European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 975
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opisska
Poland8852 Posts
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opisska
Poland8852 Posts
ANO+SPD are at 103, only 3 mandates to lose before they lose the majority! | ||
Big J
Austria16289 Posts
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Danglars
United States12133 Posts
On October 21 2017 23:51 Sent. wrote: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/21/spain-prepares-to-seize-powers-from-catalonia Oh yeah, this will go over so well. | ||
opisska
Poland8852 Posts
ANO 78 ODS 25 Pirates 22 SPD 22 Communists 15 ČSSD 15 KDU 10 TOP09 7 STAN 6 How to read the results? - ANO (oligarch Babiš) has won slightly more than expected and will be nominated Prime Minister (as declared by the President). - ODS, the old conservative center-right, has regained enormous ground after shedding corruption ties. - Pirates: first time in parliament and straight to 3rd place, that was completely unpredicted by polls. - Communists have the worst result in history, likely due to their votes going to ANO, which seems weird, but makes sense as sort of "anti-systemic" vote. - ČSSD (social democracy) have a much worse result than expected and also the worst in contemporary history, probably due to internal struggles in the party and bad taste from previous government with ANO. - TOP09 also very weak result, for some time it looked like they are not gonna make it at all - STAN, fresh and friendly party, first time in, however only a few seats. Now the big question is the coalition - a lot of parties declared unwillingness "to be in government with someone who is under criminal investigation", which silently means Babiš and thus ANO. Most parties also declared unwillingness to work with SPD, seen as extremists and many declared disdain for the Communists. ANO+SPD would make some sense, but there are personal animosities and it also went down to just 100 seats, which is not enough. A government without at least two of ANO/SPD/Communists is still not possible at the moment, making it quite difficult. The current coalition ANO+ČSSD+KDU is numerically viable, but was pretty troubled the last couple of months. I personally think it will be either ANO+SPD with silent support of Communists or ANO+ODS after much teeth-grinding in ODS. | ||
Big J
Austria16289 Posts
A government without at least two of ANO/SPD/Communists is still not possible at the moment, making it quite difficult. you do it because the other parties don't really want to form a coalition with either of them, yes? Or just with SPD/Communists, but ANO will get the Prime Minister anyways and therefore they will have to be in the coalition? Does the parliament have a say in who is forming the government or is this up to the president and his nominated prime minister? | ||
opisska
Poland8852 Posts
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opisska
Poland8852 Posts
On October 22 2017 02:18 Big J wrote: When you say: you do it because the other parties don't really want to form a coalition with either of them, yes? Or just with SPD/Communists, but ANO will get the Prime Minister anyways and therefore they will have to be in the coalition? Does the parliament have a say in who is forming the government or is this up to the president and his nominated prime minister? There are two distinct issues. First is that most parties don't want a coalition with either or at least with SPD/Communists. That means that making a government without ANO is extremely unlikely. That then relates to the other point that Babiš will surely be nominated Prime Minister. He then won't be confirmed by the parliament unless he secures majority there, but the President is in principle able to nominate him again and again or to nominate someone else according to his own liking or ti just stall. This happened in 2013 when the President nominated a government which noone wanted, was not confirmed, but kept rulling for more than half a year because the President made it so. Our constituional system was modeled when President was Vaclav Havel, the ultimate moral authority of the country, and thus is woefully unprepared for the President being a selfish asshole. However. Presidental elections are next January. How-how-ever Zeman will run for re-election ... | ||
Yurie
11533 Posts
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opisska
Poland8852 Posts
On October 22 2017 02:41 Yurie wrote: Can't they not form a coalition and get the government and PM post anyway? Talk their way up to 101 votes and then form a minority government where they lean on different parties in different areas. Instead of leaning on the same parties for all issues. That is technically possible, but relatively unlikely, with the exception of "silent support" of Communists or SPD, but that will be perceived as a sort of a coalition anyway. Minority government without specific "silent" support is not foreseeable and never happened. We once had a minority government, but there was a written agreement with the larges opposition party, kindof a contrived coalition. | ||
opisska
Poland8852 Posts
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TheDwf
France19747 Posts
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opisska
Poland8852 Posts
On October 22 2017 03:54 TheDwf wrote: Millions of people willingly voting for corrupt right-wing billionaires sums up so perfectly what's alienation in our times. I think it's important to understand that ANO is not right-wing. They have literally no cohesive ideology beyond "everyone else is corrupt", "all bad things about us are lies of our enemies" and "we want to work for you, please help as remove all obstacles" (which are incidentally those things that help keep the government in check in a democracy). They cherry-pick topics from all sides of spectrum to be popular with masses. Their heavy regulation of small businsess is very much not right-wing in any sense. A lot of their electorate comes from former voters of Communists or at least Social Democrats. The main irony is such people, who are mostly poor and low middle class workers, voting for a billionaire, that I agree with very much. | ||
Big J
Austria16289 Posts
And I'm not even sure that that is good. I'd rather not have this right-far-right coalition go fully unchecked conservative like the last time, which amounted to a massive swamp of corruption, sell-out of the country and massive losses in wages. With all their idiocracy, there is still value in having the FPÖ as a counterbalance within the government. Not to mention that some of their stances on proper payment of work or social security are not that unreasonable, as racist as their solution might be. | ||
TheDwf
France19747 Posts
French far-right plot to attack mosques, migrants, politicians uncovered French anti-terror police have arrested 10 people over a far-right plot to attack mosques, migrants and politicians. The gang, linked to a 21-year-old activist arrested in June, reportedly had government spokesman Christophe Castaner and hard-left former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon in their sights. The suspects, aged 17-25, were rounded up on Tuesday in south-east France and the Paris region. Nine of them are male, of whom three are minors, according to sources. The 10th is reported to be the mother of Logan Alexandre Nisin, who was arrested in the southern town of Vitrolles for terrorist conspiracy on 28 June. His 10 associates face the same charge after an investigation uncovered "intentions to commit violent acts", whose details remain unclear, a judicial source told the AFP news agency. Admirer of neo-Nazi mass murderer Nisin, who had no steady job and lived with his mother, came to the police's attention because of a Facebook page he administered that glorified neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people at a Norwegian Labour Party youth camp in 2011. Investigators have established that he possessed arms, including a pump-action shotgun, and intended to act on his threats to kill immigrants, drug-dealers and jihadists, sources say. + Show Spoiler + Several French media outlets said he had actively sought to create a far-Right militia, writing on his Facebook page: "Arabs, blacks, dealers, migrants, jihadist scum, if you too dream of killing them all, we have made it our intention, join us." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/17/emmanuel-macrons-spokesman-among-targets-far-right-militant/ He had established an organisation he called OAS - the initials of the secret armed organisation that resisted French withdrawal from Algeria in 1961 - whose declared aim was to "set off remigration". It named potential targets including an Indian restaurant in Aix-en-Provence, a flea-market in Marseille and the two politicians, according to Le Monde newspaper, which published an inquiry into Nisin on the day of the latest arrests. Neither Castaner, who was until recently mayor of a town in Provence that Nisin regarded as lax on immigration, nor Mélenchon had been told that they might be targets, they both revealed on Wednesday. Mélenchon's supporters said that a request for protection during the parliamentary election campaign had been turned down. Ultraright groups Since the age of 16, Nisin has joined a series of far-right groups, notably Action Française, a monarchist organisation founded in the 1930s by Charles Maurras, an anti-Semitic writer who was jailed after World War II for collaborating with the German occupation. The organisation has gained a new lease of life in the Marseille area recently, its young members attacking students campaigning against the previous government's labour reform and other left-wingers. Although he considered the National Front ineffective and liable to infiltration by freemasons, Nisin campaigned for its leader, Marine Le Pen, during the presidential election. After his arrest in June, Action Française issued a statement pointing out that he was no longer a member. With the debate on a new anti-terror law, set to be passed by the French parliament on Wednesday, centring on Islamist violence, the latest plot serves as a reminder of a warning by former intelligence chief Patrick Calvar, who retired from the post in June. "We should sooner or later devote more resources to look into other extremist groups because confrontation between the ultraright and the Muslim world is inevitable," he told a parliamentary committee in 2016. http://en.rfi.fr/france/20171018-french-far-right-plot-attack-mosques-migrants-politicians-uncovered Nisin, who had no steady job and lived with his mother Far-right loser: it is my holy duty to defend France from foul invaders! Also far-right loser: Mummy, what do we eat tonight? | ||
Jockmcplop
United Kingdom8727 Posts
If EU lawmakers were forced to declare how they spend their monthly expenses, they would be criticized so much that they could struggle to do their job, a lawyer representing the European Parliament said Thursday. She was speaking during a three-hour public hearing at the European Court of Justice on parliamentary expenses. A group of journalists brought a case to court after the Parliament refused to give them access to information on how MEPs spend public money. Last year, around €450 million was spent on MEPs’ salaries, travel expenses and office costs. “If everything was visible … it would impose a big pressure on [MEPs],” said the lawyer representing the Parliament, later suggesting that “if everything was under discussion by journalists … in a time where everything is discussed on Twitter,” MEPs would in effect be censored and unable to exercise their “free mandate.” It was “completely untrue” to suggest MEPs’ activities weren’t already visible enough for the public to hold them accountable, the lawyer argued. She said the Parliament’s website allowed people to see what their representatives are doing in committees, saying this was evidence the institution was “extremely transparent.” http://www.politico.eu/article/mep-expenses-should-be-kept-secret-to-avoid-pressure-from-media/ And they wonder why there's anti EU feeling growing among the public of member states. | ||
opisska
Poland8852 Posts
On October 22 2017 23:45 Jockmcplop wrote: http://www.politico.eu/article/mep-expenses-should-be-kept-secret-to-avoid-pressure-from-media/ And they wonder why there's anti EU feeling growing among the public of member states. You are right that this is ammunition for anti-EU populism, but it's just beceuase the public is so stupid. The topic of MP expenses comes up in regular intervals probably in any country, but it's just such nonsense. Compared to other money these people decide about, it's total peanuts and should be the last thing people care about. Typical distraction. | ||
TheDwf
France19747 Posts
On October 22 2017 23:45 Jockmcplop wrote: http://www.politico.eu/article/mep-expenses-should-be-kept-secret-to-avoid-pressure-from-media/ And they wonder why there's anti EU feeling growing among the public of member states. Fairly insignificant compared with Monsanto holding the pen when writing a report about the glyphosate, or the ECB making 8 billions off the misery of the Greek people, or the CETA being applied before national Parliaments even have to say a single word about it, or... | ||
Yurie
11533 Posts
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Nyxisto
Germany6287 Posts
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/28/monsanto-banned-from-european-parliament The EU is quite good about this stuff and usually tending towards consumer friendly legislation. Of all the things to complain about that's an odd one. I don't know if people genuinely believe that corruption only exists in Brussels and that their national governments are somehow innocent. People really should not buy that nonsense. Usually the farther you go down the chain of command the cheaper the bribes become. Local politics is often more corrupt than high-level government. | ||
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