Serbia's Vučić visits Ukraine for the first time in EU realignment bid
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is visiting Ukraine on Wednesday, in what marks his first ever trip to the country.
During a one-day trip, Vučić is scheduled to take part in the Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit in Odesa, Serbia's Presidential Office announced.
According to Euronews' European political sources, the Serbian president's participation in the summit signals Serbia's realignment with the EU regarding Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Serbia has positioned itself as neutral when it comes to Russia's war against Ukraine, but Vučić's recent visit to Moscow for Russian President Vladimir Putin's Victory Day parade drew sharp criticism from Brussels regarding Serbia's EU membership bid.
Brussels issued a stark warning, indicating that Vučić's visit to Moscow would violate EU membership criteria and potentially hurt Serbia's accession process to the 27-member bloc.
According to Euronews' European political sources, Vučić's participation in the summit in Odesa and its symbolism should lead to Brussels reopening and expediting Serbia's EU enlargement chapters.
In this context, as a gesture towards Serbia, Ukraine did not invite Kosovo to the summit, the same sources told Euronews.
Just recently, Russia accused Serbia of exporting arms to Ukraine, calling it a "stab in the back" from one of Moscow's longest-standing European allies.
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) issued a statement claiming that "Serbian defence enterprises, contrary to the 'neutrality' declared by official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kyiv.'
The statement alleged that the export of the Serbian arms to Ukraine was going through NATO intermediaries, "primarily the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria."
"Recently, exotic options involving African states have also been used for this purpose," SVR said.
Vučić denied the accusations, saying that although a contract with the Czech Republic exists, it does not permit exporting Serbian-made materiel to another country.
He also stated Moscow and Belgrade would create a "working group" to establish how Serbian-made weapons reached Ukraine.
The Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit in Odesa will gather representatives from 12 southeastern European countries.
Among them is Romanian President Nicusor Dan, who is making his first trip to Ukraine since winning the May election.
Russia has regularly targeted the port city of Odesa in missile and drone attacks.**
On Tuesday, two people were killed after drone attacks hit residential buildings and medical facilities, including a maternity ward, officials said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said 13 people had also been injured there.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended his centrist, pro-European government before parliament on Wednesday, seeking to reassert control and rally his fractured coalition after suffering a bitter political defeat.
Tusk requested a vote of confidence in the wake of the loss of Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, a close ally, to conservative Karol Nawrocki in the 1 June presidential runoff.
Backed by US President Donald Trump, Nawrocki is set to replace outgoing President Andrzej Duda, another Law and Justice or PiS party-backed conservative who repeatedly blocked Tusk's reform efforts.
"I am asking for a vote of confidence with full conviction that we have a mandate to govern, to take full responsibility for what is happening in Poland," Tusk, who heads the Civic Platform (PO) coalition, said in Warsaw.
"Anyone who is ready to move forward with me, with the government, and above all with our voters, regardless of these momentary emotions, and build a better Poland, should vote today for a vote of confidence in our government," Tusk said.
The vote, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday afternoon, is widely expected to go in Tusk's favour.
His four-party coalition holds a narrow but stable majority in the 460-seat Sejm, Poland's lower house of parliament.
A loss would trigger the formation of a caretaker government and may open the door for an early parliamentary election.
That could potentially return power to the conservative Law and Justice party, in coalition with the far-right Confederation party, whose candidate placed third in the presidential race.
Tusk had long counted on a Trzaskowski victory to break the institutional deadlock created by Duda's vetoes. Instead, he now faces an incoming president aligned with the nationalist opposition and openly hostile to his government's legislative priorities.
"We cannot close our eyes to reality," he said. "A president who was reluctant to accept the changes we proposed for Poland and our voters is being replaced by a president who is at least equally reluctant to those changes and proposals."
But he also argued that Trzaskowski's narrow defeat indicates that there is continued strong support for those who share his views.
The election result rattled the already uneasy governing coalition, which spans from centre-left to centre-right and has struggled to deliver on key campaign pledges, including liberalising Poland's abortion law and legalising same-sex civil unions.
Tusk acknowledged the growing strains in Wednesday's address.
Many are also blaming Tusk for contributing to Trzaskowski's loss. Much of the criticism has come from within his coalition, as his partners examine whether they are better off sticking with him or risking a collapse of the coalition.
Some are calling for a new prime minister to be selected.
There are questions about what Tusk can realistically achieve before the next parliamentary election, scheduled for late 2027, and whether the coalition will even survive that long amid a surge in popularity for the far right.
Polish media and political analysts are debating whether this might be the 68-year-old Tusk's political twilight.
"I know the taste of victory, I know the bitterness of defeat, but I don't know the word surrender," Tusk said.
As part of his fresh start, he announced plans for a government reconstruction in July that will include "new faces."
He said a government spokesman would be appointed in June, an acknowledgement that the coalition needs a way to present a unified message.
So far Tusk has sought to communicate his policies to the public himself on social media and in news conferences.
Tusk served as Polish prime minister from 2007 to 2014 and then as president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He became Poland's prime minister again in December 2023 in a country hit by the pandemic and inflation and facing significant political divisions.
In a sign of those divisions, half of the parliament hall was empty on Wednesday, with lawmakers from the right-wing PiS party boycotting his speech. Tusk said their absence showed disrespect to the nation.
Most of the power in Poland's parliamentary system rests with an elected parliament and a government chosen by the parliament. However, the president can veto legislation and represent the country abroad.
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style https://assets-decodeurs.lemonde.fr/redacweb/lm-styles/lm-styles.v2.0.0.css source https://assets-decodeurs.lemonde.fr/doc_happens/2506-mali/texts-en.txt source https://assets-decodeurs.lemonde.fr/doc_happens/2506-mali/structure.txt source https://assets-decodeurs.lemonde.fr/doc_happens/2506-mali/styles.txt Africa Mali Russian Wagner group fighters secretly detained and tortured civilians in Mali By Thomas Eydoux and Benjamin Roger Published today at 6:30 pm (Paris), updated at 6:39 pm 7 min read Lire en français Subscribers only Share Share on Messenger Share on Facebook Share by email Share on Linkedin Copy link Investigation Le Monde, Forbidden Stories and media partners investigated arbitrary arrests of Malians committed by Russian mercenaries. We reveal at least six bases where civilians were illegally detained and secretly tortured."Thank God for survival." When Nawma shared what he had been through, he would often thank the heavens for sparing his life, unlike the five men who were slaughtered before his eyes by mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group, on July 31, 2024. That day, these fighters, deployed by the Malian army as auxiliaries, made another sweep through his village, Toulé, in central Mali. They were searching for jihadists, or people suspected of collaborating with them. Nawma, an imposing grocer in his fifties, a member of the Fulani ethnic group and a father of eight, had sworn that he had no connections to them. Nevertheless, he was arrested in his small shop, and taken to the mercenaries' camp near the town of Nampala, located about 15 kilometers away. Once there, he was led to a concrete building where other prisoners were being held. He was stripped naked and detained in a shower stall, and repeatedly taken out for interrogation and torture. His captors would stuff a cloth in his mouth and soak it with water until he lost consciousness. They would place a chair on his body as he lay on the ground and sit on it. They burned the skin on his hip with a lighter."They also beat me on the head until I passed out. I lost a lot of blood," he said, pointing to a scar on his forehead. After four days, he was finally released, with no further explanation, and was left deeply scarred by what he had endured. You have 86.27% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
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In the absence of new EU sanctions or changes to existing legislation, the Central Bank will remain legally bound to approve the bond prospectus, regardless of the political fallout. Meanwhile, protesters have been gathering for months outside the seat of the parliament, Leinster House, and the Central Bank, demanding that the government block Israeli bond sales. Britain's economic recovery suffered a setback in April, with gross domestic product (GDP) shrinking by 0.3% on a monthly basis, marking the steepest contraction since October 2023, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday. The contraction, which exceeded market expectations of a 0.1% fall, has renewed concerns over the UK economy's resilience and intensified pressure on both Downing Street and the Bank of England (BoE)'s policy stance. 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The wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles subsector also weighed on GDP, declining by 1.2% in April after a 0.9% expansion in March. Production output fell by 0.6% in April, with manufacturing production sliding 0.9% — adding to a 0.8% fall in the previous month. Overall industrial production contracted by 0.6%, coming in weaker than the 0.5% decline expected by analysts. Despite a rebound in construction output, which rose 0.9% month-on-month, it was not enough to counterbalance the broader economic dip. The downturn in GDP comes on the heels of deteriorating labour market data released earlier this week. The number of payrolled employees fell by 109,000 in May, the seventh consecutive monthly decline and the sharpest drop since May 2020. The total stood at 30.2 million, a 0.4% monthly fall. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6% in the three months to April, in line with expectations, while wage growth softened. Regular pay excluding bonuses increased by 5.2% year-on-year — the slowest pace in seven months and below the 5.4% forecast. Despite the mounting economic headwinds, the BoE is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged at 4.25% at its upcoming meeting next week. However, traders have increased their bets on a rate cut in August, anticipating a 0.25 percentage point reduction as the economy shows further signs of cooling. Overall, money markets are currently pricing two interest rate cuts of cumulative 50 basis points by the BoE this year. Sterling came under pressure following the GDP release, with the euro rising to 0.85 pounds — the highest level in over a month during morning trading. UK government bond yields extended their weekly declines. The yield on the two-year gilt fell to 3.90%, the lowest since early May, while the ten-year yield slipped to 4.53%. Equity markets, however, remained broadly resilient. The FTSE 100 held steady around 8,860 points, just shy of Wednesday's all-time high of 8,885. Among the notable movers, Halma plc surged over 8% on the back of strong corporate results. BP also gained 1.8%, buoyed by higher oil prices following the announcement of a trade agreement between the United States and China. On the downside, Intermediate Capital Group and EasyJet dropped 4.1% and 2.6%, respectively.
