In September, the prosecutor asked for a six-year prison term for Salvini as well as compensation of more than €1 million for damages if the court had found him guilty. The appeals process following the verdict could still take years. Salvini repeatedly defended himself, saying he “simply protected the country’s borders,” by preventing the migrants … Read more
A string of top officials including the Georgian ambassadors to Italy, the Netherlands and Lithuania have resigned in protest at the move, as well as Deputy Foreign Minister Temur Janjali. “What we see is this resistance has really gone beyond previous public demonstrations,” said Tinatin Akhvlediani, a senior researcher with the EU foreign policy unit … Read more
Some researchers have alleged that fake accounts or paid influencers were deployed to boost the account of ultranationalist pro-Russian candidate Călin Georgescu, who surged to victory in Sunday’s first round of voting in Romania’s presidential election. Georgescu’s content reached high view counts on the video-sharing app in the campaign’s final stretch. TikTok has repeatedly said … Read more
Eleven survivors, plus two witnesses, testified that only 26 men survived the ordeal. POLITICO published a summary of a survey that identified 97 victims, and listed their causes of death as suffocation, being beaten to death, being shot, being “disappeared” — taken away and presumably executed — and missing, presumed dead after last being seen … Read more
“Romania is a warning bell: Radicalisation and disinformation can happen all over Europe with harmful consequences,” added Hayer, an ally of French President Emmanuel Macron. Hayer’s appeal comes only two days after Georgescu’s shock victory. He had no party backing and polls had failed to pick up on his popularity — though researchers are now … Read more
The EU said it will “continue supporting the population” in Niger. “Humanitarian aid is essential; it is provided neutrally, impartially and independently, and is implemented by United Nations agencies and international organisations and NGOs. Nothing should justify the use of humanitarian aid for political ends,” the EEAS said in the statement. The EU added that … Read more
Many Georgians viewed the vote as a pivotal referendum on the country’s effort to join the EU. Granted candidate status last year, Georgia saw its EU accession process halted over the summer after ruling party Georgian Dream passed a slew of Russian-style legislation targeting Western-backed NGOs and cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights. EU foreign ministers will … Read more
“I consider it a top priority to launch the work on the Commission proposal for the animal transport regulation as soon as possible,” she told POLITICO, adding that there’s already “sufficient data to start digging into the proposal, so there is no need to delay the process further with yet another EPRS study.” While the … Read more
According to Ketevan Chachava, a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, “the polling station results we are seeing now are based on the electronic voting machines — around two-thirds of the overall, but that could still change. However, the expectation is that Georgian Dream’s votes would be lower than previous elections and this figure … Read more
“A new wind is blowing in Europe,” said the Dutch anti-Islam, anti-immigration, populist Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders in Brussels on Thursday after a meeting of far-right leaders. Migration has been at the forefront for Europe’s politicians since 2015, when more than a million migrants, many of them Syrians fleeing war, made their way to … Read more
