European Politics > Lofven Out; Neo-Nazis in Ukraine (2); Catalan Separatists Pardoned

 Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven ousted in no-confidence vote

Justin, does that make you a bit nervous?

Li-Lian Ahlskog Hou, 

CNN, and Reuters

Updated 11:02 AM ET, Mon June 21, 2021

Sweden's parliament backed a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Stefan Löfven on Monday, making him the first Swedish premier to be ousted by a motion put forth by opposition lawmakers.

The Social Democrat leader has a week to resign and hand the speaker the job of finding a new government, or call a snap election.

The nationalist Sweden Democrats had seized the chance to call the vote after the formerly communist Left Party withdrew support for the center-left government over a plan to ease rent controls for new-build apartments.

Löfven's party was in a minority coalition with the Green Party and relied on support in parliament from two smaller center-right parties -- the Centre Party and the Liberals -- and the Left Party.

Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Akesson told parliament the government was harmful and historically weak, adding: "It should never have come into power."

The no-confidence motion, which required 175 votes in the 349-seat parliament to pass, was supported by 181 lawmakers.

Speaking in parliament on Monday, Löfven said Sweden was now in a "difficult political situation," adding that as the Left Party had united with the "right-wing conservative parties" to back the no-confidence vote, it was a "temporary majority that was created."

"It is a group of parties only aiming to vote out the government, but which have differing views on the issues and lack the will and ability to present an alternative to the government," Löfven said, adding that he would hold discussions with other parties and decide whether to resign or call snap elections within a week.

The Left Party blamed Lofven for triggering the crisis.

"It is not the Left Party that has given up on the Social Democrat government, it is the Social Democrat government that has given up on the Left Party and the Swedish people," Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar said.

With parliament deadlocked, it is not clear to whom the speaker might turn to form a new government if Lofven resigns. Opinion polls suggest the center-left and center-right blocs are evenly balanced, so a snap election might not bring clarity either.

Dadgostar said that even though her party had voted against Lofven, it would never help "a right-wing nationalist government" take power.

A new government -- or a caretaker administration -- would sit only until a parliamentary election scheduled for September next year.

80 years after Nazi invasion of USSR, Ukraine's main opposition party asks Kiev to finally clamp down on neo-Nazi organizations

22 Jun, 2021 11:54

FILE PHOTO. Participants of the "March of embroidery" in Kiev. The action is carried out by nationalists and is timed to the anniversary of the creation of the SS division "Galicia" during the Second World War, Ukrain. © RIA

On the 80th anniversary of the start of Operation Barbarossa, the German-led WW2 military invasion of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's leading opposition party has demanded that authorities in Kiev finally ban neo-Nazi organizations.

In a statement published on its website on Tuesday, the Opposition Platform - For Life party also asked the Ukrainian government to stop "rewriting history."

Back in April, Ukrainian nationalists held a march in the center of Kiev to mark the anniversary of the creation of the SS Galicia during World War II. The SS division was made up predominantly of Ukrainian volunteers who took up arms for Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, and who mainly fought against local partisans. The unit was almost wiped out in the 1944 Battle of Lvov–Sandomierz, and later saw action in Slovakia and Austria. In 1945, it rebranded as the Ukrainian National Army and lasted until the end of the war in May that year.

The march in Kiev was condemned by officials from Russia, Germany, and Israel, amongst others.

At the time, Opposition Platform asked the government for a "tough reaction," noting that the traditional WWII Victory Day parade was banned, due to Covid-19 restrictions, but the SS Galicia parade wasn't.

"On this Day of Mourning and Remembrance of Victims of War, we do not expect fake lamentations from the authorities," the Opposition Platform statement explains. "We demand prohibition and persecution for all neo-Nazi organizations, an end to the glorification of Nazi collaborators and an end to the rewriting of history. An end to the policy of ethnic and cultural discrimination."

In Ukraine, as well as in Russia and other former Soviet states, June 22 is considered a Memorial Day. On this date in 1941, a coalition led by Nazi Germany began attacking the Soviet Union, in a five-month-long offensive that saw millions of Soviet citizens killed. By the end of the Second World War, in 1945, the country had lost an estimated 27 million people.

The Germans were joined in the invasion by their Italian, Hungarian, Slovak, Finnish and Romanian allies.

"The crimes of the Nazis cost the world tens of millions of lives and broken lives. Ukraine lost one out of every five inhabitants," the statement adds.

"The Nazi tumor was cut from the body of humanity. It seemed to everyone to be forever. Never again will we hear nonsense about the superiority of certain nations over others," it continues. "[However], the metastases remained."

Opposition Platform - For Life is Ukraine's largest opposition party. In recent months, the country's authorities have cracked down on the faction, which draws much of its support from Russian speakers in the east and south of the country and has advocated a less confrontational approach to Moscow than the one pursued by authorities in Kiev since the Maidan.

In May, the party's leader Viktor Medvedchuk was charged with "high treason" and stands accused of handing over classified information to Moscow. Prosecutors also say he has colluded with the Russian government to steal natural resources from Crimea. He denies all charges, calling them politically motivated. He is currently under house arrest.

Soviets worked with West to bring down Nazi legacy – but now NATO expansion risks tearing Europe apart once again, Putin says

22 Jun, 2021 08:49

FILE PHOTO. Russian President Vladimir Putin © Sputnik / Aleksey Nikolskyi

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that a new arms race is underway in Europe, driven by instability and tension, while insisting his country stands ready to rebuild friendly relations with nations across the continent.

Writing in Hamburg’s Die Zeit newspaper on Tuesday, Putin emphasized the role the Soviets played in liberating European nations from Nazi occupation. The president paid tribute to the soldiers of the Red Army, “who not only defended the independence and dignity of our homeland, but also saved Europe and the world from enslavement.”

He went on to add that the defeat of the Third Reich was also down to “our allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, participants in the Resistance movement, and German anti-fascists who brought our common victory closer.”

Putin said the end of the Cold War should have been “a common victory for Europe,” but that tensions across the continent had needlessly resurged. The president blamed NATO for this state of affairs, arguing that the US-led military bloc was a “relic” of Cold War-era confrontation. Its expansion eastwards, despite assurances to the contrary, had fueled distrust and tension on the continent, he said.

Relations between Moscow and NATO initially thawed after the fall of the USSR, with both sides even signing a declaration maintaining they did “not consider each other as adversaries.”

However, Russia insists it was given a commitment that the bloc would not look to extend its reach towards the country’s borders, which was broken in 2004 when NATO underwent the single largest expansion in its history, admitting the Baltic nations and a number of former Eastern Bloc states. The move was cited as a strategic threat by Putin in a speech marking the reabsorption of Crimea in 2014.

“Moreover,” Putin wrote on Tuesday, “many countries were put before the artificial choice of being either with the collective West or with Russia.” The president cited events in Ukraine in 2014 as an example “of the consequences that this aggressive policy has led to.” There, he said, “the EU actively supported the unconstitutional armed coup in Ukraine.”

“The whole system of European security has now degraded significantly,” he warned. “Tensions are rising and the risks of a new arms race are becoming real. We are missing out on the tremendous opportunities that cooperation offers – all the more important now that we are all facing common challenges, such as the pandemic and its dire social and economic consequences.”

Putin reiterated that “Russia is in favor of restoring a comprehensive partnership with the rest of Europe” and again proposed the idea of a “common space for cooperation and security from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.”

In April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov extended an invitation to EU nations to sign up to a Moscow-backed plan to form a ‘Great Eurasian Partnership’ that would be open to all states across the two continents. This would be driven by the values of unification and inclusivity, he said.

In his appeal to German readers on Tuesday, Putin said, “The world is a dynamic place, facing new challenges and threats. We simply cannot afford to carry the burden of past misunderstandings, hard feelings, conflicts, and mistakes.”

He added that “our common and indisputable goal is to ensure security on the continent without dividing lines, a common space for equitable cooperation, and inclusive development for the prosperity of Europe and the world as a whole.”

Nine Catalan pro-independence leaders formally pardoned by Spain

over failed 2017 independence bid

22 Jun, 2021 14:59

FILE PHOTO. Barcelona, Spain. © Reuters / Jon Nazca; (inset) Oriol Junqueras, Raul Romeva, Joaquim Forn, Jordi Sanchez, Jordi Turull, Josep Rull, Jordi Cuixart, Carme Forcadell, Dolors Bassa, Carles Mundo, Santi Vila and Meritxel Borras at the Supreme Court in Madrid. © AFP / EMILIO NARANJO

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s office has announced that pardons for nine jailed Catalan separatist leaders, who’d been handed sentences ranging from nine to 13 years behind bars, have been approved by Spain's cabinet.

In a tweet published on his official account, Sanchez said the nine had received partial pardons, commuting their prison sentences but upholding their disqualification from holding office.

The move is aimed at putting Spain on the path to reconciliation as the country’s “government works for understanding, not for confrontation,” Sanchez said, adding that he hoped all sides could now “concentrate on improving the lives of our people” as the nation emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pardons had been rumored in recent weeks and were revealed on Monday, ahead of their final sign-off, with Sanchez justifying them by saying that “confrontation doesn’t serve to solve any problem.”

It’s not clear exactly when the jailed separatists will be released from prison – the authorities have simply said they would work quickly to finish the administrative steps required to secure their freedom.

The nine separatists were jailed for sedition by Spain’s Supreme Court in October 2019, with several others fleeing abroad to avoid prosecution, including Catalonia’s former president Carles Puigdemont, who was recently granted political asylum in Morocco.

Pro-separatist figures have dismissed the reconciliation attempt as a political stunt, claiming that, if Sanchez was serious about moving forward, his government would have granted full amnesty to all who were involved in the 2017 independent effort, allowing those abroad to return to the region.

The division within Spain and the prosecution of the separatists came after Catalonian officials attempted to hold an unauthorized referendum in 2017, as part of their bid to secure independence from Madrid, sparking charges of sedition from the Spanish authorities.