Berlin is basking in late summer sunshine. Along the banks of the River Spree, residents enjoy the last warm days before the change of season. Germany – and the rest of Europe – are about to witness the end of an era: after 16 years, the sun is setting on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s time in power.  

Germans will head to the polls Sunday (September 26) for the country’s general election. Whichever party emerges with the biggest share of the vote will likely appoint the leader of a coalition government.  

Chancellor Merkel remains hugely popular among German voters, with approval ratings still hovering around 60 percent, a remarkable figure after four terms in office. However, her Christian Democratic Union party is struggling in the election campaign, with the latest opinion polls showing support of around 22 percent. In recent weeks that figure has at times fallen below 20 percent, for the first time since World War II.  

The Christian Democrats’ candidate for chancellor is 60-year-old Armin Laschet, who is attempting to woo voters with a promise of continuity. “The cohesion of Europe in these difficult times, a climate-neutral industry and strong economy, and a clear course for national security,” he promised voters in the latest TV debate last Sunday.  

Voters may approve the message, but not necessarily the man himself. During a visit to the flood-devastated regions of Germany in July, Laschet was caught on camera laughing during a speech by the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. His approval ratings haven’t recovered.  

Instead, the Social Democrats’ (SPD) candidate, Olaf Scholz, is leading in the polls with around 25 percent. He is a former mayor of Hamburg and finance minister in the current coalition government, now favored to succeed Merkel.

“The Social Democrats’ strong position is a surprise,” says Gero Neugebauer, a professor of political science at Freie University in Berlin and an expert on the SPD. “In the last years, they’ve continuously sunk lower in the polls. Many said that this wasn’t just a crisis for the party, but the start of their demise.”

“The poor performance of the Conservatives (CDU) has been to the benefit of the Social Democrats. So really, in a crowd of blind people, Scholz is the one-eyed man, and that makes him the king. He has a stable position in the polls, you could say a good performance as minister, and where he lacks charisma and charm, he makes up for in stability – all aided by the weaknesses of the competition,” Neugebauer told VOA.  

Scholz appeared confident of victory in the latest TV debate Sunday. “Many citizens can see me as the next head of government, the next chancellor… And I make no secret that I would most like to create a (coalition) government together with the Greens,” Scholz said.  

Earlier in the summer, the Green Party had been leading in the polls, and it seemed its 40-year-old leader, Annalena Baerbock, was about to usher in a dramatic change of the political guard in Germany. Support for the Greens, however, has fallen back to around 15 percent, putting them in third place.  

Paula Piechotta, the Green Party candidate for the city of Leipzig, told VOA the party is ready to form a coalition government – but has clear red lines. “Because of the (little) time that is left to actually act successfully on combating climate change, we will not be able to compromise a lot when it comes to climate policies,” Piechotta said.

Smaller parties, including the Free Democrats or the Left party, could be kingmakers in a coalition and will likely demand specific government positions or policies in return.

All three main parties have ruled out working with the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which is polling around 10 percent nationally. Support for the AfD is much higher is some regions of the former East Germany, says analyst Neugebauer. “If you go to areas with weaker economic development, a higher rate of unemployment, a low level of education, poor service in particularly rural areas, like health care, schools, transportation, then you have higher support for the AfD than in areas where these problems are not present.”   

So what are issues driving voters? Polls show a clear generational divide – reflected among voters who spoke to VOA. “I think the first important topic for me is for sure, climate change,” said 28-year-old Berlin resident Jun Kinoshita. Thirty-five-year-old voter Corinna Anand agrees. “For me the most important issue is climate change. Climate, education, child care.”

For Dirk Zeller, a 54-year-old voter from the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, money is the biggest worry. “Pensions – that they’re stable. Jobs. Lots of things are more expensive. Gas, electricity. How is that going to continue to develop? Can we afford it, as simple people?”  

Fifty-four-year-old Brigitte, who did not want to give her full name, said social inequality is rising in Germany. “The richest Germans only got richer, even with the coronavirus. Meanwhile, lots of people saw their means of living deteriorate and today, they have bigger problems than before. I don’t see that any of the parties are offering initiatives there,” she told VOA.

Few Germans expect immediate change. Talks to form a coalition government will likely take months and Merkel will remain in charge until the rival parties can agree on her successor.  

Merkel has been seen as a pillar of stability in Europe for almost two decades – and the coming changes in Germany will be felt around the world, says analyst Neugebauer. “Just based on their existing international resumés, none of the candidates can simply step into the role of Ms. Merkel. They will have to grow into the role.”
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Germans are preparing to choose a new leader in elections scheduled September 26 to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is stepping down. As Henry Ridgwell reports from Berlin, Merkel has been seen as a pillar of stability in Europe for almost two decades — and the coming changes in Germany will be felt around the world.

Camera: Henry Ridgwell

 
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Turkey’s leaders are closely watching Germany’s elections on September 26th that will mark the end of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s long tenure. For VOA from Istanbul, Dorian Jones reports.
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Results from Russia’s parliamentary and local elections Sunday have given a boost to the allies of President Vladimir Putin, who will now retain their majority. After denouncing alleged fraud, the Communist Party – the second largest in parliament – called for demonstrations in the Russian capital Monday but few people appeared. Jon Spier narrates this report from the VOA Moscow bureau.
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Police in Britain said Tuesday they have enough evidence to charge a third Russian in the 2018 nerve agent attack against a former Russian spy in the city of Salisbury, England.

Authorities identified the third suspect as Sergey Fedotov, also known as Denis Sergeev, and said he was a member of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service.

They said the list of possible charges includes conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, possessing and using a chemical weapon, and causing grievous bodily harm.

Prosecutors have already charged two other suspected military intelligence members in the attack that used the nerve agent Novichok to target Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, who both survived.

A British woman later died from contact with the nerve agent, and a police officer became critically ill.

Russia has denied involvement in the attack.

In a separate development Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for the 2006 killing of former agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Litvinenko died after drinking tea at a London hotel laced with Polonium 210, a rare radioactive isotope.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the court’s conclusion Tuesday, calling the ruling unfounded. 
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The United States, United Kingdom and Australia on Thursday announced what the Royal Australian Navy describes on its website as an “enhanced trilateral security partnership” known as AUKUS (Australia, U.K. and U.S.). It says Australia will get at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, to be built domestically using American technology.

The use of nuclear-powered Australian submarines in the Indo-Pacific has angered China by threatening to curb its expansion in the same waterways, experts say. 

The three-country security deal came after Australia pulled out of an earlier deal with France for diesel-electric submarines, angering Paris. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian even went as far as to describe Australia’s decision to back out of the deal as a “stab in the back.” On Friday, France recalled its ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia. 

Analysts point to the partnership as the latest Western effort to vie with China for control over seas that Beijing calls its own despite territorial spats with other Asian governments, including Western allies. One disputed waterway is the resource-rich South China Sea.

Nuclear-powered submarines mean stealthier, faster-moving vessels, while Britain’s participation suggests a wider program and not just another U.S.-led effort targeting China, scholars say. The subs are expected to be ready by 2035.

“Operationally, it should bother the Chinese, because if Australia does get nuclear subs, then it can stay on station in places like the South China Sea or East China Sea for more or less permanent deployments,” said Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Submarines won’t come online right away, he said, but for the first five to 10 years, what is important is “what (the partnership) says about Australia’s posture and willingness to stand up to China and whatever the posture changes are for the U.S.,” Poling said. Washington might eventually increase military rotations and exercises with Canberra, he said.

China’s maritime conflicts 

Beijing claims about 90% of the South China Sea, where it has angered Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines by building artificial islets and passing ships through the contested waters. It vies with Japan over sovereignty in parts of the adjoining East China Sea.

Western countries have taken new notice of their former Cold War foe as the Chinese navy grows rapidly and its ships turn up as far away as Alaska.

AUKUS calls for the sharing of military-related automation, artificial intelligence and quantum technology. Quantum technology can help detect submarines and stealth aircraft. Australia, Britain and the United States have committed to a “comprehensive program of work” over the next 18 months, the Australian navy says.

‘Worst possible contingencies’ 

Nuclear-powered subs based in Australia could reach the South China Sea in a day and stay indefinitely, said Malcolm Davis, senior analyst in defense strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra. Alternatively, they might enter the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea or Southwest Pacific, he added.

He said Australia, in pitched political and trade fights with China since 2015, intends to help the United States defend any Chinese movement that’s “inimical” to Australian allies.

“These subs are primarily to boost Australian defenses against a rising China that is challenging not only the U.S. in the region but also all our countries, including Australia, and there is a growing military challenge from China that is very real, and we are preparing for all sorts of worst possible contingencies, including the prospect for a major power war between the U.S. and China over Taiwan some time in this decade,” Davis said.

China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and regularly sends military planes into its airspace. Taiwan’s government, opposed to unification with China, has found growing support from the West.

“Taiwan will have a side (of its population) that cries out, ‘That’s great. England, America and Australia are coming to do a check and balance against China,’ said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the international affairs college at National Chengchi University in Taipei.

British officials joined the tech-sharing deal as part of their “idea of global Britain” following their departure from the European Union, Poling said. Its participation as a non-Indo-Pacific country angers China particularly, Huang said.

AUKUS follows other Western-spearheaded efforts such as the 16-year-old Quadrilateral Security Dialogue among India, Japan, Australia and the United States. Western-allied countries periodically pass ships through the South China Sea on their own. China normally protests.

Stern words, deeds in China

China calls the AUKUS deal a danger to the Indo-Pacific region. “For the United States, U.K. and Australia to launch nuclear submarine cooperation severely disrupts regional peace and stability, increases the arms buildup race and wrecks the hard work of international disarmament,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Thursday.

Asia’s chief superpower isn’t standing by either. On September 1, China implemented its Revised Maritime Safety Traffic Law to counter foreign ships that pass near its coasts. The law tightens Chinese control over the East and South China seas by giving Beijing power to stop a range of foreign vessels.

“The United States Navy, if it was ordered to conduct a freedom of navigation (operation), that just sets up a confrontation, because how are you going to stop an American warship?” said Carl Thayer, emeritus professor of politics at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

China could follow up AUKUS further by restricting additional Australian imports, Davis said. Canberra, however, has already found new foreign markets for its all-important coal and wine because of earlier friction with China.

 
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As Germany prepares to elect a new leader in elections scheduled for September 26, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s successor will face a series of immediate geopolitical challenges. Among the most pressing is the rise of China.

Beijing’s economic push into Europe, part of its “Belt and Road” initiative, has seen Chinese state-owned firms invest in critical infrastructure including ports, railroads and highways.

Hamburg is Germany’s biggest port, handling more than 8.5 million shipping containers every year, and a key artery for Europe’s largest economy and exporter. If current plans are approved, a large share of the port will soon be sold to Beijing. 

More than 30% of the containers handled at Hamburg are shipped to and from China, four times more than second-place United States. Chinese state-owned shipping firm Cosco wants to buy one-third of the shares in the city’s Tollerort terminal. 

Hamburger Hafen and Logistik AG (HHLA), the company that currently owns Tollerort, says the deal is a natural step in an evolving relationship. “We want to bind Cosco, with whom we have been working together for 36 years, closer to us,” HHLA boss Angela Titzrah recently told journalists. Hamburg’s mayor also supports the deal and says it is vital for growth in the face of competition from Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Antwerp in Belgium.

Critics say Germany should be much more wary of the deal. Jürgen Hardt is a lawmaker from Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats. “In China, business plans are not mainly the reason to do business, but (are instead) political decisions of the Communist Party,” Hardt told VOA. “Therefore, we should look very carefully on such a deal. I would prefer to have an exchange of shares between Hamburg harbor and maybe Shanghai harbor.” 

Hardt says this is unlikely, as China does not allow foreign companies to own its infrastructure.

China: friend or foe?

Germany’s geopolitical dilemma echoes that of Hamburg. Is China friend or foe?

The European Union describes China as a “negotiating partner, economic competitor and systemic rival.” In recent years, tensions have grown over Beijing’s treatment of its Muslim Uyghur population, the crackdown on democratic rights in Hong Kong and military expansion in the South China Sea. Germany has found itself caught in the middle, says analyst Liana Fix of the Körber-Stiftung Foundation of International Affairs in Berlin. 

“Europe and the European Union is undecided about which way to pursue. On the one side they feel the pressure from the United States. On the other hand, there are also economic interests especially for member states that are highly dependent on China,” Fix told VOA.

Germany’s leadership could be out of step with the population, according to a recent poll by the Körber-Stiftung Foundation.

“We asked the German public to what extent they would support sanctions towards China, even if it hurts their economy, for human rights issues for human rights violations. And there the majority of Germans said they would support sanctions against China,” Fix said. 

Russia

With Russia too, Germany finds itself caught between East and West. Despite Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, Chancellor Merkel has pushed ahead with the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was completed earlier this month. It will carry Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing Ukraine, which has until now benefitted from lucrative transit fees.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy offered Merkel a blunt warning following her visit to Kyiv last month. “I believe that (Nord Stream 2) is a weapon. I believe that not to notice that this is a dangerous weapon, not only for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe, is wrong,” Zelenskiy told reporters August 22. 

The United States also opposes the pipeline and has imposed sanctions on Russian companies involved. That has triggered some resentment in Germany, says analyst Fix. “The strong opposition from the United States has to some extent led to a reaction in Germany which said, ‘OK, why is the United States getting involved in our energy policy?’” Fix said.

With Germany phasing out coal and nuclear power over the coming years, a reliable supply of gas is seen as crucial, according to Rüdiger Erben, a member of the Social Democratic party in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. “Germany has experienced over many years that Russia is actually a very reliable partner when we’re talking about energy questions,” he told VOA. 

Europe’s ‘strategic autonomy’ 

Meanwhile, the European Union is seeking what it calls greater “strategic autonomy” to reduce Europe’s reliance on the United States for its security. France is highly supportive of the move, but Germany has stopped short of endorsing the formation of any “EU army.”

The United States signed a deal with Britain and Australia last week to help Canberra build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, in the process cancelling a deal with France to design diesel-electric subs. “It’s a good opportunity to remind ourselves, to reflect on the need to make the issue of European strategic autonomy a priority. This shows that we must survive on our own,” the EU’s ‘s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told reporters September 16.

Merkel’s successor

Navigating global affairs won’t be easy for Germany’s next leader, says analyst Gero Neugebauer of the Freie University in Berlin. 

“The majority of German people see that Germany is currently in a crisis situation. Globalization is at play. The war in Afghanistan. Conflict in Europe. The question of what impact globalization has on jobs. Migration. Climate change.”

Neugebauer added that the main candidates in the election are not well known outside Germany. “Merkel’s successor will have either limited international experience, or none at all.” 

 
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The United States said Monday that starting in early November it will ease its coronavirus restrictions for foreign travelers arriving in the country. 

Foreign travel to the U.S. had been largely curbed during the 18-month pandemic, even as European nations in recent months eased restrictions on American travelers ahead of the summertime vacation season. 

Under the new U.S. policy, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said foreign travelers will again be allowed into the country if they can demonstrate proof of being fully vaccinated before they board a flight and show proof of a negative COVID-19 test administered within three days of their flight. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson applauded the U.S. action, saying foreign travelers will be able to get to the U.S. before its annual Thanksgiving holiday, celebrated this year on November 25. 

“That’s a great thing,” Johnson said. “I thank the president (Joe Biden) for progress we have been able to make.” 

The U.S. Travel Association trade group also welcomed the move, saying it will “help revive the American economy.” 

“This is a major turning point in the management of the virus and will accelerate the recovery of the millions of travel-related jobs that have been lost due to international travel restrictions,” U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said in a statement Monday. 

Fully vaccinated travelers to the U.S. will not be required to be quarantined, as has been the case in some foreign countries. 

But Biden’s administration, in its effort to push millions more Americans to get inoculated, said unvaccinated Americans returning from overseas will need to be tested within a day of their flight and again after they return home. 

More than 181 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, according to government health officials, but it is estimated that 70 million people eligible for the vaccine have so far declined, for one reason or another, to get vaccinated. 

The new policy replaces a patchwork of restrictions first instituted by former President Donald Trump last year and tightened by Biden earlier this year that restricted travel by foreigners who in the prior 14 days had been in Britain, the European Union, China, India, Iran, Brazil or South Africa. 

Zients said the new policy “is based on individuals rather than a country-based approach, so it’s a stronger system.” 

He said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will also require airlines to collect contact information from international travelers to facilitate contact tracing if there is a coronavirus outbreak related to foreigners arriving in the U.S. 

It is uncertain under the new policy which vaccines would be acceptable to U.S. authorities, with Zients saying that would be left up to the CDC. Vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are used in the U.S. 

Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.​ Some information also came from Reuters and The Associated Press. 
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Russia’s Sunday election results came as no surprise to opponents of President Vladimir Putin — it was a foregone conclusion, they have been warning for months.

The Kremlin barred most genuinely independent candidates – first and foremost supporters of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny – from running for the 450-seat Duma.

The polls were held against the backdrop of a crackdown on dissent, leaving little doubt that Putin’s ruling United Russia Party would romp home to victory yet again and retain its parliamentary majority.

The party claimed victory a few hours after the polls closed Sunday after three days of voting amid claims of ballot stuffing, vote-rigging and the marshaling of public-sector workers to back United Russia candidates.

United Russia official, Andrei Turchak, said his party was on target to win more than 300 of the 450 seats in the Duma, telling reporters in Moscow that the party was likely to emerge with 315 seats in Russia’s lower house of parliament.

On Monday, Russia’s election commission reported preliminary results — after 90% of the vote had been counted — that United Russia had secured 49% of the votes for candidates drawn from party-lists and about 87% of the vote where a deputy is elected in each constituency. Half of the seats in the Duma are allocated by party list voting and the other half are appointed through majority voting in constituencies.

Polling data ahead of the election suggested that just 26% of Russians were ready to vote for United Russia.

Irregularities

Throughout the three days of voting across 11 time zones, poll observers and voters reported thousands of violations. Videos were posted on social-media sites showing purportedly ballot stuffing, independent monitors thrown out of polling stations and the few opposition candidates allowed to stand assaulted.

A video shot in the Saratov region depicted two female poll workers feeding dozens of ballots into a voting machine after polling had ended. Another from Kemerovo shows ballot-stuffing, as a poll worker tries to obscure what is happening by attempting to block the view.

The independent Golos monitoring organization listed by Sunday more than 4,500 cases of reported poll violations. It said it had received “numerous messages” from people who said they were being forced by their employers to vote.

Long lines formed at some polling stations Friday, according to local reports. Navalny supporters suggested that meant state workers were being mobilized to vote by the Kremlin and local authorities.

“Every time [under Putin], elections have looked a little less like elections. Now this process is complete,” exiled Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky told the Echo of Moscow radio station last week. “The next time our people will vote for real will be after they earn that right on the barricades,” he added.

Claiming outside interference

The head of Russia’s electoral commission rejected claims of widespread irregularities, saying the criticism was part of “a planned, deliberate campaign, well-funded from abroad.” Ella Pamfilova also accused anti-Kremlin activists of “fabricating fake reports” about voting violations. Russia’s interior ministry spokesperson told reporters that no “significant violations” had been registered.

The electoral commission said it had only found 12 cases of ballot stuffing across the entire country. United Russia’s Turchak said the party had not detected significant violations that could sway election results.

This year’s Duma election was the first time since 1993 that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, decided not to send an observation team, a decision taken in response to strict limitations imposed by Russian authorities.

The claims of Russia’s electoral commission that the elections were free and fair were rejected Monday by Western politicians, including the former foreign minister of Lithuania, Linas Linkevičius, who said on Twitter the election was a “mockery & farce.” He added: “Worst is that manipulation of democratic instruments has become norm in that country,” he said, adding that the “results of ‘elections’ should not be recognized.”

Low turnout

Despite what Kremlin critics and opposition figures say was a manipulated election, not all went according to plan, they add. Even alleged vote-rigging could not disguise a low 46% turnout, lower than in Russia’s last parliamentary elections five years ago. And there were signs Monday of voting problems for United Russia in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where officials repeatedly delayed announcements of preliminary results.

Vladimir Milov, an opposition politician, who served as Russia’s deputy minister of energy in 2002, tweeted Monday of his suspicions that poll officials were “trying to rewrite the protocols” and to dismiss as fraudulent two million votes cast electronically in Moscow.

Opposition figures remain fuming at the decision last week by Google and Apple to bow to Kremlin pressure and to remove from their stores a Smart Voting app devised by jailed Russian opposition leader Navalny. The youth-oriented Smart Voting app offered a guide on how to vote tactically for the best-placed candidate not affiliated with United Russia, which meant in many places voting for candidates offered by the Communist Party.

Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s former campaign manager, accused the U.S. tech giants of having “caved in to the Kremlin’s blackmail.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected last week the allegation of political censorship, telling reporters in Moscow the app was removed in observation of the “letter and spirit” of Russian law. Russian authorities had threatened the two companies with financial penalties unless they deleted the app.
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Spain has led a rebellion over soaring energy prices across Europe which analysts fear could endanger the continent’s economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Madrid’s leftist coalition government last week approved a shock plan to divert $3.05 billion from utility companies to consumers over the next six months until gas prices are expected to stabilize.

Across the continent, governments are offering or considering providing state help to ease the pain felt by rocketing wholesale gas prices which increased electricity bills and some utilities companies have been forced out of business or seen their share prices fall.

Analysts at S&P Global Platts told VOA that electricity prices have increased because of an increase in the price of natural gas as emissions heavy coal plants have been retired.

Utilities companies also face higher prices for carbon allowances required by the European Union’s emissions trading system, which is designed to cut greenhouse gases, the consultants added.

As the world economy recovered from the pandemic, demand for energy has also surged. Supply from Russia has slowed down and demand in Asia is high which has put pressure on energy international markets.

Europe is more vulnerable to energy price rises because it imports about 60% of its gas from Russia, Algeria and Libya which pushes up prices, compared with the U.S. which benefits from relatively low prices for gas due to its abundant domestic sources.

Italy is using money from the emissions permits granted by the EU to lower bills, the Associated Press reported, while France is sending checks for $117.8 to consumers who are already receiving help paying their utility bill.

Britain is considering offering state-backed loans to energy firms after companies asked for government help to cover the cost of taking on customers from energy companies that have gone bust, Reuters reported.

State intervention  

Analysts said the Spanish government’s intervention in the energy market was being repeated across Europe as domestic economies came under increased pressure because of the rising cost of energy.

“What we are seeing is other governments getting involved to try to help the situation as happened in Spain. Situations differ in different countries but there is a growing need to ease the energy price situation while prices are so high,” Daniel Carralero, of the Critical Observatory of Energy, told VOA.

In Spain, protests mounted against energy companies after electricity prices rose more than 200% in the past year and the issue has become politically sensitive for the leftist government which pledged to help those unable to pay energy bills.

Spain’s Environment minister Teresa Ribera told reporters last week that the country’s emergency measures would cut prices for consumers by 22% for the rest of 2021.

Energy companies will have to meet the higher costs while these measures are in place, but they will be reimbursed through higher tariffs later, meaning that the overall cost to them will be neutralized, the government said.

However, energy companies oppose the Spanish government’s plan.

The Association of Electric Power Companies, Aelec, which represents major utility companies including Iberdrola, Endesa, Viesgo and EDP, in a statement said the Spanish government’s measures “go against the efficiency of the market, European orthodoxy and create a climate of legal uncertainty”. It is considering taking legal action.

The Spanish Nuclear Forum, which represents the nuclear sector and some utilities companies, warned the new measures would provoke a shutdown of the industry.

Analysts have been mixed in their reaction to Spain’s intervention in the energy market.

James Huckstepp, an analyst at S&P Global, said the Spanish government was temporarily tampering with the energy market.

“This is another way of subsidizing gas and power, making it artificially cheap for the end user and hence keeping demand higher than it might otherwise would be,” he told VOA.

What remains to be seen is whether the surge in energy prices will dent hopes for a real economic recovery from the pandemic.

Jorge Sanz, a consultant at Nera Economic Consulting, told VOA he hoped the effect on economic activity would be short-lived.

“If energy prices continue to rise then it will slow down the European recovery but if it is only a short-term shock then it will not have a major effect,” he said.

“The indications are that it will not last longer than this year. We have to hope.”
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A student opened fire on a university campus in central Russia on Monday killing at least eight people, investigators said, in the second mass shooting at an education facility this year. 

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said several people were also injured in the attack at Perm State University and that the suspect had been wounded while being detained. 

Investigators previously said that five people were killed and another six wounded.   

Russia has relatively few school shootings due to normally tight security in education facilities and because of difficulty of buying firearms legally, although it is possible to register hunting rifles.   

Videos circulating on social media showed students throwing belongings from windows from buildings on campus before jumping to flee the shooter.   

State media played amateur footage reportedly taken during the attack showing an individual dressed in black tactical clothing, including a helmet, carrying a weapon and walking through the campus. 

The last such deadly attack took place in May 2021, when a 19-year-old gunman opened fire in his old school in the central Russian city of Kazan, killing nine people.   

Investigators said that man suffered from a brain disorder. But he was deemed fit to receive a license for the semi-automatic shotgun he used in the attack. 

On the day of that attack — one of the worst in recent Russian history — President Vladimir Putin called for a review of gun control laws. 

In November 2019, a 19-year-old student in the far eastern town of Blagoveshchensk opened fire at his college, killing one classmate and injuring three other people before shooting and killing himself. 

In October 2018, another teenage gunman killed 20 people at a Kerch technical college in Crimea, the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. 

He was shown in camera footage wearing a similar T-shirt to Eric Harris, one of the killers in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in the US, which left 13 people dead.  

The Crimea shooter was able to legally obtain a gun licence after undergoing marksmanship training and being examined by a psychiatrist.   

The country’s FSB security service says it has prevented dozens of armed attacks on schools in recent years. 

In February 2020 the FSB said it had detained two teenagers on suspicion of plotting an attack on a school in the city of Saratov with weapons and homemade explosives.   

Authorities have claimed that young Russians are being increasingly exposed to negative influences online, especially from the West. 
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Thousands marched in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Sunday for LGTBQ rights, an annual march that was canceled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Waving rainbow flags, roughly 7,000 people — down from the record of 8,000 in 2019 — marched through the capital city. Police flanked the marchers.

Kateryna Lytvynenko, a Pride participant, told The Associated Press: “(We) are here at the Pride (march) to support the LGBTQ community in Ukraine. We are here to promote human rights because LGBTQ rights are human rights and, unfortunately, the community faces a lot of violence and discrimination in Ukraine still.”

Artyom, who said he was an IT expert, told Agence France-Presse: “Hate exists in these territories, in post-Soviet countries, only because of a lack of respect. It also exists in Europe and in the West, but at a much lower level. They respect human rights there, while in our country the respect for human rights is only just starting to develop.”

The march was peaceful, and no clashes were reported.

Several hundred anti-gay rights activists held their own rally in a park in Kyiv, the AP reported.

Kristian Udarov, who said he was a right-wing activist and pro-Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter, told AFP: “We are here today to protect family and Christian values, to protest against LGBT propaganda, because we are against it. LGBT is just people playing politics, and frankly it’s an illness.”

A number of Western diplomats, including staff from the U.S. and U.K. embassies, took part in the Pride march, tweeting their support for the movement, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

“Embassy Kyiv community members participated in #KyivPride2021 to show support for the freedom, dignity, and equality of all people – including LGBTQI+ persons,” the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said in a tweet. “We salute law enforcement for ensuring participants’ safety.” 

“So fantastic to be out on the streets alongside my cool @UKinUkraine colleagues and friends supporting LGBTQ groups in Ukraine,” Melinda Simmons, Britain’s ambassador to Ukraine, wrote in a tweet. 

Homophobia is widespread in Ukraine. A survey published in August by sociological group “Rating” said 47% of respondents had a negative view of the gay community.

While government support for LGBTQ rights has increased in recent years, the country does not allow same-sex couples to be married or adopt children, and workplace discrimination laws do not encompass sexual orientation.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty contributed to this report. Some material for this report came from Agence France-Presse, The Associated Press and Reuters.
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France has canceled a meeting between Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly and her British counterpart planned for this week after Australia scrapped a submarine order with Paris in favor of a deal with Washington and London, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Parly personally took the decision to drop the bilateral meeting with British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, the sources said.

The French defense ministry could not be immediately reached. The British defense ministry declined comment.

The sources confirmed an earlier report in the Guardian newspaper that the meeting had been canceled.

The scrapping of the multibillion-dollar submarine contract, struck in 2016, has triggered a diplomatic row, with Paris recalling its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra.

France claims not to have been consulted by its allies, while Australia says it had made clear to Paris for months its concerns over the contract.

French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Joe Biden will speak by telephone in the coming days to discuss the crisis, the French government’s spokesman said on Sunday.
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Four people were found dead Sunday on the Belarus-Polish border according to officials from both countries, a week after Warsaw imposed a state of emergency following an influx of migrants.

Poland’s border guards added that they had also discovered eight exhausted migrants stuck in marshy terrain elsewhere along the border. Seven of them were hospitalized.  

In recent months thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, have crossed or tried to cross the border from Belarus into the neighboring European Union member states of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.  

The EU suspects the influx is being orchestrated by Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko in retaliation against sanctions on his government.

“Today (Sunday) the bodies of three people were discovered in the border region with Belarus,” Poland’s border guards tweeted on Sunday.  

The individuals were found in three different places and were “likely illegal immigrants,” border guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska told the Polish news agency PAP.  

A fourth body, of an Iraqi woman, was found Sunday on the Belarus side of the border.

“The body of a woman of non-Slavic appearance was discovered within a meter of the Belarus-Poland border,” a Belarusian border official told state news agency Belta.

The acting head of the Usovo border post, Yevgeny Omes, said there were “clear signs” on the ground of the body being dragged from Poland into Belarus.

Belta said that three children, a man and an elderly woman were found near the body. They are all Iraqi citizens, Belta added.

Belta reported that the dead woman’s husband said that Polish law enforcement drove them to the border and “under threat” forced them to cross over to the Belarusian side.

Poland’s border guards tweeted earlier Sunday that they had also spent several hours rescuing migrants stuck in swampland off the river Suprasl by the border with Belarus.  

“Eight immigrants (five men and three women) were saved, seven of them hospitalized,” the border guards tweeted, adding that firefighters, rescuers and police officers also took part in the operation.

They also said Saturday was an intense day, noting 324 attempts to illegally cross the border from Belarus to Poland.  

Poland last week imposed a 30-day emergency measure that bans non-residents from the area along its border with Belarus, the first time the country has used such a measure since the fall of communism in 1989.

It has also sent thousands of soldiers to the border and started building a barbed wire fence.

In early August, Belarus said it discovered a dead Iraqi man near its border with Lithuania, claiming he was murdered.

Western governments have placed several sets of sanctions on Belarus over a crackdown on dissent that began when protests erupted across the country following a disputed election last year.
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The Kremlin-backed ruling United Party is on track to victory in Russia’s lower house of parliament, early results showed, after a three-day voting process that was marred by irregularities and allegations of ballot tampering.

The Central Election Commission said with about 10% of votes counted after polls closed Sunday, United Russia, which strongly backs President Vladimir Putin, had 38.6% of the vote, followed by the Communist Party with 25.2% and the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party with 9.6%.

The elections lacked a significant opposition presence after authorities declared organizations linked to imprisoned Alexey Navalny, the Kremlin’s most vocal critic, to be extremist. The voting was also marred by numerous reports of violations, including ballot-stuffing.

Because of the system of party-list voting combined with single-mandate voting districts, it wasn’t immediately clear how the results would translate into a breakdown of seats in the new Duma.

United Russia, which currently holds 334 seats in the 450-seat Duma, is looking to keep its supermajority in the legislature, which allows it to change the constitution. But the party is deeply unpopular, and surveys from independent pollsters have shown its approval rating at the lowest level in the two decades since it was established.

In the last national vote in 2016, United Russia won just more than 54% of the vote.

Apathy is another major concern for the authorities, as Russian voters grow increasingly cynical about how free and fair elections are in the country. As of midafternoon Sunday, turnout at polling stations nationwide stood around 43%, the Central Election Commission said.

In addition to being a test for United Russia, the three-day vote was also a major test for Navalny, the jailed corruption crusader whose allies had invested heavily in their Smart Voting strategy, aimed at eroding United Russia’s stranglehold on politics.

This year, most of the candidates endorsed by Smart Voting are from the Communist Party, even though it and two other parties in the Duma rarely vote against majority initiatives or those explicitly lobbied for by the Kremlin.

“If the United Russia party succeeds, our country will face another five years of poverty, five years of daily repression, and five wasted years,” a message on Navalny’s Instagram account read on the eve of the elections.

In recent months, authorities unleashed a sweeping crackdown against Navalny’s political network, designating it an extremist organization and barring the politician’s allies from participating in elections.

Navalny himself is in prison serving a 2½-year sentence on charges his allies say were politically motivated.

As the voting began on Friday, however, Navalny’s Smart Voting app disappeared from the Apple and Google online stores. Telegram, a popular messaging app and a key tool for Navalny’s team to get out its messaging, also removed a Smart Voting bot. YouTube — which is owned by Google — also took down a video that contained the names of candidates they had endorsed. And Google also blocked access to a Navalny Google Doc, which circulated a text copy of all the Smart Voting endorsed candidates.

About 50 websites run by Navalny have also been blocked, including the one dedicated to Smart Voting.

The vote, which is being held alongside elections for regional governors and local legislative assemblies, took place amid widespread reports of irregularities.

On the first day, there were unusually long lines at some polling stations. Golos, an independent election-monitoring group, suggested state workers and military personnel were being forced by United Russia and government authorities to vote.

Across the country, there were reports of ballot box stuffing and “carousel voting,” in which voters are bused into multiple polling stations as an organized group. It’s unclear, however, to what extent the fraud reports would affect the final vote.
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A volcano erupted on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma on Sunday, sending fountains of lava and a plume of smoke and ash into the air from the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island. 

Authorities had already begun evacuating the infirm and some farm animals from the surrounding villages before the eruption, which took place on a wooded slope in the Cabeza de Vaca area at 3:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), according to the islands’ government. 

Immediately after the eruption, the municipality urged residents in a statement to “exercise extreme caution,” and stay away from the area and off the roads. 

The population of nearby villages were told to go to one of five centers to be evacuated, and soldiers were deployed to help. 

Spanish television showed fountains of lava shooting into the sky, and plumes of smoke could be seen from across the island. 

There had been more than 22,000 tremors this week in the Cumbre Vieja area, a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries. 

The earliest recorded volcanic eruption in La Palma took place in 1430, according to the Spanish National Geographical Institute (ING). 

In 1971, one man was killed as he was taking photographs near the lava flows, but no property was damaged. 

 
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France says U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron are planning to talk in the next few days about the diplomatic standoff that was triggered between the two old allies when Australia cancelled a submarine contract with Paris in favor of a new security alliance with the United States and Britain. 

A French government spokesman said Sunday that the U.S. leader asked to speak with Macron and that a call would occur soon. Gabriel Attal told news channel BFM TV that France wants “clarification” over the cancellation of an order that it had with Australia. 

Paris has expressed shock that Australia last week abandoned its $66 billion 2016 contract for French majority state-owned Naval Group to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines, although Australia says it has for months voiced concerns about the deal. The French spokesman said Paris is seeking discussions over reparations for the canceled deal. 

The French-Australian deal collapsed as the U.S., Australia and Britain, already long-time allies, jointly announced a new security alliance that would build an Australian fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines. 

France, angered by the snub, recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra, but not London. 

On Sunday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his country was concerned the conventional submarines it ordered from France would not meet its strategic needs. He blamed the end of the deal with France on rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific, although he did not specifically refer to China’s massive military buildup that the U.S. has expressed concerns about. 

China has denounced the sharing of such U.S. and British nuclear technology as irresponsible. 

Morrison said Sunday at a news conference that he understood France’s disappointment over the cancellation of the order, but said, “Australia’s national interest comes first.” 

“It must come first and did come first and Australia’s interests are best served by the trilateral partnership I’ve been able to form with President Biden and (British) Prime Minister (Boris) Johnson,” he said. 

Referring to the French submarines, Morrison said, “The capability that the Attack class submarines were going to provide was not what Australia needed to protect our sovereign interests.” 

He said France “would have had every reason to know that we have deep and grave concerns that the capability being delivered by the Attack class submarine was not going to meet our strategic interests and we have made very clear that we would be making a decision based on our strategic national interest.” 

On Saturday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told the France 2 television network that ending the deal with Australia was a “crisis.” 

“There has been lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt. This will not do. Things are not going well between us; they’re not going well at all,” he said. 

The French submarine builder Naval Group said 500 of its employees in Australia and another 650 in France are affected by the end of the pact with Australia. 

Some material in this report came from Reuters and the Associated Press. 
…

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Sunday the French government would have known Canberra had “deep and grave concerns” about French submarines before the deal was torn up last week.

France is furious at Australia’s decision to withdraw from a multibillion-dollar deal to build French submarines in favor of American nuclear-powered vessels, recalling its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington and accusing its allies of “lying” about their plans.

Morrison said he understood the French government’s “disappointment” but said he had raised issues with the deal “some months ago,” as had other Australian government ministers.

“I think they would have had every reason to know that we had deep and grave concerns that the capability being delivered by the Attack Class submarine was not going to meet our strategic interests and we made very clear that we would be making a decision based on our strategic national interest,” he told a press conference in Sydney.

Morrison said it would have been “negligent” to proceed with the deal against intelligence and defense advice and that doing so would be counter to Australia’s strategic interests.

“I don’t regret the decision to put Australia’s national interest first. Never will,” he said.

Speaking to Sky News Australia earlier on Sunday, Defense Minister Peter Dutton said his government had been “upfront, open and honest” with France that it had concerns about the deal, which was over-budget and years behind schedule.

Dutton said he understood the “French upset” but added that “suggestions that the concerns haven’t been flagged by the Australian government just defy, frankly, what’s on the public record and certainly what was said publicly over a long period of time.”

“The government has had those concerns, we’ve expressed them, and we want to work very closely with the French, and we’ll continue to do that into the future,” he said.

Dutton said he had personally expressed those concerns to his French counterpart, Florence Parly, and highlighted Australia’s “need to act in our national interest,” which he said was acquiring the nuclear-powered submarines.

“And given the changing circumstances in the Indo-Pacific, not just now but over the coming years, we had to make a decision that was in our national interest and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” he added.

Canberra was unable to buy French nuclear-powered vessels because they require charging while the American submarines do not, making only the latter suitable for nuclear-free Australia, Dutton said.

With Australia’s new submarine fleet not expected to be operational for decades, Dutton said the country may consider leasing or buying existing submarines from the United States or Britain in the interim.

Australia will get the nuclear-powered submarines as part of a new defense alliance announced with the United States and Britain on Wednesday, in a pact widely seen as aimed at countering the rise of China. 

 
…

Australia has made a “huge” diplomatic error by ditching a multi-billion-dollar order for French submarines in favor of an alternative deal with the United States and Britain, France’s envoy to Canberra said Saturday.

Canberra announced Thursday it would scrap its 2016 deal with France’s Naval Group to build a fleet of conventional submarines and instead build at least eight nuclear-powered ones with U.S. and British technology after striking a trilateral security partnership.

The move caused fury in France, a NATO ally of the United States and Britain, prompting it to recall its ambassadors to Washington and Canberra, and it also riled China, the major rising power in the Indo-Pacific region.

Malaysia said Saturday that Canberra’s decision to build atomic-powered submarines could trigger a regional nuclear arms race, echoing concerns already raised by Beijing.

“It will provoke other powers to also act more aggressively in the region, especially in the South China Sea,” the Malaysian prime minister’s office said, without mentioning China. Beijing’s foreign policy in the region has become increasingly assertive, particularly its maritime claims in the resource-rich South China Sea, some of which conflict with Malaysia’s own claims.

“This has been a huge mistake, a very, very bad handling of the partnership – because it wasn’t a contract, it was a partnership that was supposed to be based on trust, mutual understanding and sincerity,” France’s Ambassador Jean-Pierre Thebault told reporters in Canberra before returning to Paris.

France has previously branded the cancelation of the deal – valued at $40 billion in 2016 and reckoned to be worth much more today – a stab in the back.

‘Deep disappointment’

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said France was a “vital ally” and that the United States would work in the coming days to resolve the differences.

Australia said it regretted the recall of the French ambassador, and that it valued the relationship with France and would keep engaging with Paris on other issues.

“Australia understands France’s deep disappointment with our decision, which was taken in accordance with our clear and communicated national security interests,” a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said Saturday.

Thebault said he was very sad to have to leave Australia but added there “needs to be some reassessment” of bilateral ties. In separate comments made to SBS radio, Thebault said of the ditched agreement: “It was not about selling salads or potatoes, it was a relationship of trust at the highest level, covering questions of the highest level of secrecy and sensitivity.”

The row between Paris and Canberra marks the lowest point in their relations since 1995, when Australia protested France’s decision to resume nuclear testing in the South Pacific and recalled its ambassador for consultations.

Public opinion in France, where President Emmanuel Macron is expected to seek a second term in an election due next year, has also been very critical of Australia and the United States. “You can understand for geopolitical reasons Australia getting closer to other anglophone countries like the United States and Britain,” said Louis Maman, a Parisian surgeon out for a stroll on Saturday on the Champs-Elysees.

“But there was a real contract and I think there was an alliance and a friendship between Australia and France. It’s spoiling a friendship,” he said. “I took it as a betrayal.”

 
…

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s “Smart Voting” app has disappeared from the Telegram messenger following similar moves by Apple and Google on Friday at the start of a three-day parliamentary vote in Russia.

The app, which advised Navalny supporters on which candidate they should back to unseat Kremlin-aligned politicians, was removed after Telegram announced it would “limit the functioning of apps associated with election campaigns.”

Telegram’s Russia-born founder Pavel Durov said he was following Apple and Google, which “dictate the rules of the game to developers like us.”

In a post on his Telegram channel, he said the tech giants had “already this year” urged the encrypted messenger widely popular in Russia to remove information that violates the laws of individual countries or face exclusion from their app stores.

He said that removing election-related apps was related to Russia’s ban on campaigning during voting.

“We consider this practice legitimate and urge Telegram users to respect it,” Durov wrote late Friday.

But he added that “the blocking of applications by Apple and Google creates a dangerous precedent that will affect freedom of speech in Russia and around the world.”

The election for seats in the lower house State Duma, which runs until Sunday, comes after a sweeping crackdown this year on President Vladimir Putin’s opponents.

Navalny, who was detained in January and has seen his allies arrested or flee the country and his organizations banned, has nonetheless aimed to dent the Kremlin’s grip on parliament from behind bars.

His allies on Friday accused Apple and Google of “censorship”, while sources told AFP that the companies had faced public threats from the Russian government and private threats of serious criminal charges and incarceration of local staff.  

After Telegram removed the “Smart Voting” app, a Twitter account associated with Navalny posted links to Google Docs with recommended candidates, saying they were their last “remaining” tools.

On Saturday, Navalny’s team said that Google had demanded they delete the documents following a request from Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor and would do so itself if they did not comply.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.

 
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Britain’s food industry called on the government to subsidize carbon dioxide (CO2) production during a spike in gas prices or risk the collapse of the country’s meat industries.

A surge in gas prices has forced two British fertilizer plants to shut down, stripping food producers of the CO2 by-product that is used to stun animals before slaughter and vacuum pack food to prolong its shelf life.

The shortage of CO2, which is also used to put the fizz into beer, cider and soft drinks, comes at a terrible time for the food industry, which is already facing an acute shortage of truck drivers and the impact of Brexit and COVID-19.

Nick Allen of the British Meat Processors Association said on Saturday that the pig sector was two weeks away from hitting the buffers, while the British Poultry Council said its members were on a “knife-edge” as suppliers could only guarantee deliveries up to 24-hours in advance.

Business minister Kwasi Kwarteng was due to meet the heads of the UK’s largest energy suppliers and operators on Saturday to discuss the situation. He said he did not expect supply emergencies this year due to a diverse range of sources.

However, the food industry said more support was needed.

“Doing nothing is not an option,” Allen told Reuters, adding that given the exceptional circumstances, the government needed to either subsidize the power supply to maintain fertilizer production, or source CO2 from elsewhere.

British Poultry Council head Richard Griffiths said he was working with the government to assess stock levels and implement contingency plans, but warned that food supply disruption could become a national security issue.

Were slaughterhouses to run out of CO2, pigs and chickens would be left on farms, creating additional animal welfare, food supply and food waste issues, he said, adding: “We hope this can be avoided through swift government action.”

A spokesperson said the government was in close contact with the food and farming industries to help them manage.

 
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Hungary’s newly united opposition politicians started going to the polls Saturday in the country’s first-ever primary elections that they hope are the key to ousting right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

After years of bickering and a string of landslide losses, the once-factious opposition has come together with one common goal — to push the long-serving leader from power in elections next year.

Their six-party alliance, set up last year, is made up of a diverse cast of political parties: leftist, liberal and formerly far-right.

They accuse 58-year-old Orban — who regularly clashes with Brussels over migration and rule-of-law issues — of endemic corruption and creeping authoritarianism since he came to power in 2010.

Now they hope the new primary system will be their path to defeating his Fidesz party, Hungary’s largest.

“The opposition can only compete with Fidesz if they are in a single bloc too, we’ve learned that the hard way,” Antal Csardi, a candidate for the green LMP party, told AFP.

The winner-takes-all system brought in under Orban in 2012 handed Fidesz powerful parliamentary “supermajorities” in 2014 and 2018, despite winning less than half of the vote.

By contrast, the primaries will let opposition voters select single candidates to take on both Orban himself as well as Fidesz rivals in each of Hungary’s 106 electoral districts.

‘Innovation’

Over 250 candidates are standing in the primaries nationwide that run from September 18 to 26, with voting taking place online and in-person.

If required, a run-off for the prime ministerial candidacy will be held between Oct. 4-10.

Csardi says the primary elections are “an innovation that was forced on us” by the election system, and the only hope of seeing an anti-Fidesz candidate win.

“There are ideological differences between all the opposition parties, so primaries are the best way of deciding who becomes the common candidate,” he said in a televised debate with Ferenc Gelencser of the centrist Momentum Movement this week.

The system is popular among opposition voters too.

Gyorgy Abelovszky, a studio audience member at the debate, said they “a great idea” that “should have been introduced for previous elections.”

“I don’t support either of these opposition parties debating tonight but I will vote for whichever of them wins the candidacy here,” the 67-year-old told AFP.

That sentiment could spell the end for more than a decade of Orban rule at the general election set to be held next April.

Polls so far indicate an unpredictable parliamentary election for the first time since he came to power.

“Despite the ideological cleavages between the opposition parties, for most of their voters, next year’s election is simply about whether Viktor Orban goes or not, nothing else,” Daniel Mikecz, an analyst with the Republikon think tank, told AFP.

Cracks in the alliance?

Despite their differences, the five prime ministerial candidates at Sunday’s primetime debate — the first of three — were mostly on the same anti-Orban page.

But some have cracks in the alliance have appeared. In June, former far-right party Jobbik broke ranks by voting for a controversial anti-LGBTQ law proposed by Fidesz.

Still, the parties hope to build on their success at municipal elections in 2019 when they first applied the strategy of uniting against Fidesz.

That delivered the alliance surprise wins in Budapest and several regional cities in what was seen as the first blow to in Orban’s self-styled “illiberal” system.

Gergely Karacsony, a liberal who won the Budapest mayoralty then thanks to cross-party support, said this week that he “expects to win” the race to take on Orban.

“I can best integrate and hold together this diverse opposition.”

 
…