April 2024 | 153 comments (153 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

USD:EUR ELECTION 2024 interference (none / 1)

T -42. Macron Gauging Support for a Plan to Install Draghi in the Top EU Job

[...]
When von der Leyen became the surprise president in 2019 following an agreement between Macron and then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, she vowed to transform the institution into a "geopolitical commission." But she may have sunk her own chances, a separate official said, by over-politicizing her role.
[...]
"The commission presidency is there to defend the general interest, so it must not be over-politicized," Macron said in Brussels last month. "Which, it has to be said, was not at all the case with this outgoing commission." A spokesperson from Macron's office declined to comment.
There's broad consensus that a decision won't be made until after the June 9 European election, when EU leaders will hash out who will fill the top posts, including for the European Council, the parliament and the foreign policy service. That process is a complicated, back-room negotiation, which weighs geographical balance and, more importantly, which political parties are entitled [!] to the most consequential [sic] roles.

Save the date: "Macron will give a broad policy speech at the Sorbonne on Thursday", 25 April
Regardless of Macron's maneuvering, von der Leyen is still the clear favorite [FKA spitzenkandidat] since she's the lead candidate for the center-right European People's Party [EPP], which is expected to handily win the most votes in June. Traditionally, that means an EPP candidate would get the commission role.
[...]
EU leaders are scheduled to meet on June 17 to discuss the reshuffle, just a week after the election. Even if von der Leyen is picked by the leaders at the summit, where no consensus is required [?], she would still face a difficult confirmation vote at the parliament, which must agree by absolute majority. In 2019, von der Leyen was elected president by only nine votes. And given the expected increase in support for the hard-right [EPP] parties, her margins will be even tighter this year.

ChatGPT | Who could take on von der Leyen for Commission president?, 25 Apr

archive EPP: March ELECTION 2024, G7 ECON & FIN value chain, sweeping treaty reform 2023, power to the councils 2022, "pragmatic federalism", December 2021 grandpa energy

by Cat on Thu Apr 25th, 2024 at 02:07:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: USD:EUR ELECTION 2024 interference (none / 1)

Anyone but Ursula ...ask Frans Timmermans ... was also on non-speaking terms with VDL ...

Atlantic Council set out to honor VDL with Distinguished Leadership Awards (DLA), for exemplary individuals during a time of great global discord ... no matter her contribution to said failures.

Ursula Von der Leyen traveled to the Negev desert to receive honorary degree ...

She will forgive and forget your country's outrages and crimes and wish you a happy birthday in return, apparently, for an honorary degree.

That quid pro quo was on blatant and telling display last week when von der Leyen took to social media to congratulate Israel on its 75th birthday.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der #Leyen delivers a message on #Israel's 75 anniversary of independence. pic.twitter.com/bLHYnQu9xo
— Politics Today (@mypoliticstoday) April 26, 2023

What shut the door for VDL is skipping the Q&A session of EU parliament to be on time to deliver a speech at her beloved Hudson Institute ... horribilis. Just go sway ...

Have a peaceful cultural summer

by Oui (Oui) on Thu Apr 25th, 2024 at 03:06:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: USD:EUR ELECTION 2024 interference (none / 0)

lemonde | In EU speech, Macron says Europe is 'mortal' and 'can die' (25.04.24)
The French president also called for a "revision" of EU trade policy to defend European interests, accusing both China and the United States of no longer respecting the rules of global commerce. "It cannot work if we are the only ones in the world to respect the rules of trade—as they were written up 15 years ago [2008?]—if the Chinese and the Americans no longer respect them by subsidizing critical sectors." Macron only made a brief explicit reference to the June European elections at the end of his almost two-hour [?!] speech, even though, with this speech, he is clearly seeking to wade into the campaign. "The response is not in timidity but in boldness" including at the June 9 European elections, he said. "The choice is not to do what we have always done but to adopt new paradigms."

reuters | 'Europe could die': Macron urges stronger defences, economic reforms
"Europe 'must show that it is never a vassal of the United States and that it also knows how to talk to all the other regions of the world', he said."
archive Yer gonna need a bigger psycho-therapist

by Cat on Thu Apr 25th, 2024 at 07:46:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

RMB:EUR ELECTION 2024 interference (none / 0)

globalsecurity rferl | China In Eurasia Briefing: Previewing Xi's Big Europe Trip, 24 Apr

...The trip will be rich in symbolism and comes at a crucial time with Russia advancing on the battlefield in Ukraine, escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Brussels, and potential fallout from November's U.S. election.
China and Serbia commemorate the date when the United States of America and NATO countries destroyed the China embassy, 7 May 1999
Against this backdrop, Xi will be looking to repair some of the damage done to the relationship with Europe since his last trip to the continent. In particular, he'll be aiming to unwind some of the European Union's moves toward de-risking, which Beijing sees as an unwelcome alignment between Brussels and Washington....
ChatGPT: EU pulls its gun on China, 26 Apr
Another thing on the agenda will be China's participation at the upcoming peace summit in Switzerland about the war in Ukraine set for mid-June. ...The dates of the tour have not been publicly announced, but various European officials have pointed toward May 7 as a starting day, a date that has also been reported by Serbian media as when Xi could visit Belgrade....

< wipes tears >
bloomberg | Chinese President Xi to Visit Hungary on May 8-10, Minister Says, 25 Apr

...Prime Minister Viktor Orban is seeking to expand economic ties with China, including by broadening Hungary's participation in the Belt and Road Initiative to include further rail modernization projects as well as the financing of a new crude pipeline connecting it with Serbia....

< checks watch >
ChatGPT euronews | Chinense president to visit France, Serbia and Hungary in May, 26 Apr

...One reason for the visit is Italy's decision to withdraw—after some hesitation—from China's grandiose New Silk Road programme, which Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will finalise in Beijing in July....

by Cat on Sat Apr 27th, 2024 at 07:15:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

HOLD THE PHONE for Xi Jinping (none / 0)

5-10 May 2024

at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron of the Republic of France, President Aleksandar Vucic of the Republic of Serbia and President Tamas Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Monday, a trip that experts believe is expected to shape the future of relations between China and Europe.
[...]

bloomberg | Xi Is on a Mission to Drive a Wedge Between Europe and the US

[...]
Xi's visit to Europe comes after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Communist Party leaders in Beijing this month that Chinese overcapacity was a problem for the world—a message echoed days later [lolno] by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Exemplifying how both blocs are coalescing around a joined-up China policy, they seek to "de-risk" from the world's second-largest economy.
[...]

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian's Regular Press Conference on April 30, 2024

The "China overcapacity" accusation may look like an economic discussion, but the truth is, the accusation is built on false logic and ignores more than 200 years of the basic concept of comparative advantage in Western economics. All countries produce and export products of their comparative advantage and this is the nature of international trade. If a country should be accused of overcapacity and asked to cut capacity whenever it produces more than its domestic demand, then what would countries trade with? If exporting 12 percent of Chinese-made EVs is called overcapacity, then what about Germany, Japan and the US who export 80, 50 and 25 percent respectively of their automobiles? Wouldn't that be considered more serious overcapacity? Let's not forget that according to the statistics of the International Energy Agency, to realize carbon neutrality, the world will need 45 million NEVs by 2030, 4.5 times that of the demand of 2022. When the global capacity is still far below the market demand, how could there be "overcapacity"?

aaaand Ricardo spun in his crypt

by Cat on Wed May 1st, 2024 at 07:07:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

EUR:EUR ELECTION 2024 interference (none / 0)

euronews | Italy's Giorgia Meloni throws her hat in the ring for EU elections (28.04.24)
Live from the Fratelli d'Italia programmatic conference in Pescara, the Italian prime minister announced her candidacy in the European elections next June. Giorgia Meloni is officially a candidate in the European elections next June. From the stage of the programmatic conference of her party, Brothers of Italy, in Pescara, the Prime Minister announced that she will run.

This article misrepresents Meloni's electoral ambition @ 02:12:28 - 03:26:09.
synopsis: The next general election in Italy is 2027, barring a snap. Italian local elections will be held 8-9 June 2024 during EP elections. Meloni did not announce her candidacy for any EP seat. And the venue is too far removed from EP and College lobbies ("debate about who should be the president of the Commission before the vote is objectively surreal") to pad Selmyr's favor bank. However, Italy is hosting this summer's G7 bully pulpit. So with typical populist, nationalist, or patriotic pride (without mentioning names beginning with Mo) she positions Fratelli d'Italia's domestic achievements near the center of European political tradition; in fact, "center-right" lol. She emphasizes, "The European People's Party is finished" and the "Italian model" best represents Charles De Gaulle's imperative designs for the ECC. In her words, "'there can be no other Europe than that of national states.' Everything, the rest, is myth, speeches, superstructures. Today like yesterday, a Europe of strong nations that decide to get together in foreign politics and international defense of the external borders can really live up to building a strong Europe." Meloni is not a eurosceptic; to the contrary, she urges further integration of "L'Italia Cambia L'Europa" in the EP and Commission in order to "bring honesty into the institutions" in both Italy and the EU—class conflict (epitomized by peculiar comparisons of communists with -socialists, subsidarity with competition, immigration with exploitation, Albanians with Africans, family with feminism, Moscow with Brussels). Accordingly, euronews' report skims Meloni's voluminous litany of financial "scams" in Italy fostered by 'gods, bureaucrats, locked in a glass palace' in Brussels. In conclusion, Meloni rejects "federalism," quibbles over tactics, and prepares partisans to pack parliaments—high and low—with "Made in Italy" auteurs. She rehearsed the Brothers' stump speech.

by Cat on Mon Apr 29th, 2024 at 08:11:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

errata (none / 0)

ECC s/b of course EEC

in re: candidacy
Meloni did not articulate any interest in European Council presidency. This slight is consistent with her aspiration, leading Italy's uhh renaissance until end of term 2027. Her purported devotion to direct democracy animates the conservative dialect that she speaks to party deputies. Besides, the Council president is appointed by European Council members. The Council rejected Charles Michel's resignation earlier this year and persuaded him to extend his term into July 2024, after EP elections. It's not obvious to me, who most likely will occupy the office when the new (or incumbent) Commission president distributes College portfolios. Meloni is an unlikely Council nominee for president in any case. I can't imagine, hostility toward far-right-authoritarian-antisemitic wings of the EPP subsiding so long as fear of EC infringement enthralls the states' MPs.

by Cat on Tue Apr 30th, 2024 at 12:19:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Call her Georgia. (none / 0)

Call me Ursula, 29 Apr #ProudGrandma

[...]
"People know her as Commission president," said URSULA2024 spox Alexander Winterstein. "What people may know less about is who she actually is as a person ... Who is Ursula von der Leyen?"
Statements on the campaign website are signed with von der Leyen's handwritten autograph and on the website, she states that "as a mother of seven, I want my children's children to grow in a safe, prosperous Europe."
Will this new image of von der Leyen be on display during Monday's Maastricht debate, the first debate between the lead candidates for the presidency of the European Commission?
[...]

aaand Mutti wept

by Cat on Wed May 1st, 2024 at 07:30:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]

USD:PLN ELECTION 2024 interference (none / 0)

polsatnews.pl | Donald Tusk is pleased with the results of the survey. "I think we won", 21 Apr municipal rounds and exit polls

Earlier on Sunday, Tusk wrote on the Internet: "either a strong, secure Poland in a united Europe, or a lonely and mired in chaos country subjected to Russian provocations and sabotage." In his opinion, "this will be the subject of the European elections."
"We can't afford low attendance. This is the lesson of today's elections," he said.

ChatGPT | Poland's leader says his country is ready to host NATO members' nuclear weapons to counter Russia, 22 Apr

President Andrzej Duda made the comments in an interview published Monday in the Fakt tabloid....Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who shares Duda's views on national security, later told journalists that Poland's security and military potential are his priorities, but he needs to discuss this suggestion with Duda urgently.

European Parliament elections., 24 Apr

The Civic Coalition has nominated all the candidates who will compete for the euromandals. There was no shortage of big names on the lists-there were three ministers of the current government on the" units".
[...]
In Poland, voting will take place on Sunday, June 9. Poles will choose 53 politicians to represent the country in the European Parliament.

by Cat on Fri Apr 26th, 2024 at 12:30:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]

RUB:NATO ELECTION 2024 interference (none / 0)

sputnik | Turkiye Supports Rutte as NATO Chief - Reports, 29 Apr

Turkiye has expressed support for outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Rutte's bid to head NATO, Dutch broadcaster NOS reported on Monday, citing sources in the military alliance.
Turkije is om: Rutte mag van Ankara NAVO-chef worden
Het Turkse staatspersbureau Anadolu zegt dat Turkse functionarissen aan andere NAVO-landen hebben laten weten dat Turkije Rutte steunt. Ook persbureau Reuters heeft dit van Turkse bronnen gehoord. Eerder spraken bronnen binnen de NAVO al over de toezegging. De Roemeense president Klaus Iohannis heeft zichzelf opgeworpen als alternatief voor Rutte, maar krijgt weinig bijval.
-------------
dailysabah |Türkiye to back Mark Rutte as next NATO chief
"NATO's southern wing needs Türkiye and its leadership," Rutte told a joint news conference with Erdoğan after their meeting. "Türkiye is a geopolitical actor with significant influence in the region. They're working to help end the war in Gaza. They're also making effort regarding the horrible war in Ukraine," Rutte had remarked.
Rutte came to Istanbul last week for a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of the last holdouts. Only Turkiye, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania have not endorsed Rutte, who needs the support of all 32 member states to succeed Jens Stoltenberg....

by Cat on Mon Apr 29th, 2024 at 06:09:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]

EUR "center-right" ELECTION 2024 (none / 1)

The Maastricht Debate 2024 (29.04.24)
The 2024 Maastricht Debate was the political moment of the spring for European voters. We put the candidates in line to lead Europe onstage to answer your questions—so you can decide how you want your MEP to cast a ballot for EC president. Candidates answered questions from our expert moderators on the themes chosen by European youth via a survey conducted by Maastricht University.
Spitzencandidaten. All the registered European Political Parties were invited to send a Spitzenkandidat. The following eight parties attended the debate.
Walter Baier, Bas Eickhout, Valeriu Ghilețchi, Ursula von der Leyen, Maylis Roßberg, Nicolas Schmit, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Anders Vistisen

I detect a pattern.

by Cat on Tue Apr 30th, 2024 at 07:33:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

[INCONTINENCE ALERT] (none / 0)

"The standing order is based on the method used for U.S. primary debate, which means the party < wipes tears > scoring highest in the polls right now are at the center fanning out to the edges in either direction."

by Cat on Tue Apr 30th, 2024 at 07:43:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

VDL a Judas Kiss for Geert Wilders (ID) (none / 1)

Socialists clash with EPP as von der Leyen leaves door open to cooperation with hard right
The Party of European Socialists lead candidate Nicolas Schmit is fuming over Commission President and centre-right EPP party lead candidate Ursula von der Leyen, who left the door open to collaboration with the far right in the European Parliament after the elections.
The two clashed at the Maastricht Debate, co-organised by Politico Europe and Studio Europe Maastricht, one of two debates between parties' Spitzenkandidaten, with the next one scheduled for 23 May in the European Parliament, organised by the European Broadcasting Union.
Von der Leyen left the door open to collaborating with hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), the political family of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
"It depends very much on how the competition of the Parliament is and who is in what group," von der Leyen said, adding, "It's the Parliament who makes majorities," when directly asked by the Greens' Bas Eickhout.

Europe Elects June 2024 - Latest Poll Data

Highly inaccurate as major shifts will only be tabulated on the voting days

Have a peaceful cultural summer

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Apr 30th, 2024 at 09:21:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

ChatGPT "primary" debate focus group (none / 1)

"manufactured adulation"

[...]
The Greens are polling far worse than in 2019 and face losing the power to shape legislation if von der Leyen works with far right parties—a prospect she didn't deny during the debate. The motivation of young voters is also shifting. They are backing the far right [EPP] in increasing numbers. And the multiple crises facing Europe have also diluted the focus of a generation that five years ago was unified around a "climate change".
"There's been lots of things happening since then. So people have kind of forgotten about it, mostly because of COVID, inflation, cost of living," said Maastricht University student RobertKeogh. "It's depressing."
[...]

by Cat on Wed May 1st, 2024 at 07:48:34 PM EST
[ Parent ]

April 2024 | 153 comments (153 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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