Your weekly fill of Euro News from over the weekend, including backlash against Greek pension reforms, Labour leader visits the Calais ‘jungle’, and Podemos make a push for left-wing coalition; all this and more in the State of the Union.

Portuguese voters take to the ballot box to elect President: the Portuguese electorate headed out to vote on Sunday to elect a new President, in a key election watched closely from Brussels, according to the AFP. Portugal is still in the recovery position from its €78bn bailout. Despite Portugal’s President being a largely ceremonial position, the post does have powers to dissolve parliament in a crisis and has power over the government’s fragile ruling coalition. Since Portugal’s inconclusive elections in October, the government has been run by a PS minority led by António Costa, supported by far-left allies. The AFP reported Sunday that the favourite to win is the TV pundit Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa; his popularity has been built through decades in the public eye and has been named “Professor Marcelo”. One voter from Lisbon said the he had seen de Sousa for years on TV and knew his political beliefs. De Sousa is a 67-year old Law Professor, who has been involved in politics and the media since he was young, and helped to establish the Partido Social Democrata (PSD); in 2000, he became a political analyst on TV. It is believed he will break the 50% threshold in the first round. This election comes in the wake of the inconclusive general election last October which saw the ruling centre-right PSD under Pedro Passos Coelho lose its absolute majority, despite winning the largest vote-share. Prime Minister Costa’s regime promised an alternative to the previous austerity programme under PSD, but said it would be a moderate programme that upheld EU budget rules. Nevertheless PM Costa is in coalition with Communists and Greens who are both critical of EU budget rules and Portugal’s membership of NATO. Despite de Sousa’s conservative leanings, he affirms that he is independent and if successful claims he will rule “above the fray” of everyday politics. Aníbal Cavaco Silva, the previous President who served 2 5-year terms, was unwilling to hand power to the left-wing coalition he saw ass incoherent. However de Sousa has promised to ensure the current government’s stability. According to analyst José António Passos Palmeira, de Sousa is a moderate and a consensus candidate who has support from both the left and right; nevertheless, voters will have to mobilise for him to win in the first round. This comes as polls put his support at between 52-55%. Voter turnout for Presidential elections has been low in recent votes, with the 2011 vote having just 50% voter turnout.

Greece struggles to pass pension reform against popular backlash: After submitting its pension reform proposals to its international lenders a couple of weeks ago, Greece is struggling to generate popular support for reform of the state pension system. Furthermore, Eurogroup Chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem suggested on Friday that the reforms proposed by the Greek government did not go far enough and required revision. Despite Dijsselbloem’s suggestion that the proposals were too week, the Greek left-wing coalition government has been working to dampen domestic criticism of the planned reforms, amid protest marches by farmers, lawyers and other Greek citizens who will be affected by the plans. Dutch Finance Minister Dijsselbloem’s comment kept in tune with the overall tone at the Davos summit in Switzerland last week that Greece needed to go further to meet its international lenders’ expectations. ECB President Mario Draghi also emphasised at the summit last week that whilst Greece’s proposals had been a big step, they were still not enough, but added the conciliatory note that “I’m pretty sure that an agreement will be found, so that the first review could be successfully concluded”. Reports on Friday suggested that both Draghi and the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras were in agreement that the bailout review should be concluded as soon as possible, and Draghi is pushing for Greece to meet its fiscal targets by 2018, including dealing with non-performing loans and completing its pension reforms. Greek Labour Minister Giorgos Katrougalos led a press conference this week counter criticism at home of the government’s pension reforms, saying that the current situation was like guiding Greece through the ‘perfect storm’. The Labour Minister seemed to suggest certain points of the bill, in regards to farmers for example, may be negotiable but in light of comments from the international arena this doesn’t seem likely.

CDU politician Julia Klöckner presents counter proposal to the Chancellor: Deputy leader of the ruling CDU party Julia Klöckner has published a paper arguing for national moves to reduce the number of refugees and migrants entering Germany, even as Chancellor Angela Merkel steps up the emphasis on a Europe-wide solution to the crisis. The FAZ reported on Saturday Ms Klöckner saying that “we can reduce the number of refugees entering the country, without relying only on the goodwill of other member-states”. Among other things, the CDU politician suggested daily refugee-quotas and reception centres from where it is decided whether refugees are either redistributed or rejected. Klöckner’s proposals have been greeted with supported from the CDU general-secretary Peter Tauber as well as a series of CDU parliamentarians in the Bundestag who have criticised the Chancellor’s policy. Meanwhile the Federal Interior Ministry recently made a statement to the DPA saying it did not anticipate in the near-future a sustainable or noticeable reduction in the numbers of refugees entering the country. The German press agency reported on Sunday that the plan by the CDU deputy was ‘Plan A2’ in relation to Merkel’s ‘plan A’, indicating that Ms Klöckner does not believe Chancellor Merkel’s policy is wrong, but that it needs to be supplemented by internal policies and bilateral agreements with Germany’s neighbours and transit countries, such as those in the Balkans. CDU party-central in Mainz was notified of the paper before it was released publicly; it is hoped that the plan will stabilise declining approval ratings for the ruling party, as they go into the regional elections in Rhineland-Palatinate in March. “Only those who intend to remain in Germany should be redistributed…those who have no intentions should be returned to the border, or not be allowed in”, the paper argued. Furthermore, the decisions should be made only at centres at the German border designed to process migrants, and in partnership with neighbouring countries. CDU-General Secretary Tauber said in response to the paper that it underlined the current course of the government, and that whilst international structures must be used, so must the national level, in the attempt to control, organise and ultimately reduce the numbers of refugees. “The demands of Julia Klöckner go in the right direction”, Christian von Stetten said, the chief of the PKM, the Bundestag CDU-faction for the lower-middle class, “no ideas can be ruled out”. Von Stetten belongs to a group of 44 other parliamentarians, who wrote a letter to the Chancellor demanding a change in immigration policy. Hessen’s Premier Bouffier also signaled his support last week for change of course. Nevertheless on Friday the Chancellor spoke against individual national actions in favour instead of a general European solution to the crisis.

Labour leader visits migrant camps in Northern France: The jungle near Calais, and the nearby Grande-Synthe camp near Dunkirk, remain filled with abandoned and desperate refugees, despite the focus of the international media on southern and central Europe. On Saturday, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the British Labour party, visited the camps in Calais and Dunkirk in his first official trip abroad as Leader of the Opposition. The Labour leader assessed the state of the camp near Calais first, which included meeting its inhabitants and speaking with the camp leaders and international aid organisations working there, to discuss what was needed to improve conditions. The Calais camp conditions worsened particularly after officials of the Nord-pas de Calais government announced plans to demolish one third of the camp, and gave notice of only 5 days. That resulted in the forced movement of 2,000 refugees and 500 make-shift homes. The stated purpose of the demolition was to create a ‘buffer-zone’ between the camp and the road, however given the short notice provided only after a series of demands by volunteers, it is believed that the move was the beginning of a full-scale clearing of the migrant camp. After the Calais jungle, Mr Corbyn moved to the Grande-Synthe camp, which is further north closer to Dunkirk – the conditions there are reported to be even worse than those in the jungle. At Grande-Synthe, Mr Corbyn explained his purpose in visiting the camps: “What I’m trying to achieve here is to understand the nature of the refugee crisis that’s facing the whole of Europe”, before continuing that the main resolution to the problem will be dealing with the source – the war-zones and conflicts in the middle-east and Africa. Nevertheless, it is clear the Labour leader found the existence of the camps unacceptable, declaring “These conditions are a disgrace anywhere. We as human beings have to reach out to fellow human beings”, the Independent reported Saturday. Many of those in the camps are apparently Kurds, who are or have been prosecuted as a minority group in Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Corbyn has in the past spoken out against the Kurdish genocide. In Grande-Synthe, diseases are rampant and it is reported that local police have blocked supplies from entering the camp; there is the fear that the residents of the camps are at risk of dying from hypothermia in the freezing winter temperatures.

PM Cameron looks set to allow 3,000 unaccompanied children into Britain: The Telegraph reported on Sunday that Prime Minister David Cameron was taking the idea of allowing 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children stranded on the continent into Britain within the next few weeks. The idea’s most vocal supporter has been Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron, though it has also garnered support from Development Secretary Justine Greening, Eric Pickles, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and a series of other MPs in the House of Commons. This number would be in addition to the 20,000 refugees that the Prime Minister promised to take from camps in the middle east last year, which would be completed over the course of this parliament. The idea was put forward by charities including Save the Children, who have argued that the UK should be doing more to help abandoned children who have made it to the continent without their parents. The announcement comes as Jeremy Corbyn visited the camps in northern France on Saturday; on the subject of children, the Leader of the Opposition said “David Cameron should act to give refuge to unaccompanied refugee children now in Europe – as we did with Jewish Kindertransport children escaping from Nazi tyranny in the 1930s”. He also urged the government to provide resources to those areas that were accepting refugees, including housing and education, and not to dump them on Britain’s poorer communities. Justine Greening said on Sky News that no country in Europe has done more to help refugees, and that the British government was looking for ways to do ore in relation to unaccompanied children on the continent. Tim Farron in the past has spoken on the issue of refugees in Europe, saying “Those who have made it to European shores now face cold winters, harsh conditions and are vulnerable to traffickers. We must open our hearts to those in need.”

Spanish political deadlock perhaps broken with the suggestion of left-wing coalition: Pablo Iglesias, leader of the anti-austerity Podemos party signalled his support for a left-wing coalition to form a government in the Cortes Generales in a meeting with King Felipe VI on Friday. El PAÍS reported on Saturday that Pedro Sánchez, leader of the PSOE, thanked Mr Iglesias for the proposal; Mr Sánchez has been courting left-wing groups since the election in December which yielded a fractured parliament in which Mariano Rajoy’s PP gained the largest share of the vote by not enough for a majority. Despite being open to such a coalition, Sánchez made it clear over the weekend that he’d only move towards a coalition with Podemos if the Prime Minister’s own attempt to form a government fails; it is likely this attempt will take place in late January-early February, according to El PAÍS. Only after that attempt fails, will the PSOE and Podemos be able sit down to negotiations. Mr Iglesias said in his meeting with the King that he wished to form ” a government of change”, in which he’d be the deputy Prime Minister. He also mentioned a series of cabinet posts including Interior and Finance that he also wanted his party to hold. It was King Felipe who relayed the idea to Mr Sánchez. The Socialist leader made it clear that he would not support a ‘Grand Coalition’ with PM Rajoy’s PP under any circumstances, and would vote against the incumbent’s attempt to form a government. Mr Sánchez is expected to be second candidate for government, if he can form a progressive coalition with Podemos and other left-wing groups (Podemos and PSOE not having enough on their own for a majority in the Congress). Despite this, Sánchez showed caution towards his left-wing colleague, saying that whilst they agree on the diagnosis, the policy response is another matter. Nevertheless he added that “voters would not understand it if [Iglesias] and myself did not get along”.

Sources: Kathimerini, El PAÍS, the Independent, FAZ, DPA, AFP