World

Populist leaders meet in Warsaw, Poland to discuss European Union

The leaders of right-wing populist parties are gathering Saturday in Warsaw to discuss how they can work together to bring change to the European Union, which they accuse of acting like a super-state that is eroding the traditions and powers of the EU’s 27 member nations.

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Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland’s nationalist ruling party, was expected to open the gathering in Warsaw. Scheduled attendees include Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, among others.

The meeting follows a visit by Le Pen to Budapest in October that was part of an effort by her and Orban to consolidate the European right.

It also comes as both the Polish and Hungarian governments remain locked in a bitter standoff with the EU, which is withholding funds to both countries over democratic backsliding.

Wojciech Przybylski, editor in chief of Visegrad Insight, a policy journal focused on Central Europe, said there is a paradox in a “transnational meeting of nationalist parties.” He thinks the event was organized so the party leaders can show their voters “they are not alone.”

Both the Hungarian and Polish ruling parties, he noted, are “in deep trouble,” with Orban’s Fidesz party forced to leave the main grouping of conservatives at the European Parliament, and Poland’s governing populists seeing a drop in popularity at home.

“This is essentially a PR stunt, Przybulski said.

Kaczynski’s welcome of Le Pen marks a recent change of heart for Poland’s governing conservatives. The ruling Law and Justice party had long refused to cooperate with the French presidential candidate due to her warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin — a turnoff in a country long dominated by Russian and Soviet rule.

“We have as much in common with Ms. Le Pen as with Mr. Putin,” Kaczynski remarked in 2017. Two years later, he described Le Pen’s party as being among several groupings in Europe that were “obviously linked to Moscow and receive its support,” citing such ties as an impediment to cooperation.

But Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki met with Le Pen in Brussels in October and hosted her for a dinner in Warsaw on Friday evening.

In a tweet, Le Pen posted a photo of herself with Morawiecki and thanked him for his welcome. She said they share a wish for “a Europe of nations to give back to the peoples of Europe their freedom and their sovereignty.”

Sixteen European populist parties issued a joint ideological statement in July objecting to the EU’s current direction. Among the signatories were Kaczynski’s Law and Justice, Orban’s Fidesz, Le Pen’s National Rally, Austria’s Freedom Party and Spain’s Vox.

There have been rumors that the parties were working to form a group at the European Parliament, something Polish officials denied this week.

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Tunisian coast guard recovers 10 dead as new migrant boat sinks

Tunisia’s coast guard recovered 10 bodies from a migrant boat which sank near the coast, the second vessel to sink within hours off Tunisia, bringing the death toll to 29, a security official told Reuters.

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Houssem Jebabli, a national guard official, said that the boat sank off the coast of Mahdia, without giving further details.

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World

Gulf states appeal to US on Israeli minister’s Palestinian comments

The Gulf Cooperation Council said Sunday it had written to Washington’s top diplomat condemning controversial comments from Israel’s finance minister in which he denied the existence of a Palestinian people.

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The GCC, in a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, called on Washington “to assume its responsibilities in responding to all measures and statements that target the Palestinian people”.

The letter from the six-member GCC’s foreign ministers also called on the US “to play its role in reaching a just, comprehensive and lasting solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, speaking earlier this month, said that the Palestinians did not exist as a people, comments that sparked outrage among Arab nations.

The US State Department said they had found Smotrich’s comments “to not only be inaccurate but also deeply concerning and dangerous.”

Smotrich is part of veteran Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government that took office in December.

The GCC ministers also denounced earlier remarks by Smotrich, calling for the Palestinian town of Huwara in the West Bank to be “wiped out” after two Israelis were shot dead there by an alleged Hamas militant in February, remarks he later walked back.

The GCC, whose foreign ministers met in Riyadh last week, includes the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which normalized relations with Israel under the US-crafted 2020 Abraham Accords, as well as Saudi Arabia, which has not.

Violence has intensified in the West Bank in recent months, which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967.

On Tuesday, the State Department criticized a move by Israel’s parliament to annul part of a law banning Israelis from living in areas of the West Bank evacuated in 2005, calling it “provocative” and in direct contradiction of promises made to Washington at the time.

Blinken, appearing before a Senate committee, also reiterated previous US pushback on Smotrich’s comments about Palestinians, saying they do not reflect US values.

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UK politicians caught in sting for lucrative second jobs

A senior British minister on Sunday defended former cabinet colleagues after they were shown negotiating top-dollar rates to work on the side for a fake South Korean consultancy.

The sting operation by the anti-Brexit group Led By Donkeys, which targeted former finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng among others, exposed nothing illegal.

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But the issue of Conservative MPs taking lucrative second jobs with companies has been provoking fresh controversy as Britons endure the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.

Kwarteng’s involvement in particular focussed anger, after he and short-lived prime minister Liz Truss triggered a crash on financial markets that drove up borrowing costs for millions last year.

He and former health secretary Matt Hancock were shown separately negotiating a daily rate of £10,000 ($12,000) to advise a sham consultancy purportedly based in Seoul that was set up by Led By Donkeys.

“On this occasion, I think it is pretty clear that things that were offered and considered were within the rules,” cabinet member Michael Gove told Sky News.

Gove said it was “absolutely vital that we know who is paying” MPs for second jobs, “and that is what the register (of MPs’ interests) is there for”.

“And ultimately, the really important thing is, is an MP delivering for their constituents, is a member of parliament doing everything they can to put public service first?”

Led By Donkeys showed a clip on social media in which Kwarteng said he “wouldn’t do anything less than for about 10,000 dollars a month.”

Prompted by a recruiter representing the fictious “Hanseong Consulting”, he switched the currency to pounds, which are worth more than dollars, and the rate to daily.

Hancock had already drawn controversy for taking an unauthorised break from his work as an MP to take part in a reality television show, in which he ate animal genitalia among other challenges.

He was forced to resign as health secretary for breaking his own pandemic rules on social distancing, when it was exposed that he was having an extra-marital affair with a senior advisor.

A spokesman said Hancock had “acted entirely properly and within the rules” regarding the apparent job offer from South Korea.
Kwarteng has yet to comment.

The sting threatens embarrassment for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who replaced Truss in October with a vow to restore “integrity, professionalism and accountability” after her term and that of her predecessor Boris Johnson.

Senior opposition Labour member Lucy Powell told Sky News that she was “pretty appalled and sickened,” reiterating her party’s call to ban MPs from holding second jobs.