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Recent poll for the presidential elections in a couple of weeks.
VDB: Alexander van der Bellen, The Greens, 26%
HUN: Rudolf Hundstorfer, Social Democratic Party of Austria, 23%
GRI: Irmgard Griss, Independent, 20%
HOF: Norbert Hofer, Freedom Party of Austria, 17%
KHO: Andreas Khol, Austrian People's Party, 14%
Interestingly enough, all three major parties (left, right and far-right) sent pretty ****ty candidates into the race. The Greens managed to choose someone who's generally liked. The independent candidate just gets her votes, because she hasn't any party affiliation.
The Greens getting a win anywhere is a slap to the far right wing parties and to all those who think that the end to the current European system is coming because of their apparent rise (which is getting overstated).
I guess it would be in Denmark but i have seen and heard far worse here in Italy to make that look like an average day in parliament or in any of the country's municipal, provincial or regional councils. Given that everyone has updated in the political situation in his/her country. Here are the latest polls in Italy
Center-left wing and government party widens its lead over apolitical Five Star Movement (which i would place on the left as things stand though). Far right parties Lega Nord and Fratelli d'Italia gain consensus mostly due to having a strong presence at the Family Day (protest against the upcoming law invocating for same sex couples marriages) and attracting conservative catholics.
If it were to go to the ballot, Five Star Movement would beat PD in a really close race however:
The Greens getting a win anywhere is a slap to the far right wing parties and to all those who think that the end to the current European system is coming because of their apparent rise (which is getting overstated).
To be fair, though, the President of Austria is a powerless figure head and most people just vote for the guy they like best. In my opinion, The Greens chose their candidate very wisely. Van der Bellen is a former university professor and economist. He appeals to pretty much everyone.
Now, the presidential elections have nothing to do with general elections. Recent polls put far-right (1st) 10% in front of the People's Party (2nd).
What does that tell us? Well, nothing really. People are fed up with the People's Party and the Social Democrats, but aren't really supporting far-right either... They want domestic reforms they can't get from the two traditional parties, because those are protecting a system they themselves put into place.
People are short-sighted, though. The populists always promise whatever people want to have. Same thing happened in 2000 when far-right got into government. The outcome? Minor reforms and a couple of huge corruption scandals that are even to this day not fully uncovered. People apparently forgot about that and are still giving those idiots their votes.
The President of Finland, unlike the Austrian one, still has some powers left. Traditionally MP's use January touring the field and the Parliament isn't assembled for the spring session before February. The President, Sauli Niinistö, a centre-right lawyer and 2004 tsunami survivor, holds the traditional opening speech. This year it was unprecedented, striking hard on the refugee crisis and the economy.
President Niinistö: Migrants pose challenge to western values
President Sauli Niinistö has used his address to parliament to criticise international agreements on asylum. Niinistö says that current international rules on helping refugees are outdated, and the right to seek asylum has become a subjective right to come to Europe—even without grounds to receive asylum.
SYRIA LATEST — ANOTHER 70,000 REFUGEES EN ROUTE TO TURKEY: Following intensified aerial bombing around Aleppo, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu warns of a new influx, as donor nations pledged around €10 billion in humanitarian aid to those in Syria. http://reut.rs/20tAvsw
70,000 is the magic number these days. AK Party(the ruling right-wing party) deputy Yalçın Akdoğan recently announced that nearly 70,000 babies have been born to Syrian refugees in Turkey so far.
Turkey's Minister of Family and Social Policies, Sema Ramazanoğlu, noted that 150,000 of those babies were born last year alone, a comment which totally makes sense if you are familiar with Islamist Arithmetic. She went on to add that "the solution (to the refugee situation) is integration", possibly the first step towards offering citizenship to all Syrians. "We have stopped offering swimming lessons to the refugees and are now teaching them the basics of life in Turkey, such as how to learn the dates of upcoming elections, where the local voting stations are and how to select the AK Party on an election ballot. We are confident that they will become very valuable members of our society." (ok, I totally made up that last quote. But I don't think it's too far from the truth.)
Sweden and Finland - neither a member of NATO, are planning more intense military cooperation with each other, and even joint military forces in the future:
Sweden and Finland - neither a member of NATO, are planning more intense military cooperation with each other, and even joint military forces in the future:
In the last weekend, PD (center left party) held primaries in Milan as in late spring there should the elections for the new mayors in several Italian cities (Naples, Rome and Milan). EXPO 2015 organizer and manager Giuseppe Sala got elected as the official candidate with 42% of the vote with vice-mayor Francesca Balzani having received 34% and with the municipal welfare politics assesson Pierfrancesco Majorino finishing third with 24%. Balzani and Majorino who represent the most leftist half of the party could have overthrown Sala had they reached an agreement but they didn't agree on several principles.
Five Star Movement has already elected its candidates in a primaries on the web (i'm not making it up) and they are little known meaning that they have little chances of being elected. Now it's up to the center-right to name their candidates (they don't use the primary system but the various party just agree on a name to candidate) and to PD to complete his job with primaries both in Rome and Naples
The country has roiled over joint Finnish-US military excercises the last days. In spring there's a joint air force operation in Southern Finland, in early autumn a navy excercise and the latest news which has become under most scrutiny. An US mechanised infantry battalion is joining the largest Finnish Army summer war game this year. Finland, not being a NATO member, has agreed to over a dozen of NATO excercises in the coming few years. The populace and even the parliament have been totally ignorant of these.
While Finland has since the end of the Cold War had a "one foot in - one foot out" policy regarding NATO, and has joined with Sweden in many NATO excercises, non-Scandinavian boots on our ground have been extremely rare. What makes it even more complicated is that this Stryker battalion joining in summer invited themselves in the fashion "can we come?" instead of us inviting them, but still accepting.
Left-wing politicians have raised concerns that these are again attempts to 'slide' Finland into NATO, but also MP:s from the government have raised the question that the secrecy has gone too far in the name of national security. Only the military high command and the defence ministry have known of some of these excercises. After they have been agreed upon. And Russia has obviously too raised an eyebrow, as it's essential to them that Finland doesn't join NATO. One Russian general lecturing at the University of Helsinki even went as far that Finland joining NATO might trigger WWIII.
While I'm of the opinion that Finland should've joined NATO in 1995, these current events in an already inflammatory geopolitical situation and the secrecy behind it, it's not good. Especially when it considers the US, not Norway or The Netherlands. Then it would hardly be a problem. President Niinistö already called Putin that these excercises are not a political or geopolitical statement or a subtle threat to Russia, but are only meant to enhance our own military capabilities.
In Italy, the discussion about civil unions has taken center stage this whole month, you couldn't watch television without it being shoved down your throat
We are the last Western European country not to have some regulations on the matter but the ruling left party has decided to change that, the problem is that the original law included step child adoptions (something the fringe, in terms of votes they received, and at the same time crucial for government stability centrist party of NCD didn't agree with) so the ruling left party first made an agreement with Five Star Movement but it all fell down when the heads of the Five Star Movement decided to let the parliamentarians have freedom of vote. So the ruling party decided to strip step child adoptions from the law and make an agreement with NCD.
The law has now passed at the Senate with 173 votes in favour, 71 against (from right wing parties) and 71 abstentions (from Five Star Movement in protest against the government). Now the ball is on to the House of Deputees, the law will most likely pass next week as even a fraction of the right wing has voted for it.
By the way, Renzi plans to also get adoptions approved before 2018
Sweden and Finland - neither a member of NATO, are planning more intense military cooperation with each other, and even joint military forces in the future:
( English subtitles are available there too, just change the settings if the subs are not there... ))) )
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