Category: EU

Police in Heidelberg, Germany, shot and seriously injured a man Saturday after the man hit three people with a car.

The man drove his car into the people in a central square while they were standing in a pedestrian area. A brief stand-off ensued before police shot the man, who was believed to have been armed with a knife.

Police said that at the moment they are unclear about the man’s motives but added they don’t suspect the attack to be terrorism-related.

The man appears to have acted alone, police said, refusing to confirm local media reports he is mentally disturbed.

The incident renewed fears in Germany of an attempted repeat of a terrorist truck attack last December at a crowded Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 people and injuring 50 more.
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Angela Merkel’s conservatives have formally nominated the German chancellor as her party’s top candidate for the September parliamentary election in the region where she has her political base.

The dpa news agency reported that Merkel won the support of 95 percent of delegates at a convention of the Christian Democrats’ branch in northeastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state Saturday. Merkel has held her parliamentary constituency in Stralsund since 1990.

Polls show Merkel facing an unexpectedly strong challenge from the center-left Social Democrats, who have been boosted by their choice of former European Parliament President Martin Schulz to challenge her.

Merkel didn’t mention Schulz in her speech Saturday. But she did make a point of praising the economic reforms enacted by her center-left predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, some of which Schulz has suggested he might amend.
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Turkey’s prime minister has officially launched his ruling party’s campaign for a “yes” vote in a referendum on ushering a presidential system, which critics fear will concentrate too many powers in the hands of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Binali Yildirim formally got campaigning going on Saturday telling supporters in a sports arena that the proposed new system would build a strong Turkey capable of surmounting terror threats and make its economy more robust.

Yildirim said: “We are taking the first steps on the path of a future strong Turkey.”

The proposed reforms – to be voted on April 16 – will give the largely ceremonial presidency executive powers and abolish the office of the prime minister.

Opponents say the proposed system foresees too few checks and balances on Erdogan’s rule.
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Poland faces the possibility of losing its voting rights in the European Union over issues related to democracy and the rule of law. The EU is trying to determine whether to apply Article 7 — a measure intended to punish countries seen as violating fundamental rights.

In its 60-year history, the European Union has never had to trigger Article 7.

When the regional grouping gave Poland until the end of February to implement several reforms to its judicial independence and democratic institutions, it seemed that Article 7 might be the next step if the EU determined that Poland was not putting enough reforms in place. Even though the deadline passed this week, it is not clear what steps the commission can take next.

Much has changed in Poland since the 2015 win of the conservative right wing PiS, Law and Justice Party. The party blocked the initial picks for the Polish constitutional court and presented its own candidates. That was followed by a crackdown on media outlets and journalists, mass demonstrations against proposed extremely conservative laws and political appointments on all levels. That led the European Commission to warn Poland.

Situation described at ‘dramatic’

Katarzyna Morton is an active member of KOD, the Polish Committee for the Defense of Democracy. She describes the situation under the current government as “dramatic” and fears the country is heading toward becoming a modern authoritarian state. Morton says she hopes the EU keeps following up on current Polish developments, adding the tone of the EU will matter.

“The EU really has to work on the way they say things to be sure that some Polish people who are in favor of the government or just perhaps do not understand EU so well, won’t take it as a threat but will understand that the EU is working in their favor and wants them to succeed in their citizenship.”

Triggering Article 7 could lead to another crisis within the EU while the bloc is already dealing with growing anti-EU sentiment, along with Brexit — Britain’s decision to leave the EU — and an ongoing migrant crisis.

Little room to maneuver

Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska of the Center for European Reform says the European Commission has little room to maneuver and might lose this battle with Poland.

“If the commission does not respond, it would face criticism from liberals in the European Parliament and it looks weak in the eyes of external actors; but, by interfering in this political conflict, the risks of antagonizing the Polish public is the last thing the commission would like to have because of growing euroscepticism.”

Gostynska-Jakubowska also points out that it’s questionable whether the commission has sufficient democratic legitimacy to push through something so politically sensitive as Article 7.

Poland feels it has complied

The request for reforms was made after previous recommendations were sent to Warsaw, but no real progress was recorded.

Poland feels its parliament has adopted enough reforms that “comply with European standards regarding the functioning of constitutional courts” and says there is no systematic threat to the rule of law in Poland. Activists such as Morton disagree, saying she does not notice any reforms being implemented.

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told local media earlier this week that he expects “the matter will be closed.”

Waszczykowski had a public exchange of words during a conference in Germany last week with EU Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans on Polish constitutional reforms. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement earlier this week accusing Timmermans’ actions and words of being politically motivated.

Unanimous vote triggers Article 7

While the commission searches for a way forward, diplomatic tensions between Warsaw and Brussels remained unresolved as the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the head of the European Commission’s representation to Poland on Thursday over language used by an EU document that Poland called unacceptable.

The commission is to discuss the matter with member states on what steps to take on the Polish issue.

Gostynska-Jakubowska says shifting the responsibility to member states will not solve the issue: “There won’t be political will among member states to take further action. EU treaties are pretty clear about this; it is the decision of member states on whether to activate Article 7 or not.”

Triggering Article 7 needs unanimity among all member states, and Hungary has already said it would veto any such a decision. The current president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, happens to be a former Polish president.

The next meeting of EU leaders is to take place after the first week of March in Brussels. The issue with Poland is expected to be discussed, but it’s unlikely the process for triggering Article 7 will start.
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Russia says it will veto a draft U.N. resolution blaming the Syrian government for some chemical weapons attacks in Syria if it is brought to a vote.

“The resolution prejudges the results of the investigation, it is one-sided [and] based on insufficient evidence,” Russian Deputy U.N. Envoy Vladimir Safronkov told reporters after a closed meeting of the council to discuss the issue.

The Security Council created a special OPCW-U.N. (The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) Joint Investigative Mechanism — known as JIM — in August 2015 to study several chemical weapons attacks that took place in Syria since 2011 and identify “to the greatest extent feasible” individuals, entities, groups, or governments who were perpetrators, organizers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemicals as weapons in Syria.

Three chemical attacks confirmed

In October, the joint investigation concluded that the Syrian military had carried out at least three chemical attacks in 2014 and 2015.

“There is tremendous pressure over JIM to get to sort of one-sided results of investigation,” Safronkov said. “When we created JIM we said that investigation should be impartial, objective, independent — it’s not the case right now because of that pressure.”

Russia has deployed six vetoes in the past six years to protect Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from Security Council action.

Haley frustrated with Russia

“It is ridiculous. How much longer is Russia going to continue to babysit and make excuses for the Syrian regime?” U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley asked. “People died because of this and the United States isn’t going to be quiet about it.”

Britain, France and the United States have been working for months on a draft security council resolution that would sanction the Syrian regime for its use of chemical weapons and say they plan to bring it to a vote in coming days.

Delattre says evidence is clear

“We now have the clear evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria against civilian populations, and we also have converging indications that such weapons continue to be used in this country,” France’s envoy Francois Delattre told reporters. “If you think about it, on a scale of threats to peace and security, we are at 10 here.”

“You had an overwhelming vote to say we need an investigative mechanism that would prove that these chemical weapons were being done by the Syrian regime, now … the results have come out and people don’t like what the results are,” Haley said in reference to Russian objections.
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Former president Barack Obama can not run again for president in the U.S., but that isn’t stopping a group of French fans who are trying to get him to run in their upcoming election.

Paris has been canvassed with “Obama17” signs, which urge people to visit a website to sign a petition for the former U.S. president to run.

According to the website, Obama is their choice “because he has the best resume in the world for the job.”

The site also alludes to the rising popularity of right-wing parties in France.

“At a time when France is about to vote massively for the extreme right, we can still give a lesson of democracy to the planet by electing a French president, a foreigner,” according to the website, which is in French.

According to ABC News, a spokesman for the group behind the website said, “We started dreaming about this idea two months before the end of Obama’s presidency. We dreamed about this possibility to vote for someone we really admire, someone who could lead us to project ourselves in a bright future.”

There’s just one catch to their plan: To be president of France, you have to be French.

The latest French polls show Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Front party in the lead. The election will be held in April.
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Georgia lacks judicial independence and concerns persist over selective justice in the ex-Soviet state, rights watchdog Amnesty International said Thursday in its annual country report for 2016.

It listed several court cases, including an ownership dispute over Georgia’s biggest independent television station Rustavi 2 and detention of ex-premier Vano Merabishvili, as attempts to silence critical voices in the country.

Thousands of Georgians rallied Sunday in the capital Tbilisi in support of Rustavi 2. Government officials have denied involvement in the case.

“Concerns over the lack of judicial independence and selective justice were raised, by both local and international observers,” Amnesty said in the report.

Amnesty said the trial took place after the statute of limitations had expired and it was “widely believed to have been supported by the current government with a view to depriving” the opposition UNM of its “main mouthpiece” ahead of the parliamentary elections in October 2016.

The report said freedom of peaceful assembly remained largely unrestricted in Georgia, but noted that the country failed to establish an independent investigation mechanism for human rights violations committed by law enforcement bodies.

Dozens of former state officials have been convicted in Georgia on various charges, including misspending funds, since a government led by former president Mikheil Saakashvili lost an election in October 2012.

Western countries have aired concerns that the new government has used selective justice and political persecution against opponents in the mountainous country, which is a pivot of geopolitical rivalry between Russia and the West.

Georgia is seeking closer links with both NATO and the European Union.
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Pope Francis told his followers Thursday that it was better to be an atheist than one of “many” Catholics who he said led hypocritical double lives.

“So many Catholics are like this,” he said during morning Mass at his residence at the Vatican. “There are those who say, ‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this and that association,’ ” the head of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church said, according to a Vatican Radio transcript.

But, he suggested, those people should also say, ” ‘My life is not Christian, I don’t pay my employees proper salaries, I exploit people, I do dirty business, I launder money, [I lead] a double life.’ ”

He then quoted a sentiment he said he had heard often: “But to be a Catholic like that, it’s better to be an atheist.”

Francis has surprised the church before with his stance toward atheists. Less than two months after his election in 2013, he said Christians should see atheists as good people if they do good.

He has also taken other unorthodox positions. He condemned sexual abuse of children by priests as being tantamount to a “Satanic Mass” and said Catholics in the Mafia excommunicate themselves. He also told his own cardinals to not act as if they were “princes.”
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The commander of U.S. forces in Africa has told VOA the only way to restore peace in Libya is to bring rival factions together, and that will require cooperative efforts by many parties, including Russia.

General Thomas Waldhauser, who heads the U.S. Africa Command, discussed the continuing political chaos in Libya while in Germany for the recent Munich Security Conference.

Libya is a checkerboard of separate, divided power centers: The internationally backed Government of National Accord controls only part of Tripoli, while rival power bases vie for control over the rest of the capital and other cities. Along the North African coast, the head of the Libyan National Army, General Khalifa Haftar, holds sway over much of eastern Libya through his House of Representatives.

Waldhauser says Haftar’s influence “is something to be dealt with,” and that eastern Libya “is where a political solution … has to take place,” in large part because the army chief controls most of Libya’s oilfields.

“This is where it all begins,” the American commander says, and also where Russia comes in.

Russia invests in Libya’s oil

Waldhauser noted it is apparent Russia wants to become actively involved in trying to resolve Libya’s political unrest — not least for its own economic interests — and said he welcomes that. 

Russia’s state-owned oil giant Rosneft has offered billions of dollars in investments to Libya’s National Oil Company (NOC), and officials of the two companies announced Tuesday in London that they have a preliminary agreement to pursue a development program. Russia also committed itself to buying an undisclosed share of Libya’s future crude oil output.

The AFRICOM chief said the key to political progress in Libya, which would enable the country to get the greatest benefit from such international deals, is cooperation between the Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital and Haftar and the Libyan National Army in the east.

“The goal is to get those two together,” Waldhauser said. “The goal is to get those two to talk, and the goal is to make some accommodation in that regard.”

Kremlin’s broader influence

Russia has been trying to gain a larger grip on oil supplies in the Mediterranean and extend its influence in the Middle East and North Africa more broadly. Rosneft’s agreement with NOC, announced at an international oil conference in the British capital, was in addition to a separate deal for Russia to prefinance crude exports from Kurdistan, making Rosneft the first major oil company to take an active role in the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq. Rosneft also recently acquired a stake in the Zohr gas field in Egypt.

The Libyan oil company estimates it needs $20 billion to reach its production goal of 2.1 million barrels per day within five years.

Turning again to Libya’s political situation and rivalries, Waldhauser said many parties are trying to assist.

“The Egyptians and Russians are also involved in trying to get this all together, because at the end of day a political solution is going to require” the participation of both General Haftar and Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of the GNA, the U.S. commander said.

U.S. supports Tripoli faction

U.S. forces also have been actively fighting against the Islamic State group in Libya — most notably last month, when American B-2 bombers flew a 9,400-kilometer mission from their base in the central U.S. to strike IS training camps in Libya — and Waldhauser says the extremists’ efforts to expand in the north African nation have taken a significant setback.

“It has been very complicated and it continues to remain very complicated. Perhaps, if it’s possible, even getting more complicated,” Waldhauer added. “Our official government position is to support the GNA. And at AFRICOM, we’ve had a very good and close relationship not only with our State Department personnel, but with Prime Minister Surraj as well.”

The AFRICOM chief, who oversees U.S. military operations throughout Africa, was speaking in Munich last week about American participation in Operation Flintlock, a joint military exercise hosted by seven African nations.

American forces in Africa are eager to build partnerships in the sub-Saharan region to tackle terrorists — particularly Islamic State extremists, but also other dangerous groups. Waldhauser said the U.S. works to strengthen its regional partnerships by helping African nations develop their infrastructure, with training and also with crisis response.

U.S. can help in crises

“Many times we think of [crisis response] as a military operation,” the American commander said. “But crisis response is something we would be very, very involved in if there was a humanitarian disaster — famine in Somalia, for example; the Ebola breakout is another example. We do pay close attention to that.”

Nigeria is a key regional partner, and the United States is providing intelligence support and other assistance in the country’s fight against the Islamic State-affiliated terror group Boko Haram. A Nigerian representative to the Munich Security Conference, Major-General Babagana Monguno, said the increasing expansion of terror groups across national borders means international cooperation is vital.

“The uprising in Libya and the eventual capitulation of the Gadhafi government resulted in a southward flow of arms and human beings,” Monguno said. “The most natural place in sub-Saharan Africa for this flow was Nigeria.”

Importance of ‘battlefield ethics’

In the course of their efforts to suppress Boko Haram, Nigerian military forces have been accused of human-rights abuses by Amnesty International and others. Waldhauser said the United States takes such allegations against its partners seriously.

“We understand the requirement for battlefield ethics,” he told VOA. “We make it part of our training, and we try to continue to emphasize that … in the legal system [of the partner nations] and in our discussions with key leaders, as well.”

Operation Flintlock 2017, which is just getting underway, will bring together 2,000 service personnel from more than 20 African, European and North African nations.
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A few thousand Ukrainians rallied Wednesday to demand a change of political leadership in a demonstration that coincided with the third anniversary of the ousting of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych amid mass street protests.

The rally was organized by three right-wing parties who accuse the government of being too weak and conciliatory in the face of Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its support for pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

The crowd chanted “Glory to Ukraine!” and carried banners with slogans such as “The government should fight [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, not Ukrainians.”

Kyiv resident Vasyl Volskiy said he was taking part in the demonstration because he believed the authorities had failed to deliver on promises to reform the economy.

“There has been no improvement, it has even become worse compared to what it used to be. The army still has no resources, just like before. People have become three times poorer and the authorities are not doing anything,” he said.

None of the three groups behind the rally — the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party, the far-right Right Sector and the newly formed National Corps party founded by members of the Azov battalion — are currently represented in parliament.

Yanukovych has lived in exile in Russia since fleeing Ukraine on Feb. 22, 2014. His successor, Petro Poroshenko, has tried to move Ukraine toward the European Union but the country is still dogged by poverty and corruption, and the conflict in eastern Ukraine remains unresolved.

Ukrainians are also now concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump may roll back sanctions imposed on Russia over its actions in Ukraine.
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Budapest will withdraw its bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics, leaving only Los Angeles and Paris in the race.

Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs confirmed the withdrawal to The Associated Press on Wednesday. The joint decision by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos and the Hungarian Olympic Committee will be formally voted on by the Budapest City Assembly.

Fidesz, the governing party, said the decision was made to avoid “a loss of international prestige” for Hungary, saying the bid had a very small chance of success.

The bid was expected to face a city-wide referendum promoted by a new political party, which gathered more than 266,000 signatures in favor of holding the vote.

The International Olympic Committee will choose the host city in September.
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The U.N.’s chief mediator for the intra-Syrian talks says he does not see any imminent breakthrough on the horizon.

On the eve of a new round of Syrian peace talks, Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, downplayed expectations, but said that there was a “political momentum” to move ahead on efforts to end the long-standing civil war.  

Syria’s warring parties last met in Geneva nearly nine months ago. That round of talks broke down because of repeated violations of a cease-fire agreement.

De Mistura acknowledged that the successful resumption of the failed negotiations hinged largely on the warring parties abiding by the current cease-fire. 

He said Russia, which had worked out the agreement with Turkey in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, was using its influence to see that the fragile cease-fire held.

“Today, the Russian Federation — after the cease-fire task force — did announce to everyone and every country present, and to myself, that they have formally requested the government of Syria to silence their own skies in the areas attached by the cease-fire during the intra-Syrian talks,” de Mistura said. 

He added that he has asked other countries with influence on the opposition parties to have them stick to the cease-fire and not provoke the other side.

“They do not have airplanes but they can do something similar in terms of reducing any type of provocation on any side to give a better chance to the intra-Syrian talks not to be affected by breakdowns.”

The U.N. envoy warned that there were, what he called “spoilers,” who would try to provoke one side or the other to walk out of the talks or to refuse to participate. 

“We will try to control it,” he said. “It is time to talk and fight on the table, through the table, but not in the field.”

Syria’s nearly six-year-long civil war has killed around 400,000 people, displaced more than 6 million inside Syria — half of them children — and prompted nearly 5 million to flee into neighboring countries. An estimated 13.5 million people need humanitarian assistance.

Role of women

De Mistura said the more inclusive the talks, the better the chance of success. The envoy noted that he was unable to get the assent of the parties to include women, who make up 52 percent of the Syrian population, in the talks.

Therefore, he said, he has established a Syrian Women’s Advisory Board to participate in the talks in a consultative capacity.

“The first meeting of today was with a group of seven women — Syrian women,” he said. “All of them united by one fact: They’re being either detainees or tortured or abducted. Or they have their mothers, daughters or wives of detainees or abducted people.

“Detainees are those by the government — thousands — and abducted are those by the opposition,” he said. “We should never forget the suffering of so many Syrians on one side and the other, too, during this conflict.”

Role of U.S.

De Mistura said he was not sure what role the United States would play in the negotiations, but understood that the new Trump administration needed time to devise a new strategy. 

“They have announced that they want to revisit their strategy regarding the fight against Daesh, IS, and that by implication what they are doing in Iraq and in Syria. … So, I would say let us wait for that,” said de Mistura, using acronyms for Islamic State.

He noted, however, that the U.S. official who had attended previous intra-Syrian talks also would be present at this round. “So, I am convinced that they will be very supportive with whatever we try to do,” de Mistura said.

Upcoming talks

The U.N. envoy said he will be meeting with the participants Thursday morning in a series of bilateral talks to discuss how to proceed with the negotiations. 

In previous rounds, the parties held indirect talks, with de Mistura shuttling from one delegation to the other. It is not clear if this system will continue, or if the delegations will agree to meet face to face.

De Mistura said the agenda will focus on three items: the establishment of a credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance; the drafting of a new constitution; and free and fair elections under U.N. supervision. 

The envoy said he will not agree to any preconditions and fully expected the talks to be serious and substantive. 

“Am I expecting a breakthrough? No, I’m not expecting a breakthrough. But I am expecting and determined for keeping a very proactive momentum,” he said. “We have to … outpace those few but clear spoilers with the momentum on the political track, and I think we can aim at that.”
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Bemused Swedes have been defending their record as a low-crime society in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech in Florida last week in which he appeared to refer to a terrorist attack in Sweden that did not happen.

Trump later said he was talking about a Fox News program highlighting allegedly surging crime  statistics in Sweden and linking them to rising immigrant numbers, after a record 163,000 asylum-seekers arrived in 2015.

On Monday, he tweeted: “The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!”

Swedes have jumped to their country’s defense.

“Last year there were app 50 pct more murders only in Orlando/Orange in Florida, where Trump spoke the other day, than in all of Sweden. Bad,” former Prime Minister Carl Bildt tweeted.

Few would argue with the fact that Trump’s picture of Sweden is at odds with statistics.

Crime wave not a fact

Sweden ranked 187th out of 218 countries in 2014 in terms of murders per capita, according to a survey by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The murder rate in the United States, which ranked about 110th, was more than four times higher.

The suggestion that the recent rise in asylum numbers has triggered a crime wave appears to have come from media reports rather than from statistics, as Swedish police do not register suspects’ ethnic origins, only their gender and age.

“There is no basis for drawing the conclusion that crime rates are soaring in Sweden and that that is related to immigration,” Stina Holmberg at the National Council for Crime Prevention said.

The most recent official survey from 2005 does show foreign-born Swedes are more than twice as likely to be suspects in criminal investigations, but their ethnicity is not the main reason for this.

“Minorities are often over-represented in criminal statistics, but when you adjust for socioeconomic factors, that disappears almost completely,” Social and Justice Minister Morgan Johansson said recently.

Surge in gang violence

Sweden is nevertheless not the crime-free utopia that some might like to believe.

A surge in gang-related violence has pushed up the murder rate in the last couple of years.

In the southern city of Malmo, a town just shy of 300,000 people, 12 people were killed last year, according to local media. That was a record and gave it a murder rate per capita three times higher than that of London.

In 2013, in the mainly immigrant Stockholm suburb of Husby, around a hundred cars were burned and seven police were injured in five nights of rioting, which spread on a smaller scale to other cities across the country.

Trouble in suburbs

Emergency services are regularly attacked by stone-throwing youths, and on Monday night, rioters in a suburb of the capital battled police and burned a handful of cars.

But the violence has clearly not spiraled out of control.

“There are no areas where the police don’t go,” police spokeswoman Johanna Blomqvist said in an email in reply to Reuters’ questions.

And an annual survey of Swedes by the National Council for Crime Prevention shows crime rates broadly unchanged over the last 10 years.

Many Swedes do appear to be worried about immigration, however.

Call for more police

The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, a party that has called for a big rise in police numbers and tougher sentences for criminals, has surged in popularity and is now vying for second spot in polls.

Sweden took in more asylum-seekers relative to the size of its population than any other European Union member in 2015. In a backlash, many asylum centers have been targeted by far-right attackers and several have been burned to the ground.

Integrating the new arrivals is also likely to be problematic. Segregation, poor schools and unemployment blight the prospects of many young people, often those with immigrant backgrounds.

Unemployment among foreign-born Swedes is around 15 percent compared with 5 percent among those born in the country. “Sweden, like many other countries, has many opportunities, but faces many challenges,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said.
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A senior Socialist minister said Tuesday that he might back centrist Emmanuel Macron in France’s presidential election, which could help Macron as he battles to maintain his campaign’s momentum.

The pronouncement by Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll came as opinion polls pictured a multicandidate race in which far-right leader Marine Le Pen was holding on to recent gains, keeping debt and foreign exchange markets on edge.

Two polls showed ex-banker Macron neck and neck with conservative rival Francois Fillon as favorite. A third, from Elabe, had Macron in retreat, and made Fillon of the Republicans, a former prime minister, the favorite for the first time since a scandal over allegedly fake work rocked his campaign four weeks ago.

All recent polls show Le Pen ahead in the April 23 first round, but losing a May 7 runoff to the first-round winner, be it Macron or Fillon.

They also show, however, that her losing margin has shrunk to as little as 6 percentage points from more than 10.

Bad news for left

Le Foll’s potential defection was the latest development in a slew of bad news for France’s divided political left.

“I support the man who has been chosen [by the Socialists], but the moment comes for political responsibility with regard to what is at play, with regard to Marine Le Pen and with regard also to the program of Francois Fillon,” he said on BFM TV.

Asked whether this meant he would back whoever was best placed to prevent a Le Pen-Fillon runoff, he said: “Exactly!” Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has also said he might back Macron, rather than the ruling Socialists’ chosen candidate, Benoit Hamon, who is a distant fourth in the polls.

Despite the prospect of heavyweight Socialist backing, the polls show Macron’s campaign losing momentum.

Elabe pollsters reckon he has made a series of missteps that explain how they now see Fillon ahead. Macron “has had 10 difficult days,” they said.

Anger on the right

Macron angered opponents on the right during a visit to Algeria last week by calling France’s colonial past a crime against humanity. He has upset gay-marriage supporters by saying their opponents had been humiliated by the government when it pushed through the gay marriage bill in 2013.

On Tuesday, Macron took his centrist and pro-European campaign to London, home to a large expatriate French community who get to vote in the elections.

The anti-immigration, anti-European Union Le Pen, meanwhile, caused controversy on a trip to Lebanon, where her plans to meet a senior Muslim figure were canceled after her refusal to wear a headscarf.

Le Pen’s surge has worried investors concerned that her policies will further destabilize fragile European unity, blow apart the eurozone and hurt the value of French debt.

The cost of insuring French government debt against default has risen to its highest level in more than three years, and sterling rose almost 1 percent against the euro to its highest in two months.

Fillon, meanwhile, was tweaking the health care policies that caused a campaign wobble earlier this year, having apparently put behind him allegations that his wife, Penelope, was paid hundreds of thousands of euros for work she may not have done.

Fillon has said the work was genuine. An official inquiry is under way.

Unity talks flag

Besides the three-way fight, discussions to unite candidates on the left looked to be going nowhere.

Hamon is pushing a hard-left program that divides his party and competes for votes with another leftist, Communist-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Melenchon is in fifth place, but a combined Hamon-Melenchon vote could theoretically put them into first or second and therefore into the runoff, instead of Fillon or Macron, against Le Pen.

Talks between Melenchon, a veteran campaigner, and Hamon, an ex-education minister, were tentative from the start, and both have acknowledged wide policy differences.

Hamon gave the latest indication on Tuesday that they were unlikely to be joining forces.

“There is a desire on Melenchon’s part to go on right to the end,” Hamon said on Europe 1 radio. “I respect that. … In any case, I will work on right to the end.”

Political analysts are also eyeing an imminent decision from veteran centrist Francois Bayrou on whether to stand. If he stands, that could hurt Macron, but backing from Bayrou could be a further boost.
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German officials have proposed that the European Union relax some human rights safeguards so that more asylum seekers can be deported while awaiting the outcome of their cases, according to a working paper seen by Reuters.

The paper is among many under discussion in Brussels as the EU, which has taken in more than 1.3 million migrants and refugees since the start of 2015, makes it tougher for them to get in and be allowed to stay.

The paper said the proposal would only kick in at times of a “mass influx” of people to the bloc. “This is another element in efforts to energize readmission of people to wherever they came from,” said one Brussels-based diplomat.

The EU currently has an agreement allowing the return of asylum seekers only with Turkey. If approved, the proposal could enable such transfers to other places as well, including south of the Mediterranean, diplomats said.

The EU is already talking to Libya, Tunisia and Egypt about curbing immigration to Europe.

While the EU says it has the right to send away all economic migrants if it chooses, its existing laws on human rights say asylum seekers awaiting a ruling on their cases can only be deported to countries that meet certain conditions.

The working paper lists them as including: safety from threat and persecution; humane reception conditions; and at least partial access to medical care, education and the labor market.

Some parts of this “clearly exceed” the basic safeguards stipulated by the Geneva convention on refugees and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, it said.

It did not specify which of them might be dropped, but made clear that mass expulsions would still be prohibited and receiving countries would still have to guarantee decent living conditions for deported asylum seekers.

They would also have to go on obeying the so-called non-refoulement principle, which means ensuring that people deported by the EU are not pushed further towards places where their lives might be at risk.

Safe zones

Specifically, the proposal also includes an option to recognize certain regions – rather than whole states as is the case now – as fit for people, including asylum seekers, to be sent back to.

EU officials acknowledge they are considering this “safe zones” concept, which could mean sending people back to certain areas of countries otherwise deemed too dangerous.

“These plans are overturning the international law on refugees… This is an utter betrayal, inhumane,” Ska Keller, a Green member of the European Parliament, said of the document.

The European Union’s executive had no comment on the proposal paper.

The document said: “This is not about building a ‘Fortress Europe’. It is about combating illegal immigration, which has already cost the lives of thousands, and about replacing it by a regulated system of legal admissions, combined with humane living conditions, assured by the EU in third countries.”

Last year’s EU migration deal with Turkey – which includes provisions on sending back asylum seekers who came to Europe via that country – has sharply cut the numbers arriving, and the paper said it should serve as a blueprint for the future.

The Turkey agreement has, however, been criticized by rights groups as cutting corners on human rights and for bumpy implementation they say has put people’s lives at risk.

The paper said extending the options for deportation of asylum seekers would discourage people-smuggling. The EU would also provide funds to improve conditions for refugees and migrants sent back to third countries.
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U.S. President Donald Trump contends the “fake news media” is defending Sweden’s immigration policies, claiming that massive immigration into the Scandinavian country has been a failure.

“Give the public a break – The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!” Trump said Monday on his Twitter account.

Trump’s comment extended for another day the spat he ignited with Washington’s allies in Stockholm when he suggested, erroneously, at a Saturday campaign rally that a terrorist attack had occurred in Sweden on Friday.

Trump mentioned past terrorist attacks in Europe linked to open-borders immigration, saying, “You look at what’s happening in Germany.You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden.Who would believe this?Sweden.They took in large numbers and they’re having problems like they never thought possible.”

Trump, after many Swedes mocked the comment for hours on Swedish social media sites, said his remark referred to a Fox News broadcast about migrants and Sweden that he had watched Friday, not a terrorist attack.

Journalist Ami Horowitz contended on the show that high-level Swedish officials are deliberately covering up a surge in crime, especially gun violence and rapes, committed by some of the more than 300,000 immigrants Sweden has accepted from war-torn countries since 2013. 

Official government statistics show that the country’s crime rate has fallen since 2005.

While Trump contended that Sweden’s acceptance of the immigrants has failed, the Swedish embassy in Washington said Sunday, “We look forward to informing the U.S. administration about Sweden’s immigration and integration policies.”

Upon first learning of Trump’s campaign rally statement, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said that democracy and diplomacy “require us to respect science, facts and media.”

Her predecessor, Carl Bildt, took to Twitter, saying of Trump, “Sweden?Terror attack?What has he been smoking?Questions abound.”Other Swedes joked that Trump’s original comment might have been referring to a large meatball theft, an avalanche warning or police chasing a drunken driver.
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Two documentaries on the plight of refugees off the Italian coast and the Greek coast have received Oscar nominations this year. “Fire at Sea,” by Gianfranco Rosi has been selected in the Feature Documentary category and “4.1 Miles” by Daphne Matziaraki has been nominated in the Short Documentary category. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with Rosi about his film and how these documentaries bring public awareness to the refugees crisis in a tough political climate.
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Russia’s long-time U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin died suddenly Monday in New York, a day before he would have turned 65 years old.

The Russian foreign ministry announced his death in a statement, giving no details on the circumstances.  The president of the U.N. General Assembly, Peter Thomson, told VOA that he was informed Churkin had “some sort of cardiac arrest” at the Russian Mission and was taken to the hospital, where he died.

Fellow U.N. diplomats immediately took to social media to express their shock and sadness at his sudden passing.

“Absolutely devastated to hear that my friend & colleague Vitaly Churkin has died,” tweeted Britain’s U.N. envoy Matthew Rycroft. “A diplomatic giant & wonderful character. RIP” he added.

“Shocked to learn of the passing of our dear colleague Vitaly Churkin,” Sweden’s U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog wrote. “He will be deeply missed. Deepest condolences to his family.”

The new U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, paid tribute to a “gracious colleague.”

“We did not always see things the same way, but he unquestionably advocated his country’s positions with great skill. We send our prayers and heartfelt condolences to lift up his family and to the Russian people,” she said in a statement.

General Assembly President Thomson called for a minute of silence during an afternoon meeting at U.N. headquarters. In emotional remarks, he said “not only has Russia lost one of its truest sons here at the United Nations, we have lost one of our truest.”

“His name shall live on in the annals of this organization’s history,” Thomson said.

WATCH: UN’s Thomson: Churkin’s Name Will Live on in UN History

Kenya’s ambassador, Macharia Kamau, described Churkin as “a very calm and purposeful diplomat” and praised him for understanding the problems of smaller countries, not just big ones.

“He was a deeply experienced and able diplomat, a defender of his country, a believer in the multilateral system and the work of the United Nations, and someone who we all respected and cherished very much,” UAE Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said.

Road to diplomacy

Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin was born in Moscow on Feb. 21, 1952. As a young boy he appeared in at least three films – two were about Vladimir Lenin.

He later was a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and went on to earn a Ph.D. in history from the USSR Diplomatic Academy.

Churkin had a distinguished career as a Russian diplomat, joining the foreign ministry in 1974. He was his government’s Special Representative to the talks on Former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and later served as ambassador to Belgium (1994-1998) and Canada (1998-2003).

U.N. posting

In 2006, he presented his credentials to then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan and took up his post as U.N. ambassador, which he held until his death. In the more than a decade Churkin was envoy to the world body, he was widely respected by colleagues, even those whose governments had adversarial relationships with Moscow.

In the past six years, his job grew more difficult as Moscow became more isolated due to its annexation of the Crimea and its support for the regime of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

He often clashed in the Security Council chamber with former U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power. At a heated council meeting in December on the situation in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo, Power called out Moscow for denying and obfuscating facts and aiding and abetting attacks on civilians. Churkin retorted that she sounded like “Mother Theresa” for scolding Moscow and urged her to “remember the track record of your country.”

Churkin was known as a tough negotiator and a top-notch diplomat. Many expected he would be appointed foreign minister if Sergei Lavrov retired.

Vitaly Churkin is survived by his wife, Irina, and two adult children.
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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is making his first visit to Europe since taking office, to reassure allies the United States remains a staunch friend amid concerns about the new administration’s “America First” strategy and its overall approach to global affairs.

Pence is scheduled to have dinner with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel Sunday in Brussels.

On Monday, Pence will meet with EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, EU Council President Donald Tusk, and other EU officials.

The European Union will likely seek clarity on Trump’s prediction last month in two European newspapers that other countries would follow Britain and leave the alliance.

EU foreign affairs chief Mogherini said after meeting U.S. officials in Washington last week that maintaining multilateral sanctions on Russia, keeping the Iran nuclear agreement in place and addressing the refugee crisis are issues the EU would like to collaborate on with the U.S.

Visit to Dachau concentration camp

Pence, his wife, Karen, and daughter Charlotte visited the Dachau concentration camp memorial early Sunday. The camp was established by the Nazi government in 1933 near Munich.

The Pence family paid tribute to the International Memorial at the center of camp, placing a wreath beneath it. They also visited a Jewish memorial and a Catholic memorial on the grounds, toured the barracks, a crematorium, and a gas chamber.

Saturday, at a NATO Security Conference in Munich, Pence expressed support for NATO and sought to address concerns raised by President Trump, who once said that the military alliance was “obsolete.”

“The United States of America strongly supports NATO and will be unwavering in our commitment to our transatlantic alliance,” Pence said in his first major foreign policy address for the new administration.

Pence acknowledged his extremely busy schedule during a surprise meeting in Munich Saturday with Rock band U2 frontman Bono. After Pence thanked Bono for “the chance to get together,” Bono said, “You’re the second busiest man on earth, so we really do appreciate it,” as onlookers laughed.
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Was there a terrorist attack in Sweden Friday night? No, but U.S. President Donald Trump seemed to suggest there had been, leaving Swedes baffled by just what the new American leader might have meant by an offhand remark.

At a campaign rally Saturday in Florida, Trump alluded to past terrorist attacks in Europe linked to open-borders immigration, saying, “You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden. Who would believe this? Sweden.”

But there were no high-profile, terror-linked events in the Scandinavian country Friday night.

Trump did not elaborate on the remark until Sunday evening, when he tweeted that he was referring to a Fox News broadcast about migrants and Sweden.

In the meantime, some Swedes mocked Trump on social media accounts using the hashtag “#LastNightinSweden.”

Former Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt took to Twitter, saying, “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound.” Some Swedes joked that Trump might have been referring to a large meatball theft, an avalanche warning or police chasing a drunken driver.

Another Twitter user, tweaking Trump’s plans to build a border wall on the U.S. southern border with Mexico to thwart illegal immigration, said that “after the terrible events” of Friday night, the giant Swedish retailer Ikea had sold out of instruction manuals on how to build border walls.

Gunnar Hokmark, a Swedish member of the European Parliament, retweeted a post that said, “#lastnightinSweden my son dropped his hotdog in the campfire. So sad!”

The Swedish embassy in Washington had asked the U.S. State Department for clarification on just what Trump was referring to.
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Former Italian Premier Matteo Renzi has resigned as Democratic Party leader in a bid to win a fresh, stronger mandate before the national election in which populist political forces are positioned to pose the biggest challenge.

As promised, Renzi told fellow Democratic leaders at a meeting Sunday that he was resigning. But Renzi insisted he won’t submit to what he called the “blackmail” of a more left-leaning faction threatening a schism if he again seeks the top party post.

The national election, due in early 2018, might come earlier if Premier Paolo Gentiloni loses control of a frequently squabbling center-left parliamentary majority.

The populist, anti-euro 5-Star Movement aims to gain national power for the first time. It is Parliament’s second-biggest party, after the Democrats, who govern in a center-left coalition.

 
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Turkish officials say 26 people have been detained following a car bomb attack that killed two people in the southeast part of the country.

The car bomb exploded Friday near the lodgings of judges and prosecutors in the mainly Kurdish town of Viransehir in Sanliurfa province, bordering Syria. Footage from the scene showed a heavily damaged building and wrecked cars.

In a news conference at the town’s courthouse Saturday, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the explosion killed the 11-year-old son of a court clerk and a 27-year-old neighborhood guard.

Eleven people remained hospitalized, including the public prosecutor’s wife, the minister said. Two were in critical condition.

The governor’s office announced Saturday that the 26 people detained included the owner of the van, which was loaded with explosives and parked near the government housing.

Governor Gungor Azim Tuna told state-run Anadolu news agency that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, was responsible.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in Germany and expressed his condolences for the attack. “The vice president reiterated the United States’ commitment to Turkey as a strategic partner and NATO ally,” a White House statement said.

Turkey has been hit by a series of violent attacks since the summer of 2015, which were blamed on the Islamic State group or Kurdish militants. More than 550 people have been killed in these attacks.

The PKK has targeted security personnel and state buildings with car bombs since a cease-fire collapsed in 2015. Turkey and its Western allies consider the group a terrorist organization.

According to the nonprofit International Crisis Group, at least 2,571 people have been killed in armed clashes since, including civilians, state security force members, Kurdish militants and youth of unknown affiliations.
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Russia considers the second round of Syria peace talks, held this week in Kazakhstan, a success, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Saturday.

The director of the ministry’s Middle East and North Africa department, Sergey Vershinin, told Russian state media the talks in Astana were an important step toward resolving the Syrian crisis.

Three guarantor countries — Russia and Iran, which back the Syrian government, and Turkey, which backs some rebels opposed to it — organized the talks in Kazakhstan. In addition to the host country, others attending included representatives from Damascus and armed Syrian opposition groups, the United Nations and various observers, such as the United States and Jordan.

Delegations at the talks in the Kazakh capital were smaller and lower-level than they were during the first round of the Astana Process in January. They were unable to agree on a final statement, and there was still no direct dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition. Despite those factors, Russian officials gave an optimistic assessment of the results.

“I would say that it is going to take a long period of time to realize direct negotiations between the two sides of the Syrian conflict,” Russia’s delegation head, Alexander Lavrentiev, said. “… Little mutual trust exists between them. They have been accusing each other all the time. But I believe that we have to move … forward step by step, leaving no room for more conflicts.”

Tensions simmer

The talks began a day later than scheduled. The head of the Syrian government delegation, Bashar Jaafari, said the lack of agreement on a final statement was caused by the late arrivals of the Syrian opposition and Turkish delegations. Jaafari said those involved were irresponsible, and he accused them of aiming to disrupt discussions.

Syrian rebels said there was no final statement, considered a bare minimum for most such negotiations, because cease-fire conditions were not being met. Armed opposition groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad say the Damascus government and its supporters regularly violate the truce.

The head of Assad’s delegation repeated accusations that Turkey was supporting terrorism and called on Ankara to withdraw its troops from Syrian territory and close its border. Jaafari said Turkish forces were violating Syria’s sovereignty.

Turkish troops have been fighting two foes in Syria: extremists from the Islamic State group, which Turkey is attempting to push back from its border with Syria, and Kurdish militias that Ankara contends are controlled by alleged terrorists from the militant group YPG. Turkish commanders said Friday that they were close to expelling all IS fighters from Syria’s al-Bab town.

Jaafari complained that Turkey had downgraded its representatives in Astana to lower-level officials, but the Syrian rebels’ delegation also was diminished, with representatives of only nine armed groups present, down from 14 when the talks began in January.

And while U.N. officials took part in the meetings, the head of their group, U.N. special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, traveled instead to Moscow to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Astana supported

In the Russian capital, de Mistura said there was strong support for the Astana talks, “because we feel that focusing on the cessation of hostilities is the beginning of everything related to any negotiations on Syria. And … that helps — and is helping — the holding of the Geneva talks.”

Talks on Syria are expected to take place in Geneva on Thursday, after bilateral discussions beginning on Monday.

However, the head of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Oriental Studies, Vasily Kuznetsov, said he was much less optimistic about what could be achieved when the talks shift to Switzerland.

“While you discuss the problem on the ground, the military problems, you can have some progress,” Kuznetsov said. “But … when you discuss the political process … [in Geneva], the constitution, the government and the election, yes, in this situation of total mistrust between every actor, I don’t understand how they can have any progress in these discussions.”

A third round of talks is expected to convene in Astana within a month.

A political scientist from the Russian Higher School of Economics, Leonid Isayev, said, “It’s much more comfortable for the Syrian regime to find solutions in this [Astana] format,” because the number of participants will much lower than in Geneva.

Trilateral cease-fire mechanism

Despite the bumps in the Astana talks, Russia, Turkey and Iran hashed out some details of a trilateral mechanism for Syria designed to help solidify a cease-fire agreed to in late December.

The cease-fire, which excludes designated terrorist groups such as Islamic State, has been violated sporadically, but the truce has largely held.

If the political talks in Geneva break down, however, Isayev said the cease-fire could unravel quickly, “especially in the central and southern parts of Syria.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry posted a statement late Friday noting that while the joint group for a Syrian cease-fire was formed to investigate and prevent violations, it would also facilitate humanitarian access and free movement by civilians, and try to organize exchanges of prisoners and wounded fighters, with the help of U.N. experts.

The six-year Syrian conflict has killed over 300,000 people and displaced millions, many of them fleeing to Jordan and Turkey and on to Western Europe. Damascus was losing ground to the rebels until Russia entered the conflict a year ago and turned the tide in the government’s favor.
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In his first major foreign policy speech, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has said at the Munich Security Conference that America will be ‘unwavering’ in its support for the NATO alliance – but warned allies that they must step up defense spending. Amid controversy over the Trump administration’s ties to Moscow, Mr. Pence said the US would continue to hold Russia accountable. Henry Ridgwell reports from Munich.
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Pope Francis, who was reunited Friday with one of the Syrian refugees he brought home with him from Lesbos, Greece, said migrants don’t pose a danger to Europe’s culture but rather a challenge for societies to grow.

Francis made the comments during a visit to the Roma Tre University, one of the main public universities in the Italian capital. There, he met with Nour Essa, who along with her husband and child flew back to Rome with the pope after his April 16, 2016, trip to Lesbos.

Since then, Essa has won a government scholarship to finish her biology studies at Roma Tre and has become something of an activist for refugee rights in her new country.

During a question-and-answer session in a courtyard at the university, Essa asked Francis about fears expressed by many Europeans that Syrians and Iraqi migrants threaten Europe’s Christian culture.

Francis responded by noting that his native Argentina is a country of immigrants, and that ending wars and poverty would trim migration flows.

“Migration isn’t a danger, it’s a challenge to grow,” he said, adding that European countries must not only welcome migrants but integrate them into society.

“They bring to us a culture, a culture that is rich for us. And also they have to receive our culture and there has to be an exchange of cultures,” he said. “Respect. And this removes fear.”

Essa and her family fled to Lesbos from Syria and lived in a refugee camp for a month until Francis visited. After meeting with refugees, Francis flew back to Rome with three Syrian families, all of them Muslim, in a tangible sign of solidarity.

“Our lives changed in a day thanks to you,” Essa told Francis on Friday.

The Sant’Egidio community, a Catholic charity, took responsibility for settling the dozen refugees, getting the children enrolled in school and finding housing, jobs and language classes for the parents.

Essa recently was on hand at Rome’s airport to welcome a group of 41 Syrian refugees brought to Italy by a joint program of Sant’Egidio and a Protestant church that organizes “humanitarian corridors” for migrants to legally migrate to Europe. There, Essa told reporters that refugees aren’t terrorists. “We are refugees fleeing from war,” she said.

During Friday’s event, Essa and Francis chatted warmly with one another. She smiled when Francis recalled that in Lesbos the refugee families — already aboard his plane for the trip to Rome — didn’t want to come back down the stairs to the tarmac to bid a formal farewell to Greek authorities who had accompanied Francis to his aircraft.

“They didn’t want to get off,” Francis said. “They were afraid they’d have to stay.”
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Spain’s Princess Cristina was found not guilty in a tax fraud case Friday, while her husband was convicted and sentenced to more than six years in prison.

A panel of judges ruled that Cristina, the sister of King Felipe VI, will be required to pay nearly 265,000 euros (more than $280,000) in fines because the court considers that she indirectly benefited from the fraud.

Her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, was found guilty of evading taxes, fraud and various other charges. He was sentenced to six years and three months in prison in a decision that can be appealed to the Supreme Court.

The trial centered on accusations that Urdangarin used his former title, Duke of Palma, to embezzle about 6 million euros ($6.6 million) in public funds for the nonprofit Noos Institute.

The institute organized conferences and sports-related events and was run with a partner, Diego Torres, who was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in jail in Friday’s ruling by a provincial court in Palma de Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands.

Among the companies they used was Aizoon, a real estate consulting company jointly owned by Cristina and Urdangarin.

A lawyer with Cristina’s defense team, Miquel Roca, said that the princess was “satisfied for the acknowledgement of her innocence” but that she was still convinced that her husband wasn’t guilty.

“If we believed in the judicial system when the princess was made to sit in the dock, I think citizens can trust in it when she’s absolved,” Roca told reporters in Barcelona.

A spokesman for the Royal House told Spanish media that the royal family respected the court’s decision.

There was no immediate comment from Felipe and Queen Letizia, who received news of the ruling during a visit to a museum in Madrid with the Hungarian president.
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