Europe politics

Europe politics

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has defended Spain's boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest over Israel's participation, saying silence is not an option while citing the genocide in Gaza and the illegal war on Lebanon.

The Ukrainian flag has been removed from outside Essex County Council's offices by the newly elected Reform UK administration. A second Union flag was instead put up in its place outside County Hall in Chelmsford on Friday. Council leader Peter Harris said it was a "proud moment", but in response, Tory opposition boss Lee Scott warned it could encourage "pro-Kremlin politics" locally. The Ukraine flag had flown outside the building since March 2022, weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country.

Back in 2000, it introduced the long-term care insurance system, one of the first countries to develop such a public scheme. It is transparent and easy to navigate. Everyone knows what they must pay and when (payments begin on your 40th birthday). Its purpose is to maintain dignity and an independent daily life routine according to each person's level of abilities. The emphasis is on giving people more of a say in where and how they are cared for.

On Monday, Prime Minister Peter Magyar published videos from Orban's official Buda Castle residence and two ministries, revealing gigantic, luxuriously furnished rooms throughout. But that's not all. Orban, who likes to talk about how he grew up in a village and his humble roots, had decorated his official residence with almost 100 valuable paintings from the Hungarian National Gallery. While touring the residence, Prime Minister Magyar said it reminded him the Ceausescu era.

During the 2007 general election, when Bertie Ahern was on a roll as taoiseach, he was still looking after his home turf, out pounding the pavements in Drumcondra. When he knocked on the door of one voter, he found a former friendly face who was extremely angry after losing a certain social welfare benefit because he had taken on a couple of hours' ­extra work.

After years of corruption and democratic erosion under Viktor Orban, Hungary must rebuild its institutions. Its new Prime Minister, Peter Magyar, faces questions about how he'll do it.

The UK wants to limit the number of young people from the EU who come into the country as part of a post-Brexit youth mobility scheme to below 50,000, it has emerged. The EU has already rejected a cap and wants unlimited visas with an annual review on numbers instead, to allow an emergency brake on the scheme if politically desirable.

Niels Paarup-Petersen, immigration spokesperson for the Centre Party, said that his party had now committed to making the issue part of coalition negotiations if the opposition parties win a majority in the election on September 13th. "When Tido hopefully falls, we will take up in our discussions with any future government that transitional rules should be applied and reintroduced," he told The Local. "Of course, it will be complicated, but as we've seen with teen deportations, if the Migration Agency sees that there is a strong possibility that new rules are coming that will affect people positively, they might not be eager to make decisions."

The king of Denmark has asked a centre-right politician to try to form a new government after the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has failed to put together a ruling coalition. The announcement on Friday night shook the political establishment as Frederiksen has been a staple of Danish politics for decades. Her left-leaning party, the Social Democrats, won the plurality of votes in parliamentary elections in March. But despite winning the most votes, it was the Social Democrats' worst electoral showing since 1903 and no party won a majority.