Voting rights groups and pro-democracy advocates responded with uproar after President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening issued what they warn amounts to a far-reaching “authoritarian power grab” in the form of an “unlawful” executive order that would restrict voter access nationwide and punish states that make it easier for citizens to have their political preferences registered at the ballot box.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
As Ecuador heads into a very important run-off election on April 13, the issue of security and state violence, as well as the economy, remains at the forefront for many Ecuadorians. In January 2025 alone, over 750 homicides were registered in Ecuador. Economic dollarization and submission to U.S. dictates the proliferation of arms shipments through privately owned ports, and the expansion of international drug cartels to enforce an atmosphere of violence and a military presence to combat them have all combined to make the living conditions of the poorest and vulnerable unbearable, especially for African and Indigenous communities with a constant war directed at them from the militarized structures of the state.
The post As Elections Near, Ecuador’s Working Poor, African And Colonized Under Siege appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Ekrem Imamoglu © Getty Images / Photo by Oliver Berg/picture alliance
Turkish authorities detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on Wednesday, accusing him of corruption and connections to terrorist organizations. The arrest comes just before the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was set to nominate him to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2028 election.
Imamoglu, a leading figure in the CHP, gained prominence after winning the Istanbul mayoral election in 2019, ending over two decades of control by Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the city of 19 million. Recent opinion polls have indicated that Imamoglu could defeat Erdogan in a presidential vote.
On Wednesday morning, as authorities arrived to detain him, Imamoglu shared a video on X declaring, “We are facing great tyranny, but I want you to know that I will not be discouraged.”
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel condemned the arrest, describing it as “a coup against our next president.” Despite the detention, CHP plans to proceed with its scheduled primary on March 23.
The Turkish government has denied opposition allegations of political interference, asserting that the judiciary operates independently.
The arrest has sparked protests across Istanbul. Authorities have responded by banning demonstrations in the city for four days and reportedly restricting access to social media platforms.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office stated that approximately 100 people, including journalists and businessmen, had been taken into custody on suspicion of criminal activities related to municipal tenders. They also said a separate investigation had resulted in charges against Imamoglu and six others, accused of aiding the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated a terrorist organization in the country.
The arrest followed the revocation of Imamoglu’s degree by Istanbul University, citing “nullity” and “clear error” in his 1990 transfer from a private institution in northern Cyprus. Imamoglu has said he will challenge the move in court. If upheld, the cancelation effectively disqualifies him from running for president, as Turkish law mandates that candidates hold a valid university degree.
In a show of solidarity, Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas announced on Tuesday that he is suspending consideration of his own run. Yavas stated, “I am announcing to the public that I am suspending my decision to evaluate my presidential candidacy… until this unlawfulness is eliminated.”
Following the arrest, the country’s financial markets experienced significant turmoil. The Turkish lira depreciated by up to 14.5% against the US dollar, while the BIST 100 equity index dropped 5.9%.
The next Turkish presidential election is scheduled for 2028. Erdogan has reached his two-term limit and is ineligible to run again unless the constitution is amended or an early election is held. In the 2019 municipal elections, Erdogan’s AKP party suffered significant losses, with the CHP winning major cities, including Istanbul and Ankara.
Erdogan himself began his political career as mayor of Istanbul. He also spent time in jail in 1999 for reciting a poem that a court ruled incited religious hatred.
The post Erdogan Rival Arrested Days before Becoming Presidential Candidate first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist
The parties involved in talks aimed at resolving an impasse over Bougainville’s push for independence are planning to meet several more times before a deadline in June.
The leaders of Papua New Guinea and Bougainville have been meeting all week in Port Moresby, with former New Zealand Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae serving as moderator.
The question before them hinges on the conditions for tabling the results of the 2019 Bougainville referendum in the PNG Parliament, in which there was overwhelming support for independence.
PNG wants an absolute majority of MPs to agree to the tabling, while Bougainville says it should be a simple majority.
Bougainville says changes to the PNG Constitution would come later, and that is when an absolute majority is appropriate.
Bougainville’s President Ishmael Toroama has suggested a solution could be reached outside of Parliament, but PNG Prime Minister James Marape has questioned the readiness of Bougainville to run itself, given there are still guns in the community and the local economy is miniscule.
Sources at the talks say that, with the parties having now stated their positions, several more meetings are planned where decisions will be reached on the way forward.
Burnham key to civil war end
One of those meetings is expected to take place at Burnham, New Zealand.
It was preliminary talks at Burnham in 1997 that led to the end of the bloody 10-year-long civil war in Bougainville.
Bougainville is holding elections in September, and the writs are being issued in June, hence the desire that the process to determine its political future is in place by then.
Last week, Bougainville leaders declared they wanted independence in place by 1 September 2027.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
The following article is a comment piece from the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC)
Strong rumours have emerged that Rachel Reeves intends to impose an additional £5bn in welfare cuts on top of the £3bn cuts to disability benefits proposed by Rishi Sunak and continued by Labour. Truly, Continuity Tories.
Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement that UK overseas aid will be halved to boost spending on arms from 2.3% of GDP to 2.5% is unlikely to be the final decision. NATO may soon settle on a 3% target, while senior retired UK generals advocate for a 3% to 4% target in the media, and Donald Trump has called for European countries to allocate 5%. Such targets indicate tax increases, cuts to public spending, or further borrowing of billions each year.
More austerity is coming.
We need an electoral challenge that prioritises spending on services, not war. Without such a challenge from trade unionists and socialists, Farage’s Reform UK could gain traction and risk solidifying an electoral platform for right-wing populism. Can you assist us in mounting that challenge?
The TUSC have already approved candidates in 10 of the 23 council areas where elections will take place on 1 May 2025. However, we need more. We need to spread the anti-austerity and anti-war message as broadly as possible.
The final full TUSC steering committee meeting to consider applications for May takes place on Monday 24 March. Please submit applications using this form [download] to our national agent, Clive Heemskerk, at cliveheemskerk@socialistparty.org.uk by Friday 21 March, to ensure the necessary authorisations can be dispatched to election agents.
According to Britain’s election laws, candidates can only use a description on the ballot paper next to their name, other than the word ‘independent’, if that description has been registered with the Electoral Commission. One in 12 of the seats being contested in May is currently held by ‘independents’—yet many are secretly Tories.
Is the Independent label clear enough to differentiate genuinely independent candidates fighting for working class people and their communities, from others using the word to hide their often right-wing views?
TUSC has now successfully registered Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate, and that descriptor is available to anyone (with or without the TUSC logo) willing to sign up to the six guarantees all candidates support. A full explanation can be found here and also here.
“Should we fund our public services properly or stand aside while the super-rich get ever richer?”, our new leaflet says:
Should those we elect represent our interests? Or put the top 1% first – the tiny minority who own more wealth than all the rest of us together in the ‘bottom 80%’?
“The establishment parties don’t give us that choice though”, it continues:
After 14 years of Tory policies, what real change is being offered by Keir Starmer’s Labour government? It has even weakened its promise to curb the ‘non-dom’ super-elite, who live here but pay less tax than us. Meanwhile, Reform, also led by millionaires, is Tories on steroids, only concerned to divide working class people so that it’s harder for us to fight back.
The leaflet, aimed at areas where candidates will use one of the TUSC descriptions on the ballot paper in May, explains why TUSC candidates are different. “TUSC was set up by the late Bob Crow”, it says:
A legendary trade unionist, no one could doubt whose side he was on! And we’re continuing that tradition in May’s elections.
The leaflet is one-sided, allowing local candidates and campaign details to be printed on the reverse. Whilst supplies are available at no cost to candidates, donations are welcomed, including from regions where there aren’t elections this year, allowing the message to be spread as widely as possible.
We also have two by-elections approaching in Glasgow and Lincoln. There is a crowdfunder for Anne McAllister in Glasgow here, and donations to Nick Parker in Lincoln can be made on the national website.
In all our local campaigning activities over the next seven weeks, we will organise meetings, street stalls, and various activities while posting on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, and Facebook. Let all that work inspire others around the country.
You can donate to TUSC here.
Featured image supplied
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Widespread electronic voting is a “terrible idea” for Australia, security experts told an inquiry Monday, amid calls for a national platform to standardise procedures and cut costs. The fundamental differences and difficulties in scrutinising electronic voting compared to paper voting meant it isn’t worth the considerable risk to election integrity or citizen trust, the experts…
The post Experts shoot down Australia-wide electronic voting appeared first on InnovationAus.com.
This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.
Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese.
Observers on Monday dismissed plans announced by Myanmar’s junta to hold elections in the war-torn country by January, saying the military won’t be able to hold the vote in territory it doesn’t control — about half the country — and that the public will view the results as a sham.
On March 7, while on a visit to Russia and Belarus, junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing announced that the elections are “slated for December 2025, with the possibility of … January 2026,” according to a report by the official Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
On Sunday, a day after Min Aung Hlaing returned to Myanmar from his March 3-9 trip, junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Htun confirmed the timing of the ballot in a briefing to military-controlled media outlets.
The generals who seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat hope that elections will end widespread opposition to their grip on power politics.
But opponents say any vote under the military while the most popular politicians are locked up and their parties are banned will be illegitimate.
Additionally, the junta is in control of only about half the country after significant losses to pro-democracy and ethnic minority insurgents fighting to end military rule, and observers on Monday questioned how the results of such a limited vote could be seen as legitimate.
Sai Leik, the general secretary of the ethnic Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, which has not yet filed its party registration, told RFA Burmese it is “uncertain whether the election will take place at all.”
Even if it happens, it will likely be limited to cities such as Yangon, Naypyidaw, and Mandalay, he said. “This will create significant tensions between areas where the election is held and those where it is not.”
Sai Leik said that a limited election that fails to reflect the will of the people “will only worsen the conflict between opposing sides.”
He noted that the junta has repeatedly vowed to hold an election since August 2022, but has been unable to implement one.
Voting is expected to be held in fewer than half of Myanmar’s 330 townships in the first phase of a staggered vote, a political party official said late last year after discussion with election organizers.
In Myanmar’s last election in 2020, voting was held in 315 out of the 330 townships.
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, or NLD, party swept the vote, as it did in a 2015 election, but the army complained of cheating and overthrew her government. The junta jailed her in the aftermath of its coup and has since sentenced her to 27 years in prison.
Political commentator Than Soe Naing said that the people of Myanmar won’t trust a junta-run election.
“Even if the junta attempts it, it will never happen,” he said.
Than Soe Naing said that past attempts by the junta had been stymied by its lack of territorial control, the ongoing conflict across Myanmar, the lack of security for representatives and campaigns, and the restrictions of the junta-backed election commission.
Rather than taking those concerns into account, Hla Thein, a spokesperson for the pro-junta Union Solidarity and Development Party told RFA that Min Aung Hlaing likely chose the end of the year for elections so that political parties and the election commission “will have more time to prepare.”
Meanwhile, Min Aung Hlaing said on Sunday that Russia and Belarus had committed to sending officials to observe the elections in Myanmar.
But a vote monitored by those two countries cannot be considered “free and fair,” an election observer who requested anonymity for security reasons said.
“Russia and Belarus are not really countries with a good reputation for democratic, free and fair elections,” the observer said. “And since they have stood with and supported the junta in various ways, their observers won’t be fair. They are meant only for political support.”
So far, more than 50 parties have registered with and been approved by Myanmar’s election commission. Nearly all of them are military-aligned, while the country’s most popular party — the NLD — was banned in the aftermath of the coup and cannot be added to the ballot.
Tun Myint, an NLD Central Working Committee member, warned that the junta’s elections would be nothing more than a “sham.”
“No one … who wants justice will accept the junta’s elections,” he said.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Burmese.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
In the autumn of 2014, I was sitting in a tiny shed at a writing residency in Point Reyes, Northern California. I was there to write my book about the psychology of facing planetary crises. One particularly warm afternoon, I was looking out at Tomales Bay, teeming with bird life, when my phone rang with an unknown Washington DC number.
Grateful for any distraction, I took the call.
The fast-talking man on the other end of the line introduced himself as a senior advisor to the Republican Party. Let’s call him “Bob” (not his real name).
The post The US Has Never Been More Divided On Climate appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Amid all of Donald Trump’s power grabs over the past six weeks, one little-noticed executive order may in the long run have the largest impact on the viability of the country’s democratic system of governance. The February 18 order, misleadingly titled, “Ensuring Accountability For All Agencies,” claims to prevent government agencies from going off on a tear creating policies that stand in…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Pink Floyd had it right on with their 1973 song “Money”:
Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay and you’re okay
Money, it’s a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four-star daydream
Think I’ll buy me a football team
Money, get back
I’m alright, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack
Money, it’s a hit
Don’t give me that do-goody-good bullshit
I’m in the high-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet
Money, it’s a crime
Share it fairly, but don’t take a slice of my pie
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a rise it’s no surprise
That they’re giving none away
Away, away, away
Away, away, away
Here we have it about who represents us (or do they?): Half of the members of Congress are millionaires, when about 18% of Americans are millionaires. Meanwhile, how many of the folks reading this are in reality but a few paychecks from being in financial turmoil? Bottom line, you can forget about the famous noblesse oblige, whereupon it is the divine duty of the Super Rich to help their fellow man. And how much do they really help? Remember, it was Jesus in the New Testament who encountered the rich man. The guy asked “Rabbi how can I follow you?” Jesus knew this dude had lots of bread and said “Give all your possessions to the poor and come follow me.” The guy walked away.
The crux of things for this writer is to break from the negative influence of mega money. Let’s stop calling our country a Democracy. That is bullcrap! As long as we allow private money into political campaigns we lose that title… period! Only with complete Public Funding of all electoral politics can we dismiss the Super Rich from the discussion. I recall when I lived in Indianapolis in the mid 1990s. At the time I was writing for a local populist newspaper. Attorney Ed Garvey, once the lawyer for the NFL Players Association, was involved with the Maine Clean Election Act campaign. This was a new law in Maine to allow candidates to run with only public funding for state wide offices. Because of the 1976 Supreme Court ruling in Buckley vs. Valeo that determined “Money to be free speech in political campaigns,” the state of Maine passed this new law. It could not keep private money out of campaigns, but at least the voters would know who refused it and who didn’t. As it transpired, with the first such Clean Election Law being used, around a bit less than 1/3 of those winning seats were publicly funded. So, when Ed came to Indianapolis I interviewed him for my piece. He explained a lot to me and I became a bit hopeful.
Fast forward to a year later in the state Capitol, which happened to be right in downtown Indy. The state government put together a blue ribbon committee to discuss this idea for public funding, using the Maine Clean Elections Law as a foundation. The committee was made up of legislators, media people and union representatives. I went down to their first public meeting and was on the list to speak. When it was my turn I made it short and sweet:
“I’m originally from Brooklyn, NY, where we believe the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. You want true democracy, then NO private money in politics. With total public funding of all campaigns you wouldn’t need lobbyists. Anyone giving money to a politician for his or her campaign would be arrested for bribery. We would see regular working stiffs given the chance to seek office. Truck drivers, schoolteachers, office workers, laborers could have a shot of being elected once you take private money out OR allowing, as with Maine, the voters knowing who didn’t take the private funds and who did.” I then had a few members of that committee eager to engage me. One man, who owned a small town newspaper, was vehement against it. He said he made revenue from publishing political ads. I challenged him with the idea that every candidate should have access to the public through such free ads, and not those who get money from rich donors, especially corporations. Why not have the state subsidize some of the free ads for each candidate equally? Then I had a committee member challenge me saying shouldn’t anyone have the right to spend their money as they see fit while running for office? I kept calling him Senator while we debated.
Finally, the woman who went after me was with Common Cause and the daughter of a small town mayor. She was focused only on “transparency” and not at all wishing to get private money out of politics. I shrugged as she went on and on like a little Miss Muffin thankful that they allowed her to speak. When the meeting was over, I went over to the guy from South Bend who I had been calling Senator. We shook hands and that is when he informed me that he was not a State Senator, but a union official with the Teamsters. Oh boy! Two reporters from the Associated Press asked me for an interview, and I was happy to give it. After me, Little Miss Muffin was also being interviewed by the press. I turned to this fellow from Hoosier Environmental Council, who came in with me, and said “She’ll get in the paper tomorrow, not me.” And that’s how it went down. You confront the empire and they deny you were even there.
The post The Money Government first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
For Kathy Zappitello, it was the Dobbs decision. For Mary Kunesh, it was the gutting of licensing requirements for school media specialists. For Ilana Stonebraker, an academic librarian who ran for — and won — a seat on the Tippecanoe County Council in 2018, it was the first election of Donald Trump. “I felt it viscerally,” she told Truthout. “I needed to do something tangible.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
In Sunday’s election in Germany a new party, Alternatives for Germany, broke through the established power structure to become the second strongest force in parliament. A key factor in its success was a call to overcome the postwar guilt and shame that have been predominant in the country. For many years these were a necessary reckoning with past atrocities, but this burden of blame has increasingly lamed the country and become a handicap to its progress. Leaving it behind is part of a gradual evolution that has been going on since the 1990s.
When I came to Germany in 1993 as a guest professor, I noticed that many students were eager to express their dislike of their country: Germany had done terrible things, and they were ashamed of it. They took pride in this dislike, as if it were a virtue, and they seemed to be trying to win my approval with it. When I pointed out they were feeling guilty about crimes their grandparents’ generation had committed 50 years ago, they responded, “It might happen again!”
I left Germany after 2½ years and returned in 2000. The attitude of guilt was still there, but not so universal. In classroom discussions a few students defended their country, but they were quickly overruled by the majority. Sometimes after class some students would apologize to me for this minority. They were embarrassed by it, found it shameful.
The minority grew over the years. Classroom discussions sometimes became heated arguments. The students who wanted to hold on to guilt seemed to do so out of civic duty. Those who wanted to abandon it had an impatient, enough-is-enough attitude.
In 2010 Shimon Peres, Israel’s president and Nobel-Prize-winner, told the German parliament the most important lesson to be learned from the Holocaust is, “Never again!” His statement was a warning that the Holocaust came not just out of the historical situation back then but out of something in Germans that is there even today. Germans have a personal responsibility for atrocities committed before they were born. This received widespread praise from the establishment.
The pro-guilt students felt affirmed by this. They insisted present-day Germans have to guard against these tendencies. These students wore their shame like a badge of honor.
In 2017 Alternatives for Germany gained entry to parliament with 12 percent of the vote as the third strongest party. The establishment parties and media went into full alarm at this threat to their power. They launched a defamation campaign with slanted news and outright lies, implying the AfD was full of Neo-Nazis who would again turn Germany into a pariah in the family of nations. AfD representatives became targets of hatred, their voters of contempt.
This polarized the country, including the students. Discussions became much more emotional, loaded with anger, self-righteousness and defensiveness. The society was going through a rending transition that has intensified in the past eight years, and the AfD is an important factor in it. In addition to their historical revisionism, they are nationalist libertarian-conservatives favoring less government and stricter asylum laws – a position that is gaining momentum worldwide.
After Sunday’s election the parties face the unwieldy task of building a coalition that can actually govern. The strongest force is the conservative Union with 28% of the vote. AfD is second with 20%, Social Democrats 16%, Greens 11%, and Left 8%. To isolate the AfD, the Union has refused to form a coalition with it, preferring to cobble together a three-way coalition with the smaller parties. But the differences among them are so deep that agreements will be difficult to reach. The political process will be deadlocked at a time when Germany needs decisive action. The resulting chaos will strengthen AfD all the more, and it may end up with an absolute majority after the next election. If the government falls apart, that could be soon.
In spite of the political wrangling, Germans are on the way to overcoming their guilt and shame. They’ll remember the atrocities of those twelve terrible years but know they are history. They’ll no longer be chained to the past.
Then will come the most needed step: Germany must recover its sovereignty after 80 years of Allied domination.
The post An End to Guilt and Shame first appeared on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by William T. Hathaway.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
By Christina Persico, RNZ Pacific bulletin editor
Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa has survived a vote of no confidence after weeks of political turmoil.
In a vote today, she defeated the motion by 34 votes in favour and 15 against.
The motion was prompted by a split in the ruling FAST Party, which saw Fiame leading a minority government.
But in a shock move today, FAST members voted alongside Fiame’s faction to register a resounding defeat against Opposition Leader Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi’s motion.
The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Papalii Lio Masipua, had granted the opposition’s formal request for a vote of no confidence against Fiame on Friday.
Tuilaepa, who is also the head of the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), confirmed that the Speaker approved the motion in writing and allowed five members from the opposition bench to speak on it.
According to Samoa’s constitutional requirements, the MP who commands the majority of MPs should be elected as Prime Minister or continue as Prime Minister.
‘Another desperate attempt’
However, the Samoan government stated Tuilaepa’s move was “another desperate attempt to stir political drama” ahead of the no-confidence vote.
Political upheaval hit Samoa just three days into 2025 when the chair of the ruling FAST party and Samoa’s Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries La’auli Leuatea Schmidt confirmed he was facing criminal charges.
On January 10, Mata’afa removed La’auli’s ministerial portfolio and subsequently removed three of her Cabinet ministers.
But La’auli remained chair of the FAST Party, and went on to announce the removal of the prime minister and five Cabinet ministers from the ruling party.
This decision was reportedly challenged by the removed members.
Fiame then removed 13 of her associate ministers.
Laauli acknowledged the challenge of holding a vote of no confidence, but refrained from disclosing the party’s position, stating they would wait until Tuesday.
First female prime minister
Fiame is Samoa’s first female prime minister. She had heritage — her father, Fiame Mata’afa Faumuina Mulinu’u, was the country’s first prime minister.
She took office following the April 2021 election, but that devolved into political crisis.
The caretaker HRPP government locked the doors to Parliament in an attempt to stop the then prime minister-elect from being sworn into office following her FAST Party’s one-seat election win.
Two governments claimed a mandate to rule, and the United Nations urged the party leaders to find a solution through discussion.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the country had a new government after it judged the impromptu swearing-in by the newcomer FAST party on May 24 was legitimate under the doctrine of necessity.
It took until July for the incumbent, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, to concede.
Fiame went to school and university in Wellington, New Zealand, but her studies were interrupted in 1977 when she returned to Samoa to help with court cases around the succession of her father’s titles following his death in 1975.
In 1985, she was elected as MP for Lotofaga, the same seat held by her father and then her mother after his death.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
Early projections put the socialist Left Party at over 8%, nearly twice as much as they garnered in the last election in 2021, when they won only 4.9% of the vote.
Last year was a political nightmare for the Left Party: In January 2024, their former parliamentary group leader, Sahra Wagenknecht, founded her own eponymous party, then they saw their European Union representation cut in half to just 2.7%. The 2024 state elections were also a disaster, with the party losing its traditional foothold in eastern Germany. Their only state premier failed to hang on in Thuringia, while the party barely made it into Saxony’s state parliament and was kicked out of Brandenburg entirely.
The post Left Party Makes Comeback In German Election appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The results of Germany’s February 23 election have cemented a chilling trend that has increasingly characterized European politics in the 21st century: the collapse of social democracy and the subsequent resurgence of far right parties and movements, with some of their followers openly glorifying fascism. The snap national election left no room for doubt about Germany’s sharp rightward shift.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The final results for German’s Bundestag election show that the Alternative for Germany or AfD finishing a strong second with 20.8% and 152 seats. The CDU/CSU finished first by garnering 28.52% and 208 seats, while Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats had a record low 16% and 120 seats.
The New York Times found that the overriding concern in German life according to interviews and polls, and the thing most likely to drive the choice of voters, is the country’s anemic economy.” (NYT, 2/22/25). I don’t know how typical she is, but one probable AfD voter volunteered that she didn’t share all AfD positions: “People are angry with the government because they can’t pay their bills.” They aren’t wrong about the economy, as all available evidence suggests that Germany’s economy is flatlining and hasn’t grown in five years. German experts are predicting an anemic 0.3 percent growth rate this year and the country is facing an ailing industrial sector, low productivity, an absence of competitiveness and especially, very high energy costs. Emblematic of what’s occurring is the news that BASF, the world largest chemical company has already begun closing down factories in Germany and shifting production to China and the United States.” (NYT, 2/23/25).
Frederick Merz, the conservative candidate from the Christian Democratic Party, is now poised to become the next Chancellor. What is his response to the current crisis? He promises to increase defense spending, continue supporting the war in Ukraine with longer range Taurus missiles and take a strong stance against China. The New York Times suggests that Merz’s “fresh face is a jolt Europe needs” but his position is consistent with other European vassals who live in some fantasy land and marched lockstep with Biden in backing the US proxy war against Russia. By doing so, they utterly and almost incomprehensibly ignored the consequences, especially increased dependence on the United States. For example, think of how Europe was forced to buy much more expensive gas from the US when they went along with Washington’s sanctions and blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline. None of this was by accident.
I would argue it was always the part of the neocon plan to deindustrialize Europe to the economic benefit of the United States. Now Trump has pulled the rug out from under these “allies” and he will not only normalize relations with Russia but lift sanctions and US companies will re-enter Russia where the prospects for making massive profits await. One calculation suggests that U.S. companies leaving Russia, like I.T. And Media, lost $123 billion and Consumer and Health, $94 billion. “Foregone profits” since the start of the war have been calculated at more than $100 billion. (NYT, 2/19/25).
My point is that the neocons fleeced Europe and their leaders not only went along but are continuing to do so. Russia has everything that Europe needs but the EU’s hapless leaders recently announced a new set of sanctions on Russia and want to ramp up defense spending. Ursula von den Leyen, president of the European Union’s executive arm, recently declared that the destiny of Ukraine is also “Europe’s destiny.” As this proceeds, the vaunted European welfare state will continue to decline because the ruling elites have abandoned any responsibility to their own populations. And if right-wing parties continue to flourish, these leaders and their onetime US collaborators have only themselves to blame. The chickens are coming home to roost.
In addressing a recent gathering of the EU Parliament, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs (no left-wing radical) patiently explained, chapter and verse, how their present situation unfolded over the years as European leaders lost their voice and became subservient to Washington’s desire for unilateral dominance of the globe. Fittingly, he repeated Henry Kissinger’s famous adage, “To be an enemy of the United States is dangerous but to be a friend of the United States is fatal.” What next? I’m hardly the first person to conclude that sooner than many observers realize, Trump is going to tell Europe’s leaders that a serious reckoning looms if they don’t sign on to the Ukraine deal. To put it bluntly, either they go along or the exports and imports (think cars and gas) they need to survive as viable economies will not be forthcoming from the U.S. and its Russian, Saudi Arabian and Chinese allies.
The post German Elections, Right-Wing Parties, and Trump first appeared on Dissident Voice.This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has surged ahead in the country’s 2025 election, becoming its second-biggest party. A key lesson Britain must take away from this is to listen carefully to voters whom establishment politicians have long ignored or taken for granted. Because it’s precisely the lack of trust in out-of-touch political elites that has fuelled the resurgence of the far right.
At the same time, there’s also some hope for people who are worrying about the surge of the far right both at home and abroad.
The AfD has powerful corporate backers because of their commitment to trashing regulations. That also means they have money for a strong social-media game, which has likely helped to attract non-voters. The AfD got by far the biggest boost from these people, as seems to be the case with the corporate elitists of Reform UK.
AfD got 2 million non-voters to vote for them
Reform are topping the polls here because they are doing the same pic.twitter.com/580OW0oEDn
— Taj Ali (@Taj_Ali1) February 24, 2025
Money and living standards are the key issue in most elections, whether pundits and parties focus on them or not. And Germany’s outgoing centrist government offered voters little on those fronts. In fact, they differed little from their right-wing predecessors, offering no meaningful action to combat “rising energy prices and economic stagnation brought on by the war in Ukraine“. Voters punished all the coalition members as a result.
“Persistent inequality“ in Germany, particularly between the wealthier west and poorer east, is one reason why the AfD is strongest in the east. It understands the disenchantment of people with few resources and little power, and one expert says it has successfully turned itself into “an aircraft carrier for resentment and anger“.
The corporate agenda of the economically and socially extreme party wouldn’t solve Germany’s serious economic woes or help the people worst affected by them, though. It has just opportunistically ridden on the wave of anti-establishment sentiment to divert people’s attention (and most political parties’ attention) towards the issue of migration instead of economics.
The centrist coalition parties lost big, and the leading Social Democrats (SPD) in particular. Fellow establishment party the Christian Democratic Union, which won the most votes and has an even worse corporate agenda, is now considering a coalition with the SPD. Both parties have primarily older voters in the west of Germany. The German Greens, meanwhile, are more conservative than other green parties in the world and do well mostly in more affluent and urban areas.
Apart from the AfD’s surge, there was also a surge on the left.
It’s clear that parties willing to go against both the economic and warmongering status quo of establishment parties benefitted. Because Die Linke (the Left Party) worked hard to improve its result not just in urban areas but also in East Germany. And it managed to get some 290,000 non-voters on board.
Likewise, the socially conservative but economically social-democratic Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) – a new party – attracted 400,000 non-voters and narrowly missed the 5% threshold to enter the Bundestag.
Both the Left and the BSW have their issues, but their surge shows that there is hunger for a left-wing challenge to the economic and warmongering establishment, if the left can step its game up.
Featured image via the Canary
By Ed Sykes
This post was originally published on Canary.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Abuja, February 20, 2025—Ghanaian authorities must swiftly investigate February 11’s attack on five journalists covering Council of State elections in the southern Ashanti Region and ensure the press can do their jobs without fear of reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.
“Journalists play a critical democratic role in reporting on elections, yet this duty to inform is jeopardized by attacks on the press that too often occur with impunity in Ghana,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “Ghanaian authorities must find out who was behind the assault on five journalists and electoral officers in Ashanti Region and ensure those responsible are ultimately held to account.”
CPJ spoke to the five journalists:
The journalists said they were covering electoral officers counting votes when at least 14 unidentified men attacked the officials, destroyed ballot papers, hit and slapped the reporters, seized their phones, and deleted their footage.
The journalists said police officers attempted to stop the attack without force but failed, and Kotei and Mensah were saved by bystanders who pleaded with the attackers to let them go.
All five journalists received medical treatment at a hospital for their injuries, which included a cut to Peprah’s upper lip and a cut above Mensah’s left eye.
Peprah reported the attack to the police and the Ashanti Regional Police Command said that it will bring those responsible to justice, according to the nonprofit Media Foundation for West Africa.
National police spokesperson Grace Ansah-Akrofi did not reply to CPJ’s calls and text messages requesting comment.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
As Germany heads toward a snap election for its Lower House of Parliament on February 23, signs dotting the nation’s cities ask voters: Is your rent too high? The red and white placards belonging to Die Linke, Germany’s Left Party, speak to how a worsening housing crisis has become a battlefield in German and European politics. It is an issue politicians must meet with meaningful solutions or risk…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
There’s a troubling sense of normalcy bias among some Democratic leaders who believe they’ll regain their footing in the 2026 midterms, riding another anti-Trump wave. But here’s the critical question: will the United States even have free and fair elections? To answer that, we need to look back and ask: was the 2024 U.S. election free and fair? Elon Musk and Donald Trump, and those around them, break the law so brazenly, how can we trust they came to power without breaking the law?
According to investigative journalist Greg Palast, this week’s guest and director of the must-see film Vigilantes Inc., which you can watch for free, the answer is a resounding no. Palast’s analysis reveals the shocking normalization of Republican voter suppression: over 3.5 million votes were effectively canceled in 2024. This means 3.5 million Americans were denied their fundamental right to vote. And according to Palast, a significant number of suppressed voters are nonwhite. This isn’t just voter suppression; it’s a modern-day resurrection of Jim Crow, fueled by the Republican Party’s relentless assault on democracy. In this week’s bonus episode, out Friday, Elie Mystal, the Justice Correspondent for The Nation, and author of the new book Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America, explains how the GOP’s reaction to the first Black president was to gut the Voting Rights Act, paving the way for Trump.
In this week’s bonus episode, we also continue our conversation with Palast, diving into the power of film as a powerful force for confronting America’s darkest history. Plus, we’ll also hear from Mystal on why European nations must take a stand by imposing a travel ban on Ivanka Trump and others complicit in the destruction of our democracy—a move that could help hold the Musk-Trump regime accountable for its action, along with divestment strategies that brought down Apartheid. Don’t miss this eye-opening episode, out Friday!
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Show Notes:
Watch Vigilantes, Inc. by Greg Palast for free: https://www.watchvigilantesinc.com/
Bad Law Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America https://thenewpress.com/books/bad-law
Events at Gaslit Nation
Feb 24 4pm ET – Gaslit Nation Book Club at our Gaslit Nation Salon to discuss Albert Camu’s The Stranger (Matthew Ward translation) and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning
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This content originally appeared on Gaslit Nation and was authored by Andrea Chalupa.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.
The murder of UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson, and the subsequent arrest of Luigi Mangione, focused media and policymakers’ attention on the savage practices of private US health insurance. In the immediate aftermath, major media outlets scolded social media posters for mocking Thompson with sarcastic posts, such as “I’m sorry, prior authorization is required for thoughts and prayers.”
As public fury failed to subside, it began to dawn on at least some media organizations that the response to Thompson’s murder might possibly reflect deep, widespread anger at a healthcare system that collects twice as much money as those in other wealthy countries, makes it difficult for half the adult population to afford healthcare even when they’re supposedly “insured,” and maims, murders and bankrupts millions of people by denying payment when they actually try to use their alleged benefits.
The post Corporate Media Coverage Of Healthcare In 2024 Elections appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The murder of UnitedHealth Group executive Brian Thompson, and the subsequent arrest of Luigi Mangione, focused media and policymakers’ attention on the savage practices of private US health insurance. In the immediate aftermath, major media outlets scolded social media posters for mocking Thompson with sarcastic posts, such as “I’m sorry, prior authorization is required for thoughts and prayers.”
As public fury failed to subside, it began to dawn on at least some media organizations that the response to Thompson’s murder might possibly reflect deep, widespread anger at a healthcare system that collects twice as much money as those in other wealthy countries, makes it difficult for half the adult population to afford healthcare even when they’re supposedly “insured,” and maims, murders and bankrupts millions of people by denying payment when they actually try to use their alleged benefits.
The post Corporate Media Coverage Of Healthcare In 2024 Elections appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by The Intercept.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
The following article is a comment piece from the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC)
The government has finally announced which English local council elections will go ahead on Thursday 1 May, in a statement made by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner to parliament on 5 February – just seven weeks before nominations open.
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), which in September last year published a directory of the council elections that were statutorily scheduled for May, has now produced a revised edition, available here. And you can stand to be a candidate.
The uncertainty about the May polls was caused by the announcement in mid-December that the government was planning to merge many district councils into larger, less accountable, single bodies – known as unitary authorities – and increase the number of directly elected mayors. In doing so it gave the option to county councils facing elections in May this year to apply to postpone those contests if they could show they could carry out re-organisation plans by 2026.
In the event elections have been cancelled for seven county councils and two unitary authorities, justified by Rayner as avoiding “an expensive and irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money”. But why would elections be a ‘waste of money’?
The fact is that over five million people in these council areas have been denied the chance to vote – both on who should run their local services now, and on how their local councils should be organised in the future.
The whole process illustrates again the casual attitude to democracy of Keir Starmer’s continuity-Tory New Labour Party government – and, indeed, all the capitalist establishment parties.
The Tories’ shadow minister Kevin Hollinrake said that the “mass postponement” was a “worrying day for democracy” – but all bar one of the councils that had applied to cancel their elections were Tory-led!
Meanwhile, the Lib Dems leader Ed Davey denounced the cancellation of elections as “denying voters a chance” to kick councillors out of office in May – ignoring the tiny detail that the Lib Dem-led Oxfordshire county council had also applied to postpone its elections (but was turned down by Rayner).
The revised TUSC directory sets out where the electoral battleground will be in May.
Now the job is to get the biggest-possible number of trade unionists and anti-cuts community fighters onto the ballot paper to make sure the establishment politicians don’t go unchallenged.
TUSC was set up to enable working class fighters, trade unionists, community campaigners, anti-war or climate activists, and socialists from different parties or none to stand in elections using a ballot paper description that gives a clearer indicator of their politics than just the bare label of ‘Independent’ – the only description that candidates are legally allowed to use unless they are supported by a political party registered with the Electoral Commission.
The only qualification for candidates who wish to use the TUSC name, or any other of the eight descriptions it has registered with the Electoral Commission, is that they have to endorse the TUSC core policies platform for the relevant election. These are a list of minimum commitments that voters could expect from someone elected while using the TUSC banner – while leaving room for every candidate, whether from the various parts of our coalition or an independent individual socialist, to keep control of their own campaigns.
The TUSC platform for the May 2025 local elections – the ‘six guarantees’ – can be viewed here.
By law, candidates who wish to appear on the ballot paper using a registered description have to submit to the council election staff, along with their nomination forms, a Certificate of Authorisation to use a Description, signed by the Nominating Officer of the party that holds the description with the Electoral Commission.
An application form (download) for candidates to use a TUSC-registered description – including for the first time the new description, Independent Trade Union and Socialist Candidate – is now available. Submitting the form will be taken as indicating your agreement with the ‘six guarantees’.
The deadline for candidate applications to be considered by the next TUSC steering committee is Saturday, 22nd February. Send the completed forms to cliveheemskerk(at)socialistparty.org.uk
For more details on the election process, check out the TUSC guide to electoral law for prospective candidates and election agents.
Featured image via the Canary
By The Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.
Jotham Napat has been elected as the new prime minister of Vanuatu.
Napat was elected unopposed in Port Vila today, receiving 50 votes with two void votes.
He is the country’s fifth prime minister in four years and will lead a coalition government made up of five political parties — Leaders Party, Vanua’aku Party, Graon Mo Jastis Party, Reunification Movement for Change, and the Iauko Group.
Napat is president of the Leaders Party, which secured the most seats in the House after the snap election last month.
The former prime minister Charlot Salwai nominated Napat for the top job.
The nomination was seconded by Ralph Regenvanu, president of the Graon Mo Jastis Pati, before the MP for Tanna and president of the Leaders Party accepted the nomination.
The MP for Port Vila and leader of the Union of Moderate Parties, Ishmael Kalsakau, congratulated Napat on his nomination and said there would be no other nomination for prime minister.
Who is Jotham Napat?
Napat, 52, is an MP for Tanna Constituency and is the president of the Leaders Party which emerged from the January 16 snap election with nine seats making it the largest party in Parliament.
He was born on Tanna in August 1972.
He heads a five party coalition government with more micro parties likely to affiliate to his administration in the coming days and weeks.
More than 30 MPs were seated on the government side of the House for today’s Parliament sitting.
Napat was first elected to the house in 2016.
He was re-elected in 2020 and again in the snap elections of 2022 and 2025.
Before entering Parliament he chaired the National Disaster Committee in the aftermath of the devastating Cyclone Pam.
New government facing many challenges
The incoming government will have a long list of urgent priorities to attend to, including the 2025 Budget and the ongoing rebuild of the central business district in the capital Port Vila after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in December.
That quake claimed 14 lives, injured more than 200 people, and displaced thousands.
One voter who spoke to RNZ Pacific during last month’s election said they wanted leaders with good ideas for Vanuatu’s future.
“And not just the vision to run the government and the nation but also who has leadership qualities and is transparent.
“People who can work with communities and who don’t just think about themselves.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
In the run-up to the Delhi assembly polls to be held on February 5, several opinion polls are viral on social media. Some opinion polls project a landslide win for the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party while some project a win for the BJP.
On February 4, the district president of AAP women wing in Delhi Sakshi Gupta tweeted an opinion poll purportedly released by news outlet ABP, which projected a whopping 58-60 seats for AAP, 10-12 seats for the BJP and zero seats for Congress. “Kejriwal is making a comeback”, remarked Gupta while sharing a video of the purported opinion polls. The video momentarily shows ABP journalist Pooja Sachdeva before tickers detailing the opinion poll show up on screen. (Archive)
Several other users, noticeably signed with the Aam Aadmi Party, tweeted the video. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)
It is pertinent to note that opinion polls are usually conducted after the voting ends. Consequently, we did not find any opinion poll officially released by ABP News. Furthermore, ABP News issued a statement wherein they denied having published any such opinion poll.
#FakeNewsAlert | सोशल मीडिया पर abp न्यूज़ के नाम से एक फर्जी वीडियो वायरल किया जा रहा है. इस तरह का कोई भी ओपिनियन पोल abp न्यूज़ द्वारा नहीं चलाया गया है.
आपसे अनुरोध है कि फर्जी खबरों से बचें और सही खबरों के लिए हमारे सोशल मीडिया हैंडल पर ही भरोसा करें.
IG -… pic.twitter.com/yxPxJX8y2s
— ABP News (@ABPNews) February 4, 2025
Upon a closer look at the video, we also noticed some discrepancies in the viral video. For instance, the audio does not match what Sachdeva says in the beginning. A slowed-down version of this part is attached below.
Taking cue from this, we took a key frame from the beginning of the viral video where Sachdeva is visible and ran it through Google reverse image search. We were able to trace it back to an ABP news clip. The original clip shows Pooja Sachdeva reporting on Rahul Gandhi’s campaign in Delhi’s Patparganj and Okhla on January 28. A side-by-side comparison of the viral clip and the original clip is attached below. If one compares Sachdeva’s hand gestures, one can understand that the clips are same, only the audio replaced.
Sakshi Gupta had put out another opinion poll projecting AAP win, this time attributing it to Aaj Tak. The tweet, now deleted, consisted of a video which predicted AAP would win 56-58 seats while BJP would win 12-14 seats and Congress would win zero seats. Here is an archive of her tweet.
This has also been tweeted by several users. (Archives- 1, 2, 3)
*दिल्ली चुनाव से ठीक पहले आजतक का सर्वे*
केजरीवाल का फिर से मुख्यमंत्री बनना तय
आम आदमी पार्टी को *56-58 सीटों पर बढ़त*
कांग्रेस एक बार फिर 0⃣*ये तो प्रचंड जीत है, वाक़ई में मान गये केजरीवाल को, हमें भी विधायक उसी का बनाना है जिस पार्टी का मुख्यमंत्री बन रहा हो*
pic.twitter.com/yZEqXamv5u
— Tarun Kumar (@taarun_seth) February 4, 2025
A Facebook page named Phir Layenge Kejriwal-फिर लाएंगे केजरीवाल also posted the viral video and garnered 2.6k likes and over 450 shares.
सबसे बड़ा ओपिनियन पोल, चौथी बार इतिहास रचने जा रही है AAP
Posted by Phir Layenge Kejriwal-फिर लाएंगे केजरीवाल on Sunday 2 February 2025
Aaj Tak released a fact-check report of the viral video stating that no such opinion poll had been conducted by them. The report additionally states that the voice of Aaj Tak anchor Saeed Ansari had been modified using AI to make the commentary that can be heard in the background. Ansari also denied announcing any such opinion poll. Moreover, the report noted that certain text seen in the video has overlapping text, which is unusual for news tickers.
Another feature that indicates that the audio may have been AI-generated is that a lot of words have been pronounced in an anglicized manner. For instance, the word Delhi has been pronounced with a ड-sound instead of a द-sound.
A video of a purported opinion poll by ABP News is also viral on social media. According to it, the BJP is projected to win 49 seats while the AAP and Congress parties are projected to win 16 and five seats respectively. User @ManojSr60583090 tweeted the video and garnered 20.5k views and 544 retweets at time of the writing of this article. (Archive)
*दिल्ली चुनाव के*
*ओपिनियन पोल में AAP को 16*
*काँग्रेस को 5 सीटें*
*और*
*BJP को 49 सीटों को अनुमान*
*सुन लो*
*मोदी है तो ही सब मुमकिन है* pic.twitter.com/bdYCqmj8sT
— Manoj Srivastava (@ManojSr60583090) December 17, 2024
Right-wing influencer @JaipurDialogues also tweeted the viral video and garnered close to 27k views. (Archive)
Another Opinion Poll is also viral which projects the BJP winning 47 seats, 17 seats for AAP and six seats for the Congress. (Archive)
वो सब छोड़ ये बता कैसी रही अब भी जनता को पागल बनाना छोड़ दो निट्ठलो
ताजा आंकड़ों के आधार पर @BJP4Delhi 41-46, Aapदा 17-22, Congress 1-2 लेकर आ सकती हैं। AAPदा के दिग्गजों की हार का मार्जिन ऐसे रहेगा।@ArvindKejriwal 8000-12000@msisodia 10000 से 13000@AtishiAAP 8000 से 11000 https://t.co/kW7S5cG7kV pic.twitter.com/Rm85gYLXht— Mahesh Yadav (@MAHESHYGGN) January 30, 2025
Fact Check
As mentioned earlier, ABP News has not conducted an opinion poll for the Delhi elections yet. Taking to Twitter, the outlet categorically denied publishing such opinion polls They issued two consequent statements for the two viral opinion polls.
“We will take legal action against such people”, read one of their statements. Read here and here.
The trend of politicians and influencers sharing misleading opinion polls on social media often falsely attributing them to reputable media outlets is, however, not a new one. The 2025 Delhi assembly polls have proven to be no exception.
The post Fake ABP, Aaj Tak opinion polls viral in run-up to Delhi elections; channels issue statement appeared first on Alt News.
This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Shinjinee Majumder.
