EUROPE - POLITICAL NEWS IN BRIEF

On Wednesday 22 November, the NETHERLANDS will go to the polls. All 150 members of Parliament are elected. It is a premature election. The sitting coalition government (led by MARK RUTTE and with the liberals, D66 and the Christian Democratic Party) could not agree on a new immigration package after long disputes. And the political situation in the country has changed a lot since last time - with new parties. The opinion polls here three weeks before the election point to the following main results: 1. VVD (the liberals): 30 mandates (now 34). New manager: Mrs. Jesilgus ( daughter of Turkish immigrants ) 2. NSC ( National Social Contract ): 33 . Brand new batch. Wants a new way to rule. 3. BBB ( Peasant Movement ): 13 Brand new party, right-wing. Strong at the last local election. 4. VL (United Left): 23. Tidli. the social democracy and the greens. Manager: FransTimmermans - former deputy chairman of the EU Commission 5. D 66:...

Xavier Bettel EU's second smallest country, LUXEMBOURG, had parliamentary elections on 8 October. It gave a surprising result. The incumbent government of Liberals, Greens and Socialists lost, especially due to heavy losses for the Greens. Instead, the country's largest party, the conservative Christian Social Party, and the Liberals now have a clear majority. Therefore, the leader of the largest party, LUC FRIEDEN, will now become prime minister. He is a former Minister of Finance and Justice. And the previous prime minister for ten years, the liberal XAVIER BETTEL, will in all probability become foreign minister. See photo. Luxembourg has been an active member of the EU since its inception in 1951. It has never been in doubt that close European, binding cooperation was the only right thing for the country. During World War II, the country was forced to be part of Germany - with the name Moselland. Since then it has been and is a member of all the institutions and bodies it ca...

There is no doubt that the Prime Minister of Hungary since 2010, VIKTOR ORBÁN, plays a high stakes game. On the one hand, he publicly attacks the EU for being "worse than the Soviet Union until 1989". And he, as almost the last country, has not approved Sweden's membership of NATO ("because Sweden speaks badly of Hungary"). And on the other hand, Hungary is one of the EU countries that receives the most money from the EU budget. What the Hungarian population also knows and appreciates. 85% of them support EU membership. What kind of politician is 60-year-old Protestant Viktor Orbán? In his younger days he was one of the leaders of the youth section of the Hungarian Communist Party. In the rebel years 1988-89, he started the criticism of the old, communist regime. He even received a scholarship from George Soros to study at Oxford University in 1989-90. Later, Soros has become one of Orban's archenemies. Yes, he has e.g. kicked Soros' European University...

  The EU held a summit Thursday-Friday in Brussels. It is always an opportunity to discuss all important issues and also the EU's upcoming initiatives between the 27 heads of state and government and the EU Commission. Much is agreed upon and decisions are made about. Either by unanimity or, more and more often, by qualified majority. The most important decisions this time were, among other things: 1. Ukraine's fight against the Russian aggressor remains the top priority for the EU. The joint assistance continues and expands. And it was decided to start using the 211 billion euros, which are the frozen Russian funds in the West. They must be used to rebuild Ukraine. 2. Hungary and now also Slovakia are against this decision. It can be carried out anyway (by qualified majority). However, these two countries will not continue to send weapons and equipment to Ukraine themselves. However, Slovakia's parliament has just decided - against the new government - that Slovakia's...

  POLAND, as you know, began a new path with the elections on 15 October. With a record turnout of 73% (against 62% last time), the liberal DONALD TUSK won a clear victory. They got 248 out of the parliament's 460 seats. And in the Upper House, the Senate, they won an even greater victory. The way forward is now for the country's president, Andrzej Duda, to call on the parties to form a government. Duda belongs to the losing party. Therefore, he drags out the procedures as long as possible. The new parliament meets for the first time on 13 November. He will then call on the largest party, the losers in the PiS party, to try to form a government. Of course they can't. Then, in December, the call goes on to Tusk. And then there will be a new government. Tusk has recommended Duda to speed up the process, but he does not want to. Donald Tusk visited Brussels on Thursday and met all the leaders of the EU institutions (where he himself was chairman of the European Council (Summi...

  SWEDEN - like Finland - applied last spring to become a member of NATO. For this to happen, all 31 member states must say YES to this. The 29 have already done that a long time ago. Only a YES is missing from Turkey and Hungary. Now TURKEY - as promised - has started the procedures. President Erdogan has asked the Turkish parliament to ratify the membership. It is expected to happen shortly. HUNGARY has always said that it will not be the last country to ratify. However, the Hungarian parliament does not have the topic on the agenda for the month of November. However, that can be changed. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that he expects Sweden to become a member during November. Meanwhile, each of the major NATO countries has announced that they will come to Sweden's rescue if the country is attacked before NATO membership takes effect.

As is well known, the presidency of the EU is divided between the member states. They each have 6 months to "manage" the collaboration. At the moment it is SPAIN who has the leader's jersey. From 1 January to 30 June next year, BELGIUM will be chairman. Preparations are in full swing. The most important goals for the Belgians are: 1. To strengthen EU cooperation. 2. To make significant progress in the climate area. 3. To strengthen economic growth. 4. To promote social cohesion. After Belgium, HUNGARY follows as chairman. The European Parliament is currently making strong objections to this particular country being chairman. DENMARK's next presidency is in autumn 2025 (from 1 July to 31 December 2025).

  EU summit in Brussels on 26-27 October starts Thursday at 15 and lasts until and including Friday. The main topics of the meeting are: 1. Ensuring continued agreement and joint support for Ukraine - at the same time as dealing with the war in the Middle East 2. Decide on more joint humanitarian aid to Gaza, prevent the war from spreading, and at the same time work actively for a future two-state solution with an Israeli and a Palestinian state. 3. Ukraine: increase military support, activate the use of unfrozen Russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine - and ensure more international support for Ukraine. 4. Working for the European economy and improving our competitiveness 5. At the EURO summit on Friday (without Danish participation), discuss the capital markets, the European Banking Union and the work with the digital euro.

Today, October 25, a new government took office in Slovakia . It happens after the recent election. It is led by the left-wing and very populist politician Robert Fico . He has previously been prime minister a couple of times in the country. He leads a three-party coalition government. It was very important to him that he took office before the next EU summit takes place tomorrow and the day after tomorrow in Brussels. During the election campaign, Fico said, among other things, that "everything bad has come from the West and everything good from the East!". He is also known as a good friend of Putin. Earlier he had to resign as prime minister due to corruption scandals. After his election victory, however, he said at a press conference that the country's policy in the EU and in NATO remains unchanged. However, it is expected that at the summit he - like Hungary's Orbán - will emphasize the importance of unanimity in the EU - and to stop or at least limit the EU's...