Financial Times Europe - 21.02.2020

4 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Friday21 February 2020

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

A RT H U R B E E S L E Y — DUBLIN

Ireland’s traditional ruling parties are

edgingtowards oalitiontalksafterrul-c

ing out a deal with Sinn Féin national-

ists over economic policies that they

say will damage foreign investment

fromthelikesofAppleandGoogle.

The Dáil, the national assembly, sat yes-

terday for the first time since Sinn Féin

won the popular votein the February 8

election. The party took 37 seats — only

one less than the centrist opposition

Fianna Fáil and two more than the

centre-right Fine Gael led by outgoing

premier Leo Varadkar.

All sides sayweeks of politicking are

in prospect before any agreement on a

coalition. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael,

which have dominated Irish politics for

a century but which have never ruled

together, have started to lay the ground-

work for coalition talks with Greens and

Independents.

They oppose Sinn Féin’s manifesto,

which would increase business taxation

in an economy heavily dependent on

multinational investment.

“The major objection that we have to

Sinn Féin’s economic plan is that they

don’t seem to realise that Ireland is a

very open trading economy and that

changes to our tax system, particularly

around multinational corporations,

would have an immediate impact on the

attractiveness of Ireland as a place for

international investment,” Michael

McGrath, Fianna Fáil’s finance spokes-

man, told the Financial Times.

Investment from big employers such

as Intel, Facebook, Microsoft, Dell and

Oracle has helped to transform Ireland’s

expanding economy, with data this

week showing employment last year

rose 80,000 to a record 2.36m.

About 245,000 people work for inter-

national groups backed by IDA Ireland,

the state inward investment agency, and

an estimated 200,000 work for ancil-

lary companies.

Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have

stood aside in the opening phase of post-

election wrangling as Mary Lou McDon-

ald, Sinn Féin’s leader, seeks to form a

leftist government ith smaller partiesw

and independents. But she lacks num-

bers for a majority in the 160-seat par-

liament, prompting people in Fianna

Fáil and Fine Gael to say that the two

parties will have no option but to seek a

coalition whenever Sinn Féin talks stop.

Eoin O’Malley, associate professor of

politics at Dublin City University, said:

“Lots of people in the political system

commonly think that Sinn Féin in gov-

ernment would be bad for Ireland’s

image as a welcome place for foreign

direct investment.”

Sinn Féinhas vowed to maintain Ire-

land’s low 12.5 per cent corporation rate,

butofficials and business people said

the party’s surge had stirred nervous-

nessbecause of other taxation measures

it has proposed.

Sinn Féin wants to stop Ireland’s

appeal in a European court against a rul-

ing on state aid by the EU commission

that Apple should return €14.3bn in

back taxes and interest to Dublin after

finding that its tax scheme was illegal.

Ireland has always rejected the commis-

sion’s ruling that it gave Apple a sweet-

heart tax deal.

The party wants to raise €722m from

international business by taxing intel-

lectual property assets moved to Ireland

between 2015 and 2018. It also wants to

increase tax on domestic banks and real

estate investment trusts.

A senior Irish official said: “That is not

something the international business

community would be necessarily used

to in Ireland. There are unknowns there,

and business doesn’t like unknowns.”

While noting that the wider economic

model was not under discussion, the

official said “some of the measures that

help us do our business do seem to be up

for discussion and that has not hap-

pened before” in the wake of an election.

Mr Varadkar has sought to reassure

business. He told a Financial Times con-

ference in Dublin after the election:

“The political centre in Ireland has been

shaken. It’s diminished but it has held.”

Coalition plans

Sinn Féin’s Irish rivals warn over tax risk to tech investment

Mary Lou McDonald, centre, has

tried to form a leftwing government

H E L E N WA R R E L L — LONDON
M A X S E D D O N — MOSCOW
K AT R I N A M A N S O N —WASHINGTON

Russia has been accused by Georgia’s
government and western allies of a
series of cyber attacks last year on the
country’s infrastructure.
The attacks in October took out a
range of Georgian web providers and
targeted 15,000 websites belonging to
the country’s government, courts,
media, banks and businesses. They also
interrupted transmission by two
national broadcasters.

The UK and US saidyesterday that

they believed the attacks were perpe-

trated by the Sandworm team, a unit

operated by Russia’s military intelli-

gence service, or GRU, as part of a grow-

ing destabilisation campaign against

Russia’s former Soviet neighbour.

This unit, also known as BlackEnergy,

TeleBots and Voodoo Bear, was respon-

sible for the 2017 NotPetya attack on

Ukraine, which cost $10bn in infra-

structure damage as it spread world-

wide. Cyber security companies have

also accused Sandworm of attacks on

the US and French elections and the

2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

The Georgian government said the

attack had “intended to harm Georgian

citizens and government structures by

disrupting and paralysing the function-

ality of various organisations”. “Georgia

condemns this cyber attack, which goes

against international norms and princi-

ples, once again infringing Georgia’s sov-

ereignty in order to hinder the country’s

European and Euro-Atlantic integra-

tion and democratic development,”it

added.

Moscow denied involvement in the

attacks. “Russia has nothing to do with

this. We have not interfered anywhere

and are not planning to do so,” deputy

foreign minister Andrei Rudenko told

Interfax.

UK intelligence officials worked with

Georgia in confirming their belief that

the GRU and Sandworm were the perpe-

trators of the October attack. The public

attribution is intended as a deterrent to

prevent Georgia from becoming a new

front in Russia’s cyber activities.

Britain’s National Cyber Security Cen-

tre, a branch of signals intelligence

agency GCHQ, has assessed that there is

a 95 per cent likelihood that the GRU

was behind the Georgia attack.

Dominic Raab, UK foreign secretary,

said the GRU’s “reckless and brazen”

campaign of cyber attacks against Geor-

gia was “totally unacceptable”.

“The Russian government has a clear

choice: continue this aggressive pattern

of behaviour against other countries, or

become a responsible partner which

respects international law,” Mr Raab

said.Mike Pompeo, US secretary of

state, said the attack contradicted Rus-

sia’s claims to be a responsible actor in

cyber space and “demonstrates a con-

tinuing pattern of reckless Russian GRU

cyber operations”.

“These operations aim to sow divi-

sion, create insecurity and undermine

democratic institutions,” he said. Intelli-

gence officials elieve Sandworm wasb

also responsible for cyber attacks in

Ukraine between 2015 and 2017, includ-

ingdisruption to the electricity gridand

a ransomware attack in October 2017

that targeted Kyiv’s metro and Odessa’s

airport.

During the Georgia attack in October,

websites’content was replaced with a

photo of ex-Georgian president Mikheil

Saakashvili flashing a thumbs-upunder

the slogan “I’ll be back!”.

Online security

Russia accused of Georgia cyber attack

Military unit believed to

be behind disruption of

thousands of websites

M O N AVA R K H A L A J — ISFAHAN

It makes little difference what promises
parliamentary candidates make to 34-
year-old cab driver Mehdi. Badly beaten
in the protests that convulsed Iran late
last year amid anger at rising fuel prices,
he has lost what little faith he had in the
Islamic republic or its elected MPs to
improve the lives of citizens.
“Ordinary people like me are so disil-
lusioned... that I think whoever is
elected will eventually raise up their
hands in surrender against the eco-
nomic and political decisions of the sys-
tem,” said Mehdi, a driver forSnapp, the
Iranian version of Uber, in the ancient
city of Isfahan ahead of parliamentary
pollstoday.
Famous for its Islamic architecture,
the central Iran city — so beautiful that
Iranians describe it as “half the world”
— bears signs of both the November pro-
tests, in which activists allege 20 died in
Isfahan alone, and the polls that reform-
ists fear will lead to the creation of a rad-
ical new assembly.
In between the burnt-out banks,
Mehdi reads out slogans from campaign
posters as he drives past: “The pain
must be talked about, voices must be
heard”; “Economic boom with clean-
handed [candidates]”; “Collective gen-
ius, revolutionary belief”.
These “slogans may fool confused vot-
ers but not those like me who have made
up their minds”, said Mehdi, who said he
would not be voting, adding that MPs
did little to stand up for protesters or
help ordinary people.
Four out of five of Isfahan’s parlia-
mentary seats are held by reformists but
intoday’s election, it has only one
reformist candidate — Nahid Tajeddin,
a sitting MP. With hardliners eager to
use the parliamentary polls to shape a
radical new assembly ahead of next
year’s presidential election, Iran’s
Guardian Council, the constitutional
watchdog that vets prospective candi-
dates, has disqualified hundreds of
reformist candidates, including a quar-
ter of sitting MPs. A landslide victory for
hardliners s seen as inevitable.i
This mass disqualification has fed dis-

his shop, the banks set alight in Novem-

ber’s protests are visible. “I took part in

demonstrations that led to the victory of

the Islamic revolution [in 1979]. We

should stand up for our flag , our

upheaval and the Islamic republic,” he

said, adding that Iranians should toler-

ate hardship and not kneel down before

US president Donald Trump.

However, hardliner dominance of

parliament could backfire, warned Beh-

zad Haghpanah, a reform-minded polit-

ical analyst. “People will gradually lose

hope that they can make changes within

the framework of the Islamic republic,”

he said. “Hence, more protests and

unrest could be expected in the streets

in the future.”

Driving around Isfahan in search of

fares, Mehdi added: “There is no differ-

ence between candidates, either a

reformist or a hardliner, any more. They

will not speak up for us.”

TO B I A S B U C K A N D G U Y C H A Z A N

BERLIN

German authorities saidthe gunman

suspectedofshootingdead10peoplein

Hanau, near Frankfurt, on Wednesday

nightwasafar-rightextremist.

The federal prosecution service took

charge of the investigation yesterday,

underlining the suspected terrorist

nature of the crimes that heightened

concernabout the rise of far-right vio-

lence in Germany.Officials confirmed

that nine of the dead were from immi-

grant communities.

German media reported that the

likely killer, found dead at his home,

was Tobias R, a 43-year-old German

who lefta letter claiming responsibility

for the attacks. On his personal website,

the suspect had ublishedp ocumentsd

and a video that made plain his racist

ideology and murderous fantasies.

Angela Merkel, German chancellor,

said: “The background to these terrible

murders will be investigated down to

the last detail. But there is a lot of evi-

dence that suggests the perpetrator

acted out of far-right extremist and rac-

ist motives, out of hatred for people with

a different background, a different reli-

gion and different looks.”

The killings follow adeadly attack no

a synagogue in Halle last year, in which a

far-rightgunman sought to gun down

worshippers on Yom Kippur, the Jewish

day of atonement. He failed to break

down the door, and killed two bystand-

ers instead.

A German neo-Nazi was also arrested

last year for the murder of a prominent

politician in Kassel, whose stancein the

recent refugee crisis had made him the

enemy of nationalist groups. The man

later confessed to being the killer.

Wednesday’s shootings in Hanau ini-

tially claimed the lives of nine people in

two locations. Policelater found another

two bodies in a flat in the same city,

identified as the suspect and his 72-

year-old mother.

In a 24-page manifesto seen by the

Financial Times, the suspect called for

the elimination of entirepopulations of

countries, including Morocco, Egypt,

Israel, Turkey, Iran, India, Pakistan,

Vietnam and the Philippines.

“This would only be the rough cleans-

ing. It would be followed by the fine

cleansing,” the document states. “I

would eliminate all these people, even if

we are speaking about billions of people.

It has to be done.”

The Hanau victims were shot dead at

two locations in the city, first in the Mid-

night shisha bar in the city centre nda

later at the ArenaBar andCafe a few

miles west.

Analysts said the Hanau killings

wouldincrease the pressure on Ger-

many’s Verfassungsschutz , the domestic

intelligence service, which has been

criticised repeatedly in recent years for

failing to crack down on rightwing

extremism and neo-Nazi groups.

“The Verfassungsschutz has already

lost a huge amount of trust,” said Robert

Lüdecke, of the Amadeu Antonio

Foundation, which monitors far-right

activities.

“We are very far from a situation

where networks within the rightwing

extremist scene are effectively moni-

tored and broken up.”

Terror suspect

German

gunman

was far-right

extremist, say

investigators

Parliamentary election. sfahanI

Iranian calls for reform expected to go unheard

Hardliners’ victory viewed as

inevitable after many seeking

change barred from standing

asm for their candidates.“It is difficult

to make a person who cannot afford

a piece of bread for his family’s dinner

to go to the poll, let alone vote for

our favourite candidate,” said one

volunteer.

Hassan Kamran, a six-time member

of the parliament for Isfahan who is

close to hardliners, acknowledged that

people were disheartened. ButMr Kam-

ran, who is running as an independent

candidate, believes that despite “com-

plaining”, Iranians have always shown

their support for the Islamic republic at

the ballot box.

Iran’s enemies might dream of over-

throwing the regime, he said, but the

public outpouring of grief for military

commander Qassem Soleimani,killed

in a US drone strike n January, showedi

that the system was stable.

Asghar, 65, sells aquariums and tropi-

cal fish in Imam Khomeini Street. Near

illusionment in Isfahan, even as Ms

Tajeddinhas sought to rally the reform-

ist vote. A meeting last weekend drew

only two dozen attendees. A member of

her campaign team sought to persuade

people that a vote for her was important

to prevent hardliners monopolising par-

liament. Hossein, an active campaigner

for reformist candidates over the past

two decades, is less convinced.

“The Islamic republic will not reform

itself any more. It has to be forced to

accept political changes through civil

disobedience,” Hossein said, refusing

even to set foot in the campaign head-

quarters of Ms Tajeddin for whom he

had enthusiastically campaigned in the

2016 parliamentary polls. “The first

step starts with an election boycott.”

With voters complaining about

unemployment, water shortages and

declining purchasing power, hardliners

are also struggling to muster enthusi-

In a jam:

protesters

block a road in

Isfahan during a

demonstration

against an

increase in

petrol prices

in November

AFP/Getty

‘Whoever is

elected will

eventually

raise up

their

hands in

surrender

against the

economic

and

political

decisions of

the system’

L E I L A A B B O U D A N D M U R A D A H M E D
LONDON
SA M J O N E S — ZURICH

Swiss prosecutors have charged the
president ofParis Saint-Germain oot-f
ball club,Nasser al-Khelaifi, in connec-
tion with a bribery scheme aimed at
securing television broadcast rights for
the World Cup and other international
competitionsbetween2018and2030.

Mr Khelaifi allegedly acted in his capac-
ity as chairman ofbeIN Sports, a TV
channel backed by Qatar, which wanted
the TV rights to fuel its international
expansion. The push was a key tool for
Qatar to build its profile and influence
as it fought to win the right to host the
2022 World Cup.
The prosecutors allege that Mr
Khelaifi and an unnamed businessman
took steps to influence Jérôme Valcke,
who was then secretary-general ofFifa,
international football’s governing body,
including by financing the purchase of a
villa in Sardinia for him and giving him
cash payments totalling €1.25m. The

indictment forms part of a five-year

probe into Fifa’s business by Swiss pros-

ecutors, linked to a corruption scandal.

Mr Khelaifi and the unnamed busi-

nessman allegedly reimbursed Mr Val-

cke for his €500,000 downpayment on

the villa. After Mr Khelaifi bought the

property they allowedMr Valcke to use

it for 18 months without paying rent.

Mr Valcke was charged with “aggra-

vated criminal mismanagement”,

according to a statement from the pros-

ecutorsyesterday. The PSG president

was charged with inciting Mr Valcke to

commit aggravated criminal misman-

agement, as was the third unnamed per-

son, who also faces bribery charges.

Mr Valcke could not be reached for

comment. He has previously denied

wrongdoing. Mr Khelaifi noted that all

bribery charges related to broadcast

rights for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups

had been dropped.He said the remain-

ing charge was “a secondary technical”

one, and again denied wrongdoing.

Representatives for PSG and Fifa did

not immediatelycomment.

Football investigation

Paris Saint-Germain chief

charged in bribery probe

FEBRUARY 21 2020 Section:World Time: 20/2/2020- 18:01 User:john.conlon Page Name:WORLD3 USA, Part,Page,Edition:USA, 4, 1