Displaying items by tag: Europe

This week, Viktor Orbán was elected for a third consecutive four-year term as Prime-Minister of Hungary.  In 1989, he addressed 250,000 people in Budapest calling for free elections and the withdrawal of Soviet troops. He became famous in Hungary and abroad overnight. The right-wing populist now leads Hungary towards the return of ethnic nationalism and deep-rooted corruption. He eliminated constitutional safeguards, successfully reshaped the state in his own image, and is considered to be a potential threat to the EU. He has been described  by the European Stability Initiative as the ‘most dangerous man in the European Union’. A Pew Research poll in 2016 ascertained, ‘Hungarians were the most likely to believe ‘refugees would increase terrorism in their country’. Orban pioneered what scholars describe as either ‘half democracy in decline’ or ‘soft autocracy;’ merging crony capitalism with right-wing rhetoric. He flatly rejects accusations of impropriety of the sources of his allies’ enrichment. Opposition speakers in parliament repeatedly complain that he has become not only the most powerful but also the richest millionaire in Hungary.

Investigations are ongoing to identify, tackle and dismantle organised crime groups involved in movements of migrants entering Europe via the Western Mediterranean Route to the UK. Recently, Europol supported Spanish Guardia Civil in dismantling a criminal group smuggling Spanish migrants and refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Syria into the UK. The gang used regular ferries from the northern Spanish ports of Santander and Santurtzi to carry out their criminal activities. Their modus operandi was to smuggle the migrants through restricted areas at the ports and hide them in trailers, containers, caravans and lorries waiting to board the ferries in restricted parking bays.

In 1997 the Chemical Weapons treaty came into force. Its full title is ‘The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction’. In 2013 Syria agreed to the treaty. On 7 April 2018 Syrian activists, rescue workers and medics reported toxic chemicals dropped on Douma with Assad’s approval. It is believed not to be Syria’s first violation of the treaty. At the time of writing, because of chemical weapons use in Syria, Russia and America are threatening opposing military action over Syrian ground and airspace. Theresa May's cabinet has ‘agreed on the need to take action’. They are also considering military options with US and French allies. Key prayers for our MOD - What British forces might be used? The targets. What’s the overall strategic aim? Key prayers for Whitehall - How to avoid escalating the conflict? See World article 1

Ireland’s constitution protects the right to a religious education and for parents to ‘provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children’. A new proposal preventing Catholic schools from prioritising Catholic students is being called discriminatory, as it does not apply to schools of other faiths. The Church runs 90% of state schools. When a school is full, it prioritises Catholic students when deciding how high they are on the waiting list. The education minister wants to end giving preference to Catholic children who live some distance away over non-Catholic children living close to the school. The changes would not apply to non-Catholic faith schools. Faith in Our Schools is fighting the proposal, saying the policy ‘openly discriminates against the conscience and educational rights of Catholic parents and the autonomy, and associational rights of Catholic faith schools.’

France’s unions have started three months of industrial action. On two days in five trains will not run, and workers will down tools for a total of 36 days. 77% of train drivers are striking over government proposals to reduce the ‘jobs for life and early retirement’ status. Macron insists reforms are essential to stem rising debt and prepare the way for competition starting next year. He is facing his toughest test to date. It is unclear how this ‘war of attrition’ will pan out, as Air France, dustmen, and energy workers intend to join the battle.. If rail reform passes, it paves the way for subsequent overhauls of the education system and pensions. University students have already joined the protests against Macron's proposals. Attempted reforms have been the undoing of past French presidents.

The overwhelmingly Catholic Republic of Ireland will hold a referendum on 25 May on whether or not to alter its constitution to legalise abortion. The move follows the recent Irish Senate vote in favour of holding the poll by a wide margin. Last year prime minister Leo Varadkar won leadership of the governing centre-right Fine Gael party after campaigning on same-sex marriage and liberalising abortion laws.

Lt-Col Arnaud Beltrame, a practising Catholic, was shot and stabbed after he traded places with one of the captives following a shooting spree in southern France. His brother Cedric said his actions were ‘beyond the call of duty’. France's gendarmerie honoured its fallen comrade, saying Col Beltrame ‘gave his life for the freedom of the hostages’. His sacrifice was compared with that of St Maximilian Kolbe, who in 1941 volunteered to take the place of a fellow prisoner condemned to death at Auschwitz. Beltrame and his fiancée, Marielle, were shortly to marry.

Turkey was a secular country, but since President Erdogan's rise to power it is returning to its Ottoman and Islamic heritage. This shift is manifesting through authoritarianism, consolidation of power, increased support of radical Islam, reintroduction of Islamic cultural practices, the threatening of long-held borders, and the dismissal of thousands of government workers, military, and journalists. But what matters most is the 99% of 80 million people who call Turkey home but have never heard the Gospel. The early Church thrived there. Much of the New Testament took place there. For a nation so hardened to the Gospel, and resenting Christianity, prayer is the only way to bring change.

On 20 March environment secretary Michael Gove told Tory MPs to 'keep their eyes on the prize' in the row over Brexit and fishing waters after the latest Europe Brexit meetings. Theresa May’s agreement to keep EU fishing policies during the transition period meant the UK had not got what it wanted from the negotiations. Control of fishing waters has been delayed. The next day protesters threw dead fish into the Thames outside Parliament, in solidarity with the fishing communities who expected to control UK waters the day it leaves the EU. The demonstrations were called environmental vandalism. Jacob Rees-Mogg said the proposal for Britain to remain in the EU's Common Fisheries Policy for almost two years after March 2019, with no say over the allocation of quotas, would not command the support of the Commons, adding he was not pleased with the transition deal but he could live with it.  See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43484031

All exercise of the right to freedom of religion or belief without state permission is banned in Kazakhstan, in defiance of the country's international human rights commitments. There is a growing trend of banning religious communities on various grounds. For example, on 16 March a court in South Kazakhstan fined and banned for a month a Protestant church for having three not five fire detectors in a property used only for storage. The fire inspector refused to explain why the order to install the extra fire detectors was not put in writing, or why the church was punished despite having installed those extra detectors within the specified one month. Also, at the same church, police arrested a woman for ‘missionary activity’ after she helped someone download a Bible onto her phone. Religious communities face raids and fines as parliament's lower house prepares the final text of a wide-ranging set of amendments to make the exercise of religion or belief more difficult. See also https://www.crisisgroup.org/europe-central-asia/central-asia/kyrgyzstan/kyrgyzstan-state-fragility-and-radicalisation