Foreign Digest: Greece, European Union, Venezuela, Russia, Ukraine and Hong Kong

Greece

            The new center-right Greek Government had campaigned on closer ties with the European Union and its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.  It recognized Juan Guaido last week as the interim President of Venezuela.

European Union

            The German Center-right Defense Minister was elected President of the European Commission last week.  The Italian center-right former President of Parliament was chosen as the head of the European Commission for Constitutional Affairs.  As I noted in my last post, a center-left Italian replaced him as parliamentary head and as I had posted earlier in May in my post Pro-Europeans, Center Right Won a Plurality of the Votes, Despite Gains by the Far-Right, https://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2019/05/pro-europeans-center-right-won-european.html, the center-right won a plurality of the votes, despite gains by the “nationalist” far-right, with a large majority for pro-European Union parties from the center-right to the center-left.

The EU voted to require members to apply sanctions to Venezuela and to recognize Guaido as interim President. 

Venezuela

            Norway has been hosting mediation between the Socialist dictatorship and interim President Juan Guaido in Barbados.  The latter, who is the leader of the democratic opposition, had invoked a constitutional provision as leader of the national assembly to declare himself president because of the lack of free and fair elections and because the regime had supplanted the assembly with another body that was less representative.

Russia

            There was a protest last week against the lack of free and fair elections.  The authoritarian and kleptocratic regime of Vladimir Putin declares candidates it opposes to be ineligible for election.  As usual, there were arrests because the freedom to assemble peacefully is not tolerated by the tyrant.

Ukraine

            The party of the new Ukrainian President has won the parliamentary elections yesterday with a plurality of votes, but a majority of seats.  It won four times as many votes as the pro-Russian party.  The Russian Federation invaded Ukraine in 2014, seizing Crimea in violation of its treaty with Ukraine to recognize the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the former Soviet Republic, and foments a rebellion by Russian-speakers in Eastern Ukraine.

Hong Kong

           Protests have continued in Hong Kong against the Peking-backed legislature of Hong Kong that has been helping the Chinese Communists to erode the autonomy of the former British territory that China had promised to let keep its autonomy and freedom when the territory reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.  The protests had forced the withdrawal of a proposed law that would have allowed extradition to mainland China, a tool that could have been used to stifle dissent, but the people of Hong Kong continue to defend their autonomy and freedom from encroachment from Peking.