V4 foreign ministers urge Borrell to act swiftly on Belarus sanctions
Referring to the European Union decision to impose further sanctions on a wider group of people in Belarus in connection with the disputed election there, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Berlin on Friday that Visegrad Group foreign ministers had met separately and decided to ask the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell to act swiftly on the matter.
The broader sanctions should not be delayed until after the next formal meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in a month’s time, the V4 ministers agreed. Rather, the sanctions should be imposed as soon as possible through a written decision-making process, they agreed.
During a break in the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers, Szijjártó added that any uncertainty may strongly call into question the seriousness of the EU.
He noted in a statement to public media that EU member states have agreed to expand the list of sanctions to cover the heads of the Electoral Commission of Belarus and police leaders.
Szijjártó said the member states’ foreign ministers had agreed that change in Belarus should come about in line with the constitution and with an utmost respect for the country’s sovereignty and the people’s will. However, the solution should also consider geopolitical factors such as neighbouring Russia, he said.
The European Commission and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) might emerge as the mediators all parties accept, since Belarus is a member (of the OSCE) and Russia also cooperates with it, he said.
Regarding Russia, Szijjártó noted that its relations with the EU is on the agenda of the next council meeting.
Szijjárt insisted the sanctions imposed on Moscow after the “Ukraine crisis” hit some member states harder than others. While the largest western European states have increased their exports to Russia by 25 percent since 2015, Hungary has seen a setback, he said. “Nevertheless, we never broke ranks with the EU,” he added.
The EU will also have to build consensus regarding the member states’ energy supplies, Szijjarto said. Hungary is currently buying its natural gas from Russia, “and we reject all attempts to dictate where and at what price we should procure it”. The freedom of decision on buying energy resources is a key element of national sovereignty and security, he said.
One of the main topics at the meeting was the conflict between Greece and Turkey, and Turkey and Cyprus, over gas fields discovered in the eastern Mediterranean.
Several comments were made on the danger of the conflict fuelling illegal migration, he said. Therefore, the EU should focus on cooperating with Turkey rather than trying to “strongarm” it, Szijjártó said. “We should avoid at all cost that the four million migrants currently housed in Turkey make their way to the Schengen borders, and so to Hungary,” he said.
Read alsoV4 foreign ministers urge Borrell to act swiftly on Belarus sanctions
Read alsoU.S. deputy state secretary to visit Eastern, Central Europe amid Belarus crisis
Hungary to back UAE’s election to UN Security Council
Hungary will support the election of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations Security Council and the Human Rights Council, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook on Wednesday.
Szijjártó said he had spoken with UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the phone to discuss, among other things, the Middle Eastern country’s agreement to normalise ties with Israel.
Szijjártó congratulated his counterpart on his role in drafting the “historic” agreement.
“This agreement can fuel the hope in everyone that an era of peace can one day truly be ushered in in the Middle East,” the minister said.
Szijjártó said Hungary considers both Israel and the UAE a friend and a valuable partner and supports their aspirations at international forums as well.
The minister said he had also assured Sheikh Abdullah that Hungary will support the UAE’s election to the UN Security Council and the Human Rights Council.
He added that the two countries have concluded their talks on an agreement on the mutual protection of investments, which he said reflected the interests of Hungarian companies doing business in the region and would constitute a “significant step forward in economic cooperation”.
Read alsoThe biggest investor of the United Arab Emirates to open a regional office in Budapest
Pence accepts Republican Party’s renomination for U.S. vice president
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday night accepted the Republican Party’s nomination for a second term in a speech from Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.
“I humbly accept your nomination to run and serve as vice president of the United States,” Pence said in his address concluding the third night of the 2020 Republican National Convention.
In most of his speech, Pence sought to make the case for U.S. President Donald Trump’s reelection, defended their handling of the coronavirus pandemic, touted what he believed the administration’s achievements, and slammed Democrats and their 2020 presidential nominee, Joe Biden.
Echoing Trump, Pence delivered a pro-police “law and order” message, despite a nationwide reckoning over police brutality and racism.
“Let me be clear: the violence must stop — whether in Minneapolis, Portland, or Kenosha,” he said. “We will have law and order on the streets of America.”
Kenosha, Wisconsin, remains in national spotlight after Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old African American, was shot seven times by police officers.
Demonstrations calling for racial justice have continued for days in the city, which have led to social unrest. The Milwaukee Bucks, a Wisconsin-based American professional basketball team, boycotted their playoff game against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday afternoon to protest the shooting.
Pence also spoke about Hurricane Laura, which has strengthened into an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm as it barreled toward the Louisiana and Texas coasts late Wednesday.
“This is a serious storm,” he said. “We urge all those in the affected areas to heed state and local authorities.
“Trump and U.S. first lady Melania Trump joined the second family on stage to chants of “four more years” after Pence’s speech from Fort McHenry, a place where Americans defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key to write lyrics of the American anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Pence, 61, was former governor of Indiana and a member of the U.S. House of Representative previously. He was Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2016 presidential campaign and has been serving as U.S. vice president since Jan. 20, 2017.
Read alsoBiden takes aim at Trump, vows to salvage U.S. from “darkness”
A vocal defender of Trump on and off the campaign trail, Pence also chairs the White House Coronavirus Task Force, established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused more than 5.8 million infections and nearly 180,000 deaths in the United States.
Read alsoKamala Harris accepts Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. vice president
Jobbik: Hungary’s Fidesz to use Lukashenko’s methods to get rid of opposition candidate
Hungary is going to hold a by-election in one of its eastern constituencies in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County on 11th October as the region’s Fidesz-delegated MP passed away. The election has a certain symbolic significance since if Fidesz loses this parliamentary seat, which appears to be likely according to the data of the previous elections, then it may lose its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
Press release from Jobbik
Based on the conclusions drawn from last year’s municipal elections, the opposition parties, namely the Democratic Coalition, Jobbik, Politics Can Be Different, the Hungarian Socialist Party, Momentum, Dialogue and MMM decided to run a joint candidate: László Bíró, who is a member of Jobbik. Viktor Orbán, who harshly criticized the EU on his visit to Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko just a few weeks ago, now wants to block Mr Bíró from running and thus reduce the voting to a single candidate.
Just a few minutes before the deadline to announce the candidacies on Friday, Fidesz appealed against László Bíró running as the joint opposition candidate in the by-elections.
So, even though the official campaign started on Saturday morning, László Bíró is currently not allowed to run against Fidesz’ candidate who happens to be the daughter of the deceased MP.
The Fidesz regime found quite an absurd pretext to block the joint opposition candidate from running: László Bíró is a member of centre-right conservative Jobbik party, which elected a new board and a new president last January. Although Jobbik’s new president Péter Jakab has received the court resolution of his registration into his office, the competent Budapest-Capital Regional Court has failed to enter the party’s resolutions and Péter Jakab’s presidency into the registry.
And now Fidesz has just submitted an objection on the grounds that Péter Jakab is not a party president and his party cannot run candidates. With this step, Viktor Orbán and Fidesz has finally arrived at the level of eastern dictators who use administrative measures to block the opposition from participating in the elections. That is exactly what is going on in Hungary’s Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County.
Intent on establishing a dynastic power in Eastern Hungary, the Fidesz regime is so afraid of the opposition cooperation that they decided to go to the next level: since they know that electoral fraud, vote-buying, intimidation and smear campaigns will not be enough here, they decided to block László Bíró from even entering the race.
Instead, they introduce the law of succession whereby the parliamentary seat is passed on from father to daughter.
We hope that the election committee will overrule this decision and give the green light to László Bíró and the opposition. Fidesz’ actions in Borsod would be the envy of Belarus’ Lukashenko.
We, the Hungarian opposition, right and left, conservatives and liberals refuse to back down! We no longer wish to live in a country whose Prime Minister says we don’t want to belong to the West, we no longer wish to live in a country whose Prime Minister gets along with dictators the best, we no longer wish to live in a country where courts work under political orders and where opposition candidates are blocked from running by administrative measures!
Biden takes aim at Trump, vows to salvage U.S. from “darkness”
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination, portraying the nation as being in a “season of darkness,” while offering his remedies to rebuild it.
Though his actual name was never spoken, attacks on “this president,” “the current president,” or “the current occupant of the office” were omnipresent throughout Biden’s 25-minute acceptance speech.
Almost from the beginning, Biden directly took aim at his rival in the upcoming election, saying “the current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division.”
“If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst. I will be an ally of the light, not of the darkness,” Biden said from the Chase Center in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, pledging that while he is a Democratic candidate, he will be an American president, and he will work as hard for those who don’t support him as he will for those who do.
Biden, 77, who is running for the White House for the third time in his political career that has lasted for almost a half century, highlighted “four historic crises” facing the United States: the coronavirus pandemic that has infected over 5.5 million people and claimed over 170,000 lives in the country, the national economy that is reeling from the worst recession since the Great Depression, sweeping protests across the nation for racial justice following the death of African American man George Floyd by police brutality, and the rapidly worsening climate change.
“Now history has delivered us to one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced. Four historic crises. All at the same time. A perfect storm,” Biden said, stressing that the upcoming election “is more consequential,” as “America is at an inflection point, a time of real peril, but of extraordinary possibilities.”
Biden spent a big chunk of time during his speech detailing what he would do to tackle the coronavirus from day one as president, including making COVID-19 testing widely available with immediate results, giving schools necessary resources for them to safely reopen, stocking the country with adequate U.S.-made medical supplies and personal protective equipment, as well as requiring a national mandate on mask-wearing.
“The tragedy of where we are today is it didn’t have to be this bad,” Biden said, contrasting his country’s world-leading cases and deaths with the lower numbers in European and Asian countries.
“And after all this time, the president still does not have a plan,” Biden said of Trump.
To sum up his response to the pandemic, Biden said he “will do what we should have done from the very beginning,” adding that “our current president has failed in his most basic duty to this nation. He failed to protect us. He failed to protect America. And, my fellow Americans, that is unforgivable.”
Turning to other issues, Biden promised an economic plan that will rebuild the nation, a healthcare system expanded on the basis of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act that Trump vowed to undo, and an education system that better trains students for jobs and makes tuition payments and debt no longer burdens for young people.
Biden also talked about bridging the income gap, turning the challenges posed by climate change into job-creating opportunities, reversing Trump’s tax cuts by taxing the wealthiest and the biggest corporations, and protecting seniors’ social security, which he said Trump had threatened to disrupt by cutting the tax that pays for almost half of it.
He then made an appeal to the young progressives — the most difficult group for him to win over — by saying he heard their voices against inequity and injustice that existed in economic, racial and environmental spheres.
He vowed to “restore the promise of America to everyone.”
On racism, Biden seized upon Trump’s claim at the time of the march on Charlottesville, Virginia, by white supremacists in August 2017 that there “were very fine people, on both sides,” saying Trump’s assertions are “a wake-up call for us as a country,” and that the America led by him is ready “to do the hard work of rooting out our systemic racism.”
The speech not only capped off the convention in its culmination, it was also the pinnacle of Biden’s long career of public service, a hard-fought journey marked by devastating personal tragedy: namely, the loss of his first wife and infant daughter to a car crash in his early Senate career, and then his son, Beau Biden, to brain cancer in 2015 when he was vice president.
“I understand it’s hard to have hope right now,” Biden said. “I know how mean and cruel and unfair life can be sometimes. But I’ve learned two things: first, your loved one may have left this Earth, but they’ll never leave your heart. They’ll always be with you. You’ll always hear them. And second, I found the best way through pain and loss and grief is to find purpose.”
Trump, who hours before Biden delivered his speech was in the former vice president’s birthplace slamming him at a campaign event, gave a real-time reaction to Biden’s words.
“In 47 years, Joe did none of the things of which he now speaks,” Trump tweeted. “He will never change, just words!”
Calling Biden “a puppet of the radical left movement” at the campaign event near Scranton, Pennsylvania, Trump claimed that trade policies adopted by the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president, killed manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania, and that the Green New Deal — a proposal centering on clean energy that is championed by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to counter climate change, but something Biden has actually never explicitly endorsed — will strip Pennsylvanians of their energy supply.
He also slammed Biden for hiking taxes on Americans, implementing stricter gun control rules that would “eviscerate the Second Amendment,” providing “free healthcare for illegal aliens,” and expanding “deadly sanctuary cities,” while touting his own policies, ranging from cutting taxes and building the U.S.-Mexico border wall to propping up workers in the traditional energy sector and emphasizing “law and order.”
The president’s highly political speech was part of his grander counterprogramming, which was not only scheduled to coincide with the Democratic National Convention running Monday through Thursday, but was also chosen to be rolled out in key swing states that, in addition to Pennsylvania, also include Minnesota, Wisconsin and Arizona.
Adding to the speeches delivered by the president himself in the battlefield states is the Trump campaign’s multi-million-dollar ad blitz occupying the homepages of YouTube and other major media outlets this week, aiming to smear the Biden campaign.
Read alsoPoll: Biden holds 11-point lead over Trump
Read alsoKamala Harris accepts Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. vice president
International community calls for restraint in Belarus
The international community has called for peace and restraint in Belarus, as President Alexander Lukashenko urged western powers to focus on their own problems.
Lukashenko said Wednesday that western leaders should focus on their own problems rather than the political situation in Belarus, state news agency BelTA reported.
“They are having a great deal of problems at home. Do not point at Belarus in order to draw attention away from the issues in France, the United States, Germany and so on,”
Lukashenko said at a meeting of his national security council via video link.
China believes that Belarus can maintain political stability and social tranquility through its own efforts, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Wednesday at a press briefing.
China has always respected the development path chosen by the Belarusian people and their efforts to safeguard national independence, sovereignty, security and development, Zhao said.
China is aware that the domestic situation in Belarus has become complicated, Zhao said, adding that “as good friends and partners, we do not hope that the situation in Belarus will escalate into chaos and oppose external forces triggering division and disturbances in Belarusian society.”
Moscow is worried about attempts to use the internal difficulties that Belarus and its leadership are facing to impose limitations on its citizens that external actors would then pounce on, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with television channel Russia 1 on Wednesday.
“Nobody hides that it is all about geopolitics, about the struggle for the post-Soviet space,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov said he hopes that Belarusians will be able to sort out their own affairs themselves and not be led by “those who need this country solely in order to master the geopolitical space in order to promote the well-known destructive logic: You are either with Russia or with Europe.”
“I see no lack of readiness on the part of the authorities for dialogue. I hope that the same readiness will be shown by those who, for one reason or another, are not satisfied with the election results,” Lavrov said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for restraint and calm in Belarus as the country is enveloped in mass demonstrations, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
Guterres calls on Belarusians to address post-election grievances through dialogue to preserve peace in the country, it said.
Belarus is engulfed in mass protests after incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term during the Aug. 9 elections, with the opposition refusing to recognize the results.
The European Union will impose shortly sanctions on “a substantial number of individuals responsible for violence, repression, and election fraud,” European Council President Charles Michel said Wednesday after convening the leaders of the 27 EU member states.
The EU chief said the pan-Europe body does not recognize the election results announced by the Belarusian authorities.
Read alsoInternational community calls for restraint in Belarus
Kamala Harris accepts Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. vice president
U.S. Senator from California Kamala Harris, who was chosen by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to be his running mate in the 2020 presidential election, delivered a speech Wednesday to formally accept her nomination as the party’s candidate for vice president.
Shortly before Harris spoke, her designation as the Democratic Party’s choice for running for the country’s second highest office was announced by Democratic National Convention (DNC) Chairman Bennie Thompson with the bang of a gavel, making her the first woman of color to be on a major party’s presidential ticket.
Born into an immigrant family in Oakland, California, where her father is a Jamaican-American economist and her late mother was an Indian-American biologist specializing in breast cancer, Harris, 55, began her emotional speech by paying tribute to black women coming before her, saying that her presence was “a testament to the dedication of generations before me.”
Naming a long list of female civil rights activists and political leaders, Harris said “they paved the way for the trailblazing leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton,” referring to the first African-American president and the first female presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party, respectively.
Harris then delved into the story about her mother, who she said taught her “to put family first” while caring about “a world beyond ourselves.” She said it was the belief in the nobility of public service her mother instilled in her that led her to choose a political career spent mostly as a prosecutor — district attorney of San Francisco and attorney general of California — and then as U.S. senator.
Harris said U.S. President Donald Trump’s “failure of leadership” has resulted in a nation “grieving the loss of life, the loss of jobs, the loss of opportunities, the loss of normalcy” amid the coronavirus pandemic, and that ethnic minorities being disproportionately harmed by the virus was “the effect of structural racism.”
In order to make a difference and “achieve the future we collectively want,” Harris argued, “we must elect Joe Biden,” touting the former vice president’s past achievements to make her case that Biden will be a president “who turns our tragedies into political weapons” and who “turns our challenges into purpose.”
Harris launched her presidential run in January 2019 but suspended what was initially considered a promising campaign in December, citing a shortage of funds.
She seized on Biden’s past controversies related to the issue of race in a clash with him during a debate in June 2019, but announced in March 2020 that she endorsed Biden, who eventually secured the nomination and picked her as running mate on Aug. 11.
“BUT DIDN’T SHE CALL HIM A RACIST??? DIDN’T SHE SAY HE WAS INCOMPETENT???” Trump tweeted in all capitalized letters, referring to Harris’s history shortly after she wrapped up her speech.
Obama and Clinton delivered remarks moments before Harris gave hers, each offering their blistering critiques of Trump while calling on voters to cast their ballots for Biden and Harris.
When Obama was speaking from Philadelphia about Trump’s lack of interest in and unfitness for the presidency, Trump tweeted about his predecessor: “WHY DID HE REFUSE TO ENDORSE SLOW JOE UNTIL IT WAS ALL OVER, AND EVEN THEN WAS VERY LATE? WHY DID HE TRY TO GET HIM NOT TO RUN?”
Trump will be nominated as the Republican presidential candidate when the GOP holds its national convention next week.
Read alsoU.S. Democrats formally nominate Joe Biden for president
U.S. Democrats formally nominate Joe Biden for president
The ongoing U.S. Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Tuesday voted to officially nominate Joe Biden as the party’s presidential candidate.
Biden, already the presumptive nominee since April when all other contenders in the once crowded Democratic field dropped their bids, briefly addressed supporters from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, after a virtual presidential roll call.
“Thank you all from the bottom of my heart, from my family, and I’ll see you on Thursday,” he said, referring to his upcoming acceptance speech to wrap up the four-day convention.
The Democratic nomination entitled the 77-year-old former vice president to take on incumbent President Donald Trump of the Republican Party in the upcoming election scheduled for Nov. 3.
Unlike prior conventions where delegates would gather in an arena and the delegations from each state would be called upon to announce how many delegates pledge for each candidate, this year the presidential roll call happened virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While the delegates appearing in the video by and large enthusiastically made the case that Biden was the country’s best choice for president in the next four years, first-term congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used her slot to nominate Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a leading figure of the progressive wing in the Democratic field and Biden’s longest-lasting rival in the primary.
Herself a progressive, Ocasio-Cortez used the occasion to pitch for the progressive movement’s goals, including Medicare for All, tuition-free college education, and achieving fair wages and protecting labor rights for all.
Similar to the previous night, Tuesday night’s guest speakers spoke highly of Biden’s competence for the U.S. presidency while making scathing criticism of Trump.
Among the Democratic luminaries who delivered remarks was former President Jimmy Carter, who said Biden “understands that honesty and dignity are essential traits that determine not only our vision but our actions. More than ever, that’s what we need.”
And former President Bill Clinton said Biden is “committed to building America back again.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the now Republican-controlled Senate, said Biden alone can’t “win this battle for the soul of our nation,” adding that “Democrats must take back the Senate.”
Heading into its third day on Wednesday, the DNC is expected to nominate California Senator Kamala Harris as the party’s vice presidential candidate.
Former President Barack Obama, in whose administration Biden served as vice president from 2009 to 2017, will deliver a speech on Wednesday, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hilary Clinton also invited to speak.
Read alsoU.S. approves oil drilling in Arctic wildlife refuge amid environmental concerns
Hungary backs Poland’s call for Belarus election repeat
Hungary backs Poland’s call for the presidential election in Belarus to be repeated with international monitoring, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook on Monday.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday said the election should be rerun with international observers monitoring the polls.
Szijjártó said:
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that the phone lines are lit both at the prime ministerial and the foreign ministerial level in connection with the developments in Minsk.”
The minister said he held talks with his Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian counterparts on the situation in Minsk on Monday morning before consulting Prime Minister Viktor Orbán who had spoken with Morawiecki by phone.
Hungary’s decision to support the Polish position on the situation in Belarus “demonstrates once again the strength and importance of the Visegrad Group”, Szijjártó said.
Read alsoHungary to prevent EU sanctions against Belarus?
Hungary to prevent EU sanctions against Belarus?
It seems that the situation in Belarus does not seem to calm; a lot of people still demonstrate against Alexander Lukashenko, the re-elected president of the country saying that the election was a fraud. Police reacted harshly, and they already took more than 3,000 people into custody while video records spread on the Internet, proving the brutality of their actions. PM Viktor Orbán visited the country in June saying that the EU should abolish all sanctions against Belarus. Now, they said that the Hungarian government would veto further sanctions against Belarus.
According to 24.hu, sad news came in the last 72 hours from Belarus where anti-government protestors clashed with police units. One man died, several others were injured, videos flooded the Internet about the brutality of the Belarussian military and police units which, based on some reports, attacked even from ambulance cars (which is considered to be a war crime in times of war).
Journalists and some other people even disappeared, the leader of the opposition, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, fled to Lithuania and today she already talked about the importance of restoring peace in a video. Experts say that Lukashenko’s power has been waning for long since there is no stability and prosperity anymore in Belarus. Probably that is why there were so many frauds during the elections. Of course, Russia’s opinion is deciding on the issue, and 24.hu says that
for Putin, a weaker but controllable Lukashenko would be perfect
and, as a result, Belarus could remain a buffer state. However, they have to “invest” a lot of money in the country which, of course, can reach a limit.
It seems that the European Union is only watching what happens. The Hungarian member of the European Commission responsible for enlargement issued a statement in which he expressed his worries about the ongoing events. Still, some member states would like to introduce sanctions against Belarus like the EU did in the case of Russia before (the EU lifted almost all sanctions against Belarus in 2016). Furthermore, the liberal and People’s Party group of the European Parliament cleared that they would back such a move.
Meanwhile, the Hungarian government expressed that they would veto an initiative containing the re-establishment of the sanctions against Belarus. That is crucial because
decisions like that need unanimous support from the EU member states.
In June, PM Viktor Orbán paid a visit to Belarus during which he said that the EU should lift all sanctions against the country. Lukashenko highlighted then the importance of economic and trade cooperation between the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union and added that the Hungarians and a Belarusians are much closer to each other than anybody could ever think.
Lukashenko said then that Hungary is Belarus’s closest partner in the European Union since Budapest understands them most. Thanks to the support of the Hungarian government, the Belarussian-EU ties became more balanced and pragmatic in the last few years – he cleared.
Biden picks Kamala Harris as running mate
Former U.S. Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that he has picked Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate.
In a tweet, Biden called Harris “a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants.”
Elected in 2016, Harris, now 55, was the second African American woman in history elected to the U.S. Senate. Before that, she served as attorney general of California.
With Biden’s selection, she becomes the third woman in U.S. history to serve as a vice presidential candidate, following Geraldine Ferraro as the Democratic vice presidential pick in 1984 and Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential pick in 2008.
“Back when Kamala was Attorney General, she worked closely with Beau,” Biden continued in his tweet, referring to his late son who was then the attorney general of Delaware and who died in 2015 from brain cancer. “I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse. I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.”
In a tweet following Biden’s announcement, Harris hailed the presumptive Democratic nominee as someone who “can unify the American people because he’s spent his life fighting for us. And as president, he’ll build an America that lives up to our ideals.”
“I’m honored to join him as our party’s nominee for Vice President, and do what it takes to make him our Commander-in-Chief,” she added.
Biden and Harris will appear together and speak in Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday, according to the Biden campaign.
The daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, Harris announced her bid for the White House in January 2019. Due to a shortage of funds, she dropped out of the race less than a year later.
In March 2020, Harris, who famously called out Biden over racial issues in a Democratic primary debate, endorsed him. Having spent most of her political career as a prosecutor, the senator rose to national prominence as a leader on both racial equality issues and criminal justice reform.
“She’s been a leader on criminal justice and marriage equality. And she has focused like a laser on the racial disparities as a result of the coronavirus,”
Biden said Tuesday of Harris, who, like himself, is considered a moderate Democrat.
Harris winning the bid for vice presidential candidacy capped a long process of which…
Polish president inaugurated for second term
Polish President Andrzej Duda was inaugurated on Thursday by the country’s National Assembly, the country’s joint sitting of both houses of parliament, for his second 5-year term.
Duda was re-elected for a five-year term of office on July 12 with 51.03 percent of the vote. Rafal Trzaskowski, his contender and a Civic Coalition candidate, received 48.97 percent.
The oath-taking before the National Assembly was marred by the absence of MPs and senators from the opposition Civic Coalition party, claiming that the elections were unfairly slanted toward the incumbent, Polish media reported.
Read alsoPoland’s Supreme Court upholds Duda’s presidential victory
Poland’s Supreme Court had rejected the opposition party’s legal protest on Monday, ruling that any irregularities that took place did not influence the final outcome.
In an address to lawmakers, Duda said the presidential election had been difficult due to the coronavirus pandemic and the postponement of its date, according to a report by English channel Poland In run by TVP, the country’s largest television network.
“But the most important thing is that we managed to hold the election in a democratic, just and very efficient way,” he said.
Duda also said that everything had to be done to avoid unemployment, Poland In reported.
Read alsoPresident Áder and President Duda address gala at Day of Hungarian-Polish Friendship – PHOTOS
“For years, high unemployment was shattering the dreams of the Polish people. Today, in the face of the crisis, we have to do everything possible for such a situation not to repeat itself,” he said.
Duda is the second president in post-communist Poland to win a second 5-year term, after Aleksander Kwasniewski from 1995 to 2005.
Poland’s Supreme Court upholds Duda’s presidential victory
Poland’s Supreme Court rejected legal challenges on Monday against the validity of the presidential elections filed by voters and opposition groups, and declared the results of the voting held on June 28 and July 12 as final.
The elections were won by incumbent President Andrzej Duda, also an ally of the ruling Law and Justice party who got 51 percent of the vote, in a runoff against Rafal Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw and candidate of opposition group Civic Coalition (KO) who won 48.97 percent of the vote.
While the Supreme Court did see the ground for over 90 of almost 6,000 protests filed by voters and opposition groups, none of the irregularities influenced the final outcome, the top court ruled.
Protests were filed due to mail-in ballots not delivered in time to some voters abroad, active campaigning by government institutions on behalf of the incumbent, partiality of the public broadcaster TVP, as well as the circumstances surrounding the postponement of the elections originally scheduled for May 10.
Despite being marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the turnout of the elections reached 68.12 percent, which is 0.08 percentage point short of the record set in 1995.
Trzaskowski, who ran as a moderate Christian Democrat, dominated among voters in urban areas. Duda drew record numbers of voters, primarily from the countryside.
Read alsoPoland’s Supreme Court upholds Duda’s presidential victory
Incumbent Duda marginally ahead in Polish presidential run-off
Poland’s incumbent president Andrzej Duda was ahead by a tiny margin in Sunday’s presidential run-off, showed an Ipsos exit poll.
According to Ipsos, Duda, who is supported by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, received 50.4 percent of the vote, while his rival, Rafal Trzaskowski — backed by the main opposition party Civic Platform (PO) — won 49.6 percent.
With margins well within the two percentage point margin of error, the race is too close to call until at least partial results come in, with a distinct possibility that a winner can only be pointed out after all ballots are counted.
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According to the Polish Press Agency, under the State Electoral Commission’s optimistic scenario, the official results of the presidential run-off could come late on Monday or in the night from Monday to Tuesday. Otherwise, the final results will be announced by 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) on Tuesday.
Poles voting abroad will likely be a major factor in the final outcome. Over 500,000 ballots were cast outside of Poland, but are not reflected in the exit polls.
Speaking in the town of Pultusk, Duda claimed victory and invited Trzaskowski and his wife to the presidential palace to finish the campaign “with a handshake.”
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Trzaskowski also told his crowd in Warsaw that he is absolutely confident he will prevail. “All that needs to be done is to count the votes.”
Ipsos, the polling company that conducted the exit polls for the three major news networks in the country, meanwhile announced that no winner can be declared at this point.
According to Ipsos, the election turnout reached 68.9 percent, surpassing the record set during the presidential elections of 1995, at 68.2 percent.
Final poll shows dead beat in Poland’s run-off presidential election
Incumbent President Andrzej Duda and opposition-backed candidate Rafal Trzaskowski tied in a final poll Friday ahead of Poland’s run-off presidential election on Sunday.
The poll, conducted by IBRiS for internet publication Onet.pl, confirmed a dead beat between the two candidates, a trend since the first-round election on June 28.
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The poll showed Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw and a candidate of the main opposition party Civic Platform (PO), at 47.4 percent support, followed by Duda at 45.7 percent.
“We need to read this result as a tie,” IBRiS director Marcin Duma told Onet. Seven percent are still undecided, the poll found.
Starting Friday midnight, polls are no longer allowed to be published and voter agitation is forbidden until polling stations close on Sunday evening.
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Duda, supported by the conservative Law and Justice party seeking a second five-year term, won the first round with 43.5 percent of the vote, followed by Trzaskowski with 30.5 percent.
The turnout in the first round reached 64.4 percent, which was considered high by Polish standards.
Croatia’s ruling HDZ wins parliamentary elections
The ruling center-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, won the most seats in the parliamentary elections on Sunday and was expected to form a new government soon.
According to the preliminary results from the State Electoral Commission after counting over 91 percent of the votes,
the HDZ won 67 parliament seats. The center-left Restart Coalition led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) stumbled and garnered 41 seats.
The third-strongest party is the recently-formed Homeland Movement, a right-wing party headed by singer Miroslav Skoro, gaining 16 seats.
With 67 seats in the pocket, the HDZ is capable of forming a new government with representatives of ethnic minorities who have bagged eight seats and usually go with the ruling party.
“We have had a difficult mandate full of temptations, and the challenges ahead may be even greater. These challenges require responsibility, experience, and knowledge,”
Plenkovic said in his victory speech around midnight on Sunday.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has sent a congratulation message to Plenkovic via Twitter, saying that he looks forward to continuing to work with Plenkovic in the European Union and further strengthen bilateral ties.
SDP leader Davor Bernardic earlier said that he was ready to resign due to poor election results.
In 2016 elections, the ruling HDZ won 61 seats, while the SDP coalition was ranked second with 54 seats.
Over 3.8 million voters started casting their ballots at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Sunday, which will elect 151 members of parliament for four-year terms.
The elections this year have been seen as the most challenging one in the country’s history, as the number of new COVID-19 cases hit a record high this week. Voters are advised to attend poll stations with face masks and their own pens.
By Monday, Croatia has confirmed more than 3,150 COVID-19 cases, with 113 virus-related deaths, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
This is the 10th parliamentary elections since the former Yugoslav Republic held its first multi-party elections in 1990. There are 6,999 polling stations in the country and around the world where Croatian citizens can cast their ballots.
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Jobbik MEP Gyöngyösi: What should Europe do about a mafia?
If there is anything that all Europeans can be proud of regardless of their nationality, origin or identity, it is most certainly the rule of law, transparency, access to legal representation and equality before the law.
According to Jobbik MEP Márton Gyöngyösi, we can be proud of how our continent has been governed by these principles for centuries and, even if an aggressive regime has occasionally been able to drag its country away from them, we could always find our way back to them eventually. On the other hand, there has always been another system lurking at the frontiers of Europe, ready to spread its untransparent and self-interested laws – let’s call it tribalism, clan mentality or mafia.
Weak monarchs or governments have been known to give in to or at least co-exist with the mafia or the oligarchs but strong leaders and strong societies refused to tolerate them.
For a long time, we may have thought that the European Union was such a strong community since we have heard so much about its values and strict but fair laws. We Hungarians had long been hoping to become a member of this alliance because we thought that its norms and regulations would protect us once and for all from the backward forces that have regularly attempted to drive our Central European country to another, Asian road.
In short, we thought we would be protected from the political mafia, the oligarchs, the obscure informal networks and the consequent vulnerability, weakness and general social deprivation.
I am afraid we were bitterly disappointed. This European Union and its agencies are apparently willing to do nothing to protect us. Let me tell you an example to explain what I mean.
In 2017, one year before the national elections that brought another two-thirds Fidesz majority, Jobbik, as Hungary’s second largest party, was preparing for ousting the government. We planned our campaign, got ready for the competition and put out our first billboards presenting Fidesz’ corrupt dealings to the people. The feedback showed us that the message hit home. We also felt it from the reactions of the governing party as they immediately called for banning Jobbik, or at least for removing our billboards while they kept sending messages to the supposedly independent Hungarian authorities to the effect that it was time to silence our party – explains Gyöngyösi.
Meanwhile, Europe kept silent. However, Fidesz’ outburst was followed by action. First they attempted to ban the opposition, especially Jobbik, from setting up billboards. When they couldn’t fully succeed, they raised the stakes. The supposedly independent State Audit Office, which was led by a former Fidesz lawmaker, conducted a kangaroo court procedure to impose a fine of € 3 million on Jobbik, thus depriving the party of all its state funding right in the middle of the election campaign.
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The term “kangaroo court procedure” is hardly exaggerated as the State Audit Office doesn’t have the legal power to impose fines, it can only issue its opinion on the financial management of political parties. Nobody seemed to be bothered by that however, as nearly all state offices were headed by Fidesz members or people with close ties to Fidesz. These individuals then carried out the decision, influencing the outcome of the elections.
Jobbik was unable to appeal the decision as the State Audit Office could not have imposed the fine in the first place. There was no way to appeal the unlawful fine imposed by a non-existing authority. And Europe kept silent.
Putting our trust in Europe and its truly independent institutions, we turned to the European Court of Human Rights which, after two years, recently sent us an answer in eight lines, including the cynical explanation that they declared our application inadmissible because we failed to exhaust domestic remedies.
At first we didn’t understand how it was possible for the ECHR to communicate with us in Fidesz’ cynical style in such a grave matter. Then the picture became clear.
Gyöngyösi wrtes that the ruling was signed by a Slovenian judge called Marko Bošnjak, who used to work for a Slovenian law office owned by UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin. Aleksander Čeferin maintains good relations with Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, he often visits Hungary and meets the football-addict Hungarian premier. They particularly enjoy watching sport events together. Besides sports, Viktor Orbán’s other favourite pastime is to exert his influence on Central European states. The North Macedonian examples are just as well known as the Slovenian ones.
As far as Viktor Orbán is concerned, it hardly comes as a surprise that he wants to occupy new grounds after he has obtained everything and planted his people in every position in Hungary. The only surprise is that the European Union and the ECHR silently assists him in that, apparently.
I don’t mean the official forums where some politicians conduct verbal duels without any real weight. What I mean is the area of law, where justice is supposed to be served by competent, honest judges who are beyond any potential conflict of interest. When it comes to this area however, Europe keeps silent and allows Viktor Orbán to do whatever he wishes.
Of course, we know that many western corporations profit from the Hungarian conditions since Viktor Orbán’s country has record-low taxes and wages, the labour force is vulnerable and the regulatory environment can be customized to any company’s needs.
Some may believe that being in cahoots with a political mafia is not too high a price since the business is so lucrative.
We have seen things like that in history: the weak leaders in Europe’s frontiers often used to kowtow to certain clans, oligarchs and mob leaders. Their disgraceful actions were followed by oppression and social decline.
So it is time for Europe to ask the question whether she wants to be a strong community or would rather become a cheap servant to political criminals. Values or profit? The mafia is growing and there comes a time when the decision cannot be put off any longer…
Trump slams removal of controversial monuments amid nationwide racial reckoning at Mount Rushmore
U.S. President Donald Trump visited Mount Rushmore in the midwestern state South Dakota on Friday to kick off Independence Day weekend, slamming the removal of controversial monuments amid nationwide racial reckoning as “a merciless campaign” in attempts to wipe out U.S. history.
“Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children,” Trump said when addressing the Fourth of July fireworks celebration at Mount Rushmore.
The president slammed a “new far-left fascism” in media and schools and “cancel culture,” describing those protesters targeting monuments which they think are symbols of racial oppression as “angry mobs.”
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“Those who seek to erase our heritage want Americans to forget our pride and our great dignity, so that we can no longer understand ourselves or America’s destiny,” Trump said.
“This monument will never be desecrated,” Trump said of Mt. Rushmore Memorial.
“Mount Rushmore will stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers and our freedom.”
Tackling the divisive issue with a divisive speech, the president was trying to rev up his conservative base four months before the general elections, some local analysts say.
Trump has been under growing pressure amid the surge of newly reported coronavirus cases and the continuous nationwide reckoning of the country’s racial injustice and police brutality, they observed.
The president’s remarks also came as local Indigenous leaders and others have called for the monument to be removed, noting it was carved on sacred tribal land.
“Nothing stands as a greater reminder to the Great Sioux Nation of a country that cannot keep a promise or treaty than the faces carved into our sacred land on what the United States calls Mount Rushmore,” Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier said in a statement condemning Mount Rushmore and the Trump event.
About 15 protesters were arrested on Friday after they blocked an access road to Mount Rushmore hours before Trump’s arrival, local media reported.
Mount Rushmore was previously called “The Six Grandfathers” by the Lakota Sioux before it was carved with the presidents’ faces. It sits on land considered sacred by local tribes and was initially protected for their use until gold was discovered in the area and Indigenous peoples were forced off the land, according to a report from The Hill.
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The Mount Rushmore fireworks displays had been stopped beginning in 2009 as a result of the risk of wildfires, but Trump has moved to revive the display this year, said a report from The Hill. No social distancing was planned for the event drawing thousands of people, most of them without masks.
Trump is expected to be back in Washington and deliver remarks from the White House on Saturday at the 2020 “Salute to America,” an event that will include multiple flyovers by military aircraft and a 35-minute fireworks display over the city.
Infections are up in at least 36 U.S. states as the country heads into the Independence Day weekend, according to a CNN tally on Friday. Much of the country has cancelled or scaled back traditional celebrations and events for the weekend as health experts warn that large gatherings could lead to spikes in COVID-19 cases at a time when the country is already experiencing significant surges.