A
right-wing party won the most seats in the Austrian parliamentary elections earlier
this autumn, but not enough to obtain a majority. It formed a coalition government last week
with a far-right pro-Russian party, with the junior member holding the neutral
state’s cabinet portfolios for foreign affairs, defense and the interior,
effectively giving Russia
influence into Western Europe .
Already, Austria ’s
new Government has announced a plan to offer passports to ethnic Germans and
even Ladins (speakers of a Rhaeto-Romansch Romance language) in Italy ’s South Tyrol Region of Trentino-Alto
Adige, which has generated criticism from the Italian Republic
The ruling
conservative Christian Democrats, who had won the majority of seats in the German
parliamentary elections last month, reached an agreement last week to form a
grand coalition with the leading center-left party in order to avoid a
government with the far-right.
Negotiations continue on the details of forming the executive.
There have
been public protests over the last several days against a law that could make
it more difficult to deter public corruption.
There has been a recent turn back towards authoritarianism in the former
Communist Soviet satellites Hungary ,
Poland and Romania .
Meanwhile, Romanians
are mourning the death of popular ex-King Michael earlier this month. He was one of the last surviving heads of
state or government from the Second World War, together with King Simeon II of Bulgaria . Under one of his Prime Ministers, Romania joined the Axis Powers while Michael was
a young monarch, but by late in the war, he was influential in Romania ’s surrendering
to the Allies and joining them against the Nazi Germans. After the Soviet invasion of Eastern Europe , Michael, like other leaders behind the
Iron Curtain, was deposed by the Communists in 1947. The monarchy was abolished and was replaced
by a Communist one-party state that was a satellite of the Soviet
Union . The last Communist
tyrant was overthrown in a popular rebellion in 1989.
An agreement has been reached
between the United Kingdom
and the European Union for the British to leave the EU by 2019, as per the
results of the non-binding referendum last year and its subsequent ratification
by Parliament. The agreement establishes
a fund of around $50 billion for the costs.
It maintains the open border between Northern
Ireland and the Irish
Republic and safeguards the rights of
EU citizens in the UK . The British goal is to establish a strong
UK-EU partnership.
Trend towards
provincial autonomy in Western Europe
After last
month’s constitutional referendums for autonomy in the Italian Regions of
Lombardy and Veneto, which I had posted about, Liguria’s Governor has expressed
the desire to request one also for his Region, as another wave of federalism is
washing over Italy, including in the South.
Similarly, nationalists won last week’s elections in the French
Departments on Corsica , which is inhabited
primarily by ethnic Italians, who seek greater autonomy for their Mediterranean
island. Combined with the devolution of
powers to Scotland , Wales and Northern
Ireland in the United
Kingdom and the special consideration in particular for Northern Ireland in the above-mentioned UK-EU
agreement, a clear trend toward greater autonomy for provincial governments,
especially ethnically-distinct ones, is apparent in Western
Europe . The obtainment of
more autonomy could also better serve Spain ’s
Catalonia
province than independence.
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