Tuesday

30th May 2023

Pro-Palestinian list to run in French European elections

The green, white, red and black of Palestine will be on display at next month's European Elections, when a pro-Palestinian party will seek election.

The new 'Euro-Palestine' party has been set up and may contend seats in up to three French constituencies

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"Peace in Palestine is our concern", Christophe Oberlin, who heads the group in Ile-de-France told Liberation.

"60 percent of Europeans think that Israel is the greatest threat to World peace", he added referring to a recent Eurobarometer poll set up by the European Commission.

Mr Oberlin, a Parisian surgeon aged 52, witnessed the conflict when travelling on missions in Gaza.

However, his previous political experience is limited to a mandate at a local municipality of Paris, where he was elected for the Socialist Party

The formation of the group is being taken as a sign of the strong sentiments among French people over the Mid-East conflict.

Anti-Semitism?

The Israeli government released figures earlier this year showing that 47 percent of anti-Semitic incidents in Western Europe take place in France.

Presenting the figures in Jerusalem in January, Israeli minister Natan Sharansky said, "the situation for Jews in France is very problematic. Last year, the number of anti-Semitic incidents doubled and 47 percent of anti-Semitic attacks in Western Europe took place in France".

The new Europe-Palestine list however refuses all allegations of anti-Semitism.

"It is the state of Israel, as it has functioned since 1967, that stirs new anti-Semitism", the historian Maurice Rajsfus said to Libération.

He added: "What is referred to as anti-Semitism is nothing but the reaction of young people, rejected by all sides, without any hope or future, who pose as avengers for suppressed Palestinians".

The election takes place on 13 June.

MEPs to urge block on Hungary taking EU presidency in 2024

"This will be the first time a member state that is under the Article 7 procedure will take over the rotating presidency of the council," French Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, the key lawmaker on Hungary, warned.

European Parliament scales back luxury MEP pension fund

The European Parliament's Bureau, a political body composed of the president and its vice-presidents, decided to slash payouts from the fund by 50 percent, freeze automatic indexations, and increase the pension age from 65 to 67.

WhoisWho? Calls mount to bring back EU directory

NGOs and lobbyists slammed the EU commission for removing contact details of non-managerial staff from its public register, arguing that the institution is now less transparent.

Exclusive

MEP luxury pension held corporate assets in tax havens

While the European Parliament was demanding a clamp down on tax havens, many of its own MEPs were using their monthly office allowances to finance a luxury pension scheme that held corporate assets in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and elsewhere.

Column

What a Spanish novelist can teach us about communality

In a world where cultural clashes and sectarianism seems to be on the increase, Spanish novelist Javier Cercas (b.1962) takes the opposite approach. He cherishes both life in the big city and in the countryside.

Opinion

Poland and Hungary's ugly divorce over Ukraine

What started in 2015 as a 'friends-with-benefits' relationship between Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, for Hungary and Poland, is ending in disgust and enmity — which will not be overcome until both leaders leave.

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