Elections 16-05-2024
News 16-05-2024
News 17-05-2024
Competitiveness, defence, combatting foreign interference, and, ironically, protecting nature are European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s key talking points of her campaign visits to Split, Rome, and Copenhagen, shedding light on her next college’s priorities if she gets reelected.
Croatia's parliament on Friday (17 May) approved a new coalition government allying the ruling conservatives with a right-wing nationalist party.
Less migration, more manure: For EU purposes, that could have been the motto chosen by the four Dutch right-wing parties that agreed this week on a programme for a new government in the Netherlands. Instead, they went for ‘hope, courage and pride’, preferring to address the Dutch voters.
French police reinforcements have started arriving in New Caledonia as part of a massive operation to regain control of the capital Noumea, the top French official in the Pacific island territory said on Friday (17 May).
The Pfizergate scandal broke in 2021, revealing that during the pandemic, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had negotiated a contract for 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla via mobile phone texts that remain undisclosed to this day.
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico remains in a serious but stable condition and is able to speak a little, the country's president-elect said on Thursday (16 May), a day after an assassination attempt that sent shock waves across Europe.
Over the past five years, Ursula von der Leyen’s College of Commissioners has presented a long list of legislative texts covering issues ranging from Green Deal legislation to defence industrial programmes.
Kosovo’s last-minute bid to placate Germany and get its application for membership of the Strasbourg-based human rights body, the Council of Europe approved has been attacked by Serbian President Aleksander Vucic and criticised by Kosovo's President Vjosa Osmani.
Bulgarian state-owned gas company Bulgargas is seeking more than €400 million in damages from Russian gas monopoly Gazprom Export-Import for the sudden suspension of natural gas supplies at the end of April 2022.
The left-wing to far-left platform Sumar and its former ally, the far-left Podemos party, have pressured the government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to prevent Madrid from sending weapons to Israel on a ship that was due to dock in the south-east Spanish port of Cartagena, Murcia, on Wednesday.
The planned televised showdown between Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein and Fratelli d’Italia leader Giorgia Meloni, initially set for 23 May, has been cancelled, as other parties, both in opposition and in coalition, raised objections about fairness and are now seeking to have a debate involving all party leaders.
Swedish Social Democrats are calling on the European Union to introduce an identity verification requirement across social media to prevent the creation of fake accounts, former prime minister Magdalena Andersson and socialist MEP Heléne Fritzon said on Thursday, following the recent revelations of alleged far-right troll farms.
As the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico continues to fight for his life after Wednesday’s assassination attempt, his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk made public one of the death threats he received on social media.
Political murders often happen in authoritarian countries, and even more often in dictatorships, but when an elected politician gets shot in a democratic country, it opens wounds in the nation’s society that are very hard to heal.
On Thursday (16 May), German authorities searched the premises of Petr Bystron, a top candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany in June's EU election, to investigate alleged bribes by Russian officials.
On Wednesday (15 May), Russian Ambassador to Slovakia Igor Bratchikov met secretly with controversial ruling party Smer lawmaker Tibor Gašpar in the Slovak parliament to discuss namely the war in Ukraine and cyber security before dabbling in pro-Kremlin narrative.
Armed forces were protecting New Caledonia's two airports and port after a third night of violent riots that have killed four people, the Pacific Island's top French official said on Thursday morning (16 May).
In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about top German government advisors warning of longer lasting economic malaise, Baltic states approaching the ‘final phase of work’ to de-synchronise electricity grids from Moscow. and so much more.
Bulgarian governments that have been in power since 2020 are to blame for the lack of a real political effort to join the eurozone, says the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Governor Dimitar Radev, while stating that joining the eurozone in 2025 remains realistic.
As Polish farmers continue to occupy the country’s parliament building, an organisation no one has ever heard of has launched a hunger strike, leading some to wonder if it has anything to do with farmers and the government to suggest it is likely linked to the opposition PiS party’s EU election campaign.
Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa has expressed concern over the escalation of the war in Ukraine, following the cancellation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to southern Europe – which the Portuguese leader said had never been confirmed.
Absolute poverty indicators for Italy have reached levels not seen in the last decade, despite Italy’s GDP having returned to pre-2007-crisis levels, the Italian National Statistics Institute (ISTAT) said in its annual report published on Wednesday.
Spain’s ruling Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D) wants to defeat the far-right and those who want to break up the EU from within, the party’s lead candidate in the EU elections, Teresa Ribera, said on Wednesday, despite polls favouring right-wing forces.
Denník N reports, that the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD, S&D) got shot on Wednesday afternoon (15 may). He was immediately taken to the hospital.
