Europe at a glance NEWS 7
28 May 2022 THE WEEKHanover, Germany
Schröder’s disgrace: The former chancellor
of Germany, Gerhard Schröder, finally
stepped down as board chairman of the
state-owned Russian oil giant Rosneft
last week. The 78-year-old’s close ties to
the Kremlin have long been a source of
controversy, and his refusal to cut them
following the invasion of Ukraine had
caused widespread anger. A day before he
announced his resignation, the Bundestag
had voted to strip him of his post-
chancellorship privileges, including his
taxpayer-funded office, and the European
Parliament had called for sanctions to be
imposed on him. A Social Democrat who
served as German chancellor from 1998
to 2005, Schröder began working for the
Russian gas firm Nord Stream within days
of leaving office. He later accepted jobs
with other Russian firms, including
Gazprom and Rosneft, and is widely
reported to have developed a close
friendship with Vladimir Putin.
Helsinki
Gas cut off: Russia has suspended its
supply of gas to Finland, in response to
Helsinki’s refusal to pay the state-owned
firm Gazprom in roubles. Finland had also
angered Moscow by applying for Nato
membership. In March, the Kremlin
started demanding payments in roubles
from “unfriendly” states in an effort to
mitigate the impact of Western financial
sanctions. Bulgaria and Poland refused to
comply and had their supplies cut off last
month. For Finland, the disruption is
unlikely to be catastrophic. The country
gets most of its gas from Russia, but gas
accounts for only 6% of its total energy
consumption. Last week, Helsinki said that
it had started making plans to increase its
imports of liquefied natural gas.Paris
Woke wars: President Macron has
surprised commentators – and infuriated
the French far-right – by appointing a
black left-wing historian, Pap Ndiaye, as
his new education minister. In Macron’s
previous government, the minister in that
role, Jean-Michel Blanquer, was a right-
winger known for his vocal opposition
to US-inspired race and gender theories,
known in France as “le wokisme”. By
contrast, Ndiaye – whose father was
Senegalese – is an authority on colonialism
and the history of race relations in France
and in the US, and is regarded by right-
wingers as a chief proponent of “le
wokisme”. Marine Le Pen, the defeated
far-right presidential candidate, described
his appointment as “the last step in the
deconstruction of our country, its values
and its future”. Ndiaye himself recently
referred to the concept of “wokeism” as
a “scarecrow rather than a social or
ideological reality”.
Madrid
Heatwave: Spain was in the grip of an
unseasonal heatwave this week, with
temperatures in some parts exceeding 40°C
- up to 15°C higher than the norm for this
time of year. The state meteorological
agency, Aemet, described it as a heatwave
of “extraordinary intensity”; cities that set
new temperature records for May include
Jaén, in Andalucía, which hit 40.3°C –
almost 2°C above the previous May
record. Spain recorded its highest
temperature ever last summer (47.4°C),
and a recent study by the agency found
that 30°C temperatures across the country
were being recorded 20 to 40 days earlier
than they were 70 years ago. “The summer
is eating up the spring,” said Rubén del
Campo, an Aemet spokesman. France has
also seen exceptionally high temperatures,
with many towns in the south equalling or
exceeding their previous record highs for
May of between 33°C and 34°C.
Budapest
Republicans
abroad: Right-
wing Americans
hosted a
conference in
Budapest last
week, where
Hungary’s
nationalist PM
Viktor Orbán
urged
conservatives to
“reconquer” the media to win power.
Orbán also cited 2024 – when Donald
Trump is expected to seek re-election – as
a “decisive” moment in the battle against
liberalism. In turn, Orbán was praised by
Trump in a virtual address as “a great
leader”. Other speakers at the Conservative
Political Action Conference included Zsolt
Bayer, a Hungarian TV host known for
his racist and anti-Semitic remarks,
and Nigel Farage.Catch up with daily news at theweek.co.uk
Severodonetsk, Ukraine
Besieged city: Intense fighting was ongoing in Ukraine’s
eastern Donbas this week, where Russian ground forces
were waging a fierce battle to seize control of the key
industrial city of Severodonetsk, and the towns and villages
to its west. The governor of Severodonetsk accused Russia
of adopting a “scorched-earth” policy, and warned that it
was too late to evacuate the thousands of civilians who
are trapped in the besieged city, large swathes of which
have been reduced to rubble by Russian artillery fire.
Severodonetsk, which was home to 100,000 people before
the invasion, is the last Ukrainian-held city in the Luhansk region, and its capture
would be seen as a major victory for Russia.
This week, a court in Kyiv found a captured Russian soldier guilty of war crimes
and sentenced him to life in prison. Vadim Shishimarin (above), a 21-year-old sergeant
who was commanding a tank division, shot dead a 62-year-old civilian, Oleksandr
Shelipov, in the Sumy region in the early days of the invasion. The first Russian to face
war crimes charges, he expressed remorse for the killing, and apologised to his victim’s
widow. She said she felt sorry for him, but that she could not forgive him. Separately,
a career diplomat posted to Russia’s mission to the UN resigned in protest at Russia’s
“aggressive war”. Boris Bondarev said he was “ashamed” of his country.