#EU Referendum

[tomorrowusa]

Moldova held an election over the weekend. It included both a referendum on joining the European Union and the first round of a presidential election.

Despite heavy Russian interference, the pro-EU measure squeaked through to victory. Incumbent President Maia Sandu, one of the many female heads of government these days, got the largest percentage of votes and will face pro-Putin candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo in a runoff on November 3rd.

Moldovans voted by a razor-thin majority in favor of securing the country’s path toward European Union membership, electoral data showed Monday, after the pro-Western president accused foreign interference and “criminal groups” of trying to undermine the vote in the former Soviet republic. The “No” vote appeared to be ahead until the last few thousand votes were counted from the large diaspora of Moldova, whose authorities have accused Russia of trying to destabilize the country. With 99.41% of votes counted in the EU referendum held Sunday, the “Yes” vote stood at 50.39% and the “No” vote at 49.61%, according to the Central Electoral Commission. A loss would have been a political disaster for the pro-Western government, which strongly supported the pro-EU campaign. On Monday, President Maia Sandu reiterated claims that unprecedented voter fraud and foreign interference had undermined the voting, calling it a “vile attack” on Moldova’s sovereignty.

Russia has only itself to blame for the rise of pro-EU and pro-NATO sentiment in its neighbors. The unlawful invasion of Ukraine reminded everybody of Putin's neo-imperialist tendencies.

Moldova applied to join the EU in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and was granted candidate status that summer, alongside Ukraine. Brussels agreed in June to start membership negotiations.

President Sandu is likely to win a second term in the November 3rd runoff – despite Russian meddling.

In the presidential race that was held at the same time, Sandu won the first round with 42% of the vote in a field of 11, short of an outright majority. She will face Alexandr Stoianoglo, a Russia-friendly former prosecutor general who outperformed polls with around 26% of the vote, in a runoff on Nov. 3. [ ... ] In early October, Moldovan law enforcement said it had uncovered a massive vote-buying scheme orchestrated by Ilan Shor, an exiled pro-Russia oligarch who currently lives in Russia, which paid 15 million euros ($16.2 million) to 130,000 people to undermine the two ballots. Shor was convicted in absentia last year of fraud and money laundering and sentenced to 15 years in prison in the case of $1 billion that went missing from Moldovan banks in 2014. He denied the allegations, saying the payments were legal and citing a right to freedom of expression. Shor’s populist Russia-friendly Shor Party was declared unconstitutional last year and banned. On Thursday, Moldovan authorities foiled another plot in which more than 100 young Moldovans received training in Moscow from private military groups on how to create civil unrest around the two votes. Some also attended more advanced training in “guerrilla camps” in Serbia and Bosnia, police said, and four people were detained for 30 days.

Russian interference? Buying votes? A filthy rich oligarch? Sounds a lot like the Trump campaign. They are both Putin operations.

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby had this to say about the elections in Moldova.

As I warned about last week, Russia has been working actively to undermine Moldova’s election and their European integration. In the past several months, Moscow has dedicated millions of dollars towards these efforts. Now, Russia did not succeed. As the results demonstrate, Moldovan democracy is strong, as is the will and desire of the Moldovan people to advance toward European integration. The U.S. remains a proud partner of Moldova, and we will continue to stand with them as they endeavor to continue to protect their democracy and, quite frankly, to reach the aspirations of the Moldovan people.

[vintage-ukraine]

A crowd of people waving the flags of Ukraine and European Union in central Kyiv one day before the Independence Referendum on December 1, 1991

[cbarc]

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[dracolizardlars]

Vibrating waiting for 10pm bc polling closes which means 1. Can start the Watching the Results Come In gauntlet and 2. Mum will be home soon (she is working at a polling station and I have barely seen her this week due to other stuff)

[beautifullychaoticworld-blog]

Today I received a weird spam email and they mention the Scottish Referendum which took place in September 2014... I was there when it was happening but find it so weird that they mention this event that happened so long ago. Before this I received a similar email about how someone's spouse had died of covid and they have money to donate or some weird shit like this.

[themorningnewsinformer]

Gibraltar Brexit Deal 2025: No Threat to UK Sovereignty, Says Lammy

Introduction The UK has struck a new deal with the European Union over Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status — a breakthrough hailed as “historic” by leaders but also raising critical questions about sovereignty, border checks, and the territory’s future. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy addressed Parliament to confirm that the Gibraltar Brexit deal contains a clause that “explicitly protects our…

[llewelynpritch]

 JOHNSON'S COVER-UP DAWN STURGESS 'PUBLIC' INQUIRY Will the Dawn Sturgess Public Inquiry Terms of Reference allow its Report intentionally omitting civil and criminal liability to be ‘spun’ into the Johnson Cover-up Story?

Consisting, at the very least of ‘Tory Sleaze’ unethical behaviour in office; Ignoring his own agencies’ intelligence advice; Breaching National Security in secretive meeting(s) with Alexander Lebedev, Perugia, Italy; Media complicity for his own ends with Evgeny Lebedev; Russian Interference EU Referendum 2016; Accepting Russian oligarch Conservative Party donations; ‘Constitutional Corrosion’ epitomised by ‘LondonGrad Laundromat’; Enabling Putin’s Brexit by his failed leadership; Interfering in an early, possible Russian-Ukraine peace deal; Purportedly supporting the welfare of Ukraine whilst more concerned about ‘saving his own skin’; His Crony COVID Contracts and missing five COBRA meetings whilst otherwise distracted - becoming yet another example of unethical behaviour in the UK Government’s way of working? #AI #Perplexity #MoveOnNothingToSeeHere Llewelyn Pritchard 6 October 2024 

[brexit-info]

"From Thursday, general product safety regulations (GPSR) will apply to a huge new range of products...Exporters will need an agent within the EU or Northern Ireland, costing at least €150 an item a year...The Office for National Statistics says Brexit cost the UK £1m an hour in 2022. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates Brexit will cause UK trade to fall by 15%. Replicating EU regulators, as for medicines and chemicals, is expensive." Even now, years later, new economic consequences continue to add up.

[liberte-news]

Těsná většina Moldavanů zvolila směrování k EU. Rusko zuří

Moldavci schválili ústavní změnu pro integraci do EU s podporou 50,46 %. Prezidentka Sanduová a Ursula von der Leyenová vyjádřily gratulace, i když Moldavsko čelí ruskému vlivu a propagandě.

MOLDAVSKO | Moldavané v referendu schválili ústavní zakotvení budoucnosti země v Evropské unii, oznámila moldavská prezidentka Maia Sanduová. Předsedkyně Evropské komise Ursula von der Leyenová pogratulovala obyvatelům Moldavska a prezidentce Sanduové. MOLDAVSKO | REFERENDUM Po sečtení všech odevzdaných hlasů vyslovilo 50,46 procenta voličů podporu změně ústavy související s budoucím členstvím…

[rabbitcruiser]

In a referendum, voters in Sweden decided to join the European Union on November 13, 1994.  

[ayeforscotland]

Ten years since the Scottish independence referendum and I’ve aged 40 years since then.

I don’t think there’s much I can say that I haven’t said before, but the past ten years have done nothing but prove remaining in the UK was a mistake.

Tories and Labour are two cheeks of the same arse. Cost of living is through the roof, energy bills are about to rocket again in October, and wages have been stagnant for years.

The SNP are exhausted after over a decade in government. As much as I speak positively about Nicola Sturgeon, and she did great things as FM, there was a complete failure to prepare a successor which combined with an aversion to inner party conflict has led them to this stage.

On the flip side, young people overwhelming support independence even while SNP support weans.

Independence support sits at 2014 levels, which increases to a majority if independence was to lead to rejoining the EU.

Politics is tiring stuff, but there’s no rest for the wicked.

Onwards💙

[komsomolka]

The Baltic States set a precedent on how the Russian-speaking populations would be treated after inclusion into the EU and NATO. [...] The EU called on Estonia and Latvia to recognise citizenship for the Russian minority that constituted approximately 30 per cent of their population, although the policies of the EU made Brussels complicit in the discrimination of the Russian minority. The EU supported the closure of the OSCE missions to Estonia and Latvia; the EU and NATO did not make basic democratic rights for Russian minorities a criterion for membership; the EU referendums for membership was accepted without the participation of “non-citizens”; the European Parliament grants Estonia and Latvia votes for citizens they do not recognise as citizens; and the EU has not attempted to improve the situation for Russian-speakers by for example recognising Russian as an official EU language (Diesen, 2015: 69). By 2021, 5 per cent of Estonia’s population and 10 per cent of Latvia’s population were still “non-citizens”.

Russophobia: Propaganda in International Politics by Glenn Diesen.

[mariacallous]

After heated debate and vocal protests in the Bulgarian Parliament in August, a controversial new bill prohibiting the “propaganda, promotion, or incitement” of LGBTQ+ “ideas and views” in schools passed into law with a large majority. It was just the latest example of an alarming trend in recent years that has seen several European Union member states take active legislative steps to backtrack on LGBTQ+ rights, protections and freedoms.

It all looked quite different back at the turn of the 21st century when, in a watershed moment for LGBTQ+ rights, the Netherlands became the first EU country to legalize same-sex marriage, presaging sweeping changes across the bloc. Over the following 15 years, almost every member state introduced either marriage equality or some form of civil partnership, culminating in Ireland’s historic referendum victory on the issue in 2015. At the time, after almost two decades of significant rights advances, it seemed inconceivable that the future trajectory of the LGBTQ+ cause would be anything other than progressive.

As with so many other issues across the EU, however, the LGBTQ+ political landscape has been transformed by the rise of the far right, spearheaded by the authoritarian populism of the Fidesz party in Hungary and the Law and Justice party in Poland. During the 2010s and early 2020s, the governments in both Budapest and Warsaw relentlessly weaponized the issue of LGBTQ+ rights to solidify their conservative electoral bases, engaging in constant homophobic rhetoric, banning pride marches, arresting rights activists and introducing anti-LGBTQ+ “propaganda” laws that have increasingly pushed LGBTQ+ communities “into the shadows,” as Amnesty International put it in a February 2024 report. Though the Law and Justice party was eventually ousted from power in 2022, Poland remains the worst EU country in which to be gay or trans, while anti-LGBTQ+ policies continue apace in Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

[libertineangel]

Everyone makes fun of the search spikes for "did Biden drop out" and shit in the wake of the US election but alas it's not even Yank-specific, the #1 searched question in the UK immediately following the Brexit referendum (which had a final result of 52/48%) was "what is the EU"

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dan Sabbagh and Pjotr Sauer at The Guardian:

Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of jeopardising what he claimed was an imminent peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, as he gave the clearest hint yet that the US would be willing to formally recognise Russia’s seizure of Crimea as part of any agreement. The US president claimed a deal to end the war – largely negotiated between Washington and Moscow – was close, while the vice-president, JD Vance, said the agreement would include a proposal to freeze the conflict roughly along the current frontlines. It was unclear how Ukraine and its European allies, who were meeting in London on Wednesday, would respond to a plan largely constructed in their absence. Zelenskyy countered by proposing a simple ceasefire without conditions on both sides, though this did not immediately gain any traction from the US.

But after a day of speculation and partial disclosure of the terms of the peace proposal, Trump attacked his Ukrainian counterpart, complaining that Kyiv was unwilling to cede Crimea to Russia – the most contentious aspect of the tentative agreement that has leaked so far. The US president wrote on social media that “Crimea was lost years ago” in 2014, when Barack Obama was president, and its control “is not even a point of discussion”, an apparent reference to the fact that Ukraine has been unable to recapture it in the three-year war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. Reports that Washington would be willing to recognise Crimea under Russian control have been circulating for a couple of days. That prompted Zelenskyy to say on Tuesday that “Ukraine will not recognise the occupation of Crimea”, arguing that doing so it would be incompatible with the country’s constitution. Responding to a report of his comments, Trump wrote on Wednesday that “this statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia” and accused the Ukrainian leader of making “inflammatory statements” that “makes it so difficult to settle this War”. “Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory,” Trump wrote, implying that US was willing to do so, before accusing Ukraine of failing to defend Crimea. “If he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?” Later, Trump said he thought Russia had agreed to a deal to end the conflict in Ukraine, with Zelenskyy now the holdout. “I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelenskyy,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelenskyy. So far it’s been harder.” Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea in March 2014 during a political crisis in Ukraine after the ousting of the country’s pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych. Gunmen seized the regional parliament and airports, and in a subsequent referendum 97% voted to join Russia. The poll was not recognised as legal by the US, UK or EU.

[...] The US proposal would mean “we’re going to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today”, Vance said, though he added there should be some adjustments. “Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own.” A ceasefire on the current frontlines has already been accepted in principle by Ukraine and Zelenskyy called again for an immediate halt to the three-year war. “In Ukraine, we insist on an immediate, full and unconditional ceasefire,” he said, adding that “stopping the killings is the number one task”.

[...] Initial reports on Tuesday had suggested Russia was willing to trade territory it does not control in Ukraine – in effect, fresh air – for a US recognition of its seizure of Crimea, in what would be a formal acknowledgment that it is possible to change borders by force, creating an extraordinary post-second world war precedent. Russia may be banking on the idea that Ukraine is weary after more than three years of war and that its proposal is a reasonable counter to western suggestions, backed by the US, Ukraine and Europe, that there should be an immediate and full ceasefire to allow other wider negotiations to take place.

Kremlin puppet Donald Trump baselessly blames Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for scuppering a potential “peace deal” that is really a de facto benefit package to Russia.

[llewelynpritch]

 RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IN BRITISH POLITICS Common denominators link Lord Evgeny Lebedev, Alexander Lebedev ‘former’ KGB agent with Boris Johnson: Interactions, Russian influence in UK politics, handling of sensitive security and political issues.