Atlantic Sentinel

Author: Atlantic Sentinel

  • Sánchez Has Made Spain Freer and Greener

    Pedro Sanchez
    Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez speaks at a rally of his Socialist Workers’ Party in Badajoz, May 23 (PSOE)

    Spain has done well under Pedro Sánchez. The economy is projected to grow 2 percent this year and next, faster than the EU average. Unemployment is at its lowest since 2008. Inflation is down from 8 to under 3 percent. Spaniards pay almost the lowest energy bills in Europe. Renewables provide 50 percent of Spain’s electricity.

    Sánchez, a social democrat who governs with the far left, has protected Spaniards from the worst effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine by temporarily reducing sales tax on food and fuel and by paying the wages of workers who lost their jobs. He has invested 40 percent of Spain’s EU COVID-19 recovery funds into green projects.

    He has also made structural reforms, like raising the minimum wage and reducing severance pay. He cut taxes for small businesses and incomes under €300,000, and paid for it by raising taxes on capital gains and incomes over €3 million.

    The left-wing coalition government — the first since the Civil War — banned “gay conversion therapy”, legalized euthanasia for the terminally ill and required slaughterhouses to install cameras. (more…)

  • Macron Is Succeeding. He Deserves a Second Term

    Emmanuel Macron
    French president Emmanuel Macron gives a speech in Nîmes, December 6, 2019 (Elysée/Soazig de la Moissonniere)

    When we endorsed Emmanuel Macron in 2017, it was because he was the best candidate to make France competitive and confident again. He has. French voters should give him a second term.

    Macron relaxed French labor laws, which had been among the strictest in the world. Unemployment fell to a thirteen-year low. He eased auditing requirements, streamlined bankruptcy procedures and lowered social charges and taxes for entrepreneurs. Business creation rose 60 percent.

    Foreign investors were impressed. Before the pandemic, France even overtook Germany and the United Kingdom as the top destination of foreign investment in Europe.

    Opponents have lampooned Macron as a “president of the rich” for putting the economy first. But he also enrolled freelancers in public unemployment insurance, extended welfare to one million more households, and made dental services, eyeglasses and hearing aids free.

    France became a leader again in Europe. Macron didn’t win every argument in Brussels, but the EU looks and sounds more French than it did five years ago. Xi Jinping’s authoritarianism and Donald Trump’s isolationism have convinced the other member states to give France’s proposals for European “strategic autonomy” a chance. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has given European defense cooperation, long favored by the French, a new lease on life. With five more years, Macron could put those ideas into action. (more…)

  • Merkel’s Party Loses German Election, Left and Liberals Gain

    • Outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union lost the election on Sunday.
    • The center-left Social Democrats (SPD) became the largest party for the first time since 2005.
    • The Greens and liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) made gains.
    • Three parties will probably be needed to form the next German government. (more…)

  • Liberals Would Lend Urgency to Next German Government

    Christian Lindner
    German Free Democratic Party leader Christian Lindner makes a speech in parliament in Berlin (Kevin Schneider)

    With Germany’s Christian Democrats and Social Democrats neck and neck in the polls, and the Greens not far behind, no single party or combination of two parties is projected to win a majority in the election on Sunday. Germans should vote for the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and make them kingmakers in the next Bundestag.

    The liberals balked at a pact with the Christian Democrats and Greens in 2017, fearing that concessions to the center and left would prevent them from prying away voters from the far-right Alternative for Germany. They have wisely abandoned that strategy. Center-right parties across Europe have tried and failed to win back voters from the nationalist right by mimicking their policies and rhetoric. It’s unconvincing. The parties that did find their way back, like the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, did so by being true by their convictions.

    The Free Democrats, in their manifesto as well as their campaign, have been outspokenly liberal, calling for equal adoption rights for gay couples, protecting personal data, reducing publicly-funded media to news and documentaries, and restricting unemployment benefits. These aren’t priorities for other parties, which is why the FDP needs to get back into power. (more…)

  • Rutte Wins Dutch Election, Pro-EU Party Places Second

    • Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s liberal VVD placed first in parliamentary elections in the Netherlands on Wednesday but fell short of a majority.
    • Three or four parties will be needed to form a coalition government.
    • The social-liberal and pro-European D66, which has governed with Rutte since 2017, placed second, pushing Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) into third place.
    • The PVV lost seats to the more radical Forum for Democracy (FvD).
    • The combined populist right, including newcomer JA21, is projected to win more seats than the Labor Party, Greens and far-left Socialists combined. (more…)

  • Biden Wins American Presidency, Trump Refuses to Concede

    • Former vice president Joe Biden has defeated incumbent Donald Trump in the American presidential election.
    • Biden won 5.5 million more votes nationwide and an Electoral College majority by flipping Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
    • Trump has yet to concede and falsely accused Democrats of “stealing” the election.
    • Most Europeans preferred Biden, but Trump had fans in Central Europe. (more…)

  • Biden Would Pull America from the Brink

    Joe Biden
    Former American vice president Joe Biden campaigns in Des Moines, Iowa, August 8, 2019 (Gage Skidmore)

    The rest of the free world will never look at America the same way again.

    Donald Trump’s election in 2016, coming on the heels of a disastrous Iraq War few Canadians and Europeans supported, disillusioned even the most fervent Atlanticists. The land of the free was no longer impervious to the dark forces of nativism that necessitated the Atlantic alliance in the first place.

    A restoration under Joe Biden may be unlikely. America is drawn to Asia and Europe must take responsibility for security in its own neighborhood. But four more years of Trump could shatter even pragmatic cooperation between nations that are still committed to an open and just world. Biden would pull America from the brink and rejoin the West. (more…)

  • Biden Sweeps Super Tuesday States, Bloomberg Quits

    • Former vice president Joe Biden won ten of the fourteen states that held Democratic presidential primaries on “Super Tuesday”, including Elizabeth Warren’s home state Massachusetts and delegate-rich Virginia and Texas.
    • His socialist rival, Bernie Sanders, won in California, Colorado, Utah and Vermont.
    • Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg ended his presidential campaign after failing to win any contest except the caucuses on American Samoa.
    • 1,344 pledged delegates were at stake, a third of the total (3,979) and two-thirds of the delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot (1,991). (more…)

  • Biden Wins South Carolina Primary, Steyer Drops Out

    • Former vice president Joe Biden has won the Democratic primary in South Carolina on the back of overwhelming support from African Americans.
    • Vermont senator Bernie Sanders placed a distant second.
    • Billionaire Tom Steyer ended his presidential campaign after failing to qualify for delegates. (more…)

  • Sanders Wins Nevada Caucuses, Biden Places Second

    • Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic caucuses in Nevada, the most diverse state yet to vote in the presidential nominating contest.
    • Former vice president Joe Biden placed second.
    • Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren did not qualify for delegates. (more…)

  • Sanders Wins in New Hampshire, Biden Places Fifth

    • Bernie Sanders has won the Democratic primary in New Hampshire, the second state to vote in the presidential nominating contest.
    • The socialist from neighboring Vermont won 26 percent support.
    • Center-left candidates Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor, and Amy Klobuchar, a senator from Minnesota, won 24 and 20 percent, respectively.
    • Former vice president Joe Biden and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren did not meet the 15 percent threshold to quality for delegates. (more…)

  • Buttigieg, Sanders Share First Place in Iowa

    • Democratic presidential hopefuls Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders tied in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.
    • Sanders won the popular vote but split the delegates with the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
    • Elizabeth Warren placed third, followed by former vice president Joe Biden. (more…)

  • Top Iranian General Soleimani Killed in American Drone Strike

    Donald Trump
    Donald Trump gives a speech in Derry, New Hampshire, August 19, 2015 (Michael Vadon)
    • Protests have erupted in Iran after the government admitted responsibility for shooting down an Ukrainian passenger jet on the same night as it fired missiles into Iraq to avenge the death of its top military commander, Qasem Soleimani.
    • Soleimani, who led Iran’s expeditionary Quds Force, was killed in an American drone strike on President Donald Trump’s order.
    • No Americans or Iraqis were killed in the reprisals. All 176 passengers and crew aboard Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, including 82 Iranians, were killed when the plane crashed outside Tehran on Wednesday morning. (more…)

  • Sánchez Wins Second Term as Prime Minister of Spain

    Pedro Sánchez
    Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez makes a speech in Congress in Madrid, July 17, 2018 (La Moncloa)
    • Socialist Party leader Pedro Sánchez has won a second term as prime minister of Spain.
    • He fell short of a absolute majority in Congress on Sunday but needed only more votes in favor than against a the second ballot on Tuesday.
    • Left-wing separatists from the Basque Country and Catalonia abstained, allowing Sánchez to scrape by with a majority of two — the smallest ever for a Spanish prime minister.
    • Sánchez’ will be the first coalition government since the Civil War and the most left-wing government since the fall of the Republic. (more…)

  • Conservative Landslide in British Election

    • Britain’s ruling Conservative Party is on track to win its biggest parliamentary majority since 1987.
    • The election on Thursday was the worst for Labour since 1935. Jeremy Corbyn has announced he will resign.
    • Scotland’s National Party is expected to win almost all seats in the region and demanding a second independence referendum.
    • The Liberal Democrats fell short of expectations. Party leader Jo Swinson even lost reelection in her own constituency. (more…)