European Politics

I haven't read Museum of Innocence, but it's a widely known novel here. Orhan Pamuk is a bit of a controversial figure in Turkey because of his support of Armenian Genocide recognition. I do agree with his viewpoint but I do think he did it to campaign for the Nobel Literature Prize, which he won. The timing was very fishy.
 
The prime minister of Hungary and EU are annoying each other more and more these days


... "A public consultation based on bias... on prejudice about immigration can hardly be considered a fair basis for deciding sound policies," Timmermans said. "Depicting migrants as a threat to jobs... is malicious and simply wrong."

PROTEST BACK HOME

As Orban spoke in Strasbourg, hundreds of people protested against his policies in central Budapest, saying his ideas were deeply flawed and were planting the seeds of hatred in what they saw as an already xenophobic society.

"It's outrageous, what has been going on in Hungary vis-a-vis immigrants, refugees, and foreigners in general," protester Agnes Kelemen said. "We have not been friendly to immigrants before and now politicians are changing that for the worse." ...
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...
Orban also angered EU lawmakers and Strasbourg officials with his views on the death penalty, which he defended as free speech.

Capital punishment is banned in the EU, and Hungary scrapped it shortly after the fall of Communism in 1990, but Orban raised the question of reinstating it after the murder of a young tobacconist in the south of the country stirred public anger. ...
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Poland election: President Komorowski concedes to rival Duda

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has conceded the election to conservative challenger Andrzej Duda following the release of exit polls.
They suggested Mr Duda had taken the run-off vote by 53% to 47%.

Mr Duda had edged Mr Komorowski, who had been the favourite, in the first round but did not gain the 50% needed to win outright.

"I respect your choice," Mr Komorowski told voters at a gathering of his supporters. "I wish my challenger a successful presidency."
Speaking to supporters in Warsaw, Mr Duda said: "Thank you President Bronislaw Komorowski for the rivalry of this presidential campaign and for your congratulations.
"Those who voted for me voted for change. Together we can change Poland."

The victory will be a wake-up call to Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, an ally of Mr Komorowski, ahead of parliamentary elections this autumn.

This is a remarkable and decisive victory for Mr Duda. It's remarkable because he is a relative unknown and Mr Komorowski has been a popular president. It suggests that many Poles have grown weary of President Komorowski's backers, the governing centre-right Civic Platform party.

In its eight years in office the party has maintained Poland's economic growth despite the financial crisis. But it has also reneged on some of its promises and increased the retirement age, an unpopular move.

Poland is gradually catching up to Western Europe's living standards but youth unemployment is high and Poles can still earn much more in the UK or Germany. Many Poles simply do not feel the benefit of 25 years of near uninterrupted growth and Mr Duda appeals to them.

He has promised to bring the retirement age back down, but he'd need his Law and Justice party to win this autumn's parliamentary elections to be able to do that. It's been 10 years since they won an election but many think that may now happen. If it does, judging by its last spell in office in 2005-2007, Poland will become more inward looking and much less at ease with its EU partners.
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Mr Duda, 43, is from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party, which is led by former President Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw.
In the first round Mr Duda attracted most support in the more conservative eastern regions of the country, near the border with Ukraine and Belarus.
 
Only 13 days remaining until the elections in Turkey. Perhaps the most crucial election the country has had in its history.
 
Better not mention that in Germany. If someone says something about the benefits of population growth and the problem of declining birthrates publicly, they are accused of wanting this back.
 
Perhaps you wouldn't, but it's what happens here. If you say population growth is good, you're a Nazi. I'm not touching this issue with a 10 foot pole here. And if this report hits the news here, some people will go rabid again.
 
I'm not sure what you mean with this, but it's a truly hate-filled debate. There was a recent story in the news about a 60+ woman being pregnant with her 13th child, I think. It's been called "Mother's Cross propaganda" by leftist moralists. The opposite extreme is of course no less dramatic - right-wing conservatives are painting the picture of a predominantly immigrant population looming because Turkish women are apparently birth machines. I'm not participating in this discussion with others here in Germany because it's truly a minefield, and no matter what you say, somebody will call you a horrible person.
 
http://www.dw.de/womens-career-or-kids-dilemma-drives-german-baby-drought/a-18300620
..Without immigration, our population would continue to shrink, markedly...
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... Expanding daycare facilities is one of the plans currently on the table in Berlin.

There's an awful lot now being done, but of course all of it has come very late. For a very long time, we dozed on this development. Now, many improvements are being made, but the situation's already quite a mess. Years like this mean that the baby boomer generation has become a vast group - and one that's about to go into retirement - when compared to our younger generations.

What else could the government, or employers, do?

There are two options: more children, or more immigration! And more children won't help in the short term, because it would take a good 20 years until a new baby boom was ready to work. By then, all of the Baby Boomers would be years into retirement. Therefore, the main way to bolster the workforce is through immigration; provided efforts are made to ensure that the new arrivals are integrated and find work.
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Don't ask me, I'm pro-children, pro-immigration and anti-hatred. Things that don't go together in this country.
 
I recall some government official brought this up and suggested the birth rate should go up and got the Nazi label slapped on her really quickly. Which is a shame, since the issue of population is one worth discussing .. lower taxpayer base in the future to support an ever-aging population is a problem now and will be a bigger problem in the future
 
General view in Europe about immigration from Muslim-majority countries is the reason why I've given up on the prospect of living in Europe someday. Both Muslims and Turks seem to have a horrible reputation in Europe, and despite not being a Muslim, it's enough to scare me off. Now, I might be misinformed about it since I don't live there, but that's what it feels like.
 
The Flash said:
General view in Europe about immigration from Muslim-majority countries is the reason why I've given up on the prospect of living in Europe someday. Both Muslims and Turks seem to have a horrible reputation in Europe, and despite not being a Muslim, it's enough to scare me off. Now, I might be misinformed about it since I don't live there, but that's what it feels like.
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This is why they invented Canada.
 
Yup, Canada is one of the countries I've set my eyes upon for the future. Don't know what the future holds, though.
 
The Flash said:
Only 13 days remaining until the elections in Turkey. Perhaps the most crucial election the country has had in its history.
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240.000 Turks in the Netherlands had registered to vote. This Sunday there was a 12 kilometer traffic jam, because today was voting day. The voting was in two cities, in the west (The Hague) and east (Deventer). Tomorrow it's probably known how many had really showed up.
 
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