Europe is complicated, there's so much going on in all these countries, that's why we're here, to try make sense of all this nonsense with our podcast about the week in Europe with a new episode out every Sunday Night.
We will have a new project at https://dreambuddies.fireside.fm/ if you want to hear what we're up to (forthnightly-ish). There will be European politics but it's not the main focus. And there's still a discord here (http://leftists.eu)
This week we wildly speculate on future events as we're going on hiatus while Ciarán figures out parenting Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? ## Subsequently in Europe Speculation Time! Germany Danish minority are running in the next parliament elections (thanks for the heads up Maximilian) - I predict a very close early election due to government breakdown followed by the Danish Schleswig Party party entering a coalition with the deciding vote. Brexit? I think there'll just be a terrible deal which the UK will pretend is very good. They're kicking up a fuss about it now as a distraction because the migrant panic didn't work long enough Coronavirus Is no buneo...
There are two topics today whoop whoop! We talk about #golfgate in Ireland which gets us annoyed (as Irish people) and we revisit the Serbian elections and where we are with all that Vučić stuff. Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? No Election Left Behind 2020 Belarusian presidential election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020Belarusianpresidential_election EU response EU officially doesn't recognise the results, but it took a while (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/19/belarus-crisis-eu-leaders-emergency-talks-lukashenko-protests). There's talk of sanctions but nothing specific yet On the delay from a Politico Newsletter: ANOTHER STATEMENT: The EU threatened sanctions earlier this week, but today’s videoconference is more about delivering a “quick reaction,” a senior EU diplomat told Jacopo Barigazzi. A decision very likely won’t come until the foreign ministers meet in person August 27-28 in Berlin, the diplomat said, for an informal gathering known as a “Gymnich.” And since EU High Representative Josep Borrell is technically on holiday away from Brussels, no press conference is expected at the end of today’s meeting — just a readout. Also... https://neweasterneurope.eu/2020/08/17/belarus-why-this-time-is-not-different/ Strikes Call for solidarity from worker organisations: https://progressive.international/wire/2020-08-19-an-urgent-call-for-solidarity-with-the-workers-and-people-of-belarus/en https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/state-controlled-firms-join-strike-belarus-president-200818113145275.html https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/17/belarus-opposition-calls-for-general-strike-after-biggest-protests-yet Including the state TV station - https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-television-broadcasts-empty-studio-as-state-media-joins-general-strike/a-54593079?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf Europe's last dictator... For a very questionable graph: https://www.rferl.org/a/years-of-lukashenka-and-counting/30769566.html But yes he's been in office a long time and it would not be reasonable to say he's been winning fair elections for a long time. The response from the Lukashenka side to the possibility of a real challenger is not surprising - imprisoned candidates, banned rallies, etc (https://neweasterneurope.eu/2020/08/07/ahead-of-the-presidential-elections-in-belarus/) From Maxim Rust, Polish political science researcher: "The elections will be held on August 9th. Nobody is sure about how they will unfold or how the authorities will react to the planned mass protests in their aftermath. One thing is certain – regardless of the election results, Belarusian society is not what it was just a few months ago. " That was pretty spot on Crackdown "Opposition leader" forced to leave for safety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SviatlanaTsikhanouskaya#citenote-41 https://www.rferl.org/a/belarusian-opposition-candidate-forced-to-leave-country/30778578.html https://news.sky.com/video/end-violence-on-streets-of-belarus-says-opposition-leader-12049164 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53733330 Internet cutoff https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/11/belarus-president-cuts-off-internet-amid-widespread-protests https://twitter.com/BBCWillVernon/status/1293963021677735937 Beatings and torture of those arrested, general harsh approach to protesters https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/10/belarus-elections-lukashenko-protests-tikhanovskaya-europe/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/13/belarusians-accuse-lukashenko-regime-of-beatings-and-torture https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/10/belarus-elections-lukashenko-protests-tikhanovskaya-europe/ https://www.eurotopics.net/en/245568/protests-and-violence-after-belarus-elections https://euobserver.com/foreign/149144?utmsource=euobs&utmmedium=rss Journalists being rounded up specifically https://twitter.com/HannaLiubakova/status/1293867313775747072 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danpeleschuk/belarus-detention-centers-abuse-lukashenko-protests https://www.dw.com/en/dws-belarus-correspondent-released-after-10-day-arrest/a-54584439?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf
On today's episode, Hugh tries to convince Ciarán that the new EU budget isn't terrible. It goes about as well as expected. Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? No Election Left Behind 2020 Polish presidential election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020Polishpresidential_election https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-presidential-election-anti-semitism/ https://www.politico.eu/article/poland-to-limit-foreign-media-soon-pis-leader-says/ https://www.dw.com/en/poland-election-result-opposition/a-54205004?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf 2020 North Macedonian parliamentary election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020NorthMacedonianparliamentaryelection REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA The North Macedonian parliament on Sunday voted to dissolve and set a snap election for April 12. The vote had previously been scheduled for November so it’s not like they’re shifting things around in a major way, but something like this has been in the cards since ex-Prime Minister Zoran Zaev resigned just after the new year in the wake of the European Union’s decision not to open membership talks with his government. North Macedonia has been run by an interim cabinet since then. Zaev had staked his premiership on a pro-EU policy, and pushed through an unpopular addition of the word “North” to the country’s name in order to settle a dispute with Greece that was preventing Skopje from applying for EU membership. His political position was therefore badly undercut by the failure to start the accession process last fall. The election will basically serve as a referendum on Zaev’s approach, and he’ll be hoping voters return him to office with a mandate to keep pursuing EU membership. North Macedonia’s NATO accession should be a done deal by then (only Spain has yet to ratify it and that’s because Madrid’s political situation is a mess, not because of anything to do with North Macedonia) and Zaev is hoping the excitement over that development will give him a boost. https://www.dw.com/en/north-macedonia-holds-first-election-since-changing-its-name/a-54172417?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/world/europe/north-macedonia-election-zaev.html https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/north-macedonia-votes-general-election-eu-talks-loom-200715073621655.html https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/elections-north-macedonia-waiting-kingmaker/ https://www.euronews.com/2020/07/15/north-macedonia-votes-covid-19-driving-fears-of-low-turnout-in-first-election-since-name-c
No election left behind!!! Tonight we talk the Croatian 2020 parliamentary elections and how maybe it should've been postponed Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? ## Also Happening: GDPR turns two EU Commission GDPR Formal Review The Cookies Thing? Yes! Well.. not entirely the cookies thing, but yes the cookies thing. Most people interact with this by seeing those annoying popups being like "I consent to all cookies, please leave me alone", but what if I told you that was actually a good thing? The general idea was to do what it says in the name "General Data Protection Regulation", so a regulation what was uniform across the EU and protected data. Cool so to keep data on someone via an EU state basically you now (as of 2018): have to have consent you can't keep it indefinitely if they ask you to remove it you have to This was actually a big deal considering how there's usually more concessions in EU legalisation for special interests - e.g. due to a major industry in a country or because David Cameron didn't want us to have nice things. But this was a pretty broad update to the 1990s data protection laws that really did seem planned to give some citizen level control over their data. This was of course in the wake of Edward Snowden, Cambridge Analytica and that time Marc Zuckerberg gave a really crappy testimony to the EU (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/22/five-things-we-learned-from-mark-zuckerbergs-european-parliament-appearance). So there was actually consensus that this was a good idea. It passed the council with only Austria complaining it wasn't strict enough and the parliament almost unanimously (though some who negotiated noted it was only after much convincing in negotiations http://old.guengl.eu/news/article/gue-ngl-news/gdpr-a-milestone-for-data-privacy-in-the-eu) There were even fines built into it - up to €20m/4% of global turnover (whichever is bigger) if non-compliance continued. So it worked? Sort of! You've seen those cookies pop-ups right? See the EU Commission's very neutral infographic "the fabric of a success story" (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/fs201172). Also (https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip201163) "Between May 2018 and November 2019, 22 EU/EEA data protection authorities issued 785 fines." Google and Facebook are among those (https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-facebook-hit-with-serious-gdpr-complaints-others-will-be-soon/), but in practice not much has changed "The GDPR allowed for coronavirus tracing apps to be developed, all while respecting personal data protection as a fundamental right. " EU countries spend a lot more on data protection officers than they used to (42% increase in staff and 49% in budget for all national data protection authorities) They love to point out how nowhere else has as comprehensive a set of rules "Citizens are more empowered and aware of their rights" - 69% (nice) of people are aware of GDPR... which seems like a pretty loaded stat but sure. Cool so we're good? There's been some issues: Cross border complaints have worked only okay: "Between 25 May 2018 and 31 December 2019, 141 draft decisions were submitted through the ‘one-stop-shop', 79 of which resulted in final decisions." In Romania Dragnea (of in prison for corruption fame) tried to use their data protection office to demand sources from journalists (https://euobserver.com/justice/143356) Probably the main issue.. which should have been apparent from the start was that tech firms tend to have EU bases in countries like say, Ireland or Luxembourg... who wouldn't have the cash for a big GDPR complaints processing centre. So there are big backlogs (https://www.politico.eu/article/we-have-a-huge-problem-european-regulator-despairs-over-lack-of-enforcement/) For instance the Irish regulator is basically the centre for big cases against Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter... so their backlog is large. Plus don't forget the Irish government isn't super keen on pissing those companies off (see the apple tax case!) Oh so its being misused and bad? Well no... The EU needs data protection rules. The alternative is worse, and the big theoretical merit of the GDPR is still there - its universal and not riddled with exemptions that favour big business massively. Consider the contrast to the upload filter and link tax plans they had for copyright reform (https://juliareda.eu/2018/05/censorship-machines-link-tax-finish-line/). The GDPR is pretty simple in principal and is still there. Nobody is getting anywhere seriously trying to soften it. These sorts of rights are hard to take away. Yes you can argue it's not really being followed properly, but I think it's a harder task to say its bad. People are trying to argue however that the GDPR needs fixing... and they think that should happen before any new rules such as legislating against facial recognition and other AI... They argue that public trust in internet companies continues to drop so the GDPR isn't working, but its also too strict so should be abandoned... https://www.datainnovation.org/2019/06/the-gdpr-was-supposed-to-boost-consumer-trust-it-has-failed/ Also that "access to data" is harmed so it's bad for innovation (https://www.datainnovation.org/2019/05/the-eu-needs-to-reform-the-gdpr-to-remain-competitive-in-the-algorithmic-economy/). The GDPR isn't the prettiest or most successful thing but its the one we've got and its far from the worst model to base future rules on emerging technology on
Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? Show Notes Also Happening: Irish Government Formation FFG want to eat their vegetables but as part of an otherwise meat heavy diet The actual programme for government: https://docs.google.com/file/d/1fVChGUMfzY1LkBPMDllxokHMnRSBU2Tk/view Some issues which are well articulated by GP finance spokesperson Neasa Hourigan: All of the financial modelling assumes Brexit and the economy will be totally fine, any deviation will likely be used as an excuse to backtrack on any social programs, healthcare and ding ding ding, the environment https://twitter.com/SaturdayRTE/status/1274433391916716039 The program implies there will be a 7% emission reduction will be every year compounded... but its an average which she thinks is a clear attempt to miss the target every year of the government (5yr) and claim they're going make up for it later when you re-elect them (https://www.thejournal.ie/neasa-hourigan-programme-for-government-5125103-Jun2020/) Housing isn't well dealt with properly The taxation stuff is probably the worst bit: "In doing so, we will focus any tax rises on those taxes which tax behaviours with negative externalities such as carbon tax, sugar tax, plastics, etc." "medium-term roadmap detailing how Ireland will reduce the deficit and return to a broadly balanced budget." Sounds to me like they're ruling out tax increases on companies and high earners which can only mean cuts... So how are they going to cut emissions or increase public services Eamonn Ryan has said he thinks there's a different economic consensus now but the agreement doesn't really bare that out
Podcast Hugh mentioned - https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/monumental-lies/ Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
This week we're discussing the not terrible plan for a new wealth tax in Spain But also remember to donate to bail funds https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bailfundsgeorge_floyd?refcode=cwg Have you considered wealth taxes Spain! https://jacobinmag.com/2020/05/podemos-covid-tax-spain-psoe/ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/25/spain-crisis-wealth-tax-coronavirus Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
Sorry no regular episode this week BUT here's a bonus episode we did for our lovely patrons. Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
More money-talk between the parliament agitating for 2 trillion, the commission wanting 1 trillion and Merkel and Macron suggesting 500 billion. Also, watch out for financial wizardry! Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
This week we discuss the German Constitutional Court's decision to pretend the ECJ and ECB don't have autonomy or supremacy over their opinions. Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) There's a discord here (http://leftists.eu) Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? Also Happening German Court Ruling https://www.d-kart.de/en/blog/2020/05/11/ultra-vires/ So what happened German high courts overruled an ECJ ruling, which is... oops! https://www.ft.com/content/2d4a6959-8bdc-4d74-b617-873bba839807 Good thread that explains the effects of this ruling https://twitter.com/henrikenderlein/status/1257619628966191104?s=20
On today's episode, we do Matteo Matteo or Actually Good with the Spanish UBI or what the English press has called UBI. It's very misleading. Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
Support us on Patreon! (https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope) WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE (https://www.teepublic.com/user/previneurope) what a fashionable way to support our podcast We now have a website that you can find here! (http://previouslyineurope.eu/) Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com (https://previouslyineurope@gmail.com) or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope (https://twitter.com/PrevInEurope) If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? Clearing some things up Lockdown? An issue of our recurring segment clearing some things up where we clear up what people mean by a somewhat misleading term because of how its used differently everywhere. This Guardian article includes a graphic saying the reopening allowed in different countries stipulating there's no easing in the UK, Ireland or Netherlands... which implicitly suggests a simpler picture than there is. The UK for instance always let children outside, but Spain is on the list for letting them out and considering allowing exercise outside on May 2. Not to say that one way is better for sure, but maybe we need to be more specific when we talk about lockdown. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/italy-unveils-plans-for-easing-of-coronavirus-lockdown-restrictions-conte https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-and-spain-announce-plans-to-ease-coronavirus-lockdowns-further/ After this is over the lack of coordination between countries in Europe that share land borders may be the real problem. The Commission has been urging coordination in lifting measures... which really seems to not be happening. Taking schools reopening: - France saying May 11 (?!!) - Belgium talking about May 18 - Italy saying September...
This week in quarantine land we discuss the elections that have been postponed and those (looking at you Poland) that are bafflingly going ahead!Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?No Election Left Behind... But maybe delay them?PolandAfter much fucking around they've settled on postal only voting... which ehh.. sure. The PiS are worried their mismanagement of the health service will be a bad look for them and might affect Duda's re-election chances.Initially they said some of it by post (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/polish-government-still-planning-to-hold-presidential-election#maincontent)Now they're saying all of it by post (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52199897)But some problems with that:Poland has never had a postal election and they only have a month to arrange one (queue alarm bells ringing about fraud/mistakes)Collecting millions of ballots and counting them by hand via thousands of election districts (not to mention travel to pick up)... seems a bit like a disease vector to me.The Polish constitution has a very specific entry about delaying elections for up to 90 days during emergencies (https://www.senat.gov.pl/en/about-the-senate/konstytucja/chapter-xi/), so why are they having it if not for political gain?It's clearly because Duda, like many leaders is surgingly popularhttps://www.ft.com/content/b1a6457c-7a5c-11ea-bd25-7fd923850377Also people want it postponed (2/3rds for postponing) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-poland-election/majority-of-poles-want-presidential-election-postponed-amid-coronavirus-survey-idUSKBN21C23TElections be dangerous in pandemics, who knew?The French had the brain wave of not cancelling the first round of their local elections (see France's 2 round system for everything). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_French_municipal_electionsThe second round has now been delayed until after the lockdown. The lockdown began the next day on March 16... so why did they have the election?Turnout was historic low of 45% (20% down from last time) https://www.france24.com/en/20200315-live-france-holds-local-elections-despite-coronavirus-clampdownPoll workers had to wear some PPE... but clearly it was a completely unnecessary riskSouth Korea is holding their national elections - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/14/south-korea-votes-in-first-national-election-of-coronavirus-erabut to be semi-fair they have new cases at a low and have testing/infrastructure in place to at least try do it. They've not had to rethink their voting system completely. I still think it's a terrible ideaPostponedMacedonianSerbia
This week we discuss the EU's corona response in our wonderful reoccurring section, this is not it chief!Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?That is not it chiefIsn't this exactly what the EU should be for?Well.. yeah probably, but it's the exact kind of thing some members would resist. Healthcare is weirdly absent and explicitly down to the member states. It's basically optional:"Union action, which shall complement national policies, shall be directed towards improving public health, preventing physical and mental illness and diseases, and obviating sources of danger to physical and mental health. Such action shall cover the fight against the major health scourges, by promoting research into their causes, their transmission and their prevention, as well as health information and education, and monitoring, early warning of and combating serious cross-border threats to health"Cool good start..."The Union shall encourage cooperation between the Member States in the areas referred to in this Article"Oh... so... not really their main jamThe EU has a centre for disease prevention and control (https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en), but it's pretty small and exists more to provide training/support to countries with perceived emergency plans. Ursula said it's fine now though?Yeah... and it totally could have done this earlier. This is exactly the kind of positive thing the EU could be doing all the time but squabbling and money would prevent it. You'd easily find commission staff who would have loved to do this every commission cycle.They've started a EU stockpike of ventilators, masks etc for pandemics (but only since March 19(https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_476) Joint procurement for ventilators got a lot of press in the UK for them "missing an email" or something... but why wasn't the mechanism for this already in place? (https://euobserver.com/tickers/147981). This is a wake up call for emergency procurement powers that aren't made up or renewed ad hoc requiring country level export bans (https://www.eurotopics.net/en/238112/coronavirus-how-can-europe-secure-more-face-masks)France and Germany are taking Italian patients.. but only after there was already a huge problem. Again there should have been a plan in place for this already, there are on national levels, why not EU?You could of had emergency bonds mechanisms in place so Mark Rutte couldn't have this opportunity to be a shitbag during a crisis (https://www.politico.eu/article/dutch-no-on-corona-bonds-undermines-european-project/). Or better yet pre-agree a bailout system of another sort... Rethinking European SolidarityMacron, von der Leyen, umm.. basically everyone who's not Merkel or Weber, talk a big game of EU reform. An EU that works for the people or something... Well you could actually do that. 2008 and the Eurocrisis was the time for this. Rethinking the way EU solidarity in a crisis worked. They tried giant loans and fiscal rules, everyone hated them. Why isn't there a mechanism in place to deal with the next crisis? Because it was a hard discussion and they were busy giving vague statements or writing open letters.Daniel Gros (of Centre for European Policy Studies) argues you could exempt the badly hit countries from paying into the EU budget... which could be a repeatable mechanism. It's much easier than loans and doesn't cripple the countries its supposed to benefit. "Corona solidarity" in less badly hit countries, or those who could better recover using their own coffers (see Germany - https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-to-ditch-balanced-budget-commitment-to-prevent-coronavirus-slump/)https://voxeu.org/article/corona-transfers-instead-coronabonds
Man this corona shit is wiiiiild!!! I hope Hugh can come back :|
Map of Ciarán's absurdist electoral map for Irish voting abroad : https://previouslyineurope.eu/assets/images/IrishForeignMap-World.pngSupport us on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/previouslyineurope
This week we discuss points based immigration systems and why they're not the best idea.. but more importantly why the aim of the UK's new one will not be fairness and merit.Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?That is not it chiefPoints Bases Immigration SystemsPoints based systems always confused me because I thought markets were good, no? At least that's what I was told... The concept of points based systems come from Australia and Canada, which both prior to their points based system had a very heavy "white person" bias... which the points system was meant to eliminate... Enter Brexit - the premise of this part of the Brexit promise relies on either of 2 things: - People either didn't know the UK had a points based system for outside of the EU people already... or that the EU somehow affected that system - People saw the EU migration as the problem?So eh, what do they want?These two articles summarise it relatively well, the former being easier to skim:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48785695https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uks-points-based-immigration-system-policy-statement/the-uks-points-based-immigration-system-policy-statementEffectively it's a pretty complicated way of assessing people and they seem to think they can come up with exemptions for everything that's a problem...Wait they already have this system for non-european people?Yeah, and it's a bit of a mess. There's a quote from the Labour immigration minister that introduced it:“There’s something deep in the British psyche about the Australian system,” says Mr Byrne. But points-based immigration regimes look most attractive from a distance. The countries that invented them concluded some time ago that they are flawed, and have tweaked them radically. They have also discovered that points systems do not completely cure xenophobia.https://www-economist-com.libproxy.kcl.ac.uk/international/2016/07/07/whats-the-point"butchers and ballet dancers were given special treatment and footballers were not required to speak English."because suddenly once you have points, qualifications, language requirements, earnings caps things become a mess and you have a full team of policy people working out the exceptions in perpetuityThey're setting the bar high to reduce numbers, not introduce meritTheresa May closed several of the "tiers" in the UK system as Home Secratary in order to try bring down numbers. Students post study and a general non-employment offer dependent route was closed.The old system also has a "low-skilled" route which was never implemented because the EU freedom of movement rules meant they just didn't need it... the proposed system doesn't replace that with anything.In the endless tinkering needed to make these creaking systems work in Canada for example found they had to bring in a seasonal worker exception which ended up being... exploitative wage wise (they were allowed pay them below minimum wage)."Australia Style" in particular focus group's well so its getting used, but this proposal is not Australia's system (which is bad in many ways) but allows for more net migration than the UK is aiming for (https://www.ft.com/content/c1b8471c-296b-11e6-8ba3-cdd781d02d89).What would be less awful?Well... freedom of movement in the EU solved a lot of these problems and didn't create unnecessary bureaucracy which hurt people (at least those from the EU).but we're not getting that so...Make a moral case for migrationSomething I think free marketers and the left can get on board with is very lax immigration for economic benefit (insert rainbow emoji here)
Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi? ## That would be nice### Rent ControlRepeatedly in European elections and at more local levels the need for increased rent regulation or some form of temporary controls to balance out a difficult housing market: - Irish election 2020 this was a major issue with Sinn Féin using it as their main issue - London's mayor is talking about it heavily now as he's up for election in May - Berlin legislature passed a freeze which is now in effect (https://www.dw.com/en/berlins-new-rent-freeze-how-it-compares-globally/a-50937652) - Spain brought in new rules for contract length minimums and yearly increase caps (https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2019/03/04/inenglish/1551692513_394392.html, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-28/spain-s-most-aggressive-rent-controls-may-soon-hit-barcelona) Overall the regulations vary wildly across Europe. In the UK there's barely any, in Spain their starting point was already comparatively long minimum contract lengths to protect renters.### Sounds like its necessary, no?Well my friend, don't you read the economist? They'd say, and it would be parroted by politicians from Ireland to Germany to.. eh.. Zagreb I'm sure, that rent controls don't workhttps://www-economist-com.libproxy.kcl.ac.uk/leaders/2019/09/19/rent-control-will-make-housing-shortages-worse"Rent controls are a textbook example of a well-intentioned policy that does not work. They deter the supply of good-quality rental housing. With rents capped, building new homes becomes less profitable. Even maintaining existing properties is discouraged because landlords see no return for their investment.""The mismatch reduces economy-wide productivity. The longer a tenant stays put, the bigger the disparity between the market rent and his payments, sharpening the incentive not to move."https://www-economist-com.libproxy.kcl.ac.uk/europe/2019/07/20/europe-embraces-rent-controls-a-policy-that-never-works"Critics argue that instead of trying to fix prices, cities should allow more homes to be built. Sebastian Czaja, an MP for the Free Democratic Party in Germany, says Berlin needs “a construction offensive”. The city has grown by about 50,000 people a year since 2011, but added only 10,000 new apartments per year. "### An obvious logic gap?This argument is making some clear assumptions:- People will only build houses if they can make huge profits on them- If you let them build whatever they want it will serve the market- There are people available to rent/buy what developers want to buildTo get there you have to ignore all the reasons why rent controls have been brought in for most of these places - people can't afford the rent increases because their salary doesn't increase.Some other things that have to be ignored for a low regulation building frenzy to work:- Luxury accommodation is more profitable and there is a focus on building more of that if possible, eventually selling that will earn you more money.- All other rent control systems failed/had issues only because controlling rent is bad, rather than a loophole (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47028342) - There is available space to build rental stock everywhere- People aren't interested in protecting existing local populations- Building to produce only rental stock is a good thing...-----### It does raise the issue of what works and how to sell it?You can get stuck in the loop Fine Gael spun during the Irish debates on this last year: "there's no evidence this won't decrease stock", etc.Like most policy I think there's some good rules to go by:- Make it as universal as possible, loopholes arise from complications- Needs to be paired with social housing policy where possible- Needs to be paired with other housing policy to protect people: e.g. minimum standards, discouraging empty housingThis isn't a terrible starting place - https://www.generationrent.org/rentcontrol------
Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?No Election Left Behind2020 Irish Electionshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Irish_general_election https://www.irishtimes.com/election2020/results-hub
Support us on Patreon!On this week's episode, we deal with the Italian Regional Elections and the idea that maybe this isn't the glimmer of hope you, the New York Times, think it is.WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outalso have you considered Matteo Renzi?That is not it chiefLargely a discussion of why people seem to be jumping the gun on the enormous apparent failure of Salvini to win in a left wing stronghold, spurred in part by this NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/world/europe/italy-election-Salvini.html?emc=rss&partner=rss### Sardines Movement There's no good evidence the protest movement has the kind of traction compared to the media coverage it gets. We get it, we don't like Salvini either so their movement is a good thing, but its hard to see the affect its having other than slowing the tide and preventing a major upset in one of the left's strongholds. https://www.dw.com/en/italy-s-sardines-movement-presents-ethical-counter-to-far-right/a-52152079?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf## 5* collapse So di Maio is out as leader and the party has collapsed electorally... so an early election is probable regardless of Salvini sweeping local electionshttps://www.politico.eu/article/luigi-di-maio-end-of-italy-5star-movement/### Salvini lost apparently There were two regional elections where Salvini's coalition of parties won one and gained 11% in another but didn't win... the worry was he'd win the Emilia-Romagna one too, which would be wild because it's been won by huge margins usually by left or communist parties in recent memory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Emilia-Romagna_regional_election- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Emilia-Romagna_regional_election (20point lead)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Emilia-Romagna_regional_election (~16 point)- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Emilia-Romagna_regional_election (27 point) it goes on like that going back very far. So his alliance lost by about 7%, with a dramatically increased turnout (29% up) and the 5* were wiped out completely. So he lost somewhere he shouldn't have been even competing? Doesn't sound like what the Economist called, "another blunder" https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/01/30/regional-elections-in-italy-buttress-the-government Sure Salvini was bigging it up but it feels more like a sense of _if_ this were to have gone his way it would be a very convincing argument that there should be an election immediately. Him not winning but increasing his share plus no change nationally doesn't really sell his loss too much------
Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?Podcast ScopeA Matteo Renzi podcast for those who run the personality death cult fetishising Renzi’s record as PM of Italy…The scope of the podcast is to cover events and causes relevant to a European progressive outlook. Basically is positive change happening, if not why? Especially for 2020 what can look like or is being portrayed as positive change may not actually be that.We do not cover terrorism.We do not exclusively cover the Brussels BubbleWe cover certain elections and not others.Things that need explainingThe importance of national elections in countries that are small or don’t seem like they’d be important have 2 main reasons for needing attention:They’re a good barometer for political mood in a country at a snapshot of time.They matter in terms of balance in the EU council and likeness for pan-european movements/projects to progress (e.g. a new veto government could stop any refugee progress made or remove current blocks)European level alignments is sometimes important and often a handy shorthand. The parliament isn’t as strong as some in Brussels would like to imply, but it's also not irrelevant (which detractors would prefer to imply). What up with the current balance:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_groups_of_the_European_Parliament#Former_compositionsDifferent systems of government in Europe.Parliamentary as defaultUnicameral v bicameralFrench Presidential systemTwo round votingThings coming up in the year 2020What up with Brexit?What up with Ushi’s old “Green Deal”?Elections!Worth Note:IrelandMacedoniaSlovakiaCroatiaPolish PrezRomanianSerbianOthersAzerbaijanIcelandic PrezBelarussian PrezLithuaniaGeorgiaGreek Prez*Moldova PrezMontenegroTense SituationsItalySpainFun continued times of competition, mergers and Macron’s desire for EU wide monopoliesTechnical arguments over taxing mostly digital mega-corporations and how that has a very clear negative impact on discussions over fair pay, worker representation and tax evasionThe world eroding balance of the european grand coalition failing on big issues:Again climateMigrationMiddle east tensions being mishandled in some way
This week we discuss the fun that is the ongoing French protests and papa Macron's pension reform plansSupport us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?Show NotesThis would be niceGood French Pension ReformPapa Manu's planThis was a core part of Macron's presidential and subsequent parliamentary majority campaigns for en Marche - reform the "unfair" pension system.So why is it unfair?Well:It's much more complicated than most countries - there are 42 different systems (sort of) so Macron wants to bring this into one, sounds sensible (https://www.thelocal.fr/20191211/how-do-french-pensions-compare-to-the-rest-of-europe)This is arguably unfair to many groups - because if you worked in a non-unionised industry (or at least without a good union) you don't have the special systemSo they want to bring it into one points system where each euro contributed gets you some number of points and you get extra for things like unsocial hours, dangerous job, time on maternity leave.So what's the problem that does sound fairer?.. umm:Part of the plan originally was to raise the retirement age to 64 (you would only get the best value at that age), but they've backed off from that part to try chill the protests, which we'll get onto (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/world/europe/france-pension-protests.html), also this may only apply to those nearing retirement age soon so it might come back (https://www.politico.eu/article/french-pm-edouard-philippe-offers-concession-on-pension-reform/)Unions who have their own system argue they're losing exemptions they fought hard for - rail workers retire early due to it being hard work. Civil service workers get their last job used to calculate their pension partly to encourage people to work in it (at lower pay than the private sector)The points system is not transparent - the value of the points will get calculated by the state at the end and therefore it won't be transparent in the same way as basing it on salary would be (https://www.dw.com/en/france-unveils-controversial-pension-reforms/a-51617322)They were also proposing the threshold of your income that would get you points would decrease - decreasing the whole potSo like that doesn't sound good...A lot of the fear from the unions (and the public generally) is around the details of this reform, not the refusal for any reform. Polling from the start of the year said only 25% of people think the reforms are okay the way they are. The strikes have pretty good approval numbers... but other polling shows that people broadly want some sort of pension reform (https://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/retraites-malgre-un-recul-le-soutien-des-francais-a-la-greve-reste-majoritaire-20200103)The centralised points system on these terms would wipe out most special cases unions have fought for. This is a short term fix that would help balance the countries books.Unions such as the teacher's union would very easily be able to make the argument nobody would become a teacher at their bad salaries in France if the pensions were also bad.The train unions could see this as a mechanism to make train privatisation easier.The general point is that Macron is trying to get filling the pension shortfall that the government now covers as part of its budget off the books. They're pretending it's to be more fair but its mostly about removing any subsidy from the state to cover public service (and some other things like the arts) gaps between contributions and payouts.You'll see in most media coverage the report from COR, an independent pension advisory committee, who forecast the deficit in the system would be 0.7% of gdp by 2025 if there is no reform - making this sound urgent.France24 points out this is only one of their forecasts and another of their scenarios shows it shrinking to 0.2% - the big difference in the forecasts is made up largely from expecting the state to cut some of the subsidies to the system... so the government will stop covering parts of the shortfalls that exist to make it look like the shortfalls get bigger when actually they would shrink if they changed nothing. (https://www.france24.com/en/20191223-why-france-s-unsustainable-pension-system-may-well-be-sustainable).This is in alarming opposition to the contention that age demographics are the primary reason for the need to reform.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_French_pension_reform_strikeBut people want reformYeah, you could argue that 42 different systems is wasteful and an obvious win... so build all the existing exemptions into it and it should be cheaper to run, no?Any cost savings? Great make the system slightly more generous to everyone overallPolice Violence is Trés MalAntoine Baudet: a preschool teacher who lost his hand after picking up what he thought was a smoke grenade.Zineb Redouane: an 80-year-old Algerian woman who was shot in the face with a tear gas canister while trying to close the shutters to her window in her fourth-floor apartment.Patrice Philippe: Lost his right eye after being shot in it with a rubber bullet.A story of police violence in Francea great mini-documentary by Ross Domoneyhttps://vimeo.com/374210759
This week we discuss the new Austrian government coalition, it might be fine but it's more likely to be the centre-right's new strategy to consume and hijack the green wave.Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?## Also happening### Austrian Government Formation### Green is good?Queue Gordon Gecko meme...So how has this affected Kurz's politics?Kurz on doing the media rounds made it clear he mainly cares about migration and that's his focus. He also made sure to shit on those helping migrants in the Mediterranean by saying they cause more deaths than they prevent. One NGO called him "baby hitler" based on the Bild interview he did.More recently he's launched right into headscarf ban talk - https://www.politico.eu/article/sebastian-kurz-aims-to-protect-young-girls-from-effects-of-immigration-with-headscarf-ban/The idea that you can say nobody will become a migrant due to climate and there's probably just money to be made at home isn't completely new but he's got a Green party on board...He is very clear that "neither party had to negotiate down their core platform" - meaning he didn't give up anything but also trying to tap down any suggestion of the Green's giving up too much.### This would work elsewhere?This is partly a numbers game but also is being used to soften Kurz's image. The far right think he's one of them (with good reason) and similar to the new Greek government, his party is still maintaining their "moderate" status for some reason. From the FT:"The pact has been touted as a possible template for moderate conservatives trying to hold power elsewhere in Europe. "Indeed this was echoed in many outlets across the continent with particular mention of Germany where this is a very real possibility.Also Donald Tusk tweeted:"The Austrian coalition is something more than just a tactical success of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. It is an important guideline for all the EPP. Climate protection and the protection of our planet, this is, for us Christians, the eleventh commandment. Australia warns!" (https://twitter.com/donaldtuskEPP/status/1214195526150868998)### The OVP control everything basicallyGreens get vice Chancellor, justice and an increased climate change ministry.... OVP get everything else effectively.Kurz is going around stressing their election pledges to cut taxes and reform welfare system/labour laws is going ahead. So very pro increased economic growth by any means... which in now way would negatively impact any green policies------https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Kurz_governmenthttps://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Screen-Shot-2020-01-05-at-17.44.14.pnghttps://www.ft.com/content/e8435d86-3533-11ea-a6d3-9a26f8c3cba4https://www.eurotopics.net/en/232790/new-government-in-austria-a-model-for-europe# ------
This week we discuss the Croatian presidential election and the possibility of Spain finally getting a governmentSupport us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?No Election Left BehindCroatian Presidential ElectionShow NotesAlso happeningSpanish Government FormationRejected!So as expected they lost the initial vote where they needed an absolute majority... Their plan is to make agreements with enough regional parties in order to pass the second vote to form a minority government where abstentions don't count in the final tally (so they just need a simple majority); however...They need quite a few to abstain (>20 by my count but please correct me somebody, They got 166 (PSOE + Podemos + etc) with 18 abstentions). Which is effectively all the regional parties, and there are a lot of them.One of the representatives from one of the Canaries' parties voted against in this first vote instead of abstaining... so it's possible they don't have the votes if more go this way. If they get all the same votes for but the same number of abstentions they win but their margin is 2 according to agreementsWe'll find out on Tuesday I guessThe debate did not sound fun.. a lot of breaking up of Spain nationalist rhetoric from PP and Vox :-/https://www.dw.com/en/spains-sanchez-loses-first-of-two-chances-to-return-as-pm/a-51892166?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdfhttps://elpais.com/elpais/2020/01/03/inenglish/1578066750_393888.htmlhttps://www.ft.com/content/20fea4d6-2fc2-11ea-9703-eea0cae3f0dehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2019_Spanish_general_electionDeals Deals DealsThere's two, main one first:Podemos, the actual coalition deal:"...include tax rises for higher earners and large firms, an increase in the minimum wage and the partial overturning of aspects of the conservative Popular Party’s previous labor reforms.""income tax for those earning more than €130,000 a year will rise by two percentage points, and by four percentage points for those who earn more than €300,000. Capital gains tax will also rise by four percentage points above €140,000, to 27% compared to the current 23%. Corporate tax will have a new minimum rate of 15%, while banks and energy firms will have to pay 18%."https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/12/30/inenglish/1577714366_854324.htmlhttps://www.politico.eu/article/pedro-sanchez-to-present-program-for-ruling-spain-in-coalition-with-far-left/Sounds good and some reasonable things for Podemos to have gotten that are further than the PSOE would have been planning aloneRepublican Left of Catalonia (ERC), the deal with the largest regional party (by a long way) to abstain and give a chance at the government being formedThe deal sounds like what would have been a pragmatic solution to this all along and it only coming to fruition now is ridiculous..."The text makes clear that for the PSOE, the situation in Catalonia is a “political conflict,” a definition that the ERC wanted included from the outset of their negotiations.""The text of the deal sets out a forum with no restrictions on the content of discussions, and that will get going 15 days after the new government is formed."There are caveats that in the deal the constitution is conspicuously absent indicating Sanchez's people didn't want to make it all about allowing a mechanism for independence or similar, the concession seems to be they made it clear nothing is explicitly off the tableCasado of the PP indicated he might be willing to take this agreement to court... on constitutional grounds I guess? The PP have remained fun since Rajoy...Also the shroud of ongoing legal proceedings will in no doubt affect any formal discussions. The Catalonian president is being ousted by the courts (https://www.politico.eu/article/catalan-president-faces-being-removed-from-office/); many independence advocates have either been sentenced, are awaiting sentence or are in exile... Not to mention the whole ECJ siding with the elected MEPs not allowed to take their seats.The EU Parliament is expected to recognise those "banned" as MEPs as early as next week (https://www.politico.eu/article/oriol-junqueras-carles-puigdemont-parliament-to-recognize-jailed-catalan-separatist-as-mep-next-week/)https://elpais.com/elpais/2020/01/03/inenglish/1578040105_633743.htmlhttps://www.politico.eu/article/pedro-sanchez-clears-last-hurdle-to-rule-spain-with-far-left/Or I guess they could go for 5 elections in 5 years...
Junker: The Good, The Bad and The FunInspired by Junker writing the Politico newsletter on his last day in office. He was being a bit retrospective so we thought it would be a good opportunity to fawn over/shit on himThe GoodJunker was elected with the Spitzenkandidaten - where he was the EPP's lead candidate. Which compared to Mr Goldman Sachs (Barroso) was an improvement. Also look at the shit load of infographics they produced to show how cool they were: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/key_figures_for_the_eu_2014-2019_en.pdf?utm_source=POLITICO.EU&utm_campaign=56ef0a5c3b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_11_29_05_42&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_10959edeb5-56ef0a5c3b-190266981 Some of that is fine/accurate... but certainly not all. Let's focus on the actual good stuff: Media accessibility: Junker did seem to actually want to engage with the public and make the EU more accessible. Come up a lot in the "fun section" but he made a lot of public appearances where he really tried to sell the EU as a good thing. The Euronews livestream thing was actually very watchable and earnest He did a reasonable job of selling the EU... while there are a lot of factors including the B word, it's notable that anti-EU sentiment from far right parties has lessened. Partly because it's been semi-not terrible under Junker. Mild independence from the national level government seems to have done it favours (they quote that Eurobarometer shows trust in the EU is generally higher than for national govs with some notable exceptions - UK, France, Greece) The FunThat handwritten tweet video he did https://twitter.com/QuickTake/status/1185073056148000768?s=20 The time he yelled at Channel 4 The little black book of enemieshttps://www.politico.eu/article/jean-claude-juncker-keeps-little-black-book-of-enemies/ That time he called Orban a dictator That time he held Tsipras' hand while walking out of the room That other time he held Orban's hand while walking out of the room All the slapping he did That hair thing he did https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSCarR0UjDQ The League of Arab States - EU summit where he took a phone call on stage, then made a "my wife" joke. The other time he did that when at a photoshoot with Robert Fico but then said it was his wife first, then that it was Merkel second. That time he stopped Sky News from having an interview with him at a summit by constantly interrupting them about how great Sky News is and that it's always on in his house. The BadIn January 2017, leaked diplomatic cables show Juncker, as Luxembourg's prime minister from 1995 until the end of 2013, blocked EU efforts to fight tax avoidance by multinational corporations. Luxembourg agreed to multinational businesses on an individualised deal basis, often at an effective rate of less than 1%Uphold Marxist-Leninist-Junckerist thoughtEuropean Forum Alpbach in Austria. During his speech, Juncker, a supporter of Angela Merkel's open door response to the European migrant crisis, made news by telling the audience that **"borders are the worst invention ever made by politicians"** Upon hearing the news of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's death in December 2016, Juncker said, **"With the death of Fidel Castro, the world has lost a man who was a hero for many."** On 4 May 2018, Juncker attended and spoke at an event commemorating Karl Marx's 200th birthday.The MediumJunker was, for the EU establishment, to the left on migration: Calling for legal ways to migrate regardless of reasonhttps://www.dw.com/en/jean-claude-juncker-migrants-need-legal-ways-to-come-to-europe/a-41556151?maca=en-Twitter-sharinghttps://www.politico.eu/article/jean-claude-juncker-migration-calls-for-migrants-to-have-legal-ways-to-reach-europe/ Shitting on the whole dog whistle "Protecting European way of life" title for the new commissionhttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/juncker-eu-protecting-our-european-way-of-life-immigration-job-title-a9102786.html (correctly) Blaming "several German speakers" (Kurz) for the slow movement at reforming EU migration policy.https://www.politico.eu/article/migration-europe-austria-juncker-sebastian-kurz-spar/ On the other hand it's not like he moved quickly during the surges... and his ideas might be for a complicated "skills" system https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-45492746 The FunFrom the politico newsletter: "As everyone is debating the security of 5G networks, I am happy to rely on my trusty Nokia (not quite a 3310 but almost) to protect me from prying ears. That said, I do distinctly remember hanging up the phone after a lengthy conversation with my dear friend Bill Clinton, only to receive a phone call from Jacques Chirac a few moments later. Without a moment of pretense, Jacques asked me: “But why did you say that like that to Clinton, Jean-Claude?” Thanks for listening in, mon ami. Turns out, it’s not always the U.S. listening in on your phone calls."The BadThese are ones he acknowledges: Accession: promises were made, a country changed its name and Macron changed his mind Cyprus and the relationship with Turkey in generalThe FunJunker is an alcoholic if you believe his detractors. and by detractors I mean the British press. People may remember that David Cameron was very against Junker. His loss was part of the long saga of complaining for reforms and special treatment. Didn't do him any good inside his party for that whole leaving referendum thing https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/27/david-cameron-loses-jean-claude-juncker-vote-eu Maybe Junker is just a fun guy who knows how to party, David? Ever consider that? Why else would he have an Honorary Doctorate of the Miami University? https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-juncker-schaeuble-idUKKBN0F647320140701 .. but also maybe not, there was also the "sciatica" thing at the Nato summit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44812352The BadThat time he installed his chief of staff Martin Selmayer as secretary-general of the commission, an enormous promotion. It gave a lot of weight to conspiracy theories that implied he was really pulling the strings all along https://www.politico.eu/article/martin-selmayr-monster-of-the-berlaymont-or-committed-european/
Yup, an election sure did happen, and now we have to talk about it. Sorry.Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
This week we discuss the Romanian presidential election results a little late and the brain dead state of NATO (for like 20+ years)Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?No Election Left BehindRomanian Presidential Electionhttps://www.eurotopics.net/en/230152/iohannis-the-favourite-in-romania-s-runoff-vote?zitat=230105&pk_campaign=rss-en&pk_kwd=2019-11-11#zitat230105That Would Be NiceNAT-NONATO ( North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is stupid... There.. that'll teach 'emMacron is sort of on point...Macron is being whiney... But also has some good points. If you ignore the American imperialism angle, what exactly is the point of NATO?Is it to defend eastern Europe from invasion? Cool, well you're not doing that. The Ukraine membership process wasn't finished but a refusal to help with that seems arbitrary at best.Is it to only ever do something when everyone agrees? Well no.. because then the US just does whatever it wants anyway inc. drone strikes, actual invasions (iraq), weapon's sales (looking at you US, UK and Germany) for ongoing wars NATO wants no part of...On the other hand Macron was mainly complaining about not focusing on terrorism in sub Saharan Africahttps://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-icc-executions-ukrainian-soldiers-evidence-separatists/30312834.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/28/macron-defends-brain-dead-nato-remarks-as-summit-approacheshttps://www.eurotopics.net/en/231314/nato-row-meeting-between-macron-and-stoltenbergNigel is trying to create a weird decision between NATO and any EU cooperation... I'm assuming from his American friends?https://www.politico.eu/article/nato-and-european-defense-union-cannot-coexist-nigel-farage/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_SyndicationSummit good opportunity to be mean to TrumpUK commentators are obsessed over how it affects the election since trump is so unpopular and gives them those sweet sweet eyeball money. Also that hot mic thinghttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/29/the-guardian-view-on-the-nato-summit-the-watford-credibility-gaphttps://www.politico.eu/article/hot-mic-moments-heat-up-nato-leaders-summit/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_SyndicationBut doesn't Orange Man say is bad?Well.. yes.. sort of.. but in the way he says everything is bad until someone tells him it's useful to him or an avenue to get leverage. In the US the pro NATO crowd have migrated to the Democrats because of Trump, but his few "establishment" people like it too. It's also a great vector to try force other countries to increase military spending when their populations don't want to do that...It was and is still an avenue for the US to try bully smaller countries into signing onto their agenda. Before the break up of the USSR NATO was in effect a defence pact with coordination, which is in theory fine. Since then it'shttps://jacobinmag.com/2018/07/nato-donald-trump-putin-cold-war
This week we discuss the ongoing fallout of the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Why hasn't Joseph Muscat resigned? Several people close to him have either been arrested or resigned. Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?Also HappeningDaphne Caruana Galizia's Murder
On today's episode, we talk about the Belarussian Elections in our No Elections Left Behind section and in Also Happening we discuss the conditions leading to the UK electionSupport us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
Pedro Sánchez is a very clever boy who neglected to realise the Spanish people didn't want 4 elections in 4 years Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi? ## No Election Left Behind### Spanish Elections### Just keep repeating "Sanchez is weak on Catalonia"The narrative from the C's consistently since April's election was that Sanchez wasn't to be trusted with not allowing Catalonia a real referendum and I don't know... beating the already imprisoned leaders? Hunting down the rest harder..?Everyone on the right jumped on board during the debate. Vox claimed it was a coup...https://www.dw.com/en/spain-sanchez-casado-clash-on-catalonia-during-tv-debate/a-51113677?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf Meanwhile 350k people protested in Barcelona for independence during the King's visit... so that's cool### Didn't we just do this?Yes! Sanchez was being congratulated at his immense victory in April:"Spain's shattered right hands Sánchez victory" - https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjuoqqhsfTlAhUCh1wKHc1rALUQFjAAegQIABAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcontent%2F237a0924-6a2b-11e9-a9a5-351eeaef6d84&usg=AOvVaw0DzVjDidQ9uXDaFpanCiPG"The Spanish Election Is a Triumph of Logic" - https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-29/sanchez-s-victory-in-the-spanish-election-is-a-triumph-of-logic"Sánchez’s victory is a victory for Europe" - https://www.thenewfederalist.eu/spanish-elections-sanchez-s-victory-is-a-victory-for-europe---- ### So how's that going now?Well... Vox is now a going concern with a substantial number of seats and has very much been normalisedhttps://www.eurotopics.net/en/230315/why-the-spaniards-voted-for-vox#https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2019/11/spain-s-pedro-s-nchez-paying-price-underestimating-far-right ### Is there... good news?Yes! There's apparently going to be a government!https://jacobinmag.com/2019/11/podemos-spain-election-pablo-iglesias-pedro-sanchez/------
Where is the von der Leyen Commission? The answer is very unsatisfying...Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?Also HappeningWhere be the Ushi Commission?FranceMacron nominated a comically corrupt individual for their commissioner.Stepped down from Macron's government over EU funding investigation (which to be fair she came out of fine)She was taking thousands a month for work with a think tank while an MEPHer portfolio was enormous. Apparently they interpreted "internal market" as being able to apply to almost anythinghttps://www.politico.eu/article/frances-commission-pick-sylvie-goulard-rejected-by-parliament/Macron did not take it well... implying it was a conspiracy over refusing to let Weber be approved as president and that the EPP and von der Leyen assured him Goulard was fine. The latter not being a great sign for von der Leyen in general...Who's replacing her?Thierry Breton, french business guy and former minister under Chirac. There are two pretty clear problems:MEPs are weary over his conflict of interest possibility being on a shit load of boards he's now resigned fromHe says he'll stay out of discussions directly effecting his old company (Atos) but isn't clear on regulatory policy which affects itHe's supposed to still get Goulard's immense portfoliohttps://www.politico.eu/article/thierry-breton-pledges-to-avoid-conflicts-of-interest-in-financial-declaration/And?Well the S&D are pissed because now not only do they not have the presidency they were expected to get with Timmermans but due to Romania they're another commissioner down... also the balance of power has not swung in their favour with the actual portfolios.Might it not get approved?I mean there's a real chance... there'll be calls for pragmatism to keep things moving so it will likely get approved. Either way the S&D should never have accepted von der Leyen. It's not panning out well.The delay is so far until December 1 but may go on longer as many of the issues involving the approvals have not been resolved...Oh also:Estonia doesn't currently have a commissioner, neither does Romania because they both became MEPs... So EU budget talks are starting without themhttps://news.err.ee/1001502/lacking-commissioner-estonia-left-out-of-commission-s-eu-budget-talksBorrell is already gaffing on Twitterhttps://www.france24.com/en/20191108-eu-embarrassed-by-incoming-foreign-policy-chief-s-twitter-gaffe###Romanian and Hungarian Commissioners RejectedThe European Parliament’s legal committee rejected on Thursday (26 September) Commissioners-designate from Romania and Hungary, citing conflict of interest.Rovana Plumb (S&D portfolio Transport) and Hungarian conservative László Trócsányi (EPP portfolio Enlargement) were the only Commissioners designate asked by EU lawmakers to face a grilling over potential conflicts of interest and discrepancies in property statements.The Hungarian candidate was the former justice minister in Orban's gov and the guy behind a lot of the laws that cause concern about Hungary within the EU.The Romanian candidate has borrowed €800k to finance her campaign, which didn't go well sure. Plumb was called before the committee last week to account for two loans worth nearly €1 million that she did not declare in her original financial declaration scrutinized by MEPs.https://www.euractiv.com/section/future-eu/news/romanias-commissioner-designate-plumb-sinks-before-the-hearings/
It's not actually a special it's a regular episode BUT we did want/need to talk about the recent-ish elections in Kosovo, Poland and Switzerland so here it is, have at it!Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?## No Election Left Behind### Kosovo Electionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Kosovan_parliamentary_electionThe election was called in July, when outgoing Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj, resigned in the face of new war crimes proceedings, according to news reports. He was a former commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which fought for independence from Serbia and was twice acquitted under former proceedings in The Hague.With his governing coalition split, he sparked a trade war with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzogovina a year ago, by introducing a 100 per cent tariff on goods, stalling any political progress.Mr. Tanin said that the elections had been “assessed positively” by international observers, although there had been cases of voter intimidation and campaign finance violations in the Serb-majority areas.Overall turnout in Sunday’s election was 44% of the 1.9 million registered voters, which represents the highest turnout since 2010.Vetëvendosje (VV) on 25.5% of the vote, slightly ahead of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) on 24.8%.While the final votes were still being counted on election night, VV’s party leader, Albin Kurti, declared victory, saying that the result was a “national celebration,” ahead of a celebration with supporters in Prishtina’s Skanderbeg Square.The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), which has been in government since 2007, has received 21.2% and has conceded that it looks set for a period in opposition. “Citizens have given their verdict and we accept it,” said party leader Kadri Veseli.The coalition between outgoing Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj’s party, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) is in fourth place on 11.6%.### 2019 Polish parliamentary electionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Polish_parliamentary_electionThe PiS lost their Senate majority but they're contesting a lot of the races they lost as being invalid... and they recently made a change to who adjudicates election validity...https://euobserver.com/opinion/145498?utm_source=euobs&utm_medium=rssThe Polish Supreme court has already ruled out 3/6 requests thought -https://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-election-recount/polish-supreme-court-rejects-vote-recount-bid-by-ruling-nationalists-idUSKBN1X8187https://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-election-recount/polish-court-rejects-two-more-government-recount-bids-idUSKBN1X919ZOddly they say the reason for the recounts isn't valid:“The purpose of an electoral protest,” the court said in a statement, “is to point out specific violations of law affecting the outcome of the election...not to recalculate votes because of the slight difference between individual candidates.”### Swiss federal electionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Swiss_federal_electionThe main story from this is that as with most Swiss elections not much will change. The Greens gained a lot of seats but because of the way the Federal Council (their executive) is elected they won't get into that. DW's podcast in an interview with their Swiss correspondent pointed out there's a convention not to let someone in until they've done well a couple of elections in a row... so slow moving it is.https://www.dw.com/en/greens-surge-in-swiss-elections-as-voters-climate-concerns-grow/a-50903915?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Council_(Switzerland)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_formula
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This week we discuss the Portuguese elections, while Hugh is in China. Why didn't he go to Macau... the coward!Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?
This week we discuss whether Margrethe Vestager's Time As European Commissioner for Competition is actually good or not. Also why have a competition commissioner exactly?Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?Show NotesNo Election Left BehindAustrian ElectionFun Kurz CornerSo there was the thing about shredding hard drives... to help fuel conspiracy theories?https://metropole.at/schreddergate-kurz-social-media-manager-secretly-destroys-hard-drives-at-reisswolf/"But, instead of handing them over to the Reisswolf employees, he insists on (not just erasing but) “shredding” the data carriers himself. ""He then collects all the shredded pieces and takes them with him. He doesn’t pay the bill of €76 as Reisswolf doesn’t take cash – and disappears.""But a few days later, on May 27, one of Reisswolf’s employees recognized the same man on television, walking behind Sebastian Kurz as the former chancellor"https://metropole.at/schreddergate-kurz-social-media-manager-secretly-destroys-hard-drives-at-reisswolf/https://www.france24.com/en/20190721-austria-probes-ex-leaders-staff-over-shredding-evidenceThere are 3 weirdly complimentary biographies of Kurz - quotes from which seem super weirdhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/world/europe/austria-election-sebastian-kurz-freedom-party.html?emc=rss&partner=rsshttps://twitter.com/hashtag/50shadesofkurz?src=hash&lang=en (cool....)https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/austria/ and https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000109137596/die-waehlerstromanalyse-wie-die-stimmen-gewandert-sindSimilar to Greece media response is celebrating the defeat of the far-right ignoring the Kurz personality cult is much further to the right than they think and ignoring the history of FPÖ and ÖVP cooperation especially in the realm of islamophobic shit (right before the election FPÖ and ÖVP passed resolutions in the National Council against "political Islam")Majority of voters didn’t care about Ibizagate, Kurz did benefit from it the most, attracting the most “weniger” and up voters (39% of the ÖVP vote)SPÖ is at their lowest result in post-WWII Austria, still the second-largest party thoughLooks like our predictions were correct; he’s gonna get a coalition with a less powerful party whether it’s the Greens, Greens and NeOs or FPÖ again.Only 33% of Greens membership support a coalition with the Kurz party of chanting Kurz and bashing MuslimsKurz has stated he’s willing to work with any and all parties (but a GroKo is likely out of the question.)Jetzt Pilz List is kinda insaneThe Austrian Green youth was kicked out for being too radical (which gives you an idea about how the Greens function) and joined up with KPÖ (forming KPÖ+)Neither of the decent left parties in Austria got into the parliament (1.1% total vote).CIARÁN PREDICTION: Kurz will hold talks with the Greens and they’ll fail so then he can form a government with a weakened FPÖ and appear like the other parties made him do it.https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000109168988/wer-waehlte-wie-waehlergruppen-und-ihre-motivehttps://www.derstandard.at/story/2000109126022/so-haben-die-gemeinden-bei-der-nationalratswahl-abgestimmthttps://www.derstandard.at/story/2000109137596/die-waehlerstromanalyse-wie-die-stimmen-gewandert-sindFun FPÖ CornerThey're under investigation for funding problems still... but I guess Strache is gone...https://www.eurotopics.net/en/227948/how-will-strache-s-departure-affect-the-fpoe?pk_campaign=rss-en&pk_kwd=2019-10-02https://www.dw.com/en/austrian-police-raid-on-agency-prompts-outrage/a-42960940Also there was the raid on the intelligence services taking evidence on far-right groups:https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/world/europe/austria-far-right-freedom-party.html?module=inlineTheir TV ad game is... woahhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=2kIhX3uj7WE
This week we discuss whether Margrethe Vestager's Time As European Commissioner for Competition is actually good or not. Also why have a competition commissioner exactly?Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?Show NotesHave you consideredMargrethe Vestager's Time As European Commissioner for CompetitionVestager is apparently the inspiration for Borgen - or the Danish West Wing as nobody calls it. A liberal who lead an aggressively centrist party and was referred to in the Danish media as the most powerful person in the government despite not actually being the leader. This secured her the commissionership for Denmark (or possibly they were trying to get rid of her) Trump has said "She hates the United States, perhaps worse than any person I’ve ever met.", referring to her as "Tax lady"Bigger antitrust cases:Google/AlphabetOriginally the previous competition commissioner had negotiated a settlement but the commission of the time rejected it so Vesteger inherited this one.Back in 2015 the NYT ran a fun explainer on who the hell this was massively fining the darling of the US tech scene (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/business/international/margrethe-vestager-the-danish-politician-who-brought-antitrust-charges-against-google.html).This eventually has ended up as a record fine of over 2 billion.. which in effect makes the EU the worlds main anti-trust prosecutor in the world.The case is largely overall market control and gets to a lot of what Elizabeth Warren talks about when she says she wants to break up the tech monopolies. Google can start a new service (in this case shopping comparision) and just show it alongside google search. If you use google to find flights instead of the airlines or flight comparison sites now you see Google's own service. Similar to the problem with the browser antitrust >20 years ago - it's not that your product is necessarily bad, you're leveraging your already dominant position to make it the default choice.There was a separate €4.3 billion fine over Android being tied to Google servicesStarbucks and FiatThese are more on the tax end where they're "based" in Luxembourg and the Netherlands respectively but pay basically no tax... Going to the EU courts this week on final appeal (https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-eu-stateaid-fiat-starbucks/eu-court-ruling-on-starbucks-fiat-million-euro-tax-orders-on-september-24-idUKKBN1W528L)There are plans to do something similar with Ikea and Nike who do similar things (https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-competition-commissioner-margrethe-vestager-tax-crusade-faces-judgment-day-fiat-apple-starbucks/)AppleThis on is particularly egregious with Apple having worked out a deal where they pay far less than the actual rate of corporation tax in Ireland, which is already low.It has it's own wiki page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EU_illegal_State_aid_case_against_Apple_in_Ireland)...This one is also coming to the courts this week.Chris Johns (an Irish Times Columnist) writes that Vesteger doesn't appreciate Ireland's genius (https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/ireland-simply-better-at-understanding-us-tax-policy-with-fdi-policy-1.4026414)QualcomThey have a pretty unfair position of dominance in the mobile chip sector and the EU fined them ~900M over itThere are many more in the works...Cyprus AirwaysThis one is where you could have some left criticism of this practice. Cyprus airlines got a second bailout from the government... but Vesteger found that this was in breech of the EU rule of one state aid per decade... and they'd already been bailed out in 2007 (https://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/09/us-cyprus-airlines-suspension-idUSKBN0KI1R920150109). This put the airline under...... which complicates matters somewhat.What is the point of anti-trust and does it get in the way of a larger agenda?... and go...GaspromAlso messing with international politics over Gasprom's messing with pipelines and what not for transit countries
This week we discuss Spain's upcoming election and how we got here. I blame everyone, but especially you.Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?Show NotesAlso HappeningThe great disappointment of Pedro Sanchez¡Mi nombre es pedro sanchez y soy una decepción!I hear that Sanchez and read a pollSort of... he's banking on another version of this same negotiation where he has a few more seats and can have a slightly different version of the same argument with Podemos?...or the horrible possibility of the Cs coming around to Sanchez?Maybe not - "Rivera offered his party’s abstention in any forthcoming investiture debate if the PSOE promised not to increase taxes, ruled out pardoning the 12 Catalan leaders on trial for their role in the 2017 attempt at winning independence and rejected the support of secessionists in the Navarra region." (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/17/spain-braces-for-another-election-as-deadline-looms)Maybe it's just to punish the PP more.Or to have negotiations with Podemos in a setting where they would actually have a majority? (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/03/spanish-pm-unveils-progressive-policies-to-head-off-snap-election)###Caretaker government in charge of important shitIn early October we have the Catalan trials and in late October we have Brexit###Opinions on the groundBecause no one's mind has changed many Spaniards are annoyed by the cost of the election being run.Casado thinks the Cs are the aggressive ones on the right...https://elpais.com/politica/2019/09/19/actualidad/1568882964_970802.html
This week we discuss the problem children of the proposed von der Leyen commission and whether or not we deserve this...Support us on Patreon!WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcastWe now have a website that you can find here!Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEuropeIf you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us outAlso, have you considered Matteo Renzi?Show NotesHave you considered...The von der Leyen CommissionThe Politico Europe org chart is good to get an overall view of hierarchy https://www.politico.eu/article/european-commission-president-elect-ursula-von-der-leyen-actual-organization-chart-commissioners-portfolios/ I count: EPP 9 S&D 10 Renew 6 ECR (because Poland) 1 Greens/EFA: 1(sort of... we'll get to that) They also did a good short summary when they were originally announced: https://www.politico.eu/article/meet-the-commissioners-president-ursula-von-der-leyen-team-european-commission-members/So some of these are bad, can they be rejected?Well... so they can pull themselves out of the running. Which has happened in the past, but...The parliament votes on the commission as a whole, not on each commissioner. So they have the "hey stop gunking up the process" argument against them. To vote against you have to have to think the people you don't like are worth voting against the whole thinghttp://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/faq/8/how-are-the-commission-president-and-commissioners-appointedThere are some problem childrenPoland's nominee is reportedly under investigationFor irregularities in his spending as an MEP according to Der Spiegel (https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/ursula-von-der-leyen-spesenaffaere-gefaehrdet-kommissionskandidaten-a-1285610.html). Apparently in the 5 digits range.. so... oofJosep BorrellI'll just leave this here - https://twitter.com/joethebrew/status/1111162199462993920Also he's the only angry one in their class photo - https://www.politico.eu/article/confirmation-battle-commences-for-ursula-von-der-leyen-team-european-commission/Margaritis SchinasThis is gross on many levels... one would Greece of had such a high position if they didn't just get a far to the right government? Vice president is a big deal and they sure did hate old Tsipras. So probably not...Also "Vice-president for Protecting our European way of life". The fuck? He's going to be in charge of migration policy.Junker is unimpressed:https://www.politico.eu/article/jean-claude-juncker-criticizes-ursula-von-der-leyen-over-european-way-of-life-commissioner/France and Sylvie GoulardShe was one of the MoDem people who resigned over a spending scandal while she was an MEP from the Marcon administration. She was also apparently being paid by an American think tankhttps://www.france24.com/en/20190910-new-european-commission-timmermans-climate-change-hogan-trade-goulard-leyen
This week we discuss Ireland and the litany of disasters that is its current government but ignore that, look at Varadkar's socks. Support us on Patreon! WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcast We now have a website that you can find here! Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? Show Notes Also happening... Irish Government Long discussion and coverage in the Irish times both in articles and podcasts regarding how Varadkar appears reasonable, has chill body language and is generally very organised compared to Johnson on his visit on Monday... So relatively gushing praise for a minority government leader of an unpopular government... Recentish (May) polling has the Government approval a little above 30% and in March it was at 38%. Varadkar is consistently higher than that... (mid 30s-40) Politico has voting intention polling aggregate for Fine Gale at 26% in second.. So why is the government in place exactly? The list of ongoing scandals is long and would be the kind of things that would have long since forced a government down: https://www.thejournal.ie/data-protection-commission-psc-4797429-Sep2019/ There's a scandal over a report from the data protection commissioner that the government is ignoring probably illegal requirements to get an ID card (for which people are getting denied) and additionally not being GDPR compliant with the handling of the data after identity had been proven... The minister claims they have legal advice saying otherwise... cool BusConnects Cervical checks National Broadband Plan... (https://www.thejournal.ie/national-broadband-plan-8-4622279-May2019/) - cost overruns and problems with tendering the plan National Children's Hospital: various problems and cost overruns Both of which are broadly part of Ireland 2040 which is generally been a shitshow in many ways Maria Bailey Wine Swing Scandal - https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/maria-bailey-and-her-swing-case-questions-that-remain-1.3907617?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-law%2Fmaria-bailey-and-her-swing-case-questions-that-remain-1.3907617
This week we discuss the Brexit thick word soup and why the UK needs reform of everything instead. Support us on Patreon! WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcast We now have a website that you can find here! Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? Show Notes Also happening... That Leaving the EU thing With a heavy heart we have been forced to return to that thing we usually ignore because nothing happens with it. There's a funny article in Foreign Policy that seems to argue the strength of the Italian President as a political figure is the reason Italy is super okay now and the UK is not... so like... it's the systems fault? Umm.. I guess. Though the probably many things? https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/30/britain-cant-afford-the-queens-weakness-anymore/ Why don't we talk about this more? Well most of the news follows the pattern of "X says Y about Brexit Deal" - This week's examples: Barnier said no renegotiation until Parliament ratifies deal https://www.politico.eu/article/barnier-no-alternative-to-backstop-until-withdrawal-deal-ratified/ https://www.dw.com/en/brexit-eus-top-negotiator-doubts-no-deal-can-be-avoided/a-50245537 Johnson says they need to renegotiate deal Former PM John Major says suspending parliament to avoid votes relating to deal may be illegal and joins court case (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49523055) Corbyn says "sovereignty" should rest with people, speaking about the deal (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/31/final-sovereignty-on-brexit-must-rest-with-the-people--jeremy-corbyn) Trump says deal bad... (insert infinite sources...) The words coup, sovereignty and backstop have lost all meaning, not just because of overuse - but because both sides are playing the "no accepting the terms" game and accusing each other of the same thing "Suspending parliament is a coup"... "no the real coup is the remain weirdos and their pal Corbyn trying to pass legalisation"... I don't see how either of these things are coups so no wonder https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/coup But then again this is nuts PM effectively being the executive is pretty nuts and combined with a FPTP system it creates some weird power trips. The whole Chancellor's advisor being fired and escorted out by armed police without asking the Chancellor... The weird guy Benedict Cumberbatch played in a film once seems to be making staffing decisions now? Other countries where the PM has effectively absolute power (in europe anyway) are much more fragmented systems like Denmark where the PM has to watch themselves somewhat because their government is much more fragile
This episode Hugh and Ciarán discuss the EU rotating presidency, what is it? Should it exist? Support us on Patreon! WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcast We now have a website that you can find here! Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? Show Notes Pie in the sky A Better Rotating EU Presidency The rotating presidency as it currently exists is part of the intentionally confusing bullshit... It's often referred to as rotating EU presidency.. which is misleading since it's presidency of the Council of the European Union. The one with the 28 government ministers changing depending on the topic under discussion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_the_Council_of_the_European_Union -------------- - Rotates every 6 months - groups of 3 decide on 18 month long term agendas... (currently Romania, Finland and Croatia. ) Current agenda? - https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/council-eu/presidency-council-eu/ ummm... so it's an administrative role? Why does it get covered like it's more important? It's second role? Representing the Council in relations with the other EU institutions - so... nothing? The European Council and Parliament likely see themselves as more legitimate. Does this get Finland any extra leverage? Not really How'd we end up with this nonsense? To some extent the Lisbon treaty messed things up by separating the European Council and the Council of the European Union. Pre 2007 you could argue it made more sense but... now.. I mean isn't this Tusk's job effectively? It also used to have a foreign affairs component but the Commission now has a commissioner for that. The diminished powers are brought up as good things Because people are unhappy with the current Romanian government it was cited as good thing by the Guardian that it doesn't have much power other than meeting agenda setting. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/30/romania-to-take-over-eu-presidency-amid-fears-for-rule-of-law Didn't we hear something about corporate sponsorship? Romanian Presidency was sponsored by Coca-Cola, and the current Finnish Presidency is being sponsored by BMW. There's an open parliamentary question to the Commission asking why this is allowed since it seems like an obvious conflict of interest (From a Cs MEP from Spain (Renew)) "Are there plans to introduce rules on such practices, which harm the Union’s independence, with the aim of prohibiting them?" http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/P-9-2019-002381_EN.html A GUE/NGL MEP from Réunion (so France..) Tounous Omarjee asked the Council itself for clarification on whether details are published about this nonsense http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/P-8-2019-001212_EN.html The council passed the buck: "The organisation of the Presidency, including a decision to seek sponsorship for elements of the Presidency, is a matter for the Member State authorities concerned. It is not for the Council to reply to questions that are the responsibility of its Presidency" A Croatian PR firm has a blog post suggesting how to be ready to sponsor events to get exposure for Croatian businesses: https://www.404.agency/en/news/how-benefit-croatian-presidency-eu-council/ This isn't inherently bad but it's a sign of what the rotating presidency is now
Healthcare models in the EU A lot of focus, especially in the US is on "Europe has universal social medicine" but the reality is much more complicated. Could do some examples such as: - Germany's weird insurance system - Ireland is garbage - The NHS - Whatever Sweden does??? - Greece and economic problems does what? The EU does health good? Well... sort of? It's not done at an EU level so you have different systems per country and even then access will differ even if the system sounds the same. Health insurance card thing (E111)? Get it out of the way quickly because for those from outside the EU it probably seems confusing. Since 2004/05 there's been a card for all the EEA countries and Switzerland which makes traveling in Europe easier - the idea being you're covered by your home country's system so the state you're visiting will get reimbursed by your country of residence, where you qualify for health coverage anyway. It's for emergency care and ongoing care for chronic illnesses (e.g. you can't travel because you need dialysis - you could get it once in the country you're visiting during your trip) Health Consumer Powerhouse A Swedish think tank that produces comparisons of healthcare systems across Europe via their production of the EuroHealth Consumer Index ranking systems. I'd normally be skeptical about a think tank that advises on health policy but it really seems like a useful relative metric They use a 1000 point scale to compare countries. It makes for an interesting but long read on the topic. https://healthpowerhouse.com/publications/ Some takeaways that are generally relevant when considering healthcare: Spending money is not necessarily good. It is cheaper to run a system with lower waiting times inherently... but also spending money is good because it gets you there... there's a sweet spot. This seems to largely come from referral systems intended to prevent clogging up of specialist time.. but there's a clear relationship between overall waiting time for specialist treatment and whether you have to go through a referral system. Many of the best funded systems have this and it affects their waiting times negatively. There are some standards they've picked as cut offs such as particular waiting times (CT scan 7 days, GP same day access, interestingly they used Paediatric Psychiatry access to give an example of a hard to access service and used that as a kind of bonus question to divide up results). Ireland has a better system in theory than some other countries but it has by far the worst waiting times scores... A 6th of the whole score is access to prevention, again hammering home the "your system can sound good on paper but...". Then there's access to new drugs, which really pushes down the less wealthy countries... Western European countries end up near the top partially because of this as a factor. "With the possible exception of Switzerland and The Netherlands, there are no countries, which excel across the entire range of EHCI indicators.". They point out specifically Sweden as an example where it's mostly great but the waiting times have become a problem for a number of key services. Money doesn't buy accessibility (that also requires thought and planning) but it does buy better outcomes... There's a pretty clear correlation between discharge/death ratios and per capita spending This is the wonky way of looking at how they compare, and the main take away is that generally Europe does healthcare okay.. but everywhere in Europe (except apparently Switzerland) messes it up in some key way. Things that relate to progressive socialized medicine: End user cost Inequalities (e.g. Italy is one public system but they note Rome and the North score well but the South scores badly...). In systems public and private care these are of course more class orientated than regional alone (e.g. Spain) Complexity of the system for the end user Some types of system seem more prone to these than others. Ideal system? Ehhhh A monstrous spreadsheet of most European countries categorised by my somewhat arbitrary system: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dLHD6dln6UExBU9KKV4wXuXXaMP70UALFyDe6IF7Gv8/edit#gid=0
This Hugh and Ciarán discuss the possible demise of the nightmare coalition... Support us on Patreon! WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcast We now have a website that you can find here! Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? Show Notes Have you considered Matteo Renzi? Timeline: - Someone in la Lega can read polls apparently (they could win 37% of the vote) - Salvini announced he was putting in a no confidence vote in his own government... after only 14 months - This day last week our pal Renzi started talking about a caretaker government - Salvini said everyone is a self interested politician other than him "Under-the-table stitch-ups, palace intrigues, technocrat or caretaker administrations will not stop Italians who want a strong government," - Everyone got together and kicked the can down the road (https://www.thelocal.it/20190815/how-an-unexpected-alliance-thwarted-salvinis-bid-for-a-snap-election-in-italy). MS5 and PD voted against no confidence. There's going to be another on August 20th 5* didn't realise "term" is a variable length unit apparently https://www.politico.eu/article/5stars-leaders-di-battista/ He got grumpy he wasn't Prime Minister basically... https://www.dw.com/en/italy-s-salvini-says-will-submit-no-confidence-vote/a-49964202 He's finding it hard potentially to bring down his own government https://www.dw.com/en/italy-s-salvini-faces-mounting-opposition-to-snap-election-plans/a-49989563 I don't see the technocratic government going anywhere https://euobserver.com/news/145632 Fun list https://www.politico.eu/article/can-anyone-stop-matteo-salvini/ Who knew Conte was so popular? The Italians have that stupid bonus seats system though so Salvini is likely to be very powerful either way an election goes since they'll still probably win https://jacobinmag.com/2019/08/salvini-lega-m5s-italy/ The Italian left hasn't learned any lessons from their decline... Also there's a strange back and forth where PD vote with la Lega on some things and 5* on others... the actual government itself doesn't seem to agree on much "This was apparent in the final act of the M5s-Lega government, a parliamentary dispute over the TAV high-speed rail line being built from Turin to Lyon. Since its foundation in 2009, M5s has strongly opposed TAV on both cost and environmental grounds, and after Conte said last week that the project would nonetheless be going ahead, Di Maio’s party tabled a motion in the Senate to abandon it. This failed, as the Lega made a bloc with the PD to proceed with its construction." Voter reform carrot MS5 strongly wanted to decrease the number of members of parliament by half... Salvini was on board and tried to use it to get them to back elections. 5* pointed out this would take too long to also have an election soon...
A solo episode with Hugh in response to a Patreon question box question. What is up with the Albanian local elections? What's the deal with that? Support us on Patreon! WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcast We now have a website that you can find here! Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? Show Notes Also happening... Albania is a place still From our suggestion box Diarmuid Burke asks: The 2019 Albanian local elections. Loads of major parties didn't take part in protest of the Government and the whole thing looks to be a shit show. Background People may remember there were mass protests against rises in student tuition fees that went on for months earlier this year... that was something very much on the surface of what is a barely functioning system. The Judiciary is largely (especially at the high levels) suspended awaiting vetting into their finances (a 2016 law aimed at cleaning up the system)... this plays in again later The parliament isn't really functioning because all the opposition parties are protesting its legitimacy. Over 40 of the 140 MPs resigned in protest in March (https://www.euronews.com/2019/02/22/albanian-opposition-in-mass-resignation-move-to-demand-fresh-elections) - so not all but a large chunk. The EU "condemned" this move... The President called to delay the local elections because the opposition were planning on boycotting... He wanted it to be delayed until October.. Rada overruled him with the election commission siding with Rada and holding the elections. So? Well Rama's Socialist party ran unopposed in half of the regions and against "weak" candidates in the other half. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/disputed-election-leaves-albania-democracy-tatters-190701195743565.html What's their beef? Well... The opposition parties don't agree on much.. but they all think Rada was involved in electoral fraud and mass corruption. They have some solid ground about Rama... For a start there's people in the Socialist party who have some bad history with the former communist establishment (Rama nominated the interior minister at the time involved in crackdowns on protests as speaker of the house) Then there's the tapes... They were floating around after some transcripts were posted online in January but Bild (everyone's favourite piece of garbage) published the recordings in June. They're not great. There's recordings of Socialist party officials talking about how to buy votes with known organised crime gang Durrës. There's also tapes of Rama talking with other party members about the conspiracy... showing he knew it was happening. This triggered June 10th mass protests - which meant the President wanted to cancel the elections. Rama says he's looking into impeachment because of this... The court that would normally adjudicate these conflicts is again not in session... Some fun aftermath: Rama is planning on suing the journalist Peter Tiede who published the wiretaps.. The Albanian prosecutors are investigating the leak but don't appear to be doing anything about the information on the tapes (it's been almost 3 years - these relate to the 2017 election...) They're also investigating the opposition leader for links to a Russian company alleged to be a plot to destabilise Albania... Which I mean.. yeah probably it is. https://exit.al/en/2019/06/21/a-guide-to-the-albanian-electiongate-and-political-crisis/ https://balkaninsight.com/2019/02/15/albania-opposition-prepares-major-protest-against-the-government/ https://www.dw.com/en/protesters-in-albania-again-demand-prime-minister-rama-quit/a-49518402 International Observers say what? The EU and US have generally been cool with the election happening and against the government protests. Why? Because Rama is doing the reforms they want. Long term they think the status quo is fine as long as the judicial and other reforms continue, regardless of the shorter term problems for actual Albanians. It's generally messy and isn't going to get resolved soon. This is probably one of the few times I think installing a technocratic government to keep things ticking along for a while and replace everyone running the prosecutor's office in the process is probably the sensible outcome.
This week we discuss is the Ukraine elections, oh boy that Servent of the People party, is ho boy, oof. In our "No Elections Left Behind" section! Support us on Patreon! WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcast We now have a website that you can find here! Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? Show Notes Ukrainian parliamentary election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Ukrainian_parliamentary_election Genuinely unprecedented and unique election: - First ever in Ukrainian history since independence to have a majority - 60% of new members of parliament will be first time politicians - major parties took enormous hits across the board (https://www.rferl.org/a/zelenskiy-on-course-for-majority-in-parliament/30069728.html) What's their deal? Zelensky is so new to politics it's hard to box him under any umbrella other than extreme reforms. His party says their ideology is libertarianism and are generally pro strengthening EU ties. Some highlights currently on the table from their manifesto: Replacing their hybrid FPTP and party list system with party lists only (this has actually now happened) A mechanism to recall members of parliament via no-confidence from voters Some currently not well defined direct democracy measures "re-launch relations with Ukraine's closest neighbors in the West" Reform of law enforcement agencies Which seems to be a mix of reducing regulation on financial crimes but also holding police officers to account... and also gun rights? A lot of "audits" into how almost everything works Very new party There are concerns of many of the new party MPs being... well of mixed quality and lacking due diligence in candidate selection. However, the election went well by recent Ukranian standards from a democratic perspective. "votes did not go towards the “lesser evil” as before; voting for rather than against something. This is a rare achievement in the region and an essential shift for the country’s democracy towards maturity." http://neweasterneurope.eu/2019/07/24/the-new-ukrainian-parliament-at-first-glance/ Honourable mention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_(Ukrainian_political_party) Russian Tensions The security service said it detained the Russian tanker in a Ukrainian port on Wednesday 24th of July. Authorities said the tanker was involved in blocking Ukrainian vessels from sailing through the Kerch Strait in November. Russia alleged the vessels breached its territorial waters. The Ukrainian Security Service, also known as SBU, is still led by an ally of Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko, The 10-member crew of the Russia’s tanker was allowed to disembark and leave Ukraine since they were not involved in November’s incident, Russian human rights ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said. Russian ships fired on and seized the Ukrainian vessels on Nov. 25 in the Kerch Strait, located between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Ukraine has insisted the vessels were in international waters when Russia intercepted them. https://apnews.com/e212d39680f349a0b8e787d4f45ad250
It's a solo episode with mem, Ciarán! Enjoy my take on the current government formation in Spain, which just seems like the PSOE has kinda reluctantly stumbled into the correct decision.
Our Patreon bonus episode on how to reform the EU. First we discuss the much touted Macron reform and then explain why they're lazy. The we have our own list of short and long term noodlings. This is the first of our bonus episodes supported by our generous Patreon supporters, unlocked after a month behind the cruel capitalist paywall - but what are you gonna do about it? Support us on Patreon! WE HAVE A T-PUBLIC STORE what a fashionable way to support our podcast We now have a website that you can find here! Feel free to send us an email at PreviouslyInEurope@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter @PrevInEurope If you can please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and if you can't do that tell a friend, this stuff really helps us out Also, have you considered Matteo Renzi? Reform Europe Describe your idea for how to reform the EU If you think Macron is an asshole, maybe you can do better? Pappa Macron's Vision: Everyone remembers his fun letter: https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2019/03/04/for-european-renewal.en But there were positions before this, mostly economic... Generally it was a two speed Europe including: EU finance minister. Establish a joint eurozone budget. Institute a body tasked with overseeing bloc-wide economic policy. Yeah cool that was early 2018. Then we had his EU campaign open letter to Europe stuff: https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2019/03/04/for-european-renewal.en We talked about this in a previous episode (https://previouslyineurope.simplecast.com/episodes/cryptographically-secure-renaissance-7b5cf31d) Politico had a pretty clear summary that wasn't written in prose (https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-europe-renaissance-vs-reality/) AKK in response to Macron said some shitty things Mostly about migration, protecting borders. Also getting rid of the Strasbourg parliament and taxing EU officials. You know the big ticket reforms... https://www.dw.com/en/angela-merkel-successor-akk-responds-to-emmanuel-macrons-vision-for-europe/a-47840072 Manu want input from citizens apparently Or so he says. Once the new executive is in place he thinks everyone should get together and somehow get input form citizens too to work out priorities for the next 5 years so here we go... https://www.euractiv.com/section/eu-elections-2019/news/macron-wants-a-convention-to-reform-europe/ Some actual reforms maybe? Short Term (1 commission cycle) Make transparency register mandatory End tax havens… possibly a common corporation tax minimum Change migration policy. Stop: Deportation to unsafe territories Don’t spend money on exporting prevention to foreign powers Maybe reparations for the colonial holdings? Change framework in a way that the focus of the EU in terms of migration isn’t for migration control, but for international development Fix the Euro - See European Spring section, both short and long EU election reform: Put the EU parties on the voting ballots as well as the local party Get rid of the parliament “groupings” because they’re really just parties. The requirement for speaking time and funding in the parliament can just be bumped down to the party level, don’t make them separate. This both makes it more similar to systems they’re familar with but also is less stupid. Council of the EU and the European Council Name change! Just European Senate: 2 seats per country, 1 permanent (appointed like a cabinet position). Other is head of state With proxy voting for obvious reasons Fixes the confusion, means there’s someone actually on the ground who can give heads of state a skinny Long Term Welcome in refugees Citizens assemblies to assist in drafting a better EU constitution - i.e. a democratic constitutional convention Get rid of Strasbourg Probably long term to figure out what to do with the building and not annoy current French President EU commission is more complicated Our idea would be for Prime Minister styley and make it an actual parliament. Not like that stupid French parliament. Commission President is elected and approved by the new Imperial Senate. I am the Senate… Commissioners are doled out sort of like they are now. Figure out a way to make national voting allowed for EU ex-pats...
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