Free Republic

PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned fellow EU countries that joint defence is still realistic, but urged continued military cooperation with the US The Danish government will support a series of small steps to reinforce the EU's joint foreign and security policy this autumn, when member nations begin the dirty work of negotiating a new constitutional treaty for the European partnership. Denmark will neither contribute to majority-rule resolutions on defence, nor move to withdraw the military defence of Europe from the NATO alliance with the US, Rasmussen said Monday at an EU conference at Copenhagen's Industriens Hus. The prime minister warned...

Breaking from tradition, the populist Freedom Party will not be given a chance to form a government despite winning last month’s elections. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen announced Tuesday that incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer would be granted the chance to form a new government, despite his centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) coming in second place at 26 per cent of the vote behind the Freedom Party of Austria’s (FPÖ) 29 per cent. The 80-year-old president argued that even though tradition dictates that the winner be given the first crack at forming a coalition because the other parties have ruled...

Austria’s Freedom Party has secured the first far-right national parliamentary election victory since the Second World War, beating conservatives in power. Political analysts say the far-right achieved this electoral victory by tapping into voters’ concerns over immigration, inflation, and the war in Ukraine. It must be said, however, that the Freedom Party’s chances of governing are unclear at this stage. Preliminary election results show that the Freedom Party finished first in the election with 29.2 percent of the vote, while the ruling Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative Austrian People’s Party came in second with 26.5 percent of the vote. The center-left in...

He is preparing for an investiture vote which is expected to see him form a new government and avoid a repeat election. That can only happen if he can secure the parliamentary support of Catalan separatists. The Socialists were runners-up in July's general election, behind the conservative People's Party (PP). However, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo failed to form a government in an investiture vote in September, receiving only the support of the far-right Vox out of the main parties. It is now Mr Sánchez's turn and he is close to securing enough parliamentary support to form a new administration...

The right-wing Popular Party (PP) is projected to be ahead after a general election in Spain - but it is likely to need the support of the far-right to govern.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has called a snap election following the collapse of his coalition government over a corruption scandal. The move came after Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache resigned after secret footage emerged showing him talking to an alleged Russian investor. Mr Kurz's centre-right People's Party has been in government with Mr Strache's far-right Freedom Party.

The top brass of Spain’s ruling conservative Popular Party including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy have attended the same-sex marriage of their deputy secretary-general, giving tacit approval to a law they once bitterly opposed. Javier Maroto exchanged vows with Josema Rodriguez late Friday at a ceremony in the northern city of Vitoria attended by Rajoy, secretary-general Maria Dolores Cospedal and other party dignitaries, the party said in a statement. “In Spain, the right to marriage is for everyone and we all share that message today,” Maroto said afterward. “Parties evolve,” he added. “Now my party and the government join in backing...

Spanish voters on Sunday are expected to dismiss the Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and usher in the conservative People's Party (PP) and its leader, Mariano Rajoy. Mr. Zapatero’s Socialist party (PSOE), which has been in power for eight years, has borne the brunt of public blame for Spain’s increasingly perilous economic situation, which has tainted the party’s leadership candidate, Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. Meanwhile, Mr. Rajoy has been coasting toward an expected landslide victory without saying much about how he plans to reverse Spain’s economic course... The situation is bleak for the eurozone’s fourth-largest...

The conservative People's Party (VP) kept its lead over the opposition Social Democrats (SP) in opinion polls a few days before Austria's October 1 elections. But the margin had recently been narrowing, according to opinion pollsters quoted on Thursday. Wolfgang Bachmayer of the OGM institute said one reason was the BAWAG bank scandal which was no longer only an issue for the SP. According to a recent poll, 45 per cent of Austrians believed the People's Party was also affected. The BAWAG scandal of bad investments and massive losses had brought the SP down from its lead in the polls...

The reporting on the life and death of my friend, Gene McCarthy, has been woefully inadequate to the truth of the man, especially in his last three decades. Gene was an intelligent and honest man, who had the courage of his convictions. That included the courage to change his convictions when the facts required. The news media brought on a number of classic tax-and-spend liberals like Eleanor Clift to talk about Gene as if he was one of them. Of course, he was that, as a professor first elected as a Senator. But in his final maturity he was much...

The Carson City, Nevada, school administrators are attempting to fire an award-winning history teacher, Joe Enge. Why should that matter to you? I’ll combine his story with that of my 11th grade history teacher. Maybe you’ll agree this matters to everyone who cares about the future of America. In Carson City schools, administrators insist that history teachers begin teaching American history with the Civil War. Joe Enge, an 11th grade teacher there who’s written two history books and has served on a statewide board on history teaching, disagrees. He begins at the beginning, teaching his students about the American Revolution,...

Fernando Huarte Santamaría, a leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) in the northern city of Gijón, Asturias, contacted Algerian terrorist Benesmail Abdelkrim in the Villabona prison in 2001. Huarte even got Abdelkrim a furlough to go to the dentist and paid his bill; the two last met in October 2004. A few days later, the police arrested Abdelkrim and found the address of a well-known ETA terrorist in his pocket. Abdelkrim served time with two other notorious prisoners, Spaniard Antonio Toro Castro and Moroccan Rafá Zouhier, two police informants accused in the March 11, 2004 bombings. In April 1997...

Just a year ago, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, promised to shed his uniform and give up his position as head of the armed forces by the end of 2004. It seems unlikely he'll will meet that pledge. Musharraf made the promise as part of a deal under which opposition parties validated his presidency and accepted constitutional amendments that added to the president's powers. The opposition (and U.S. commentators) started beating the drums about Musharraf's "broken promise" weeks ago. The main Islamist party, the United Action Assembly (MMA), has staged a number of demonstrations.... Musharraf has also come under pressure...