Schedium

"A Nation, Catalan Countries! A Language, Catalan!" - Mural in Vilassar de Mar, El Maresme, Catalonia (by  1997  / Wikimedia Commons) "They have been beaten for trying to hold a referendum, their parliament has been dissolved and their leaders have either fled or been put in prison, but the Catalan independence supporters are not relenting," wrote  The Independent  on December 8 about  Catalan separatists . The Catalan independence movement has been portrayed by many international media outlets as a fight for freedom, while the intervention of the Spanish state to block the October 1st independence referendum is regarded as oppressive and undemocratic.  International media often offer a platform for Catalan separatists to explain their cause from their own perspective. For instance on December 3  Politico Europe  published an op-ed by Oriol Junqueras, the leader of the Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC) and for

They steal from us €60 million a day, independence=necessary"; pro-independence march in July 2010 (by  JuanmaRamos-Avui-El Punt  via Wikimedia Commons) Catalan separatism is not a coherent movement that unites the entire population of the region. Not only are Catalan voters split on the issue of independence, with about half of them supporting the preservation of autonomy within Spain. But the Catalan independence movement itself is deeply divided. On the one hand, secessionism is fuelled by a nationalist ideology that views the nation as a community with a distinct language, history and culture which requires an independent state to thrive. According to this view, people who are different cannot coexist within the same state. We have already discussed the contradictions of this concept of  self-determination  in a previous article. However, there is also another element to the independence movement that has not been often explored: a far-left ideology that

Mi capita a volte di avere dibattiti sui valori di sinistra con persone di diversi colori politici. Spesso, però, mi sembra che ci sia confusione sul loro significato. Ho dunque deciso di spiegare brevemente quali siano, secondo me, i valori di sinistra, e di delineare alcune politiche economiche per metterli in pratica. 1) democrazia parlamentare, diritti umani, separazione dei poteri, Stato di diritto; 2) progresso economico e sociale a beneficio della maggioranza dei cittadini, e non solo di una minoranza; 3) difesa del lavoro e della dignità dei lavoratori; 4) Stato sociale; 5) economia di mercato mista; 6) commercio equo. Quali politiche secondo me dovrebbe sostenere la sinistra? 1) difesa dei diritti e del potere contrattuale dei lavoratori; 2) salario minimo; 3) mantenimento e, dove necessario, miglioramento del reddito di cittadinanza; 4) creazione di un sistema di gare pubbliche per imprenditori, e selezione tramite voto popolare di aziende da sovve

On May 4 Sawsan Chebli , a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Berlin State Secretary, posted a tweet that was later deleted by Twitter for allegedly violating the platform's new rules regarding election manipulation. "My father's name was Mohammed. My name is Sawsan Mohammed Chebli. My oldest nephew's name is Mohammed. My niece gave her son her grandfather's name. Shortly: We will make sure that this name never disappears!" wrote Chebli on her Twitter profile.  #Servicetweet für die #AfD : Mein Vater hieß Mohammed. Ich heiße Sawsan Mohammed Chebli. Mein ältester Neffe heißt Mohammed. Meine Nichte hat ihrem Sohn den Namen ihres Opas gegeben. Kurzum: Wir werden schon dafür sorgen, dass dieser Name nie verschwindet! pic.twitter.com/HPkVwkJIWH — Sawsan Chebli (@SawsanChebli) May 4, 2019 Her tweet was expressly directed at the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD). The AfD has called asylum and immigrat

A court in the German city of Duesseldorf has ruled that the license identifier "HH 1933" may be revoked by the Road Traffic Licensing Department (RTLD).  According to Der Spiegel , the motor vehicle licensing authority of the district of Viersen had authorized a requested personalized registration plate featuring the ID "HH 1933." After a citizen issued a complaint, however, the license plate was revoked. The driver appealed the decision in court.     "HH 1933" is thought to be a reference to the Nazi salute "Heil Hitler" (HH) and to the year 1933, when the Nazis seized power.  On May 2 a court in Duesseldorf ruled that the RTLD may revoke the licence plate.     The court ruled against the Department's initial request that the driver replace the licensing plate. The court found that the Department only has the authority to prohibit the vehicle from being driven on public roads, but not to order a replacement of the lic

Kremlin, Moscow (by Минеева Ю. [Julmin] , retouched by Surendil via Wikimedia Commons)) In his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election Special Counsel Robert Mueller described how Russia's Internet Research Agency (IRA) spread propaganda and disinformation and manipulated American public opinion through the use of social media. "The IRA conducted social media operations targeted at large U.S. audiences with the goal of sowing discord in the U.S. political system," the document stated. These operations are described by the report as "active measures," a term that refers to the Russian intelligence's methods of propaganda and subversion directed at foreign governments. Originally, the phrase was used in the context of the Soviet Union's secret service, the KGB, but its practice has continued after the fall of the Soviet Union and has once again become a central part of Moscow's strategy. Oleg Kalugin , a f