Weekend update on European news from across the Union. In this update, we have French protests against the State of Emergency, the ever-deteriorating response to refugees in northern Europe and Brexit negotiations seeming to be coming to a close – summaries with the HP. (click to see original articles)

France protests against extending the State of Emergency: the French people, faced with the prospect of an extension of the State of Emergency (Etat d’urgence), have taken to the streets to protest against its extension, Le Monde reported on Sunday. The march took place in Paris on Saturday 30th January, marching from the Place de la République to the Conseil d’Etat (constitutional court). The Court had only this week refused a request by the League of Human Rights to suspend the State of Emergency, which had meant house searches and a ban on public gatherings. According to the paper, 20,000 people took part in the rally. One protester, Adrien said, she was protesting despite the poor weather, because “It’s not every day that you can touch to our Constitution”, referring to the plans to lengthen the State of Emergency, and amend to the constitution to allow dual citizens who have committed acts of terror to be stripped of their French citizenship, “This is not trivial”. It was over plans to strip dual nationals of French citizenship that the former Justice Minister Christiane Taubira resigned last Wednesday. According to some protesters, she was the last bastion of the left. Adrien told Le Monde that when she voted for the Parti Socialiste in 2012, she never expected them to consider such constitutional changes. Other protesters, Louise and Sylvain, travelled from Lyon to take part in the Paris march, saying they were tired of “being patronised by a government and a republic who decide the meaning of our lives by adherence to a constitution, which can only be changed by people who do not represent us any longer”. According to them, the State of Emergency has only served to muzzle the opposition to President François Hollande’s policies. Many are angry because they see the government as exploiting people’s fears and emotions to limit their freedoms. The current State of Emergency, approved by both chambers of the Parlement français in November, lasts until 26th February, and there are talks of extending it by another 3 months. However it is hoped by opposition to the extension that there will be fewer parliamentarians who support the extension, and some political parties were present at the rally on Saturday. For an extension, the President needs a three-fifths majority in both chambers of the Parliament. Smaller protests also took place in Bordeaux, Toulouse and Nantes, as well as other locations. Another rally is proposed to take place before the Assemblée nationale on 5th February, according to Le Monde. Nevertheless, the protests face an uphill struggle, with 79% of public opinion in favour of an extension.

Rajoy’s Partido Popular looks set to lose chance to govern: With Pedro Sánchez’s Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) looking completely unwilling to consider an alliance with the Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Partido Popular (PP), it looks as if the PP will be unable to govern and will push towards new elections, report La Vanguardia. On Sunday 31st January, the PP leadership came to the conclusion that this would be the only option if the party wanted to continue pursuing the opportunity to govern. According to polls the PP would increase its share of the vote, not from other parties but from those who abstained in the December elections last year. Nevertheless, it still seems unlikely that the centre-right party would be in a position to govern, even with the support of the liberal party under Alberto Rivera, Cuidadanos (Cs). The hope is that after another election, PSOE will not want to draw out the government-forming process even longer and will be more willing to form a coalition-this view has not changed despite the news that the Socialist leadership recently announced that it would under no circumstances ally with PM Rajoy’s party. Last week a plan was suggested to form a left-wing coalition between Sánchez’s party and the anti-austerity Podemos party under Pablo Iglesias; however the fact that Mr Sánchez had to consult with PSOE’s membership on such a move has been taken as “evidence that Pedro Sánchez does not rule the PSOE” by the PP leadership, and so the party will be more willing to cooperate after an election that the current leadership are making out. The fact that Sánchez did consult with the PSOE membership suggests that the King made an offer to him to form a government at their meeting on Tuesday, reports La vanguardia. As a result, the PP have stepped up the offensive against a Podemos-PSOE coalition, with María Dolores de Cospedal saying that Podemos would be an unreliable ally. A further line of attack was opened of the issue of Catalan independence, which Podemos are still in favour of a referendum over. Cospedal said that these are just different ways that the separatists want to break Spain, and that any decision by Pedro Sánchez would weigh heavily on Spain in the future. Many in PSOE have spoken in favour of a Grand Coalition-style government in favour of stability, and Cospedal has chosen to press this nerve, emphasising that this is not a game, but affects many future Spanish generations.

Sweden to expel failed Asylum Seekers: The Swedish government announced last week that of the 163,000 people who made it to the Nordic country in 2015 claiming asylum, between 60,000 and 80,000 would be deported due to failed asylum applications. France 24 reported however that this figure was similar in percentage terms to previous years. Nevertheless, it is believed the announcement has been made to boost confidence in the country. The move has not come soon enough however as over the weekend it was reported that a gang of around 100 masked men rampaged through central Stockholm assaulting refugees and handing out leaflets calling for attacks on refugee and migrant children. Earlier last week, a 22-year old social worker supporting unaccompanied migrant children war stabbed and killed in her workplace in the south of the country. Furthermore, a protest of 200 people took place on Saturday 30th January, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. The Swedish Interior Minister, Anders Ygeman said that this was evidence of a “disturbing trend in society”, and advocated that force had to be used to face the spread of hate and violence. France 24 reported it was unclear how many assaults had taken place against migrants over the weekend, however several arrests were made of Friday and Saturday connected to the assaults. The Göterborgs Posten reported that the violence was caused by football hooligans and far-right activists, and had been organised by the far right nazi Nordfront group, pan-nordic political organisation who are campaigning against non-white immigration to Sweden. On the leaflets handed out, there were statements such as “The police have amply shown that it lacks the means to rein them [African and Arabic refugees] in and we now see no alternative than for us to mete out the punishment they deserve.” According to polls, the centre-left ruling Sveriges socialdemokratiska arbetareparti (SAP) was at its lowest approval rating in 50 years.

AfD leadership says that refugees should be fired upon at the border: the Chairman of Germany’s right-wing populist party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) said on Saturday that refugees – men, women and children – should be shot at by border guards if they insist on entering the country. Chairman Frauke Petry and her deputy Beatrix von Storch have both come out with the most blatant anti-refugee rhetoric that has come from Germany throughout the entire refugee crisis, in an ominous call back to periods when the German state did not respect or recognise the human right to life. The FAZ reported on Sunday that the AfD deputy von Storch revised their party’s stance as so that refugee children should be spared. According to the FAZ this rhetoric began last October, when the chairman of the Nord-Rhein Westfalen branch of the party said that the borders should be closed, fences built, and those who try to climb over should have warning shots fired at them. His deputy later repeated the stance to Handelsblatt, as “the defence of the German border with firearms as a last resort is a matter of course.” At the weekend Petry said if borders have been closed and fences erected, then it only makes sense that these fences have to be in the last resort defended with firearms, “that’s the law.” In fact in German law, federal police are only allowed to shoot on those attempting to enter the country only when there is no other choice and are thus aggressors. Jörg Radek, chairman of the federal police trade union came out at the weekend against the use of firearms against asylum-seekers; “no German policeman would fire upon refugees.” Despite this, deputy leader of the party, Beatrix von Storch supported Petry, saying that those who don’t accept an order to stop at the German border are by definition “aggressors”. Nevertheless, the Federal High Court ruled in 1988 that aggressors are not merely defined by non-compliance with an order to stop, but must be “posing a serious threat to public safety”, which is not the case here, reports the FAZ. The AfD Chairman was later asked in which German law were police officers permitted to give an order to fire refugees, to which she replied that she never said ‘give an order to fire’, but in the last resort officers must be able to protect the border with firearms. Analogies have already been drawn between these statements and the border regime of the former GDR, which could really damage AfD’s prospects in eastern Germany.

Cameron get closer to a deal over EU migrants: British Prime Minister David Cameron looked as if he was on the final stretch of his negotiations this weekend, with his trip to Scandinavia cancelled to make room to a meeting in Brussels with Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday. The Guardian reported that Prime Minister Cameron was unsatisfied with the Commission’s proposal for an ’emergency brake’ on Friday, however seemed to believe that this was likely to be changed, as the goodwill for a deal prevails in Europe in the attempt to ensure Brexit does not occur. According to reports, the Prime Minister will accept the emergency brake as a short-term solution, with the aim of creating a more permanent mechanism to halt migration into Britain if the referendum is won, however only on certain conditions. David Cameron, to the Commission’s dismay, has demanded that least the Council of not Britain can determine when to activate this emergency brake as opposed to the Commission, the brake can be activated immediately in the case of a referendum-victory and that in the future the brake can be used under the current condition of migration into Britain (around 330,000 per year). The brake would allow Britain to stop providing in-work benefits such as tax credits and social to migrants for up to 4-years. The outcome of the negotiations were to be finalised in a meeting at 10 Downing Street between the Prime Minister and President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, on Sunday. At this meeting it is hoped a final draft will be agreed upon, which President Tusk can then circulate around the other European capitals; even if this is not the exact wording of the deal in February, many hope that Sunday’s meeting will produce something that can be shown to the rest of the Union. This part of the deal has been the most difficult to conclude, considering the discriminatory nature of the British PM’s demands, which go against the tenants of the EU. Still to be worked out are points on what constitutes an overwhelming level of migration, who will get to activate the mechanism, when the mechanism could be first activated and if it would be a permanent or temporary solution. Prime Minister Cameron has said that he will not accept any deal under which the UK will have to wait weeks, months or years to address what he has termed a migration crisis. Meanwhile eurosceptics have already lined to up to denounce PM Cameron’s concessions as trivial and will not allow the UK to regain its sovereignty. Andy Burnham, the Shadow Home Secretary, has expressed concern over the In campaign’s lack of composure, and especially the Labour Party’s own campaign to keep Britain in Europe, which he said has “a curious lack of urgency”. According to the shadow minister, “If politicians on all sides don’t snap out of it quickly, we could be on a trajectory to leave.”

Sources: The Guardian, La Vanguardia, Göteborgs Posten, France 24, Le Monde, FAZ