Russian offers cash to voters to keep Moldova out of the EU

ByAlexander Tanas
September 30, 2024 —

Chisinau:

 Moldovans are being urged to shun “thieves, fugitives and bandits” after an exiled pro-Russian business magnate pledged to pay voters to vote “no” in a referendum on joining the European Union.

Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu’s warning underscored the increasingly unruly campaign for the October 20 presidential election in which pro-European incumbent Maia Sandu is seeking a second term.

Voters will also take part in a referendum on altering the Constitution to enable ex-Soviet Moldova, one of Europe’s poorest countries, to press for membership of the 27-nation EU. The country of 3 million is wedged between southern Ukraine, near Odesa, and Romania.

Much of Moldova’s capital Chisinau has had to be rebuilt repeatedly thanks to the wars and conflicts of the 20th century.CREDIT:ISTOCK

The most vocal opponent of EU membership, fugitive pro-Russian businessman Ilan Shor, offered in a weekend Telegram post to pay voters the equivalent of $42 if they registered for his campaign in the country lying between Ukraine and Romania.



Voters, he said, would get larger rewards if they cast “no” ballots in the referendum and if results showed they lived in electoral districts rejecting the proposal.

Israel-born Shor, who holds Russia, Israeli and Moldovan nationalities, was sentenced to 15 years in prison last year in absentia in connection with his role in the disappearance of $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) from Moldova’s banking system.

Exiled in Russia, the 37-year-old now heads the Victory election bloc, but is barred from taking part in the campaign.

President Maia Sandu signs the decree initiating Moldova’s EU accession negotiations, in Chisinau in June.CREDIT:PRESIDENCY/AP

Spinu, who besides being minister, heads Sandu’s re-election campaign team, said opponents of the president’s EU drive were “using money to buy votes and people”.

“They are using propaganda to spread lies about the European Union and frighten people with all sorts of tall tales,” he wrote on Telegram. “Let us not believe thieves, fugitives and bandits.”

Sandu, who denounces Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and views Moscow as one of the biggest threats facing Moldova, also told voters in a Saturday address to be on guard against fraud.

“The liars are now trying to intimidate us and oblige us to take decisions other than those that we want,” she said. “We must not let them decide our own fate.”

In recent days, paint has been daubed on buildings belonging to Moldova’s state-owned broadcaster, the Supreme Court and two other state institutions. Police blame the incidents on a group trained in Moscow to destabilise the election.

Sandu is favoured to win the presidential vote against 10 challengers, with a recent poll crediting her with about 27 per cent support. That poll put backing for EU membership at 56 per cent among decided voters with 34 per cent opposed.

Reuters


Kremlin’s Influence Looms over Georgian Dream in the October Elections

The ruling Georgian Dream party’s campaign ahead of Georgia’s parliamentary elections in October has been marred by fear-mongering and echoes of Russian-style propaganda on the war in Ukraine.

by Euractiv | September 30, 2024, 

Georgians attend a rally organised by the ruling Georgian Dream on April 29, 2024. 

Vano SHLAMOV / AFP

The ruling Georgian Dream party’s campaign ahead of Georgia’s parliamentary elections in October has been marred by fear-mongering and echoes of Russian-style propaganda on the war in Ukraine.

A month before the polls open, Georgia’s pro-Russian oligarch and honorary chairman of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, pledged to apologise to South Ossetians for the actions of the former ruling party during the August 2008 war.

His statement, seen as blaming Georgia for starting the conflict with Russia, came during a campaign speech in Gori, a city persistently bombed by Russia, near the occupation line.

In outrage, the wives of the Georgian fighters murdered by Russia during the August 2008 war started publicly apologising to their fallen husbands.
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Maka Chikviladze, a wife of Georgian National Hero Giorgi Antsukhelidze, who was captured, tortured and murdered during the war, posted the photo of Giorgi’s torture with the quote: “August 9, 2008… ‘Ossetian brothers’ boot on Giorgi’s back. Apologies [to you] Giorgi.”

Launching his party’s campaign, Ivanishvili voiced the goal of securing a constitutional majority. Ivanishvili justified this as a way to punish the former ruling United National Movement (UNM) party, which Georgian Dream blames for the 2008 war with Russia, and to dismantle the “agents’ network,” eliminate radicalism, reduce polarization, and counter “liberal fascism”.

Despite the EU’s expansion fatigue, it is imperative that the West welcome North Macedonia into its fold, as the region is strategic and the forces pulling it in the opposite direction are perilous.

This encapsulates Georgian Dream’s election campaign, which is riddled with disinformation tactics reflective of those used by the Kremlin.

Russian propaganda as the election strategy

Disinformation strategies, adopted by Georgia’s ruling party to deepen societal divisions, have long been a hallmark of the political landscape of Georgia. Euractiv has extensively reported on the “Second Front” and “Global War Party” disinformation narratives promoted by Georgian Dream.

Oligarch Ivanishvili has publicly and repeatedly blamed the former Georgian government for starting the 2008 August war during the campaign. For years, Russia has been trying to make the citizens of Georgia, as well as the rest of the world, believe this lie with its own propaganda.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s Charge d’Affaires to the United Nations, even referenced portions of the statement from Georgia’s ruling party, with the exact same wording as Ivanishvili’s team did.

People at home protested Ivanishvili’s apology to South Ossetians, reminding the Oligarch that “Russian propaganda no longer works”, “Georgia will never apologize”.

Kremlin propagandists praised Ivanishvili’s war accusations, with Margarita Simonian calling it “amazingly adequate” and welcoming the change in tone, while Nadara Friedrichson called Ivanishvili’s statement as “historic” marking a new phase in Tbilisi-Moscow relations.

Halted EU integration

“To Europe only with peace, dignity and prosperity” – Georgian Dream advertises the parliamentary elections as a referendum between war and peace; slavery and dignity; regression and progress; complete hopelessness and Georgia’s European future.

As done in Russia, Georgian Dream openly leverages the LGBTQ community, claiming that anti-Christian forces aim to erase national, state, and individual identities, reducing people to beings without dignity, religious, or national identity.

The narrative is further used to depict the West as a force attempting to subjugate the Georgian people. This has recently culminated in the passage of another Kremlin-style anti-LGBTQ law, further fueling hate crimes and increasing stigma and discrimination against the LGBTQ community.

Hostile actors, “instead of spreading poorly fabricated stories… are playing with emotions, especially on fears of war,” Tamar Kintsurashvili, director of Georgia’s Media Development Foundation, told Euractiv.

But the European perspective in Georgian Dream’s election promise is, perhaps, very far from reality.

The EU has frozen Georgia’s accession process, as well as millions in funding over a Russian-style foreign agents law. Brussels has repeatedly stated that “all options are on the table” and has recently issued a warning about the temporary suspension of visa-free access. Georgian PM Irakli Kobakhidze has conversely claimed that after the initiation of the foreign agents law, the chances of opening negotiations with the EU have increased.

“It isn’t always easy to detect the problem, especially in the case of a ruling party which doesn’t deny EU integration per se in public discourse but speculates on division in Western society and amplifies the message that they are planning to integrate in a conservative EU rather than a perverted one,” Kintsurashvili added.

All eyes on elections

For the first time in the history of Georgia, the 2024 elections will be held in a fully proportional system. The opposition, bidding on ousting the government and saving Georgia’s democracy and Western orientation, is motivated by a need to collaborate in order to minimize wasted votes.

Following the 2023 ban on electoral blocs, the only viable option for opposition parties has been to unify. The president is endorsing these efforts, having first introduced the Georgian Charter as a framework to assist opposition parties in guiding the country towards European integration.

Georgian Dream vows to ban all opposition parties, prompting Brussels to issue another warning. The party, nonetheless, continues to dance to the beat of its own drum. Georgian Dream MP Nino Tsilosani argued that banning political parties is a viable method for safeguarding democratic states.

Georgia approaches parliamentary elections amid the shadow of laws borrowed from the Kremlin and a climate of mass repression that includes beaten and jailed government critics. Despite punitive measures, civil society is coming together to observe elections at its maximum capacity.

In the face of repeated efforts to divide society, Georgian citizens remain united around their national interests, pledging to defend their votes, the country’s sovereignty, and its Euro-Atlantic future.

This autumn will show whether the will of the Georgian people will be upheld.

This article is part of the FREIHEIT media project on Europe’s Neighbourhood, funded by the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF).

Reprinted from Euractiv. You can find the original here.

Kashmir to vote in final phase as top leader says India silencing voices

KASHMIR IS INDIA'S GAZA

The multistage election, the last phase of which is being held Tuesday, will allow Kashmir to have its own truncated government and a regional legislature with limited powers.


First Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Srinagar

 / Photo: Reuters

Ahead of the final phase of a local election in India-administered Kashmir, a key resistance leader says the regional polls to choose a local government will not resolve the decades-old conflict that is at the heart of a dispute between New Delhi and Pakistan.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who has spent most of the last five years under house detention, said the polls are being held as political voices contesting India’s sovereignty over the region remain silenced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government stripped the region of its long-held semi-autonomy in 2019.


The detained leader said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that the election, touted by the Modi government as a “ festival of democracy ” in the region, cannot be an alternative to resolving the dispute.


“These elections cannot be the means to address the larger Kashmir issue,” said Mirwaiz, who is also an influential Muslim cleric and custodian of the six-century-old grand mosque in the region’s main Srinagar city, the urban heartland of anti-India sentiment.


It is the first such vote in a decade and the first since 2019, when New Delhi downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories — Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir — both ruled directly by New Delhi through unelected bureaucrats.


Authorities have said the election will bring democracy to the region after more than three decades of strife, but many locals see the vote as an opportunity not only to elect their own representatives but also to register their protest against the 2019 changes they fear could dilute the region’s demographics.


India’s clampdown following the 2019 move “has silenced people” in the region who “feel dispossessed and disempowered,” Mirwaiz said.


“You may not see active turmoil like before 2019 but there is a strong, latent public resistance to all this,” he said. “We have been forcibly silenced, but silence is not agreement.”


India’s sudden move, which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters, was mostly opposed in Kashmir as an assault on its identity and autonomy.

Fearing unrest, authorities detained Mirwaiz and thousands of other political activists, including Kashmiri pro-India leaders who objected to India’s move, amid an unprecedented security clampdown and a total communication blackout in the region.


The region has since been on edge, with civil liberties curbed and media gagged.


Mirwaiz heads the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella grouping that espouses the right to self-determination for the entire region, which is divided between India and Pakistan.


According to Mirwaiz, the crackdown has restricted his group’s access to people and shrunk its “space and scope for proactive involvement” like before.


“The massive assault has considerably weakened the organizational strength of the Hurriyat, but not its resolve,” he said.


India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, and both countries control parts of the Himalayan territory divided by a heavily militarised frontier.

After their first war in 1947, a United Nations referendum a year later gave Kashmir the choice of joining either Pakistan or India, but it never happened. The part of Kashmir controlled by India was granted semi-autonomy and special privileges in exchange for accepting Indian rule.


However, Kashmiri discontent with India soon began taking root as successive Indian governments started chipping away at that pact. Local governments were toppled and largely peaceful anti-India movements were harshly suppressed.


In the mid-1980s, an election that was widely believed to have been rigged led to public backlash and an armed uprising. Since then, rebels have been fighting in the India-controlled part for a united Kashmir, either under Pakistani rule or independent of both.


They also did not boycott India’s recent general election. Instead, some lower-ranking activists, who in the past dismissed voting as illegitimate under military occupation, are running for office as independent candidates.


“Boycott was the democratic means to express anger, reject this projection and draw attention towards the unsolved issue (of Kashmir),” Mirwaiz said. But India’s crackdown has left people “powerless and disempowered” and in such a scenario a “poll boycott cannot work anymore."


Mirwaiz has distanced himself from the election, but said it had been engineered in favor of Modi’s Hindu nationalist politics before it started on September 18.


SOURCE: AP

Top Kashmir leader says India has silenced dissenting voices as region votes in final phase of polls

A key resistance leader in Indian-controlled Kashmir says the regional polls to choose a local government will not resolve the decades-old conflict over the disputed region

By AIJAZ HUSSAIN

 Associated Press
September 29, 2024

SRINAGAR, India -- Ahead of the final phase of a local election in Indian-controlled Kashmir, a key resistance leader says the regional polls to choose a local government will not resolve the decades-old conflict that is at the heart of a dispute between New Delhi and Pakistan.

Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who has spent most of the last five years under house detention, said the polls are being held as political voices contesting India’s sovereignty over the region remain silenced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government stripped the region of its long-held semi-autonomy in 2019.

The detained leader said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that the election, touted by the Modi government as a “ festival of democracy ” in the region, cannot be an alternative to resolving the dispute.

“These elections cannot be the means to address the larger Kashmir issue,” said Mirwaiz, who is also an influential Muslim cleric and custodian of the six-century-old grand mosque in the region’s main Srinagar city, the urban heartland of anti-India sentiment.

The multistage election, the last phase of which is being held Tuesday, will allow Kashmir to have its own truncated government and a regional legislature with limited powers. It is the first such vote in a decade and the first since 2019, when New Delhi downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories — Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir — both ruled directly by New Delhi through unelected bureaucrats.

Authorities have said the election will bring democracy to the region after more than three decades of strife, but many locals see the vote as an opportunity not only to elect their own representatives but also to register their protest against the 2019 changes they fear could dilute the region’s demographics.

India’s clampdown following the 2019 move “has silenced people” in the region who “feel dispossessed and disempowered,” Mirwaiz said.

“You may not see active turmoil like before 2019 but there is a strong, latent public resistance to all this,” he said. “We have been forcibly silenced, but silence is not agreement.”

India’s sudden move, which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters, was mostly opposed in Kashmir as an assault on its identity and autonomy. Fearing unrest, authorities detained Mirwaiz and thousands of other political activists, including Kashmiri pro-India leaders who objected to India’s move, amid an unprecedented security clampdown and a total communication blackout in the region.

The region has since been on edge, with civil liberties curbed and media gagged.

Mirwaiz heads the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella grouping that espouses the right to self-determination for the entire region, which is divided between India and Pakistan.

According to Mirwaiz, the crackdown has restricted his group’s access to people and shrunk its “space and scope for proactive involvement” like before.

“The massive assault has considerably weakened the organizational strength of the Hurriyat, but not its resolve,” he said.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, and both countries control parts of the Himalayan territory divided by a heavily militarized frontier. After their first war in 1947, a United Nations referendum a year later gave Kashmir the choice of joining either Pakistan or India, but it never happened. The part of Kashmir controlled by India was granted semi-autonomy and special privileges in exchange for accepting Indian rule.

However, Kashmiri discontent with India soon began taking root as successive Indian governments started chipping away at that pact. Local governments were toppled and largely peaceful anti-India movements were harshly suppressed.

In the mid-1980s, an election that was widely believed to have been rigged led to public backlash and an armed uprising. Since then, rebels have been fighting in the Indian-controlled part for a united Kashmir, either under Pakistani rule or independent of both.

Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal. India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle.

Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

Mirwaiz's group believes only talks between India, Pakistan and the region’s people can end the conflict. In the past, he has held several rounds of talks with both New Delhi and Islamabad leaders, including their heads of government. However, under Modi, India has shifted its Kashmir policy and stopped engaging with the region’s pro-freedom leaders, including Mirwaiz.

Previous elections in the region have been marred by violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism. This time, the pro-freedom groups, largely incapacitated with most of their leaders jailed, have issued no calls for boycotts.

They also did not boycott India’s recent general election. Instead, some lower-ranking activists, who in the past dismissed voting as illegitimate under military occupation, are running for office as independent candidates.

“Boycott was the democratic means to express anger, reject this projection and draw attention towards the unsolved issue (of Kashmir),” Mirwaiz said. But India’s crackdown has left people “powerless and disempowered” and in such a scenario a “poll boycott cannot work anymore."

Mirwaiz has distanced himself from the election, but said it had been engineered in favor of Modi’s Hindu nationalist politics before it started on Sept. 18.

He cited the government’s July amendment to legislation that gives sweeping executive powers to the federally appointed administrator even after a new local government comes to power in the region. He also referred to the redrawing of assembly districts in 2022 as “electoral gerrymandering,” an act that gave more electoral representation to the Hindu-dominated Jammu areas over the region’s overwhelmingly Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley.

Mirwaiz, however, hoped Kashmiri groups, including pro-India parties, would jointly seek a resolution of the conflict. He expressed his willingness to engage in talks with India but warned that the election should not be seen as public acceptance of New Delhi’s changes in the region.

Public participation in the election, Mirwaiz said, “is a release of their pent-up emotions and a means to oppose these disempowering and dispossessing measures, besides hoping to get some relief and redressal for their bread and butter issues.”

Austria's far-right secures first win in national election since WWII

Austria's Freedom Party, led by Herbert Kickl, won the election with around 29% vote.



Reuters

Head of Freedom Party Herbert Kickl gestures, as vote projections show that FPOe won the general election, in Vienna / Photo: Reuters

Political parties on the European right have celebrated the parliamentary election victory by Austria's Freedom Party (FPO) as a boost for national conservatives amid advances by the hard right fuelled by worries about immigration. It's the first far-right national parliamentary election victory in post-World War II Austria

Led by Herbert Kickl, who capitalised on a misfiring economy and concerns that Austria has taken in people faster than it can integrate them, the FPO won around 29 percent of the vote, a record result that may give it a platform to lead the next government.

Kickl must find a partner to form a stable coalition, and he is loathed by other party leaders, who have refused to serve under him and quickly began discussing the possibility of sounding out alternatives to an FPO-led government.

The far-right has benefited from frustration over high inflation, the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic. It has also built on worries about migration.

About 300 protesters gathered outside the parliament building in Vienna on Sunday evening, holding placards with slogans including "Kickl is a Nazi."



European right-wing celebration

There were warm words from allies in Europe, where the FPO forms part of a right-wing group inside the European Parliament led by France's far-right National Rally (RN).

Its leader, Marine Le Pen, expressed delight at the victory and said it showed those parties were advancing.

"After the Italian, Dutch and French elections, this tidal wave which supports the defence of national interests, the safeguarding of identities and the resurrection of sovereignties, confirms the triumph of the people everywhere," Le Pen wrote in a post on X.

Bjoern Hoecke, one of the leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), called the FPO's win a "sensation" and said on X: "The FPO victory isn't just a victory for Austria - it extends far beyond the borders of the Alpine republic and is a good sign of progress for Europe."

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook: "What a weekend!! After the Czech Republic, another victory for the Patriots across the border... No war, no migration and no gender propaganda!"

Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders, whose PVV party leads the Dutch government, responded to the FPO victory on X by saying: "We are winning! Times are changing! Identity, sovereignty, freedom and no more illegal immigration/asylum is what tens of millions of Europeans long for!"

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini of the co-ruling League party said in a statement the Austrian vote was "a historic day in the name of change."

"To those who speak of the 'extreme right', let us remind them that in Vienna (as in almost all of Europe), there is only the desire for change by putting the values of work, family and security back at the centre," he added.

Ukraine in balance

The win by the Eurosceptic FPO could sow division within the European Union over foreign policy areas, such as support for Ukraine.

Kickl opposes sending aid to Kiev, and critics of the RN and other parties in the right-wing Patriots for Europe group, the third-largest in the European Parliament, often argue they have been too soft on Moscow.

The Freedom Party also calls for an end to sanctions against Russia.

Austria far-right supporters toast historic victory

By AFP
September 29, 2024

Blaise GAUQUELIN

As jubilant Austrian far-right supporters celebrated their party’s historic win in Sunday’s national elections with beers, they knew forming a government would not be easy.

“It’s a real success… (but) I predict that no matter who forms the government, we will certainly not have one before Christmas,” Erik Berglund, a 35-year-old waiter, told AFP.

Led by sharp-tongued Herbert Kickl since 2021, the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) had been tipped to narrowly beat the ruling conservatives but Sunday’s results — with the party getting around 29 percent — were even slightly better than expected.

Like other party supporters around him in traditional Austrian dress, Berglund credited Kickl the “most competent leader”.

But he said it would now be up to the other parties to decide if the FPOe head can become chancellor.

“It will certainly be a very, very exciting time,” he added as electric blue light — the FPOe colour — illuminated the restaurant in downtown Vienna where the party was celebrating.

Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) celebrates its win in downtown Vienna - Copyright APA/AFP ROLAND SCHLAGER

– ‘Mountain climber’ –

Chancellor Karl Nehammer, whose conservatives came second in the elections, has already said he would not form a coalition government with Kickl. Other party leaders have also rejected him.

“I am a mountain climber, but the bag that I have been given is not light,” the sporty Kickl told his cheering supporters.

As supporters watched the vote night unfold on private television rather than public broadcaster ORF, which the FPOe has accused of being biased, they booed whenever other parties’ representatives appeared onscreen.

Hilmar Kabas, an FPOe member since the 1960s, said other parties’ “weakness” was the main reason that propelled the far right to victory.

But supporters wearing “Team Kickl” parkas also rattle off other reasons, such as asylum seeker applications deemed too many, a slumping economy and the high cost of living that has seen far-right parties across Europe gain ground.

But if no one is willing to form a coalition under Kickl, it’s better to stay in the opposition, Kabas said.

“It is not the other parties that decide for us,” he added.

– ‘Beacon in our night’ –

A loden-clothed activist from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was also among the crowd, having come specially from Bavaria state in neighbouring Germany to celebrate with his “friends”.

“Germany is looking toward Vienna tonight,” he said, declining to give his name.

With him, he brought a gift for Kickl: a small blue lighthouse engraved with his name because “he is a beacon in our night”.

Outgoing lawmaker Petra Steger said President Alexander Van der Bellen must now give the mandate to Kickl to form a government “respecting the voters”.

“That’s how it works in a democracy,” she said.

Having expressed reservations about Kickl a few months ago, Van der Bellen promised after the results were announced he would make sure a government is formed that respects the “foundations of our liberal democracy”.

Not far from the FPOe celebration, in front of parliament, a few hundred people gathered to say “no to Kickl”, leader of a party formed by former Nazis.

“Nazis out”, they chanted.

“Unfortunately, it was to be expected that the FPOe would be in the lead, but it is quite sad (to have this result), because somehow we have learned nothing from history,” Juliana Hofmann, a 19-year-old student, told AFP.

Austria's rightward shift puts immigration in crosshairs

September 30, 2024 
By Reuters

Head of Freedom Party (FPO) Herbert Kickl celebrates, as vote projections show the party won the general election, in Vienna, Austria, Sept. 29, 2024.

VIENNA —

Picknicking with friends in the park after prayers at a Vienna mosque, Saima Arab, a 20-year-old pedicurist originally from Afghanistan, is thankful for her freedoms in Austria.

"We could never do this in Afghanistan, never cook, go out, just sit in public like this," said Arab, who came to Austria in 2017. "Home is like a prison there."

Many Austrians, however, are worried about their country's ability to integrate migrants, especially Muslims, and their desire for stricter immigration laws was a key issue in Sunday's election which gave victory to the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) for the first time.

Both the FPO and the runner-up, the ruling conservative Austrian People's Party (OVP), ran on pledges to tighten asylum laws and crack down on illegal immigration.

The FPO victory added to critics' concerns about the rise of the far right in Europe after electoral gains in recent months by the Alternative for Germany and the National Rally in France.

"Whatever the government looks like after the election, I'm certain it'll work towards toughening up asylum and immigration law," Professor Walter Obwexer, an adviser to the government on migration law, said before the vote.

Arab, who also spoke to Reuters in an interview conducted before the election, said she did not like to talk about politics but hoped she too would vote in Austria one day.

The number of people in Austria born abroad or whose parents were jumped by more than a third between 2015 and last year, and now account for around 27% of the population of about 9 million.

Together the FPO and the OVP won over 55% of the vote and one of the two is almost certain to lead the next government, feeding expectations that Austria, like neighboring Germany and Hungary, and France, will adopt tougher rules.

Opinion polls showed immigration and inflation were key voter concerns. Such is the worry that Austria is taking in migrants faster than it can integrate them that even some Austrians of Muslim origin feel Austria is stretched.

"I wonder if the system is close to collapse," said Mehmet Ozay, a Turkish-born Austrian FPO supporter, arguing there were too many asylum seekers not contributing to state coffers.

Taylor Swift concert

The FPO has combined its tough talk on immigration with criticism of Islam.

The issue took center stage last month when police arrested a teenager with North Macedonian roots on suspicion of masterminding a failed Islamic State-inspired attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna.

Running on the campaign slogan "Fortress Austria," the FPO promoted "remigration," including returning asylum seekers to their countries of origin, especially if they fail to integrate, and limiting asylum rights.

That has unsettled some who feel the party, which dropped some of its more polarizing slogans in the campaign, is demonizing foreigners.

The FPO, which did not reply to a request for comment, denies this. It says asylum seekers are a drain on state resources, and draws attention to crimes some of them commit.

"The FPO routinely talk about refugees and asylum seekers as rapists and thieves and drug dealers," said Hedy, a social worker and Austrian citizen who arrived as a refugee from Afghanistan. He declined to give his last name.

"Something very similar happened to the Jews in Vienna before the Second World War," he said, adding that the FPO, which wants to ban "political Islam," would embolden xenophobes.

The FPO, whose first leader was a former Nazi lawmaker, has sought to distance itself from its past, and in 2019 helped pass a law allowing foreign descendants of Austrian victims of National Socialism to acquire Austrian citizenship.

This month FPO leader Herbert Kickl called Adolf Hitler the "biggest mass murderer in human history," as he roundly denounced the Nazi dictator's legacy in a television debate.

Still, Alon Ishay, head of the Austrian Association of Jewish Students, said he saw some parallels between targeting of Jews in the early Nazi era and attitudes to Muslims now.

"There are rhetorical similarities when you talk about deportation, when you talk about taking people's citizenship away," he said, also speaking before Sunday's election.

FPO-backer Ozay disagreed, saying that Muslims such as himself were free to do as they liked in Austria.

"If there were daily attacks by FPO voters I would understand the fear that things would get even more extreme if Kickl came to power," he said. "But that's not how it is. It's just fear stirred up by the other parties."

FPÖ wins big in Austrian elections – but “kingmaker” Conservatives lean towards the left

Chris Gattringer
30 September 2024

BRUSSELS SIGNAL

The Freedom Party (FPÖ) scored a momentous and better-than-expected win in Austria’s September 29 elections. At 9 pm – with 97 per cent of votes counted – the right-wing FPÖ party under its leader Herbert Kickl led other parties with 29 per cent of the vote, a 13 percentage-point improvement over its performance in the previous 2019 elections.

It was a better result for the FPÖ than the last pre-elections polls predicted, which suggested a tie for first place between Kickl’s party and the conservative People’s Party (ÖVP). In the event, the FPÖ pulled ahead of the ÖVP by 2.5 percentage points.

The Conservatives emerged as the election’s clear loser, in the worst result for the ÖVP since 2013.

Karl Nehammer’s party lost 11 percentage points compared with 2019. Its 26 per cent share of the vote was the party’s lowest in 11 years.

The days now seemed a distant memory when the ÖVP trounced other parties with 37 per cent of the vote in 2019, under the party’s young leader Sebastian Kurz.

Kurz was subsequently forced to resign as Austrian chancellor in 2021 due to a perjury lawsuit, replaced by the much less charismatic party soldier Nehammer.

The Greens, the ÖVP’s coalition partner for the last five years, were the day’s other big loser.

Werner Kogler’s party dropped from 14 per cent of the vote in 2019 to only eight per cent, despite heavy support from much of the Austrian press.

The Social Democrats, with an expected 21 per cent of the vote, scored their worst result in a general election since the Second World War.

This was even worse than their previous worst postwar showing in 2019. Their relatively new chairman Andreas Babler, a self-declared “Marxist”, ran on a programme matching his self-description.

The left-leaning liberal Neos party did not capitalise on dissatisfaction with the government either, gaining only a single percentage point to win nine per cent of the vote.

A spate of predominantly left-wing fringe parties failed to surpass the four per cent minimum showing to secure parliamentary representation.

Barring last-minute surprises, there were two main options for a two-party coalition to secure a majority in the Austrian parliament’s lower house, the National Council.

FPÖ and ÖVP together would have a comfortable 108-seat majority in the 183-seats chamber.

Together with Neos they would even have enjoy two-thirds supermajority, allowing them to amend Austria’s constitution.

This would permit the new government to push through much-needed reforms such as a federal debt limit, or abolishing constitutionally forced membership in the Chamber of Commerce (for employers) and the Chamber of Workers (for employees).

However, dreams of a three-member reform coalition appear premature.

The sole remaining option for a two-party coalition is a government consisting of the ÖVP and the Social Democrats (SPÖ), though this would only have a thin majority of one seat.

Still, some ÖVP representatives have shown a clear preference for this coalition—which before the election was dubbed a “coalition of the losers”.

Before the vote the ÖVP ruled out a coalition with the FPÖ if the government included Herbert Kickl, accusing him of “radicalisation” and “right-wing extremism”.

However, after scoring a landslide win for his party it is unlikely Kickl would be replaced against his will.

It remained to be seen if the Conservatives’ election loss leads to a change of mind. The ÖVP’s leader, Nehammer, called the result “bitter” in his initial reaction, and did not want to speculate about possible coalitions.

All parties other than the ÖVP have ruled out entering into a coalition with the FPÖ.

On Sunday evening, Herbert Kickl told other party leaders: “Our hand is outstretched. I am ready for talks with each and every one of you”.

Austria now faced a difficult and potentially long phase of party talks before a future coalition government emerged.

Some commentators expected the ÖVP to drag coalition talks well into November until after regional elections in two states.

Also, a coalition between the ÖVP and SPÖ might drive even more dissatisfied conservative voters towards Kickl’s Freedom Party.

 

'Cocoa crisis' to push chocolate prices even higher


By Adam Vidler

 Sep 30, 2024

CHANNEL9

A "cocoa crisis" is likely to push chocolate prices higher around the world, a new report by Rabobank has found.

The food and agribusiness banking specialist found that "significantly higher" chocolate prices would hit shelves over coming months and into 2025.

Cocoa commodity prices have hit their highest levels in nearly 50 years, hitting nearly US$12,000 a ton ($17,347 a ton) in the first half of this year, according to RaboResearch analyst Paul Joules.

Chocolate prices are set to rise around the world. (Getty)

"This dramatic increase, fuelled by a global cocoa shortage, is primarily due to a disappointing harvest in West Africa, the source of 70 per cent of the world's cocoa," Joules said.

"The International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO) reports a 14.2 per cent drop in global cocoa production for the 2023-24 season, leading to a shortage of approximately 462,000 metric tons and the lowest cocoa stocks in 22 years."

The full impact is yet to make its way to the supermarket shelves, despite retail prices already rising.

A very poor cocoa harvest in West Africa is being blamed for price hikes. (File)

"Due to the lag in the supply chain and existing contracts, the steepest price hikes are anticipated in the second half of 2024 and into 2025," Joules said.

"This would inevitably lead to higher prices for consumers, particularly for dark chocolates with higher cocoa content."

To combat rising costs, Joules said, chocolate manufacturers across the globe were adopting various strategies.

"These include 'shrinkflation', which is reducing package sizes while maintaining prices, and 'skimpflation', which is altering recipes to use less cocoa and more fillers," he said.
"These tactics, while effective, are often unpopular with consumers."

And shoppers are likely to have to alter their buying habits in response.

"The increased cost of chocolate is expected to lead to a significant drop in consumer demand. This market correction should balance the cocoa supply shortage and stabilise prices," Joules said.

"For the western European market, a decline in chocolate volumes in the mid-to-high-single digits is projected, with this becoming more apparent in 2025."

He said there was already a "structural" shift away from sweets consumption, with a significant decline in volume sales in recent years.

"The current crisis adds to the challenges, making a return to significant growth unlikely in the near future," he said.

 

Fire at Atlanta chemical plant forces evacuations

TEHRAN, Sep. 29 (MNA) – A fire broke out at a chemical plant just east of Atlanta on Sunday, prompting officials to ask residents in the area to evacuate.

At around 5 a.m., a sprinkler head malfunctioned at the BioLab plant in Conyers, “causing a mixture with a water reactive chemical,” Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel said, according to NBC News.

“There was a small fire on the roof, which has been contained, but at that time, right now, there are no other issues,” McDaniel said.

The fire department is working on removing the material from the building and the water source, McDaniel said at a press conference Sunday.

Officials did not say what kind of chemical was released, but advised people to shelter in place and said the situation could change quickly.

“We’ll tell people to shelter in place, keep your doors and windows closed,” McDaniel said. “Any event, the wind shift, this thing can change really quickly. But once again, shelter in place, windows and doors closed.”

Rockdale County officials told residents living between Sigman Road and Interstate 20 to evacuate Sunday morning. Those living north of Sigman Road were advised to shelter in place. Churches in the area were advised to cancel services.

It’s not clear if there are any injuries at the time when this report was being published.

MNA/PR

SPACE/COSMOLOGY

SpaceX capsule arrives to take stranded astronauts home – but not until February

Astronauts Nick Hague and Alexander Gorbunov dock at the International Space Station in their SpaceX capsule (NASA via AP)

Sun, 29 Sep, 2024 -
Associated Press reporters

The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday’s arrival of a SpaceX capsule.

SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return next year.

The Dragon capsule docked in darkness high over Botswana as the two craft soared 260 miles above Earth.

Nasa switched Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams to SpaceX following concerns over the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule.

SpaceX capsule Dragon approaches the International Space Station (Nasa via AP)

It was the first Starliner test flight with a crew, and Nasa decided the thruster failures and helium leaks that cropped up after lift-off were too serious and poorly understood to risk the test pilots’ return.

So Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month.

The Dragon carrying Nasa’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov will remain at the space station until February, turning what should have been a week-long trip for Wilmore and Williams into a mission lasting more than eight months.

Two Nasa astronauts were pulled from the mission to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return leg.

Nasa likes to replace its station crews every six months or so.

SpaceX has provided the taxi service since the company’s first astronaut flight in 2020.

Nasa also hired Boeing for ferry flights after the space shuttles were retired, but flawed software and other Starliner issues led to years of delays and more than 1.0 billion US dollars in repairs.

Starliner inspections are underway at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre, with post-flight reviews of data set to begin this week.

The arrival of two fresh astronauts means the four who have been up there since March can now return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule in just over a week.

Their stay was extended a month because of the Starliner turmoil.

Although Saturday’s lift-off went well, SpaceX said the rocket’s spent upper stage ended up outside its targeted impact zone in the Pacific because of a bad engine firing.