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New players are exploiting internet lawlessness to disrupt democracy at this week’s European elections, says a new report that points a finger at far-right populists and cyber militias. With the vote running from May 23-26, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) investigated the role of covert digital propaganda in Britain, France, Germany, Italy Spain and Poland. “New actors are taking advantage of the lawlessness of the internet, often aligned with hostile states such as Russia, as well as American special interests, but also creating their own, pan-European campaigns,” said the report released Friday. Populist parties, far-right cyber militias and religious...

European Union security services are monitoring Russian attempts to interfere in the EU’s parliamentary elections in May, German news agency DPA reported Saturday, citing a security progress report. According to the report, Russia’s efforts are aimed at boosting support for parties that are either euroskeptic or friendly to Russia. Its messaging also questioned the significance of the European Parliament to try to lower voter turnout. The efforts were primarily targeting young voters on social media and through state-backed media outlets, the report found. The elections take place May 23-26, with citizens from the bloc’s member states casting their ballots for...

EU leaders on Tuesday (27 May) tasked council chief Herman Van Rompuy with exploring who could fill top EU posts and gather a majority in the European Parliament, with consultations set to last at least until the end of June. They ignored a request made earlier in the day by the leaders of the political groups in the European Parliament to task Jean-Claude Juncker with trying to get a majority behind him for the European Commission presidency. […] Commenting on the leaders’ decision, outgoing Socialist group leader Hannes Swoboda tweeted that it’s “absurd that Juncker has our backing to start...

ONE of Labour's most senior figures has written an open letter to Ukip supporters today, apologising for the party's previous views on immigration concerns and urging them to "keep an open mind". Shadow Justice Minister Sadiq Khan concedes Labour has been "too quick to dismiss concerns about immigration, or even worse - accused people of prejudice" in the letter, which was sent exclusively to Express.co.uk. Mr Khan lists a range of policies designed to entice former Labour voters thinking of voting for Ukip back to his party. The letter comes just days after Ukip saw its number of councillors across...

February 2013. It was supposed to be a pleasant night out for urbane movie-lovers. Bucharest’s ethnographic hub, the National Museum of the Peasant, was hosting Lisa Cholodenko’s film “The Kids Are All Right”, starring Annette Benning and Julianne Moore as gay parents of troubled teens. This was part of a month-long festival dedicated to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) rights, and supported by the American embassy in Bucharest. […] A minute later, around 40 members of the audience, who were draped in the Romanian tricolor flag, jumped from their seats yelling and screaming, and brandishing religious icons over...

The Swedish election board in Solna should have received a complete data file of Swedish citizens voting in Denmark by 28 April the latest. It did not arrive. “We must have access to this data 30 days before the day of election to be able to make up our register of electors in time,” Hanns Lejsater, an official at the election authority, told Swedish paper Goteborgs-Posten. […] The Swedish election board is missing data about possible double voters from 10 EU countries, mostly the newest members of the EU but also Denmark and the UK. …

Britain's Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has conscripted the services of American campaigns professional David Axelrod, otherwise known as the architect behind President Barack Obama's U.S. election victory in 2008. The appointment of Axelrod to the Labour team is the latest in a long line of foreign consultants brought in to try and help Ed Miliband's team on the run up to the UK General Election in May 2015. Axelrod follows in the footsteps of 69-year-old U.S. community organiser Arnie Graf, who embarrassed Labour by claiming he was working for them, rather than consulting for them, without a UK work...

The Conservatives could be pushed into third place at the European elections after the party’s poll ratings plunged in the wake of the Maria Miller expenses scandal. A poll has put the Tories on 23 percent, behind Labour (31 percent) and UKIP (28 percent) just days after the Culture Secretary was forced to resign in an expenses row. The Liberal Democrats were on a dismal 9 percent, according to analysis of recent polling by Professor Curtice of Strathclyde University. Levels of support for UKIP are now at a record high as they were the only party to gain popularity in...

Europe’s socialists are set to top the polls in May’s European elections, according to the first pan-EU election forecast. The projections, released by Pollwatch Europe on Tuesday (19 February), give the parliament’s center-left group 221 out of 751 seats on 29 percent of the vote, up from the 194 seats it currently holds. For their part, the center-right EPP would drop to 202 seats from the 274 it currently holds on 27 percent of the vote across the bloc. If correct, it would be the first victory for the Socialists since 1994. …

BUSY WITH FOOTBALL: LOW TURNOUT FOR EU SUPERVOTE Sun Jun 13 2004 03:23:39 ET Voting started Sunday on the fourth and final day of European Union-wide ballots to elect a new EU Parliament, in an election clouded by both widespread apathy and signs of a surge in support for eurosceptic parties. Nineteen of the European Union's 25 member states were going to the polls in the biggest transnational elections ever held anywhere, and the first for the EU since the bloc's expansion into the former communust east of Europe on May 1 this year. EU leaders have pulled out...

Czech and Irish voters went to the polls on the second day of European Parliament elections, clouded by fears of a rise in the eurosceptic vote as the enlarged EU faces major decisions about its future. The Czech Republic was the first of 10 mostly ex-communist European Union newcomer states to begin voting in the elections, which are to climax Sunday when most states in the newly-expanded bloc will go to the polls amid fears of a low voter turn-out. The elections, coming six weeks after the EU's landmark May 1 enlargement, kicked off on Thursday in the Netherlands and...