POLITICAL NOTE No. 1 - January 28, 2024

 

EUROPE – POLITICAL NOTE

No. 1, 2024

FINLAND:

Presidential elections are held today, Sunday 28 January, in Finland. The incumbent president, Sauli Niinistö, cannot continue as he has served two terms. The favorite for the post is my old friend and colleague in the Commission, Alex Stubb. He is a former prime minister and finance minister. And years ago he was employed in Delors’ cabinet here in Brussels. He is very pro-European and very pro-NATO. He has argued for Finland's membership of both organizations for many years. And that is the country as you know now.

Alex is from the conservative Samlingsparty. In the election campaign, he is particularly up against the liberal former foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto.

If neither gets at least 50% of the vote today, the top two will go to the polls again on Sunday 11 February.

The presidency in Finland is particularly significant in foreign and defense policy. The person is, for example, commander in chief of the Finnish military.

 

SWEDEN – NATO:

As you know, last week Turkey approved Sweden's membership of NATO. First with an adoption in parliament, and on Thursday with a signature from President Erdogan. Now the documents are going to be registered in Washington, where NATO was founded in 1949 – and where the ratification documents must therefore be submitted.

Now only Hungary needs to approve Sweden's membership. All other 30 member states have said yes. And although Viktor Orbán has said several times that Hungary will under no circumstances be the last country to say yes, it has now ended that way. Orbán called NATO Secretary General Jan Stoltenberg this week and told him that Hungary also wants to say YES - and that he will ask the Hungarian parliament to say yes as soon as possible. Parliament is currently on winter break and will meet again at the end of February. And although the Hungarian opposition has demanded that the parliament be convened exceptionally, it probably won't happen. But at the end of February or the beginning of March, the matter is likely to be settled.

In any case, Sweden is in reality already involved in NATO cooperation, i.a. in the major current exercises and the coming joint NATO exercise in March in Finnmarken.

NATO's next summit will take place in Washington on 9-11 July. The alliance's 75th anniversary is to be celebrated here. All 32 countries are definitely included here.

 

RUSSIA:

The aggressive, belligerent country Russia is going to have so-called elections on Sunday 17 March. Everything is being done by President Putin, so that he can win the election - yes, win the election again. Most of his main opponents have either been put in prison or have been shot. These are the conditions of the current Russian "democracy". We all know that ☹

What many may not know is that a Russian politician has now come forward, has collected approx. 200,000 signatures (100,000 is the minimum), and has declared that the first thing he will do - if he is elected president - is to end the war against Ukraine and restore Russia's good relations with the West. At the same time, he will abolish Putin's dictatorial means of governing the country.

His name is BORIS NADEZHDIN. He is 60 years old. Much to his surprise - including to himself - he is still at large and can conduct his very active election campaign. Some of Putin's opponents even believe that he is a hidden supporter of Putin. However, there is no indication of that. And he has the full support of other opposition leaders such as Navalny.

It is interesting to follow what is happening around him. For now, people in large parts of Russia are flocking to show their support for him. And should he not be elected, his campaign is at least a clear sign that not all Russians support the current line,

Follow for yourself in two independent Russian media that are currently are thrown out of Russia and published respectively from Latvia and from Armenia. And they both have an English version. They are:

MEDUZA and THE MOSCOW TIMES

MOLDOVA:

The small country of Moldova was part of the Soviet Union until 1990. It broke free and has since been independent. In 2023, it was recognized as a candidate country for the EU. And the support in the country for EU membership is very large. It borders i.a. up to Ukraine and also has a small part of the country that remains occupied by Russian forces. It is very nervous that Russia might want to invade it too. That is why it is doing everything to get closer to the EU and NATO.

Denmark has this week established an embassy in the country's capital, Chisinau. Previously, Denmark has established embassies in the two other EU candidate countries Ukraine and Georgia. In all three cases, there is partly a political motive behind it – you want to support these countries as much as possible. And partly there is a desire to strengthen economic cooperation with them.

Attached: a fact sheet about MOLDOVA.

 

 

 

And finally: HANDBALL:

As you know, this is very much in the media and in people's attention at the moment. But do you know that handball was actually invented over 100 years ago by .... Danes?! Read more here:

Did you know that handball was invented in Denmark? Holger Nielsen, teacher at Ordrup Latin- and Realskole was the inventor and wrote the first set of rules in 1907. A young teacher in Nyborg, Rasmus Nikolaj Ernst, came up with basically the same idea independently. And the first handball match took place in 1907 between Holger Nielsen's school and a team from Helsingør Højere Almene Skole. Holger's troops won 21-0!

So you'll know when the match kicks off tonight!!

 

Niels Jørgen Thøgersen

January 2024

niels4europe@gmail.com