Populism And Nationalism On The Rise In Europe

Analysts have said that the size of the explosion wasn't on par with a thermonuclear weapon. More than likely, it was a simple atomic bomb like they've tested in the past and the "hydrogen" part is just propaganda. Still concerning, of course, but not as bad as initial reports.

The Danish government continues to try to make Denmark a less preferred country for asylum seekers and refugees.

The Danish Immigration and Integration Department has interpreted the wording of a proposal which has broad support in the Danish parliament. Denmark is about to start confiscating and selling valuables asylum seekers bring along, according to Swedish Radio, citing the Danish newspaper Politiken.

Asylum seekers will be allowed to keep the wedding ring, the mobile phone and some cash. Other valuables will be sold and the remaining money seized to finance the cost of the asylum application.

The Department interprets the proposal so that the refugees are allowed to keep personal valuables such as the mobile phone, the wedding ring, the clock and cash up to 3,000 Danish kroner ($440). Any remaining valuables will be seized and sold, and the money is taken as payment for the asylum process.

Austria

Is Italy split in North and South in politics as well?

Doesn't sound like the young Renzi had much impact on the worries of the anti-establishment groups then. During the EU/EURO-summits last year I got the image of him to be quite frank in voicing his opinions and demands. Doesn't that help him at all at home?

Used to be? Did they stop all ambitions towards an independent Padania? Does it inlcude giving up on more autonomy for that region as well?

do you think a new crisis will break out in italy this year?

Tess Asplund, an anti-racism activist from Stockholm, was in Borlänge to protest against a march by hundreds of neo-Nazis through the centre of the town on May 1st.

Traditionally a left-wing stronghold, where big Labour Day rallies are the norm, Borlänge has recently seen many voters lurch to the far-right.

The uniformed neo-Nazis were however far outnumbered by counter demonstrators like Asplund, who described the moment captured on camera to local radio station P4 Dalarna.

“I don’t think I even thought about it really, I just jumped out,” she said.

“I just thought: you shouldn’t be here. Then one of them stared at me and I stared back. He didn’t say anything and neither did I. Then the police came fairly quickly and took me away.”

Asplund said she often raised her fist at anti-fascist rallies in a gesture borrowed from Nelson Mandela.

The picture spread rapidly on social media on Tuesday as Swedes hailed the iconography of a lone woman bravely standing up to dark forces.

The picture was taken by David Lagerlöf, a photographer for Expo, an anti-racism group co-founded in 1995 by Millennium author Stieg Larsson.

Lagerlöf explained what he saw:

“These are the [Nordic Resistance Movement’s] leadership figures slowly walking towards her, and it looks like hers and the leader’s eyes meet, that they are staring at each other,” he told the TT newswire.

"When they are quite close to each other the police come along and push her away."

Social media users are already calling the shot the photo of the year, with many comparing it to an image often referred to as ‘The old lady with the bag’.

Hans Runesson’s classic photo from 1985 depicts a woman in Växjö, southern Sweden, wielding a handbag as a weapon against a neo-Nazi demonstrator.

“I really don’t want to go that far, that picture is really iconic,” said Lagerlöf.

I guess it's not really the same as the other posts here but no one ever cares about European things in RP&R lol

But, as I have said before the rise of nationalism isn't unique to Europe. America is doing the same thing with Trump and the concept of the wall right now.
You don't need to know the current events to see history and the overall tone.

Lessons, yes.

Lessons learned, no.

The campaign for Britain to leave the European Union saw its lead narrow slightly over the rival "In" campaign, according to a weekly online poll published by opinion poll firm ICM on Tuesday.

Forty-five percent of voters were in favor of a so-called Brexit against 44 percent who believe Britain should remain in the 28-member bloc, not counting undecided voters, ICM said.

A similar poll published last week by ICM found 44 percent of voters wanted to remain in the EU compared with 46 percent who wanted to leave.

The latest survey, which was conducted between April 29 and May 3, was weighted to take into account the likelihood of respondents actually voting in the June 23 EU membership referendum, based on their comments, the polling firm said.

LONDON—As a U.K. referendum over whether to quit the European Union nears, British banks have battened down the hatches.

In the event of a “Brexit”—or a U.K. exit from the EU—bankers say frozen capital markets and sharp currency swings could make it harder for banks to fund their businesses.

To inoculate themselves ahead of the June 23 vote, British banks are maintaining extra stocks of assets that can easily be sold to fund their activities, tapping markets for funding earlier than planned and holding off issuing certain types of securities.

Lloyds Banking Group PLC has raised roughly £7 billion ($10.2 billion), or about half of its annual funding requirement in the first part of the year, according to a person familiar with the matter. “We went earlier than we were proposing to do,” George Culmer, Lloyds’s chief financial officer, said recently.

Barclays PLC is holding larger stocks of liquid assets than it would in normal circumstances, group finance director Tushar Morzaria told analysts last week.

Even deposit-rich banks like HSBC Holdings PLC are stepping up preparations. “We’re making sure that we’re extremely liquid over the June/July period,” HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said on Tuesday.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC has held off issuing £2 billion of convertible bonds until after the referendum, according to a person familiar with the matter. Investor appetite for the bonds, which switch into shares if the bank is in trouble, has dried up making any issuance expensive. RBS completed most of its planned annual debt issuance in the first part of the year.

In February, the Bank of England began probing lenders’ vulnerability to financial-market turbulence in the wake of an exit vote, in particular heavy swings in the value of sterling. Bank officials say that 2014 balance sheet tests give them comfort that the British banking system would survive a major downturn. Nevertheless the central bank will hold three extra cash auctions in June to ensure lenders have access to liquidity ahead of the vote.

No bank wants to been seen tapping any Bank of England emergency funding after the vote. Hence the flurry of activity, says Chirantan Barua at Bernstein Research.

Unlike foreign banks based in the U.K., British lenders are less concerned about losing their right to “passport”—or sell their services across the EU. Most have already ratcheted back their European operations to refocus on their domestic market. Instead they worry about the impact of an economic slowdown in Britain hitting their balance sheets.

Economists warn that regardless of any potential long-term upsides of exiting the EU trading bloc, that there could be short term economic pain. Investment may dry up while the U.K. embarks on protracted negotiations over its future relationship with the EU. Housing prices could fall and economic growth could stall.

Market fears over Brexit have eased of late. Sterling has rallied in past weeks and there was strong international demand for U.K. government bonds at an auction late last month. ​

Nevertheless several British banks are dusting off contingency plans they prepared ahead of Scotland’s independence referendum in 2014. “It is a case of preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best,” said one British bank executive.

Validating the rights of the 2 million Britons living in the EU after Brexit – and of EU citizens resident in Britain – would be a “complex and daunting task”, a cross-party parliamentary report will warn on Wednesday.

Negotiations might have to be prolonged beyond the two years allowed for, although the European parliament and individual member states could jeopardise any extension of the process, according to the House of Lords European Union committee.

Agreeing a trade deal with the EU is likely to take even longer, peers suggest, between four and nine years if past experience is anything to go by.

Despite the government’s repeated advice that the referendum vote will be final, the report points out that it would still be possible to reverse a decision to withdraw from the EU – for example if there was a change of government.

The 19-member committee, chaired by the former Conservative MP Lord Boswell of Aynho, avoided expressing any view on Brexit. Their review is based on testimony from two senior lawyers, Sir David Edward, a former judge at the court of justice of the European Union, and Prof Derrick Wyatt QC, emeritus professor of law at Oxford University.

In its conclusions, the committee said: “There is nothing in article 50 [the only exit route to leave the treaty on European Union] formally to prevent a member state from reversing its decision to withdraw in the course of the withdrawal negotiations. The political consequences of such a change of mind would, though, be substantial.

“The European parliament’s right not to give its consent to the adoption of the withdrawal agreement would give it considerable influence. One of the most important aspects of the withdrawal negotiations would be determining the acquired rights of the 2 million or so UK citizens living in other member states, and equally of EU citizens living in the UK. This would be a complex and daunting task.”

The report added: “No firm prediction can be made as to how long the negotiations on withdrawal and a new relationship would take if the UK were to vote to leave the EU. It is clear, though, that they would take several years – trade deals between the EU and non-EU states have taken between four and nine years on average.”

The committee states that if there was a vote to leave then it would be in everyone’s interest to achieve a negotiated settlement. That would probably require extending the negotiating period beyond the two years provided for in article 50 of the treaty on European Union. The requirement for unanimity with the EU, however, means that such agreement cannot be guaranteed.

In his evidence, Wyatt told peers that: “It is estimated that 2 million Brits live in other EU countries … Take elderly people who have lived for 10 years in Spain. After five years, they acquired a right of permanent residence as citizens of the union and that includes access to the Spanish healthcare system.

“If we leave, what do we do about vested rights? Do we recognise rights to permanent residents that have arisen? What transitional rights do we give somebody who has been working for four years in the UK and has children at school and so forth?”


Fear of a vote to leave the EU, and in its wake healthcare and pension losses, is driving Britons from the continent back to the UK, says a broadsheet

He added: “Let us not forget that for every example in the UK there is an example of a UK citizen elsewhere. We would want to tidy that up. My guess is that the inclination of government and parliament would be to be generous as regards those who had already made their lives in the UK, knowing that it would be likely to be reciprocated.”

The difficulties of negotiating a separation should not be underestimated. Addressing the committee, Edward concluded: “The long-term ghastliness of the legal complications is almost unimaginable.”

Commenting on the findings, Boswell said: “Withdrawal would mean difficult and lengthy negotiations. It’s not possible to predict exactly how long it would take, but comparable international trade deals have taken on average between four and nine years.

“The rights of some 2 million UK citizens living abroad would need to be determined, as would the rights of a similar number of EU citizens living in the UK. This is complex stuff – you are talking about rights to residence, to healthcare and to schooling, about maintenance payments and access to children, about research projects and contracts that cross borders …Sorting all this out would be a daunting task.”

In a separate development, two expatriate Britons have been given leave to pursue their legal challenge against the government’s decision to exclude those those who have been living abroad for more than 15 years from the referendum.

Harry Shindler, a 94-year-old second world war veteran who lives in Italy, and lawyer Jacquelyn MacLennan, who lives in Belgium, lost their claim in the London high court last week. The case has been brought on their behalf by the law firm Leigh Day on a no win, no fee basis.

extremist party

banks

One can only hope that the electorate accepts this symbolism and moves more into the mid again.

Britain should leave the European Union and Germany should follow it.

Italy has a strong gdp?

Terrible idea.

The problem of the EU is that it's a half baked project. We want a federal Europe however most countries aren't ready for that and so we started with just a partial federation that causes a lot of issues.

For the time being we need to re-educate people and fight these nationalist crazies popping all over the place.

Yes, according to IMF, WB, and CIA.

Italy ranks 12th in global GDP by IMF and CIA, 11th by WB

The answer is of course no.
If one reads the post of Ruaumoko it is clear that he refers to the per capita ranking. Otherwise the statement Netherlands > Poland for example doesn't make sense. And Seha replied to that post. In those (ppp and nominal) Italy ranks in the late 20s early 30s (same institutes as you quoted.)
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Wether that is strong or not we again stay within the base post. He listed Spain as weak and Italy as strong. In those rankings they are either next to each other or not far apart.

There are many more factors which decide wether it is profitable for Germany to stay within the EU or not. If one includes the benefits of something like the decision by chinese investors to use us as access point for global trade we get more money from staying within the EU than not.

It doesn't matter to us wether an US citzen passes up on our education or not. Important for us is that people understand what the words of these nationalists mean before those get into power.

I know that. Germany alone leaving the EU would collapse the system, and also destroy any outstanding debt owed to Germany, which would also greatly hurt their economy as a whole (defaults aren't pretty). That is also a good reason for Germany to not leave the EU yet.

Greens won in Austria, yay!