Europe at a glance NEWS 7
7 May 2022 THE WEEKAmsterdam
Sexual assault:
A famous Dutch
football pundit
has had to resign
from his TV show
in the wake of the
furore created by
his admission that
he’d once sexually
assaulted an
unconscious
woman. To the
amusement of fellow panellists on his talk
show, Johan Derksen, 73, a former
footballer, had jokily recalled how, 50
years ago, he had penetrated a drunken
woman with a candle. The ensuing outcry
- and announcement by prosecutors that
they’d investigate – led him to backtrack
and say he only placed the candle close to
the woman’s legs. But he has refused to
apologise for telling the story, saying only
that he’d delivered it “in the wrong tone”.
St Petersburg, Russia
“I’m not gay”: Vitaly Milonov, the
notoriously homophobic MP who drafted
Russia’s “anti-gay law”, has become the
presenter of a bizarre online reality show
in which contestants have to guess which
of their fellow competitors is homosexual.
“I hope you will quickly figure out the
gay,” Milonov, making a throat-slitting
gesture, told contestants in the first episode
of I’m Not Gay. Homo sexuality is not
illegal in Russia, but human rights activists
say that the law framed by Milonov in
2013, which bans distribution to minors
of “propaganda of non -traditional sexual
relationships”, legitimises discrimination.
Last week, a St Petersburg court ruled in
favour of the Kremlin in shutting down
Russia’s largest LGBT rights organisation.Madrid
PM’s phone hacked: Spanish officials have
rev ealed that the mobile phone of Prime
Minister Pedro Sánchez has been infected
with Pegasus, an Israeli-made hacking tool
for snooping on phone communications.
The firm behind Pegasus, Israel’s NSO
Group, insists it is only meant for use by
authorised governments to fight terrorism
and crime, but there has been much alarm
across Europe that it’s being used for
political espionage: last year, Emmanuel
Macron changed his phone number fearing
he’d been targeted using Pegasus; Sánchez’s
own government has been accused of using
it on members of Catalan’s independence
movement. This, however, is the first
confirmed case of the head of a Nato state
falling victim to the malicious software.
Sánchez’s phone and that of his defence
minister, Margarita Robles, were targeted
last May. It’s not clear where the attacks
originated: the details have been passed to
Spain’s national court for investigation.
Mariupol, Ukraine
Millions “taken to Russia”: The number
of Ukrainian civilians taken to Russia since
the start of the war now stands at more
than one million, according to Russian
foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. His
comments, made last week, represent the
first official Russian estimate for the mass
transfer of people from Russian-occupied
cities such as Mariupol. Lavrov said those
affected have been “evacuated” for their
own safety, and were being “offered
medical and psychological help” at more
than 9,500 temporary facilities set up
across Russia. Ukraine’s government has
been warning for weeks that its citizens are
being forcibly deported to far- flung parts
of Russia, or interrogated in so -called
“filtration camps” in conditions that
amount to torture. Ukraine’s envoy to the
UN described this as “kidnapping”, and
likened the tactics to those dep loyed by the
Nazis during the Second World War.Berlin
“Sulky sausage”: Ukraine’s ambassador to
Berlin, Andrij Melnyk, has torn a strip off
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, calling
him “not very statesmanlike” and a “sulky
liver sausage” – a German idiom meaning
someone who gets offended easily. The
insults stem from Scholz’s refusal to visit
Kyiv in person. Several European leaders
have visited Ukraine as a show of solidarity
since the start of the war, and the main
German opposition leader, the CDU’s
Friedrich Merz, did so this week. However,
Scholz has declined, citing the snub
Ukraine deliv ered to Germany’s ceremonial
head of state, President Frank -Walter
Steinmeier. Steinmeier, who served two
stints as Angela Merkel’s foreign minister,
has been a champion of Germany’s close
ties with Moscow, and for that reason Kyiv
turned down a mooted visit by him last
month. Scholz himself has been much
criticised for his faltering response
to the Ukraine crisis.Catch up with daily news at theweek.co.uk
Paris
Macron in listening mode: Tens of thousands of
people joined May Day marches across France
on Sunday, to protest the plans for major pension
reforms advanced by the newly re-elected President
Macron. In Paris, there were clashes between riot
police and protesters; at least 54 people were
arrested and eight police officers injured. Similar
violent scenes occurred in the cities of Nantes and
Rennes. Macron has pledged to govern in a more
conciliatory style in his second term, but many analysts predict that the pensions issue
will prove a flashpoint. Macron wants to increase the standard retirement age from
62 to 65 – a plan bitterly opposed by left-wing opponents.
Since winning re-election a fortnight ago, a victory somewhat tarnished by the high
abstention rate (see page 15), Macron has made several campaign-style appearances,
aimed at showing that he’s in listening mode. He is also preparing for next month’s
parliamentary elections, at which both the far-right’s Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc
Mélenchon – the leftist backed by more than a fifth of voters in the presidential
election – have high hopes of a breakthrough. Mélenchon, 70, has made clear that he
wants to be France’s prime minister – in uneasy “cohabitation” with Macron – if his
emerging alliance of left-wing and Green parties wins next month’s vote.