Extrema-direita consegue vitória histórica na Áustria

Austria's far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) has opened the door to a new era, its leader Herbert Kickl has told supporters, as they celebrated an unprecedented election victory. Kickl's party won 28.9% of the vote according to official tallies - almost three points ahead of the conservative People's Party (ÖVP) on 26.3%, but far short of a majority.

Kickl's victory is only the latest in a string of far-right election successes in Europe and he praised voters for their "optimism, courage and trust" in delivering a "piece of history". The FPÖ has been in coalition before, but the second-placed ÖVP has refused to take part in a government led by Kickl.
Kickl's main rival, incumbent Chancellor Karl Nehammer of the ÖVP, has said it was “impossible to form a government with someone who adores conspiracy theories”.

There was a high turnout of 77.3% as Austrian voters took part in an election dominated by the twin issues of migration and asylum, as well as a flagging economy and the war in Ukraine. As half the map of Austria turned dark blue, FPÖ general secretary Michael Schnedlitz said "the men and women of Austria have made history today", although he refused to say what kind of coalition his party would try to build.

Postal votes were still being counted on Monday morning, but an analysis of voters suggested those aged 35-59 were most likely to back the far right, and marginally more women than men. Kickl's party has won 57 seats in the 183-seat parliament, with the conservatives on 51 and the Social Democrats on 41, according to government projections.

Most of the votes have now been counted, but the final result will not be officially declared until Thursday.The Freedom Party's fiery leader had promised Austrians to build "Fortress Austria", to restore their security, prosperity and peace.

The party wants firm rules on legal immigration and it has promoted the idea of remigration, which involves sending asylum seekers to their original countries. It also wants a bar on the right to asylum as a step towards citizenship.

Herbert Kickl has aligned himself closely with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his self-styled "illiberal democracy". On Sunday night, Social Democrat leader Andreas Babler warned that Austria must not follow the same path as Hungary.

Kickl had also spoken of becoming Volkskanzler (people's chancellor) which for some Austrians carries echoes of the term used to describe Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany. The FPÖ was founded by former Nazis in the 1950s. Two days before the vote some of its candidates were caught on video at a funeral where an SS song was sung.

As the party's victory became clear, a small group of protesters appeared outside parliament carrying anti-Nazi banners. One read "Nazis, get out of parliament", while another said, "Don't let Nazis govern, and never [let them] march".

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Paul Kirby
BBC News
Bethany Bell
BBC Vienna correspondent

French MPs pass controversial immigration reform

The French parliament has passed legislation toughening France's immigration policy. The amended bill was backed by both President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Renaissance party and Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN). The vote divided Mr Macron's party, and Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau resigned in protest.

Leaders of a third of French regions said they would not comply with certain measures in the law. A previous draft was rejected by parliament last week when the National Rally as well as the left voted against. In response, the government redrafted the bill, making some of its provisions tougher.

The new legislation makes it more difficult for migrants to bring family members to France and delays their access to welfare benefits. It also bans detaining minors in detention centres. A controversial provision discriminates between citizens and migrants, even those living in the country legally, in determining eligibility for benefits. The tougher version appealed to right-wing parties, who backed it on Monday. Ms Le Pen welcomed the amended bill, calling it an "ideological victory" for the far-right.

"This is our bill," said Eric Ciotti, the leader of the right-wing Republican party. He called it "firm and courageous". But left-wingers said Mr Macron was enabling the far-right. "History will remember those who betrayed their convictions," Socialist party leader Olivier Faure said. 32 of France's 101 departments, including Paris, said they would refuse to implement the provisions of the law on benefits for non-citizens.

The French vote came hours before an EU agreement to reform the asylum system across the bloc's 27 member states. The new pact, agreed by EU governments and European Parliament members, includes creating border detention centres and enabling the quicker deportation of rejected asylum seekers. Hailed as a landmark agreement by Parliament President Roberta Metsola, the new system allows asylum seekers to be relocated from southern member states, which have the highest numbers of arrivals, to other countries.
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20 December 2023
Ido Vock
BBC News

Murder of Paris student fuels anger at failed deportation

The suspected killer was arrested by police at Geneva train station. The murder of a 19 year-old female student in an exclusive neighbourhood of Paris is fuelling new calls from the French right for tougher action on immigration.
The body of the young woman, named only as Philippine, was found on Saturday, half-buried in the Bois de Boulogne park on the western edge of the capital.
She had last been seen on Friday lunchtime a few hundred metres away, as she left the Paris-Dauphine university campus where she was studying economics.
The suspected killer was traced to Geneva, where he was arrested on Tuesday and awaits deportation to France.

He is a 22 year-old Moroccan man who was released from detention in France earlier this month after serving five years for raping a student in 2019. Named by French media as Taha O, he was the subject of an expulsion order from France, which had not been carried out.
For France’s hardline new interior minister Bruno Retailleau, it is a first test after he took office last week promising that his top three priorities would be to “establish order, establish order and establish order.”
“It is up to us as public officials to … change our legal arsenal in order to protect the French,” he said on the X social media platform.

The far-right National Rally (RN) seized on the murder as more evidence of the laxity of the French judicial system. “This migrant had no right to be here, but he was able to offend again in total impunity. Our justice is too lenient; our state is dysfunctional. It is time for the government to act,” said the RN’s president, Jordan Bardella. With more than 120 members of parliament, the RN has leverage over the minority government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier because it can decide at any time to support a vote of no confidence and potentially bring it down.

Some left-wing politicians joined calls for greater effectiveness in carrying out expulsion orders.
The suspect “should have gone straight from prison to plane”, said Socialist party leader Olivier Faure.

Hugh Schofield
BBC News

 
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What Trump has promised to do on ‘day one’ as presidente

The Washington Post
By Derek Hawkins, Clara Ence Morse and Eric Lau
September 21, 2024

Donald Trump has a long list of executive actions he says he wants to carry out on his potential first day back in the White House. Among them: Begin mass deportations, eliminate perks for electric vehicles and ban transgender women from women’s sports.

Since launching his bid for a second term, Trump has made 41 distinct promises about what he says he wants to do “on day one” as president, and he has mentioned those promises more than 200 times on the campaign trail, according to a Washington Post analysis of his speeches.

While presidential candidates often trumpet their plans for their first day in the White House, Trump has leaned especially hard on this rhetorical device when he’s behind the teleprompters. His proposals often envision stretching the powers of the Oval Office beyond how previous presidents — including Trump himself — have invoked them.

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Project 2025: The Far-Right Playbook for American Authoritarianism

 

The far right has made public its plans for an ‘ideal’ America if one of their allies wins the 2024 presidential election in its 2025 Presidential Transition Project. Project 2025 is spearheaded by the far-right think tank Heritage Foundation and supported by more than 80 organizations, many well-known for their extreme positions, and for pushing hate and Christian nationalism. The authors and supporters of Project 2025 claim this plan will “rescue the country” from “elite rule and woke cultural warriors.”

Portugal, Tablighi Jamaat and its role in the Global Jihad

 

 

This SADF Policy Brief deals with Tablighi Jamaat (TJ), a transnational Islamic missionary movement. Despite declaring itself as officially apolitical and non-violent, TJ is cited by German and other European intelligence reports that underline (manifold) threats originating from the movement. An increasing number of assessments emphasise TJ’s function as a catalyst, gateway, springboard, or antechamber for an extreme and militant interpretation of Islam – indoctrinating Muslims into Jihadists. Experts point out that TJ ‘has appeared on the fringes of several terrorism investigations, leading some to state that its apolitical stance simply masks a “fertile ground for breeding terrorism”’.

In spite of this, up until this point, the majority of critical evaluations by international intelligence have not reached public discourse or political decision-making processes in the states where TJ holds a significant presence. Especially in Europe and the US, TJ remains largely unknown outside Muslim communities – and when known, actions and motives are misread. This lack of knowledge regarding the dissemination of an Islamic supremacist agenda facilitates TJ’s function as a driving force for Islamic extremism and as a major recruiting agency for the cause of Global Jihad – the movement bluntly threatens societies based on liberal and democratic norms. TJ has a relatively clandestine character, but reports point to TJ being extremely effective at spreading Islamic fundamentalism. In sum, TJ is seen as an essential component of a phenomenon which the French political-sociologist Bernard Rougier (2020) calls an ‘Islamist Ecosystem’. We believe this concept is most useful to understand the role that TJ plays in the Global Jihad.

(Continue) Published in 11 December 2020 by South Asia Democratic Forum

PS: A maioria dos imigrantes paquistaneses e indianos que residem em Portugal têm ligações aos Tablighi Jamaat, incluindo a Escola Islâmica de Palmela. O próprio filho de Abdul Karim Vakil, professor no King's College, alerta para o perigo dos Tablighi Jamaat, que já constituem a maioria da comunidade muçulmana portuguesa: O Grupo extremista Tabligh Jamaat "representa, por um lado, e incontestavelmente, a força de maior dinamização do Islão entre os muçulmanos em Portugal. Por outro, o seu rigoroso tradicionalismo, traduzido na prescrição do próprio vestuário, na estrita separação entre os sexos, numa atitude de distanciamento em relação à sociedade exterior, representa, como já referi, um factor de ruptura na tendência histórica para a integração na atitude dos muçulmanos em Portugal", afirma Abdool Karim Vakil (filho do ex-presidente da Comunidade Islâmica de Lisboa e investigador do prestigiado King'College em Londres) numa investigação intitulada “Do Outro ao Diverso – Islão e Muçulmanos em Portugal: história, discursos, identidades”

Os Tabligh Jamaat foram, recentemente, banidos da Arábia Saudita, que classificou o grupo como sendo "uma 'porta' para o terrorismo." Os Tabligh Jamaat são os responsáveis pela organização anual do maior encontro de muçulmanos, depois da peregrinação a Meca. Cerca de quatro milhões de elementos reúnem-se na cidade paquistanesa de Raiwind, havendo encontros semelhantes e de dimensão idêntica no Bangladesh e na Índia.

O movimento islâmico Tabligh Jamaat também reúne anualmente na Mesquita de Lisboa, num encontro internacional que decorre num ambiente aparentemente calma e descontraído, de acordo com Lusa. No entanto, num recente encontro, os membros do movimento recusaram falar à Comunicação Social, alegando que apenas que Esmael Loonat (um dos líderes do Tabligh Jamaat em Portugal) podia falar. Para além de Esmael Loonat, vários responsáveis da Comunidade Islâmica do Sul do Tejo e da Escola Islâmica de Palmela são membros do movimento. A oração colectiva que enche a Praça do Martim Moniz, no final do Ramadão, é organizada pelos Tabighi Jamaat.

Países que baniram os Tablighi Jamaat: Tablighi Jamaat has been banned in Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, Russia and Saudi Arabia. In some Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, where its puritanical preachings are viewed as extremist. 

 South Asia Democratic Forum Policy Brief nº 10 (Continue)

O Islão é uma religião de paz (II)

 

Polícia francesa prende homem suspeito de "ato terrorista" no exterior de uma sinagoga 

Solingen: atacante detido e ISIS reivindica a responsabilidade pelo ataque

O Islão é uma religião de paz, como diz o xeque Munir

 

 

 

Muçulmanos rezam no Martim Moniz, no final do Ramadão

 

Estado Islâmico reivindica ataque a faca que deixou 3 mortos na Alemanha; segundo suspeito é preso. O crime ocorreu durante um festival de música na cidade de Solingen, no oeste do país. A polícia também prendeu um adolescente de 15 anos suspeito de estar associado ao assassino.

O Estado Islâmico reivindicou, neste sábado (24), o ataque a faca que deixou três mortos e oito feridos durante um festival na cidade de Solingen, no oeste da Alemanha, na sexta-feira (23). Segundo Thorsten Fleiss, um porta-voz da polícia, o criminoso mirou a garganta das vítimas. Um jovem de 15 anos, possivelmente ligado ao responsável pelo ataque, foi detido.

Neste sábado, a polícia alemã fez uma segunda prisão durante operação em um lar para refugiados em Solingen. Até a última atualização da reportagem, o porta-voz não disse que não poderia mais detalhes sobre o indivíduo ou a conexão com o incidente. "A investigação e a busca por possíveis outros responsáveis, assim como a motivação do crime, estão a todo vapor", afirmou a polícia.

Programação do festival é interrompida

As demais atrações do festival em Solingen previstas para o fim de semana foram canceladas. Em resposta ao ocorrido, o chanceler alemão Olaf Scholz escreveu no X que "o responsável precisa ser capturado rapidamente e punido com o máximo rigor da lei". A polícia isolou o local do ataque neste sábado, enquanto cidadãos colocaram velas e flores em homenagem às vítimas. "Estamos em choque e cheios de tristeza", disse Tim-Oliver Kurzbach, prefeito de Solingen.

O músico alemão Topic contou que estava tocando em um palco próximo quando o incidente aconteceu. Ele foi informado do ocorrido, mas orientado a continuar para "evitar um ataque de pânico em massa", segundo uma publicação no Instagram.

Posteriormente, Topic recebeu um pedido para que o show fosse encerrado e, já que o esfaqueador ainda estava foragido, se escondeu em uma loja enquanto helicópteros da polícia sobrevoavam a região em círculos.

Devido ao ataque, rodovias foram fechadas, e moradores receberam a orientação de permanecer em casa. O festival em que ataque aconteceu comemorava os 650 anos de Solingen. Cerca de 80 mil pessoas eram esperadas para o evento, que começou nesta sexta-feira e deveria ir até domingo (25). A programação para o primeiro dia de evento previa desfile de estudantes, peças de teatro, apresentações musicais, além de tendas de gastronomia.

"Esta noite, todos nós em Solingen estamos em choque, consternação e profunda tristeza. Queríamos comemorar juntos o aniversário da nossa cidade, mas agora temos mortos e feridos a lamentar", disse a prefeitura em comunicado. Solingen fica próxima de Düsseldorf e Colônia, a cerca de 550 km de Berlim e próxima da fronteira da Alemanha com a Holanda.

24/08/2024 15h11 - Associated Press