Category: Євросоюз

Catalan separatists are devising nonviolent plans to resist the imposition of direct rule by Madrid. With days to go before the Spanish government secures parliamentary approval to curb Catalonia’s semi-autonomy, separatist leaders are promising to disrupt Madrid’s efforts to shutter their regional government, which could start by the end of the week. Separatists stand firm They have pledged to meet any deployment of the national police with what the leaders say will be “walls of people.” And they say that new bosses sent in by Madrid to oversee Catalonia’s own regional police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, and Catalonia’s public broadcaster as …

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Amid the turmoil in Spain’s separatist-minded Catalonia region, two wealthy Italian regions voted overwhelmingly Sunday for more autonomy from Rome. Referenda were held in Veneto – the northern region that includes the tourist haven of Venice – and in Lombardy, another northern region with the city of Milan as its main attraction. The presidents of both regions say more than 90 percent of those who cast ballots voted in favor of more autonomy. Both referenda are non-binding. But the presidents say the voices of their people give them a strong mandate and more leverage when they open talks with Prime …

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Several thousand Maltese citizens rallied Sunday to honor an investigative journalist killed by a car bomb, but the prime minister and opposition leader who were chief targets of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s reporting stayed away from the gathering.   Participants at the rally in Malta’s capital, Valletta, placed flowers at the foot of a memorial to the 53-year-old reporter that sprang up opposite the law court building after her October 16 slaying.     Some wore T-shirts or carried placards emblazoned with words from Caruana Galizia’s final blog post: “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate” in …

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Slovenia’s incumbent president Borut Pahor won the most votes in Sunday’s election, but not enough to avoid a runoff. With nearly all the ballots counted, Pahor is expected to finish with 47 percent, while his main challenger, former comedian Marjan Sarec, will win about 25 percent. Pahor said he expects to win the November 12 runoff as he thanked voters for backing him in Sunday’s first round. Slovenia is a former Yugoslav republic which has frequently been in the news in the past year as the birthplace of U.S. first lady Melania Trump. The Slovenian presidency is a largely ceremonial …

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Key U.S. senators called Sunday for the White House to be more forthcoming about the country’s military involvement in Niger after four U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush there earlier this month. In separate interviews on NBC’s “Meet the Press” news show, Republican Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senate leader Charles Schumer said they support an effort last week by Republican Senator John McCain to find out the details of the attack as well as the scope of the U.S. campaign against Islamic State in the west African country. Both Graham and Schumer said they had been unaware of the …

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The centrist ANO movement led by populist Andrej Babis decisively won the Czech Republic’s parliamentary election Saturday in a vote that shifted the country to the right and paved the way for the euroskeptic billionaire to become its next prime minister. With all votes counted, the Czech Statistics Office said ANO won in a landslide, capturing 29.6 percent of the vote, or 78 of the 200 seats in the lower house of Parliament. “It’s a huge success,” the 63-year-old Babis told supporters and journalists at his headquarters in Prague. Babis is the county’s second-richest man, with a media empire including …

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Turkey’s banking regulator urged the public on Saturday to ignore rumors about financial institutions, in an apparent dismissal of a report that some Turkish banks face billions of dollars of U.S. fines over alleged violations of Iran sanctions. “It has been brought to the public’s attention that stories, that are rumors in nature, about our banks are not based on documents or facts, and should not be heeded,” the BDDK banking regulator said in a statement, adding that Turkey’s banks were functioning well. The Haberturk newspaper on Saturday reported that six banks potentially face substantial fines, citing senior banking sources. …

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As thousands of Portuguese protested on Saturday over the government’s  handling of massive wildfires that have killed 108 people since June, government ministers pledged to spend over 400 million euros ($470 million) in aid. The decision, announced during a special cabinet meeting which continued into the night, came on the same day as a new interior minister took over after his predecessor resigned, and ahead of Tuesday’s parliamentary vote on a motion of no-confidence launched by the opposition. Earlier thousands of protesters gathered on Lisbon’s main Comercio square, in Porto and other cities to mourn the victims of the Portugal’s …

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The Spanish government said Saturday it plans to depose the leaders of Spain’s restive northeast region of Catalonia and wants snap elections within six months — part of an effort to block the region from breaking away. Catalan separatists remain defiant, saying it won’t be so easy to bring them to heel, and they’re threatening to engage in mass civil disobedience. VOA’s Jamie Dettmer has more from Barcelona. …

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A popular Russian TV anchor who recently announced plans to seek the presidency has vowed to withdraw her candidacy if mainstream opposition leader Alekei Navalny becomes eligible to reenter the contest, but some Russia observers have been quick to pan her candidacy as a Kremlin ploy to split the liberal opposition. Journalist Ksenia Sobchak, daughter of the late Anatoly Sobchak, the former St. Petersburg mayor and one-time mentor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, launched a promotional video Wednesday in which she in announced her decision to run as a candidate “against all” on behalf of all angry Russian voters. In …

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A man with a knife attacked four people in Munich on Saturday and then fled, police said. A suspect was arrested a few hours later, and authorities were working to determine whether he was the assailant. Police received initial reports of an attack in the Haidhausen area, just east of downtown Munich, at about 8:30 a.m., spokesman Marcus da Gloria Martins said. They determined that a lone attacker apparently had gone after passers-by indiscriminately with a knife. The assailant attacked six people – five men and one woman – at different sites in the area, with four of them wounded …

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Police say a man with a knife has lightly wounded four people in Munich. Officers are looking for the assailant.   Munich police called on people in the Rosenheimer Platz area, located close to the German city’s downtown, to stay inside after the incident Saturday morning.   The perpetrator fled the scene. Police said he appeared to be about 40 years old and had a black bicycle, gray trousers, a green jacket and a backpack.   The police department said on Twitter that officers are looking for the assailant “with all available police forces.”   It said the motive for …

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Spain is holding an emergency Cabinet meeting Saturday to deal with the political crisis caused by the secession push from the semi-autonomous Catalonia region. Spain’s government set plans in motion Thursday to strip Catalonia of its autonomy after the region’s leader vowed to continue steps toward independence. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s office has said the Cabinet meeting Saturday is planned to trigger Article 155 of Spain’s Constitution, which gives the government the power to take away some or all of Catalonia’s autonomy. Opposition parties have agreed to support the imposition of central rule over Catalonia. Catalonia seeks dialogue Carles Puidgemont, …

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At China’s Communist Party Congress this week, President Xi Jinping said the country would be a contributor to global development. Key to that is the so-called One Belt One Road Initiative, which seeks to rekindle the ancient Silk Road trade routes linking China with Europe and Africa. Billions of dollars have been plowed into infrastructure projects along the route, but as Henry Ridgwell reports, there are calls for China to focus on development goals such as alleviating poverty. …

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The European Union will push to conclude free trade talks with South American bloc Mercosur by the end of the year, leaders said, despite French reservations over the surge of farm imports an agreement would bring. French President Emmanuel Macron had said he was in no hurry to do a deal with the beef-exporting Mercosur countries of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and succeeded in pushing trade onto the agenda of an EU leaders summit in Brussels. “We had a short moment just after midnight to discuss international trade,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a news conference after the …

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Ankara is facing growing national and international criticism over Wednesday’s arrest of Turkish philanthropist and businessman Osman Kavala. Kavala –  a leading member of Turkey’s civic society – was detained Wednesday night at Istanbul airport. According to his lawyer, he is being held at Istanbul’s counterterrorism department.   U.S. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert voiced concern on Thursday. “It’s just another example, right, of a lot of things taking place, of respected civil society leaders, human rights defenders, journalists  we’ve all followed this story closely  academics, also activists detained in that country,” she said. “The detentions are often made without  …

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Slovenia, the Alpine home country of Melania Trump, is holding a presidential election Sunday that incumbent President Borut Pahor — a former fashion model, like the U.S. first lady — is favored to win. Eight other candidates are vying for the largely ceremonial, but still influential head of state post. Opinion polls show Pahor, a veteran politician who gave up modeling long ago, could win a majority of votes and avoid a runoff election two weeks later. Below is some background on the race being decided in nature-loving Slovenia:   A president who is king of Instagram The 53-year-old Pahor …

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Russia formally handed over six MiG-29 fighter jets to Serbia Friday, part of an arms delivery that has the potential to accentuate tensions in the war-weary Balkans. The ceremony at a military airport close to the Serbian capital, Belgrade was attended by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. “Thank you for these beautiful gifts,” Vucic told Shoigu at the ceremony, which was accompanied by an air show and attended by tens of thousands of visitors. “These planes are not a threat to anyone, but show that no one can attack Serbia unpunished,” he said. Moscow is …

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Pope Francis on Friday joined the chorus of shock over the car bomb slaying of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, sending a note expressing his condolences Friday to the overwhelmingly Catholic island nation. Popes often send telegrams of condolences after deadly natural disasters or the deaths of prominent world leaders. Rarely does the death of a private citizen elicit a formal letter of condolence signed by the Vatican secretary of state in the pope’s name. In the telegram sent Friday, Francis said he was “saddened by the tragic death” of Caruana Galizia and was praying for her family, the …

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European Union leaders pledged more money Thursday to help Italy work with Libya to stem the flow of migrants from North Africa trying to get to Europe. “We have a real chance of closing the central Mediterranean route,” European Council President Donald Tusk told reporters at a Brussels summit. Tusk was referring to the extremely dangerous sea crossing between Libya and Italy’s Lampedusa island — the first EU territory the migrants encounter. Thousands have died trying to cross the Mediterranean on unsafe boats or after being left on their own by human smugglers. Italian officials say the number of migrants …

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