Author: staff

“This investigation will also assess any causal links between those payments and a particular candidate in the Romanian presidential election,” said Toni Greblă, the head of the electoral office, about the tax probes. One key figure under investigation is Bogdan Peșchir, who allegedly funded the influencers on TikTok with €1 million. Last week, authorities raided three locations linked to Peșchir, seizing $7 million in cryptocurrency as part of the investigation. As more details about Georgescu’s background surfaced following the first round of the election, several of these influencers began distancing themselves from his campaign. After the intelligence documents were made…

Three Cabinet ministers from the now-ruling Labour Party, all granted anonymity in order to speak frankly, told POLITICO one way Reform might falter was if Farage and his colleagues failed to show they were decent representatives for their constituents. “They might crash and burn,” said one. The imperative for hard graft in order to succeed electorally one of the few things Farage agrees with them on. “They’re 100 percent right on that,” he told POLITICO from Clacton’s Royal Hotel, the beachfront building where Farage is setting up his constituency office. “The reason people are voting for us, and joining us,…

Scholz and his minority government, which includes his own center-left Social Democratic Party and the Greens, will in the meantime remain in power in its full capacity. But as Scholz does not have a majority in parliament — which is necessary to pass laws — and is expected to be voted out of office soon, he is considered a lame duck, at home and abroad. How did we get here? In early November, just hours after it became clear that Donald Trump had won the United States presidential election, Scholz appeared before cameras to announce that his battered tripartite alliance…

Protests initially broke out against a contested parliamentary election in October which the opposition accused the Georgian Dream of rigging but they took on a new dimension after the decision last Thursday to put EU accession talks on hold until 2028. A delegation from the European Parliament has visited Georgia and marched with pro-EU protesters with demonstrations against the government’s decision to suspend accession talks now in a second week.The six MEPs also met with Georgia’s pro-Western president Salome Zourabichvili, as well as representatives of the opposition, civil society groups and the media. The six members of the delegation were…

The feeling appears mutual — Meloni reposted a video of Trump’s comments on Thursday evening, thanking the president-elect for his “kind words.” The interaction is just the latest round of mutual back-slapping between the incoming Trump administration and Meloni, whom POLITICO named the most powerful person in Europe this week in part due to her position as a bridge between the EU and Trump’s White House. Meloni was one of the first European leaders to congratulate Trump on his election win in November, and Trump reportedly called Meloni a “real live wire” after spending “a lot” of time with her…

Updated: 13/12/2024 – 0:30 GMT+1 The Vatican noted their shared hope for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and a diplomatic two-state solution, ensuring Jerusalem remains a meeting place for all three monotheistic religions. They also highlighted the Catholic Church’s humanitarian contributions in Palestinian society. … More The Vatican noted their shared hope for a ceasefire, the release of hostages, and a diplomatic two-state solution, ensuring Jerusalem remains a meeting place for all three monotheistic religions. They also highlighted the Catholic Church’s humanitarian contributions in Palestinian society.The two leaders exchanged symbolic gifts. Abbas presented paintings of their past encounters, while…

Markus Ferber (another German) who is the center-right coordinator for economic files, will determine Berger’s replacement within the next week. Among the names being floated to fill the role is a former Spanish central banker Fernando Navarrete Rojas. The digital euro is a virtual counterpart to euro coins and banknotes that the European Central Bank hopes will enhance domestic eurozone payments while unshackling the bloc from foreign providers such as Visa and Mastercard. The EU Commission views the project as essential for fulfilling its strategic autonomy mission. Awkwardly for von der Leyen, the stiffest resistance to the project has come…

Macron had traveled to Warsaw to discuss the idea with Tusk, a European diplomat and a French official said, though his quick visit is being cut even shorter as he prepares to name a new prime minister. The French president confirmed that talks with Tusk had focused on Ukraine and the “day after” the war, but he did not discuss the peacekeeping force and did not take questions from the press. “The [incoming] Trump administration has shown its will to change the trajectory of the conflict, and we must work with Ukraine and Europe, to take into account European and Ukrainian…

In a bid to ensure the next head of government lasts longer than Barnier, Macron has tried to seek a compromise with opposition forces in France’s fractured legislature. The leading candidates mentioned in French media both come from Macron’s camp — former Industry Minister Roland Lescure and centrist grandee François Bayrou. It isn’t clear, however, how a new prime minister allied with Macron, whose allies do not hold a majority in parliament, would be able to shore up enough support to stay in place.

“Ed Miliband fails to look normal while eating bacon sandwich ahead of campaign tour,” barked the Independent newspaper at the time. His formidable Tory campaign opponents — keen to cast Miliband as an out-of-touch nerd — exploited the gift, and his campaign never recovered. Theresa May chips away her authority Determined to learn absolutely nothing from Miliband’s bacon sandwich furore, galaxy brain Conservative aides sent then-Prime Minister Theresa May out on the 2017 election campaign trail to prove that she wasn’t some stilted robot incapable of doing normal human things. Cue a walkabout on the British seafront holding a cone…