Atlantic Sentinel

Category: News

  • Regional Parties Refuse Deal with Spanish Right

    Alberto Núñez Feijóo
    Spanish People’s Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo attends the European People’s Party congress in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, May 30, 2022 (PP)

    Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s chances of becoming Spain’s prime minister appear slim.

    His conservative People’s Party won the election on Sunday with 136 of the 350 seats in Congress. But a coalition with the far-right Vox (Voice) and center-right Navarrese People’s Union would be stuck at 170 seats, six short of a majority.

    The Canarian Coalition, which governs the Spanish islands in the Atlantic with Feijóo’s PP, and the moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) have six seats between them. But both refuse to support a prime minister who also needs Vox.

    Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’ chances are only slightly better. He would need the support of almost all remaining parties, including Basque and Catalan separatists, to stay in power.

    If neither man can muster a majority, Spain would have to hold a repeat election, probably in December or the new year. (more…)

  • Conservatives Water Down EU Nature and Farming Laws

    European Parliament Strasbourg
    The European Parliament votes in Strasbourg, October 24, 2018 (European Parliament)

    The European Parliament narrowly approved a new nature-restoration law on Wednesday. 336 lawmakers, mostly from the center-left, supported a European Commission proposal to restore 20 percent of Europe’s degraded ecosystems by 2030 and all areas deemed in need of restoration by 2050. 300 lawmakers from the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) and Euroskeptic right voted against it.

    But to make the proposal palatable to the centrist Renew group, the obligations for member states were watered down and farm land was excluded from the restoration goals.

    Liberals from Finland, Germany and the Netherlands still voted against the bill, fearing a repetition of the situation in the Netherlands, where a strict interpretation of existing EU conservation law has slowed construction and thrown thousands of livestock farmers into uncertainty.

    In a lesser-noticed vote, the center-right also excluded most livestock farmers from stricter EU targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. (more…)

  • Rutte Calls Early Election After Failed Push to Reform Asylum

    Sigrid Kaag Mark Rutte
    Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag and Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands listen to a debate in parliament in The Hague, September 21, 2022 (ANP/Sem van der Wal)

    Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte announced the dissolution of his fourth cabinet on Friday after two days of negotiations that ran deep into the night on Thursday failed to unite the ruling parties behind a plan to reform asylum law.

    Rutte’s center-right VVD (of which I am a member) and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) had demanded reforms to reduce immigration, which reached a record 400,000 last year. The Christian Union and left-liberal D66 would not support stricter rules for family reunification.

    Rutte tendered his resignation to King Willem-Alexander, who returned from holiday in Greece, on Saturday. He stays on as caretaker prime minister until a new government can be formed. Elections are expected to be held in November.

    Rutte’s VVD is neck and neck in the polls with the right-wing Farmer-Citizen Movement. It won the provincial elections in March. (more…)

  • Dutch Parties in Rush to Do Budget Deal

    Mark Rutte
    Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte arrives to a meeting of European leaders in Brussels, December 15, 2022 (European Council)

    The ruling parties in the Netherlands are in a rush to do a budget deal before parliament goes on summer recess.

    In addition to spending, the four parties — two liberal, two Christian democrat — need to agree on asylum reform, more ambitious climate legislation and a resolution to the Netherlands’ farm crisis.

    The issues are connected. Raising climate-related taxes, for example on diesel or meat, could stave off spending cuts. Reducing ammonia pollution from farms unlocks permits needed to build homes for refugees. (more…)

  • Liberals, Farmers’ Party to Gain Seats in Dutch Senate: Poll

    Mark Rutte
    Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte arrives to a meeting of the European Council in Brussels, October 20, 2022 (European Council)

    Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s liberal VVD is projected to gain seats in the Netherlands’ upper house elections in May. His Christian democratic coalition partners would lose seats to a new agrarian party.

    An Ipsos survey for EenVandaag, a nightly news program, shows Rutte’s center-right party gaining three seats in the 75-seat chamber, going from twelve to fifteen.

    The left-liberal D66, the second party in Rutte’s government, would remain at seven seats.

    The other two ruling parties are down: the Christian Democratic Appeal would fall from nine to five seats, the Christian Union from four to two.

    Seventeen parties and one independent senator are projected to win seats altogether. (more…)

  • Drug Reforms Fail Despite Republican Support in Congress

    United States Capitol Washington
    United States Capitol in Washington DC, January 15, 2017 (DoD/William Lockwood)

    American lawmakers managed to cram everything from a TikTok ban on government phones to a delay in fishing regulations (really) into this year’s $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, but somehow drug reforms that had bipartisan support in the House of Representatives were omitted from the Senate version.

    Tori Otten reports for The New Republic that proposals to allow cannabis stores to open bank accounts and end sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine were taken out at the last minute. (more…)

  • Netherlands Should Consider Euro Exit: Former Central Banker

    Lex Hoogduin
    Former Dutch central banker Lex Hoogduin speaks at the European Systemic Risk Board conference in Frankfurt, September 22, 2017 (ECB)

    The Netherlands should consider exiting the euro, argues Lex Hoogduin, a former director of the country’s central bank.

    Hoogduin, now a professor of financial markets at Groningen University, points out in an interview with Wynia’s Week that the nineteen countries that share the euro have broken almost all the rules they agreed in the 1990s, when the currency was introduced. High inflation and low interest rates — to help France and Italy service their debts — threaten Dutch trade and €1.4 trillion in Dutch pension assets. (more…)

  • Dutch Government to Cap Energy Prices

    Sigrid Kaag
    Dutch finance minister Sigrid Kaag presents her 2023 budget to parliament in The Hague, September 20 (Ministerie van Financiën/Valerie Kuypers)

    The Dutch government will cap electricity and gas prices.

    King Willem-Alexander announced the measures, which replace an energy tax discount, during the state opening of parliament in The Hague.

    The Netherlands until recently opposed price caps in Europe, arguing they disincentivize energy conservation.

    Lower fuel taxes will remain in place until the middle of next year. (more…)

  • Dutch Spend €16 Billion to Offset Higher Living Costs

    Mark Rutte
    Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte answers questions from members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, July 5, 2016 (European Parliament)

    The Dutch government is due to unveil €16 billion in new spending (worth 2 percent of GDP) to help low- and middle-income earners pay record-high energy and grocery bills.

    A package of benefits, tax cuts and tax increases Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s four-party coalition agreed was promptly leaked to various media. They will be officially announced in next year’s budget on September 20.

    The government already spent €6.5 billion this year to lower energy and fuel taxes, and to give low-income households a bonus of €1,300. Those measures would be repeated.

    The Dutch pay the highest electricity and gas prices in Europe, and the highest fuel prices after the Nordic countries and Greece.

    With inflation reaching 13.6 percent in August, a postwar record, and the Netherlands’ Central Bureau of Statistics projecting that 1.2 out of 17.7 million people could fall below the poverty line, Rutte’s coalition was under pressure to do more.

    The policies leaked on Wednesday should give the lowest incomes between €3,000 and €4,000 in support next year.

    Here is an overview, including who’s paying for it. (more…)

  • European Military Support for Ukraine Dries Up

    Dutch self-propelled howitzer
    Dutch self-propelled Panzerhaubitze 2000 takes part in a military exercise in Sweden, October 2018 (Ministerie van Defensie)

    For the first time since the Russian invasion in February, European countries did not pledge additional weapons to Ukraine in July.

    The German Kiel Institute, which keeps track of countries’ humanitarian as well as military assistance to Ukraine, reports that the United States is providing €25 billion in weapons, in addition to €20 billion in humanitarian and financial support. European countries, including the UK, are giving less than €10 billion in arms.

    Christoph Trebesch, who leads the team in Kiel that compiles the data, calls it “surprisingly little considering what is at stake.” He compares the €10 billion for Ukraine to the €750 billion Europe, excluding the UK, spent to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

    I have a story in the Netherlands’ Wynia’s Week about Europe’s waning support for Ukraine. I’ll translate the highlights. (more…)

  • Putin Invades Ukraine. How Far Will He Go?

    Russian tanks
    Russian T-72 tanks conduct military exercises in Chebarkul, April 24, 2017 (Russian Ministry of Defense)

    Russia has invaded Ukraine from three sides, attacking from Belarus in the north, its own territory and the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, and Russian-controlled Crimea in the south.

    Explosions were reported in many Ukrainian cities on Thursday, including Odessa on the Black Sea, suggesting missile attacks from Russian navy ships.

    Russian soldiers took control of an airbase as well as the sealed-off Chernobyl nuclear power plant north of Kiev. Tanks were spotted on the outskirts of Kharkiv, where residents are spending the night in underground metro stations. Fighting is ongoing in Mariupol across the line of control from the Donetsk People’s Republic Russia — but no other country — has recognized as independent.

    Ukraine reports 57 fatalities. The United Nations estimates that 100,000 Ukrainians have fled. (more…)

  • Costa Loses Support of Portugal’s Far Left

    António Costa
    Portuguese prime minister António Costa arrives in Brussels for a European Council meeting, October 16, 2020 (European Council)

    After six years, António Costa’s “contraption” has run out of steam.

    It is what Portugal’s right-wing opposition dubbed the social democrat’s confidence-and-supply arrangements with the far left. In return for concessions like raising the minimum wage and making schoolbooks free, the Communists and Left Bloc were willing to keep Costa in power.

    Costa’s Socialists are eight seats short of a majority in parliament. The Communists and Left Bloc have 29 seats between them.

    By not forming a full coalition, Costa could avoid the stigma of governing with extremists while the Communists and Left Bloc could openly criticize him for not raising salaries in the public sector or overturning the labor market reforms of his center-right predecessor.

    That mutual understanding has collapsed. (more…)

  • Curaçao Accepts Dutch Supervision of Economic Reforms

    Willemstad Curaçao
    View of Willemstad, Curaçao (iStock)

    The new government of Curaçao has accepted Dutch supervision of economic reforms it is expected to carry out as part of a COVID-19 rescue plan.

    Parties led by Gilmar Pisas won the election in March on a promise to oppose supervision.

    The now-prime minister defended his about-face by arguing Curaçao’s back was “against the wall.”

    Which was the same argument his predecessor, Eugene Rhuggenaath, made in the election campaign, when Pisas rejected it. (more…)

  • Sánchez Shifts Infrastructure Spending, Scholarships to Catalonia

    Barcelona Spain
    W Hotel and Barceloneta Beach in Barcelona, Spain (Unsplash/Benjamín Gremler)

    Pedro Sánchez has taken another step toward normalizing relations with the separatist-controlled government of Catalonia.

    The socialist has agreed to:

    1. Expand Barcelona’s El Prat Airport, and add high-speed rail connections with the regional airports of Girona and Reus, to the tune of €1.7 billion.
    2. Invest €200 million in Catalan infrastructure to bring the state’s spending in the region in line with its contribution to the national treasury.
    3. Hand control of university scholarships to Catalan authorities in time for the 2022-23 academic year.

    Sánchez earlier this year pardoned nine Catalan separatist leaders who were imprisoned for organizing an unsanctioned independence referendum in 2017. (more…)

  • Republican, Socialist Incumbents Win French Runoffs

    Mabilay Rennes France
    Le Mabilay in Rennes, France, February 21, 2019 (Unsplash/Howard Bouchevereau)

    France’s traditional major parties are projected to defend their control of the country’s thirteen regions in Europe in the second voting round on Sunday.

    Last week, the center-left Socialists and center-right Republicans placed first in all regions, pushing Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and President Emmanuel Macron’s liberal En Marche! into third and fourth place.

    The runoffs this weekend confirmed the results with exit polls giving the Republicans 38 percent support nationally, followed by the Socialists and Greens (who allied in the second round) at 35 percent and National Rally on 20 percent.

    Elections were also held in France’s five overseas regions. (more…)