LONDON — If there’s one thing Keir Starmer has mastered in office, it’s changing his mind. The PM has been pushed by his backbenchers toward a flurry of about-turns since entering Downing Street just 18 months ago.  Starmer’s vast parliamentary majority hasn’t stopped him feeling the pressure — and has meant mischievous MPs are less worried their antics will topple the government.  POLITICO recaps 7 occasions MPs mounted objections to the government’s agenda — and forced the PM into a spin. Expect this list to get a few more updates… PUB BUSINESS RATES  Getting on the wrong side of your local watering hole is never a good idea. Many Labour MPs realized that the hard way. Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her budget last year to slash a pandemic-era discount on business rates — taxes levied on firms — from 75 percent to 40 percent. Cue uproar from publicans. Labour MPs were barred from numerous boozers in protest at a sharp bill increase afflicting an already struggling hospitality sector. A £300 million lifeline for pubs, watering down some of the changes, is now being prepped. At least Treasury officials should now have a few more places to drown their sorrows. Time to U-turn: 43 days (Nov. 26, 2025 — Jan. 8, 2026). FARMERS’ INHERITANCE TAX  Part of Labour’s electoral success came from winning dozens of rural constituencies. But Britain’s farmers soon fell out of love with the government.  Reeves’ first budget slapped inheritance tax on farming estates worth more than £1 million from April 2026. Farmers drive tractors near Westminster ahead of a protest against inheritance tax rules on Nov. 19, 2024. | Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images Aimed at closing loopholes wealthy individuals use to avoid coughing up to the exchequer, the decision generated uproar from opposition parties (calling the measure the “family farm tax”) and farmers themselves, who drove tractors around Westminster playing “Baby Shark.”  Campaigners including TV presenter and newfound farmer Jeremy Clarkson joined the fight by highlighting that many farmers are asset rich but cash poor — so can’t fund increased inheritance taxes without flogging off their estates altogether. A mounting rebellion by rural Labour MPs (including Cumbria’s Markus Campbell-Savours, who lost the whip for voting against the budget resolution on inheritance tax) saw the government sneak out a threshold hike to £2.5 million just two days before Christmas, lowering the number of affected estates from 375 to 185. Why ever could that have been?  Time to U-turn: 419 days (Oct. 30, 2024 — Dec. 23, 2025). WINTER FUEL PAYMENTS  Labour’s election honeymoon ended abruptly just three and a half weeks into power after Reeves made an economic move no chancellor before her dared to take.  Reeves significantly tightened eligibility for winter fuel payments, a previously universal benefit helping the older generation with heating costs in the colder months.  Given pensioners are the cohort most likely to vote, the policy was seen as a big electoral gamble. It wasn’t previewed in Labour’s manifesto and made many newly elected MPs angsty.  After a battering in the subsequent local elections, the government swiftly confirmed all pensioners earning up to £35,000 would now be eligible for the cash. That’s one way of trying to bag the grey vote. Time until U-turn: 315 days (July 29, 2024 — June 9, 2025).  WELFARE REFORM Labour wanted to rein in Britain’s spiraling welfare bill, which never fully recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic.  The government vowed to save around £5 billion by tightening eligibility for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), a benefit helping people in and out of work with long term health issues. It also said other health related benefits would be cut. However, Labour MPs worried about the impact on the most vulnerable (and nervously eyeing their inboxes) weren’t impressed. More than 100 signed an amendment that would have torpedoed the proposed reforms.  The government vowed to save around £5 billion by tightening eligibility for Personal Independence Payment. | Vuk Valcic via SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images In an initial concession, the government said existing PIP claimants wouldn’t be affected by any eligibility cuts. It wasn’t enough: Welfare Minister Stephen Timms was forced to confirm in the House of Commons during an actual, ongoing welfare debate that eligibility changes for future claimants would be delayed until a review was completed.  What started as £5 billion of savings didn’t reduce welfare costs whatsoever.  Time to U-turn: 101 days (Mar. 18, 2025 — June 27, 2025).  GROOMING GANGS INQUIRY  The widescale abuse of girls across Britain over decades reentered the political spotlight in early 2025 after numerous tweets from X owner Elon Musk. It led to calls for a specific national inquiry into the scandal. Starmer initially rejected this request, pointing to recommendations left unimplemented from a previous inquiry into child sexual abuse and arguing for a local approach. Starmer accused those critical of his stance (aka Musk) of spreading “lies and misinformation” and “amplifying what the far-right is saying.” Yet less than six months later, a rapid review from crossbench peer Louise Casey called for … a national inquiry. Starmer soon confirmed one would happen. Time to U-turn: 159 days (Jan. 6, 2025 — June 14, 2025).  ‘ISLAND OF STRANGERS’ Immigration is a hot-button issue in the U.K. — especially with Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage breathing down Starmer’s neck. The PM tried reflecting this in a speech last May, warning that Britain risked becoming an “island of strangers” without government action to curb migration. That triggered some of Starmer’s own MPs, who drew parallels with the notorious 1968 “rivers of blood” speech by politician Enoch Powell. The PM conceded he’d put a foot wrong month later, giving an Observer interview where he claimed to not be aware of the Powell connection. “I deeply regret using” the term, he said. Time to U-turn: 46 days (May 12, 2025 — June 27, 2025).  Immigration is a hot-button issue in the U.K. — especially with Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage breathing down Starmer’s neck. | Tolga Akmen/EPA TWO-CHILD BENEFIT CAP  Here’s the U-turn that took the longest to arrive — but left Labour MPs the happiest. Introduced by the previous Conservative government, a two-child welfare cap meant parents could only claim social security payments such as Universal Credit or tax credits for their first two children. Many Labour MPs saw it as a relic of the Tory austerity era. Yet just weeks into government, seven Labour MPs lost the whip for backing an amendment calling for it to be scrapped, highlighting Reeves’ preference for fiscal caution over easy wins.  A year and a half later, that disappeared out the window. Reeves embracing its removal in her budget last fall as a child poverty-busty measure got plenty of cheers from Labour MPs — though the cap’s continued popularity with some voters may open up a fresh vulnerability. Time until U-turn: 491 days (July 23, 2024 — Nov. 26, 2025).

Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from the latest session in POLITICO’s weekly run-through. What they sparred about: The economy. Though it’s one of the most important issues in politics, Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch’s finance-focused grilling of Prime Minister Keir Starmer was a curious choice, considering that the Home Office is facing disaster after disaster. Nevertheless: Rachel Reeves’ budget is under a month away, so speculation about what the chancellor will pull out of her red box is at fever pitch. The Tory leader asked if the PM “stood by” his promises not to increase income tax, national insurance or VAT? These, of course, were in Labour’s landslide election-winning manifesto just last year. Watch and wait: The PM, you won’t be surprised to read, skirted around the query, stressing the government would “lay out their plans” next month. “Well, well, well, what a fascinating answer,” Badenoch cried after leaping to her feet. She asked the same question in July and, back then, got a one-word answer in the affirmative. “What’s changed in the past four months?” Expectation management: Quite reasonably, Starmer said that “no prime minister or chancellor will ever set out their plans in advance.” But the PM laid the groundwork for Reeves’ pledge possibly being breached — and blaming the Tories. The economic figures, he said, “are now coming through and they confirm that the Tories did even more damage to the economy than we previously thought.” Expect this claim to be repeated. Lightbulb moment: Badenoch mentioned a number of the policies she announced at Conservative conference earlier this month. “We have some ideas for him,” she said about improving the economy, to cries of horror from Labour backbenchers, calling for the abolition of stamp duty.  “Why didn’t they do it then in 14 years in office?,” Starmer shot back, briefly forgetting he was meant to be answering the questions. Broken record: When the economy’s the topic of the day, familiar lines come out to play. The PM condemned the Tories’ record on austerity, their “botched Brexit deal,” and, you’ve guessed it, Liz Truss’ mini-budget. “We’ll take no advice or lectures on the economy,” the PM cried. “They won’t be trusted on the economy for generations to come.” The originality here is exceptional. Cross-party consensus: Badenoch ensured she wasn’t left out, claiming the last government reduced inflation and improved growth. “The truth is they have no ideas,” the Tory leader crowed, as she called for the parties to work together on welfare spending. Starmer didn’t accept that definite request in good faith, stressing that the Tories broke the economy and “they have not changed a bit.” Helpful backbench intervention of the week: Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney MP Nick Smith slammed off-road bikers running riot under the Tories and asked the PM to praise Labour’s support for the police. Starmer did exactly that. The men and women in blue have never been so grateful. Totally unscientific scores on the doors: Starmer 7/10. Badenoch 6/10. The Tory leader’s economic focus in a week when a man deported to France returned across the English Channel and a sex offender due for deportation was mistakenly released from jail for 48 hours remains an odd decision. Despite the government’s numerous economic challenges, the carnage over the U.K.’s border presented an open goal for the Tories. Though the Tory leader forced Starmer not to repeat his previous economic pledges, she wasn’t able to capitalize on that weakness — meaning no clear winner emerged.

WASHINGTON — Former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss thinks the Green Party might end up becoming the official opposition after the next election. In an interview with POLITICO’s Anne McElvoy for the Westminster Insider podcast, Truss said “I think there’s a certain kind of honesty about the Green Party that you don’t see in the Labour Party,” adding that people are sick of “technocratic managerial crap” in politics. The former prime minister also insisted she will not be joining Reform UK in the foreseeable future, despite criticizing her own party’s record in office. She poured scorn on both Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch’s leadership of her old party and on Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Asked what she made of Reeves’ claim that Truss’ controversial mini-budget in September 2022 had contributed to Britain’s flailing economy today, making tax increases in her budget next month inevitable, Truss shot back: “I think she is a disingenuous liar. I have no time for Rachel Reeves. I don’t think she’s telling the truth about what is wrong with the British economy. I think she’s desperate … the public are now cottoning on to the fact that our country is in serious trouble.”  She also accused the Labour chancellor of having “bought the narrative of the Bank of England [about the dangers of the Truss mini-budget], which was a false narrative. Now she is being hung on her own petard.” The government has returned to the Conservatives’ economic record in preparation for a likely tax-raising budget next month, claiming this week that “things like austerity, the cuts to capital spending and Brexit have had a bigger impact on our economy than was even projected back then.”  Truss took issue with this assertion. “It is ludicrous to blame Brexit for a 30-year problem,” she said. “These arguments, like the mini-budget or Brexit or austerity, they’re just distractions from what the real problems are.” Speaking to POLITICO, Badenoch’s leadership of the Conservative Party also came in for a lengthy pasting from one of her recent predecessors. “I don’t believe the Conservative Party has come to terms with why we were kicked out after fourteen years,” Truss insisted. “What I was trying to do was shift the Conservative Party into the nationalist space. And what I faced was huge resistance from the Conservative blob who actually want to kowtow to the woke agenda. They want to be part of the transgender ideology, green climate change stuff.” Badenoch, she believes, still needs to choose more decisively “between representing places like Rotherham and Norfolk on the one hand and places like Surrey and Henley-on-Thames on the other. They haven’t chosen, and that’s a fundamental issue. And what Nigel Farage has done is he has moved into that space. That’s an existential threat for the Conservative Party.” But she had an optimistic assessment of the outlook for the Greens, reenergized under Zack Polanski’s leadership. “People don’t want this kind of technocratic managerial crap anymore. [Polanski] might end up leader of the opposition at this rate,” she said. “I think there’s a certain kind of honesty about the Green Party that you don’t see in the Labour Party … because there’s nothing for people to believe in.” Truss was speaking during a trip to Washington, D.C. and Virginia, where she met with leading figures from the conservative MAGA movement. In an extensive interview, Truss hinted, however, that her position could change when it comes to staying above the party fray. Asked how she saw Reform, she retorted: “I’m not offering my services,” even if there is a chance of bumping into its leader, Farage, who enjoys close links with U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House. However, she didn’t shut the door on some alignment with Reform: “I’m doing what I’m doing on an independent basis for now … reaching out to people, to network and to understand the lie of the land. I’m not going to say … my definite plans for the future.”  Truss resigned three years ago after just 49 days — the shortest period in office of any British prime minister. After losing her seat in last year’s general election, she has made regular visits to the U.S., attending right-wing conferences and conventions where she has praised Trump. Last week she joined a roster of Christian conservatives who support the MAGA movement. She spoke at a business summit at Liberty University in Virginia, founded by the late televangelist and conservative activist Jerry Falwell, alongside Gen. Mike Flynn, the former national security adviser to Trump, whose stump speeches described a Manichean fight between good and evil and Trump as the nation’s savior. Reflecting on the event afterward, Truss told McElvoy: “There’s a huge amount we can learn from [Trump] and what is happening in America and the MAGA revolution in the U.K. and Europe.”  Asked if she identified with the more fundamentalist view of religion and politics of the evangelical pro-Trump activists, she described her work “mission” to remake the U.K. and said:  “I think the [Church of England] needs to be restored to its former glory … it needs serious change.” Even Badenoch, who has fought “woke”  institutions and now wants to abandon the Climate Change Act, remains in hock to “modernizers” who Truss believes still control the party. But she had a positive word for Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick’s recent plan to restore the lord chancellor’s direct role in appointing judges. “I did agree with his policy on that — he’s right about it.” Liz Truss said she is “not offering services” to Reform UK, even if there’s a chance of bumping into its leader, Nigel Farage, who enjoys close links with U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House. | Neil Hall/EPA Truss remains defiant about the circumstances of her resignation as prime minister. She admitted to having been “upset to be deposed,” but was dismissive of her detractors and the jokes about her premiership being outlasted by a supermarket lettuce. “The people who joke about it or take the mick … I mean if I had been just a truly kind of mediocre, incompetent prime minister, I wouldn’t have been deposed. We’ve had plenty of those. I was deposed because people didn’t like my agenda and they wanted to get rid of me. “We’ve had years and years of pantomime personality politics, like Angela Rayner’s tax bill. And it doesn’t actually change the fact that the country is going down the tubes. And until the public and journalists understand where power and the British system actually lies and start to challenge it, start to question it … nothing will change.”

TWO YEARS OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT ORGANISING AROUND COLLECTIVE STRUGGLES ~ Antti Rautiainen ~ The current government of Finland has been called the most right-wing administration in the country’s political history. It formed in 2023 through a coalition of the centre-right National Coalition Party, the far-right populist party Perussuomalaiset (The Finn’s), the Swedish People’s Party, and the Christian Democrats. The integration of dissenting parties into unorthodox coalitions has been a long tradition in Finnish politics. Under the current government Finland has become a testing ground for the incorporation of anti-immigrant, right-wing populism into national politics. Since the election, anarchists and radical left organisations formed coalitions around common struggles heightened by the new government. In 2025 anarchists have made attempts to resume the anti-government protests however, but have failed to reach beyond anarchist and radical left circles. The question raised across the two years of organising is, how to struggle together against conditions of economic stagnation and decline? The context of Finnish politics is an economy hit by several crises at once. Finland’s economy has not recovered since the 2010’s which brought the Eurocrisis and the collapse of Nokia, a company which generated up to 5% of GDP. There is also a continuous decline in traditional exporting industry, made worse by the full-scale war in Russia, and a population aging faster than average. In 2023 the centre-left coalition was defeated by a narrow margin and the neoliberal National Coalition Party quickly found a common language with far-right populists, offering term of ‘you are free to bash migrants as long as we may bash the trade unions.’ The four-party coalition has set up a government program of austerity. This includes budget cuts to every sector except defence, tax cuts for the rich, and various anti-migrant policies to appease the right-wing populists. Within weeks of the new government forming, two of the biggest anti-government street demonstrations erupted. Nazi jokes made by the Minister of Economic Affairs, Vilhelm Junnila, alongside his speech at a fascist demonstration was reported by the national media. This scandal and the general shock at the inclusion of the far-right populists into the government sparked the ‘Zero Tolerance Against Fascism’ demonstration, attended by 10,000 people on 19 July 2023. In September 15,000 people gathered for the ‘We Won’t Be Silent’ demonstration, demanding the resignation of racists and fascists from the government. Although Junnila resigned, the vague demand of opposing racism was neatly resolved by the government promising to create a position paper on the topic. Already by mid-September 2023, vast majority of the liberal contingent of the anti-racist protest disappeared from the streets and has not been seen since. However, the anti-government movement was far from over. At the September demonstration anarchists joined with a banner stating ‘If something is to be cut, let’s cut the head of Petteri and Riikka’ referring to the austerity cuts by premier Petteri Orpo and state treasurer, and chairperson of Perussuomalaiset, Riikka Purra. The slogan, originally an adaptation of the UK newspaper Class War cover ‘The Best Cut Of All’ protesting Thatcher’s cuts, provoked media uproar. The backlash successfully sidelined the anti-racists agenda of the demonstration, and protest organisers publicly distanced themselves from the anarchist collectives. No other groups made much effort to introduce wider social issues into the liberal anti-racist mood of the movement. We Won’t Be Silent demonstration, 3rd September 2023 The summer of 2023 also saw a coalition between five Helsinki-based ultra-left groups swiftly created. This included A-ryhmä (a local anarchist groups since 2006), Extinction Rebellion, and three groups inspired by autonomous Marxism. Extinction Rebellion, established a week after the original UK group, brought more activists than the others combined. Together they organised the ‘Hands off!’ demonstration timed to match the government’s budget negotiations on 19 September 2023. The four major demands were to halt budget cuts, defend right to asylum, defend the right to strike, and the protection of biodiversity. Hands off! Demonstration, 19 September 2023 The demonstration drew 600 participants and was considered unsuccessful. The most likely reasons it failed to draw similar sized crowds as the ‘We Won’t Be Silent’ demonstration a week earlier was an inconsistent promise to blockade a government building, to narrow a coalition, horrible weather, and lack of widespread promotion. It is also representative of the fragmentation of anti-government protest. The day for ‘Hands Off!’ was also the launch date for students occupying Helsinki University’s main building, opposing the cuts to education and student welfare. The movement eventually spread to 16 higher education institutions and 10 high schools/trade schools. They failed to raise demands wider than their immediate self-interest, and the occupation failed to achieve their goals. Additionally, the Palestinian solidarity movement has been a major focus for anti-government protest. Although the Christian Zionist movement has traditionally been stronger in Finland than support for Palestine, this is no longer the case. In 2023 demonstration against the genocide in Gaza occurred almost weekly and have not dwindled in the two years of the right-wing government. The protests created a government crisis to recognise Palestinian statehood, however under pressure from the Christian Democrats and Perussuomalaiset the prime minister could not pursue it. With so many mobilisations, participants spread thin, unity was elusive. Meanwhile, the government pressed on with its agenda. One of the biggest challenges to the right-wing government came from the trade unions. In December 2023 the unions launched the direct-action campaign, ‘Painava SYY’ (Serious Cause) which rejected many of the government’s reforms including: cuts to unemployment and benefits, restricting political strikes to one day, and changes to contracts which would limit pay rises and weaken employment security. From the three central unions, SAK, STTK, and Akava, only SAK undertook serious strikes action, organising rolling-one day strikes across industries. This culminated in a one-month port strike between March-April 2024. This was expected to halt foreign trade and result in serious disruption, however there no major industry shutdowns. Due to decreasing opinion polls in support of strike action, or the lack of willingness to really rock the boat, SKA ended the campaign before imposing a general strike and won slightly less strict changes to employee’s contracts. As the unions chickened out, anarchists continued to call for a general strike. The ‘Hands-Off!’ coalition organised an event to discuss the history of a general strike in Finland and gathered 400 people in a general strike bloc at the Mayday marches of the unions and left-wing parties. This reached further than the usual anarchist circles, but failed to instigate a general strike. Throughout 2023-2024, ultra-left coalitions remained active in anti-government and anti-fascist organising. A coalition between A-ryhmä, anti-fascist Varis network, and Left Youth created in 2016, continued its annual counter demonstration against the far right ‘612’ march on 6 December 2023.  The march was created by Nazi organisation Nordic Resistance Movement and other Finnish far-right groups. In 2023 right-wing populists deserted the march, leaving it for fascists alone. For several hours, 1,500 counter-protestors occupied the square, delaying the march, and demoralising the fascists. In 2024, right-wing populist MP Teemu Keskisarja attended the march, however, despite the backing from parliament, fascist numbers were again decreasing. Also in 2024, the fascist ‘Blue-Black Movement’ party attempted to organise reading circles in public libraries, using a legal loophole designating libraries as free public spaces for any groups use. In Helsinki, reading circles were organised and the library administration was first adamant to permit the fascist gatherings. Due to loud anti-fascist protests inside the library, the library reconsidered the interpretation of law and the fascist gatherings were pushed out from public libraries nationwide. Additionally, in April, the ‘Hands Off!’ coalition organised the ‘Unruly Street Party’ where 400 people gathered and was continued with a squatting in a former manor house close to government officials’ residences. The house was evicted after 7 weeks; however, another former manor house was occupied further from the centre of the city, and remained occupied until December. Kaaoskartano (Chaos mansion), squatted 19 April 2024. Active demonstrations and protests against the right-wing government diminished through 2024.  The trade unions rounded up their direct-action campaign and the ‘Hands Off!’ coalition collapsed as Extinction rebellion moved forwards with a campaign to propose more ‘environmentally friendly’ cuts. The Left party won the EU parliament elections of June 2024, gaining 17% of the vote.  After this, most leftists seem to be happy to wait for the next parliamentary elections. In April 2025 anarchists resumed anti-government protests by forming a queue for bread to the prime minister’s residence in Helsinki. The protest failed to reach beyond the anarchist and radical left circles with around 300 demonstrators attending the event. Despite two years of efforts from anarchists and the radical left to form coalitions around common struggles, it is clear that different organisations and groups pursued their own agenda without attempting to unite on common struggles. Despite this, there are positives from the anarchist, anti-fascists coalitions, and wider anti-government protests of 2023-2024. Fascists were successfully marginalised and pushed out of public libraries, unions showed their strength and gained minor concessions, and Palestine solidarity showed endurance and provoked a government crisis. Yet, some big questions remain as the Finnish economy stagnates and the right-wing coalition remains in power. In 2024, the Finnish economy was the worst in Europe, and currently the unemployment rate of 9.9% is behind only Spain. How can growing number of unemployed people be organised? How can anarchists intervene in trade union struggles when they are hostile to outside intervention? How to united anti-racist and social struggles, and stop the fragmentation of struggles? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article has been adapted from a lecture given at anarchist days, Dresden, 21st September 2024. It has been updated with recent developments. The lecture is available on YouTube and Spotify. The post Finland: Struggles against the right-wing government appeared first on Freedom News.

92 INJURIES, 11 MISSING AS ANTI-AUSTERITY MOVEMENT ENTERS THIRD WEEK ~ from cubadebate ~ Indigenous leader Efraín Fuerez, recognized for his community work in Mingas, was gunned down Sunday while marching in protest against high costs of living and government crackdowns that include freezing the bank accounts of activists and suspending a media organisation. The number of attacks has been documented by the Ecuadorian Human Rights Alliance, a group of 14 organisations that emerged after the 2019 national strike. In its most recent bulletin, the organization blamed the state for the spiral of violence and warned that, “the risk persists for those demonstrating in the streets, those who provide media coverage, and those providing humanitarian assistance and human rights monitoring.” According to the organisation, 70% of the documented violations have been committed by the Armed Forces and the National Police, with more than half of the incidents concentrated in Imbabura. Quito and Cotopaxi also record high numbers, with 30 and 10 cases, respectively. Meanwhile, the Federation of Indigenous and Peasant Organisations of Azuay (FOA) denounced, “disproportionate armed repression” and arbitrary arrests during the night of September 30. The group stated that a group of unarmed community members—including women and senior citizens—were violently intercepted and that six people were detained, one of them with serious facial and head injuries. The government, for its part, reported 12 soldiers were injured and 17 were held captive by protesters. All were later released, although several suffered fractures, bruises, and burns. Two police officers were also detained this Wednesday in Chimborazo while working to reopen a highway. The crisis has prompted reaction from the international community. UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed his, “deep concern” about the events and called for respect for the right to peaceful protest. Domestically, the National Assembly has launched investigations, although it is divided between two committees vying for authority over control of the security forces. Conaie president Marlon Vargas described Fuerez’s death as a, “state crime” and ratified the continuation of the protests. In contrast, the Federation of Kichwa Peoples of the Sierra Norte announced a, “temporary truce” as a gesture of good faith to facilitate a possible dialogue with the executive branch, although it clarified that, “the resistance remains strong in the streets.” The situation has also had a strong impact on the press. Fundamedios and the Alliance for Human Rights have recorded nine attacks on freedom of expression, including tear gas, physical attacks, and arbitrary arrests of journalists, in addition to hostility from some groups of protesters. Crews from Radio Pichincha and the Associated Press reported damage to their vehicles and attacks during coverage in Quito. In an unusual gesture, a group of military personnel publicly apologised for Fuerez’s death in Cotacachi, lighting candles at the site of his death and sharing a minute of silence with the local population. Tensions in Ecuador persist after more than a week of demonstrations that have left a growing number of victims and a political landscape marked by confrontation between the government, indigenous and social organisations, and international demands for respect for human rights. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machine translation. Image: Screen capture from Ecuvista   The post Ecuador: Indigenous leader gunned down in social protests appeared first on Freedom News.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Under the jackhammers on Schuman, Brussels is filling back up for the rentrée — and the fault lines are showing. Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by colleagues Clea Caulcutt, Nick Vinocur and Paul Dallison to unpack a cliff-edge week: France’s confidence vote on an austerity budget that could topple Prime Minister François Bayrou and push Paris back into chaos; Europe’s next moves on Ukraine; and Ursula von der Leyen’s big address in Strasbourg on the EU’s place in a shifting world. It’s a tough speech to deliver, with few clear wins to trumpet. Plus, our resident comedian brings von der Leyen bingo back: Place your bets on how many times she will say “competitiveness.”

PARIS — French Prime Minister François Bayrou’s last-ditch attempt to woo the far-right National Rally and thereby prevent his government from collapsing came up short, party President Jordan Bardella said. “The miracle did not happen, the meeting today will not change the position of the National Rally,” Bardella told reporters Tuesday after he and Marine Le Pen met with Bayrou. Bardella said that Bayrou had crossed some of the National Rally’s red lines with the unpopular €43.8 billion budget squeeze that will be at the heart of a confidence vote on Monday. The far right believes Bayrou did not sufficiently target costs associated with immigration and European Union membership. “If the question is: Do we have confidence in this government? The answer is no, we don’t,” said Le Pen. Bayrou is holding talks with parties from across the political spectrum this week, ostensibly to find common ground. After the prime minister unveiled his plans to hold a confidence vote last week, France’s political opposition quickly said they would vote to bring down his minority government, leaving the longtime centrist little hope of survival. According to Le Pen, Bayrou already knows his government is toast. “He chose to hit the eject button, and then lead consultations. If he really wanted to talk in earnest, he would have started negotiations as early as July,” she said. Should Bayrou fall, it’s unclear how French President Emmanuel Macron will find a way out of deadlock. Opposition parties have shown little appetite for budget cuts necessary to balance France’s books and stave off growing concerns about runaway public spending in the eurozone’s second-biggest economy. The French president has already started consultations on who might replace Bayrou as prime minister, according to several of his allies. “He’s trying to walk a tightrope” and find a new prime minister who can get a budget through parliament and not get toppled, said one person close to Macron. Several names have started circulating in the French press, including Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin and Economy and Finance Minister Éric Lombard. But on Tuesday, Le Pen dampened early hopes of a compromise with any future prime minister backed by the French president. “It’s the Emmanuel Macron’s policies that are toxic,” she said. Bayrou’s successor would have to “break” with Macron, she said, if he wanted to survive for any length of time.

Public spending cuts ain’t austerity, French Prime Minister François Bayrou argued on Thursday in his latest push to save his minority government from collapsing. “This is not austerity, it is a slowdown in additional [public] spending so that the country can recover,” he told a conference organized by France’s largest employers’ association, MEDEF. Bayrou’s speech was the latest stop on his blitz public relations campaign to convince voters that their elected representatives who plan to take down his government over an unpopular €43.8 billion budget squeeze are making a major mistake. “We are living in a critical moment in our national history,” Bayrou said. “Our heritage, the landscapes we have inherited, and the cultural wealth of our country, are under threat. Every business and every family is threatened by the decline of our public finances.” Bayrou on Monday announced he would hold a confidence vote on Sept. 8 to seek parliament’s approval to forge ahead with his slimmed down budget for next year. The spending plans are designed to rein in the budget deficit and assuage French creditors, financial institutions and ratings agencies concerned by the country’s unsustainable levels of public spending. Opposition lawmakers, however, have already come out against the longtime centrist and said they would use the vote to bring down his government. In the days that have followed, the prime minister has taken to the airwaves to convince voters directly of the need to balance France’s books and express an openness to negotiation — so long as his political opponents agree on the need for drastic action. “These proposals [to cut public spending] are all open for discussion and can be amended, provided that they do not undermine the outcome of the necessary effort that needs to be made,” Bayrou said. During his speech Bayrou hit back at his critics, saying “they have it all wrong” and are actually working against securing a prosperous economy for the next generation. “We are accepting that [young people] are being enslaved by having them spend decades repaying loans that were so lightly contracted by previous generations,” he said. The prime minister and his allies have warned that without a course correction, the eurozone’s second largest economy could face a debt crisis on the level of the one that rocked the European Union in the 2010s. “Just look at the example of all the countries around us — Spain, Portugal, Italy, not to mention Greece — which had to make unprecedented sacrifices to get their public finances back on track,” he said.

BRUSSELS — Romania’s fledgling government is made up of the country’s most pro-European politicians, but that hasn’t stopped them citing Brussels as a key reason why they need to impose a drastic set of tax hikes and spending cuts to avert financial collapse. For the past five years, Romania has been spending way beyond its means — in the words of new President Nicușor Dan, eating a large pizza while only paying for a medium-sized one — and has a projected budget deficit of around 9 percent of economic output this year, the highest in the European Union.  That record of poor fiscal management has provoked repeated reprimands from the European Commission, which Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan now says can no longer be ignored. This week, ministers from EU countries will vote to decide on a strict plan setting out exactly what Romania must now do to restore order to its public finances.  Even before Tuesday’s vote in a meeting of EU economy and finance ministers, Romania’s new prime minister is pushing through a dramatic package of austerity measures that will deal a blow to economic growth, as well as hammer the government’s popularity.  But without action now, Bolojan argues, the country will face the wrath of the Commission and — worse than that — the prospect of a downgrade from credit rating agencies, potentially reducing Romanian government debt to “junk” status. That would risk a spiraling financial meltdown, and the prime minister has warned of the risk to salaries and pensions if the country’s creditors lose faith.  “Access to European funds is conditional on fiscal reform; without it, we would lose access to these funds,” Bolojan told reporters last week. “Think about what it would mean if we could not continue half of the investments currently underway, in major highways, rail lines, and projects in every locality across Romania. This would place us at risk of being downgraded again into so-called junk status, making our country unattractive to investors.” He added: “We cannot let our country end up in a situation like Greece.” Speaking in an interview with the Antena 3 CNN channel, Bolojan said Romania’s previous approach of promising its creditors and the EU that it will reduce its deficit, only to keep spending more than it can afford, resembled the fable of the boy who cried wolf. “Given that you often announce that it will happen and it doesn’t happen, when that thing really happens, no one believes you that it will happen and no one helps you anymore,” he said.  ‘AUTUMN OF DISCONTENT’ The fiscal crisis is a huge test for the new administration of Dan, the centrist former mayor of Bucharest, who was elected president in May. He saw off a challenge from far-right populist George Simion to win the presidency, promising to clean up corruption, keep Romania on its pro-Western path supporting Ukraine, and to tackle the country’s ballooning debts.  Dan said before he was elected that he was opposed to raising VAT, but Bolojan’s package of reforms envisages large increases in these taxes, including on food, alongside other painful measures such as capping public sector pensions and salaries, requiring teachers to work longer hours, increasing excise duties on fuel, alcohol and tobacco, and taxing gambling winnings and bank profits.  The first tranche of these reforms is due to come into force in August, with the second phase starting Jan. 1 next year. Bolojan must pass his reforms through Romania’s parliament, though most observers believe the four-party coalition will remain united and that this legislative step will not prove to be a major hurdle for the prime minister.  The public reaction is another matter. “We will see the PM and the parties of government fall in the polls,” said Radu Magdin, a former Romanian government adviser who is now CEO of Smartlink Communications. While riots are “less likely,” public protests may follow the next fiscal packages, he said. “The advantage the government has is that it’s summertime. The disadvantage is the autumn of discontent coming in September, after the holidays.” Romania’s new prime minister is pushing through a dramatic package of austerity measures that will deal a blow to economic growth. | Robert Ghement/EFE via EPA On Tuesday, the EU’s finance ministers will set the parameters for what Brussels wants to see from Bucharest’s reform plans, though it’s not likely that they will have had a chance to take account of Bolojan’s latest austerity blueprint. Romania will then have until Oct. 15 to produce a budget that meets the EU’s requirements for reducing its deficit.  According to Daniel Dăianu, chair of the Romanian Fiscal Council, which advises the government on spending, the country must bring the deficit down to below 6.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2026.  “Expenditures cuts and tax increases will affect GDP growth, but they are unavoidable,”  Dăianu said in a recent presentation. 

Romania’s new government is bracing for a baptism of fire as its drastic measures to slash the highest budget deficit in the EU are likely to provoke a severe backlash. The potentially inflammatory ideas under consideration include slashing 20 percent of civil servant jobs — at least 167,000 people — ramping up value-added tax and creating a new tax on gambling. The deficit stood at 9.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2024, and failure to haul it down could see the country’s sovereign rating downgraded. That would increase borrowing costs and potentially further widen the deficit. Romania also risks the suspension of EU regional development and post-pandemic funds. A four-party coalition led by liberal Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan was just sworn in on June 23 — and the pushback has already begun. Civil servants working in the building that houses the prime minister’s office on Friday protested against draft legislation that would cut bonuses and the number of extra days off for those working in dangerous conditions, Digi24 reported. The government postponed a discussion on the topic amid calls for union talks. The European Commission asked Romania to reduce its deficit to 2.8 percent of GDP by 2030 in a draft recommendation to be discussed at a July 8 meeting of economy and finance ministers. Getting there will be painful. In addition to slashing the civil service, new taxes on gambling and increases in excise duties are expected, according to a draft government plan. The new government also plans to increase the tax on profits and dividends to 16 percent from 10 percent, and to raise the VAT rate on firewood and other energy products to 9 percent from 5 percent. Some other reduced VAT rates, excluding food and medicines, would increase to 19 percent. “This correction is so extensive, so far-reaching, that pain cannot be avoided,” said Daniel Dăianu, a former finance minister who presides over the Romanian Fiscal Council, which advises the government on budget issues. He added that the balancing would be “a day of reckoning” for Romania. The new government also plans to reevaluate investment projects, and to restrict government support programs to those that would increase exports, decrease imports and create added value. “We have to convince Romanians, international financiers and the Commission to come together in this effort to avoid a [sovereign rating] downgrade that would trigger a more complicated and more painful situation for Romania,” Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare told reporters. PAINFUL REFORM Ana Otilia Nuțu, a public policy analyst at the Bucharest-based Expert Forum think tank, said it was difficult for the government “to sell austerity when you see the same tired faces in government [that] people voted massively against.” President Nicușor Dan plans to discuss tax evasion as a threat to national security with Romania’s top national security officials at a meeting on Monday. | Robert Ghement/EPA The new government comprises three of the four parties that have overseen a rise in the budget deficit over the past few years: the center-left Social Democrats, the center-right Liberals and the UDMR Hungarian minority party. Siegfried Mureșan, a liberal member of the European Parliament, said Bolojan had demonstrated an ability to successfully manage budget cuts as mayor of the northwestern city of Oradea. “Ilie Bolojan has a true reformist track record,” Mureșan said. “He made the institutions he led more efficient, he reduced the number of civil servants.” Expert Forum’s Nuțu said austerity measures would be “terribly unpopular” if the government doesn’t reduce unnecessary public expenditures such as high pensions for former civil servants. “People will be very angry and we will continue to see, in the next elections, that they will blow everyone away,” she said, predicting a potential further rise in hard-right populism.  Nuțu and Dăianu pointed to efforts to collect more VAT as one area that could bring significant gains in reducing the deficit.  The gap between total potential VAT revenues and what the Romanian tax authorities collected in 2022 was €8.5 billion — or more than 30 percent of the total that could be collected, according to the latest Commission data. “There will be a forceful intervention in this area,” said Victor Negrescu, a Social Democrat member of the European Parliament.  Romania’s tax authority needs to digitize to target evasion, he said, adding many people run unregistered economic activities and don’t pay the taxes due. President Nicușor Dan plans to discuss tax evasion as a threat to national security with Romania’s top national security officials at a meeting on Monday. The Fiscal Council’s Dăianu said the new government still had to produce an impact assessment of most of the measures it is considering. But in a positive scenario, these could pull Romania’s budget deficit under 8 percent of GDP by the year’s end, he predicted. “The numbers are still approximate, but I believe Romania will avoid a downgrade,” Dăianu said.