FORMER Slovak prime minister Robert Fico and his left-wing Smer (Direction) party came first in the country’s parliamentary elections today after campaigning on a pro-Russian and anti-US message.
Mr Fico and his party got more than 23 per cent of the vote, with the pro-West Progressive Slovakia party second with 18 per cent and the left-wing Hlas (Voice) party third with 15 per cent.
The Hlas party, led by Mr Fico’s former deputy in Smer, Peter Pellegrini, alongside the pro-Russian Slovak National Party, which received 5.7 per cent, would have a parliamentary majority if they joined forces in a coalition government.
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Slovakia has backed Ukraine since Russia invaded last February, donating arms and opening the borders for refugees fleeing the war.
During the election campaign Mr Fico, who served as prime minister between 2006 and 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018, vowed to withdraw Slovakia’s military support for Ukraine if he was returned to power.
Mr Fico has blamed “Ukrainian neonazis and fascists” for provoking Russia into launching its invasion in 2022.
During the campaign he said: “The Soviets freed us from the Nazis, we should show some respect.
“We must tell the whole world that freedom comes from the East; war always comes from the West.”
Meanwhile, police officers criticised for searching campaigners’ coach and ‘undermining their right to protest’
A huge protest against the Tories in Manchester, October 1, 2023 Photo: Neil Terry / Neil Terry Photography
THOUSANDS of people marched through the streets of Manchester today telling delegates to the Tory Party conference there that they are not welcome.
Headed by the banner of the Manchester People’s Assembly, which organised the march with the national People’s Assembly, the protesters represented trade unions and a huge diversity of campaign groups expressing their anger at the destruction wrought across society by the Tories.
Disabled people, peace activists and dozens more groups marched noisily through the city centre.
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Protesters from all across the country took coaches to attend the march.
One coach transporting protesters from London was stopped by the police, who signalled the bus to follow them to Knutsford in Cheshire where it was searched by around 30 officers.
The protesters were late as a result. Activists said it undermined their right to protest and was a waste of police time and money.
Lorraine Douglas, from the Communist Party, said: “The sergeant came on and said they’d received intelligence that there were people on the bus set on doing criminal damage and they were going to search the bus for equipment that could cause criminal damage.”
The police went on to read a section of the Public Order Act.
“They refused to say what the intelligence was, and they got us all off the bus and searched the bus, found one flare and it looked like they had some magic markers or pens,” Ms Douglas said.
Study found evidence that 20mph zones also improve walking and cycling in areas. Traffic in South London.
Study in 2018 found most drivers backed plans despite PM’s claim they ‘don’t reflect people’s priorities’
The majority of drivers support 20mph speed limits, according to the government’s own research, despite Rishi Sunak claiming they are an “attack on motorists”.
The prime minister is reportedly set to announce a number of new policies aimed at drivers during the Conservative Party conference that begins this weekend, including possible limits on the powers of councils in England to impose 20mph speed limits.
Sunak today criticised Wales’ new default 20mph speed limit, describing it as “absolutely not right” and saying: “It doesn’t reflect people’s priorities.” Commons leader Penny Mordaunt had previously called the scheme “absolutely insane”.
But research commissioned by the Department for Transport in 2018 found that “20mph limits are supported by the majority of residents and drivers”.
The study, produced by the consultancy firms Atkins and AECOM and professor Mike Maher of University College London, combined “evidence from 12 case study schemes” and “feedback from over 5,400 questionnaires with a range of road users”.
It found that in areas that had introduced 20mph zones: “The majority of residents (78%) and non-resident drivers (67%) felt that 20mph was an appropriate speed for the area.
“There is little call for the limit to be changed back to 30mph (12% support amongst residents and 21% amongst non-resident drivers).”
The study also found evidence that the introduction of 20mph zones encouraged residents to use other forms of transportation or walk more often.
Lowering speed limits to 20mph was at one point Conservative Party policy: the Department for Transport commissioned the study in 2014 to “evaluate the effectiveness of 20mph” limits after publishing guidelines the previous year “encouraging traffic authorities to consider introducing more 20mph limits over time”.
Sunak has sought to present himself as being on the side of motorists following the Conservative Party’s surprise win in a July by-election in Uxbridge. The result came after the Tories campaigned heavily against the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone charge to the most polluting vehicles to outer London.
Following the party’s victory, Sunak ordered a review of low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and claimed that the Labour Party was “anti-driver”.
The proposals to limit 20mph would come just weeks after the prime minister U-turned on key net zero pledges by pushing back the deadlines for banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and the phasing out of gas boilers.
Image of InBedWithBigOil by Not Here To Be Liked + Hex Prints from Just Stop Oil’s You May Find Yourself… art auction. Featuring Rishi Sunak, Fossil Fuels and Rupert Murdoch.
As a competent adult and member of the human race there’s a responsibility on me to not feck it up for future generations – in this case not to destroy the planet, cause intolerable living conditions and drive the human race as well as many other creatures extinct. I know that the Conservative Party receives huge amounts from the fossil fuel industry and associated cnuts. Are you such a whore to this money that you’re willing to abdicate your responsibilities as an adult, a parent and prime minister?
While the aftermath of hurricanes continue to affect residents, such as those in Houston, Texas devastated by Hurricane Harvey (above), research has found that the frequency and intensity of these latest storms have done little to shift public opinion about their connection with global warming. (Photo: Texas Military Department, Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0)
“End Fossil Fuels is pretty clear,” said one advocate. “Not ‘hold slightly fewer lease sales,’ not ‘talk about climate action’—End. Fossil. Fuels.”
Rejecting the corporate media’s narrative that U.S. President Joe Biden’s newly-released offshore drilling plan includes the “fewest-ever” drilling leases, dozens of climate action and marine conservation groups on Friday said the president had “missed an easy opportunity to do the right thing” and follow through on his campaign promise to end all lease sales for oil and gas extraction in the nation’s waters.
The U.S. Interior Department announced Friday its five-year plan for the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, including three new areas in the Gulf of Mexico where fossil fuel companies will be permitted to drill.Biden promised “no new drilling, period” as a presidential candidate, and the plan was announced six months after climate advocates were incensed by the administration’s approval of the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska.The new leases will be added to more than 9,000 drilling leases that have already been sold, and is “incompatible with reaching President Biden’s goal of cutting emissions by 50-52% by 2030,” said the Protect All Our Coasts Coalition, citing the findings of Biden’s own Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its Office of Atmospheric Protection earlier this year.
While the final plan scales back from the eleven sales that were originally proposed, said the coalition, “the plan is a step backwards from the climate goals the administration has set and for environmental justice communities across the Gulf South, who are already experiencing the disproportionate impact of fossil fuel extraction across the region.”
The coalition includes the Port Arthur Community Action Network, which has called attention to the risks posed to public health in the Gulf region by continued fossil fuel extraction.
“Folks in Port Arthur, Texas die daily from cancer, respiratory, heart, and kidney disease from the very pollution that would come from more leases and drilling,” said John Beard, the founder, president, and executive director of the group. “If Biden is to truly be the environmental president, he should stop any further leasing and all forms of the petrochemical build-out, call for a climate emergency, and jumpstart the transition to clean green, renewable energy, and lift the toxic pollution from overburdened communities.”
Kendall Dix, national policy director of Taproot Earth, dismissed political think tanks that applauded the “historically few lease sales” on Friday.
“The earth does not recognize political ‘victories,'” said Dix, pointing to an intrusion of saltwater in South Louisiana’s drinking water in recent weeks, which has been exacerbated by the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis.
“As the head of the United Nations and has said, continued fossils fuel development is incompatible with human survival,” he added. “We need to transition to justly sourced renewable energy that’s democratically managed and accountable to frontline communities as quickly as possible.”
Along with groups in the Gulf region, national organizations on Friday condemned a plan that they said blatantly ignores the repeated warnings of international energy experts and the world’s top climate scientists who say no new fossil fuel expansion is compatible with a pathway to limiting planetary heating to 1.5°C.
“Sacrificing millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas extraction when scientists are clear that we must end fossil fuel expansion immediately is a gross denial of reality by Joe Biden in the face of climate catastrophe,” said Collin Rees, United States program manager at Oil Change International. “Doubling down on drilling is a direct violation of President Biden’s prior commitments and continues a concerning trend.”
Rees noted that 75,000 people marched in New York City last week to demand that Biden declare a climate emergency and end support for any new fossil fuel extraction projects.
“End Fossil Fuels is pretty clear,” said Rees, referring to campaigners’ rallying cry. “Not ‘hold slightly fewer lease sales,’ not ‘talk about climate action’—End. Fossil. Fuels.”
Biden pulls a Friday news dump w/ his new offshore oil + gas drilling plan. Spoiler alert: It sucks!
"#EndFossilFuels" is pretty clear. Not "hold slightly fewer lease sales," not "talk about climate action" — End. Fossil. Fuels.
Despite Biden’s campaign promises, Rees noted, the U.S. is currently “on track to expand fossil fuel production more than any other country by 2050.”
“I feel disgusted and incredibly let down by Biden’s offshore drilling plan. It piles more harm on already-struggling ecosystems, endangered species and the global climate,” said Brady Bradshaw, senior oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, another member of the Protect All Our Coasts Coalition. “We need Biden to commit to a fossil fuel phaseout, but actions like this condemn us to oil spills, climate disasters, and decades of toxic harm to communities and wildlife.”
The lease sales, said Sarah Winter Whelan of the Healthy Ocean Coalition, also represent a missed opportunity by the administration to treat the world’s oceans “as a climate solution, not a source for further climate disaster.”
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, negotiated by the White House last year, the government is required to offer at least 60 million acres of offshore gas and oil leases before developing new wind power projects of similar scope.
“A single new lease sale for offshore oil and gas exploration is one too many,” said Whelan. “Communities around the country are already dealing with exacerbating impacts from climate disruption caused by our reliance on fossil fuels. Any increase in our dependence on fossil fuels just bakes in greater impacts to humanity.”
Gulf communities, added Beard, “refuse to be sacrificed” for fossil fuel profits.
