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  • EU slams France for extreme financial obligation, putting pressure on Macron throughout election project

    EU slams France for extreme financial obligation, putting pressure on Macron throughout election project

    BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive arm on Wednesday slammed France for adding extreme financial obligation, a stinging rebuke at the height of an election project where President Emmanuel Macron is dealing with a strong difficulty from the right wing and the left.

    France was among 7 countries advised by the EU Commission to begin a so-called “extreme deficit treatment,” the initial step in a long procedure before any member state can be hemmed in and relocated to take restorative action.

    “Deficit requirements is not satisfied in 7 of our member states,” stated EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, blaming Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, Malta, Slovakia and Poland, in addition to France.

    For years, the EU has actually set out targets for member states to keep their yearly deficit within 3% of Gdp and total financial obligation within 60% of output. Those targets have actually been neglected when it was hassle-free, often even by nations like Germany and France, the greatest economies in the bloc.

    The French yearly deficit towered above 5% in 2015.

    Over the previous years, remarkable situations like the COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine enabled leniency, however that has actually now pertained to an end.

    Still, Wednesday’s statement touched a nerve in France, after Macron called snap elections after he lost to the tough right of Marine Le Pen in the EU parliamentary surveys on June 9.

    Le Pen’s National Rally and a brand-new joined left front are ballot ahead of Macron’s celebration in the elections, and both oppositions have actually advanced prepares where budget deficit to leave the financial rut is important.

  • Meloni leaves choice on EU Commission presidency open

    Meloni leaves choice on EU Commission presidency open

    Italy’s conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wishes to wait on the main election from the conservative European Individuals’s Celebration (EPP) in the European Parliament before choosing the presidency of the future EU Commission.

    “The proposition is a matter for the EPP, and when it is total we will make our evaluations,” stated Meloni on Saturday at the end of the G7 top in southern Italy.

    She stated it was essential that Italy was provided “proper” factor to consider in the brand-new Commission. It should likewise be clear “that Europe has actually comprehended the message of the European elections.”

    The EPP, a group of conservative celebrations throughout the continent, carried out finest in last Sunday’s European elections. It desires the existing Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to be provided a 2nd five-year term in Brussels.

    Nevertheless, it doubts whether the German conservative political leader would get adequate votes from her existing advocates in the European Parliament if she were chosen by the EU presidents and federal governments. She might for that reason need to depend on votes from Meloni’s reactionary celebration Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy).

    Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks at the press conference for the closing of the 2024 G7 Summit held in the city of Fasano at Borgo Egizia. Marco Cordone/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

    Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speaks at journalism conference for the closing of the 2024 G7 Top kept in the city of Fasano at Borgo Egizia. Marco Cordone/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

  • Germany’s reactionary AfD erupted by EU partners

    Germany’s reactionary AfD erupted by EU partners

    Germany’s AfD celebration was expelled Thursday from its reactionary group within the European Parliament after a series of scandals including a prominent legislator, in the closing stretch of an EU election race in which the extreme right is riding high.

    France’s National Rally (REGISTERED NURSE) and Italy’s League — both partners to the Option for Germany (AfD) within the parliament’s hard-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group — have actually been rushing to distance themselves from the celebration and its embattled legislator, Maximilian Krah.

    The AfD’s leading prospect in the June 6-9 surveys, Krah is being examined for suspicious links to Russia and China — and after he made remarks reducing the criminal activities of the Nazis’ feared SS, the registered nurse chose to draw the line.

    Marine Le Pen’s celebration revealed Tuesday it would no longer sit with the AfD in Brussels. 2 days later on ID voted to expel the German celebration and its 9 EU legislators.

    “The ID Group no longer wishes to be related to the occurrences including Maximilian Krah,” it stated in a declaration.

    “The Bureau of the Identity and Democracy Group in the European Parliament has actually chosen today to omit the German delegation, AfD, with instant impact.”

    Nicolai von Ondarza, at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, saw the speed of ID’s relocation as a method of “signalling in their election project that Le Pen and Co. wish to provide themselves as the more moderate”.

    “This truly is completion of the roadway of a journey of radicalisation for the AfD, which has actually ended up being too extreme to swallow even for that most reactionary fringe of the European political spectrum,” he composed on the platform X.

    However EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen put reject on the idea the German celebration was essentially in a various class to other European reactionary motions — registered nurse consisted of.

    “We need to be clear-eyed,” she composed on X. “Various names — however all the very same.”

    “They are Putin’s puppets and proxies and they are running over on our worths,” she stated, describing Russia’s long-serving leader.

    – Tidy break –

    Checking out the composing on the wall, the AfD had actually currently transferred to prohibit Krah from EU election project occasions — though it was electorally far too late to get rid of the 47-year-old attorney from the top of its list for the survey.

    However the registered nurse stated it was too little too late.

    registered nurse legislator Jean-Paul Garraud, who beings in ID’s management bureau, validated the French celebration lagged the effort to expel its German partner.

    He informed AFP that Krah’s AfD as an entire brought duty for his “inadmissible” remarks made as lead prospect.

    AfD stated in reaction it had actually “kept in mind of the ID Group’s choice” however insisted it stayed positive for the upcoming elections.

    The celebration stated it would “continue to have reputable partners at our side in the brand-new legal duration”.

    Krah has actually been at the centre of a deepening crisis after among his assistants in the EU parliament was jailed on suspicion of spying for China.

    He and another crucial AfD prospect, Petr Bystron, have actually likewise been required to reject accusations they accepted cash to spread out pro-Russian positions on a Moscow-financed news site.

    registered nurse leader Jordan Bardella stated Krah had actually lastly crossed a “red line” after he informed an Italian paper that not every member of Germany’s SS was “instantly a criminal”.

    The ID grouping is the 6th biggest in the European Parliament, and the smaller sized of 2 reactionary groups, behind the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) that includes Giorgia Meloni’s Sibling of Italy.

    Secret problems are viewed as dividing the 2 reactionary factions.

    Most significantly, ID is sceptical of ongoing EU assistance for Ukraine versus Russia’s getting into army, while the ECR backs Kyiv in its battle.

    And a 3rd hard-right force beings in the EU parliament in the kind of Fidesz, the unaffiliated celebration of Hungary’s Kremlin-friendly Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

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  • Xi wraps up Europe tour hailing stronger ties with Hungary

    Xi wraps up Europe tour hailing stronger ties with Hungary

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    Chinese leader Xi Jinping wrapped up his Europe tour with a visit to Budapest, where he hailed his deepening relationship with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

    “We have gone through hardships together and defied power politics together amid volatile international situations,” Xi wrote in an open letter to Hungary on Thursday, calling the partnership between Budapest and Beijing “as mellow and rich as Tokaji wine.”

    The closeness between Xi and Orbán stands in stark contrast to both leaders’ relationships with the European Union. Xi’s earlier stop in France was comparatively tense, with French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pressing him to support Ukraine and change China’s approach to trade.

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    China’s partnership with Russia scrutinized during Xi visit

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    Source:  South China Morning Post

    China and Russia have a “no-limits partnership,” and Beijing has refrained from condemning Moscow for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That has been a point of contention between China and the West, with ties becoming “confrontational” in recent years, the South China Morning Post noted. Chinese analysts blame the West for worsening ties between Europe and Beijing: Wang Yiwei, director of the Centre for European Union Studies at Renmin University of China, told the SCMP that “when they realised economic sanctions could not defeat Russia, they turned to blame China … it is the West that has pushed Russia closer to China.”

    Xi aimed to boost Europe ties and show divide over US

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    Source:  Chatham House

    Xi likely hopes his visit to Europe mitigated some of the damage that has been done to China-Europe ties in recent years, preventing them from fraying further, like they have with the US, wrote Yu Jie, a senior research fellow on China at Chatham House. Xi strategically picked France, Hungary, and Serbia for his tour, she noted: “Xi’s visits will serve to demonstrate division within Europe over the war in Ukraine and US relations.” Meanwhile, “the trip also shows the extent to which China’s protracted geopolitical competition with the US has already reduced Beijing’s choice of European partners and consumers.”

    Trip was largely ‘unproductive’

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    Source:  Financial Times

    Xi eschewed the opportunity to strengthen ties with Europe, instead choosing “to sow divisions,” the Financial Times noted. The Chinese leader’s trip to Serbia aligned with the 25th anniversary of NATO’s bombing of Belgrade, and Xi used the occasion to criticize the alliance. In Hungary, Xi was able to highlight his strong ties with one of the most disruptive members of the EU. “Xi seemed to think he could head off the risk of tariff barriers by exploiting Europe’s faultlines,” the FT’s editorial board argued. “Yet his confidence underestimates the extent to which the majority of EU countries now see China both as a security threat” and an economic one, it added.

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  • Xi lands in Hungary as EU security rift deepens

    Xi lands in Hungary as EU security rift deepens

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    Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Budapest on Wednesday, the final stop of his week-long visit to Europe that many experts consider a strategic play to deepen ideological rifts in the European Union.

    Xi’s first stop in France was met with a little resistance from French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who both pressed him on China’s cheap green technology and its effect on European competition. The pair also grilled Xi on Beijing’s continued support for Russia in its war in Ukraine. But experts agreed the invitation to France signals the EU is not prepared to completely cut ties with Beijing.

    Xi could be a little more forward during his stopovers in Serbia and Hungary — both are NATO-skeptical countries that favor stronger ties with China. The show of support for eastern Europe could further split the fragile bloc on security and economic policy — to Beijing’s (and Russia’s) benefit.

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    Hungarians’ views about China are complicated

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    Sources:  Central European Institute of Asian Studies, Növekedés, Századvég, Telex

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán remains China’s chief EU ally, but his people have more nuanced views. A 2020 study found that the majority of Hungarians — including Orbán supporters — had a poor view of China, particularly in light of the country’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. But a more recent 2022 study found the negative sentiment is decreasing as China invests in Hungary’s economy. A 2023 study by the conservative ​​Századvég think tank found 79% of Hungarians oppose more trade restrictions with China, but 50% of Hungarians are also opposed to Chinese EV battery factories being built there for environmental reasons, according to Telex news site, showing the affection isn’t entirely limitless.

    Xi’s visit to NATO-skeptic country could further splinter EU

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    Sources:  Politika, Royal United Services Institute

    In a Serbian newspaper op-ed, Xi said that Serbia and China were “forged with blood” after the 1995 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which killed three journalists. The fact that Xi immediately lashed out at NATO after his more sanguine visit to France is “like playing Jekyll and Hyde,” wrote China-watcher Sari Arho Havrén of the RUSI security think tank. But Xi can’t play both NATO-friendly and anti-NATO roles, she argued. As Xi reveals his true anti-NATO colors in Serbia and Hungary, his Paris visit may ultimately do little to influence the EU’s general security position and push it closer to the US, she argued. But that might be Xi’s goal: forcing a wedge in the EU between western NATO-friendly and NATO-skeptic countries to the east, the Financial Times wrote.

    Beijing exerts a chilling influence over Hungary’s press freedoms

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    Sources:  Xinhua, Semafor, Reporter without Borders

    Ahead of Xi’s arrival in Budapest, Chinese state newswire Xinhua and Hungary’s economy ministry reached an agreement for Xinhua to “continue collaborating with Hungarian media outlets” to promote the countries’ bilateral ties. The deal is the latest in Beijing’s long-running influence campaign in Hungary. Earlier this year, Budapest announced Chinese police officers would patrol Hungarian cities with lots of Chinese expats and tourists — potentially chilling any oppositional activity. Meanwhile, press freedoms in Hungary have been deteriorating since Orbán’s ascension to power, while propaganda has proliferated: Hungary recently passed a law requiring news outlets with foreign funding to disclose it and register as foreign agents, mirroring Russia’s restrictive media laws.

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  • Chinese President Xi sets off on diplomatic trip to Europe

    Chinese President Xi sets off on diplomatic trip to Europe

    Chinese President Xi Jinping was set to arrive in Europe on Sunday, on a trip that will take him to France, Hungary and Serbia.

    French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was set to receive Xi in Paris on Sunday afternoon.

    Talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are then scheduled for Monday.

    According to reports from the Élysée Palace, the talks will focus on the war in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, economic cooperation and climate protection.

    Macron said ahead of the visit that everything must be done to involve China in the major global issues. As Europeans, we hope that the country will work towards the stability of the international order, Macron said.

    After his stay in France, 70-year-old Xi will continue on to Serbia and Hungary.

    Serbia maintains close relations with China and is a member of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, in which Beijing is investing billions in transport routes and harbours worldwide, but particularly in the Global South.

    The Hungarian government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is also considered to be China-friendly. Hungary is one of the few EU countries to be a member of the Belt and Road Initiative.

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