«За особисту мужність, вагомий внесок у захист державного суверенітету та територіальної цілісності України, самовіддане служіння Українському народу»
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Starlink – система американської компанії SpaceX, що надає доступ до широкосмугового інтернету у будь-якій точці планети
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A hands-off approach to moderating content at Elon Musk’s Twitter could clash with ambitious new laws in Europe meant to protect users from disinformation, hate speech and other harmful material.
Musk, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” pledged to buy Twitter for $44 billion this week, with European Union officials and digital campaigners quick to say that any focus on free speech to the detriment of online safety would not fly after the 27-nation bloc solidified its status as a global leader in the effort to rein in the power of tech giants.
“If his approach will be ‘just stop moderating it,’ he will likely find himself in a lot of legal trouble in the EU,” said Jan Penfrat, senior policy adviser at digital rights group EDRi.
Musk will soon be confronted with Europe’s Digital Services Act, which will require big tech companies like Twitter, Google and Facebook parent Meta to police their platforms more strictly or face billions in fines.
Other crackdowns
Officials agreed just days ago on the landmark legislation, expected to take effect by 2024. It’s unclear how soon it could spark a similar crackdown elsewhere, with U.S. lawmakers divided on efforts to address competition, online privacy, disinformation and more.
That means the job of reining in a Musk-led Twitter could fall to Europe — something officials signaled they’re ready for.
“Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules — regardless of their shareholding,” Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, tweeted Tuesday. “Mr Musk knows this well. He is familiar with European rules on automotive, and will quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act.”
Musk’s plans for Twitter haven’t been fleshed out beyond a few ideas for new features, opening its algorithm to public inspection and defeating “bots” posing as real users.
France’s digital minister, Cedric O, said Musk has “interesting things” that he wants to push for Twitter, “but let’s remember that #DigitalServicesAct — and therefore the obligation to fight misinformation, online hate, etc. — will apply regardless of the ideology of its owner.”
EU Green Party lawmaker Alexandra Geese, who was involved in negotiating the law, said, “Elon Musk’s idea of free speech without content moderation would exclude large parts of the population from public discourse,” such as women and people of color.
Twitter declined to comment. Musk tweeted that “the extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all.” He added that by free speech, he means “that which matches the law” and that he’s against censorship going “far beyond the law.”
The United Kingdom also has an online safety law in the works that threatens senior managers at tech companies with prison if they don’t comply. Users would get more power to block anonymous trolls, and tech companies would be forced to proactively take down illegal content.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office stressed the need for Twitter to remain “responsible” and protect users.
“Regardless of ownership, all social media platforms must be responsible,” Johnson spokesman Max Blain said Tuesday.
Need seen for cleanup
Damian Collins, a British lawmaker who led a parliamentary committee working on the bill, said that if Musk really wants to make Twitter a free speech haven, “he will need to clean up the digital town square.”
Collins said Twitter has become a place where users are drowned out by coordinated armies of “bot” accounts spreading disinformation and division and that users refrain from expressing themselves “because of the hate and abuse they will receive.”
The laws in the U.K. and EU target such abuse. Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, tech companies must put in place systems so illegal content can be easily flagged for swift removal.
Experts said Twitter will have to go beyond taking down clearly defined illegal content like hate speech, terrorism and child sexual abuse and grapple with material that falls into a gray zone.
The law includes requirements for big tech platforms to carry out annual risk assessments to determine how much their products and design choices contribute to the spread of divisive material that can affect issues like health or public debate.
“This is all about assessing to what extent your users are seeing, for example, Russian propaganda in the context of the Ukraine war,” online harassment or COVID-19 misinformation, said Mathias Vermeulen, public policy director at data rights agency AWO.
Violations would incur fines of up to 6% of a company’s global annual revenue. Repeat offenders can be banned from the EU.
More openness
The Digital Services Act also requires tech companies to be more transparent by giving regulators and researchers access to data on how their systems recommend content to users.
Musk has similar thoughts, saying his plans include “making the algorithms open source to increase trust.”
Penfrat said it’s a great idea that could pave the way to a new ecosystem of ranking and recommendation options.
But he panned another Musk idea — “authenticating all humans” — saying that taking away anonymity or pseudonyms from people, including society’s most marginalized, was the dream of every autocrat.
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«Ця тема була паном Ґутеррішем озвучена, але якихось конкретних домовленостей в цій області немає», заявив Пєсков
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Про те, що резидент України та президент Росії можуть зустрітися найближчими днями, 27 квітня повідомив міністр оборони Туреччини
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«Ми продовжимо нашу роботу щодо розширення гуманітарної підтримки та забезпечення евакуації мирного населення із зон конфлікту»
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«Херсонщина – це зона ризикованого землеробства» – за словами голови ОВА, влада запропонувала аграріям утриматися від весняних робіт
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The World Health Organization says the war in Ukraine has interrupted lifesaving immunizations in Ukraine, setting back years of progress in countering vaccine preventable diseases.
This is World Immunization Week, a time to celebrate the marvel of vaccines that have saved the lives of countless millions. WHO spokesman Bhanu Bhatnagar spoke about vaccinations at an immunization center in Rivne Oblast, a Ukrainian province near the border with Belarus.
The center is in a technical college that has been repurposed into a home for some 100 internally displaced people. Bhatnagar says he has come here to support the Ukrainian Health Ministry’s rollout of routine and catch-up immunizations for children, adolescents and adults.
“There are many children streaming through. Parents are bringing their children to catch-up on really important lifesaving, potentially life-saving immunizations from measles, to polio, to diphtheria, tetanus, and, as well the COVID-19 vaccine. … Internally displaced people are vulnerable. They have been forced from their homes. The health system is in crisis mode and many of them do not have access to health care.”
Bhatnagar says health needs do not stop in a time of war and it is important to keep up immunization activities, especially during the pandemic. Before the war, he says Ukraine was a poster child when it came to health care reform – and was making great strides in preventing vaccine preventable diseases.
Unfortunately, he says this progress has been derailed. He notes there was a polio outbreak in the country just before the war started. He says a rollout of polio vaccines that began February first was disrupted due to the conflict.
“So, that is why again it is really important that we get a polio vaccine into children’s arms. Even one child with polio means that every child is threatened, any under or unvaccinated child…But at this time only 44 percent of the targeted children have been reached with a polio vaccine and that is approximately 69,000 children.”
The WHO spokesman says COVID-19 vaccines continue to be rolled out despite the challenges of the war. However, the country only has 40 percent coverage across the board, which, he says, is lower than average for the rest of the European region.
Latest reports put the number of coronavirus cases at nearly five million, including more than 108,000 deaths.
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The United States and Russia exchanged high-profile prisoners on Wednesday even as the two countries remain sharply at odds over Moscow’s two-month invasion of Ukraine.
Russia freed Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine jailed in Russia since 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted a police officer when he was detained after a heavy night of drinking and later sentenced to nine years in prison.
Reed’s family had maintained his innocence.
In turn, the U.S. released Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S.
While the prisoner swap was unusual, a senior U.S. official described it as a unilateral piece of diplomacy.
“The discussions with the Russians that led to this exchange were strictly limited to these topics, not a broader diplomatic conversation,” the official said.
“It (Reed’s release) represents no change, zero, to our approach to the appalling violence in Ukraine” being carried out by Russia.
Officials would not say where the prisoner exchange occurred, but in the hours before it took place, news accounts identified a plane belonging to Russia’s federal security service as flying to the Turkish capital Ankara. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons also updated its website to reflect that Yaroshenko was no longer imprisoned.
Reed’s parents, Joey and Paula Reed, had long pursued the release of their son, with newspaper ads and signs outside the White House. Their campaign caught the eye of White House officials and they met late last month with President Joe Biden.
“Our family has been living a nightmare. Today, our prayers have been answered and Trevor is safely on his way back to the United States,” Reed’s family said in a statement.
As the release of the two prisoners was announced in Moscow and Washington, Biden said in a statement, “I heard in the voices of Trevor’s parents how much they’ve worried about his health and missed his presence. And I was delighted to be able to share with them the good news about Trevor’s freedom.”
The U.S. leader added, “His safe return is a testament to the priority my administration places on bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad. We won’t stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends.”
Other Americans are still being jailed by Russia, including Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive being held on espionage-related charges that his family contends are bogus, and professional basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained in February after authorities said a search of her bag revealed a cannabis derivative.
Biden said in his statement that the “negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly,” although he did not elaborate.
U.S. officials over the years have warily reviewed prisoner swaps for fear that they may encourage more hostage-taking overseas of Americans in hopes of securing the release of foreigners convicted of crimes in the U.S.
VOA’s Nike Ching contributed to this story.
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Президент України Володимир Зеленський заявив, що загострення ситуації у цьому молдовському регіоні спричинене діями спецслужб Росії
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За словами радника голови ОП, причини руйнування воєнної інфраструктури прикордонних областей Росії можуть бути абсолютно різними
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Урсула фон дер Ляєн вважає, що це «невиправдано і неприпустимо», а також свідчить про ненадійність Росії як постачальника газу.
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Jan Lipavsky, the Czech Republic’s foreign minister, spoke to VOA during a visit to Washington this week. The conversation focused on his country’s support for Ukraine including its EU membership aspirations, post-war reconstruction, the Czech Republic’s upcoming EU rotating presidency beginning July 1, as well as the enduring challenge coming from Beijing.
“I am 100% sure that Ukraine will win this war,” Lipavsky told VOA’s Washington-based diplomatic correspondent Natalie Liu. He acknowledged differences among EU member states on the question of Ukraine’s EU membership aspirations and timeline, and says his vision is to “carve in a stone that Ukraine has a right to be part of the European society and a member of the EU” during his country’s six-month-long EU presidency beginning July 1.
“We’re not just a trade bloc, we’re also values-based; and Ukrainians — as a nation, as a people — made a decision that those are the values they want to live by, and they’re literally fighting and dying for their choice now,” Lipavsky said, reflecting on the EU.
Lipavsky said that Russia’s brutal acts in Ukraine constitute an “urgent crisis,” but it is not the only global challenge. He warned that China continues to be “our rival and our global competitor,” calling on democratic nations to be ready to confront the China challenge, including at the United Nations and in other multilateral forums.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
VOA: What can you tell us about what the Czech Republic (also known as Czechia) has done to help Ukraine in this crisis?
LIPAVSKY: First of all, we have accepted 300,000 refugees, we’re providing them with shelter and basic needs. We are a country of 10 million people, 300,000 refugees [equal to 3% of the population] is quite a significant number. We consider ourselves to be at the forefront of the Ukraine crisis. We’re also sending significant amount of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and military aid; it’s not only government action, basically the whole nation is helping. We’re also helping Ukraine politically; we’re advocating for Ukraine in the EU, in Europe. We want to help the Ukrainians with their European ambitions, help Ukraine become a member of EU.
VOA: On that note, the Czech Republic is going to assume the EU rotating presidency on July 1. Where do you see the status of Ukraine’s EU membership aspirations at the end of the Czech Republic’s rotating presidency?
LIPAVSKY: It’s very hard to predict, honestly, but my vision for our presidency is to carve in a stone that Ukraine has a right to be part of European society, that Ukraine has a right to become a member of EU. I understand that there are different opinions on that already within the EU, I take [these different opinions] very closely. I am listening to [different opinions] very seriously. And for me, it’s a matter of different viewpoints being challenged and explained.
We know that once the war is over, we will pay for the complete reconstruction of Ukraine. Ukraine will win this war, I’m 100% sure of that. Once the war is over, we will be helping Ukraine to rebuild the whole nation, to rebuild the whole country, let’s do it in a way that Ukraine can then be a member of EU, that’s the point of the whole [struggle].
VOA: On helping Ukraine rebuild, where will that money come from?
LIPAVSKY: Honestly, it will (mostly) come from Europe. During our presidency, we want to [organize] a donation conference. Many countries are helping, we got a gift from Japan, we got a gift from Taiwan, U.S. is providing help. So, it’s about putting these funds together. But at the end of the day, Ukraine is in the EU neighborhood and will take the biggest share of help from the EU.
VOA: How would you define, or describe, victory by Ukraine?
LIPAVSKY: It’s not up to me to define it. It’s up to President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy and (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin, probably, to have some kind of deal. But, I’m standing — and the Czech Republic is standing — on the side of Ukraine and their right for self-determination, their right to preserve their country and its internationally recognized borders.
VOA: On the question of Ukrainian identity and their wish to be part of the EU, how has the question of what it means to be European evolved in the last 10, 12, 20 years, and especially in light of this war?
LIPAVSKY: European institutions began after the Second World War as a [grouping] of countries determined not to wage war on each other again — Germany, France, Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg). This economic, but also value-based, project, was so successful that it transformed into the European Union. Nowhere else on the planet do we see as successful a cooperation of nation states.
And we’re not just a trade bloc, we’re also value-based.
And Ukrainians — as a nation, as a people — made the decision that those are the values they want to live by. They are literally fighting and dying for their choice now.
They’ve made their choice; we should be helping them with their European aspirations. It will not be done overnight, it’s a long process, but we should have this mindset that the EU is a value-based organization. Values are part of our identity.
This [democratic] identity [for nations and individual citizens alike] is built upon a vision that every person can pursue his/her own way to be happy; and you have very basic values like human rights, rights of private ownership, rights to think and freedom of speech. This is something which you won’t find in Russia or in China, where the state, from top-down, tries to control basically every aspect of life. The European society doesn’t work in this way.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has highlighted fear from Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, that they could lose their democratic way of life and once again be ruled by Moscow and be a part of Russia’s imperialist dream.
Russia [only] understands [the concept of] force. The reason why the Russian army right now is not occupying Kyiv is not because there was a negotiation or something else, but only because Ukraine’s soldiers took on the fight and beat them back. It was brute force which stopped Russia from attacking and occupying Kyiv. Now, the Russians have switched their plans and are attacking eastern and southern Ukraine and Donbas.
VOA: Before the war in Ukraine broke out, the United States and other countries saw China as a top threat to the liberal democratic order, in part because of China’s capacity, seen as far greater than Russia’s. Now opinions have shifted some. Many people see Russia as an immediate threat, yet some still consider China the greatest medium- to long-term threat. A Lithuanian lawmaker once said that countries and people in Europe over the years have acquired much stronger immunity against Russia, but their immunity against the challenge posed by China needs improving. Your thoughts?
LIPAVSKY: Those things are very much connected. In a situation where you’re confronted with pictures of ruined Mariupol, the Bucha massacre, Russian genocide against (the) Ukrainian population, this is the immediate threat, this is what’s happening now, and we need to solve this urgent crisis. But it doesn’t mean that China is not our rival, our global competitor [any longer]. It doesn’t mean that the possible threats from the rise of China is not there anymore. Yes, China wants to change the international order. Putin is attacking the rules-based international order by its very brutal action against Ukraine. China has different means, more sophisticated, but still, they have their vision of the world, and we need to be careful of that and be ready to confront China on international platforms, at the United Nations, for example.
VOA: You listed the Indo-Pacific region as one of the priorities of the Czech Republic’s EU presidency, and Global Gateway was introduced by the EU late last year. Given the war, it hasn’t received a lot of attention. How do you see the Global Gateway pan out during the Czech Republic’s (EU) presidency and also in light of competition with China’s Belt and Road initiative? And on that note, I would also ask, Lithuania pulled out of the 17 plus one. Is the Czech Republic going to do the same? Do you see other nations also following suit?
LIPAVSKY: The European Union has demonstrated great geopolitical instincts in regard to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. We have agreed on five packages of sanctions, and a sixth package of sanctions will be approved. Global Gateway will [constitute] part of the EU’s geopolitical thinking. It will connect multiple EU activities in different regions of the world, so the EU will be a global actor and will become more visible and able to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative and provide significant help for infrastructure projects, etc., in certain countries. I would like to see Global Gateway be applied to the Balkans, too. I think that might be one of the legacies of [the Czech Republic’s rotating EU] presidency if we manage to advance this agenda.
On the 16+1 — it used to be 17+1 [before Lithuania declared its exit] — I do not see any kind of benefit from that. I am talking to my colleagues, no one is cheering for that, and I think we will see how that develops.
The current international order is built upon a vision that we have common ground and that we follow all the rules. China likes to cherry pick certain things. What we’ve become aware of, for example, is how China is trying to influence different treaties on technology [standards]. There are very specific areas where they put in their own vocabulary, which, for example, diminish the issue of human rights. They are really quite active, slowly but methodically changing — cutting away — the ideas on which the international order is built upon.
VOA: Please explain your understanding of European values and universal values.
LIPAVSKY: I don’t think there should be any major difference between the global values and European values. We are working with the U.N. Charter, with the Charter of Human Rights. Those are the very basic documents which were crafted from the horrors of the Second World War. And this is something on which European societies are built upon, and the rest of the world has publicly adopted. So, this should form the basis on which our thinking stands.
VOA: Some people say this war [against Ukraine] is Putin’s war, and some say it’s Russia’s war. They say the Russian people are very involved as well. Earlier you talked about Putin being the KGB and of a previous generation. Do you see the changing of times and younger generations making a difference in countries like both Russia and China? You, yourself, being only in your 30s?
LIPAVSKY: I see that the Russian nation was manipulated into believing this horrendous propaganda, which is sad to see; and it’s hard to distinguish between the state and the nation when systematic propaganda is truly Orwellian (dystopian view) — like we see in Russia and in China.
VOA: What are the prospects of the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment?
LIPAVSKY: Honestly, I don’t feel this is on the EU’s agenda for the foreseeable future. It has a lot to do with Xinjiang, and the fact that 10 members of the European Parliament were put on China’s sanctions list.
VOA: Do you see Europe ever working with Russia to help that country rebuild?
LIPAVSKY: That’s an interesting question. The war is still going on, it’s too soon to have this kind of discussion. If there would be change in Russia, of course, we could cooperate.
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Напередодні російська сторона повідомляла про обстріл села Головчине Бєлгородської області.
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Many of the technological advances in lithium ion batteries that now power many electric vehicles began in a laboratory just outside Chicago’s city limits decades ago. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports on new innovations at Argonne National Laboratory preparing for the next-generation needs of drivers.
Camera: Kane Farabaugh, Mike Burke
Produced by: Kane Farabaugh
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The road toward Chernobyl is littered with Russian soldiers’ discarded ration boxes and occasional empty bullet shells in a subtle but harrowing warning of the invasion’s terrible risk for the infamous nuclear site.
Tuesday marked the 36th anniversary of what is considered the worst ever nuclear disaster, and there was relief the hulking so-called sarcophagus covering the reactor’s radioactivity remains was back under Ukrainian control.
Soldiers cradling their assault rifles watched over checkpoints, including one with an effigy dressed in Russian fatigues and a gas mask, that guard the way from Kyiv to the sprawling site near the border with Belarus.
Yet concerns are far from dissipated for nuclear sites in Ukraine because Russia’s invasion of its neighbor is grinding on.
Authorities said Tuesday that missiles had flown low over a nuclear power station in a close call in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.
“They (Chernobyl staff) carried on their work, in spite (of) all of the difficulties. … They got the situation stable, so to speak, in this sense the worst was of course avoided,” U.N. atomic watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told reporters upon his arrival at Chernobyl.
“We don’t have peace yet, so we have to continue. The situation is not stable. We have to be on alert,” he added, noting the invasion was “very, very dangerous.”
The plant, which fell into Russian hands on the day Moscow’s troops began their invasion in February, suffered a power and communications outage that stirred fears of a possible new calamity at the site.
Those worries stretch back to the events of April 26, 1986, when Chernobyl’s number four reactor exploded, causing the world’s worst nuclear accident that killed hundreds and spread radioactive contamination west across Europe.
‘Ice Cream Chernobyl’
The reactor number four building is now encased in a massive double sarcophagus to limit radioactive contamination, and an area spanning 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) around the plant is considered the exclusion zone that is essentially uninhabited, nuclear authorities say.
Rows of aging and abandoned-looking apartment buildings dot the road into the site and yet some have bright curtains and plants in the windows, while a kiosk labeled “Chernobyl Tour Info” greets people on their way to the plant.
The bullet hole-shattered glass of the nuclear-yellow painted hut bears the signs of the war launched on February 24 that has prompted international condemnation of Russia and backing for Ukraine.
In a sign from a more tourist-friendly time, “Ice Cream Chernobyl” is emblazoned on the side of a refrigerator at the kiosk, with a graphic of a vanilla cone and the radiation warning symbol side-by-side.
Planned to stay
The Russian troops that could easily have rolled past the stand on their way south toward Kyiv had planned to stay in Chernobyl, Ukrainian officials said.
The soldiers dug trenches and set up camps, but in areas like the so-called “Red Forest,” named for the color its trees turned after being hit by a heavy dose of radiation in Chernobyl’s 1986 meltdown.
“Areas with high radiation levels remain here still, but the contamination was moved around due to the actions of Russian occupiers who were using heavy military vehicles,” Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky told journalists visiting Chernobyl.
It’s a site that has drawn significant international interest because of the scale of the disaster. The original Soviet-era sarcophagus deteriorated over the years so a new one was built over it and was completed in 2019.
But for some in the area, risk is just a fact of life.
“If they (the Russians) wanted to blow it up, they could blow it up when they ran away,” noted Valeriy Slutsky, 75, who said he was present for the power station’s 1986 disaster.
“Maybe I’m used to it (radiation),” he added with a shrug.
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He is not low key or known for listening, key attributes of his former German counterpart, Angela Merkel.
But with his reelection Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron has arguably cemented another role, some say: succeeding Merkel as the European Union’s de-facto leader, with his call for a stronger, closer EU resonating, especially with the war in Ukraine.
“Merkel was more of a crisis manager but with no vision,” said Sebastien Maillard, director of the Paris-based Jacques Delors Institute think tank. “Macron has a clear vision of what kind of European integration he wants.”
Not surprisingly, most European leaders cheered Macron’s win against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who called for drastically overhauling and downgrading the 27-member bloc.
“In this turbulent period, we need a solid Europe and a France totally committed to a more sovereign and more strategic European Union,” tweeted European Council President Charles Michel.
Macron’s second and final five-year term as French president may help push those goals forward. How far will depend not only on getting other EU leaders on board, but also on what happens in France, starting with the outcome of June parliamentary elections.
Additionally, the next two months, when France wraps up the rotating EU presidency, will offer an immediate test.
Three areas are particularly key, analyst Maillard said: pushing through EU energy sanctions against Moscow — a sticking point for Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas, and possibly for Poland, after Russia’s announcement it would halt gas supplies; moving forward on Macron’s call for a closer and stronger European defense; and deciding on EU membership bids, starting with Ukraine.
Next month, Macron is expected to present his vision of Europe’s future at a conference in Strasbourg, France. It’s not the first to be laid out by the 44-year-old leader, whose reelection celebrations were accompanied by the EU anthem, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”
Pro-Europe winds
Macron may benefit from the tailwinds of multiple recent challenges, from euroskeptic U.S. President Donald Trump to the COVID-19 crisis and now Russia’s war in Ukraine, which helped to reshape European citizens’ sentiments about Brussels.
“We wouldn’t be vaccinated without Europe, our economy wouldn’t have recovered without European support and our sanctions against Russia would be senseless if they weren’t on this (EU-wide) scale,” Maillard said.
Even in French elections, dominated by domestic concerns, the EU helped determine some voting choices. Macron himself called the runoff against Le Pen a “referendum” on Europe.
“I’m very frightened about what would happen to France, in Europe and in the world, if we had Marine Le Pen as president,” said Paris-area senior Benedicte Tardivo, who cast her ballot for Macron.
Public opinion also appears to have softened Le Pen’s once staunchly anti-Europe platform.
“Now, Marine Le Pen is not advocating to leave the EU, because she saw the French are actually attached to it,” said expert Mathilde Ciulla, of the European Council on Foreign Relations policy institute. “So, she talks about changing it from within, which I think is a kind of victory for Macron.”
Such wins aren’t happening everywhere.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, who embraces an “illiberal democracy” and flouts EU rule-of-law principles, recently won a fourth term in office. But he appears increasingly alone.
Besides Le Pen, another euroskeptic ally, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, lost her election bid this past week. Another EU dissident, Poland, has earned marks for taking in millions of Ukrainian refugees and, unlike Hungary, is hostile to Moscow.
“Orban is weakened,” said analyst Maillard. “He’s been reelected in his own country. But he’s isolated among the 27 other member states. While Macron, right now, is the most prominent leader within the European Council” of EU heads of state.
Team player?
Macron’s bigger challenge, some say, may not be leadership, but rather becoming a better team player, adopting the kind of consensus-building skills that Merkel excelled at. Not just for Europe, but also for France, where critics say he fails to listen and accept other viewpoints.
“Macron has the faults of his virtues,” wrote historian Timothy Garden Ash in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper. “I have never seen a human being with more drive, ambition, energy and self-belief. But he can often seem arrogant, Jupiterian, neo-Napoleonic – and therefore rubs a great many of his compatriots and fellow Europeans the wrong way.”
Analyst Ciulla suggests another approach.
“I think it would be a mistake for him to position himself as the leader of Europe,” she said. “France is not the best at building coalitions, but France should try to build coalitions.”
Rather than going it alone, she and others say, Macron should make key state visits early in his second term — to Moscow and to Kyiv — with other European leaders.
While Macron has carried on the traditional French-German partnership considered an EU linchpin — first with Merkel and now her successor Olaf Scholz — he went solo in February to see President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, hoping to secure a peace commitment days before the Ukraine war.
Last year, he surprised some by announcing that France’s Barkhane military operation in the Sahel would end and be folded into a broader EU one, called Takuba.
“It was an effort to Europeanize France’s presence in the Sahel,” Ciulla said, “but it’s not very nice, not very collaborative, not to let your allies know.”
But Macron’s long-held vision of “strategic autonomy” — strengthening the EU’s economic, technological and military independence — is gaining ground among one-time skeptics. This is especially true since the war in Ukraine began, with Germany, in particular, spectacularly boosting its military spending.
“The way Germany changed its policy, the way sanctions [against Russia] were decided very quickly, it’s all about strategic autonomy at the end,” Ciulla said. “It’s about sovereignty and the capacity to act, and very quickly react.”
June legislative elections in France may determine just how much leeway Macron has to continue pushing his European agenda. Both far-right Le Pen and far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, another EU critic, hope to score significantly.
More importantly, perhaps, will be how Macron fares in pushing through unpopular reforms, including boosting the retirement age from 62 to 65.
“If he gets another yellow vest movement, that would be damaging” for Macron’s EU credentials, said Maillard of Jacques Delors, referring to massive popular protests that marked the president’s first term in office. “If you’re not able to manage your own backyard, obviously your leadership is decreased.”
Macron is betting on another outcome.
“This is his last term, and he wants to leave something to history,” Maillard added. “I think it will probably be on his European contribution.”
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Це перші сповіщення про зупинки постачання після того, як Путін заявив, що «недружні» іноземні покупці повинні платити за російський газ у рублях
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Президент вказав на те, що для російських військ зона відчуження була «звичайною територією для бойових дій»
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