Jayapal, Lee Resolution Promotes More Peaceful US Foreign Policy

"It's far past time we take our foreign policy into the 21st century," said Rep. Barbara Lee. "We should be leading with diplomacy and human needs as the path to global security."

Congressional Progressive Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) walks ahead of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) after leaving the White House in Washington, D.C. on October 19, 2021. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

BRETT WILKINS

January 19, 2022

Peace campaigners on Wednesday cheered a resolution introduced by progressive U.S. congresswomen Pramila Jayapal and Barbara Lee calling for a new American foreign policy that centers nonviolent solutions and eschews militarism and bloated Pentagon spending.

"It's time to put diplomacy and peace over militarism and war."

Speaking at a Wednesday online forum hosted by the peace group Win Without War, Japayal (D-Wash.), who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the Foreign Policy for the 21st Century Resolution—which is co-sponsored by 17 House Democrats—"lays out a comprehensive framework for a U.S. foreign policy that emphasizes statecraft and diplomacy over military intervention."

In a statement, Lee (D-Calif.) said: "It's far past time we take our foreign policy into the 21st century. We should be leading with diplomacy and human needs as the path to global security."

Lamenting that half of the Pentagon's annual budget—which is $778 billion for 2022—goes to private contractors, Jayapal said that U.S. military spending "should not be for the purpose of enriching the shareholders of some of the largest corporations in the world."

Win Without War executive director Sara Haghdoosti welcomed the resolution with a statement asserting that "it's time for a new approach to foreign policy."

"Our foreign policy is broken," she continued. "For the past 20 years, we have waged multiple catastrophic wars, poured near-limitless resources into the bloated coffers of the Pentagon, sold billions of dollars in weaponry to repressive human rights abusers, and suffocated entire countries through broad-based sanctions."


According to Jayapal, the 21st-century foreign policy outlined in the new resolution:
Centers human dignity, social justice, and cooperation in United States foreign policy;
Supports the United Nations and other international institutions in responding to the most pressing needs of the global community;

Focuses domestic and international investments on equitable and inclusive solutions that empower individuals, workers, and communities while safeguarding human rights;

Prioritizes mitigating and resolving the harms created by historical security challenges through locally informed, locally led solutions and investments in diplomacy,

 development, and conflict prevention;

Puts forth a quick, bold, and effective response to the ongoing climate crisis that is threatening communities at home and abroad; and

Creates formal and informal processes to ensure that United States foreign policy is informed by poor people; racial, religious, and ethnic minorities; Indigenous people; women; people with disabilities; LGBTQ+ individuals; and youth.

Additionally, the measure calls for ending the use of economic sanctions, a practice that "too often feeds authoritarianism and corruption while disproportionately harming the most vulnerable" people in targeted nations.



"For decades, the military-industrial-think tank complex has succeeded in forging an American foreign policy based on military might, violence, and defense of multinational corporate interests," said Robert Weissman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which supports the resolution.

"This approach has been a miserable failure, for the United States and even more for the rest of the world," he added. "The Foreign Policy for the 21st Century Resolution would—finally—redirect American foreign policy to meeting people's needs, not those of military contractors and oil companies."

Lee, who in 2001 was the only member of Congress to vote against authorizing the so-called War on Terror, said that "the post 9/11 wars taught us that perpetual war takes countless lives, wastes trillions of dollars, and does not make us any safer."

She added that "to combat the challenges we face around the globe—like climate change, global health, and poverty—we should be investing our resources away from tanks and drones and towards the needs of people."

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Navy will let Wisconsin keep badger statue for 50 more years

By TODD RICHMOND

FILE - A Badger and Shield statue is displayed outside the governor's Capitol office in Madison, Wis., on, Jan. 27, 2021. The Navy has decided to let Wisconsin keep its beloved badger statue for another 50 years, scrapping plans to move the sculpture to an East Coast museum.

 (AP Photo/Todd Richmond File)


MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Navy will let Wisconsin keep its beloved badger statue for 50 more years, scrapping plans to move the sculpture to an East Coast museum.

The statue, sculpted from melted-down cannons seized from Cuba during the Spanish-American War, was affixed to the first USS Wisconsin before World War I. The U.S. Naval Academy Museum lent it to the state in 1988. It has sat outside the governor’s office in the state Capitol since 1989, delighting thousands of tourists who rub its nose for good luck.

The academy museum contacted state officials in March 2020 asking for the statue’s return so it could be lent to the nonprofit Nauticus Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, where the second USS Wisconsin is berthed as an exhibit.

State historians balked, and U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican and former Marine, joined the effort to keep the statue in Madison. The Navy last February agreed to extend the loan for two more years.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers sent Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro a letter in November asking that the Navy transfer ownership of the statue to the state permanently.

“The Badger should remain in Wisconsin where it is seen by tens of thousands of visitors each year and is one of the most popular and beloved attractions in our beautiful state Capitol building,” Evers wrote. “The Badger is not only part of the USS Wisconsin ... history, but it is now a part of the history of the Wisconsin State Capitol and a piece of pride for the Badger State and of residents from every corner of Wisconsin.”

Del Toro sent Evers a letter Tuesday saying the Navy is happy to extend the loan for the next 50 years.

“I prize the strong affinity that the citizens of Wisconsin have developed toward the badger statue; it reflects the state’s proud maritime heritage and deep ties to the U.S. Navy,” Del Toro wrote. “The Navy feels those ties, too, and we thank the people of Wisconsin for their ongoing interest in and support of our Navy and our nation’s maritime history.”

Marinette Marine manufactures battleships for the Navy. In 2020 the company won a $5.5 billion contract in 2020 to build a guided missile frigate and was selected to develop a prototype for a new unmanned ship capable for attacking land and sea targets.

A call to the Nauticus Museum rang unanswered late Wednesday afternoon.

LGBTQ athletes in China: Tolerated at best

You could count the number of Chinese star athletes who have dared to come out on one hand. Sexual diversity is tolerated in China — but only if LGBTQ people keep their sexual orientation to themselves.

Li Ying is back with the Steel Roses. New national team coach Shui Qingxia, the first woman at the helm of the Chinese women's national footall team, has named the 29-year-old striker to the squad for the AFC Women's Asian Cup in India, which kicks off on January 20.

At first glance, this should come as no surprise. After all, at the 2018 tournament, Li scored seven goals in five matches to win the Golden Boot. The forward also scored the Steel Roses' only goal at the 2019 World Cup in France, getting the winner in their 1-0 group-stage victory over South Africa.

However, Li, who has scored 30 goals in her more than 100 games for the national team, was dropped for last summer's Tokyo Olympics. There was much speculation that this had to do with her having come out. 

In a post that went viral just weeks before the Games' opening ceremony, Li Ying had made her love for influencer Chen Leilei public on the Chinese portal Weibo. 

"You are the source and target of all my tenderness," she wrote shortly after the first anniversary of the start of their relationship.

"It's no secret that there are homosexuals in women's football," wrote Zhao Zen, a football journalist and blogger with more than five million followers. "But Li Ying is the first to dare to publicly announce her sexual orientation and her girlfriend. I congratulate her for her courage."

But not all the responses were positive, and some were outright homophobic. Shortly after having posted the message, it disappeared from Li's account. Could this have been due to outside pressure?  

'Yes, I am gay' 

The number of female or male elite athletes in China who come out as gay can still be counted on one hand. After Li Ying, volleyball star Sun Wenjing dared to come out last September, but only two years after she had ended her playing career.

In 2018, professional surfer Xu Jingsen became the first gay athlete in China to come out when he used Weibo to announce his intention to participate in the Gay Games in Paris.

"Yes, I am gay," Xu wrote, posting a photo montage showing him on a surfboard in front of a rainbow flag. "We have the right to choose love and to be loved. Sex, age and skin color are not shackles."

Xu went on to carry the flag for the 69-strong contingent from mainland China at the opening ceremony in Paris. The next Gay Games were originally scheduled to be held in Hong Kong in 2022 but were postponed until November 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gay athletes from Taiwan have already announced that they will not participate in the Games due to concerns about their safety.

Social media accounts blocked 

In 2019, Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage, but it remains banned in mainland China. Sexual diversity is tolerated by the communist rulers, but only as long as people keep their orientation to themselves.

Any public expression of sexual diversity is bound to run into resistance. Shanghai Pride, which was the oldest and largest LGBTQ event in China, with bicycle parades, Pride runs, parties, forums and exhibitions, was shut down in 2020. Even before that, the event's organizers were subjected to harassment from government censors.

Shanghai Pride started in 2009 but was shut down in 2020

 

In July 2021, the Ministry of Civil Affairs blocked and removed hundreds of LGBTQ websites and social media user accounts, especially at universities. 

"It is impossible for China to get to the forefront of the world on this issue," Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the state-run "Global Times", wrote on his blog, defending the authorities' actions. "Our certain conservativeness is inevitable and reasonable."

Last September, "sissy men" were banned from television on the instructions of President Xi Jingping.

LGBTQ community becomes more cautious 

The LGBTQ community has adjusted to the harder line. 

"Since authorities in China launched a crackdown on organizations supporting LGBTQ rights on college campuses, we have been very careful about not making any event too LGBTQ-oriented," a Chinese LGBTQ activist who asked to remain anonymous, told DW. 

"While the government has certainly tightened their control over LGBTQ organizations, members of the community will still find ways to organize activities that put less emphasis on the queer elements," he said. "We are all adapting to the new climate in China, which is being more discreet."

According to a documentary by "Dao Insights", the number of people in China who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer is estimated at around 70 million. The country of 1.4 billion people is still a long way from openly embracing sexual diversity.

"Sexual and gender minority people in China still live in the shadows, with only 5% of them willing to live their diversity openly," a 2016 study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) stated.

Discrimination, the UNDP wrote, continued to "cost LGBTI people jobs, lower their career prospects and their learning potential in schools. Sexual and gender minorities suffer from lower job stability and higher unemployment rates."

Three players recalled for Women's Asian Cup

The fact that Li Ying was dropped from the national football team for the Tokyo Olympics may or may not have had to do with her coming out.

Six months prior to her Weibo post she had already made her love for Chen Leilei public on Facebook. Access to the US-based social media network has been blocked in China for more than a decade, but it's hard to imagine that it would have escaped the attention of state censors – who in turn would have brought the post to the attention of the national FA and coaching staff. 

Li Ying (left) seen here in a World Cup match against Italy, is one of China's most prolific goal scorers

Still, weeks later, in February, the striker did feature in three Olympic qualifying matches, and scored three goals – before being dropped for the playoff games against South Korea in April. Also dropped from the Olympic squad were Tang Jiali, who plays for Tottenham Hotspur, and midfielder Shen Mengyu of Celtic.

In the absence of the three, China's Olympic experiment went completely off the rails, with the young, inexperienced team only able to earn a draw out of their three preliminary round matches – while being outscored 17 to 6. National team coach Jia Xiuquan was forced to resign. 

Shui Qingxia, his successor, has brought all three back into the fold, and Li Ying is part of the squad for the Women's Asian Cup. And while the striker is active on Weibo again, now she is largely limiting herself to writing posts about football – and she's made no mention of her relationship.

This article was translated from German.

THUMBNAIL Li Ying was the first elite-level female athlete in China to come out as lesbian

NBC not sending announcers to the Beijing 2022 Olympics

BY JOSEPH CHOI - 01/19/22 

NBC Sports on Wednesday confirmed it will not be sending any announcing teams to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, citing COVID-19 concerns.

“The announce teams for these Olympics, including figure skating, will be calling events from our Stamford (Conn.) facility due to COVID concerns,” Greg Hughes, NBC Sports senior vice president communications, told USA Today.

"We’ll still have a large presence on the ground in Beijing and our coverage of everything will be first rate as usual, but our plans are evolving by the day as they are for most media companies covering the Olympics," said Hughes.

NBC broadcasting teams had been scheduled to travel to Beijing in order to cover figure skating, Alpine skiing and snowboarding, but they will no longer be going. However, NBC's Olympic host Mike Tirico will still be travelling to China to cover the first few days of the games before heading to Los Angeles to call the Super Bowl, USA Today reported.

The newspaper noted that NBC's strategy of covering the Olympics from Stamford was also employed to cover the delayed 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics last year.

“The Beijing model is going to be very similar to Tokyo in that the heartbeat of our Olympic operation will actually be in Stamford, Conn., at our NBC Sports headquarters. We’ll have more personnel there than in the host city,” Molly Solomon, president of NBC Olympics Production, told the outlet.

“With COVID’s changing conditions and China’s zero-tolerance policy, it’s just added a layer of complexity to all of this so we need to make sure we can provide the same quality experience to the American viewers," she added. "That’s why we are split between the two cities.”

Beijing official warns athletes not to violate 'Olympic spirit'

China detains high-profile activists ahead of Olympics

While Team USA will be participating in the games this year, U.S. government officials will not be in attendance, with President Biden having announced a diplomatic boycott last month in protest of China's alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang province and other regions.

“The athletes on team USA have our full support, we will be behind them 100 percent as we cheer them on from home," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at the time. "We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games. U.S. diplomatic or official representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the PRC's egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in Xinjiang and we simply can’t do that.”

Though no high-level U.S. officials will attend, some consular and security officers will travel to China to assist the athletes and coaches.

A DIALECTICAL CRITIQUE IN ACTION

Dutch museums open as salons to protest COVID rules

Famed museums and Amsterdam's concert hall offered haircuts and manicures, as the cultural sector protested lockdown measures that allow shops, hairdressers and gyms to open — but not cultural venues.

Nail artists offered manicures at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam

Museums and concert halls in the Netherlands opened briefly on Wednesday to protest their continued closure. 

Cultural venues, including famous museums and Amsterdam's historic concert hall, offered yoga sessions, haircuts and manicures. 

Last weekend, the Netherlands eased a month-long lockdown, by allowing gyms, hairdressers and shops to reopen. However, cultural venues were ordered to remain closed to the public.

On Wednesday, authorities handed out enforcement notices to a number of the 70-odd venues that took part in the day-long protest.

Haircut with a symphony

Some 50 visitors were welcomed to the "Kapsalon Concertgebouw (hairdresser concert hall)" performance, in which people were given haircuts during an orchestra rehearsal at the 130-year-old building. 

The resident orchestra, conducted by Susanna Malkki, played American composer Charles Ives' 

Symphony Number 2, while two hairdressers cut hair in the historic venue

"We do not understand and there is no reasoning for it because we have shown over the last two years that it's very, very safe to go to a concert or to go to a museum,'' said Simon Reinink, director of the Concertgebouw.

"Actually, it's our profession — crowd management. We know how to deal with large crowds. And we've done it in a very, very safe way," Reinink added.

'You need a mental gym too'

Across the street from the Concertgebouw, a barber cut the hair of 10 visitors and 10 more people got manicures at the Van Gogh Museum. 

A 3-year-old gets a haircut at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam

"It's definitely a first for us at the Van Gogh Museum," the museum's director, Emilie Gordenker, told the AP news agency.

"I understand that the government has opened gyms but... you need a mental gym, too, and a museum is a place where people are increasingly coming to find a little depth or reason for their life," Gordenker said.

"And the theme of mental health is particularly relevant to our museum, obviously, because of Vincent van Gogh's own mental situation,'' she added.

Meanwhile, at the Amsterdam Museum in the city center, people took a yoga class

'Culture is high on the agenda'

Gunay Uslu, the junior culture minister, voiced understanding for the protest but urged caution.

"The cultural sector is drawing attention to their situation in a creative way. I understand the cry for help and that artists want to show all the beautiful things they have to offer us," she wrote on Twitter. "But the opening of society must go step by step. Culture is high on the agenda." 

The government has said it will look at a possible further easing of COVID measures on January 25.

Dutch protests against COVID measures

Wednesday's protests followed similar civil disobedience measures by bars and restaurants in the Netherlands against COVID restrictions. 

During the weekend, cafes opened in several cities, defying government orders that they must stay closed until at least February 25.

While some protests against COVID measures remain peaceful, some have devolved into violent riots, most notably in The Hague and Rotterdam.

fb/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)

Why Germany refuses weapons deliveries to Ukraine

Germany has declined to join allies such as the US and UK in shipping weapons to Ukraine. The country faces an unpredictable buildup of Russian troops on its borders — and there is precedent for armed aggression.


Foreign Minister Baerbock says weapons exports to Ukraine aren't a good idea right now

It hasn't taken long to put the new German government's talk of a bolder and more values-based foreign policy to the test. After just six weeks in power, it finds itself confronted by Russia's military moves against Ukraine, which fears another attack from its bigger and more powerful neighbor.

Germany and its allies are struggling to agree on a response to Russia's unclear intentions. German policymakers, including within the three-party coalition government, are also debating among themselves.

On Tuesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the Social Democrats (SPD), said Russia would pay a "high price" in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. On Wednesday, Scholz reiterated that silence on the issue of Ukraine was not an option. His foreign minister, the Greens' Annalena Baerbock, has made similar expressions of solidarity with Ukraine but rejected its latest request for weapons deliveries.

"We are prepared to have a serious dialogue with Russia to defuse the highly dangerous situation right now because diplomacy is the only viable way," Baerbock told reporters on Monday during a visit to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

Symbolic or strategic

Both the United States and the United Kingdom have announced arms deliveries, mostly handguns, ammunition and anti-tank weapons. A group of US senators visiting Ukraine earlier this week promised more weapons would be on the way.

German government officials have expressed concern that such deliveries could push tensions higher and make negotiations more difficult.

In their coalition agreement, the center-left SPD, the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) agreed on a restrictive arms export policy that does not allow any weapons deliveries to crisis regions.

Baerbock said her government's decision on weapons had a historical dimension — a reference to Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War.

"The idea that Germany delivers weapons that could then be used to kill Russians is very difficult to stomach for many Germans," Marcel Dirsus, a nonresident fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK), told DW.

Germany remains one of the world's top arms producers and exporters, with sales increasing 21% from 2016 to 2020, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Its largest customers were South Korea, Algeria, and Egypt.

Ukraine is also a buyer. In 2020 and through the first half of 2021, Germany approved 97 exports totaling 5.2 million euros ($5.8 million), according to government reporting. These were mostly sidearms, diving equipment, and communications devices.

Ukrainian officials want to go bigger, most recently asking for warships and air defense systems. While Germany often cites its own belligerent history as grounds for sidestepping the military question, Ukraine is leaning into it.

"This responsibility should apply to the Ukrainian people, who lost at least 8 million lives during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine," Ukraine's ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, told the DPA news agency.

Though weapons would be a strong show of support, Dirsus doubts that they would change Ukraine's prospects against a bigger and better-equipped foe.

"The Russian government would be more impressed by the threat of heavy economic consequences than 2,000 anti-tank weapons," he said.

Defensive weapons

Talk of weapons and military intervention can be politically dangerous in Germany. The Greens' Robert Habeck found that out last year when he supported sending "defensive" weapons to Ukraine. The current vice-chancellor and economics minister was widely criticized at the time and later claimed he meant demining equipment.

What makes a weapon "defensive" can be in the eye of the beholder, and at least some members of the governing parties have begun to express interest in defining what that is. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the FDP chair of the defense committee and an opponent of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, told the Bild tabloid that the current stance should be "reconsidered."

Critics argue that, in wars and conflicts, arms developed for defensive purposes, such as anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, have also been used offensively. What seems to be decisive here is not the original design idea for a weapon, but the will of the user for the respective application.

Germany's previous government, led by the Christian Democrats (CDU), made a vague commitment to the United States to punish Russia for any aggression. Now in opposition, some CDU members are criticizing the new government for "hiding behind" its restrictive arms control policy.

"We cannot reject Ukraine's request for defensive weapons that could fend off a possible Russian attack," Henning Otte, who sits on the Bundestag's defense committee, told Bild.

Norbert Röttgen, the CDU's parliamentary foreign policy spokesman, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday that "nothing must be taken off the table," but acknowledged that military force was not standing behind diplomatic efforts.

"We will not fight militarily, but, short of military tools, we will be ready to apply any tool we are able to have control of," he said.

Gas deliveries as a weapon?

When it came to power, the SPD-led government made big promises to boost the country's role on the world stage, especially in defense and security matters. With a particular nudge from the Greens side of the coalition, the new government has pledged to take human rights and democratic values more into account when setting relations with countries like China and Russia, which have been long viewed through a largely economic lens.

Most recently, Scholz appeared to indicate that the Kremlin's aggression would also have consequences for the already-completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is ready to pump more Russian gas to Germany once the German regulatory body gives the go-ahead.

"Everything is up for discussion if it comes to a military intervention against Ukraine," Scholz told reporters on Tuesday.

So far the SPD has largely upheld the previous government's position that the pipeline is a commercial project that needs to be protected from political turmoil. However, the Greens and FDP have long opposed the project.

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up herefor the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing, to stay on top of developments as Germany enters the post-Merkel era.

EU to withhold funds for Poland over Turow coal mine

The European Commission is punishing Poland after Warsaw ignored a court order to pay a daily fine over the Turow coal mine near the Czech border.



Polish miners have staged demonstrations against the EU order to shutter Turow

The European Commission said Wednesday that it is moving to withhold millions of euros in funds intended for Poland after leaders there refused to pay legal fines over the Turow coal mine near the Czech border.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) last year ordered Poland to close the mine, with the Czech government claiming that it drains groundwater from Czech villages and causes pollution.

Poland has refused to shut down the mine, saying it boosts the economy and helps the country meet its energy needs. Warsaw claims the EU does not have the legal authority to order the closure of the mine.

The ECJ has imposed a fine of €500,000 ($567,000) per day as long as Poland operates the mine.

Despite ongoing talks between Warsaw and Prague to resolve the coal mine dispute, the Polish and Czech governments have so far failed to reach an agreement.
How much does Poland receive from the EU?

European Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari said Wednesday that Brussels is utilizing an "offsetting procedure" for EU payments to Warsaw after a payment deadline expired on Tuesday.

Warsaw's first payment totals €15 million ($17 million), in addition to €30,000 in interest.

"What the Commission needs to do now is to identify a suitable or appropriate payment against which the compensation can be made," Ujvari said. The Polish government will then be given at least 10 working days to respond.

"Following that, the Commission will deduct the amount concerned from the payment identified," Ujvari said.

According to EU figures from 2018, Poland pays the EU €3.98 billion per year and annually receives €16.35 from the bloc.

Escalating tensions between Poland, EU

The move by the European Commission is the latest escalation in the ongoing feud between Brussels and Warsaw.

Poland currently faces additional fines of €1 million per day since October after Warsaw refused to follow EU rulings regarding the Polish judicial system.

The ECJ has ordered Poland suspend the disciplinary chamber of the Polish Supreme Court, which it says violates EU judicial standards.

The EU is also refusing to grant Poland pandemic post-recovery funds because of Warsaw's noncompliance with ECJ orders.

wd/sms (AP, dpa)

Romania: Right-wing extremists target German mayor

Last week, right-wing extremists stormed the city hall in Timisoara, targeting the German mayor. The far-right party behind the violence is becoming more popular and causing a major political problem.

 

Dominic Fritz, the mayor of the western Romanian city of Timisoara

The rioters entered the building through the back entrance, yelling "shameful, shameful" as they demanded to see the mayor.  Although masks are compulsory indoors, no one was wearing one and there were no police to stop the crowd. Only a single employee of city hall stood in their way as they screamed "come out, you dirty dog," referring to the city's mayor. After a quarter of an hour of verbal aggression, they finally left the building.

That was the scene that played out in the western Romanian city of Timisoara last Friday. Dozens of supporters of the right-wing extremist party, the Alliance for Romanian Unity (AUR), which picked up just under 10% of the vote and is the fourth-largest group in parliament, gathered in the city center. Also present were members of the notorious neo-Nazi group, New Right (ND).

Also on hand was AUR leader George Simion, who together with fellow marchers, targeted the German mayor of the city, Dominic Fritz. In September 2020, Fritz became the first local politician with foreign citizenship to be elected mayor of a Romanian city. The country does not need "this kind of a foreigner," Simion shouted, and announced the formation of what he called an "anti-Fritz league."

The demonstrators chanted "Fritz remember, this is not your city!" as Simion led the roaring crowd into city hall by way of the back door since the front door was locked. There are videos on Facebook that document the events.

'A message against tolerance and openness'

Simion and his party's storming of city hall  has sparked a great deal of outrage in Romania. The prominent journalist and political commentator, Cristian Tudor Popescu even compared the marches with those of Nazi storm troopers back in the 1920s and 30s.

The mayors of 23 Romanian cities signed a statement declaring their solidarity with Dominic Fritz and have urged authorities to take tougher action against rioters. The leader of the progressive green anti-corruption party, Save Romania Union, Dacian Ciolos, even went so far as to blame the local authorities, saying in a Facebook post that the AUR's actions essentially took place with their "permission and support."

The city's mayor, Dominic Fritz told DW that the march on city hall was "a message against the city of Timisoara with its multicultural and pro-European character. It is also a statement against my election victory, because it was a symbol of tolerance and openness in this city. The nationalists want to give the impression that there is no majority for this. But, at least in Romania's big cities there is this majority, which people now are trying to intimidate," Fritz said.

Not the first time

The violent storming of city hall in Timisoara by right-wing extremists and nationalists is particularly sad from a symbolic standpoint.  The uprising against the Ceausescu dictatorship began in this same city in 1989, and a large number of people lost their lives. Ever since, Timisoara, Romania's third-largest city, sees itself as a symbol of a free and European Romania. Even during the darkest days of post-communist nationalism in the country, the city repeatedly stood up for freedom and liberalism .

Tanks in Timisoara — the uprising against the Ceausescu dictatorship began here in December 1989

The events in Timisoara were probably among the most disturbing organized by the AUR so far, but they were by no means the party's first. Just a few weeks ago, AUR supporters, together with COVID conspiracists and anti-vaccine protesters, stormed the courtyard of the parliament in the capital Bucharest, where police officers managed to stop them from actually entering the building.

For some time now, the AUR has played a pivotal role in organizing violent anti-coronavirus protests nationwide.

AUR climbing in the polls

In addition, the party made headlines just days ago, demanding that the Holocaust and the murder of Romanian Jews not be taught in schools. This was not the first time the party has been active in Timisoara: last March, the party's supporters demonstrated in front of Mayor Dominic Fritz's private apartment, yelling racist and xenophobic slogans while protesting the mayor's coronavirus restrictions. 

Although the AUR has failed to mobilize more than a few dozen people for such events —  a maximum of 2,000 people have showed up for their anti-coronavirus protests — many observers say the party poses one of the biggest political problems for Romania. The AUR, whose acronym means "gold" in Romanian, was founded in September 2019, and entered parliament just a year later with 9% of the vote – surprising almost all forecasters.

Since then, the party's polling numbers have been going through the roof. It is currently polling at just under 20% nationally and, in some surveys, it's the second strongest party behind the Social Democrats.

Anti-Hungarian but pro-Orban

For years now, Romania has had no notable right-wing nationalists to speak of when compared with Hungary, Poland, and most other central and southeastern European countries. That was partly because parties like the Social Democrats filled the apparent void on the right with right-wing nationalist and xenophobic positions of their own.

But the AUR isn't just your garden-variety right-wing party. It is also explicitly anti-Western, Euroskeptic, anti-Semitic, anti-minority, homophobic, and pro-Putin, and wants to unify with the Republic of Moldova, which, in the past, was part of Romania.

The party's aggressive anti-establishment  events, which reach hundreds of thousands of people via social media,  increasingly resonate with voters dissatisfied with mainstream politics and a state of constant political crisis in Romania.

Paradoxically, the AUR is reaching out to Victor Orban's Fidesz party and other right-wing nationalists on a European level, while at the same time taking a more chauvinistic position domestically when it comes to the Hungarian minority in Transylvania, which includes approximately 1.2 million people.

George Simion of the AUR has professed his admiration for Hungarian leader Viktor Orban

An example of this was when George Simion led anti-Hungarian protests in the Uz Valley in the eastern Carpathian Mountains back in June 2019, just prior to the AUR's founding. During those protests, nationalist Romanian hooligans vandalized a cemetery with Hungarian and Romanian war graves while George Simion was busy declaring his admiration for the Hungarian leader, Viktor Orban. He even went so far as to call himself the "Orban of Romania" with the AUR now saying it wants to become a member of a new European alliance of right-wing nationalists and extremists, which Viktor Orban helped to initiate.

Just fines so far

Dominic Fritz, the mayor of Timisoara, is concerned about the rise of the AUR, above all, because he thinks it reflects a "profound crisis of confidence and a decline in political culture," which is evident in many other European countries. Fritz is not worried about his personal wellbeing however. "I feel safe in the city," he says, "because there are hardly any people in Timisoara itself who take part in events like the one on Friday. The rioters mostly come from outside."

It is unclear  whether the violent events at Timisoara's city hall will have far-reaching consequences for Simion or the other rioters. So far, authorities have only imposed minor fines  for violating mask requirements and for disturbing the public order.

This story was originally written in German.

Holocaust survivor: 'Babies are the best revenge against the Nazis'

Once an inmate at Auschwitz, Lily Ebert never

thought she would make it out alive. Now at 98,

she has 35 great-grandchildren and has become a

star on TikTok.

   

Lily Ebert is an Auschwitz survivor

Becoming a great-grandmother is special for anyone, Londoner-by-choice Lily Ebert told the British news agency PA in view of her family's latest offspring.

But for her, as a Holocaust survivor, it is all the more special, she said. "I never thought I would achieve this. I had to survive first of all and then to achieve this age… (the Nazis) wanted to kill us and we showed (them) that they could not," British media reported her as saying.

"Babies are the best revenge against the Nazis," Ebert said in a statement posted on Twitter by her great-grandson, Dov Forman. The Holocaust survivor recently welcomed her 35th grandchild.

Born in Hungary, Ebert is one of the few living eyewitnesses of the Holocaust and regularly recounts her experiences in talks and at events. "I promised myself: As long as I live, I will tell my story to future generations," she told PA news agency.

To help spread her message wider, her great-grandson Dov Forman has been running an account on the social media platform TikTok for almost two years — and it's very popular with younger generations. Around 1.6 million people follow Lily Ebert and Dov Forman on their channel, which has garnered 23.1 million likes and counting.

The family duo came up with the idea when Ebert was unable to give talks at schools during lockdowns in the UK due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lily Ebert has been raising awareness about the Holocaust

Holocaust remembrance on TikTok

On TikTok, Ebert shares short videos about her life and openly talks about the horrors of being in Auschwitz. "It was hell. They played music while they killed people" she has said. In videos on the platform, she asks how it is possible that Nazi women who worked as camp guards were willing to kill children, then go home to care for their own offspring as mothers. She also talks about how harshly prisoners were punished if they tried to help others who were too sick to work. 

After Auschwitz, Ebert's life went on. Some aspects of her daily life are shown on the TikTok channel, such as her tradition of making challah bread each week. Her 18-year-old great-grandson posts videos of her making the Jewish bread, traditionally eaten on Shabbat, the seventh day of the week or Saturday, or on other holidays.

The Nazis deported Lily Ebert from Hungary to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944, where her mother and two younger siblings were murdered. Ebert and her older siblings, meanwhile, were considered fit for work and managed to survive. She was a forced laborer at a munitions factory near Leipzig when U.S. soldiers arrived in April 1945, freeing her and her fellow prisoners. She had only narrowly escaped the SS death march.

Only 20 years old at the time, she remembers when an American soldier, having nothing else to write on, scrawled words of encouragement on a banknote and gave it to her. "A start to a new life. Good luck and happiness," it read. 

This new life began in Switzerland. Eventually, she emigrated to Israel, where she met her husband. The family has lived in London since 1967.

Ebert and her grandson, Dov Foreman (pictured) run a popular TikTok account

Ebert's message of tolerance

Ebert's greatest concern is keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive so that nothing like it happens again, she has said on TikTok. Together with her great-grandson, Ebert wrote her story in a book titled "Lily's Promise: How I survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live." With a foreword written by Charles, the Prince of Wales, the book stormed the British bestseller list.

For her 98th birthday on December 29, 2021, her great-grandson posted photos on Twitter of Ebert and her youngest grandchild surrounded by countless birthday cards. "I never expected to survive Auschwitz. Now, at 98, I celebrate surrounded by my family - the Nazis did not win," she said.

This article was translated from German by Sarah Hucal. 

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