The Baltic states are not sending their reps to the upcoming OSCE meeting since Lavrov's showing up.
In Poland Pi S government has just been voted out in Sejm. It is certain that the new government will be led by Civic Platform's Donald Tusk.
Here's
a small article in BBC about the new government and some of its new challenges.
PS. Donald Tusk has just been voted in as the next Prime Minister. They will vote on the entire new government tomorrow.
Edited by WojtekPod on Dec 11th 2023 at 7:08:03 PM
To become law, bills approved by parliament need to be signed by Mr Duda, who can veto them. Mr Tusk's coalition does not have enough M Ps to override a presidential veto.
So in other words, until 2025, the government will be obstructed from doing anything they've been elected to do.
Anything that requires changing law or writing new law, yes.
Foreign Troper
Far-Right Polish Parliament Member Grzegorz Braun has been using a Fire Extinguisher on Hannukah Candles in the Parliament
Edited by Forenperser on Dec 14th 2023 at 11:24:58 AM
Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
And of course he called the holiday "Satanic".
i sniff ground crayons and cheeto dust
Looks like the allies missed a guy when they kicked out the Nazis.
"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"
Washington Post: EU agrees to open up membership talks with Ukraine.
Viktor Orban has been given a $10 billion bribe from the European Commission (blech), and now Ukraine and Moldova are on the several-years-long path to EU membership. Sadly, just kicking Hungary out is not an option...though I'm wondering if Poland's new government will support that.
(Was going to post this in the War thread, but it's not really going to affect the War.)
Actually, that "bribe" was due to Hungary having fulfilled the EU's demands regarding a legislative reform the EU complained about a couple years back.
Over 20 billion is still being withheld over other shenanigans Orbán has done since. Make no mistake, though: I fully expected him to veto anyway, but he likely realized he stood more to lose from doing it by alienating literally the entire continent than not doing it and risking making Putin angry.
It's not even that he held his nose and voted yes after getting the money - he marched out before the voting, saying he wants none of it.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Dec 14th 2023 at 4:46:33 PM
Welcome to Estalia, gentlemen.
Oh, bother.
"Go stand in the hallway so you don't bother everyone else."
- What you expect to hear a teacher say when dealing with a trouble-making student
Disgusted, but not surprised
Yeeeesh... I sincerely apologize on our asinine PM's behalf. Seriously.
For which he's being slammed by the far right for being unprincipled.
He's reaping what he had sown. Continuing to remain aligned with Russia against the rest of the EU has become untenable due to the war in Ukraine, but he burned too many bridges to pull an about-face without groveling that would destroy his remaining credibility and respect.
Even now he's loudly attacking the EU for the decision and calls anyone who criticizes recently passed Hungarian legislation cracking down on foreign financing in politics "rebellious mercs".
Edited by amitakartok on Dec 15th 2023 at 12:40:13 PM
Khatun of the Azim Steppe
At least Orban highlights the issue with how the EU is working. Its principles have been designed when its members were fewer and all Western European.
Now that it is nearing 30 members that are way more diverse culturally, there should really be a rework of the inner laws so that a single leader is not able to block entire processes because he's a fucking asshole. Especially since when you have 27 different countries, and 27 different leaders, the probability of one of them being a fucking asshole is way higher than with a EU with 6 countries. Something like an 80 or 90% majority (a 90% majority would be 24/27 EU members).
As an added benefit it could also force some countries to root out some problematic practices - like, I don't know, the money laundering in Malta or Cyprus. And it would torpedo all the grandtalk of populist politicians claiming that once they're elected "they will strongarm the EU into doing whatever they want", because that would straight up become impossible.
Edited by Bexlerfu on Dec 15th 2023 at 2:58:18 PM
I remember Cyprus did stop issuing citizenship by investment. Not sure if it's permanent.
Edited by Ominae on Dec 15th 2023 at 6:41:56 AM
Wasn't the EU organized this way specifically to prevent majority voting blocs from forcing their will upon the minority?
This reminds me of the problems with the US Senate. At the time it was created it sort of made sense, but now it basically gives smaller, almost empty states over representation compared to the places where most people live. Of course it's not a 1:1, since three are different countries, but it's a similar dilemma
I think that a supermajority is a possible compromise. On one hand, a simple majority cannot impose its will on a minority, but unlike a unanimous vote a one (or two) disagreeing actors cannot cause a gridlock.
Edited by Risa123 on Dec 15th 2023 at 3:48:14 PM
Khatun of the Azim Steppe
It was to stop five members to bully the sixth, which is a configuration that can abusively happen in some situations.
But reach a certain size and you just can't function through total agreement. The UN is another example of an international organization that gets constantly stuck because of veto rules and how they can easily be abused.
Basically, the EU rules were designed with "family size" in mind, but right now it's not the size of a family, it's the size of a school class.
I actually wanted to be Resileaf
At least as far as the UN is concerned, it works like that on purpose to avert the piling on that led to the dissolution of the League of nations.
Edited by Resileafs on Dec 15th 2023 at 11:03:09 AM
The problem is this: if the EU functioned through majority, does it have the power to force dissenters to obey instead of taking their toys and going home, or just ignoring the decision they disagree with? The UN (Security Council) absolutely does not, when it comes to the permanent members.
Edited by Smeagol17 on Dec 15th 2023 at 7:27:43 PM
Seeing photos of Estonian anti-tank barriers aka Dragon's teeth on the Estonian-Russian border.