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Pope's breaking with the 'Acceptable Narrative' on Russia upsets Lithuanians
Lithuania summons Vatican over Pope Francis describing Russia as 'enlightened'
By Patrick Hilsman
The Lithuanian government has asked to meet the Vatican representative to clarify comments Pope Francis delivered
to a gathering of Catholic Russian youth, which have been interpreted by many as glorifying the Russian empire.
File Photo by Giuseppe Lami/EPA-EFE
Aug. 30 (UPI) -- The Lithuanian government has invited the Vatican representative to clarify comments delivered by Pope Francis to a gathering of Catholic Russian youth. Francis triggered controversy when he made comments seen by some as glorifying the Russian empire and referring to it as "enlightened."
"You are the descendants of great Russia: the great Russia of saints, rulers, the great Russia of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, that empire -- great, enlightened, great culture and great humanity," Francis told the gathering Friday.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited the Apostolic Nuncio for an interview in early September, when Archbishop Petar Rajic returns from vacation," the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson, Paulina Levickyte said, according to the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT.
The comments prompted angry reactions from Ukrainian officials.
"It is very unfortunate that Russian grand-state ideas, which, in fact, are the cause of Russia's chronic aggression, knowingly or unknowingly, come from the Pope's mouth, whose mission, in our understanding, is precisely to open the eyes of Russian youth to the disastrous course of the current Russian leadership," Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook Wednesday.
The Vatican said the comment was not meant to justify Russian imperialism.
"The Pope intended to encourage young people to preserve and promote all that is positive in the great cultural and Russian spirituality, and certainly not to exalt imperialist logic and government personalities, cited to indicate some historical periods of reference," the Vatican said in a statement published Tuesday.
Peter and Catherine were both Csar and Csarina of Russia between 230 and 330 years ago. Lithuania seems to be overreacting here a little.
Austria pushes to end all talks on Turkey joining EU,
calling it inconceivable
SEP 14, 2023 8:00 AM BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS
Austria is prudent.
Turkey should never have been permitted to join NATO, and there should be no talk of its joining the EU. Its values and goals couldn’t be more at odds with those of free societies. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made no secret of his goal of reviving the Ottoman Empire (that is, restoring a global caliphate) and has stated that Turkey has nothing that contradicts the Taliban’s beliefs.
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Austria wants to end EU-accession talks with Turkey
Austria wants to formally end accession talks with Turkey as a full membership to the bloc would be ‘not conceivable for us’, Chancellor Karl Nehammer told die Welt following a recent push by Turkey to revitalise stalled negotiations.
While Nehammer stressed that Turkey would remain an important partner on an international level, there would be no prospect of Ankara ever joining the EU.
“It is important that we deal honestly with each other, and this also includes formally ending the accession negotiations that have been frozen for years and developing a new concept for neighbourly cooperation,” Nehammer said.
“We are in favour of further rapprochement between Ankara and Brussels, but full membership of Turkey in the EU is not conceivable for us,” he added.
Nehammer emphasised that Turkey would remain an important partner and that he will meet with Erdogan “in the near future.”
The negotiations between Turkey and the EU have been running for 18 years, but have stalled in recent years due to the country’s democratic backsliding and erosion of the rule of law after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tightened his grip on power following the 2018 presidential elections……
He really turned the screws after an apparent attempted coup in 2016.
Dissatisfaction with Government’s handling of immigration
at highest level since 2015
Public dissatisfaction with the Government’s handling of immigration is at its highest level since before the EU referendum, according to the latest findings from the Immigration Attitudes Tracker by Ipsos and British Future.
The new survey finds that two-thirds of the public (66%) are dissatisfied with the way the Government is dealing with immigration, the highest level since the first tracker survey in 2015. Just 12% say they are satisfied.
Only a fifth (22%) of Conservative supporters are satisfied with the Government on immigration while most Conservatives (56%) are dissatisfied – a quarter (26%) ‘very dissatisfied’. Almost three quarters (73%) of Labour supporters are dissatisfied with how the Government is dealing with immigration.
The top reason given for dissatisfaction with the Government is the failure to stop Channel crossings, but responses are divided by politics. For Labour supporters who are unhappy with the Government on immigration, ‘Creating a negative or fearful environment for migrants’ (46%) and ‘Not treating asylum-seekers well’ (45%) are equally important reasons for dissatisfaction as ‘Not doing enough to stop channel crossings’ (46%). Among Conservative supporters, however, 82% cite ‘Not doing enough to stop Channel crossings’ as a reason for their dissatisfaction, and only 9% ‘creating a negative or fearful environment for migrants’.
Such sharp division by politics is common across a range of questions.
At a time of high net migration, the new tracker survey finds that 48% of the public now supports reducing immigration (up from 42% in 2022), compared to 44% who would prefer numbers to stay the same or increase. Support for reducing immigration is still nearly 20 points lower than in 2015, the first year of the tracker, when 67% of the public backed reductions.
More people (43%) think that immigration has had a positive impact on Britain than the 37% who feel its impact has been negative, though negativity has increased by 8 points from 29% since 2022.
Responses differ significantly by politics. Two-thirds of Conservative supporters (67%) now favour reducing migration, compared to only 38% of Labour supporters who favour reductions. More than half (56%) of Labour supporters say immigration numbers should increase (28%) or stay the same (28%), compared to 30% of Conservatives who say numbers should either increase (16%) or stay the same (14%).
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According to the Immigration Attitudes Tracker by Ipsos and British Future, “public dissatisfaction with the Government’s handling of immigration is at its highest level” since before Brexit. Seven out of ten British citizens across the political spectrum are disappointed for varying reasons in the government’s failure to manage the constant flow of migrants into the country via the English Channel.
Brexit, which took place during the tenure of David Cameron, who regrets it (which is easy to say about anything after leaving office), was driven by dissatisfaction with the British government’s laxity on immigration policy. The longtime and persistent migrant invasion of the UK through the prime ministerial tenures of Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss (although hers was so brief as to be insignificant) and now Rishi Sunak has been compounded by repeated government broken promises to do something to stop it. Economic migrants — not refugees as defined by the Refugee Convention (by which a refugee is to stop in the first country of safety) — have swarmed into Britain in huge numbers, and nothing effective has been done to stop them.
When Sunak began his tenure as prime minister last October, he hailed Brexit and promised to promote responsible immigration based on a two-way street. Yet nothing has changed. If anything, it’s getting worse.
In July, a top former Conservative government minister — former Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis — asked British citizens to take illegal migrants into their homes. Never mind the Muslim rape gangs, the unwillingness of all too many migrants to assimilate, and also the increase in crime rates that countries including Sweden, Germany and France have experienced.
The migrant crisis continues to weaken Britain’s economy and threaten its national security, as its politicians continue to sidestep their responsibilities.
This situation is unsustainable, and British citizens know it. From COVID mismanagement to migrant overflows, they’re dissatisfied with the blatant disregard of their wishes and their needs that has been repeatedly shown by their political leaders.
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