Tag Archives: Europe

Right Wing Bloc Fails To Win Power In Spanish Election

CNN reports: Spain appears destined for painful political negotiations after Sunday’s elections, when no single party won enough parliamentary seats to form a government. Prospects for coalition-building now remain uncertain. With over 99% of the vote counted, the center-right Partido Popular (PP) is set to come in first, winning 136 seats. The upstart far-right Vox party, a possible coalition partner …

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Greek PM Promises To Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

Bloomberg News reports: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis plans to legalize same-sex marriage, a huge step forward for LGBTQ rights in a region where some conservative governments are cracking down on the community. “Same-sex marriage will happen at some point and it’s part of our strategy,” Mitsotakis, a center-right politician, said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Athens. …

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Turkey’s Erdogan Claims Victory In Presidential Runoff

Reuters reports: President Tayyip Erdogan claimed victory in Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday, a win that would steer his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade. Addressing supporters, Erdogan said voters had given him the responsibility to rule for the next five years. The election had been seen as one of the most consequential yet for Turkey, with the opposition …

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Serbians Surrender 13K Weapons After Mass Shootings

NPR reports: Authorities in Serbia on Sunday displayed stacks of guns and cartons of hand grenades from the thousands of weapons, including anti-tank rocket launchers, that they said people handed over since back-to-back mass shootings stunned the Balkan nation. The government declared a one-month amnesty period for citizens to surrender unregistered weapons as part of a crackdown on guns following …

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Polls Close In Turkey’s Tight Presidential Election Race

The New York Times reports: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey was facing the greatest political challenge of his career after millions voted on Sunday in pivotal elections that could reshape the country’s domestic and foreign policies. The presidential and parliamentary elections took place three months after devastating earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people in southern Turkey, and were in …

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Sweden Wins 2023 Eurovision Song Contest [VIDEO]

The BBC reports: Sweden’s Loreen was always the one to beat, and her team knew it too. She had something none of the other contestants competing on Saturday’s Eurovision grand final had – the experience of winning it before. The 39-year-old from Stockholm took the title with her banger Euphoria in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2012. Now, with Tattoo, and 583 …

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Turkey’s Erdogan May Not Concede If He Loses Election

The Daily Beast reports: Turkish opposition officials say their supporters will take to the streets in “massive protests” if President Recep Tayyip Erdogan follows through on his threat not to concede power if he loses this Sunday’s presidential election. Erdogan has implied that his main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), is being supported by a …

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Erdogan Rallies Anti-Gay Hate To Bolster Reelection Bid

Agence France-Presse reports: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday launched a new attack against Turkey’s LGBTQ community as he played up his conservative credentials ahead of a crucial May 14 vote. Polls show the 69-year-old running neck-and-neck with leftist secular leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in one of Turkey’s most important election races of its post-Ottoman history. “We are against the LGBT,” …

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Nine Dead In Belgrade School Mass Shooting [VIDEO]

Reuters reports: A 14-year-old boy shot dead eight fellow pupils and a security guard and wounded his teacher and six other students when he opened fire in his Belgrade classroom on Wednesday morning, Serbia’s interior ministry said. Milan Milosevic, the father of one of the pupils at the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school in the Serbian capital, said his daughter was …

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Court To Sperm Donor With 550 Children: Stop Now

The Netherlands Times reports: A Dutch sperm donor with hundreds of children must immediately stop donating sperm, the court in The Hague ruled on Friday. Jonathan M. (41) says he has about 550 children. The summary proceedings were filed by Stichting Donorkind, a nonprofit organization that advocates for people whose biological parent was a donor, and a mother who has …

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Hungarian President Pardons Anti-LGBTQ Terrorist

Bloomberg News reports: Hungary’s president pardoned a far-right figure convicted of terrorism hours before meeting Pope Francis in Budapest, a decision that risks damaging the optics of the pontiff’s visit with a highly charged domestic issue. The pardon, issued late Thursday by President Katalin Novak, came on the eve of the Pope’s three-day visit. Novak will welcome the Pope to …

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World’s Youngest Natl Leader Ousted In Finnish Election

The New York Times reports: Prime Minister Sanna Marin and her Social Democratic Party lost a tight election in Finland on Sunday to a center-right party that focused on economic concerns. The National Coalition Party, led by Petteri Orpo, 53, captured the most votes in the parliamentary election, followed by the right-wing Finns Party and the Social Democrats. But no …

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Finnish Parliament Gives Final Approval To Join NATO

The Associated Press reports: Finland’s Parliament gave final approval Wednesday to the Nordic country’s bid to join NATO, with lawmakers signing off on membership along with the required legislation. The 200-seat Eduskunta legislature voted 184-7 to authorize Finland’s accession to NATO, clearing the last required domestic hurdle to becoming part of the 30-member Western military alliance. Two of NATO’s 30 …

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Dozens Killed In Greece In Head-On Train Collision

Reuters reports: A passenger train and a cargo train collided head-on in Greece on Tuesday night, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens as the country’s deadliest rail crash in living memory threw entire carriages off the tracks. Many of the victims were thought to be university students on their way back from a long holiday weekend. The death …

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Right Wing Groups Stage Massive Protest In Madrid

Deutsche Welle reports: Tens of thousands of people packed into central Madrid on Saturday against the left-wing government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. The protest, called by dozens of right-leaning civil society groups and backed by the center-right Popular Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party, came in a key election year for Spain. The central government said around …

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Belgian Parliament To Criminalize Ex-Gay Torture

The Brussels Times reports: Belgium is banning conversion practices – a pseudoscientific practice of trying to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms – for members of the LGBTQ community, announced State Secretary for Gender Equality, Equal Opportunity and Diversity Sarah Schlitz. “Belgium is a pioneer in the field of LGBTQ rights. Numerous …

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Far-Right Leader Sworn In As Italian Premier [VIDEO]

The Associated Press reports: Giorgia Meloni, whose political party with neo-fascist roots secured the most votes in Italy’s national election last month, was sworn in Saturday as the country’s first far-right premier since the end of World War II. She is also the first woman to serve as premier. Her Brothers of Italy party, which she co-founded in 2012, will …

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“Radicalized Teen” Kills Two Men At Slovakia Gay Bar

Agence France-Presse reports: A “radicalised teenager” shot dead two men at a gay bar in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said on Thursday. The shooting happened on Wednesday outside the Teplaren bar and police said they found the gunman dead at another location on Thursday. “Two people were murdered just because they were part of the LGBTI community,” …

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WHO Reports New Wave Of COVID Cases Across Europe

Reuters reports: Another wave of COVID-19 infections may have begun in Europe as cases begin to tick up across the region, the World Health Organization and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said on Wednesday. “Although we are not where we were one year ago, it is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic is still not over,” WHO’s Europe …

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Montenegro Pride Goes On Despite Protests [VIDEO]

The Associated Press reports: Several hundred people on Saturday joined an LGBTQ pride march in Montenegro, held amid strong opposition from the influential Serbian Orthodox Church in the small conservative Balkan country. Montenegro’s 10th pride event was dubbed “No more buts,” reflecting demands that more be done to stem hate speech and harassment of LGBTQ community despite huge steps that …

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