Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta gestures during a special parliament session, Bucharest, Romania, Sept. 29, 2015, before facing a no-confidence vote (AP photo by Octav Ganea).
Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the impact of corruption and various countries’ efforts to combat it. Barely noticed by a world preoccupied with crises ranging from migrants and refugees in Europe and fighting in Ukraine, to civil war in Syria and stock-market plunges in China, Romania put its prime minister on trial for corruption on Sept. 21. Victor Ponta, who stubbornly remains in office and denies all charges, stands accused of a range of activities largely committed before his tenure as premier, when he was working as a lawyer. That the sitting head [...]
Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz arrives for an emergency EU heads of state summit on migration at the EU Council building, Brussels, Sept. 23, 2015 (AP photo by Francois Walschaerts).
Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the European refugee crisis and European Union member states’ approaches to addressing it. Last month, Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said that “accepting migrants escaping to save their lives is our duty.” In an email interview, Piotr Kazmierkiewicz, an expert at the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw, discussed Poland’s migrant and refugee policy. WPR: How has Poland’s stance toward the European Union’s refugee relocation quota scheme changed over the past year? Piotr Kazmierkiewicz: Poland traditionally objected to any measures interfering with its sovereign decisions on border and [...]
Activists of the nationalist Svoboda party hold Ukrainian flags during a rally outside a police station, Kiev, Ukraine, Sept. 14, 2015 (AP photo by Efrem Lukatsky).
While Ukraine continues to fight Russian-sponsored separatists in its eastern Donbass region, it is also facing an internal challenge equally threatening to its sovereignty: a small but powerful right-wing nationalist movement prepared to use violence to achieve its goals. If Ukraine’s pro-democracy supporters from the Maidan movement and in President Petro Poroshenko’s government don’t aggressively confront Ukraine’s ultranationalists, the far right could destroy Ukraine’s nascent democracy. This threat became clear Sept. 1 when nationalist protesters, many from the Svoboda (Freedom) party, attacked police guarding the Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. Protesters threw bricks, Molotov cocktails and even grenades, killing three officers from [...]
Free Newsletter
Showing 698 - 714 of 871First 1 40 41 42 43 44 52 Last