Category: Євросоюз

VOA’s Turkish and Kurdish services contributed to this report. ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party suffered heavy losses in Sunday’s local elections, losing critical cities across the country, while the main opposition party is on course to win the capital Ankara. In Istanbul, election results remain too close to call, with opposition claims of voter manipulation. Erdogan, speaking in Istanbul to reporters, acknowledged his Justice and Development Party (AKP) had suffered setbacks and vowed to learn “lessons” from the poll. “We had some wins; we had some losses,” he said.  Erdogan went on to promise to introduce measures …

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Pope Francis on Sunday defended his decision to  refuse to accept the resignation earlier this month of French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was convicted of failing to report sexual abuse allegations to police. Francis, who spoke with reporters on his return from a two-day trip to Morocco, said a final decision wouldn’t be made until Barbarin’s appeal process was completed. “I can’t accept it (resignation) because in juridical terms, in classic world jurisprudence, there is the presumption of innocence as long as the case is open, and he has appealed,” the pope said. Barbarin offered his resignation on March 18. …

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One of Russia’s richest women, S7 Group co-owner Natalia Fileva, has died in a small plane crash in Germany, the Russian airline operator said Sunday. Fileva, 55, was aboard a single-engine, six-seat Epic LT aircraft that crashed and burned in a field as it approached the small airport at Egelsbach, a town in southwestern Germany, about 3:30 p.m. Sunday, the airline’s press service said in an email. German police said there appeared to be three people aboard the plane, including the pilot of the flight, which originated in France. They said the two passengers were believed to be Russian citizens …

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Comedian and political novice Volodymyr Zelensky was the top vote getter, ahead of incumbent president Petro Poroshenko, in Ukraine’s first round of presidential elections, according to exit polls Sunday, leading the two candidates into a run-off election. Zelensky, a comedian who plays the role of the president in a television comedy series, was projected to win 30.4 percent of the vote, easily beating Poroshenko, in power since 2014, who earned 17.8 percent, according to the Central Election Commission’s report as of 6pm. If no candidate wins more than half of the votes, the election will proceed to a run-off to …

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Thousands of Spaniards gathered in Madrid on Sunday to demand that the government take steps to curb the depopulation of rural areas. Sunday’s march under the slogan “The Revolt of the Emptied Spain” was organized by grassroots groups from rural areas in the southern European Union nation.   In Spain, 90 percent of the population is now concentrated in 30 percent of the country’s territory, namely in Madrid and the coastal areas. That leaves 10 percent of its people spread over large swaths of the interior.   On Friday, the government announced measures to improve internet networks in the countryside. …

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The polls have opened and voters in Ukraine are casting their ballots Sunday in the first round of the country’s presidential election. The top three of the 39 candidates are: a comedian who plays the role of the president in a television comedy series, the incumbent president, and a former prime minister, who is running for president for the third time. Volodymyr Zelenskiy is seeking to prove life can indeed imitate art. He is the protagonist of a long-running popular series called the “Servant of the People” in which he plays a teacher who unexpectedly finds himself president after a student …

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A liberal environmental activist has been elected as the first female president of Slovakia. Relative newcomer Zuzana Caputova had 58 percent of the vote with almost 95 percent of returns counted in Saturday’s runoff election, topping European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, who had 42 percent. Sefcovic conceded defeat and congratulated his rival. “I’m extremely happy about the result,” Caputova said. “It’s an extremely strong mandate for me,” she said. “Zuzana, Zuzana,” her supporters chanted. Political newcomer Caputova, 45, has little experience in politics and attracted voters who are appalled by corruption and mainstream politics. She only recently became vice …

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The Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Sydney Opera House, the Brandenburg Gate, the Acropolis and many more iconic landmarks went dark at 8:30 p.m. local time, Saturday night, for Earth Hour, an annual call for local action on climate change. Earth Hour is the brain child of the World Wildlife Fund. “By going dark for Earth Hour, we can show steadfast commitment to protecting our families, our communities and our planet from the dangerous effects of a warming world,” said Lou Leonard, WWF senior vice president, climate and energy. “The rising demand for energy, food and water means …

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Moscow’s recent raids in Simferopol are part of a broader effort to suppress democratic activists in the Russian-controlled Black Sea Peninsula. That’s the assertion being made by Refat Chubarov, chairman of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatars’ self-governing body that Russia has outlawed.    Crimean Tatars, who are predominantly Muslim, confronted Russian security forces on Wednesday after 20 people were detained in what Russian officials called a sweep for suspected Islamist militants.    Ukraine’s representative to the European Union, Ambassador Mykola Tochytskyi, immediately called on European partners to “harshly and decisively” condemn the “illegal” searches of homes and arrests, triggering broad international condemnation by U.S. and …

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“Yellow vest” activists protested across France on Saturday to support an activist injured last week in a confrontation with police and to show that they remain mobilized against the government’s economic policies.    The demonstrators were undeterred by police protest bans or repeated injuries in 20 weeks of demonstrations. So they were out marching again in Paris, Bordeaux and other cities to keep pressing President Emmanuel Macron to do more to help France’s struggling working classes or to step down altogether.    They’re also showing solidarity with Genevieve Legay, a 73-year-old anti-globalization activist who suffered a head injury in Nice last weekend. The …

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Three teenage migrants have been charged in Malta with seizing control of a merchant ship and using force and intimidation, a crime considered a terrorist activity under Maltese law.   One of the accused was identified by the court during the arraignment Saturday as Abdalla Bari, a 19-year-old from Guinea. The other two are 15 and 16, and as minors could not be named. One is also from Guinea and the other from Ivory Coast.   They are suspects in the hijacking in the Mediterranean this week of the El Hiblu 1, an oil tanker. The captain has said that …

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Voters in Slovakia are heading to the polls Saturday in round two of the country’s presidential election. Zuzana Caputova, a 45-year-old environmental lawyer who champions gay rights and opposes Slovakia’s ban on abortion, won over 40 percent of the ballots in the first round of the vote two weeks ago. AFP, the French news agency, reports that recent polls indicate she may gain at least 60 percent of the vote in Saturday’s race. Maros Sefcovic came in a distant second in the first round with 18.7 percent of the vote.  The 52-year-old European Commission vice president built his campaign on …

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On Sunday Turkey holds critical local elections, with control of the country’s main cities up for grabs. With inflation soaring and recession threatening, the election may pose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan biggest challenge. A week ahead of Sunday’s polls Erdogan rallied hundreds of thousands in his hometown of Istanbul, in a bid to consolidate his voting base. Even though Erdogan is not up for election, he is leading the campaign, aware his AK Party’s more than decade-long grip on most of Turkey’s main cities is under threat. Since Erdogan won Istanbul’s mayorship in 1994, a victory that served as a …

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On Sunday, Turkish voters go to the polls in critical local elections, in which control of the country’s main cities are up for grabs. With inflation soaring and the country in recession, this election is set to pose a big challenge for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

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More than 3.5 million Syrian refugees migrated to Turkey since the Syrian crisis began in 2011. In January, Turkish Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu said that nearly 80,000 of those refugees have become naturalized citizens of Turkey. Roughly 53,000 of which are able to participate in Turkey’s elections Sunday. VOA’s Tan Cetin spoke to two Syrian-born Turkish citizens to find out what factors play a role in their voting decision and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. …

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Facebook said Friday it is further tightening requirements for European Union political advertising, in its latest efforts to prevent foreign interference and increase transparency ahead of the bloc’s parliamentary elections. However, some EU politicians criticized the social media giant, saying the measures will make pan-European online campaigning harder. Under the new rules, people, parties and other groups buying political ads will have to confirm to Facebook that they are located in the same EU country as the Facebook users they are targeting. That’s on top of a previously announced requirement for ad buyers to confirm their identities. It means advertisements …

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Five years after a deadly separatist conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine, the front line between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has become a de-facto border, cutting off a generation of first-time voters from Sunday’s presidential election.   Only those who left their homes in the east to live in areas under government control will be able to cast ballots for Ukraine’s new president.   Since 2014, a separatist war in Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donetsk and Luhansk has killed more than 13,000 people and has prompted many to seek the relative stability of government-controlled areas.   The mood on …

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Agnes Varda, the French New Wave pioneer who for decades beguiled, challenged and charmed moviegoers in films that inspired generations of filmmakers, has died. She was 90. Varda’s production company, Cine-Tamaris, said Varda died early morning Friday at her home in Paris from cancer. With a two-tone bowl haircut, the Belgian-born Varda was a spirited, diminutive figure who towered over more than a half century of moviemaking. Her first film, made at the age of 27, “La Pointe Courte,” earned her the nickname Grandmother of the New Wave, even though she — the sole woman among the movement — was …

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Europe’s centrists will be looking this Saturday to Bratislava, hoping that a 45-year-old anti-corruption lawyer running on an avowedly liberal platform will win Slovak’s presidential elections, thereby bucking the continent’s populist trend. The environmental activist, Zuzana Caputova, comfortably won the first round of the elections earlier this month with 40 percent of the vote and is facing off against European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, who’s backed by the ruling leftist populist Smer-SD party. Caputova is an icon of a new emerging generation of women leaders in Central Europe, but she is, above all, a liberal figure on a continent …

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The city of Mariupol lies on the Azov Sea, next to the front lines of Ukraine’s war against Russian-backed rebels. The conflict has touched everyone’s lives as the danger of an escalation looms over the city. Moscow’s continued detention of 24 Ukrainian sailors seized just offshore in November underlines the threat. Faced with such challenges, how do the people here view Sunday’s presidential election, and who holds the key to ending the conflict? Henry Ridgwell reports from the city. …

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