European Politics Thread

That too.

So, how long until this coalition falls apart?

This is going to end in a Berlusconi comeback, isn't it...

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Nov 26th 2018 at 7:31:10 PM

Seriously?! You are worried about Berlusconi when Salvini is the other contender?

No, I want neither of them in power. And you don't fix a country by getting the guy back in charge who contributed a lot to screwing it up.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Nov 26th 2018 at 7:40:51 PM

From what I understand, between Lega and M 5 S, the latter group is the one losing ground in this coalition. They are the ones dropping in the polls while Lega is strengthening. It's not much of a leap to assume that if Lega keeps gaining ground and Five Stars keeps losing it, Lega will eventually jump into bed with Forza Italia and form a new coalition government, possibly with Berlusconi as PM.

No chance that the Italians get tired of Salvini's BS?

So far, they aren't. Salvini is more popular now than he was a year ago.

People are bringing up Article 13 again now.

If you mean 'people' as 'One random troper in US Politics asking if it meant he couldn't access this Page anymore'...

https://www.thelocal.se/20181127/centre-party-open-to-lofven-returning-as-swedish-pm https://www.thelocal.se/20181128/liberals-offer-conditional-support-for-lfven-as-swedish-pm Looks like Sweden will FINALLY have a stable goverment. but given the sheer incompetence and ignorance of the politicians there, I won't be surprised if goverment formation fails, AGAIN.

Edited by Wazzupguys on Nov 29th 2018 at 10:20:22 PM

I'm guessing that far-right party, Swedish Democrats, are Persona Non Grata as far as the other political outfits are concerned?

Yes. Nobody wants to deal with them, but that leaves the situation in a bit of a limbo.

Edited by TerminusEst on Nov 30th 2018 at 6:17:20 AM

Essentially we have a bit of an Af D situation in Sweden, where the Sweden Democrats are persona non grata in any and all coalitions, but they've also managed to grow large enough that any coalition without them is going to have to involve either a coalition of center parties or a coalition of smaller, single-issue parties that don't tend to get along well.

indeed, the Sweden Democrats are a no no in the coalition talks. even though the Moderates and Christian Democrats tried to form a coalition with them recently. Sadly, the other political parties in Sweden axed any chance of a grand coalition. which is the ideal goverment for Sweden at times like these.

Reasons why I look back at Lord Liverpool's "broad-bottomed", more-or-less coalition government and marvel on how he kept that absolute fireworks display of a skip-fire going for as long as he did.

Lessons from history: however much we're messing up today, you can look back and find something just as bad in yesterday. If you look back hard enough.

I'm not sure grand coalitions are a great idea, honestly. When the mainstream left and right parties become too assimilated to one another, it just leaves the populist parties in a better position to argue that they're all the same and that the only way to break up elitist politics is to go populist

In other news, Iceland's politics are all in an uproar after an audio tape was released of several MPs from the Centre Party and the People's Party having a rather... rowdy conversation at a bar. Including former Prime Minister and current Centre Party chairman Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson (you know, this guy). The sheer misogyny on display was... pretty astounding. We'll probably be experiencing political fallout for weeks.

Among other things, the two PMs from the People's Party present insulted their own party's chairwoman, Inga Sæland, calling her "a crazy cunt" despite very much owing their parliamentary seats to her campaigning. The People's Party has called for them to resign.

Another guy present there, Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson, the former foreign minister of Sigmundur Davíð's government, can be heard frankly discussing how he in 2014 appointed disgraced former Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde (who resigned in wake of the banking crash of 2008) as ambassador to the US in exchange for being owed "a favour" by Geir's party, the Independence Party, and being considered for his own ambassadorship later down the line. And just to remove all doubt, Sigmundur Davíð can be heard corroborating Gunnar's story in the recording. This kind of nepotistic tit-for-tat spoils system is disgustingly normalised in Icelandic politics and everyone knows it — but still, it's shocking to hear a former minister and current MP talking so frankly about it.

Is that really such a surprising point of view from the people's party? Sexism is pretty much baked into right-wing politics and the further to the right you go, the worse it gets.

Edited by Swanpride on Nov 30th 2018 at 7:29:47 AM

About Article 13, even if it's passed would every EU country have to add it? If I remember correctly, the EU is much looser than the U.S. and different countries in it can have different laws.

As a general rule, there is a difference between what the EU says and what the countries actually implement. The UK for example was always really good in taking ideas which made sense and then rolling them out in the worst way possible. It is also not unheard of that a country drags its feet. And on top of this whatever will come out in the end, it will be worded in a way which allows the various countries some flexibility. In this particular case, local copyright laws will also play into it by design.

So...yeah, there will be some differences between the rule itself and what will actually happen in result.

Beyond the fact that a lot of it is simply technically unfeasible.

That won't help me, given my government is the one pushing the most for it.

I doubt that the technical impossible parts are still part of it once it reaches the last stage. Small reminder: There are currently three different suggestions for the law and only one of them (the one everyone keeps focussing on) is technically challenging.

Still, isn't that the one that could potentially screw over many content creators?

Fair use and all was added into the version that got passed in the EU Parliament, so that should be less of an issue.

Really? From what i've gathered I didn't hear anything about fair use being included, quite the opposite in fact.