Monday 22nd February 2016

Weekly update of European news with stories from across the Union, including updates on the Brexit Debate, the refugee situation in Germany, Greek resistance to Troika-imposed reforms from last year and further developments to the deadlock in Madrid. Summaries only with Dimokratía.

Mayor of London joins the Leave Campaign: POLITICO Europe reported on Sunday that the current Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, had announced he would be supporting the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union. Johnson is the largest political figure now from the Conservative Party to have backed Brexit, being preceded by Michael Gove, Justice Minister, and Iain Duncan-Smith, the Minister of Work & Pensions. According to the London Mayor, who made the announcement from his North London home, it was “with a huge amount of heartache” that he made his decision, however that “I don’t think anyone could realistically claim that this is fundamental reform of the EU or of Britain’s relationship with the EU.” Johnson did however say that “given the time he had — he did fantastically well”. This will prove to be the largest blow so far to the Remain campaign, as until now there was no heavy-weight figure head to lead the movement. Boris Johnson denied that his move was politically motivated, however with his major rivals to replace Prime Minister Cameron, George Osborne and Theresa May, backing Britain to remain, he will become a counter weight and could benefit if the Prime Minister loses the referendum. Prime Minister Cameron has announced that he will be stepping down from the PM’s Office before the end of his term in 2020, however had denied that the outcome of the referendum – on Saturday announced to be held on 23rd June – to have any impact over it. Mr Cameron has previously said that the outcome of the referendum, will not determine how long he remains in office.

De Mazière defends the actions of the police after bus is blockaded in: The FAZ reported on Sunday that CDU Interior Minister Thomas de Mazière had chosen to defend the actions of police in the incident in Clausnitz last Thursday, which saw a bus of refugees blockaded by a far-right mob and xenophobic slogans shouted at the occupants. Police were brought onto the scene at the small Saxon town to quickly get the refugees off the bus and to the refugee camp. They have been criticised however for their handling of the refugees, which some have seen as aggressive and heavy-handed. Nevertheless, the Minister expressed his confusion at the criticism on Sunday, saying “I can’t see the criticism of this police operation”. He told journalists that the police did what was necessary, and that no one had expected the incident to happen, perhaps as explanation for the way it seems they treated the refugees. According to de Mazière “it was important to get the refugees off the bus and to the reception centre, thus bringing them to safety.” The Interior Minister also described violence and hatred as “unacceptable”, and said that the police had to take the refugees off the bus, “Imagine if the bus had gone back; then this raucous crowd would have been right”. The Interior Minister rejected the assertion that the police had gone in to investigate the refugees on the bus, however the Bundesregierung Commissioner for Integration, SPD politician Aydan Özoguz, described the police’s actions as shocking. It came out after Thursday that the protest had been organised by the leader of the refugee centre, who said that he didn’t want any harm to be done to the refugees, but wanted to criticise the asylum policy of the government. It has been since discovered that the man is a member of the populist AfD party. In other news, Minister de Mazière has defended the government’s right to determine where refugees coming to Germany live, in order to prevent ghettos forming. According to a fellow CDU parliamentarian in the Bundestag, “integration doesn’t work, when ghettos form”.

Planned Refugee shelter in Germany burns down: News came in that a building burned down on Sunday, which was planned to be used as a shelter for refugees. The Independent reported yesterday that as a firemen arrived to tackle the flames, a crowd gathered to cheer the building’s burning. According to police at the scene, bystanders not only cheered at the flames, but were reported to have been commenting with “derogatory remarks and unashamed joy”. This news comes as anti-refugee and migrant feeling in Germany grows, and the clamour to close borders and send refugees home builds. A bus of refugees transporting them to another shelter for refugees was blocked by protesters on Thursday, holding signs saying “we are the people” and “go home”. This took place in Saxony, the home of the anti-Islam and far-right PEGIDA movement. Premier of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, denounced the two incidents, saying they were both appalling and shocking; he also described the perpetrators as “criminals”. Despite the steadily deteriorating opinion towards open borders and refugees, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has stood strong against the growing criticism of her stance and has maintained as humanitarian a response to refugees as possible. Recent attempts to deal with the problem in Germany have resulting in the proposal of “Asylpaket II”, which aims to toughen up the Bundesregierung’s stance overall. It will include the labelling of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as safe countries of origin, will make it more difficult for refugees to bring their families to Germany, and will mean they have to live in reception centres for longer. Despite these planned changes, Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer labelled the situation in Germany a “state of injustice (Unrechtstaat)”, thereby suggesting that Chancellor Merkel was not governing lawfully.

Italian PM struggles to pass same-sex unions bill: The Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, has threatened to call a vote of confidence in order to break the deadlock in the Senato della Repubblica over same-sex unions, reports The Guardian. The Prime Minister said that “we are at a crossroads”, and that he was ready to call a vote of confidence in the Parlamento Italiano, announcing his plans to the national assembly of his centre-left party, the Partito Democratico (PD). Until now Prime Minister Renzi has stayed largely out of the debate on civil unions for same-sex couples, but in a recent direct intervention, the Prime Minister said that this piece of legislation was just as important as his labour market reforms and reforms to the parliamentary decision-making process. If Prime Minister Renzi lost the vote, he would have to call elections to restore his government; however currently the PD are looking strong in the polls. PM Renzi is now entering his third year as Italian Prime Minister, after winning he office in an internal party coup. The same-sex unions bill has been held up in the Senato della Repubblica by the populist Movimento 5 Stella (M5S), who recently scuppered a move to get the bill quickly passed through the chamber. The bill will be discussed again on Wednesday. The major issue in the chamber is whether a partner in a same-sex union should be able to adopt the biological child of the other partner. There are fears in conservative circles that this would allow same-sex couples to use surrogates to have children. Surrogates are illegal in Italy. The Catholic Church has been intensively lobbying to prevent the measure, whilst M5S have seen a backlash amongst their supporters for their tactics in the Senato. LGBT groups demonstrated in favour of civil unions in Milan on Sunday, and have expressed discontent with the situation in the Senato, saying that without the equal rights to adoption, the bill is meaningless. Without the passing of the bill, which has seen a series of attempts to remove the rights to adoption provisions, Italy would be the only country in Western Europe not to allow either gay marriage or same-sex unions. According to opinion polls, the majority of Italians are in favour of civil unions, but are less in favour of extending adoption rights.

Tsipras challenges the wisdom of the Troika bailout terms: Kathimerini reported on Sunday that the Greek government under SYRIZA Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is still wrestling with the issue of government cuts to pensions, after a series of protests in Athens have prompted the government to try to change tack. Despite working on determining the impact of scenarios where pensions were cut by €1,000 a month, the Tsipras government has also requested the IMF explain why the government needs to make cuts of 4.5% of GDP between now and 2018 to unlock Troika funds. The SYRIZA-led government argues that smaller measures are all that are required. Tsipras’ government has made promises not to cut main pensions in his reforms of the Greek economy, imposed on Greece last year after an intense battle in the summer. However it has become clear that without these cuts, Greece will not meet the requirements of the Troika to get the promised €86bn bailout package. The Greek government has in recent days been trying to work out different scenarios which would be acceptable to both sides. One idea has been to cut main and auxiliary pensions by €1,000 a month, yielding savings of €400m, however given Prime Minister Tsipras’ previous promises, it looks uncertain as to whether he would gain enough support for this measure in the Hellenic Parliament. Greece has been tasked to deliver a primary surplus of 3.5% of GDP by 2018 by its Troika creditors, and in doing so have also been tasked to perform 4.5% of GDP cuts which would total €8bn. Greek government officials have demanded to know why the IMF and others believe this is necessary. The government uses the fact that it had in fact a 0.2% primary surplus by the end of 2015, as opposed to a deficit of 0.6% as predicted by the IMF, as reason to suggest that IMF predictions and assumptions are therefore off.

Cuidadanos leader Rivera agrees to meet with acting PM Rajoy to discuss coalition: Reports came from El País on Friday that Cuidadanos (Cs) leader Albert Rivera has agreed to meet with acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, as the political deadlock in Madrid continues. Ever since the December elections that yielded a more fractured than ever before Congreso de los Diputados, Spain’s political parties have been wrestling to work out a majority coalition in the Cortes Generales. An investiture session is to be held on 2nd March, whereby the new Prime Minister is sworn in to office, and Spain’s political parties are scrambling to negotiate a deal with each other. Prime Minister Rajoy’s Partido Popular (PP) recently presented the Cs with a document outlining their proposals for coalition, in an attempt to bring the more pro-business liberal party to the PP’s side. Cs have also been holding discussions with the centre-left socialist party under Pedro Sánchez, the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE). PSOE has also been pressured to form a coalition with the anti-austerity Podemos party under Pablo Iglesias, however it has demanded a lot of concessions, including 15 ministerial posts. Nevertheless, PSOE have not rejected the possibility of forming a government with Iglesias’ party, which won the 3 largest share of the vote in the December election. PSOE currently holds most of the initiative, as after Mariano Rajoy rejected the offer by King Felipe VI to form a government for lack of support, the King offered Sánchez’s PSOE the opportunity on 3rd February. Cs spokeman José Manuel Villegas said that the party’s priority was not to negotiate with the PP as the Socialists have already made it clear that they will not back PM Rajoy as the next Prime Minister. Cs’ Rivera has already concluded some form of provisional agreement with the Socialists and now wants to work as some sort of mediator between the two main parties. On its own, Cs and PSOE would not have a majority in the Congreso and Rivera has ruled out working with Iglesias. Meanwhile, Rajoy has offered both Sánchez and Rivera the posts of deputy Prime Minister in a 3-way coalition, however this seems unlikely given the stance of PSOE. Cs will go with the Socialists’ proposals to the meeting with Rajoy this week and if successful, the party has suggested that the post of Speaker of the Congreso be given to the PP. PM Rajoy was caught on camera last week at the European Council summit saying that if no workable majority is found, the resulting elections will likely be held on 26th June.

Sources: El País, The Independent, The Guardian, FAZ, POLITICO Europe