A thread to talk about news and politics affecting Europe as a whole, rather than just politics within specific European countries.
If you're new to OTC, it's worth reading the Introduction to On-Topic Conversations
and the On-Topic Conversations debate guidelines before posting here.
As with other OTC threads, off-topic posts may be thumped or edited by the moderators.
Edited by Mrph1 on Jan 9th 2024 at 3:24:05 PM
@Farin I was speaking of public burning here.
he/him
Let's not go down a rabbit hole on religion and its place in society. This is not that thread, and theism vs. atheism is a topic that's been banned from OTC for many years (because those debates never end well).
According to TheOtherWiki, Sikhs burn copies of their own sacred book that are too damaged to use, in a ritual similar to a person's cremation. I assume they don't broadcast this.
A Belgian businessman, who owned (a couple of) Cypriot firms, is sanctioned for helping the Russians get needed electronics.
The Queen of Denmark today announced her intention to abdicate with effect from 14th January.[1]
Greenland startup begins shipping glacier ice to cocktail bars in the UAE
Excerpt:
The company argues, however, that its ice is environmentally friendly and of social value.
Yeah, no shit people are criticising them - what exactly is green about shipping a bunch of ice halfway across the globe so that a bunch of self-absorbed rich people in a Gulf state can put it in their drinks? How's that of any social value at all?
I also love the argument they're using to defend their business that the refrigerated containers they're putting the ice in were going to leave Greenland empty anyway otherwise - completely ignoring that empty containers don't need to be powered to keep them refrigerated, while containers filled with ice heading towards the Arabian Peninsula' do.
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Jan 9th 2024 at 2:13:35 PM
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
šš©šÆšš°š
š”š
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Wow, and I thought canned air was a dystopian parody.
To be fair, this is not about creating an artificial scarcity of something that is common (air). It is more like a show of over the top opulence of those who have so much many that they do not know what to do with it.
šš©šÆšš°š
š”š
Yeah I get that, maybe it was a bit theatrical on my part there. I doubt it's that damaging if anything, but please don't scratch that gaping wound. It's probably not even that safe, glaciers can be nasty. 
he/him
Edited and pinned first post.
Adopting rightwing policies ādoes not help centre-left win votesā
Excerpt:
Faced with a 20-year decline in their vote share, accompanied by rising support for the right, far right and sometimes the far left, social democratic parties across Europe have increasingly sought salvation by moving towards the political centre.
However the analysis, published on Wednesday, shows that centre-left parties promising, for example, to be tough on immigration or unrelenting on public spending are both unlikely to attract potential voters on the right, and risk alienating existing progressive supporters.
Wow, it's almost like pandering to reactionaries is fucking stupid and a sign of political opportunism and incompetence.
Unfortunately, this kind of study will only amuse a few journalists, not change anything to what centrists do when in power.
It might, but some people will wonder if using the word "no evidence" is too strong for a claim about a large amount of people. It is generally not so that 100% of all voters work in a certain way.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
The fundamental problem is that the consensus in Europe that fascism is bad has broken down. And that means that groups are rising who are very good at offering easy, wrong answers to complex problems.
It's not even about right-wing policies, because the social democrats who are rushing right are still establishment figures who play by the rules, and that's not what the reactionaries want.
Foreign Troper
In Denmark at least, Social Democrats seem to have secured a stable position of power using the "Economically Left, Socially Right" approach.
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
As of today, Frederik X is now the King of Denmark.
PS - Should we reopen the Nordic thread? It's locked.
Also known as Pingo ("Penguin") after an embarrassing incident with a wetsuit in his navy days.
Criminal law reform in Switzerland incoming! Or at least in June or July, when it comes in. Focusing on sex law, per here:
- We'll get a minimum sentence for sexual actions with children under the age of 12, apparently not for "involving" only for "carrying out".
- The penalty for sexual acts with dependents as well as for exploiting an emergency situation is now the same as sexual actions with children: 5 years to fine.
- The statute for "Sexual coercion" (read: rape) now specifies that taking advantage of a freeze-up counts, but apparently only 3 years to fine. A similar provision but 5 years to fine applies to "Rape"
- Probably the most significant change: "Rape" now applies to all penetrative sex, irrespective of gender. It still requires coercion, physical or psychological, though.
- "Defilement" (read: rape of people incapable of judgment, say comatose or drugged) now does no longer require the rapist to know about the lack of judgment capacity.
- There is a new thing about people deceiving others about the sexual intent of an act. Penalty ranges from 5 years to fine.
- Another new thing is about "revenge porn", one or three years (depending on how public it was) to fine.
- Exhibitionism can now be sanctioned by mandatory therapy as an alternative. Ditto for sexual harassment and sexual harassment training.
- There is also a minimum sentence of five years for rape or sexual coercion or other sex crimes as part of "ethnic cleansing".
- "Grooming" is still only a crime if it qualifies as attempted sexual acts with children and/or sexual harassment.
France's Le Pen Distances Party From Germany's AfD Over Immigration Row
When you're too fascist for other fascists...
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
Let's be honest, she's only doing this so her voters can still pretend they're not fascists themselves.
Edited by Kayeka on Jan 26th 2024 at 9:43:39 PM
Foreign Troper
Yeah, this is pure strategy to get votes from the Moderate Right, nothing more.
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
The Spanish Congress voted against theĀ amnesty billĀ presented by Pedro SĆ”nchez's government, whichĀ aimed to benefit Catalan nationalists involved in separatist activities.
The bill needed 176 votes to pass, but received only 171.
It was expected to pass easily, for while theĀ PP and VOX, were expected to vote against it, they didn't have the numbers to block it.
However, JxCat (Together for Catalonia), which was founded byĀ Carles Puigdemont himself, chose to vote against it becauseĀ it does not provide enough protection for Catalan politicians, accused ofĀ terror-related crimes.
JXCat spokespersonĀ Miriam Nogueras said:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68147811
...............
Meanwhile, Catalonia itself declared a state of emergency, facing the worst drought on record.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68167942
Edited by jawal on Feb 1st 2024 at 10:34:09 AM
Every Hero has his own way of eating yogurt
Junts is less of a party founded by Puigdemont, and more of a continuation of the Convergence side of Convergence and Union (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergence_and_Union ), which was THE Catalonian right wing party. Union was the more Spain-going part (and their politicians used to be held as pragmatic statesmen), but nowadays? The Convergence side is an utter mess of infighting, party refoundations, and chaos sowing with no benefit whatsoever, while the Union side is out of politics and heading manager unions instead.
Goddamn right wing in this country.
Edited by Eriorguez on Feb 1st 2024 at 2:45:09 PM
I mean they kind of are though, they're both things that proscribe how society should be and shouldn't be, usually (though not always) with a few core books written about them, and have had wars about them.
I really don't see where the difference is. Could you elaborate on that?