logo
Romanian top court overturns president's challenge to hate speech bill

Romanian top court overturns president's challenge to hate speech bill

Yahoo17-07-2025
BUCHAREST (Reuters) -Romania's top court on Thursday struck down a challenge brought by centrist President Nicusor Dan against a bill seeking harsher punishment for antisemitism and hate speech after a divisive election in which the far right gained ground.
Parliament updated legislation outlawing the celebration of fascist leaders or imagery in June, introducing prison sentences for the promotion of antisemitism and xenophobia via social media platforms.
The bill also increases jail terms for creating or belonging to racist organisations.
However, the president argued the bill did not properly define fascists, which would lead to judges interpreting the law arbitrarily. The court unanimously ruled against his objections.
An annual report released by the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania on Wednesday said the country's election season was marked by a sharp increase of hate speech and aggression against Jewish, Roma, Hungarian and LGBT minorities - while also noting authorities were more actively enforcing legislation.
Romania cancelled a presidential election in December after allegations of Russian interference – denied by Moscow - in favour of far-right contender Calin Georgescu, who was later banned from running in the May re-run and has since been sent to trial for promoting Romania's wartime fascist leaders. He has denied all wrongdoing.
Romania had one of Europe's most violent antisemitic movements of the 1930s, the Iron Guard, known for political assassinations and pogroms. The country was also an ally of Nazi Germany until August 1944, when it changed sides.
Solve the daily Crossword
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Factbox-Key elements of EU-U.S. trade deal agreed on Sunday
Factbox-Key elements of EU-U.S. trade deal agreed on Sunday

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Factbox-Key elements of EU-U.S. trade deal agreed on Sunday

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The U.S. and the European Union agreed on a framework trade deal on Sunday, ending months of uncertainty for industry and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. Here are the main elements of the deal: * Almost all EU goods entering the U.S. will be subject to a 15% baseline tariff, including cars, which now face 27.5%, as well as semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. The 15% tariff is the maximum tariff and is not added to any existing rates. * However, the U.S. is to announce the result of its 232 trade investigations in two weeks and decide separately on tariff rates for chips and pharmaceuticals. Whatever U.S. decisions come later on these sectors will be "on a different sheet of paper", European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. * The U.S. and EU will have zero-for-zero tariffs on all aircraft and their components, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials. More products would be added. The situation for spirits is still to be established. * Tariffs on European steel and aluminium will stay at 50%, but von der Leyen said these would later be cut and replaced by a quota system. * The EU pledged to buy $250 billion of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year for three years, totalling $750 billion in total, as it replaces Russian gas. The EU will also buy nuclear fuel from the U.S. * Under the deal, the EU pledged to buy U.S. military equipment and European companies are to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the course of Trump's second term. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Analysis-Out-gunned Europe accepts least-worst US trade deal
Analysis-Out-gunned Europe accepts least-worst US trade deal

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Analysis-Out-gunned Europe accepts least-worst US trade deal

By Mark John LONDON (Reuters) -In the end, Europe found it lacked the leverage to pull Donald Trump's America into a trade pact on its terms and so has signed up to a deal it can just about stomach - albeit one that is clearly skewed in the U.S.'s favour. As such, Sunday's agreement on a blanket 15% tariff after a months-long stand-off is a reality check on the aspirations of the 27-country European Union to become an economic power able to stand up to the likes of the United States or China. The cold shower is all the more bracing given that the EU has long portrayed itself as an export superpower and champion of rules-based commerce for the benefit both of its own soft power and the global economy as a whole. For sure, the new tariff that will now be applied is a lot more digestible than the 30% "reciprocal" tariff which Trump threatened to invoke in a few days. While it should ensure Europe avoids recession, it will likely keep its economy in the doldrums: it sits somewhere between two tariff scenarios the European Central Bank last month forecast would mean 0.5-0.9% economic growth this year compared to just over 1% in a trade tension-free environment. But this is nonetheless a landing point that would have been scarcely imaginable only months ago in the pre-Trump 2.0 era, when the EU along with much of the world could count on U.S. tariffs averaging out at around 1.5%. Even when Britain agreed a baseline tariff of 10% with the United States back in May, EU officials were adamant they could do better and - convinced the bloc had the economic heft to square up to Trump - pushed for a "zero-for-zero" tariff pact. It took a few weeks of fruitless talks with their U.S. counterparts for the Europeans to accept that 10% was the best they could get and a few weeks more to take the same 15% baseline which the United States agreed with Japan last week. "The EU does not have more leverage than the U.S., and the Trump administration is not rushing things," said one senior official in a European capital who was being briefed on last week's negotiations as they closed in around the 15% level. That official and others pointed to the pressure from Europe's export-oriented businesses to clinch a deal and so ease the levels of uncertainty starting to hit businesses from Finland's Nokia to Swedish steelmaker SSAB. "We were dealt a bad hand. This deal is the best possible play under the circumstances," said one EU diplomat. "Recent months have clearly shown how damaging uncertainty in global trade is for European businesses." NOW WHAT? That imbalance - or what the trade negotiators have been calling "asymmetry" - is manifest in the final deal. Not only is it expected that the EU will now call off any retaliation and remain open to U.S. goods on existing terms, but it has also pledged $600 billion of investment in the United States. The time-frame for that remains undefined, as do other details of the accord for now. As talks unfolded, it became clear that the EU came to the conclusion it had more to lose from all-out confrontation. The retaliatory measures it threatened totalled some 93 billion euros - less than half its U.S. goods trade surplus of nearly 200 billion euros. True, a growing number of EU capitals were also ready to envisage wide-ranging anti-coercion measures that would have allowed the bloc to target the services trade in which the United States had a surplus of some $75 billion last year. But even then, there was no clear majority for targeting the U.S. digital services which European citizens enjoy and for which there are scant homegrown alternatives - from Netflix to Uber to Microsoft cloud services. It remains to be seen whether this will encourage European leaders to accelerate the economic reforms and diversification of trading allies to which they have long paid lip service but which have been held back by national divisions. Describing the deal as a painful compromise that was an "existential threat" for many of its members, Germany's BGA wholesale and export association said it was time for Europe to reduce its reliance on its biggest trading partner. "Let's look on the past months as a wake-up call," said BGA President Dirk Jandura. "Europe must now prepare itself strategically for the future - we need new trade deals with the biggest industrial powers of the world." (Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Christian Kraemer and Maria Martinez in Berlin; Writing by Mark John; Editing by Nick Zieminski) Sign in to access your portfolio

Macron Embraces a Palestinian Mirage
Macron Embraces a Palestinian Mirage

Wall Street Journal

timean hour ago

  • Wall Street Journal

Macron Embraces a Palestinian Mirage

French President Emmanuel Macron is having a rough go at home with a 19% approval rating. That may explain at least in part his attempt at making headlines with a vanity project abroad. 'Consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognize the State of Palestine,' Mr. Macron said Thursday. 'In doing so,' he wrote to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, 'France will make a decisive contribution to peace in the Middle East.' It's hard to see how. A Palestinian state doesn't exist, though it's recognized by some 147 nations, many of which did so with the Soviet Union in 1988. 'Here's the good news,' President Trump commented on Mr. Macron's move on Friday. 'What he says doesn't matter. It's not going to change anything.' France isn't involved in any of the serious diplomacy, so it can ignore the real obstacles—Palestinian rejection of a Jewish state in any borders, Hamas's power and popularity, and Israeli reluctance following the hard education of the second intifada, Gaza disengagement and the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store