beaten in an election campaign and is weakened. That possibility is certainly not without perspectives for the Liberal Party's now deposed deputy chairman.

Against that scenario speaks that it requires a great deal of patience from Støjberg - and patience is not exactly her most prominent virtue. If the Liberal Party votes for a federal court, the party will also have to pick Støjberg's legal spokesperson from her, and this will leave her without a formal platform.

Without it, she can expect to be knocked into place every time she speaks out politically. Other politicians would be able to sit like spiders in their webs and wait patiently for the chance, but it is doubtful whether Inger Støjberg can control her temper for that long. In addition, Støjberg is finished at the top level in the Liberal Party if she is convicted in a federal court case.

Støjberg changes to Nye Borgerlige

Nye Borgerlige already last year sent an invitation to Støjberg, and Pernille Vermund and co. has not only made a fundraiser for Støjberg, Vermund has directly accused the Liberal Party of betraying its own deputy chairman.

Vermund and Støjberg have almost a friendship, and already last spring Vermund posted a photo on Facebook, where the two women enjoyed cool white wine in Rungsted Harbor. The international conventions Nye Borgerlige whistles do not care about, and with them it will not hurt if Støjberg is convicted by a state court. On the contrary, it will underpin the martyrdom of the former integration minister.

Although Støjberg is a robust nature, she is tired of encountering opposition in a growing part of the Liberal Party's parliamentary group, and at Nye Borgerlige she will be surrounded by supporters. In addition, she will join a party in progress. If Støjberg switches to Vermund, it has the potential for an earthquake in the blue block, and it is not inconceivable that Støjberg's person will be able to draw three-four-five percentage points from the Liberal Party to her new party.

However, there is one problem: Støjberg does not agree with Nye Borgerlige's (under- illuminated) ultra-liberal economic policy. In that field, Støjberg is much closer to the center, and in Venstres Ungdom she was directly in front against Anders Fogh Rasmussen's son Henrik for his extreme liberalism. The question then is whether economic policy today plays a particularly large role for Støjberg - or she, like another Karen Jespersen, has only been focused on foreign policy.

Støjberg changes to the Danish People's Party

If there is anything that can give artificial respiration to the once powerful Danish People's Party, it is Inger Støjberg. For DF chairman Kristian Thulesen Dahl, it will be a definite wishful thinking that will stabilize his position to that extent.

Støjberg's popularity is enormous in the DF's hinterland, and she will be received as a queen in the party. Inger Støjberg has even been married to DF's press manager Jesper Beinov. DF considers a national court against Støjberg as an expression of witch-hunting, and the party has consistently backed her in the instruction case.

Inger Støjberg has previously pointed to economic policy as one of the explanations for the fact that she was not a member of the Danish People's Party, but the reality is that she is closer to the DF in that area than Nye Borgerlige.

On the other hand, it is not very fun to join a party that is in the middle of a historic downturn, and although Støjberg can take some votes with him, it is not certain that in the long run it will be enough to turn the tide. Støjberg risks becoming a piece in the complicated game of power that takes place in the fragmented party, and how well will she fit in with a man like Morten Messerschmidt (DF) when it comes down to it? Støjberg is a national conservative, but obviously on a secular basis, and she is far from Messerschmidt's ideas of a Christian revival.

Støjberg switches to Conservatives

The most controversial of Støjberg's possibilities. If Støjberg joins the Conservatives, it will be seen as a hostile act by the Liberal Party, and the relationship between the two former government partners may be plagued for a long time to come. Especially if Støjberg takes so many Liberal votes over to Søren Pape (K) that the Conservatives become bigger than the Liberals and thus can claim the post of prime minister in a blue victory.

Both personally and politically, Støjberg swings well with the conservative leader, who is also on the hard side in foreign policy. In the Conservative parliamentary group, people like Naser Khader and the former Leftist Marcus Knuth in particular will be enthusiastic about being joined by Inger Støjberg. Conservatives are the only one of Støjberg's alternatives where she again wants realistic chances of getting a ministerial post, and at the value policy level, Conservatives have more and more moved in Støjberg's direction under Pape's leadership.

The danger is that Støjberg's problems in the Liberal Party will be whitewashed by the Conservatives. Because here too she will share the waters: The conservative business circles will be anything but enthusiastic, the same applies to the "Frederiksberg Conservatives", and it is easy to imagine loud protests from former conservative profiles such as Per Stig Møller and Connie Hedegaard. In relation to constituencies, it is a problem that both Støjberg and Pape garner votes in the West Jutland area, where Pape has no interest in competition.

Finally, the Conservatives, in contrast to the Danish People's Party and the NB, have to take a verdict at the Supreme Court seriously, and if she is found guilty, Støjberg can finish with the Conservatives before she really gets started.

Støjberg leaves politics

This must be judged as the most unlikely option.

Inger Støjberg is just like Lars Løkke Rasmussen a political animal, and the fights in the political arena are an elixir of life for her. Støjberg has previously worked as an editor at Viborg Bladet, and she has written a book about the Danish top couple Sussie and Leo. But today, that kind of peaceful pursuit will hardly give her an adrenaline kick enough. It is also difficult to imagine that there is a great job in the business world ready for Støjberg, who is 20 years old until retirement age.

It cannot be ruled out that Støjberg will choose the Lars Løkke model and become a non- attached member for a period. If that happens, it will not be to form a new party, there is simply no room for more parties on the value-political right wing. A position as a non- attached member can, on the other hand, become an intermediate station, where Støjberg considers which party she should join. 48

If Støjberg changes party, at the same time as Løkke forms a new central party, 2021 risks becoming, if possible, an even worse year than 2020 for Jakob Ellemann-Jensen.

4. danskekommuner.dk (translated, original by Mads Brandsen, 14.01.2021)

DF demands an answer from the Minister about Jacob Bjerregaard

Peter Skaarup (DF) wants Minister of Social Affairs and the Interior Astrid Krag (S) to explain the case of the former mayor of Fredericia.

Minister of Social Affairs and the Interior Astrid Krag (S) will now deal with the ongoing case in Fredericia, where former mayor Jacob Bjerregaard (S)'s purchase of a municipal building plot is the subject of a legal investigation, which will uncover what has happened.

The Danish People's Party's legal spokesman Peter Skaarup has asked the minister a written question, in which he demands an answer as to whether the former mayor has acted in accordance with the law, how the government will follow up on the case and whether it plans initiatives that can stop similar behavior in the future.

’One would think there were initiatives that prevent that kind of thing, but it still seems like there are some slings out there. I expect the Minister to tell how such a thing can happen and what consequences it should have. As a party, the Social Democrats must decide that they have a mayor who demands special treatment from the administration, says Peter Skaarup to Danish municipalities.

We do not know if anything illegal has taken place. What do you expect the Minister to do?

’She can initiate an in-depth investigation. As Minister of the Interior, she must ensure that the municipalities comply with the law. We have to be a watchdog in relation to the government, and it can not be right that things should take place in a well-developed democracy like the Danish one, says Peter Skaarup.

He has asked the question at the request of Deputy Mayor of Fredericia Susanne Eilersen, who is also a former member of parliament.

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Sweden

1. svt.se (translated, original by svt.se, 13.01.2021)

Jimmie Åkesson's critique: Stefan Löfven is a problem

In today's party leader debate, the Sweden Democrats' Jimmie Åkesson and Prime Minister Stefan Löfven (S) met face to face. It was not long before the tone between the two hardened.

"He has made this country more insecure, more fragmented and more polarized than ever," said Jimmie Åkesson.

The importance of democracy became a topical issue in today's party leadership debate due to the recent tumult in the United States. Stefan Löfven then criticized Jimmie Åkesson for the rhetoric he uses.

Among other things, he highlighted two sentences that the Sweden Democrats have published on social media: "Choose side and prepare for battle" and "this means war in the Riksdag and future election movements".

'To claim in front of followers and voters that there will be war in the Riksdag is not really the language of democracy. In this, Jimmie Åkesson stands out among the other party leaders', said Stefan Löfven.

The SD leader then took up examples from lyrics that are sung in connection with the first of May.

"The old shall be overthrown", "up to battle", "the last battle it is". I'm pretty sure that Prime Minister Stefan Löfven sings this at least once a year in connection with the first of May. Clean in front of your own door, Stefan Löfven. '

He continued his criticism of the Prime Minister.

'Stefan Löfven has won two elections in a row and he has made this country more insecure, more fragmented and more polarized than ever. Stefan Löfven is a problem. '

2. friatider.se (translated, original by friatider.se, 17.01.2021)

The people who "make Somalis appear as geniuses" - now they fly to Sweden en masse

DOMESTIC. South Sudanese perform IQ-wise at about the same level as bushmans and pygmies - the peoples with the lowest intelligence in the world - new research shows. Previously, very few South Sudanese have come to Sweden, but now the Swedish Migration Board has started bringing them here in large numbers as "quota refugees". Fria Tider has found out which municipalities are allowed to receive the people.

Excerpts from the research report.

A research group including the renowned psychologist Richard Lynn has examined the IQ level of 2,990 South Sudanese children between the ages of seven and 17. The type of IQ test used was Raven's matrices, the same type of IQ test that Mensa uses, for example.

The research report shows that the researchers compared the results of the South Sudanese with the results from tests of British children in 1979 and 2007.

Barely measurable IQ below 55

The British children performed slightly better in 2007 than in 1979. But regardless of which British vintage the South Sudanese are compared to, the IQ of the African people was so low that it can not really be measured with the current type of test. The researchers are therefore content to conclude that South Sudanese of all tested ages from nine years and up had an IQ of less than 55.

To illustrate the results, the researchers write that South Sudanese eighteen-year-olds perform worse than British nine-year-olds. An average eighteen-year-old South Sudanese has lower intelligence than three out of four British nine-year-olds. The eighteen-year-old South Sudanese, however, perform slightly better than British seven-year-olds. The researchers believe that the South Sudanese perform roughly on a par with the Bushmen, who are considered to have an IQ of 55. However, they are slightly worse than African pygmies with an IQ of 57.

The children tested belong to the ethnic groups "shilluk" and "nuer", which, like the population of South Sudan in general, belong to the Nilotic peoples. In folklore, Somalis are usually considered to be the most low-intelligent people that Sweden has become acquainted with so far. However, research clearly shows that Somalis are significantly smarter than the Bushman-like South Sudanese. A tipper who himself has worked with peoples in Africa tells Fria Tider that South Sudanese make Somalis "appear like geniuses".

The low result when testing South Sudanese has led other researchers to question whether to use Ravens progressive matrices. Because South Sudan is so underdeveloped, more suitable IQ tests need to be developed for South Sudanese, the researchers say. This year, Australian researchers developed an IQ test with, among other things, kangaroo questions that were hoped to give Aborigines better test results.

New immigrant group in Sweden

Previously, South Sudanese have constituted a very small ethnic group in Sweden. In recent years, however, the Swedish Migration Agency has decided to invest in issuing residence permits to members of the population who can then be flown to Sweden to live here as "quota refugees". In 2020, 274 people from South Sudan received a residence permit on this basis and in 2019 there were 223.

Fria Tider has asked the Swedish Migration Agency where in Sweden they live in South Sudanese. In the case of South Sudanese who have received a decision in 2020 and have already been transferred to Sweden, the recipient municipalities are Ale, Ekerö, Haninge, Krokom, Kungsbacka, Lidingö, Lund, Mölndal, Solentuna, Solna, Stockholm, Sundbyberg, Söderköping, Täby, Uppsala, Vaxholm and Vilhelmina. .

When it comes to South Sudanese who are waiting to be transferred to Sweden, the following municipalities will receive them:

Ale, Botkyrka, Ekerö, Falkenberg, Ljusdal, Lomma, Mörbylånga, Norrtälje, Nynäshamn, Partille, Robertsfors, Skurup, Sollentuna, Solna, Stenungsund, Stockholm, Tjörn, Trelleborg, Trosa, Täby, Vadstena, Vallentuna, Värmdö and Österåker.

3. friatider.se (translated, original by friatider.se, 18.01.2021)

"Youth gangs" set fire to cars and attacked guards

DOMESTIC. The police took into custody four young people in the "particularly vulnerable area" Lövgärdet in Gothenburg on Sunday evening. The gang set fire to cars and threw snow and ice at guards.

It was in the Gothenburg ghetto Lövgärdet that a youth gang ravaged on Sunday night.

At Lövgärdesgatan, they smashed the window of a parked car and then threw something into the car so it started to burn.

They then set fire to additional cars in the area, including on Kaprisgatan.

"At Paprikagatan, it is young people who throw snow and ice on a security car," the police write in their incident report.

The police arrested four people and drew up a report of threats against an official and attempts at vandalism.

The case will now be handed over to the social services, due to the perpetrators' young age. If they can be tied to the crimes, they will be liable for damages, the police tell Nyheter Idag.

4. friatider.se (translated, original by friatider.se, 18.01.2021) 52

Publishers sold S-critical literature - then Swedbank closed his accounts

Swedbank closed Daniel Friberg's accounts because the bank "lacked answers" to questions about customer knowledge But when Friberg got in touch to answer the questions, he did not get it - instead, the bank maintained the dismissal "Completely unreasonable and illegal," says Daniel Friberg

ECONOMY. The publisher and right-wing debater Daniel Friberg has suddenly and without warning had his bank accounts in Swedbank closed. The bank explains the action with "lack of customer knowledge", but it is a pretext that the bank has put in place systems to use to hide political motives, according to Friberg. - They abuse the money laundering law to stifle conservative opinion formation, he says

One morning when Daniel Friberg was about to log in to his bank account in Swedbank, it suddenly did not work. Instead of being logged in, he got the cryptic error message "Disabled" on the screen of his bank box.

When he searched online, he saw stories about how the S-labeled bank harassed customers who had expressed support for the Sweden Democrats or otherwise had conservative views, so he quickly suspected that the suspension could have something to do with the content of the books he publishes through his book publisher.

The publisher, Arktos, sells, among other things, "Together we are weak", an S-critical satire book about Sweden with a grinning Göran Persson (S) on the cover, as well as books by the British philosopher Roger Scruton, which has been stamped by Aftonbladet's S-marked editorial page as "Åkesson's favorite philosopher".

The next day, he called Swedbank, which was not very helpful because Friberg could not identify himself via either the bank box or his personal code.

- Incorrect social security number or incorrect social security code. Press social security number or organization number, ten digits, the automated error message sounded in the handset when he tried to identify himself.

Instead, Daniel Friberg, who is Swedish but lives with his wife and children in Poland, was asked to travel to Sweden and go into a Swedbank branch to find out why he could not log in. An alternative that was not very attractive as his wife was expecting a child and he did not want to travel to Sweden and leave her alone. In the end, the bank agreed to send him a letter to his population registration address in Poland.

A few weeks later, among book orders and questions about upcoming books, a letter from Swedbank was in Friberg's mailbox.

In the letter, which was full of misspellings and incorrect spellings and signed by Swedbank's "Office Manager Lena Hökegård", the bank explained that Daniel Friberg's bank accounts had been terminated. The reason for the suspension was, according to Swedbank, that they had not "received satisfactory answers to our questions about customer knowledge". 53

In the letter, Swedbank invokes the law on measures against money laundering and terrorism to close accounts. The same law and the same standard wording have been used as a basis for refusing Swebbtv to open bank accounts and for closing both Fria Tider's corporate account and Fria Tider's owners' personal bank accounts in Swedbank. The approach is the same: the bank claims to have insufficient information to meet the requirement for customer knowledge - and then refuses to let the customer provide the required information.

SwebbTV denied bank account: "Support in the Money Laundering Act"

When Daniel Friberg called Swedbank to ask what questions he was expected to answer so that they would open his account again, they were not at all accommodating. Instead of letting Friberg answer the customer knowledge questions that he claimed to have asked, Swedbank also insisted in this case that the account should remain closed.

'They refused to say what the questions were. Instead, I was told that the dismissal remained, with the false explanation that they would have sent me a letter with their questions, but not received an answer ', he says.

Since then, life has been more complicated for Daniel Friberg. Since the termination took effect in 2019, he has not been able to pay bills via the bank giro and has no longer been able to identify himself with a bank ID. A huge problem because the Swedish Tax Agency's E- identification, which normally works as an alternative to a bank ID for those who do not have a bank account, is only offered to those who are registered in Sweden.

Despite the fact that Friberg was correctly written on his Polish address when Swedbank asked his customer knowledge questions, Swedbank never sent his questions there, but contented itself with sending them to an old address and then blocked the account.

’This was a year after I signed up for my new address abroad, which was generally available via the population register. So they never tried to reach me at my real address before they canceled the account’, says Daniel Friberg.

The bank had also previously contacted him via e-mail, among other things, and therefore had more ways to reach him. However, Swedbank sent its decision on termination to the correct address.

Free Times is looking for Swedbank's Chairman of the Board Göran Persson (S) for a comment.

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Finland

1. suomenuutiset.fi (translated, original by suomenuutiset.fi, 15.01.2021)

Arja Juvonen in Sitra's publication: “I was very confused about the government's carelessness when the corona hit the world”

Today, Sitra published a memorandum by non-fiction writer Matti Mörttinen on the core of the Government in a crisis situation - the pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic on Finnish decision-making. The memo interviewed 50 people in the midst of a coronavirus crisis. One of them was Arja Juvonen, a Member of Parliament for basic Finns.

'I am one of those 50 people that are interviewed by Matti Mörttinen today published Sitra's memorandum. The memorandum concluded with “the first parliamentary action on the corona” submitted to the Minister on 24 January 2020, ie my written question related to Finland's preparation for the coronavirus epidemic. I don't think the written question was taken seriously, 'says MP Arja Juvonen.

'I am glad that my question and my concern also remains visible to this book. The work is not in vain. When Korona struck the world, it was obvious that it would also reach Finland. I was very worried, but also confused by the silence that prevailed above the corona in Finland. I could not comprehend the carelessness with which the government and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health responded. '

Mörttinen's support for Juvonen's ideas

Juvonen's thoughts are supported by Mörttinen, who drafted the memorandum, who states that the answer given in section 2 on behalf of Krista Kiuru, the Minister for Basic Services, seems routine in retrospect. According to Mörttinen, it cannot at least be deduced from the Minister's reply that the Ministry, let alone the government more broadly, was aware of the actual crisis awareness at that time.

'The same can be deduced from the fact that the Minister for Basic Services' corona situation report scheduled for the end of January government meeting was not held and was postponed due to the fact that the framework debate was of most interest to ministers at that stage.

‘It’s good that the crisis is between us books and covers. We also learned a lot from this and noticed things that need to be improved, 'says Juvonen.

Everything happened quickly

In his memorandum, Mörttinen considers the essential question to be how Finland decided to establish exceptional circumstances and introduce an emergency law. From the information gathered and the interviews conducted by Mörttinen, it can be deduced at least that everything happened at a very fast pace and by applying procedures to the situation.

The first parliamentary action in Finland related to the management of the corona crisis was Juvonen's 24.1. written question on what measures the government intends to take to prepare for the coronavirus epidemic in Finland.

'Juvonen got 17.2. an answer to his question, signed by the Minister of Family and Basic Services Kiuru. Between the question and the answer, on Tuesday 28 January, the first real coronary infection in Finland had been identified and treated, 'writes Mörttinen.

Finland's contingency plan

The Minister of Basic Services' response reviews the methods and responsibilities defined by the Communicable Diseases Act. At the end of the reply, the 13.2. held an extraordinary meeting at which they “committed themselves to joint action to prevent the further spread of coronavirus in Europe”. With regard to Finland's preparedness, the main content of the reply was as follows:

'Finland has prepared for infectious diseases nationwide and locally. For example, in the event of an influenza pandemic, there is an updated national pandemic preparedness plan for 2012 and a related material preparedness plan, which have been prepared under the auspices of STM in cooperation with other administrative sectors.

'The contingency plan guides preparedness at all levels of health care administration. The aim of the contingency plan is to limit possible harm to the health of the population and to ensure the continuity of the activities of society, as well as to support preparations in other areas of government.

'STM has taken precautionary measures in accordance with the overall security model in cooperation with the authorities, including the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health maintains the national situation and is responsible for material preparation in co-operation with the Security of Supply Center and hospital districts.

2. uusisuomi.fi (translated, original by uusisuomi.fi, 18.01.2021)

Direct feedback from teachers to Jussi Halla-aho: “The fact that these things do not fit the values of basic Finns is above all about basic Finns themselves”

The curriculum for basic education requires respect for human rights and an increase in understanding of the seriousness of climate change, a municipal candidate with a teacher background responds to a letter from Jussi Halla-aho, a basic Finn.

The chairman of the opposition Finns, Jussi Halla-aho, receives criticism from the teaching staff for his writing, in which he accused the Finnish school system of teaching politically colored.

In her Facebook article, Halla-aho defends the initiative of the basic Finnish youth organization, which has been knocked out by, among others, the teachers' organization OAJ as an information campaign.

“Virtually every parent in Finland who has school-age children knows that schools are forced to enter political and partisan views, ie to incite immigration, incite climate panic and bark at Basic Finns,” Halla-aho writes.

“It is very interesting that when Finns Party wants to map out this phenomenon, the party is accused of trying to take politics to schools. We want it out of there, ”Halla-aho claims.

According to Halla-aho, “the dismay of the OAJ is inherently comic,” as “schools must safeguard children’s right to an objective and neutral education, not the right of certain teachers to use the teaching situation to express their own political views”.

Minja Koskela, a left-wing candidate of the Left Alliance in her own writing, takes a stand on Halla-aho's allegations. He states that he responds to the party leader’s claims as “an ex- teacher and a dissertation researcher who has studied curricula”.

Koskela points out that, for example, talking about the seriousness of climate change is not a party policy for the teacher.

“The basic education curriculum requires respect for human rights, the promotion of democracy and active participation, and an increased understanding of the seriousness of climate change. The fact that these things do not fit the values of basic Finns is above all about basic Finns themselves. Instead, the fact that Basic Finnish MPs do not seem to understand that the content of teaching is not decided in Parliament is quite worrying, ”Koskela writes.

According to Koskela, it is the Basic Finns who are trying to politicize school education.

"When a party wants to intervene in the content of school education, which the parties have nothing to do with, it de facto means that the party seeks to take party policy to schools, no matter how it claims otherwise," Koskela writes.

“According to the ops, teaching must be non-partisan (sic). Instead, schools ‘should’ do absolutely nothing of what Jussi Halla-aho says - after all, what is ‘neutral’ for Halla-aho is highly likely to be closed-ended. And if the teacher acts against the curriculum, the matter will be dealt with elsewhere than in the basic Finnish party. ”

Janne Seppänen, Professor of Journalism at the University of Tampere, is also responsible for Halla-aho's writing. 57

“I hope teacher colleagues have a good political memory well into the future. I never remember seeing the chairman of a large party nullify the professionalism of teachers so openly and arrogantly, ”Seppänen writes.

“With comments like this, our party leader also allows others to mumble teachers and the school system. This does not build but disintegrates Finnish society in a situation where both teachers and schoolchildren / students do their work under really strong pressure. Irresponsible. ”

“Basic Finns, keep your fingers crossed from Finnish school education. Teachers do their work based on the curriculum and it has been developed by experts in the field of education. Peace of mind for us, thank you, ”Uusitalo writes on Twitter.

“Some seem to think that we ourselves come up with things that are taught. This is not the case. The teacher's values and opinions can create a basic tone, but a professional doctrine can keep the indoctrinations away, good time. ”

3. helsinkitimes.fi (by Aleksi Teivainen, 13.01.2021)

Finns Party holds on to top spot in poll commissioned by YLE

POPULAR SUPPORT for the Finns Party has risen by one percentage point for the second consecutive month to 21.9 per cent, indicates the most recent opinion poll commissioned by YLE.

The Finnish public broadcasting company reported last week that the right-wing opposition party thereby held on to its position at the top of the poll by a 0.5-point margin, in spite of a 0.8-point increase in support for the Social Democrats.

“The overview is that two parties are tussling for the largest party’s status, while the others aren’t really moving in any direction,” summarised Tuomo Turja, the research director at Taloustutkimus.

The Finns Party has benefited especially from the public debate surrounding the repatriations of Finnish nationals from al-Hol, Syria, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto (Greens). Support for the opposition party, he told, appears to have risen following the repatriations of women and children from the camp and the reprimand issued to Haavisto by the Parliament’s Constitutional Law Committee.

“These sorts of debates are a stronghold for the Finns Party. Whenever there are repatriations, they know how to take advantage of the [surrounding] debate,” noted Turja.

Support for the party has risen every month since August. Chairperson Jussi Halla-aho will seek to stay the course until the municipal elections scheduled for April. 58

The Social Democratic Party, meanwhile, has remained popular due to its visible role in combating the coronavirus epidemic in Finland. The timing of the poll meant the responses were unaffected by the concerns expressed about the availability of vaccines but affected by the decision to abolish the so-called unemployment path to retirement.

“The SDP lost support during the polling period especially in the 50–64-year-old age group, which is particularly affected by the gradual removal of the retirement path,” highlighted Turja.

Support for the National Coalition crept up by 0.3 points to 16.2 per cent.

The Centre and Green League both saw their popularity deteriorate, by 0.4 points to 11.7 per cent and 0.2 points to 11.4 per cent, respectively. Although the Centre has recovered slightly from its low point last summer, it continues to poll at a level lower than its vote share in the most recent parliamentary elections. Its members were torn especially over the vote of confidence given to Minister for Foreign Affairs Haavisto on 15 December.

“The weeks that followed the vote were a bit weaker for the Centre,” said Turja.

The Left Alliance saw its popularity increase by 0.4 points to 7.6 per cent regardless of the commotion caused by the retirement path decision. Chairperson Li Andersson publicly took credit for the decisions made to offset the abolition: to improve employee protection in the event of restructuring and maintain the special provisions on unemployment security for the elderly.

No major changes were measured in the approval ratings of the Swedish People’s Party (4.3%) and Christian Democrats (2.8%). Movement Now, however, dropped by 0.9 points to 1.3 per cent.

Taloustutkimus interviewed 2,221 people for the poll between 2 December and 5 January.

4. hameensanomat.fi (translated, original by hameensanomat.fi, 07.01.2021)

Halla-aho about what's happening in the United States: It's a little special

The chairman of Basic Finns, Jussi Halla-aho, considers the events in the United States to be special. Supporters of President Donald Trump, who opposes Joe Biden’s presidency, violently broke into a congress building in the country’s capital, Washington, on Wednesday.

Congress had to adjourn the session to confirm Joe Biden as president of the United States, but was able to reconvene a few hours later.

’That's a little special. Unfortunately, this polarization of society and the creeping of violence into political life has been a process seen in the United States for a few years now. That is very unfortunate’, Halla-aho told STT.

Halla-aho is reluctant to comment on the extent to which Trump, who encouraged his supporters to protest, can be blamed for what happened. He believes those who attacked Congress will be held accountable for their actions.

’The United States is the world's oldest uninterrupted democracy with a functioning judiciary and law enforcement mechanism. This, too, will certainly be dealt with in accordance with the appropriate process. I’m not worried about that at all’, Halla-aho said.

Finland's most Trump-positive party?

Basic Finns have stood out from other Finnish parties with their Trump-positive comments. Laura Huhtasaari, the party's MEP, recently attracted attention by nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Halla-aho himself wrote on Twitter in 2019 that Trump is “the best thing that has happened to the United States and the Western world for a long time”.

Halla-aho says he considered Trump’s election victory in 2016 a welcome phenomenon, as he said Trump won the election in response to the “charming cultural left-wing hegemony” that had long prevailed in the United States and elsewhere in the West.

‘On a great many issues, he pursued the kind of policy I warmly support, in immigration policy for example. In addition, he quite rightly highlighted China’s global economic conquest project. He brought the cat to the table in that matter and I believe that cat will remain on the table as his legacy no matter who is president in the United States, 'Halla-aho says.

Damage to the Republican Party

However, Halla-aho thinks it’s wrong to interpret her Twitter comment she wrote in 2019 as an indication that she would accept Trump’s recent actions. Halla-aho says he is disappointed with the way Trump has reacted to his election defeat.

‘By denying and questioning the election result, Trump has caused damage to the Republican Party and contributed to the Republicans’ weaker-than-expected electoral success in the Senate election. It will certainly be more important for political decision-making than Trump's election defeat itself, 'Halla-aho estimates.

Halla-aho does not believe that Trump’s reluctance to recognize the election result will have more noticeable consequences.

'The United States is a very old and well-functioning institutions, who will do that, that a change of power defined by the law, regardless of how Trump takes vaalitappioonsa.

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Poland

1. dorzeczy.pl (translated, original by dorzeczy.pl, 19.01.2021)

Prime Minister: This will be the largest support program in the history of Poland

Sustainable, rapid development of Poland, despite the epidemic, is one of the government's main goals for the coming year. ’We focus on it today’, said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

The head of government published an entry on his Facebook profile in which he referred to the previously presented assumptions of the great investment plan after the pandemic.

The Prime Minister wrote that "the investment vehicle will have two engines". The first is the EU funds for Poland negotiated at the end of last year - a total of PLN 770 billion. The second engine is a pool of investment funds only from the Polish state budget. According to Morawiecki, "it will be the largest investment support program in the history of our country".

"I am aware of the difficult conditions our life is going on, including the economic one. In order for Poland to continue to have one of the best levels of economic growth in the EU, we must properly manage all the resources available to us. It will require extensive public consultations, expert opinions and analyzes. specialists, but also a quick pace of action "- wrote the Prime Minister.

Morawiecki: We must not miss it

"Sustainable, rapid development of Poland, despite the epidemic - is one of the main goals of the government for the coming year. Today we are focusing on it and thanks to cooperation, responsible planning and solidarity, we will implement it!" - wrote Morawiecki.

According to him, "responsible policy is not to plan in the perspective of years but decades." "We want not only to contain the epidemic, but also to restore strength to the Polish economy and strengthen economic growth as soon as possible. We must not miss this crucial moment of reconstruction" - he stressed.

2. dorzeczy.pl 61

(translated, original by dorzeczy.pl, 19.01.2021)

Wałęsa confesses: I had to use such methods sometimes, I am ashamed

The former president has been posting frequent explanations about his past on his Facebook page. Today he published and commented on the recording of the statement by Andrzej Gduła, deputy Kiszczak, member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party.

The latest film posted on Facebook by the former president is entitled "Shocking! Deputy Kiszczak, member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party, Andrzej Gdula, about Lech Wałęsa ...". The recording was recorded during a meeting organized by the Society of Żywiec Lovers on the occasion of the anniversary of the elections on 4 June 1989. It was there that recalled one of the sentences that Wałęsa made about Kiszczak.

"It is good to know. President Kiszczak would be better, I said, but it was a play, a bluff, only for a ferment to arise there and I think it would arise" - explained Wałęsa on Facebook. "Sometimes I had to use such methods, I am ashamed, but sometimes necessary, only in relation to communists" - he noted.

"What some people write and proclaim in the free media, it does not fit in a healthy mind. Therefore, forgive me, as a witness of many events I will be boringly repeatedly giving evidence, documents and witnesses. This is not an explanation, this is not whitewashing. I swear that I will tell only the truth known to me. So help me, "LORD GOD". What you will do with it is your business, my conscience is clean "- he added.

3. rp.pl (translated, original by Michal Kolanko, 18.01.2021)

The actions of the Supreme Audit Office will affect key public matters this year. Marian Banaś reacts to the notices of the opposition MPs.

In the broad plan of its inspections for 2021, NIK included, inter alia, the police. This may be one of the most important inspections this year. As Rzeczpospolita learns, president Marian Banaś assured that he would also take into account the demands of Krzysztof Gawkowski, the head of the Left Club.

The deputy asked Banaś with a request that the Supreme Audit Office should inspect the Police Headquarters to check specifically how coercive measures are used in preventive actions and whether irregularities occurred at that time.

- I received a letter from President Banas confirming that my demands will be subject to control. Many times during the demonstrations it was evident that the police were abusing telescopic batons or handcuffs. It cannot be that, on the one hand, the head of the Ministry of 62

Interior and Administration encourages this, and on the other hand, he has no control over these activities, Gawkowski tells us. Rzeczpospolita saw the text of the NIK president addressed to the head of the Left Club.

NIK audits for 2021 have already been announced in terms of the areas of activity. Their results and NIK reports will be important in the public debate.

- The most important topic that the NIK will deal with in 2021 will be the impact of the pandemic on the functioning of the state. We will check all areas that may have been affected by the pandemic. We will check how hospitals, schools and public administration have done. We will check the effectiveness of anti-crisis shields. But our ambition will also be to indicate chances for developing such solutions that will be able to secure the state against the effects of similar crises in the future - said the president of the Chamber Marian Banaś in the video clip announcing the year.

NIK also announced inspections in such areas as energy, the army and the promotion of Poland in the world. When it comes to the police, NIK wants to check, among others "Use of direct coercive measures and the effectiveness of mechanisms protecting against the abuse of these measures".

In total, NIK plans 103 main inspections for this year. And as our interlocutors from various opposition parties note, the Supreme Audit Office as an institution often reacts positively to the opposition's conclusions. And the opposition often uses the conclusions of the NIK audit in its arguments. Especially in spheres where there has been a lively political discussion for several months.

UNIFORM under the magnifying glass

- We sent a number of requests for inspection, including contract for ventilators, purchase of antigen tests and pricing of services in temporary hospitals. We don't just write requests for inspection. An expression of our trust was the handing over of the complete documentation that we collected as part of the parliamentary controls carried out, tells us the MP from the Civic Coalition Michał Szczerba.

- In each case in which we have addressed the Chamber so far, we have received an assurance that the irregularities we have revealed will be thoroughly investigated - emphasizes Szczerba, who, together with MP Dariusz Joński, has been analyzing and controlling matters concerning, inter alia, activities of the Ministry of Health.

Police reactions following the protests related to the Constitutional Tribunal's decision on abortion and during last year's Independence March were the subject of political discussions. Last year there were numerous incidents involving politicians and the police. “I approached them with an MP ID. I asked them not to use force. At that moment, the policeman shot me in the face with gas "- Lewica deputy Magdalena Biejat told Oko.press. Deputy Barbara Nowacka was also treated with gas."

The incidents and scuffles just after the decision of the Constitutional Tribunal took place in Silesia with the participation of, among others Maciej Kopć, MP of the Left. The incidents were also reported by Monika Rosa, MEP, and Łukasz Kohut, MEP. A loud situation in the 63 vicinity of the Sejm also took place with the participation of the Deputy Speaker of the Sejm from the Left, Włodzimierz Czarzasty.

The police emphasized that the case would be the subject of internal investigations.

4. rp.pl (translated, original by Jacek Trela, 19.01.2021)

The prohibitions and orders introduced in the spring were accepted with humility. Even then, the lawyers protested.

The time of a pandemic and changes in social and economic life teach us a lesson about the rights of the individual. The bans and orders introduced in the spring of 2020 were accepted with humility combined with fear of the unknown. However, even then many lawyers indicated that the bans introduced by the ordinances of the Council of Ministers had no legal force. Only by law can citizens be forbidden or ordered to do something. And this is also only in accordance with the rules enshrined in the constitution. We read about it in her art. 31 sec. 3, which expressly states that restrictions on the exercise of constitutional rights and freedoms may be imposed only by statute, and only when necessary, e.g. for the security of the state, public order or for the protection of the environment or health. Nor can they violate the essence of freedoms and rights.

CHOICES ABOVE ALL

This simple rule, the basis of any democracy, was not kept, however. And it was enough to introduce a state of natural disaster (Article 228 and Article 233 (3) of the Constitution). Then the restrictions introduced by ordinances would be legally effective, e.g. those concerning the freedom of economic activity under Art. 22 of the constitution. The rulers decided not to introduce it, because that would postpone the presidential election, which the government was pushing for.

ANNUAL BILLING PROGRAM

Complete the tax return together with „Rzeczpospolita” The consequences of the primacy of politics and its immediate goals over the applicable law are already clearly visible. The Provincial Administrative Court in Opole, which heard the complaint of a local entrepreneur against the decision of the Sanepid, imposing a fine for not closing the hairdressing salon in April 2020, in the judgment of 27 October 2020 (reference number II SA / Op 219/20) stated, inter alia, that it is unacceptable to restrict economic activity by means of regulations.

He also noticed that restricting economic activity cannot be equated with its total prohibition (Article 33 (3) of the Constitution).

NOT ALL ARE SICK

On the other hand, on the basis of the order to wear masks, introduced in spring 2020, also by the ordinance, the issue of respecting the constitutional rules of law-making appears. It is a case that was resolved by the Voivodship Administrative Court in Warsaw with the judgment of November 26, 2020 (reference number VIII SA / Wa 491/20), repealing the penalty imposed on a person who had no mouth and nose covered. The government ordinance imposed the obligation to wear masks on everyone. Meanwhile, the Act of 2008 on the prevention and combating of infections and infectious diseases in humans allows for ordering certain behaviors of sick and suspected persons. In this case, the court analyzed Art. 92 sec. 1 of the Constitution describing the rules for issuing ordinances and stated that this provision was violated because the ordinance extended the preservation order to everyone.

It is also worth considering another matter from the category of "politics above the law". By the Regulation of the Council of Ministers, from October 24, 2020, a ban on public gatherings of more than five people was introduced. Not without reason from that date. , to which politicians from the ruling camp used the mechanism of control of statutes by the Constitutional Tribunal Freedom of assembly, understood both as the right to organize them and the right to participate in them, is guaranteed by the constitution (Art. 57). It can only be limited by a statute.

THERE WILL BE SUITS

Nearly a year after the outbreak of the epidemic, we are more sensitive to the actions of the rulers. Entrepreneurs, employees, the elderly and the young, have been hit by the hardships associated with the state of the epidemic. Financial assistance is either not planned at all, or it is so small that it cannot be felt or it is late. Hence the protests of representatives of closed industries. There is talk of opening enterprises against the ban, which, however, is not a lawful ban. You can hear about the filed class actions and the planned actions for damages against the State Treasury.

Meanwhile, the government undertakes "defensive" actions, submitting a motion to the Constitutional Tribunal for declaring Article 417 of the Civil Code unconstitutional, which establishes the liability of the State Treasury for damage caused by unlawful action or omission in the exercise of public authority.

The move is intended to eliminate the legal basis of pending compensation claims against the Treasury. Even if it is effective, the question of citizens' trust in the state will remain. Because the basis of such trust is compliance with the law by rulers.

The author is the president of the Supreme Bar Council.

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Czech Republic

1. idnes.cz (translated, original by idnes.cz, 19.01.2021)

Mirka, we will miss you. Friends and opponents pay tribute to Kalousek

"Have a great time," Miroslav Kalousek ended his 22-year career as a member of parliament during Tuesday's sitting. His party colleagues and politicians, with whom he was uncomfortable many times, show him respect.

ODS chairman Petr Fiala said on Twitter that he valued Kalousek's clear views, openness and political experience. I wish him only the best in his later life.

Marian Jurečka, a deputy for KDU-ČSL, expressed a similar opinion. "Even though we disagreed many times, I express my respect for his political talent, rhetoric and argumentation skills," he wrote.

His party colleague Markéta Pekarová Adamová also wrote about Kalousek's rhetorical abilities on Twitter. In her statement, she promised the outgoing deputy that she would do everything in her power "so that the incompetent oligarch did not lead this country after the elections."

According to Feri, his departure is a great loss. "A great speaker is leaving, who was the only one who managed to settle Andrej Babiš here," he wrote under the photo. According to him, only Kalousek was also able to name all the failures of the government, especially budgetary failures. "Mirka, thanks for everything," he added.

Respect for Kalousek was also expressed by the chairman of the CSSD, although, according to him, he did not agree with him many times. The deputy chairwoman of the CSSD and the minister of labor and social affairs, Jana Maláčová, also commented on the departure. In her statement, she quoted a text from a song by the Radůza group: "Before I get out of all my bodies, I will understand that the enemy, whether he wanted to or not, was the best teacher."

The Minister of Finance Alena Schillerová published on Twitter a photograph of five posters attracting to a performance at the Vlasta Burian Theater: Account X, Creditors' Day, Certainly, Minister, He stood at the box office, Everything Kalousek left at the Ministry of Finance for money.

"They remind us that ex-minister Kalousek is not only a quick rhetor, but also a politician with an unmistakable sense of humor," Schillerová wrote about the photo.

The former chairman of the ODS, Mirek Topolánek, also commented on the departure. "I take it as a time-out, brother, and I hope you haven't said the last word yet. I would miss you, "he said on Twitter. 66

In addition to politicians, nuclear physicist Dana Drábová also said goodbye to Kalousek on Twitter. "I'm sure you've thought it through. But your insight, education and wit ... I will miss you, "she wrote.

I have been meeting Miroslav Kalousek intensively for the whole last decade. I appreciate his clear views, openness and political experience. He is close to me with his right-wing thinking and also with his relationship to culture, especially classical music. I wish him all the best in his later life.

Political scientist Daniel Kroupa said on Czech Television that Kalousek is one of the few politicians who can concisely and clearly capture the essence of the matter and usually start at the right time.

"If Kalousek stayed, he would have to remain silent and give preference to colleagues who will run - which he would not like or not hold on to and would again become a prominent figure that would attract the public's attention," said Kroupa.

Already in the middle of last year, Miroslav Kalousek announced that he would not run for the lower house this year. He explained the timing of his departure on Tuesday with the early start of the election campaign.

Kalousek told deputies that all meetings of the Chamber of Deputies would be held as part of the election campaign in connection with the early announcement of elections. He considers it rational and tactical for Members in particular, who are running for the electorate, to continue to speak in the debate. His TOP 09 plans to go to the polls in a coalition with the ODS and the People's Party, which the politician previously described as the only possible way.

2. blesk.cz (translated, original by Vera Renovica, 08.01.2021)

Václav Klaus exclusively for Blesk: This crisis will be rough, tighten your belts!

Blesk: According to Prime Minister Babiš, we will return to the so-called normal in 2023, do you think it's real?

Václav Klaus: I am not a prognosticator, and his prognosis must be based on some assumption, unless he has expressed it thoughtlessly. So on the assumption that all quarantines and lockdowns end then and then, money will be crammed into this and that… and I do not know these initial assumptions.

And how do you personally perceive it? As a seventy-nine-year-old man who, for example, cannot meet friends, grandchildren due to restrictions, for example? And he won't be able to do it for another 2 years?

I associate with everyone I want to associate with. It is utterly foolish for people to accept the government's orders and prohibitions in this sense. If someone is frightened and unconfident, let them make internal prohibitions on meeting their grandchildren, friends. It's not me, so nothing has changed in my life in this sense. When it's foggy, it's raining, it's Sunday, I hope I can't go skiing or pub or cinema, but otherwise I can't do all the other things, that's not true. Someone will be enslaved by this system. I do not.

And what if someone is afraid of a fine, or worse, that they get sick?

However, I'm not saying that I want to forcibly open a restaurant and pay a fine. I'm talking about wanting to meet who I'm meeting, and there's a negligible level of punishment.

This is an influenza vaccine, specifically a vaccine against one type of flu.

Do you generally have a problem with vaccination, or is it specifically this vaccine?

Look, we can't seriously talk here about the effectiveness of this or that vaccine. That's something I don't get involved in. But first, I refuse when someone forcibly orders me, and this vaccination is a forcibly ordered thing that suddenly fell from the sky and was not there in the past. It has not been sufficiently tested.

The vaccine is optional.

Secondly, the disease is not a plague and fighting it with a vaccine is quite controversial. I always refused to get vaccinated against the flu and it never threatened me. I admit that I have had problems in the past during a state visit, that I have to get vaccinated against yellow fever or something. I also refused to do that. But in principle, I think the flu shot was arbitrary and an excessive precautionary principle. One should normally get through the disease and not be vaccinated and make huge profits for pharmaceutical companies.

And then there are people who don't share your reluctance to get vaccinated because someone died. Or they are not enthusiastic about it, but they want their business not to fail so that their children go to school. So how else but a vaccine can help bring this all to an end?

Swap this government and choose another.

Are you suggesting that the starting point could be the October elections?

(laughs) No, not at all. I am optimistic because I hope that humanity will overcome all this, but I am pessimistic that this government could overcome it. And I am also pessimistic that any government that emerges from today's political parties could do that. In this sense, the October elections are not a topic for me.

So the result of the election is obviously unimportant to you…

I wouldn't say that. I said that I do not think that there will be any radical change in those fundamental social matters, and I certainly cannot imagine that there will be a change for the better. And if there is a huge strengthening of such chaotic groups as Pirates, we will certainly experience something even worse.

In general, what do you think about the government's economic handling of the pandemic?

The word he manages is strong and inadequate. What is happening has its own development, and the government is doing nothing but finance various things. This is not a solution to the crisis. This is an abuse of the power to use public funds, and moreover not the ones he has at his disposal. The level of our debt is unacceptable, and only a total economic illiterate can think that it could have no consequences. In addition, no one called for a second to tighten their belts. And this is the greatest tragedy.

Didn't those who couldn't do business tighten their belts? Who have already lost their jobs?

Many of them will have economic losses, but we are talking about the flesh of the citizens, and to them the tightening of their belts by small-scale languages of all kinds is constantly delayed. The incomes of the vast majority of people have not fallen, although the economy has fallen sharply, and this is a fundamental rejection of the necessary concept of tightening belts.

So should there be no restrictions, and if so, no state support? Is that how I understand it?

If I lose my job, I have to live on my savings. And I can't buy a new car, a mortgage, I can't besiege the malls before Christmas, as it was besieged. This siege proves that no one wants to tighten their belts and does not have to accept them yet.

And what about the PES system, whose criteria are now changing again?

It is proof of the utter absurdity of what has been playing with us here for weeks or months. I think the government took this as a done deal and believed that it was a meaningful system. I wouldn't suspect her of anything else. But I can't imagine not having a big session with my advisers as prime minister and not discussing what the PES is based on for hours, changing the methodology, not questioning the minister, and not saying it can't be that way.

If you were given a prime minister's chair now, what would you do?

It would be necessary to open up the economy and society. I do not believe that there will be a dramatic increase in infection. The virus does what it wants, and state intervention plays a miniature role. That something unnecessary should be limited, so be it. But this is not possible at the cost of sacrificing the normal functioning of society and the economy.

So economics is also important.

Not too. The economy is important. When the economy doesn't work, no hospital will heat or light up, there won't be a single device. Without economics, there will be no vaccines, nor will it be able to store them at minus seventy degrees, because there will not be enough energy.

I see. But when I interpreted the opinion of economists in this sense - that is, to think about the economy, not just to stop the disease - to Miloš Zeman, he said that I was like Mengele, who determined on the ramp who will live and who will not.

That is the cheapest and most colorful statement. I do not believe that the President of the Republic said so.

How do you perceive the role of Miloš Zeman during the covid?

There is no value in evaluating it. Zeman was never an economist in nature, even though he graduated from the University of Economics, he never really studied economics, and I never agreed with his economic views. Otherwise, I am not interested in evaluating the person of the President of the Republic. You know that and I keep telling you.

They live here in the belief that since the crisis was artificially caused by government measures, it can also simply be stopped by further intervention. Is this true?

The economic crisis was knocking on the door before the pandemic began. It has only significantly strengthened through restrictive measures. I say repeatedly that the economy can be easily stopped, but there is no button that you press and it starts like a car engine.

So when will the fuel run out? When will those of us for whom the pandemic has not yet affected money feel the crisis?

The final moment will be when the global economic situation changes, world finances deteriorate, banks run into trouble, interest rates begin to rise and government debt ceases to be easy to finance. When inflation starts.

Will it be as overwhelming as the crisis 10 years ago?

The crisis 10 years ago was a mess against this.

So let's move on to the person of the Minister of Health, whose people have included you on the list of disinformers - due to criticism of the measures and the reluctance to always put on a veil. What bothers you so much about it?

My colleagues are very concerned that I am on that list. But I've been on so many lists, from the StB to the present, that this doesn't hurt me. I don't even feel so painful that it's an official document of the ministry, a state institution.

So what then?

The fact that the responsible authority outsources one part of its website passes it on to a non- profit (according to the website to Semantic Visions, ed. Note) for taxpayers' money, and publishes it as an official document of the Ministry. It is completely pointless for a ministry employee, whom we also pay from taxes, to hang out, and this is what a company did for him.

So if Minister Blatný wrote on the ministry's website that you were a disinformer, would that be fine?

Yes. He is a politician, he lives in the political sphere, and he certainly has the right to argue with the alternative politicians that I still am.

3. spd.cz (translated, original by spd.cz, 19.01.2021)

Radek Rozvoral: We reject the concept of a multicultural world without borders and the immigration policy of the European Union!

The German non-profit Sea Eye is relentless in its efforts to transport immigrants across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of immigrants trying to enter Europe illegally via various vessels across the Mediterranean. These are mainly immigrants from Libya trying to reach the Italian shores. They are assisted in this effort by ships of non-profit organizations, which are funded by the EU treasury.

The SPD fundamentally rejects the targeted activities of German non-profit organizations, which, under the pretext of humanitarian aid, are still helping to transport immigrants from Africa to Europe with their ships. After the period when the then Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini implemented its own laws and measures prohibiting the entry of ships of non-profit organizations with African immigrants into Italian territorial waters, these non- profit organizations continue in these activities.

The German non-profit organization Sea Eye, which operates in the Mediterranean to rescue immigrants transported by sea on dangerous vessels to Europe, added another ship to its fleet late last year. This represents further assistance for the transport of these immigrants, as evidenced by the technical data of the new ship. Its length is 55 meters, width 11 meters, the weight of the ship is 1,000 tons and the deck area is 650 square meters. The ship's crew consists of 22 members and the ship can sail at speeds of up to 17 km per hour. According to Gorden Isler, a spokesman for the DPA, the new vessel increases the total number of charity lifeboats operating in the Mediterranean to seven. Many of them, including Alan Kurdi, are often blocked by the Italian Coast Guard, which detained them due to alleged technical irregularities, according to Isler. The ship, called Sea-Eye 4, is now at the docks in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. It is funded by United4Rescue, which wants to use the new ship to transport immigrants from Africa to Europe. The ship is now being converted to the highest transport capacity due to the increase, and soon it will set out for the Mediterranean Sea, where it should start operating as early as March 2021.

Everything happens despite the fact that Germany was thrown into another corona-lockdown. As can be seen, coronavirus apparently does not mind authorities and pro-immigrant activists when importing immigrants from all over Africa. The influx of immigrants into Europe under the guise of coronavirus hysteria is still ongoing. Last year, more than 30,000 immigrants arrived in Italy by sea, which is about three times more than in 2019. Ships with immigrants sailed mainly from Libya and Tunisia.

The SPD movement programmatically rejects the concept of a multicultural global world without borders and the EU's immigration policy. That is why we must constantly strive to defend the basic interests of the nation, our culture, sovereignty and freedom.

4. idnes.cz (translated, original by idnes.cz, 13.01.2021)

The Czechs are rather satisfied with the result of the regional elections, the survey showed

More than a third of people are satisfied with the result of the autumn regional elections in the Czech Republic, while about half as many are dissatisfied. This was shown by the results of a survey conducted by the Center for Public Opinion Research. The Czechs most often identified health care and issues related to the covid-19 epidemic as the main topic of the elections.

However, according to the survey, for more than three-fifths of respondents, fear of contagion played no role in deciding to vote.

Elections to regional councils took place at the beginning of last October. The government movement ANO won the most votes in them, winning in ten regions out of 13 (there were no elections in Prague). However, he has a governor only in three regions.

In Central Bohemia, the STAN movement won, in the Liberec Region most voters supported the Mayors' Group for the Liberec Region, and in the Hradec Králové Region, the ODS, STAN and Východočeši coalitions won.

According to the CVVM, 35 percent of Czechs are satisfied with the election result and 17 percent are dissatisfied. Another 36 percent of respondents chose the answer "so half" when asked for satisfaction. The remaining roughly one-tenth of respondents could not answer the question.

The Electoral Commission in protective clothing and reinforced by soldiers came to the Tomas Bata Regional Hospital in Zlín for patients suspected of having covidem-19. (October 2, 2020) Employees of the Prague 9 district began preparing polling stations. They installed bridges and urns on the premises of the Novobrodská school. In addition to the usual protective aids, they also have clothes pegs ready, with which they will safely take their ID cards from voters. (October 1, 2020)

People who took part in the October elections were significantly more optimistic in their evaluation. 45 percent of them evaluated the result positively, while among non-voters it was only 18 percent.

Fear of infection did not affect participation

The authors of the survey were also interested in how much the decision to participate in the regional elections was influenced by the fear of a possible coronavirus infection. More than three-fifths of respondents said they played no role in their case. For a fifth of respondents, fear of infection played only a small role, and for about a tenth, moderate. Five percent of respondents said their fear of infection was important when deciding to vote.

According to the results of the survey, fears of a possible infection with covid-19 increased with the age of the respondents. It was also relatively higher among apprentices and people with a secondary education without a GCSE, while lower among graduates of secondary schools with a GCSE and a university degree. The survey also revealed a higher concern about the infection among non-voters than among people who went to the regional elections.

Healthcare, covid and economics as the main topics

The most important topic of last year's elections to regional councils identified 14 percent of people with health care or the situation associated with the covid epidemic. "Practically the same after five percent, transport or transport infrastructure and the environment appeared as the main topics," says CVVM.

YES would win the election, the ODS lost significantly, a new poll showed Approximately the same proportion of respondents identified the economy as the main topic, and also about five percent of the responses concerned parties, their candidates and party programs. Three percent of respondents considered the main topic to be change or, conversely, the preservation of the region's leadership, as well as the development of the region and also a protest against the current government, against the YES movement, or against Prime Minister Andrei Babis.

The survey was conducted by CVVM between October 30 and November 19 last year. The questions were answered by 1,022 inhabitants of the Czech Republic aged 18 and over.

*************************************************************************** *************

Hungary

1. magyarnemzet.hu (translated, original by Soma Vízvári, 19.01.2021) They demanded each other's imprisonment, yet the rainbow coalition were formed

In the first days of the year, Máté Kocsis, the leader of the Fidesz faction, shared excerpts from the harsh manifestations of the parties of the united left-wing People's Front in several posts. Not from sentences that insulted the government, but from their current allies, because in the past, when it was still presented as a moral duty to imprison or silence each other, there was plenty of it. 73

In September 2011, for example, Jobbik demanded the preliminary arrest of Ferenc Gyurcsány. In comparison, Péter Jakab now announces that if the rainbow coalition comes to power, they will be able to face the past thirty years, which does not seem an easy task for the left-wing People's Front led by the Prime Minister of Öszö.

Of course, the Gyurcsány party did not refine the Jobbik either.

DK, who had recently threatened to confiscate government party assets, wanted to ban Jobbik even a few years ago. Vice President Csaba Molnár, who was also swordsman, argued that he called Jobbik a Nazi party. Zero tolerance for Jobbik was also acknowledged by the MSZP at the time. In 2012, Attila Mesterházy, the then president of the Socialists, reacted to the Jewish listener's speech of the right-wing representative Márton Gyöngyösi: “Fascism is a virus. And Jobbik is the host of the virus. ”

By the way, the collapse of the former enemies is still going on today, that Gyöngyösi shows generosity and declares that he is not angry with Mesterházy for the fact that the socialist politician at that time militantly commented on the parliamentary Jewry of the right-wing bay.

Máté Kocsis also recalled a shared post on Jobbik’s official Facebook page in early 2017, in which the party made it clear that it would NOT join forces with left-wing parties in the future.

Certainly, there was also a secret clause in this declaration that included the expiration date of their promise, as by December 2020, only an “opposition coalition” had emerged to launch a common list and candidates in the 2022 parliamentary elections.

2. magyarhirlap.hu (translated, original by magyarhirlap.hu, 19.01.2021)

Renovation of the Chain Bridge will cost five billion more

Why does it cost five billion more to renovate the Chain Bridge if it is arranged by Christmas? - the Budapest faction of Fidesz asked the question on its Facebook page, which considers it unacceptable that the amount to be paid for the same technical content should increase by more than 25 percent in one year.

According to Fidesz, "when the mayor laments on a daily basis that the capital has no money, it is particularly wrong, what is more suspicious of such a case!"

BKK announced on Monday that the public procurement procedure for the renovation of the Chain Bridge was successfully completed. A-Híd Zrt., Ie exactly the same company, was selected as the winner, which company made the most favorable offer in the previous tender, even in the time of István Tarlós. But then he undertook the same for five billion forints less!

Fidesz recalls that this company is the one whose Christmas party was also featured by Deputy Mayor Kata Tüttő, and this is the company that Christmas was personally concerned about when the Public Procurement Authority dropped last summer's tender for an irregularity.

In just one year, the Christmas people were only able to take out the construction of the Castle Tunnel and the electric tunnel on the Pest side, contrary to previous plans, and the tender was only posted on the Chain Bridge.

“In order to expand the range of bidders and make the bids more favorable, the contractor will receive an advance payment of HUF 5 billion immediately after the conclusion of the contract. At least that was the reason, but the exact opposite happened! No new bidders applied and the price rose roughly, unjustifiably. Interestingly, exactly five billion, which the winning company will now receive in advance, ”Fidesz in Budapest closed its registration.

Under the leadership of István Tarlós, the renovation of the Chain Bridge would have come out of the gross 21.8 billion, while at Christmas the amount would have increased to 26.8 billion gross.

In this connection, Gergely Karácsony published a Facebook post in December last year, in which he sets it as if the winner of the public procurement they had announced had made the better offer with multiple slides. Christmas is counting on the price of 35.2 billion in the tender of the Tarlós, although part of this is the HUF 13.5 billion cost of renovating the underpass in Széchényi Square.

The reality, on the other hand, is that the Christmas Eve's 26.8 billion plans do not include the renovation of the tram underpass, so if we only compare the prices of the bridge's renovation,

In addition, in the Christmas procedure, the advance to be paid to the contractor also increased to an unrealistic extent, about 60 times, so that the contractor will receive nearly HUF 5 billion in advance. The fine was lowered by the Christmas family, with a maximum of 10 percent of the entrepreneurial fee, while in Tarlós this figure was 20 percent. That is, everything is good for entrepreneurs. Kata Tüttő well represented the interests of A-Bridge…

However, Christmas wasn’t just slipping in terms of cost, as it writes the Tarlós “threw back” the previous procurement. However, this is not the case, on 21 January 2020, the previous tender was declared ineffective just by Christmas's decision.

Based on the offers received on September 23, 2019, István Tarlós initiated a price review, the evaluation of which was already completed during the Christmas mayor's office. The local government led by Christmas declared the public procurement procedure ineffective by the BKK proposing the opposite.

3. demokrata.hu (translated, original by Dániel Jánossy, 15.01.2021)

IN THE WEST, THE CRISIS IS UNCHANGED

Many articles in the Democratic end-of-year issues dealt with ideological-ideological distortions in the West. Compiling these mosaics of observations, complemented by the alarming, it is no exaggeration to say that a shocking overall picture emerges of the world of ideas that will determine the future of Western civilization.

The dominant political system in the West is liberal democracy, in which the ruling elite must gain voter legitimacy at regular intervals. In order for the ruling elite to be able to assert its “deep state” power and aspirations across political cycles in such a political system, it has traditionally used and lives two-way manipulation, not counting voting fraud as a last resort: a power-financial interest that is not necessarily attractive to voters. or it advertises its ideological obsession in a package suitable for voting, on the other hand, it dulls the electorate in the long run and does not pick in the means in the pre-voting campaign. He takes advantage of his susceptibility to the image of the enemy, a false, demagogic ideology, and does not hate to play on the worse self, envy, frustration of voters.

The global network, which is based on historical traditions and has recently become stronger and more open, is the global network, with the help of which the buzz of voter legitimacy can be circumvented and ignored within the formal framework of democracy.

The dominant political system of the West is liberal (and not, for example, Christian) democracy, which, according to today’s perverted conception of liberalism, means the lack of a moral, worldview fixed point, objective standard. This kind of relativism gives a wide scope for the application of the above methods and manipulations.

The nature of capitalism, according to authoritative opinions, contradicted the demographic tendency of the West: capitalism is forced to be expansive, to perish if it does not grow, but on the contrary, Western society has become childless. Out of selfish individualism, he rejects population reproduction, which underpins economic growth on the part of workers and even more so on the part of consumers (which would otherwise be a basic biological and civilizational obligation). In order to resolve the contradiction between capitalism and demographic processes, the concept of encouraging immigration and mixing people was invented (or rather taken out of the account), behind which is the diabolical plan to suppress and eliminate foreign peoples by eradicating the Christian path to global power. rooted European civilization.

“Useful idiots” are fed Western voters with the false utopia that an influx of - largely Muslim - people will then integrate under the influence of lofty European values and the goods they bring with them as citizens, that is, become European, the bearer of Western civilization.

Looking back historically, we can observe the struggle of two kinds of ideological positions in Western civilization: the guiding principle of one trend is continuity, preservation, transmission - this is what we call conservative. The opposite pole, on the other hand, says it all starts with him, and the past is ballast to be wiped out - these are progressive. Historical traumas stemmed from the fact that one of the poles degenerated into extremes, making itself exclusive, as a destructive progression to dominance with different ideological content since the French Revolution. Today, the current form of this overdriven trend that threatens Western societies is distorted liberalism, which targets Christianity, the organization of peoples into nation-states, and the traditional family ideal that reproduces our civilization.

II. A good quarter of a century ago, Pope John Paul cast his practical atheism, his indifference to God's creative plan, in the eyes of the West. In the time since then, this indifference has increasingly degenerated into active anti-Christianity. For example, they resolutely attack the basic thesis of creation that God created man as man and woman. With their magical arrogance, they push the line between human and divine competence with technical developments such as artificial intelligence and artificial “immortality”. Traditionally, the main target of the attack on anti-Christian liberalism is redemption, in the cross with the person and credibility of Jesus Christ. Through effective propaganda, the goal of individual, material prosperity is weighed into people, pushing spirituality into the background as well as the remnant of faith in transcendent salvation.

Feminism and migration

Enemy creation and terrorization are a tried and tested, traditional means of degenerate progression, ranging from Jacobin necklift operation to Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist incitement against bourgeoisie and other class strangers to the systematic extermination of the Nazis. There has always been a layer of the societies concerned that can be manipulated into the role of victim, especially its scum, which can be used for violence or even murder.

Feminism, which carved a historical sinner and an enemy out of a man, was enriched with another obsession: the new man is the new product of enemy creation. This enemy training combines feminist and colored-skinned racist tempers with devilish ingenuity. He is able to put behind an unlimited number of perpetrators who can be manipulated into victim roles: blacks who have been incited by BLM incitement in America, and self-conscious migrants who have been reinforced by the mea culpa of colonization in Western Europe. There may be a practical, mutually reinforcing synergy between the latter and anti-white feminism: the majority of immigrants are vigorous men, and the surplus they create overestimates the “market” value of women under the general supply-demand mechanism, and native men defending their positions. accused of racist anti-immigrantism.

In addition to the white man, the other - amazing - enemy obsession is the fetus or the child. The traditional argument for rejecting and destroying the child, more precisely the child to be born into a native European family as an enemy, is the right of women to dispose of their bodies. This argument disregards the right to life of the fetus living from the moment of conception - in a wild-liberal environment until the moment it was born. Apart from extreme cases such as life-threatening or rape, adults ’selfishness and love of comfort take precedence over fetal life.

More recent Western anti-childhood has found a fashionable ally in climate defenders. The latter have insanely argued that a child’s carbon footprint is many times that of a car, so a self- conscious climate advocate should refrain from having a baby rather than driving. Are the carbon emissions of immigrants replacing native Europeans climate-friendly? Is this an effective argument in the over-proliferation of African and some Asian countries? Aligha.

The demand of same-sex partners to adopt a child or to have a foster child in another way falls into the category of anti-childhood and child rights abuse in recent times. Understandably, these sex minorities strive to replace offspring in the absence of natural reproductive capacity, giving them a chance to inherit their sexual dysfunction, thereby 77 helping them break out of marginality, but this ambition must not infringe on the child's natural right to be a male father. and be a woman's mother.

Dead ends of obsessions

Migration aimed at resolving the contradiction between capitalism and the demographic deficit has been about destabilizing and, over time, reshaping Western European societies by immigrants with largely totalitarian ideologies (this is Islam) and mostly conquering ambitions. However, self-destruction and self-liquidation are characteristic not only of this, but of all the ideological trends discussed above without exception.

The self-eradicating character is also valid for the distorted, individualistic liberal conception of democracy in the West of our time, to which the II. Pope John Paul warned decades ago, “… if there is no objective yardstick between the various conceptions of personal good and the common good that helps in judgment, democratic politics will be limited to a mere struggle for power. […] An atmosphere of moral relativism is incompatible with democracy. […] If moral truths cannot be publicly recognized as truths, then there can be no democracy. ”

As for anti-Christianity, its speakers only forget that Christian culture also differs from Islam, for example, in that it tolerates being debated, denied, and even ridiculed. Those who do so would do more wisely, in their own interest, if they kept restraint, they too would protect the Christian environment from oppressive Islam, which punishes these actions with headaches.

Arguments by anti-fetal and anti-childists about abortion, women’s rights, or even overpopulation are for the benefit of the idiot masses. The real underlying goal and effect is to frustrate the transmission of Western and European civilization, to incorporate it into a global mass uncultivation.

Finally, about feminism. The society in which the radical market economy conception of female emancipation prevails is incapable of reproducing itself, but Western Europe invented a replacement for it, immigration. But it largely welcomes migrants whose perception of Muslim women represents an extreme opposite to that of Europe: it does not stifle the female principle given by nature, but absolutizes it in an exclusionary way. He sees women, more precisely the fertile lap of women, as a means of their space-consuming ambition. He does not compete with women with men, but subordinates them to male domination. It rules out the possibility of social assertion by rules disguised as creeds. And women who are out of this system voluntarily or for bad luck are considered free prey and treated anyway. The two extreme conceptions of the female principle outlined above come into contact today in Western Europe, which does not bode well for the future of feminism.

Perhaps the self-destructive nature of some obsessions is not to be regretted, the trouble is that their overall effect is self-defeating for Western civilization, especially in competition with competing civilizations. In the West, many see Central Europe, including Hungary, as a region of hope that has not yet been infected by the obsessions discussed to the same extent as the West. Let's do it for them to be right.

4. mandiner.hu (translated. original by Nóra Rebeka Ádám, 19.01.2021)

"You have to take on the task!" - József Szarvas, SZFE's new teacher for Mandiner

“It would be nice to know where we’re going to go wrong. What is this strange, non- existent virtual medium being created around us? Maybe we're sitting in two wagon camps? It's a huge problem, because it's not about the theater anymore, ”József Szarvas tells our newspaper. We asked the future teacher of SZFE about plans, repositioning the university, professional and human relations.

At first, it just leaked, but now a list of SZFE’s new teachers is public, which you include on it. Exactly how did you find it?

The invitation was smooth and simple, rather the thinking time lasted a little longer. I had to ask myself questions and answer them with my own convictions. On my own, I said yes to the honorable request. But of course I am aware that in peacetime, an appointment as a university professor would not be press coverage.

What was the request about?

I was asked to teach acting.

As a lecturer or as a head teacher?

I will be the head teacher of the prose acting class, in which Zoltán Rátóti will help me. I just took Stanislavsky's off the shelf here.

What motivated you to finally nod?

I have a lot of curiosity in me and I think I know what to teach young people. I have a good few thoughts, questions that can be exciting for a young person preparing for an acting career. Now, along with the students, I will be a career starter myself. With more than forty seasons left behind, I can only say that challenge is still the best term.

Have you ever been to the new buildings?

Not yet. But it will be unusual, for sure. Like everything in this delayed and increasingly elusive situation.

Why had to sell the buildings and the Ódry Stage? Isn't that too drastic?

But. Let’s also add, however, that repaying old debt begins. But I have no information about the fate of the buildings.

How will the new SZFE be different or more?

It will be different, more and new. Me. (laughs) Aside from the serenity, at that time I was lucky enough to be present at the college as a teaching assistant with Masters István Horvai and Dezső Kapás. But it’s a pretty old history and gives few handrails in the current situation. On the other hand it is difficult to say when and how we will succeed in repositioning our university in the life and rank of our profession. 79

But that is what the interests of students want.

What does repositioning mean?

Look, at the university - if I just take the acting classes - my fellow workers work, have worked and will continue to work in the future. Important conversations await us: about what has happened here in the last six months, what is going on now, and where to go next. You will have to chew through these just because we have a brilliant vocation, which is only worth doing with an open heart and an open mind.

According to László Upor, the whole situation is "as if there were two SZFEs". According to him, “the appointed leaders and the university community don’t even watch the same film, but by no means do the reactions point in the same direction”. What do you think?

This is a series of thoughts that I have neither the right nor the reason to comment on. This is how Upor Laci sees the situation. I'm strictly talking about theater. Of course, as a private person, it is very bad for me that the medium is torn in two aspects that should not even be present in our profession. It's bad to see this. Sometimes I read and listen to statements or articles and see that there are fears and anxieties on the one hand, and encouragements to “make me run down” on the other. These are very strange and extra-human things. All this so that we know each other well, otherwise it is a very narrow circle. There are sentences flying around the World Wide Web that are horrifying. We are not like that! We will have to solve this. We have learned and are learning: the play in which there are good and evil is bad. Every hero of the author must give away the crumb of truth. This might be useful in life as well.

By the way, face it, isn't that the case?

We try together in theater, film, radio, dubbing. It would be good to know where we are going wrong. What is this strange, non-existent virtual medium being created around us?

Maybe we're sitting in two wagon camps? That would be a huge problem! It's not about the theater anymore. Don’t cause irreparable disappointment. The school year will resume soon. You have to take on the task!

What does it matter, will the tempers subside, or will the resistance continue on other channels?

I don't want to go before anything like that.

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Slovakia

1. domov.sme.sk (translated, original by domov.sme.sk, 15.01.2021)

Fico sent a complaint to Judge Záleská for contacts with Tódová

BRATISLAVA. The chairman of the Smer party, Robert Fico, demands the derivation of legal or ethical responsibility towards the judge of the Specialized Criminal Court, Pamela Záleská, who also decided to detain former police chief Milan Lučanský.

As Fico further states in an open letter to the President of the Specialized Criminal Court, Ján Hrubal, the reason is the judge's alleged contacts with the journalist Denník N Monika Tódová.

According to the chairman of Smer, Lučanský's detention was also the result of "cooperation and exchange of information" between the judge and the journalist.

According to Fico, the above-mentioned facts raise extremely serious concerns, especially with regard to the objectivity, impartiality and independence of Judge Záleská's decision- making.

According to Lučanský, she took "an extremely sensitive decision interfering with the personal liberty of the accused".

"We are witnessing a situation in which custody has become an obligatory matter," Fico added, adding that such a situation was dangerous and contradictory to efforts to increase the credibility of the judiciary.

The judge of the Specialized Criminal Court, Záleská, also decided on the detention of the accused within the Judáš action, as well as the financier Jaroslav Haščák, who was later released from custody by the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic.

She was also a member of the senate, which convicted Marian Kočner and Pavel Ruska in the first instance of a bill of exchange.

2. ujszo.com (translated, original by ujszo.com, 14.01.2021)

SaS stays in coalition, Sulík denies anything to do with buying RapiGen tests 81

The SaS party stands full-breasted alongside its president, Richard Sulík. This was announced by party leader Roman Foltin on Thursday, stressing that this is the position of the national council. Liberals are urging a solution to the current situation and a suspension of debates.

Foltin added that the timing of personal conflicts within the coalition is the worst possible, the energy should be spent on solutions. According to him, the exact opposite is happening, which results in social division.

The SaS therefore called on the head of government to honor the coalition agreement that no one will publicly criticize a coalition partner unless the coalition council has met before it. Foltin added that the national council also agreed that the party’s withdrawal from the government would not serve Slovakia’s interests, so the SaS “remains a solid member of the coalition”.

Sulík denied sending Matovič a message threatening to leave the coalition. According to him, there is no logic in this, as the coalition would retain its majority in such a case and could continue to govern. He also denied that it had anything to do with buying RapiGen coronavirus tests, which the prime minister said was of poor quality. He added that the acquisition of the tests was arranged by Matovič himself before the first national testing. The procurement was approved by a committee that also included representatives from the Ministry of Health and the State Medicines Control Bureau. He also stressed that the SaS did not oppose the introduction of stricter precautions in December, only suggesting that they allow enough time to prepare and start the lockdown two days later. He noted that if the SaS semaphore had been adopted, the more stringent measures would have come into force much earlier in several districts.

Sulík denied that he was responsible for the deaths of those infected with the coronavirus. The head of government said he had gone too far with this statement. Regarding the graph illustrating unnecessary deaths presented by Matovič, he stated that it does not contain any relevant data, only estimates, and does not know who made it. The party chairman expressed his condolences to all those whose relatives died of COVID-19.

Sulík also does not support mandatory corporate testing

The SaS does not support the proposal that employers should test their employees for COVID-19 and does not support a national testing plan similar to last November. This was announced by Richard Sulík, SaS President and Economy Minister, at a press conference on Thursday. As for corporate testing, the party will develop its own plan, which will be presented at the next government meeting. According to this, testing would operate on a voluntary basis and companies would be provided with the tests and reimbursed for the costs. Mass testing can be envisioned by Sulík as confirming the capacity of mobile sampling sites.

Sulík fears that it would be illegal to oblige employers to test. He stressed that it is the job of employers to create goods and values and to give people jobs. They should not be burdened with any other obligations. The minister will work with employers to develop a plan for voluntary-based, corporate testing. An employer who chooses to test should be provided with the tests as well as reimbursed for costs in much the same way as for mobile sampling sites.

Regarding the national testing, Sulík stated that in the form in which it was implemented last November, he considers it a waste of human and material resources. According to him, the capacity of mobile testing stations should be increased, for example, opening more sampling points or operating some on weekends. He reiterated that most screening should be done in the most infected districts.

3. strana-smer.sk (translated, original by Ladislav Kameniczky, Facebook, 11.01.2021)

EXCEPTIONS CONFIRM THE RULE - THE WEALTH OF THE MATHERICAL GOVERNMENT!

Legislation generally clearly defines exceptions to established rules, in clearly justified and rational cases.

Very rarely, an exception may be granted if the existing rules unfairly harm someone, even in a very specific case.

I would really like to know what circumstances led the Chief Hygienist Ján Mikas to give Deputy Prime Minister Holý an exemption to take the test, resp. do not quarantine after returning from the UK!

The only real reason for the exception could only be that the case of Deputy Prime Minister Holý had to be wiped out!

The chief hygienist Mikas, to whom Matovič strengthened his competencies only in order to get rid of his own responsibility for running the state during the pandemic, now also serves as a broom, with which the problem can be swept under the rug at any time.

I don't know Ján Mikas enough to judge him as a person, and I don't even think he's a bad person yet.

As a chief hygienist, however, he failed on the whole line - personally and unfortunately also professionally. Personally, because he lost any self-esteem and serves the schizophrenic moods of Matovič (either he had to leave himself or to set up a mirror for Matovič and risk his appeal) and professionally because he should never have granted such an unjustified, purposeful and shameful exception!

I do not believe that this exception for Holý originated in Mikas's head. It is also clear to a small child that Mikasa was asked for it and he complied.

I would be very interested to know who came to Mikas with such a request for a "maid".

Whatever it was, Mikas, if he didn't want to lose the last pinch of self-esteem, he should whistle it as chief hygienist.

In my opinion, the nail in the coffin is Mikas's tragicomic attempt to cover up this case, his effort to open up the issue of limiting or abolishing exemptions from the measures in place during the pandemic at the nearest Central Crisis Staff! This is really the hardest irony!

I do not expect bare self-reflection and resignation. After all the cases of members of Matovic's government, Teflon's expressions in explaining them, and Alzheimer's remembering his transparent promises full of self-reflection and proclaimed new political culture, it never occurred to me that Matovic or any member of his government would do what the Austrian minister did work after overthrowing her plagiarism case and resigned!

4. parameter.sk (translated, original by parameter.sk, 16.01.2021)

Matovič found out what had happened in the village where every second quick test found an infected one

The Slovak prime minister posted on the testing at the harmanec paper mill and its strange results. Igor Matovič unveiled the blindfold.

Matovič found out what had happened in the village where every second quick test found an infected one

As reported by our portal, the health of the employees was checked with an antigen test at the plant of the settlement in the Banská Bystrica district a week ago, and it was found that 46 percent of those examined were coronavirus. Subsequently, the management of the paper mill decided to use PCR tests, which were considered to be much more accurate, as a result of which none of the people believed to be viral became infected.

On the community side, the Prime Minister reported that a certain Eko Test Covid test, manufactured by a Chinese company called Assure Tech, was used in Harmanec. In his post, Matovič emphasizes that mass testing in Slovakia is not carried out with this Chinese commodity.

What is used in our national screenings, on the other hand, has an official error rate of up to 0.32 percent, but, for example, in mass testing in Trenčín, it was only 0.05 percent. Which means that in 10,000 tests performed, it shows false results in only 5 cases. So everyone can rest assured, here the state doesn’t even stick such Chinese scrap with a stick.

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Romania

1. balkaninsight.com (by Marcel Gascón Barberá, 04.01.2021)

Romania in 2021: New Centre-right Majority Faces Stormy Year

Dealing with structural problems dramatically aggravated by the COVID pandemic will be the priority of the new government – which may be threatened by infighting and internal resistance to austerity.

Romania faces 2021 immersed in a profound crisis that has seen the economy plunge into a recession of over 4 per cent by the end of 2020, with the public deficit expanding to more than 9 per cent.

The country will navigate this storm brought about by the pandemic with a new parliament that emerged from the December 6 general election – whose results were a major disappointment for many mostly young reformist voters with centre or centre-right pro-EU views.

First place in the election, with 28.9 per cent of the votes, went to the opposition Social Democratic Party, PSD, whose image has long been tainted by the role of its predecessors in delaying change after the fall of communism – and was further damaged by the corruption scandals and attacks on the rule of law that marked its last tenure in office from 2017 to 2019.

Second place went to the ruling, centre-right National Liberal Party, PNL, which won 25 per cent, with the more aggressively reformist and centrist USR PLUS alliance coming third, with 15 per cent – a showing that didn’t match its expectations.

Despite the apparent setbacks suffered by the centre and centre-right parties, which had hoped for more votes after defeating the PSD in previous elections, the new parliament looks radically different from the outgoing one in which the Social Democrats had a majority, thanks to the 45 per cent of the vote they won in the December 2016 parliamentary election.

Together with USR PLUS and the Democratic Union of the Hungarians in Romania, UDMR, which represents Romania’s ethnic Hungarians, the PNL has formed a coalition government as mandated by the centre-right President, Klaus Iohannis.

The new government has a big enough majority in parliament, on paper, to undo the remaining features of the PSD’s hotly debated judicial changes, and allow Romania to move off from the path of ever-growing public spending in salaries and pensions pursued by the Social Democrats in government.

This does not mean, however, that a smooth path lies ahead when it comes to dealing with structural problems dramatically aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Austerity, power struggles could fracture alliances 85

The new government is led by former Finance minister Florin Citu, of the PNL, which has nine ministers in the new cabinet. USR PLUS has six and the UDMR is in charge of the remaining three.

While the PNL has retained the Finance, Interior, Foreign, Energy, and Defence ministries, USR PLUS has got hold of the departments that will be crucial to determining whether the government succeeds in addressing the most pressing current challenges.

The new Justice Minister is USR PLUS’s Stelian Ion. He will have a crucial role in redressing the PSD’s judicial changes. Ion’s fellow USR PLUS member, Catalin Drula, is in charge of Transport at an important time – when Romanians are crying out for a proper highway and railway system. Through its new multi-annual budget and the COVID-19 relief fund, which is expected to offer Romania 80 billion euros, the EU will make abundant funding avialable to make this possible.

Another USR PLUS member, the Minister for European Investments and Projects, Cristian Ghinea, will lead the efforts to seize this historic opportunity and maximize EU funds absorption.

The so-called digital revolution is another EU priority when it comes to funding. Romania’s Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitization is another USR PLUS member, Ciprian Teleman.

According to media reports, PNL barons are not happy with the power share their the party leader, former prime minister Ludovic Orban, agreed with USR PLUS.

Some are said to have accused Orban of ceding too much in the negotiations in exchange for USR PLUS’s vote in parliament when he was elected speaker.

With no elections in sight until the November 2023 presidential poll, the greatest challenge to the government’s drive to balance finances is likely to come from within the ruling parties themselves.

On December 29, PNL, USR PLUS and UDMR signed a letter from Romania’s Municipalities’ Association, AMR, that accused the government of acting unilaterally when pushing a decree that freezes all public sector salaries and scraps some of the privileges of municipal officials.

Among the signatories was former prime minister Emil Boc of the PNL, the mayor of Romania’s second most important city, Cluj. The USR PLUS mayors of Brasov and Bacau, two major urban centres with over 200,000 inhabitants, also supported the letter.

These tensions give a sense of the likely climate of conflict in which Romania might be governed in 2021.

Infighting could undermine its ability to face pressing challenges, starting with the absorption of the 80 billion euros of EU money Romania expects to get to solve systemic shortcomings and overcome the COVID crisis.

Alarm over ultra-nationalists’ return to parliament

The December 6 election also brought the shock entry into parliament of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, AUR.

More than a decade after the chauvinist Greater Romania Party lost its representation in parliament, a nationalist force with extremist tendencies and that calls itself an “anti-system” movement resumes its place in Romanian institutions, after obtaining a respectable 9 per cent of the vote in its first electoral showing.

The year will give an answer as to whether AUR’s presence in the two legislative chambers immerses Romanian politics in the cultural wars being fought in other countries in the region, and beyond, which so far in Romania have mostly been confined to the fringes of the NGO and religious movements.

For now, AUR’s portentous entry in the political scene has met stern warnings against any temptation to develop the worst instincts of some of its leading members.

Four days after the election, during the start of the Jewish Hanukkah celebration, Israel’s ambassador to Romania, David Saranga, said his government would closely watch the behaviour of a party that he said contains Holocaust deniers and Fascist sympathizers.

Saranga, who spoke at an event held at the heart of Bucharest with the interim prime minister and with other government officials in attendance, asked the Romanian people to be equally alert.

Civil society is already. On 17 December, AUR representatives were scolded in Timisoara when they participated in the commemoration of the dead in the anti-communist revolt that eventually toppled communist dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu.

One civil society organisation representing those who took part in the rebellion deplored the presence of the “ultranationalist” party, and also said two AUR members elected in parliament were actually involved in the bloody repression of the 1989 revolution.

2. valaszonline.hu (part of the original article, translated, original by Szabolcs Vörös, 08.01.2021)

“Our goals are similar to those of Fidesz,” is a portrait of the new Romanian far right

In Romania, the outrageous new far-right party, the AUR, is notable not only for its anti- DAHR sentences: the essence of their confused ideology is a complete denial of the system. Behind the unbridled push from the outside, however, is systematic work - not rumored by the party, according to some rumors. We drew a portrait of the Romanian far right with a Romanian political scientist, a member of the AUR parliament and the mayor of 87

Sepsiszentgyörgy, who is often included in the crosshairs of party leaders. We suspect we will hear a lot about them in the next four years.

Our creed is based on four pillars: family, home, faith, freedom. Marriage can only be a couple of a man and a woman. We oppose the persecution that Christianity has been the subject of in recent decades. Political correctness, gender ideology, and multiculturalism are all disguised plagues of neomarxism. We are a Conservative party, we want a Europe of nations, a non-federal superstate with a single capital, a government, a parliament. A federal socialist empire is a utopia we do not share. We do not believe in the United States of Europe. We openly oppose the colonization of Europe by foreign populations. If they had not become accustomed to writing election programs since 2010, the unsuspecting interested would think that he would read the 2022 manifesto of the Hungarian governing parties. Yet these words were not written in Budapest, but 800 kilometers away, on January 24, 2020. The month before, it was officially registered at the congress of the Association for the Unification of Romanians (Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor - AUR) in Iasi.

Silent two-thirds

We barely made up for the September municipal elections - the Hungarian reconquista of Târgu Mureş or the German-led Timisoara - they voted again in Romania on 6 December. This time on the composition of the Bucharest Parliament, the lowest turnout since 1990, at 33 percent. The Social Democrats (PSD) won the election with a result of around 29 percent (in Romania, the voter has two votes, one for the lower and the other for the upper house candidate, the results may therefore differ by a few thousandths), but this was not enough to form a government. National Liberal President Klaus Iohannis called for his own party, the PNL, to form a government, and a large 25 percent to form a coalition with the progressive- liberal USR-PLUS alliance (a good 15 percent) and the DAHR (a narrow 6 percent). stepping, he finally brought together the majority in the House of Representatives (169/330) and the Senate (75/136).

However, since December 6, the Romanian and international media are not full of new government. But with the AUR. The party became the fourth largest parliamentary force - with 10 per cent of parliamentary seats - without being measured by pollers in the autumn, winning three (3) of the 3,176 mayoral elections in the municipal elections - the one-headed eagle's nest with a population of 7,000. the town of Amara in the highlands.

Shawarma politicians

However, success did not only require the passwords already quoted. The AUR masterfully rode the increased social frustration and anger against complete politics due to the epidemic. It is thus a pity to find connections in their voices, ranging from skepticism about mask- wearing and vaccination to the unification of Romania and Moldova. As historian Mădălin Hodor, a scientific researcher at the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS), put it: the AUR is a shawarma of radical political themes. The Romanian political scientist interviewed by Answer Online is of a similar opinion. According to Raluca Alexandrescu, a lecturer at the University of Bucharest, the AUR is an eclectic political figure:

88 a populist response to the economic crisis, the failure of political corruption and the cleansing of the political system, and more recently the dissatisfaction with the health crisis. There are, of course, traditional far-right voices - anti-Semitic, xenophobic - among them, but more of a kind of “all-in-one” party. ”

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Slovenia

1. balkaneu.com (by Mladen Dragoljovic, 12.01.2021)

Slovenia: Ruling SDS still the strongest party in the country

The ruling Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) continues to lead the field in the latest poll commissioned by the newspaper Delo, but has lost ground for the second month in a row. The LMŠ party of ex-PM Marjan Šarec and the DeSUS party of the aspiring PM-designate Karl Erjavec have likewise slipped back amid growing voter discontent.

The SDS polled at 13.7%, down 3.2 percentage points from December. Party leader PM Janez Janša saw the biggest improvement in voter approval, climbing two spots to 16th on the list of the most popular politicians.

The opposition Left rose second among parties, despite gaining just 0.2 points to 9.6%, as the Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) lost 2.6 points to 7.5% to fall from second to fourth place. The Social Democrats (SD) are third having gained 0.8 points to a total of 8.5%, after losing four points the month before.

The Pensioners’ Party (DeSUS), which quit the Janša government in December and whose leader Erjavec is now heading the bid for the cabinet’s replacement, lost 1.5 points to 2.1%.

Delo comments that the results do not augur well for the planned vote of no-confidence, in particular as Erjavec himself fell to the bottom of the popularity ranking of political figures.

The coalition New Slovenia (NSi) ranks fifth among parties at 4.8%, down 0.3 points, followed by the opposition Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) on 3.1%, which is on a par with last month. The coalition Modern Centre Party (SMC) rank 13th at 1.1%.

The ruling parties’ combined percentage amounts to 21.7% including DeSUS, or 19.6% excluding DeSUS, while the centre-left bloc garners 30.8% with DeSUS and 28.7% without it.

However, 22.5% of those questioned were undecided, up from 18.7% in December; meanwhile, 13.3% or 1.2 points more compared to one month ago would not vote for any of the parties on offer.

Voter approval rating for the government remains low, with 53.1% assessing its job negatively against 20.6% who assess it positively and 24.9% who gave it an average mark for a combined score of 2.45 on the scale of one to five, compared to 2.44 one month ago.

President Borut Pahor continues to lead the list of the most popular political figures ahead of Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec and Labour Minister Janez Cigler Kralj, both of whom are members of the NSi.

The poll was conducted by Mediana among 709 respondents between 4 and 7 January. /ibna

2. sds.si (translated, original by sds.si, 18.01.2021)

Prime Minister Janez Janša: Slovenia is resistant to both the coronavirus and the hatred that some sow

Prime Minister Janez Janša was a guest on Nova24TV. In the conversation, he spoke about vaccination, the epidemic and recovery after the epidemic, and about the observance of restrictive measures in Slovenia. He also spoke about the current political situation, the crisis of the opposition, how the unstable political environment affects the fight against the epidemic. In the conversation, the Prime Minister also responded to the threats received by the deputies of the coalition parties and the Desus party.

In the conversation, he first said that the European Commission had provided enough vaccines for everyone. "It is true, however, that at the moment there is no country in the world that has enough vaccines tomorrow because they have been approved recently and because the production capacity of producers is limited." He stressed that the upcoming vaccine is safe. The vaccine has been approved by both the European Medicines Agency and the national regulators of the Member States.

He went on to talk about vaccination. "How quickly we will be able to use the vaccine depends on how quickly we get organized, how much we trust science and don't fall prey to conspiracy theories and charlatans who declare that there is no virus." In order to cope with the logistical burden of vaccination, the government has appointed a special coordinator for vaccination logistics. She appointed Jelko Kacin, the current official spokesperson for covid- 19, to this position. According to him, given the dynamics of vaccination and the supply plan, we will be able to come to life in early June without the measures that now restrict our freedom of movement and normal life. "However, we expect to shorten this time by at least one month with additional deliveries, and some of the measures currently in force will no longer be necessary." He also said the government is fighting for additional vaccine supplies. “Once the vaccine is available, it will be used on a priority basis, without clientelism and without side species,” he stressed.

The Prime Minister Janez Janša explained: "If we are consistent in the vaccination strategy and first protect those who are most at risk, then the general danger of the virus will be lower, but it will still exist." He said the virus needs to be eradicated, if not, it will reappear. "It is important that not only we do this, but also the neighboring countries, the whole EU, the whole continent, the whole world, because otherwise the virus will reappear."

Regarding the situation in health care, he said that Slovenia needs to make up for long delays and that our health care system needs strong reinforcements. "Extremely little has been invested in health care in the last 15 years. No investment has been made in health care capacity, not to improve the pay system in health care, not to build homes for the elderly." He emphasized that this would change. "With the help of European funds, we will launch some investments that have been waiting for a long time and already have a beard. But we need some stability and some peace for that, and not the announcement of a new interpellation every week." He explained that Slovenia has the eighth oldest population in the world, which is most endangered due to the coronavirus, so we have to vaccinate half a million people.

He went on to speak of the opposition and said he was playing a dirty game in the epidemic according to the formula: "The worse for the country, the better for KUL". He emphasized that the epidemic had been used as a political weapon. "But in our history, it has never turned out well when political goals were pursued regardless of the victims. The political successors of those who have already done so use the same formula today."

Regarding allegations that the government does not listen to the profession when adopting restrictive measures, the Prime Minister said: "We are not listening to the profession that the previous government brought to the fore, such as Ms. Nina Pirnat, who said it was a slightly more severe flu and that we have to sneeze in our sleeves. If we listened to this profession, our health care system would fall apart in the spring. " He said that the government was listening to serious Slovenian and European professionals, as well as more widely. He specifically mentioned that he had a video conference with the Taiwanese Minister of Health a few days ago. "This is the country that is most successful in dealing with covid because they have experience from almost 20 years ago when they had SARS." He emphasized that the European Union had also pooled knowledge potentials regarding the new coronavirus.

Regarding the filing of constructive distrust, the Prime Minister said that this was a brutal pathetic outpouring of ideological hatred against dissidents. He said that the text of the vote of no confidence could also be written: "We, first-class, think that power in Slovenia is reserved only for us, we were born to be in power, and everything that is against that threatens democracy. "

In the continuation of the conversation, the Prime Minister spoke about the double standards that we are facing in Slovenia. He mentioned that he had received several hundred death threats on social media from people with first and last names in the last two weeks. "Some threats are being investigated by the police, and the prosecutor's office is deliberately blocking any sanctions. If someone in Austria threatens the chancellor with death, he gets two years in prison, if someone in our country threatens Borut Pahor, he gets eleven years in prison. defended him under sanctions, and the court then reinstated him. " At the same time, the Prime Minister said that the violence at the Capitol in America was condemned by all. Serious violence in Slovenia is condemned only by the democratic side, and the "caviar of the left" turns this violence into freedom of expression. "If they threaten the prime minister from the 91 left, the one who threatens is sentenced to eleven years in prison, and if they threaten the prime minister from the right, it is freedom of expression." These double standards are one of the key problems of Slovenian democracy. "If institutions and the central media support double standards, they are directly killing democracy, and in Slovenia this happens even during an epidemic." He added that there are also deputies in the KUL parties who do not approve of double standards, but are silenced and pushed into ideological hatred.

Continuing the conversation, he emphasized that in this term of office and in this composition of the National Assembly, the alternative is simple: "Do we have a government that is fighting and successful despite the logs, or do we have a government that once disintegrated a rifle into the corn at the time of the epidemic, and it was led by the supra-coalition, drastically radical Left Party. " He added that even if they overthrow this government, there will be no new government or it will collapse very quickly, and we will pay the price due to the epidemic.

At the end of the conversation, the Prime Minister said that it was necessary to abstain. "We have enough vaccine and we know we will beat the epidemic." He also pointed out that Slovenia is not as it is portrayed in the mainstream media. "I know we have people's support. I feel it every day, I get a lot of messages of support." He explained that the common sense majority is strong enough and that Slovenia is resistant to both the coronavirus and the hatred that some sow.

3. romanatomc.si (translated, original by Romana Tomc, 19.01.2021)

Romana Tomc: Let Europe split

A safe and effective vaccine represents our permanent exit from the pandemic. One year after we first saw images from Wuhan in China affected by coronavirus, we have two safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 in Europe and all Member States have started vaccinating. We will have six vaccines soon. Without EU financial investment in research and development, these vaccines would not exist. "This is a great success of the European Union! If each member state bought vaccines on its own, it would raise prices, trigger rivalry and increase inequalities between countries. The European Union has literally saved lives by providing enough vaccines for all in advance. Vaccination started at the end of last year and the Slovenian government is working to ensure a sufficient number of doses of the vaccine for all citizens in the shortest possible time, 43,000 people have been vaccinated so far, and the most vulnerable groups are currently being vaccinated. There will soon be enough vaccines available for the whole population. When enough people are vaccinated, we will gradually be able to live normally again, we are all already looking forward to that. "

In line with the strategy to accelerate the development, production and introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, the Commission has concluded agreements with individual vaccine manufacturers on behalf of EU countries. "It is now important to strengthen confidence in the vaccine and vaccinate as many Europeans as possible. We must fight against misinformation about vaccines and defend science and an evidence-based approach to vaccination. In this 92 viral world, anyone can raise concerns, but campaigns can significantly reduce the damage caused by this misinformation. "

4. sds.si (translated, original by Janez Moskric, 09.01.2021)

Healthy roots and solid foundations

Hate has no future. This was proved by our ancestors. But it is similar to weeds. Why would a sharing topic, some would say? Because today, these “some” so carelessly state the words of what fascism, Nazism, and all they know about concentration camps. We try, sow and plant fertile plants and yet we have to deal with weeds over and over again!

We all know very well how important healthy roots are for plant growth and solid foundations for building stability. Moreover, all this can be scientifically proven, analyzed and also accurately calculated. However, in Slovenia, if you will, we are in "core Europe", at this time of year, when there are only perennial roots in the ground and they are still dormant, and solid foundations and proper construction are being tested by many scientists in the construction and static fields. Residents of some towns in our neighboring country of Croatia have experienced a great tragedy as a result of the devastating earthquake. I believe that there were many of us Slovenes who helped the affected people to the best of our ability.

The words roots, healthy roots, strong roots, true foundations, honest foundations, solid foundations are also used for events related to the lives of individuals and institutions. We hear that some like to brag about their roots and are proud of them, which of course means they are proud of their ancestors.

March 3rd is an important date for me every year. Last March was very special… I believe, dear friends, it was a holiday for all of us. However, I would like to dedicate a few words to my roots and perhaps attract you to remember your roots and the roots of our nation, our country.

My late father would have been exactly 100 years old on March 3rd. Yes, the father, and not the grandfather, belonged to a generation that had suffered a great deal, especially if it was aware of its roots. Thus, my father was imprisoned for 9 months in the Rab concentration camp, and for a few days in the Home Guard post at Sv. Urhu, and after the "liberation" he had to report to the Bishop's institutions together with his sister's husband, who never returned to his pregnant wife.

This is a period when some people wanted to kill love in many places, to kill the desire for life, for happiness and creativity. I tell you: they failed her! These young boys, who survived all this, started families and gave their lives. What’s more, there was no desire for revenge in them. If they created families outside the borders of our homeland, they carried the thought of their homeland, religion, culture and customs in their hearts and actions.

Hate has no future. This was proved by our ancestors. But it is similar to weeds. Why would a sharing topic, some would say? Because today these "some" are so careless in saying what fascism, Nazism and everything they know about concentration camps. We try, sow and plant fertile plants and yet we have to deal with weeds over and over again! And here we are probably immediately reminded of the Christian roots, of the words written in the book of all books, which speaks of the wheat field and the swamp (Mt. 13, 24-43). We must not take the mulcher and the Boom effect and destroy everything in this field. Care must be taken not to damage the basic crop species by weeding. This is my request to you, all of you who are trying to remove weeds, and yes, it needs to be removed, otherwise it multiplies.

But we can only overcome hatred with love, with enough true culture; and so we will also stifle the growth of weeds.

In a democratic society, great virtue is working for the common good. Individualism has no advantage over the common good. But there is no one without the other, let us just remember the commandment of all the commandments. "Love your neighbor as yourself." More than 30 years ago, ideas about the common good bore fruit in Slovenia. Democratic parties were formed; parties based on democratic values, on the values of the common good. The parties of the Slovenian Spring are based on the values of respect and cooperation. Unfortunately, this cannot be said today for some other parties in the Slovenian parliament.

My and our common wishes in March 2020, despite the epidemic that was “at the door”, were to rekindle the wind of respect and cooperation. These days, when we are in anticipation of everything new, we see how important it is to make arrangements on solid and fair foundations, if you have approached things with serious intentions for the common good.

Among friends, I always like to say: Nothing like this happens to us that we have never seen in history, or would not have already happened to them. Wars, epidemics, incitement, hatred. It is proven that our ancestors overcame all this, so we certainly will. Doubts and fear are normal phenomena of the human race, as are faith, hope and love. Let us remember all those who kept these three in even more difficult times. Dear friends, together we try to sow and plant good crops in time, in the right soil and correctly, and we take care of the weeds carefully and constantly so that we do not scatter them around with reckless measures.

Let us be proud of our roots, of the foundations on which our country has grown; on which the Slovenian Democratic Party is founded, and the ideals carried in the heart of our most responsible representatives in the country.

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Croatia 94

1. vecernji.hr (translated, original by vecernji.hr, 19.01.2021)

Plenković about Žinić: The elections are in three months. It's a shame, I want everything to be clarified

When asked by journalists about the information that Žinić got the disputed house back in April 1995, he replied that he was not aware of it

The elections are here in three months, we can't do anything about it, said today the Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, answering the question whether the Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Ivo Žinić will wait until the end of his term.

- It is a pity and I want all this to be clarified and those circumstances examined - he said after the current morning in the Parliament, writes HRT, and when asked 'what if Žinić resigns himself' he says:

- I think you're on the right track, that's the only way. There is no other way.

When asked if everything was clearly related to Žinić's property, he replied that it was not and that not much had changed as far as his findings from last night until today were concerned. He added that there was a media chase aimed at stigmatizing the government over the post- war reconstruction, noting that only 1.8 per cent of the facilities had been given a red sticker.

- None of the opposition MPs mentioned the commission of inquiry, did you notice? They didn't talk about it. After the chase of the facts arrived, the commission of inquiry is not the topic. I expected at least ten questions - said Plenković.

- We have no interest in not revealing all this to the smallest detail - said Plenković.

When asked by journalists about the information that Žinić got the disputed house back in April 1995, he replied that he was not aware of it.

- I don't know how they could do that, I don't understand that. I don't have that information. Do you think that I, as Prime Minister, have time to go screening the assets of so many officials? I have not. It's not realistic. There are those who will do it. The tax office is doing its job, but it will not inform me about it - said Plenković.

Plenković accused Sisak Mayor Kristina Ikić Baniček (SDP) of trying to profit politically from a situation in which the state and all institutions are helping her.

- It is all demagoguery and populism for you on the Nth, so that we understand each other well - he said.

2. vecernji.hr (translated, original by vecernji.hr, 19.01.2021)

More than 200 members of the Ivanec branch, led by Milorad Batinić, left the HNS

'We are deeply disappointed with the policy of the headquarters in which personal interests take precedence over the interests of the party'

More than 200 HNS members in Ivanec, led by former Croatian Parliament vice-president and current mayor Milorad Batinic, have left the party because they are dissatisfied with the center's policy. Among those who left the HNS were Batinic's deputies, the president of the City Council, almost all members of the presidency of the branch and the presidents of the councils of local committees. He will continue to work as an independent.

- We leave the HNS deeply disappointed with the policy of the headquarters in which the personal interests of individual members are ahead of the party's interests, where party bodies hardly function at all, where there is no communication between party leaders and members and where all recognizable HNS policies are abolished. With such a HNS, which instead of program and techno-managerial work, in the focus of its activities put lucrative jobs, sinecures, personal interests and clientelism, we can no longer identify. That is not the party we joined - they say in a statement.

They also mentioned obstructions during Batinic's candidacy for party president. The HNS County Organization responds that in the spring of 2019, the party began the process of rejuvenating the leadership at the national and local level, which was completed with the recent election of Stjepan Čuraj as party president.

- By electing young and capable members of the party in leading positions, HNS has moved in the direction of restoring the dignity of each member and restoring his trust in the party as well as restoring the trust of the citizens of this country in politics and institutions - says the acting President of the County Organization of the HNS of Varaždin County Marijan Škvarić and adds that some members cannot seem to come to terms with what the majority wants and what the voters want from us.

- Now that the party has moved in a new direction, individuals, including Batinić, cannot accept the fact that the party and the interests of citizens, not personal interests, are above us all - Škvarić points out and concludes that the party has survived and survived the abandonment of individual members , so it will be the same this time.

He wished Batinić good luck with the sentence often uttered by the first president of the HNS, Savka Dabčević Kučar: "First the state, then the environment you come from, then the party and only then personal motives."

3. andrejplenkovic.hr 96

(translated, original by andrejplenkovic.hr, 19.01.2021)

The past year has shown the advantage of collective response mechanisms

As difficult as last year was, Croatia now knows that its membership in the European Union is a solid support, stressed Prime Minister Plenković, presenting the conclusions of the 2020 European Council.

The Prime Minister Andrej Plenković presented the work and conclusions of the 2020 European Council in the Croatian Parliament.

We are delivering the speech of the Prime Minister in its entirety.

Dear President of the Croatian Parliament, Distinguished Members of Parliament,

Last year was extremely challenging, unpredictable and difficult in every way. We entered it full of hope and optimism, ready to present Croatia to the world as a country that proudly takes the helm of the most successful political project in history - the European Union. But history had other plans for all of us.

The whole world has been hit by a coronavirus pandemic that has claimed many lives, caused enormous damage to farms and fundamentally changed the way we live and do business. We in Croatia were additionally hit by two catastrophic earthquakes, first the one in Zagreb in March, then before the New Year and this one in Sisak-Moslavina County and part of the neighboring ones.

These are all challenges we do not remember, which put us to the greatest test, but also that got the best out of us: the courage and dedication of health professionals, solidarity and care for many volunteers, a big heart and a high degree of responsibility of our fellow citizens. In these difficult times, all these are reasons for optimism and even stronger faith in Croatia and in the strength of the spirit of the Croatian people, whose unity and togetherness in trouble is perhaps the most enduring feature of our people throughout history.

Croatia's position on the international scene is strengthened Ladies and Gentlemen,

Despite all these adversities and even global challenges, Croatia's position on the international scene has been strengthened. The big reason for this is our membership in the European Union. The year behind us has shown us all the advantages of belonging to a large and strong bloc of countries with collective mechanisms of response and protection.

After the first earthquake in Zagreb, Croatia received 683 million euros from the Union Solidarity Fund as aid for the reconstruction of a destroyed and damaged city, which is the largest amount of aid from this fund per capita in a country so far. The even more devastating earthquake near Petrinja, Sisak and Glina will certainly receive the appropriate help, which has already been announced by European Commissioner Janez Lenarčič, who visited the areas affected by the earthquake with European Commission Vice President Dubravka Šuica.

In this situation, Croatia is not alone and can count on many friends. All European leaders and many officials have sent us messages of support and expressed their willingness to help. Within the Union, crisis and other mechanisms have been activated that are designed to provide rapid and solidarity assistance. We have applied for support from all other funds available.

In cooperation with the Commission, we are working on a National Recovery and Resilience Plan from which we will be able to withdraw additional funds from a special instrument "EU next generation".

We are grateful for every support and concrete help we have received so far, and that is practically 30 countries with concrete support.

We also thank our expatriates around the world for all the financial assistance they have collected and sent to the areas affected by the earthquakes, all of which will contribute to the faster reconstruction of devastated areas, villages and cities.

Vaccine - the most effective weapon in the fight against a pandemic It is necessary to remember at this moment the very beginning of the pandemic, a little less than a year from today. At that time, Croatia was in the role of chair of the Council, we reacted promptly, activated all the competent coordination mechanisms between the member states. In an extremely short period of time, we have provided more efficient and flexible support from European funds to all members. entrepreneurs and citizens, including Croatia.

The vaccine, the most effective weapon in the fight against the pandemic, was procured and distributed jointly. Croatia started vaccination against coronavirus immediately after Christmas, as did other members of the Union, with a good initial vaccination rate which we hope will intensify.

The European Union, and through it Croatia as a member state, has provided a sufficient number of vaccines for all our citizens.

I also use this opportunity to invite everyone to get vaccinated and to think of others.

Because only with mass vaccination will we achieve the resistance of a large number of inhabitants, so the virus will no longer have anyone to spread to, which means that the epidemic will subside.

In Croatia, as an economy that is very much focused on tourism, vaccination is important for financial and development reasons.

European Council meetings in 2020 Let me say a few words about the meetings of the European Councils in 2020. Altogether, five meetings were held. This is a Report - you also received a written Report - of all the meetings that took place, but I would mention that after that physical meeting we had in February in Brussels, there was a standstill and a break until mid-July due to the epidemic in terms of holding physical meetings.

The Croatian Presidency has also organized a series of informal ministerial video conferences and other Council meetings. This was comprehensively reported by the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs when we submitted the report on our presidency.

The most common topics were the pandemic, the Multiannual Financial Framework and the recovery plan.

In addition to responding to the crisis caused by the pandemic, the most important achievement of the past year is the budget agreement. That package was agreed in July, you remember, it was a day or two before the constitution of this Parliament.

For Croatia, this agreement was particularly important, good, favorable and generous. It is coming at the right time given the circumstances and it is precisely these financial instruments that should help us embark on the path of social and economic recovery.

The topic of climate change

The European Council has on several occasions this year discussed an important global topic, which is climate change.

We have determined that by 2030 we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the European Union level by at least 55 percent compared to 1990.

This is important for achieving the Union's climate neutrality by 2050 and its sustainable future for the benefit of new generations, as well as for our collective contribution to the global goals and implementation of the Paris Agreement.

In October, we discussed the single market, industrial policy and the digital transition, which, together with the green transition, is becoming a key priority for the Union in the next multiannual period.

These are all areas that open up great opportunities for accelerating our economic development, as well as a chance to make the most of them.

Regarding external relations, the key topics this year were relations with Turkey, especially submarine drilling activities in the eastern Mediterranean, the situation in Belarus, China, Nagorno-Karabakh, the Southern Neighborhood, Union-Africa relations and, ultimately, poor foreign policy issues - relations with the United States.

All these discussions showed a high level of coherence of positions in the field of foreign policy. And despite understandable differences in some initial views, we have finally shown that we are able to find a common denominator of 27 countries and send unique messages to the Union.

About the Croatian presidency

When it comes to the Croatian presidency, I would also mention that one of our key meetings was the Zagreb Summit, 20 years after that first meeting. Although in video form, he sent important messages about the importance of the enlargement process, Croatia's strong policy 99 of support for its neighbors, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the position of the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina as an equal, constituent people.

Important decisions were made there during our presidency on opening negotiations with Albania and Northern Macedonia, as you know, a new methodology for accession negotiations was adopted, and steps were taken at the very beginning of the new Commission's work.

In this regard, we expect that exactly the path that Croatia has taken will continue the current Portuguese presidency.

We held a meeting with the Eastern Partnership countries, we wanted to keep the focus on these six countries with all the differences and problems that exist between them.

12.7 billion euros in seven years When it comes to the Multiannual Financial Framework, I said this morning that we have 12.7 billion euros at our disposal in seven years. On cohesion policy - 8.04 billion euros, direct payments - 2.32, rural development - 1.9.

With additional funds that will be able to benefit from various Union programs and instruments - for fisheries, equitable transition, internal security and migration, research and development.

This is the result of our intensive advocacy for Croatian interests that lasted for months. In essence, this process began in May 2018, when the Juncker Commission came out with key communication documents on this seven-year budget.

We insisted on the importance of demographic renewal, you remember back in February we managed to mark the Croatian position because this problem is existential, and that is why it is important that in the new NUTS-2 division of statistical regions in which Croatia has Pannonian Croatia, and that is that part where we insist we need to make strides. We can be satisfied because our specifics and needs have been recognized.

Also, we somewhat forget that the national co-financing rate for cohesion has remained at 15%. I will remind you that the initial proposal of the Commission was co-financing of 25%, which would be a very demanding task for a country like Croatia in terms of national contribution.

We have also retained the N + 3 implementation rule, which is that projects can be implemented from the year that starts three more years. Here, too, the initial proposal was N + 2, so we not only achieved large sums of money, but at the same time we enabled the absorption to go at the pace that is appropriate to the well-established institutions and bodies.

The total seven-year payment of Croatia to the European budget will amount to 661 million euros per year, ie 4.6 billion euros in the period ahead. This is many times less than the total amount of European funds that Croatia will use.

This is another indicator of the benefits of our membership in the Union.

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The Croatian Parliament - for which I thank you and we must emancipate it a little more - on the proposal of the Government adopted the Council Decision on the system of own funds of the European Union, on 18 December last year. Croatia was the first member state out of 27 to confirm this decision through the Croatian Parliament, ie through the Parliament. Many countries have not even started the procedure yet, and some will not go through the parliamentary path. And here we gave a signal that we see the aspect of the revenue side of the European budget.

"Next generation EU"

When it comes to the "next generation EU" instrument, the public knows that this instrument was created so that we could all get out of the crisis together as soon as possible.

In addition to the seven-year European budget, the already mentioned "Next Generation EU" instrument has been agreed. It is about 750 billion euros for the European Union of 27 members, of which 390 billion euros is a grant, and 360 billion for loans.

Of this, the largest amount relates to the Mechanism for Recovery and Resilience - 672 billion euros. The grants amount to 312 billion euros, and loans to 360.

The objectives of the Mechanism are to mitigate and eliminate the consequences of the crisis, while supporting reform processes and building resilience.

Within this package, Croatia received 9.6 billion euros, there are practically 6 non-refundable, and loans amount to 3.6.

On the other hand, it is important to emphasize that this Mechanism does not require national co-financing, and Croatia has achieved success by accepting proposals for advance payments in the amount of up to 13% of grants from the Mechanism for Recovery and Resilience, which will come to the Ministry of Finance. 2021, in the amount of 780 million euros, just to understand the extent of the funds as an advance

This will relieve the state budget and provide funds for a quick start to the implementation of reforms.

Bearing in mind that the Union has a first-class credit rating, the interest rate for loans is extremely low.

Also, I would like to mention once again that our Recovery and Resilience Plan is being drafted, all departments are engaged and we are exchanging documents with the European Commission. It is a very voluminous document that has five components: economy public administration, judiciary and state property; education, science and research; labor market and social protection; strengthening the resilience of the health system and the “Reconstruction of Buildings from Earthquakes” initiative. Through all the components, our priority is more than clearly embedded, and that is demographic revitalization. 101

I will remind you that this 6 billion euro grant represents about 11% of our GDP. No other Member State of the Union has such a high percentage, so it is important to keep that in mind.

We have discussed a lot about climate change this year, in which the key will be the priority of the so-called Green ecological energy transitions.

Therefore, the last meeting of the European Council, which took place in December, translated the debate on climate into the firm goals I spoke of at the beginning - to have sustainable economic growth, to create jobs in the field of health and the environment.

This will ultimately contribute to the global competitiveness of the Union economy by promoting innovation in green technologies.

Aware that achieving the set goals will mean significant additional investments, we stressed the importance of mobilizing public funding and private capital.

The Council also recalled the targeting of at least 30% of the total expenditure from the Multiannual Financial Framework and the "Next Generation EU" package on the so-called “green” policies and “green” projects.

We are pleased with what we have secured for the decade ahead It is important that this document, the National Recovery and Resilience Program, is fully compatible with the National Development Strategy, and that it is linked to the Partnership Agreement and the special programs that we will prepare for the next seven-year budget.

We are, when we analyze everything together, quite satisfied. We are pleased with what we have secured for the decade ahead, we are pleased with the priorities of green and digital transformation. We think that these new jobs of the future are important for Croatia's adaptation to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, for positioning the country taking into account all our comparative advantages in the development direction that is best for both Croatia and Europe, following global circumstances.

I will mention that at the end of this year, a final agreement was reached on what the new relations will be with the United Kingdom, which ceased to be a member at the beginning of our presidency. The agreement reached, with the skill of joint negotiator Michel Barnier, is good for EU member states, although Croatia was by all criteria and analysis, and given the length of membership, the country least affected by the UK's exit from the European Union.

We are developing a policy of cooperation and solidarity In the end, this year, no matter how difficult, was the year of creating leverage for Croatia, leverage in the sense that we can rely on what membership in the European Union gives us, regardless of whether it is economic development or reconstruction from earthquakes. . Membership has made us a safer, stronger country, enabled us to ensure the protection of national interests, strengthen our sovereignty and develop a policy of cooperation and solidarity for our citizens, and this is ultimately the only important and most important thing.

Therefore, thanks to the trends that are important at the European level, with what the Government did, what the Minister did with his associates, all departments, Croatia, from my point of view in such circumstances, did the most it could. It remains a pity that the 102 presidency of the Council was not realized in the fullness, publicity and visibility as we wanted and prepared. But, given what we have secured for the next 10 years, we can say that it is a good and quality compensation. It is up to us, in cooperation with the Croatian Parliament, to continue the path we started last year.

Thank you.

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Bulgaria

1. fakti.bg (translated, original by fakti.bg, 12.01.2021)

Siderov asks Radev to clear "dead souls" from the electoral rolls

According to the leader of "Attack", after that he can talk about a specific date for the elections.

The consultations for the forthcoming vote of the president Rumen Radev with the parliamentary parties ended with "Attack". The leader of the party, Volen Siderov, stated that it is most important to clear the voter lists of "dead souls", bTV reported.

He presented statistics to the NCI, according to which Bulgarians have the right to vote (over 20 years) about 5,636,247 people.

"At the same time, the CEC says that there are 6,221,729. The difference is 585,482 votes. That is, it turns out that the CEC represents nearly 600,000 more votes than the real ones. What are we doing?!? "What is the point of talking about the date of the elections, general principles, if we have this discrepancy in the numbers," Siderov asked.

The leader of "Attack" called on the head of state to become a guarantor of the fairness of the elections by auditing the "Information Service". "Nobody knows what people mean there, what software is used to process election results. In the end, "It doesn't matter who conducts the elections, but who counts," he added.

Ciderov said that after reviewing the voter lists and revising the "Information Service", it could be said in particular.

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Radev replied that the issue of "dead souls" had been submitted to GRAO and the NCI. He promised that he had received the assurance that an audit could be made after the order of the executive, but the process was extremely laborious.

"Parliament has to exercise its powers of control over the executive branch much more aggressively, not the other way around. That is why we are coming to such a situation. A few days ago I invited the director of GRAO, but things continue to happen in the same spirit. But sooner or later this issue must be resolved, "Radev said.

"I vetoed it because it meant a lifetime monopoly. Of course, it was rejected. With such an approach to legal change, more and more "Information Service" is turning into a black box. Zashtoto, ako vcyaka godina CEC vazlaga obshtectvena porachka charter organizatsiya, koyato ea obrabotva izbornite protokoli, togava obshtectvoto design could ima realna informatsiya kakvo e funktsionalnoto zadanie "komentira prezidentat.

2. fakti.bg (translated, original by fakti.bg, 14.01.2021)

Volen Ciderov will play with Misha Konstantinov

"For the third day in a row, we are expecting an answer from the ATAKA party from Mikhail Konstantinov on the issue of the phantoms in the electoral lists," wrote Volen Cuben.

'' Why are you silent, Misho? Are you waiting for instructions? '' This is what the leader of ATTACK, Volen Siderov, wrote on his Facebook profile.

"For three days now, we are expecting an answer from the ATAKA party from Mikhail Konstantinov on the issue of phantoms in the voter lists.

It was much more cooperative, when in '91 I published the article about 500,000 phantoms in the newspaper "Democracy". It is already over 600,000. You are silent now '', it is written in the profile of the leader of the ATTACK party.

Your editor in the newspaper Demokratsiya V. Ciderov

3. novinite.com (by novinite.com, 12.01.2021)

Bulgaria’s United Patriots Oppose Voting by Mail and More Polling Stations in Turkey

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IMRO stands firmly against voting by mail and more polling stations in Turkey, announced on Facebook deputy chairman of the party and co-chair of the parliamentary group of United Patriots Iskren Veselinov.

Alleged defense of voting rights of Bulgarian citizens abroad are only an attempt to attack the Electoral Code, writes Iskren Veselinov and reminds that the parliamentary group of United Patriots managed to limit the number of polling stations in Turkey with the changes adopted in 2015 and thus limit Erdogan's influence over Bulgarian home politics.

The IMRO deputy floor leader described yesterday's consultations with the President as a ‘reality show’ in which not our compatriots abroad participated, but persons who have Bulgarian passports.

The essence of another change in the electoral rules are the interests of the Turkish side and the narrow party interests of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, according to Iskren Veselinov.

He declined to comment on the United Patriots' refusal to attend the Head of State's consultations for the upcoming parliamentary vote.

4. telegrafi.com (translated, original by telegrafi.com, 24.12.2020)

Karakachanov: Bulgaria is a state of Bulgarians, that's why we decided to donate vaccines to Northern Macedonia

Asked why the Bulgarian government has decided to help northern Macedonia with vaccines against COVID-19, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov said in an interview with Bulgarian national television that "this is not about neighbors, but compatriots."

"And not only in Macedonia, but also in the western parts of Ukraine and Moldova where there are Bulgarian communities. We enabled the Minister of Health to adjust the mechanism. After all, Bulgaria is the state of all Bulgarians. "We are compatriots living outside the European Union," Karakachanov said.

He said that there are about 120 Bulgarian citizens in Macedonia and that they should be vaccinated.

"I am talking about communities that are compact, that are Bulgarian. When we accept them as Bulgarians, we must give them opportunities to help. "If they want, of course, she is willing", said Karakachanov.

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Lithuania

1. respublika.lt (translated, original by respublika.lt, 19.01.2021)

There are not enough salaries for judges - they get extra

The Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Seimas Mykolas Majauskas applied to the State Tax Inspectorate (STI) for additional income received by judges organizing training. And that income is huge.

The committee's Tuesday debate on additional remuneration for judges announced that 47 judges would be retired in 2019. engaged in author's activities and trainings, and the income received from these activities amounted to 127 thousand. euros. One judge declared 17 thousand for the conducted training. euros. At that time, 11 judges were engaged in individual activities, including additional legal activities, who received 63 thousand. euros. One of them, engaging in additional legal activities, received more than 33 thousand. euros.

During the meeting of the Committee, it was hoped that the judiciary understands the importance of the objectivity of judges and will take measures to ensure that not only conflicts of interest but also the appearance of conflicts of interest are avoided.

More data provided by the STI after the request were also summarized. There are about 700 judges in Lithuania who receive a salary paid by the state. This employment-related income in 2019. was 31.5 million. euros. At that time, the additional income declared by judges usually amounts to another 1 million per year. euros. A large part of this income in 2019. accounted for real estate rental income - 79 judges received 226 thousand. euros. Dividends, life insurance benefits, interest were received by more than 100 judges, and the total amount is 363 thousand. euros.

In the remote discussion organized by the Committee on Budget and Finance, the President of the Constitutional Court (CC) Dainius Žalimas substantially extended his skeptical position regarding the additional activities of judges.

"These issues are resolved in the CC regulation. They are resolved in two stages. In 2018, when it became clear that one of the judges was self-employed under a business license, such a ban had to be included very clearly in the regulation. It is an individual activity, under a business license. 2020 in the light of the fact that one of the judges had concluded almost 30 copyright contracts in 3 years for training in private institutions - I note that this is the 106 approach of the whole court - we saw obvious signs of entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, the regulation was supplemented with a ban on providing services to all business and commercial institutions, including those that are engaged in organizing training, "said D. Žalimas.

However, he was opposed by Sigita Rudėnaitė, the interim head of the Supreme Court of Lithuania.

"The practice of participation of judges in professional development or education events is very old, maybe 20 years. Only last year when the CC amended the regulation, it became relevant whether it was in accordance with the Constitution or not. In fact, until that time, the judges of the CC also participated in such activities, as did others. Today, there is no official constitutional doctrine that would be categorical that judges cannot receive royalties and cannot give lectures organized by a private entity. The CC Regulation is applicable to the CC, which is why we respect it, but it does not apply to other courts. The regulation of the CC is not an official constitutional doctrine ", - reputed S.Rudėnaitė.

2. respublika.lt (translated, original by Jadvyga Bieliavska, 19.01.2021)

V.Čmilytė-Nielsen thanks V.Jazerskas for leaving Lithuania expresses condolences over death

The Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen expresses her sincere condolences to the relatives of the defender of the Parliament and one of the creators of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Vaclovas Jazerskas.

"The courage of people like Vaclovas Jazerskas has been inspiring Lithuania for thirty years. During the fateful events of January, Mr Jazersk did not hesitate to cover our parliament with his body, and after these events, he continued to make every effort to protect our country by the army. This is a special legacy to the Homeland. We will always be grateful to him for that, ”says the head of the Lithuanian Parliament.

During the difficult moment of loss, the Speaker of the Seimas V. Jazerskas wishes his relatives strength.

On January 18 this year, at the age of 69, volunteer dim, the creator of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, died suddenly. mjr. Vaclovas Jazerskas.

1991 January-August During the events, he performed not only the defense of the Palace of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania, but also other especially dangerous tasks of the defense of Lithuania's Independence.

Dim. mjr. V. Jazerskas was awarded the January 13 Commemorative Medal, the Lithuanian Armed Forces Volunteer Medal, the Lithuanian Armed Forces Medal "100 Years of the Restored Lithuanian Armed Forces", the Lithuanian Army Mechanized Infantry Brigade "Iron Wolf" badge of honor "Iron Wolf", the Lithuanian Army from the Russian Army the Riflemen's Union "Parliament Defender" badge, a nominal weapon and other awards. 107

3. baltictimes.com (by baltictimes.com, 05.01.2021)

Lithuanian parlt adopts resolution on boosting strategic partnership with US

VILNIUS – The Seimas of Lithuania on Tuesday adopted a resolution on strengthening its strategic partnership with the United States.

In the resolution, Lithuania commits to consolidate its strategic partnership with the United States in the area of defense and seek American armed forces' permanent presence in Lithuania.

The documents also underlines that Lithuania "has been and will remain a trusted partner of the United States in the world, Europe and the Baltic Sea region".

The document was backed by 108 lawmakers, and five MPs abstained. It was initiated by members of different political groups in the Seimas, including Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, representing the conservative Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, liberal Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, and other lawmakers.

Presenting the resolution, Zygimantas Pavilionis, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, representing the HU-LCD, noted that a new US House of Representatives is starting work, adding that now is the right time for the Seimas to express its key priorities.

"The US is the fifth largest export market for Lithuanian-origin products and it's growing. Our exports are double of our imports. The US creates a lot of jobs in our country, almost 9,000. Therefore, with no doubt, we are in favor of deepening these trade ties, and this is what we will be seeking with the new administration," Pavilionis was quoted as saying in a statement released by the Seimas' press service.

The resolution also underlines that Lithuania is "a responsible NATO member that is fully committed to allocating 2 percent of its GDP for defense needs, contributes to ensuring security in the region and the world by taking part in international mission and operations".

The document also stresses that the US is the key strategic partner and ally in ensuring the security, stability and wellbeing of Lithuania and the other Baltic states, and "its military power is the key factor in ensuring NATO defense and deterrence in the Baltic Sea region".

4. respublika.lt (translated, original by Kornelija Mykolaitytė, 19.01.2021) 108

Presidency: we agree that the requirements for schools and kindergartens should be relaxed first, when the situation allows to do so

Simonas Krėpšta, the President's Chief Adviser on Economic and Social Policy, says that the Presidency agrees that the requirements for kindergartens, schools and socially vulnerable families should be exempted first, when the epidemiological situation allows it.

"We support the steps and ideas that schools, kindergartens and socially vulnerable families are the places that should be vacated first, as the situation improves, when the epidemiological situation will allow it to do so," S. Krėpšta said at a press conference on Tuesday.

He stressed that in view of the positive signs, it is important not to return to the situation that existed at the end of December.

"In principle, we agree with the proposed expert scenarios, which provide that certain steps to reduce operating restrictions may be considered under certain conditions. Those scenarios were presented, they were presented by government experts, and they were also mentioned during this meeting, ”said the presidential adviser.

"Of course, we need to assess the context that we are seeing new strains of the virus that are perhaps more dangerous and spreading faster," Krėpšta added.

Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said on Monday that sudden changes in quarantine restrictions could not be discussed yet.

"We cannot discuss any sudden changes or cancellations when the situation is so fragile. I would not want to just harm the good dynamics and not be forced to return to the quarantine that was, ”I. Šimonytė said at the Government meeting on Monday.

Quarantine in Lithuania is valid until January 31. During it, many activities are restricted, cafes, restaurants (except takeaway), many shops other than food are closed. There are also pharmacies, veterinary, optical and orthopedic outlets.

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Estonia

1. baltictimes.com (by baltictimes.com, 04.01.2021) 109

Former EKRE minister: Soon there'll be no country where apologies won't have to be made

TALLINN - According to former minister of foreign trade and IT Kaimar Karu, due to the statements of the leaders of the Estonian Conservative People's Party (EKRE), there will soon be no country in Estonia's neighborhood where apologies would not have to be made, the daily Postimees writes.

"In a sense, it is probably a good thing that it is complicated to travel at the moment, because soon there will be no country in the immediate neighborhood where, when meeting partners, one would not have to apologize wholeheartedly and face-to-face at the first informal moment for reasons not originating from one's own actions," Karu wrote on social media.

A new scandal involving EKRE leaders broke out on Sunday when, speaking on the "Raagime asjast" broadcast of the Tre radio, Mart and Martin Helme criticized the credibility of the Lithuanian parliamentary elections in October as well as those held in Romania and discussed other countries.

When the marriage referendum was discussed at some point in the broadcast, Mart Helme, talking about "creatures manipulated by the deep state" drew attention to examples in Europe -- he briefly mentioned the Netherlands and France, then more specifically Lithuania. "Let's look at what happened in the last elections in Lithuania -- it was such an obviously transparent deep state scheme that was launched there and that they managed to push through there," Mart Helme, former minister of the interior, said.

"The same was attempted in Romania. The pattern is exactly the same," Martin Helme, current minister of finance and EKRE chairman, added.

In November, Mart Helme had to resign as interior minister after calling Joe Biden a dirt bag and, together with Martin Helme, saying the U.S. elections were rigged. On Sunday, too, the Helmes returned to the issue of alleged electoral fraud in the U.S. In particular, they were concerned about what the perspective of what they thought to be a communist administration could mean for the role of the United States in geopolitics.

In April, EKRE recalled Kaimar Karu from the post of minister of foreign trade and IT within its government delegation, arguing that Karu did not share the party's main views. Although Karu was a minister nominated by EKRE, he never became a member of the party.

Raul Siem became the new minister of foreign trade and IT. Siem is the fourth minister of foreign trade and IT of the current government. Marti Kuusik, Kert Kingo and Kaimar Karu have previously held this position.

2. ekre.ee (translated, original by ekre.ee, 14.01.2021) 110

STATEMENT OF THE BOARD OF EKRE: THE COALITION OF THE REFORM PARTY AND THE CENTRAL PARTY HAS EXTREMELY HARMFUL CONSEQUENCES FOR ESTONIA 14. JAN. 2021

The board of the Estonian Conservative People's Party invites all pro-Estonian people to come together under the EKRE flag so that we can bequeath our children a natural marriage in a country where the Estonian language and mind prevail and have the right to decide their own lives.

Statement of the Board of EKRE in full

January 13, 2021 will go down in history not only as the date when the Center Party ended Estonia's best-ever, world-wide government as a result of a corruption scandal - a government that cut taxes, boosted the economy, raised pensions, reformed, broke gay marriage and immigration quotas the right to have a say in shaping the value policy of our country.

First of all, January 13 will go down in history as the day when the party - the Reform Party - was re-elected to the government at the will of the Center Party, whose history coincides with the history of Estonian political corruption, machinations and lying (VEB and as a result of whose failed economic policy nearly 100,000 people left Estonia.

The decision of the Center Party to form a coalition with another liberal and corrupt party has extremely detrimental consequences for our country and people. Especially given the fact that the activities of the investigative bodies that led to the left-liberal coup are repeating the previous pattern of influencing the political process.

Under the tactics of the Center Party and the Reform Party, we will face further independence in Brussels in the coming years, the introduction of the hate speech law, liberal censorship, the homoagenda , opening the door to cheap foreign labor and another globalist agenda.

The Estonian Conservative People's Party does not intend to accept the future offered by the Liberals. We have a responsible task to ensure the preservation of the Estonian nation, language and culture through the ages.

We invite all Estonian-minded people to gather under the banner of the Estonian Conservative People's Party so that we can bequeath our children a natural marriage in a country where the Estonian language and mind prevail and have the right to decide their own lives.

EKRE Board January 14, 2021

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Latvia

1. apollo.lv (translated, original by apollo.lv, 28.12.2020)

Zile: The issue of catches in the EU-UK talks was specially politicized and exacerbated

The issue of catches has been particularly politicized and exacerbated in the negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, as it is not crucial for either side, a position expressed by Robert Zile (NA), Member of the European Parliament (EP).

The politician said that the agreement between the EU and the UK was set out in a 1,200-page document from which the politician had received the non-secret parts. According to Zīle, what has been achieved is a good solution, although the agreement was postponed until the last moment and both sides had created a drama around the final round of talks.

Asked whether the EP would ratify the agreement reached, Zile noted that there was no doubt about it, although perhaps perhaps 100 MEPs would vote against. The politician noted that the negotiations between the EU and the United Kingdom were concluded late, thus there is an argument that the EP could not get acquainted with the documents and vote as the Latvian government did today.

In Zile's view, however, this is not a serious argument, as it is quite clear that most MEPs will not read the 1,200-page agreement, which is also complicated in many sectors, so it is likely that MEPs will rely on colleagues who have worked in the Steering Group.

Speaking about what this agreement envisages for Latvia, the MEP pointed out that he should rely to a large extent on the statement of Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs (JV) that he does not see a threat to Latvian citizens in the agreements. In turn, as for the export of the Latvian timber industry, in Zīle's opinion, the customs tariff at zero level will be beneficial for them. It has also become known that the British continue to participate in the European research program "Horizon", which means that Latvia's young talents have good opportunities to participate in the programme's projects.

LETA has already written that the government supported the post-Brexit agreement reached between the EU and the United Kingdom in an extraordinary meeting on Monday.

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The information provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows that Latvia is satisfied that the EU and the United Kingdom have managed to reach an agreement on relations between the two parties after the end of the transition period on 31 December this year.

The EU-UK agreement includes three agreements: a trade and cooperation agreement between the two parties, an agreement on security procedures for the exchange and protection of classified information, and an agreement between the UK government and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) on cooperation in the safe use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Latvia supports the signing and provisional application of the agreements from 1 January 2021 until all procedures necessary for the agreements to enter into force have been completed.

2. nra.lv (translated, original by nra.lv, 20.01.2021)

At present, there is no administrative liability for an incitement to comply with the law

At present, it is not necessary to provide for administrative liability for any public call not to comply with the requirements of laws or other legal acts, such opinion was expressed in the Saeima Criminal Law Policy Subcommittee by Jolanta Laura, Head of the Administrative Liability Policy Division of the Ministry of Justice.

She pointed out that the law should provide for administrative penalties only for public calls that are of relatively higher public danger, such as during a state of emergency.

Laura pointed out that it is important to assess whether the alleged violation may harm the public interest to such an extent that it is necessary to provide for administrative liability for it. Andrejs Judins (JV), the head of the Saeima Criminal Law Policy Subcommittee, agreed that a penalty could not be imposed, for example, on a call to feed stray dogs, as it is not a significant violation, but in a situation where a person publicly calls to violate restrictions because it poses a threat to public health.

He pointed out that so far there are norms in force in Latvia, which stipulate that a person can be punished for public calls to violate the law even if no one has listened to him.

Saeima deputy Yulija Stepanenko also emphasized that it is difficult to define a public call from the point of view of a person. Judin disagreed with this statement, saying that the criteria for separating the call from expressing one's views were clear.

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3. nacionalaapvieniba.lv (translated, original by Laima Melkina, 07.01.2021)

The National Union is proposing an amendment to the Satversme to strengthen the concept of the family

In the European Parliament

On January 7, the National Union submitted to the Saeima a draft law on an amendment to the Satversme of the Republic of Latvia, which envisages amending Article 110 of the Satversme, constitutionally strengthening the concept of the family.

In the opinion of the national association, the concept of family needs to be more clearly defined in the national basic law. Such a need arose after the judgment of the Constitutional Court pronounced on November 12, which in the concept of family also includes “same-sex partner families” and determines the state “obligation to protect and support” them. The party holds that this is an arbitrary explanation of the concept of family, which does not correspond to the will of the legislator expressed in the current wording of Article 110 of the Satversme, nor to the understanding of the Latvian society about what a family is.

"Latvia is a democratic country with a diversity of views and respect for every citizen. But at the same time, there are values that have been especially close and even sacred to our nation and its culture for hundreds of years. One of these values is the understanding of the family, which is based on the father and mother - man and woman - and their children. Until now, such an understanding seemed self-evident, but with the decision of the Constitutional Court it is questioned. In order not to continue various interpretations of Article 110 of the Satversme, the concept of family must be described in more detail in the Satversme and made as clear and unambiguous as possible, ”emphasizes Raivis Dzintars, Chairman of the National Union.

The submitted draft law proposes to express Article 110 of the Satversme in the following wording: “The state protects and supports marriage - a union between a man and a woman, a family based on marriage, kinship or adoption, ) and father (male). The state provides special assistance to children with disabilities, children left without parental care or victims of violence. ”

Thus, the bill outlines three possible ways in which a family is formed. The first - as a result of marriage. The second - as a result of kinship, parents, including unmarried, having a child. Finally - as a result of adoption, which from the legal point of view in the Latvian legal system is comparable to blood ties. Also, in order to avoid interpretations of the term “parents”, the draft law specifically emphasizes the child's right to grow up in a family, which is based on the mother (woman) and father (man). This does not mean that there is no longer a family due to the death or departure of one parent, but that the parents cannot be of the same sex. The understanding of the family as a union created by a man and a woman is also determined by the world views mentioned in the preamble of the Satversme - the Latvian way of life and Christian values. At the end of December, the leaders of 13 Latvian religious denominations also emphasized this in their appeal to the highest state officials.

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The proposed amendment will eliminate misunderstandings that may arise from interpretations. One clear example of possible consequences is the situation that the civic initiative platform ManaBalss.lv, which also received state funding, refused to publish the initiative “On Protection of Natural Families in the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia” fundamental human rights. This means that already now the decision of the Constitutional Court has restricted the right to freedom of speech and expression of opinion to the part of the society that advocates for the protection of the concept of family.

The amendments to the Satversme have been submitted by the deputies of the National Association Jānis Iesalnieks, Raivis Dzintars, Ritvars Jansons, Rihards Kols and Ilze Indriksone.

4. magyarnemzet.hu (translated, original by Krisztina Edith Dócza, 13.01.2021)

The Estonian Prime Minister has resigned due to a corruption case

Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas has resigned after his party has been embroiled in a corruption case. According to news agency BNS in the Baltic states, a politician from the Estonian Center Party announced his resignation on Wednesday morning to Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, who is due to make a proposal to parliament in the days ahead for the new prime minister. Ratas has been the Prime Minister of Estonia since November 2016, but feels he must take responsibility, although he denies having been involved in any corruption cases. His position was also confirmed by Taavi Pern, the Attorney General of the Baltic State, in a statement yesterday: he said that according to the investigations so far, there were no indications that Ratas was aware of what had happened.

The Estonian authorities this week launched an investigation into the financing of a real estate development project in Porto Franco, Tallinn. So far, five people have been detained on charges of influencing and bribery. Among the suspects are Mikhail Korb, who is the general secretary of the Estonian Center Party, as well as a real estate developer who has donated money to the ruling party several times. In a statement, the Attorney General said that back in the summer, the state credit institution Kredex, citing the coronavirus crisis, had secured a loan of about forty million euros (14.5 billion forints) following suspected illegal agreements. Thus, among others, an agreement was reached on a large donation to the Estonian Center Party ahead of the autumn municipal elections, the Attorney General told a local radio station. Estonian security police searched the premises of the Kredex credit institution.

- Today, I have taken an important decision to resign as Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia in the current situation. This decision was taken in consultation with the leadership of the Estonian Center Party, the parliamentary group and the closest colleagues.

Ratas wrote on the social networking site at night.

The politician further added that he is aware that he does not shed good light on the party either, and that his current government will be dissolved under the Estonian constitution. He added, however, that it would be premature to make statements about what the new leadership 115 will look like. According to local media reports, Ratas is likely to serve as executive prime minister until the new government is formed.

- Despite my political responsibility, I can say with all my heart that, as Prime Minister, I have not made any malicious or deliberately wrong decisions.

Ratas declared.

The social minister said the resigned prime minister did his job with great dedication and professionalism in both easy and difficult times. The politician called Ratas a “true statesman” because he chose political responsibility even when he had no suspicion. According to the Minister, the former head of government will continue to play a significant role in Estonia’s governance and politics.

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Luxembourg

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Malta

1. independent.com.mt (by Karl Azzopardi, 19.01.2021)

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Gavin Gulia to face Public Appointments Committee before being reinstated as MTA chairman

Gavin Gulia will not be automatically reinstated as Chairman for Malta Tourism Authority (MTA), The Malta Independent is informed.

Before he regains the post he held only a week ago before all that came about following his casual election win, he will have to face Parliamentary Committee on Public Appointments.

Earlier this month, a casual election was held to fill the void left following the resignation of Edward Scicluna as MO.

The election was contested by former Rabat mayor and now PN life-member Charles Azzopardi, MTA Chairman and former PL MP Gavin Gulia, and MCST Chairman and former PN MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando.

Gulia won the casual election but resigned just minutes after being sworn in at the House of Representatives the following day, saying that Prime Minister Robert Abela asked him to consider staying on as MTA chairman due to the Covid-19 pandemic which “is a crucial time for tourism.”

However, Gulia had resigned from his post as MTA chairman in order to be sworn in as an MP, so his future as MTA chairman is on hold.

The PN had released a statement in which it said that the Minister is obliged by law to present the nomination of a chairman of a public entity before the Parliamentary Committee on Public Appointments.

“In this case, Gulia’s resignation ended his term as MTA chairman and as such a fresh nomination for his re-appointment needs to be submitted for scrutiny," the PN said.

This newsroom contacted the Tourism Ministry asking if Gulia will be bypassing this process since he was the former MTA Chairman since 2013 (the Public Appointments Committee was set up in 2017).

A spokesperson for the Ministry said that Gulia will in fact face the Public Appointments Committee before being reinstated. Minister Bartolo, who had been a standing member of the Committee, has resigned.

In a statement the PN had said: “nobody believes that Robert Abela and Gavin Gulia did not have everything planned before today's scene, which was a scene of disrespect to the will and choice of the voters.”

PL insiders told this newsroom that the PM had pressured Gulia to contest Tuesday’s casual election because he did not want either Azzopardi or Pullicino Orlando to take Scicluna’s seat.

Over the weekend, it was revealed that Commissioner for the Rights of Persons with Disability Oliver Scicluna was to take Gulia’s place. He was sworn in on Monday.

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2. independent.com.mt (by independent.co.mt, 19.01.2021)

Shadow Cabinet reshuffle: PN Leader to continue meeting with MPs tonight

PN Leader Bernard Grech will this evening continue to meet MPs as he works on a shadow Cabinet reshuffle.

One-to-one meetings with MPs have been ongoing for the past week or so, sources said, adding that the PN leader was finding some resistance by a few MPs who do not want to see their portfolio changed.

The sources said, however, that an agreement is close, and the reshuffle could be announced in the next few days.

The changes are likely to reflect the recent Cabinet reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Robert Abela.

The current Cabinet is made up of 27 people, including the Prime Minister.

There are 28 MPs, including Bernard Grech, but the former Oppositon Leader, Adrian Delia, has told Grech that he does not wish to be given a shadow portfolio. This means that the entire PN parliamentary group, bar Delia, will likely be given a ministry to shadow.

Sources said the negotiations were at times difficult because some MPs did not want to lose their current portfolio. However, the process is expected to be concluded in the coming hours.

3. independent.com.mt (by Jake Aquilina, 19.01.2021)

Not normal’ – National Book Council denied access to Mediterranean Conference Centre

The National Book Council (NBC) appealed to the government and to the Prime Minister to ensure “unencumbered and full access” to the Mediterranean Conference Centre in order to be able to hold the Malta Book Festival on the 10th to the 14th of November, 2021.

This comes after the NBC was informed that it won’t be able to make use of Republic Hall, “as it will instead be used for the publicly-subsidised show of international circus actors Cirque de Soleil,” a statement from the book council read.

“After suffering its greatest economic slump ever, the book industry in Malta needs all the support it can get from the government, however restricting our use of the MCC for the Book 118

Festival will significantly impact the event and its revenue streams, which are crucial for the continued existence of our industry,” the statement remarked.

The NBC pointed out that it had been “the most consistent and loyal client to the MCC”.

The Cirque de Soleil also raises significant question marks as to how they have managed to attain the spot since the company “filed for bankruptcy and the Maltese Government’s public subsidy to this company may have very dubious legal grounds and may also be potentially illegal under EU rules,” the statement pointed out.

The NBC also slammed the government for preferring foreign art instead of cultivating its own.

“It is only in Malta that a government takes the bizarre and absurd decision to prioritise a foreign art group over its own cultural industry. Even if the Government’s end objective is to promote Malta as a tourist destination, it is self-defeating if the government does this by prioritising foreign art groups over its local creative industries,” the NBC said.

The NBC said that the government should take note that the book industry is comprised of “small businesses and hard-working families”.

“We will welcome the government’s intervention in this matter, in the hope this dispute is given the importance it deserves and is not dragged any further.”

4. independent.com.mt (by independent.com.mt, 18.01.2021)

We need to be more efficient in the Courts of Justice’ – Minister Edward Zammit Lewis

In a discussion during a plenary session regarding a new set of proposed laws relating to the Courts of Justice, Minister for Justice, Equality, and Governance Edward Zammit Lewis said that the Courts of Justice need to be more efficient.

Reducing the time between when an appeal is made and when it is heard in court can help for justice to be served faster, he said.

“Although we have addressed certain issues, we have a lot more things to do with the Courts of Justice,” Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said. A recent report by the Council of Europe based on 2018 data also noted that Malta’s court cases take too long to conclude and that it is way above the EU average.

“You can have a case where one won a case, and the other party appeals. We need to see that we reduce this time so that people receive their due justice,” Zammit Lewis said. “It can’t be that we have delays in these things.”

“We need to be more efficient so that Maltese people will have an efficient way to justice.” 119

PN MP Jason Azzopardi said that the PN agrees with the introduction of such laws to increase efficiency

“It will reduce the delay of justice being served due to the backlog of cases that there are … the Opposition agrees with it,” Azzopardi said.

“The reality is that before Covid-19, the difference when one appeals to when one appears in court, there is 4 years. After covid-19, we are saying that it takes 6 years to appear in court,” he noted.

Azzopardi, however, said that there needs to be more judges to increase efficiency.

“We need more judges. We need to make a reform in magisterial inquiries, as the magistrates would be dealing with other works.”

If the courts had to continue like this, it is bound to have delayed court cases.

“The system, as it is, is an absolute guarantee that there is going to be a failure due to backlog,” he said.

“We need to have a pool of magistrates that deal with magisterial inquiries only … justice delayed is justice denied.”

The government needs to look more at the effect Covid-19 had in the court rooms, Azzopardi said.

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Cyprus

1. cyprus-mail.com (by Evie Andreou, 14.01.2021)

National Council meeting: Akel urges attendance at five-party summit

President Nicos Anastasiades invited the members of the National Council to escort him to the informal five-party summit to be convened by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, it was announced on Thursday.

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A meeting of the National Council, the country’s top advisory body, took place at the Presidential Palace, to discuss developments on the Cyprus issue, following a meeting of Anastasiades with UN Special Envoy, Jane Holl Lute last Monday.

Deputy government spokesman Panayiotis Sentonas said after the meeting that Anastasiades suggested the members of the National Council escort him to the five-party summit, “as this is a crucial meeting on the Cyprus issue.”

This, however, will be discussed at a later stage when a date for the conference is set by the UN Secretary-General (UNSG), he added.

Sentonas said the president briefed the members of the National Council on the latest developments, but also on the initiatives he has taken in relation to the Cyprus issue.

Anastasiades also briefed the National Council on his meeting with the Lute, who conveyed to him Guterres’ decision to convene an informal five-party meeting on the Cyprus issue in New York but also on his telephone conversation with Guterres on Monday.

The president also presented the proposals he forwarded to the UNSG, responding to his call for specific confidence-building measures to assist in the resumption of negotiations.

After the meeting, most opposition leaders reiterated their concerns about the five-party summit.

Akel leader Andros Kyprianou said Anastasiades asked the party heads on whether he should go to the five-party summit or not. The summit is expected to take place in February.

“It is imperative we go to the five-party summit, very well prepared, however,” Kyprianou said. “Otherwise, we will enter a prolonged impasse, which will bring us closer and closer to the final division of our country and people.”

Head of ruling Disy’s Averof Neophytou said that if Anastasiades asks the parties to accompany him to the summit, his party would be there. He added that Anastasiades would be right to go to the summit.

Diko leader Nikolas Papadopoulos said statements both by Turkey and Guterres do not leave margin for optimism for the outcome of the summit.

He said Anastasiades must make sure that the solution framework does not change, despite pressure from Turkey for a two-state solution, while Guterres must make clear who are the parties at this five-party summit. He said if the Republic of Cyprus is invited as a ‘Greek Cypriot community’ this would mean downgrading of the Republic and upgrading of the breakaway regime in the north.

“In any case, the President of the Republic should not suggest any connection between the operation of Tymbou [Ercan] airport and any other action or initiative of the Turkish side,” Papadopoulos said.

Edek leader Marinos Sizopoulos said the briefing by Anastasiades confirmed the vagueness related to the five-party summit. He said that his party’s concerns only increase when taking 121 into account Turkey’s provocative actions and statements but also references by Guterres in his reports to a ‘Greek Cypriot administration’ and ‘north Cyprus’ and efforts to downgrade the Republic of Cyprus.

Giorgos Lillikas, head of the Citizens’ Alliance, said a five-party summit was Turkey’s idea, which was adopted by the UN.

He said his party was suspicious of the timing of the summit given that the UN knows Turkey’s positions on a two-state solution which would lead the meeting to a standstill.

Lillikas said dangers were looming. “We do not suggest that the president should not attend, however because our refusal to attend would facilitate Turkey in its goals,” he said. He expressed his fears that the Greek Cypriot side would leave the summit with losses while Turkey would be facilitated in ‘legitimising’ its positions on two states and a confederation by tabling them before the UN Secretary-General.

Head of the Solidity Movement, Eleni Theocharous said she advised Anastasiades not to go to the summit, citing “traps” for the Republic of Cyprus because it “does not have the necessary status to be able to firmly negotiate its rights and with prospects of success.”

Leader of the Greens, Charalambos Theopemptou, said Anastasiades must go, but “we need to have a proper preparation beforehand, to make a risk analysis, to know exactly what our reaction will be depending on the requests that will be put forward.” On Tuesday, the UN Secretary-General’s spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stressed that Lute was continuing her consultations with all parties, including the guarantor powers.

2. elamcy.com (translated, original by elamcy.com, 14.12.2020)

Ch. Christou: "As long as there are unemployed and homeless, not a single euro to illegal immigrants"

The President of the National Popular Front (ELAM) Christos Christou was placed in RIK regarding the voting of the state budget, where the final decisions will be taken after a meeting of the Political Council.

As he underlined, our Party has sent a series of issues to the government for re-evaluation, but also a series of amendments that will be considered by the plenary of the Parliament.

It is important in the state budget to gain essential things for the society and the people, said Mr. Christou, such as the issue of sales, which after the statements of the Minister of Finance, seems to be extended. ELAM from the first moment through proposals of law that it has submitted, but also with its dynamic presence in sales, has a clear position in favor of the protection of the first home and the professional housing of our fellow citizens.

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Mr. Christou clarified in the most categorical way that the MPs of ELAM are not going to vote for funds and expenses intended for so-called asylum seekers, over-privileges of Turkish Cypriots (free attendance in private schools) and others.

As the President of ELAM emphasized, from the moment that compatriots are in the spectrum of unemployment, from the moment that the people's property is sold by banking institutions, from the moment that our compatriots are homeless, the support to our people is paramount and not to the illegals Immigrants.

Another issue that ELAM has been raising for years is the increase in spending on defense shielding, which we are pleased to see implemented, fully covering the requirements of the National Guard Staffs.

3. sigmalive.com (translated, original by sigmalive.com, 19.01.2021)

EDEK concerned over "Ponti-Pilates stance" of the UN Secretary General in the Cyprus issue

A press release was issued by K.S. EDEK for the Cyprus issue, characterizing it as unthinkable and worrying for the General Secretary to observe a Pontic policy and equal distances. The announcement as follows:

According to today's reports, no changes were made to the report of the Secretary General, which still lacks the reference to the Republic of Cyprus while the unacceptable references to "Greek Cypriot administration" and "elections in Northern Cyprus" remain.

It is inconceivable but also disturbing for the Secretary General to pursue a pontifical policy and equal distances, concealing the responsibilities of the Turkish side for its repeated provocative behavior and equating the occupation regime with the Republic of Cyprus.

The repetition and non-correction of such errors, which are contrary to the resolutions and the UN Charter, affect the credibility of the Secretary-General and the conventions of the Organization itself.

4. sigmalive.com (translated, original by sigmalive.com, 20.01.2021)

Is Pamporidis preparing a "New Alternative Movement"?

Many have rushed to decipher the intentions of former Health Minister George Pamporidis after his online twitter poll on January 15 asking his followers.

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Do you think that the current political stalemate shows that the place: - needs a new alternative political movement - is there enough choices in the existing parties? -does the existing parties need to be modernized?

Today, the following results of the mini tweet poll were published.

Are you saying that Mr. Pamporidis is thinking of leading a "New Alternative Movement?" We imagine, if the NEK takes place, new people will participate, with new ideas and proposals and not the various old party gyrologists. The scenarios, however, give and pass as the parliamentary elections approach and until May we have a lot to see.

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