Europe

A demonstration in the Hungarian capital Budapest Saturday drew tens of thousands of protesters demanding that Prime Minister Viktor Orban resign due to perceived inaction over allegations of child abuse in state-run institutions.

dw.com/en/romania-in-turmoil-o…

Automakers, including Mercedes-Benz and BMW, have urged the EU to weaken the policy, amid slower-than-expected electric car sales. Sweden's Volvo Cars and others say they have already heavily invested in the transition to electric, and any reversal on the ban would be a betrayal.

An interpreter broke down in tears at the European Parliament in Brussels while translating for an 11-year-old Ukrainian boy who was injured in a Russian missile strike on a hospital in central Ukraine in 2022.

Roman Oleksiv's mother was killed in the attack and he has undergone multiple surgeries since.

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The Russian dictator Vladimir Putin will surely be held accountable by the International Criminal Tribunal, aoording to Errol Mendes, professor of law at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

"One should look at what happened to Milosevic to understand what fate awaits Putin in the end. He believes he is invulnerable and out of reach. He is convinced that he will never be held to account. Milosevic thought the same," says Mendes.

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According to the expert, Milosevic’s accountability became possible thanks to the West’s unwavering stance on punishing serious crimes.

"This may take 10, 20 years or even longer, but Ukraine and its allies need to start implementing the same strategy that allowed Milosevic to be brought before the International Criminal Tribunal. I am convinced Putin will end up there as well."

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"Switzerland must be able to defend itself as effectively as possible against an armed attack. In the event of an attack, it should be prepared to defend itself, if necessary in collaboration with its partners"

https://www.news.admin.ch/en/newnsb/BLkWfUbUsXtBFoSj-krgU

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The activist who heads the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties, which won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, warns that ending the invasion will only be possible if the Kremlin feels that ‘the price of continuing the war is higher than the price of stopping it’.

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Oleksandra Matviichuk: It’s not just about Ukraine. Russia is an empire. An empire has a center, but it has no borders. An empire is always trying to expand. These aren’t my words. They are Vladimir Putin’s, who claimed that the borders of the Russian Federation “never end.” And I’ve seen it even in my human rights work. When I interviewed people who survived Russian captivity, they told me that Russians see their future like this: first we will occupy Ukraine, and then, together with you, we will go on to conquer other countries. Putin sees Ukraine as a bridge to attack the next European country. His logic is historical. He dreams about his legacy. He wants to forcibly restore the Russian Empire because the collapse of the Soviet Union was, to quote him, “the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the past century.” So he wants revenge. And this means that people in the European Union are safe only because the Ukrainians are still resisting and not allowing the Russian army to advance and attack the next country.

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The European Union leadership is behaving as if they have time. As if they have several years before Russia starts attacking. But Putin isn’t stupid. Why do they think he’ll give them several years to prepare and not attack now?

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The European Union must take decisive action. Such as creating a special tribunal on aggression, using frozen Russian assets for self-defense and the reconstruction of Ukraine. And also helping Ukraine close its airspace. I literally don’t understand what the problem is with shooting down a piece of metal that costs €1,000 [$1,160]. I’m referring to a Russian drone. It’s not an airplane with a pilot, just a piece of metal. Russia sends hundreds and hundreds of drones every day to destroy Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. And they succeed, because now we have lost the vast majority of the energy infrastructure in Ukraine, which poses a real threat to millions of people who could face winter without heating, without water, without energy, without electricity. It’s a vital problem because you can’t even warm milk for a newborn.

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I was furious [because of the recent anti-corruption investigation in Ukraine that forced the resignation of the president’s chief of staff]. Furious, like millions of people in Ukraine, for an obvious reason: we all donate a lot. We donate to the Ukrainian army, to the wounded, to people who lost everything in this war, to the victims of Russian war crimes. Ukrainian pensioners give the last of their pensions as donations.

But when we look at the situation from a pragmatic point of view, first, this corruption scandal has happened not because of a journalistic investigation, but because of an official investigation by state anti-corruption agencies, which shows that these official anti-corruption agencies are working effectively. Just 12 years ago, this was unthinkable.

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So yes, we are not perfect. We have a lot of problems that we take seriously. It is our responsibility. But we are still a democracy. A democracy in transition, and we are on the right track.

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The European Union is continuing to insist on Russia's full responsibility for crimes against Ukraine and, in particular, on the swift completion of the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine.

The EU wants to finalise the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, which concerns the order by Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine, as soon as possible.

"First of all, the position of the European Union will continue to be that there should be full accountability for Russian crimes in Ukraine. That is our position, and it will remain our position," Michael McGrath, EU Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, told European Pravda.

He said it is "vital" to ensure "that those who are the victims of the crime of aggression perpetrated by Russia have their rights vindicated and that they have justice served to them".

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A string of sex-related and political scandals affecting Spain’s governing Socialists has rocked the beleaguered administration of Pedro Sánchez and caused deep unease within a party which prides itself on promoting feminist causes.

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On Wednesday, José Tomé, the Socialist head of the provincial council of Lugo, in the northwest of the country, resigned after six women had made complaints about his behaviour. The women, who were current and former members of the party, claimed that Tomé had groped them, offered jobs in exchange for sex, and sent explicit photographs to their phones.

After a television programme had aired the anonymous complaints, Tomé insisted he was innocent. However, within hours he had stepped down, saying he would take the case to court to prove that it was “a set-up”.

Tomé’s case is extremely damaging for the Socialist Party in the Galicia region. Although he has resigned as president of the provincial council and requested that his party membership be suspended, he has not stepped down as mayor of the town of Monforte or given up his seat on the council.

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Lara Méndez, the party’s number three in the region, described the claims against Tomé as “repugnant”.

However, this is only the latest of several such cases to affect the party.

In July, Francisco Salazar, who had been a close ally of and senior advisor to prime minister Sánchez, was forced to step down after female colleagues had repeatedly complained about harassment by him. The allegations included that he had unzipped his trousers, made sexually explicit comments and mimicked sex acts in front of them.

It subsequently emerged that the party had failed to contact those who had made the complaints for several months.

... Salazar’s assistant in the prime minister’s office, Antonio Hernández, was sacked this week for allegedly enabling his boss’s actions and trying to protect him from being investigated.

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Meanwhile, the Socialist Party has suspended Antonio Navarro, its secretary general in the southern town of Torremolinos, after a woman filed a complaint of harassment before the local prosecutor for violence against women, which he denied.

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There are signs of unease within Socialist ranks at the cases, adding to the government’s many problems, which include the apparent collapse of its parliamentary majority. Two former secretaries of the Socialist Party and close allies of Sánchez, José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán [who has resigned from office], are due to go on trial accused of overseeing a massive kickback scheme.

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In an open letter published in El País newspaper, three high-profile female Socialist politicians, including the party’s spokeswoman for equality, Andrea Fernández, expressed deep concern ... They also said [the Socialist party] needed to introduce “greater control over processes against harassment and other types of violence” and to “introduce measures to help repair the damage caused” by such cases.

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Farmers in southwest France blocked major roads overnight from Friday to Saturday, setting fire to hay bales and clashing with police in protest at government‑ordered cattle culls linked to an outbreak of lumpy skin disease.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/54907251

The Hungarian government has launched a residential energy storage program with a budget of HUF 100 billion. Under the initiative, households can install 10 kW battery energy storage systems, with a non-refundable subsidy of HUF 2.5 million to support the purchase.

the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has warned that plans to grant a ten-year exemption from updating essential safety regulations for a new class of “Made in Europe” small electric cars will put pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicle occupants at risk.

“These small cars are designed specifically for urban environments, where interactions with pedestrians and cyclists are most frequent. To exempt these vehicles from installing the latest life-saving technology – and fixing known hazards like non-functioning doors – until the mid-2030s is unacceptable. Minimum safety standards must evolve to reflect what is technologically possible, not be frozen in time to cut costs.”

https://archive.is/rlYmX

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz admitted on Thursday, December 11, that Ukraine was now "ready" to accept territorial concessions.

https://archive.is/o1OO6