POLITICS
Europe on edge as far-right govt. takes shape in Italy
Published
2 years agoon
Portraying herself as an underdog who has crashed through a glass ceiling, Italy’s new right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who heads the neo-fascist Brothers of Italy party, sought to calm critics in her first public address since taking office, decrying fascism, voicing support for the European Union and NATO, and vowing continued backing of Ukraine in its war with Russia.
“I have never felt sympathy or closeness towards antidemocratic regimes … including fascism,” she said, adding that she considered Benito Mussolini’s “racial laws of 1938” — which declared that Italians were Aryans while segregating and ultimately imprisoning Italian Jews, Ethiopians and Eritreans — to be “the lowest point in Italian history, a shame that will mark our people forever.”
But the ascension of Italy’s first hard-right leader since the end of World War II continues to have many in Europe on edge.
“The jury’s still out about her,” Brussels-based Roland Freudenstein, vice president of independent think tank GLOBSEC, told Yahoo News. “One strain of the argument [focuses on] the party’s fascist past — the symbolism, the Roman salute that they still use in their speeches — and her appointments of questionable people.” Some in Brussels, he said, regard her as “a right-wing extremist, who we should not only watch out for, but confront.”
French European Affairs Minister Laurence Boone underscored that concern, telling Italian newspaper La Repubblica that France will be keeping an eye on Meloni’s government. “We want to work with Rome but we will monitor respect for rights and freedoms” and “pay close attention to respect of values and the rule of law.”
French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne echoed his sentiments, saying her country would pay heed to “human rights and the right to abortion” in Italy.
Newly elected Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni rings the Cabinet minister bell during her first Cabinet meeting in Rome, Oct. 23. (Andrew Medichini/AP)
“There’s a lot of concern, especially outside Italy,” Arturo Varvelli, director of the Rome office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Yahoo News. He’s been besieged with calls from political analysts across Europe asking, “Wow, so now you have a new fascist government?” — an assessment he disputes. “Meloni is not a fascist,” he added.
While Meloni, the 45-year-old single mother from working-class origins, ran on a “God, Homeland, Family” platform, has vowed to clamp down on African migrants and has taken aim at gay rights, Varvelli believes she is far less worrisome than two other Italian politicians, Matteo Salvini of La Lega and Silvio Berlusconi of Forza Italia, in the conservative ruling coalition she led into power in a right-wing alliance that won 44% of the vote in September’s election. Some critics of the two men, however, say their inclusion in Meloni’s government casts further doubt about her, especially regarding her stated support for Ukraine.
“Last week was supposed to be dominated by Meloni and her governmental nominations,” conservative commentator Benjamin Harnwell, host of Steve Bannon’s podcast “WarRoom: Rome,” told Yahoo News. “In fact, the news cycle was totally hijacked by leaked recordings of Berlusconi.”
In the recordings, taped during a party meeting, Berlosconi admits to rekindling his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and blames Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for forcing Putin to launch his invasion of Ukraine. Berlusconi went on to personally attack Meloni, writing to party members that she’s “self-important, bossy, arrogant and ridiculous.” Salvini, too, has expressed disagreement with Meloni, recently speaking out against continuing sanctions on Russia, which Meloni supports, saying they were “bringing Europe and Italy to their knees.”
The behavior and leaked statements of Berlusconi and Salvini, Rome-based left-wing political writer David Broder told Yahoo News “are not only aimed at throwing her off,” but are just as much about the two party leaders not wanting “to appear only as her supporters,” to their own bases. “So they have to pull stunts in order to capture the limelight,” Broder said.
“There’s a problem of personality between Berlusconi and Salvini on one side and Giorgia Meloni on the other, because she’s a woman — and they can’t tolerate [the coalition] being headed by a young woman,” Varvelli told Yahoo News. He regards personal relations between Meloni and her two allies — as well as their positions on Russia — as “the big problems of this government.”
Although Meloni has underscored that she’s an Atlanticist — allied with the U.S. and NATO — some in Russia apparently don’t believe her.
“Meloni’s Atlanticist convictions should not be overestimated,” Yelena Panina, a pro-Kremlin foreign policy analyst told Russian newspaper Izvestia. “They could change at any time if the geopolitical situation changes.” It is, Panina added, “quite reasonable to assume that after some time and under certain circumstances she could become an adequate partner for Russia in Europe.”
Meloni’s foreign policy isn’t the only thing being scrutinized. She has previously called for using the Italian navy to block African refugees from heading to the country, but that has yet to solidify into an actual policy announcement. “We must stop illegal departures and human trafficking,” she said in her speech on Tuesday, and her newly appointed Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi is already taking provisional steps to block two NGO ships under distress carrying 326 rescued refugees from entering Italian territory, saying they’re not following proper procedures.
While Meloni rebuffed Salvini’s entreaties to appoint him as minister of the interior — a post he controversially held in 2019 when he too famously sent back rescue boats filled with African refugees — last week she made him minister of infrastructure, a position that puts him in control of the ports. “It does actually give him a certain influence over immigration policy,” said Broder. “And he’s been very much exploiting that.” Broder said Salvini is already posting photos of himself on social media standing with the head of the Italian coast guard and tweeting that the battle against illegal immigration is back.
Another appointment that Broder is following closely is that of Guido Crosetto, a former defense industry lobbyist who Meloni tapped as defense minister. Even though Crosetto gave up his lobbying position, Broder finds it “problematic to have these kinds of revolving doors between the private and public sectors.” He was even more troubled by Crosetto’s response to an article in the Italian paper Domani questioning his role. Corsetto threatened “to sue everybody who accuses him of any potential conflict of interest,” said Broder.
Meloni’s also being carefully watched regarding her policy initiatives on abortion, which has been legal in Italy since 1978. “It’s a thorny topic,” Gianfranco Pasquino, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Bologna, told Yahoo News. “She said that she’s not going to change the existing law,” which allows abortion up to 90 days. However, “she’s also said that she will try to provide advice to the women looking for an abortion. So she will try to limit and prevent abortions, but in legal ways.” Abortions are already difficult to obtain in Italy since 80% of doctors are conscientious objectors who refuse to perform them, he added. “So they make it very difficult for the woman to find the right hospital at the right time. Obviously, she’s not going to do anything about that.”
In her speech before the Parliament on Tuesday, Meloni announced that Italy needs an economic and cultural plan “to rediscover the beauty of parenthood and put the family back at the center of society,” adding that municipalities should provide free day care centers.
Meloni fears that, due to having one of the lowest birthrates in Europe, Italy faces the prospect of extinction, Broder said, adding that she has previously expressed wariness about same-sex parenting.
But ECFR’s Varvelli doesn’t expect that she’ll strip away existing LGBTQ rights. “I don’t think they want to start that kind of battle,” he said, though he does expect pro-family incentives to try to boost the population.
While some analysts have predicted that due to friction within her coalition, Meloni’s government could crumble within months, Harnwell believes her top challenge will be keeping the alliance together and that “she’ll definitely last longer than a head of lettuce” — a reference to Liz Truss’s short reign as prime minister of the U.K.
He does worry, however, that her support for sanctions on Russia, and her Atlanticist views, do leave “her right flank wide open,” since many conservatives question those positions. He believes that “Silvio Berlusconi is maneuvering Forza Italia to swoop in from the populist right” and is already preparing an exodus from the coalition that would cause the government to collapse.
Pasquino, however, believes that Meloni will keep the alliance intact and serve her entire five-year term. “In all likelihood,” he said, “if the left does not reorganize itself, she could win again in the elections five years from now.”
“Do not underestimate Meloni,” he added. “She’s really ambitious and determined. And she wants to leave her mark on Italian history.”
POLITICS
Erdogan election defeat would be ‘revenge’ – Syrian Kurds
Published
12 months agoon
May 23, 2023The YPG claims the Turkish president failing to win another term would be payback for Ankara’s counter-terrorism operations in Syria
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s defeat in this month’s presidential election would serve as “revenge” for Türkiye’s military operations in Syria, a top official of the People’s Defense Units (YPG) has said.
Salih Muslim, one of the leaders of the YPG — a Syrian militant group affiliated with the Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and designated by Ankara as a terrorist organization — said in an interview with Medya Haber Kurdish TV channel that his organization has grown frustrated with Türkiye’s counterterrorism operations ongoing in the northern part of Syria since 2016, Daily Sabah reported.
“Now, we have an opportunity in our hands,” Muslim said, stressing that the YPG is eager to see Erdogan unseated. “It’s the first time we have such a thing happening in elections.” He added that “If we can win at the ballot box, we will take all the revenge from [the defeat of] one person.”
Muslim’s statement comes as several members of the YPG and the PKK have openly expressed support for Erdogan’s main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, as the two head into a runoff election on May 28. In the previous round, held on May 14, both candidates failed to secure an outright majority with Erdogan gaining just over 49.4% of the vote while Kilicdaroglu received 44.96%.
Kilicdaroglu has vowed to mend Ankara’s relations with NATO and revive Türkiye’s EU membership talks, which have been effectively stalled since 2016. He has also accused Russia of spreading “conspiracies” and “deep fakes” apparently referring to footage circulating online purportedly linking him to the PKK, and told Moscow to get its “hands off the Turkish state.” Russia has rejected the accusations.
Somalis cheer on Türkiye’s Erdogan to win re-election
Erdogan has repeatedly accused his rival of “colluding with terrorists” and threatening to undo Türkiye’s achievements in its war on terror. He has also blasted Kilicdaroglu for trying to “detach” the country from Russia.
Türkiye has been waging low-intensity warfare against Kurdish militias along its Syrian and Iraqi borders for four decades, in a back-and-forth campaign that has claimed the lives of over 40,000 people.
The PKK and its affiliates have been waging an insurgency since 1984 demanding political and cultural autonomy with the final goal of establishing an independent Kurdish State, laying claim to territories in southeast Türkiye and northern parts of Iraq and Syria.
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Li Hui visited Kiev to share Beijing’s views on a political settlement to the Ukraine crisis
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has met with China’s newly appointed special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, who traveled to Kiev to convey Beijing’s views on a diplomatic resolution to Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.
According to a statement published on Thursday by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Li held talks with Zelensky as well as the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Andrey Yermak, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, and representatives from several other ministries.
Beijing said both sides had agreed that the recent phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Zelensky had outlined the direction for future relations between their two nations, which it stated should be built on mutual respect and sincerity.
During his trip, Li reiterated that Beijing is willing to serve as a peace broker to help reach a political resolution to the conflict with Russia, based on the principles outlined in a 12-point roadmap published by China in late February.
“There is no panacea in resolving the crisis. All parties need to start from themselves, accumulate mutual trust, and create conditions for ending the war and engaging in peace talks,” Li said, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s statement.
The special envoy’s two-day trip to Ukraine is the first leg of a wider European tour, during which he is expected to visit Poland, France, Germany, and Russia. Beijing has explained that the trip aims to promote communication toward “a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”
Hungary backs Chinese plan for Ukraine
China’s peace efforts have been welcomed by Russia as well as some European nations such as Hungary, and have been praised for acknowledging the national interests of both parties.
The roadmap, however, has been criticized by some in the West. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that China lacked “credibility” as it has refused to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell insisted that “the only thing that can be called a peace plan is Zelensky’s proposal.”
The Ukrainian president has demanded that Russia must withdraw from territories that Kiev claims as its own, as well as pay war reparations and face an international tribunal. The Kremlin has dismissed the initiative, claiming it does not take into consideration “the realities on the ground,” including the new status of four former Ukrainian regions as part of Russia.
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POLITICS
Pakistan’s top court orders release of former PM Imran Khan
Published
1 year agoon
May 12, 2023Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the release of former prime minister Imran Khan, whose arrest earlier this week triggered deadly protests across the country, Geo TV news channel has reported.
The court considered an appeal by Khan’s legal team on Thursday, ruling that the arrest of the opposition figure was illegal, according to the broadcaster.
The leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was detained on an order from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday as soon as he arrived at a lower court in connection with a graft case against him. He has been held at a police compound in the capital, Islamabad, since then.
Khan’s spokesperson told Al Jazeera that the 70-year-old was apprehended in court before he could even appear before the judges, which was “in violation of all laws.” The PTI party claimed that it was not an arrest, but “an abduction,” and called on its supporters to take the streets.
Pakistan deploys army after Imran Khan’s arrest
Pakistan has been gripped by violent protests for the last three days, with demonstrators clashing with security forces and setting government buildings on fire in major cities across the country. The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has deployed the military in an attempt to curb the unrest.
Some 2,500 of Khan’s supporters, including some top figures in his party, have been arrested so far. Local media have reported at least 11 protesters killed and hundreds of police officers wounded.
Numerous criminal cases have been launched against Khan since his removal from office after a no-confidence vote in April 2022. The PTI leader, who remains highly popular in the country, denies all accusations against him.
The politician claimed a year ago that he had been deposed as a result of a US-led “international conspiracy” and accused his opponents of receiving money from foreign forces.
Khan has been making active attempts to return to power since then, staging massive rallies across the country. The former premier survived an assassination attempt last November, escaping with a non-life-threatening leg wound after several bullets were fired at him.
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