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Tuesday, July 1, 2025

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https://nordictimes.com/europe/ikea-gives-millions-to-former-gdr-forced-laborers/

Europe

IKEA gives millions to former GDR forced laborers

Published 10 November 2024
– By Editorial Staff
1 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

The Swedish furniture giant promises to pay nearly 70 million SEK to a fund for forced laborers from the GDR also known as East Germany.

When Germany’s coalition government took office in 2021, it promised to set up a fund for victims of the GDR regime before Germany’s unification in 1990. An independent investigation in 2012 found that IKEA had suppliers who used political prisoners as forced laborers in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

– We deeply regret that products for IKEA were also manufactured by political prisoners, Walter Kadnar, head of IKEA in Germany, told Swedish TV4 News.

Representatives of the victims say the furniture giant’s support for the fund is “an expression of a responsible approach to the dark chapters in the company’s history”.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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https://nordictimes.com/europe/95-percent-of-hungarians-reject-ukraines-eu-membership/

Europe

95 percent of Hungarians reject Ukraine’s EU membership

Published today 12:58
– By Editorial Staff
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claims that Hungary has now "blocked" Ukraine's accession to the European Union.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced late last week that the country opposes Ukraine’s application for European Union membership. The announcement follows a consultative referendum where 95 percent of Hungarian voters voted against Ukrainian EU membership.

– I will say today, in the voice of more than two million Hungarians, that Hungary does not support Ukraine’s accession to the EU. These are the bare facts, Orbán stated before the EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

The referendum, called Voks 2025, ran from mid-April to June 20. Voters were asked a single question: “Do you support Ukraine’s membership in the European Union?”

According to Orbán, 2,168,431 Hungarians voted no (95 percent of voters) while only five percent voted yes.

Orbán also emphasized that Hungary’s rejection cannot be ignored, as EU rules require unanimous approval from all 27 member states for a country to begin membership negotiations.

– A unanimous decision is needed even to launch negotiations on the matter. We don’t have it, therefore they should not happen. Nothing can happen today that has a legal effect on the matter of Ukraine’s EU membership… because Hungary does not support it, he stressed.

“2.2 million standing in the way”

Ukraine made EU membership a national goal in 2019 and submitted its formal application in 2022, shortly after the war with Russia intensified. The country was granted candidate status in June of the same year, and the EU has mentioned 2030 as a possible entry year.

However, support for Ukraine’s membership has decreased in several EU countries. A recent opinion poll in Poland shows that support has dropped from 85 to 35 percent since 2022.

Orbán accuses EU leaders of trying to bypass Hungary to push forward Ukraine’s application:

– They have not been able to do that so far, even though I was standing alone in their way, like the famous lone Chinese protester in front of the Chinese tanks in Tiananmen Square in the old video, but now there were 2.2 million of us standing in their way, saying that this is not the way forward.

Enormous cost for the EU

According to Orbán, Ukrainian membership risks drawing the EU into an “endless war” and imposing the responsibility of financing Ukraine’s defense on EU taxpayers.

– With over two million votes in the 2025 referendum, we stopped Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, the Prime Minister further declared.

His advisor, Balázs Orbán, has previously estimated that full membership for Ukraine would cost the EU approximately 2,500 billion euros, which is more than twelve times larger than the union’s current budget.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/europe/crisis-for-von-der-leyen-no-confidence-vote-expected/

Europe

Crisis for von der Leyen – no-confidence vote expected

Published 26 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Ursula von der Leyen (archive photo).
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen now faces a potential no-confidence vote following the so-called “Pfizergate” scandal.

The initiative comes from right-wing members of the European Parliament but has also gained support from certain social democratic and liberal party groups, who criticize the lack of transparency in the Commission’s work.

The background is a court decision from May this year, where the European Court of Justice ruled that the Commission wrongfully refused to release text messages between von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla regarding vaccine procurement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

– These contracts were totally unprecedented in a totally unprecedented context, said an EU official before the ruling.

The court found that the Commission’s claim that the messages had “disappeared” was not sufficiently substantiated, which violates EU administrative statutes on transparency and oversight.

The no-confidence motion was initiated by Romanian MEP Gheorghe Piperea, who has secured over 72 signatures – enough to force a vote in parliament.

Two-thirds majority required

Dismissing the entire Commission requires a two-thirds majority, which is currently considered unlikely. Despite this, the no-confidence vote is expected to create political repercussions.

Von der Leyen may, for instance, be forced to make concessions to Parliament in light of the situation. Particularly regarding issues of transparency, document management, and openness in decision-making.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. Montage: TNT-Manuel Lopez/Pascal Bitz/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The scandal has also highlighted a broader debate about how EU leadership handles documentation and accountability. Many argue that digital communications – such as text messages and chat messages – must be included in public records when concerning decisions of major public interest.

The vote on the no-confidence motion is preliminarily planned for the coming months. No official date has been set yet, but expectations are that the vote will take place shortly after sufficient members have backed the initiative.

According to current EU legal procedures, the European Commission normally has two months to appeal the European Court of Justice’s decision from when the ruling was issued. This gives the Commission an opportunity to formally challenge the court’s assessment before any further actions are taken.

Even if Ursula von der Leyen survives the vote, it will likely leave lingering concerns about the Commission’s transparency and her ability to pursue her policies without internal resistance.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

What does a motion of no confidence against the European Commission mean?

  • A motion of no confidence is directed at the entire European Commission, not just the President.
  • If the European Parliament approves the motion, the entire Commission must resign collectively.
  • To dismiss the Commission, a two-thirds majority of Members of the European Parliament is required.
  • A motion of no confidence is rare and is considered a serious political expression of lack of confidence.
  • Even if a motion of no confidence does not lead to resignation, it can weaken the Commission's leadership and force political concessions, particularly on issues of transparency and accountability.

https://nordictimes.com/europe/german-police-raids-target-170-suspected-thought-criminals/

Europe

German police raids target 170 suspected thought criminals

The threat to freedom of speech

Published 26 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
10,732 hate-related cybercrimes were registered during 2024 - a 34 percent increase compared to 2023 and almost a fourfold increase since 2021.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Early morning on June 25, German police conducted over 170 house searches in a coordinated operation targeting individuals suspected of insulting government officials or expressing political views that violate current legislation.

The operation was led by the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) and marked the twelfth national operation against so-called politically motivated crimes of this nature.

The operation primarily targeted individuals who had published nationalist and immigration-critical content, but also individuals with links to alleged religious extremism and left-wing extremist movements.

According to reports, two-thirds of the suspects had made “far-right” statements. Several are also being investigated for violations of a paragraph in the German Criminal Code that prohibits insults against politicians – a law that has been increasingly applied in recent years.

Particularly politicians from The Green Party have, according to media reports, chosen to pursue legal action against individuals who have insulted them. The current legislation has resulted in fines for people who have called politicians “idiots” or published derogatory images.

“Digital arsonists”

The raids began at six o’clock in the morning, during which a large number of computers, mobile phones, and tablets were seized.

– Digital arsonists must not be able to hide behind their cell phones or computers, declared Herbert Reul (CDU), Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, in a comment.

– Many people have forgotten the difference between hatred and opinion, but it’s so simple: If you don’t do it in the real world, it’s not appropriate to do it digitally. It’s time for more attitude, offline and online.

According to Germany’s Federal Police, a total of 10,732 crimes related to so-called hate posts online were registered during 2024 – an increase of about 34 percent compared to the previous year. Compared to 2021, the number has almost quadrupled.

Harsh criticism

German legislation regarding alleged hate propaganda and insults has long been subject to international criticism, and high-ranking U.S. politicians have repeatedly expressed concern about how these laws affect freedom of expression. U.S. Vice President JD Vance has called them stifling and claimed they limit the possibility of free opinion formation.

At the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, Vance suggested that U.S. support for NATO could be affected by how Germany handles freedom of speech issues.

– Insulting someone is not a crime, and criminalizing speech is going to put real strain on European-US relationships. This is Orwellian, and everyone in Europe and the US must reject this lunacy, he urged on another occasion when German repression against dissidents came to light.

German politicians have defended their legal practice, claiming that the legislation aims to counter harmful rhetoric while maintaining a balance between freedom of expression and protection against hate crimes.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/europe/british-pupils-in-minority-at-one-in-four-schools/

Europe

British pupils in minority at one in four schools

Population replacement in the West

Published 9 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
In 72 schools, there are no longer any white pupils at all - and in hundreds of others, there are only a small number of white pupils.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

White British children are now in the minority in a quarter of all schools in England, according to an analysis by The Telegraph based on official school statistics from early 2025.

Of the more than 21,500 schools included in the statistics, 72 have no white pupils at all, while in another 454 schools they make up less than two percent of the student body.

The demographic transformation is most noticeable in the country’s larger cities. At Rockwood Academy in Birmingham, none of the school’s 1,084 pupils were registered as “white British”, according to the newspaper. At Loxford School in Redbridge, east London, only 12 of the school’s 2,779 pupils were white British.

The trend is particularly prominent in areas such as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford, and Leicester. In London, white British children are in the minority in all but one of the 32 boroughs – Bromley – where they account for 50.3 percent of the population. In Newham and Harrow, the corresponding figures are as low as five and seven percent, respectively.

“The school census data demonstrates that the white British share of the young population is in decline in many areas”, writes the newspaper.

“A nation of strangers”

Recently, The Nordic Times drew attention to another British report that predicts that white Britons as a group will be in the minority in the UK as early as the beginning of the 2060s. The forecast is based on analyses of migration, birth rates, and mortality, and indicates that the proportion of white Britons could decline from around 73 percent today to around 33.7 percent by the end of the century.

The study was conducted by Professor Matt Goodwin at Buckingham University. He believes that this development raises “deep questions about Britain’s ability to absorb and manage this scale of demographic change“.

Goodwin also warns that the trend is likely to cause “considerable anxiety, concern and political opposition” among voters – something he believes the country must actively address to avoid “considerable political turbulence and polarisation in the years and decades to come”.

– By the end of this century, most people on these islands will not be able to trace their roots in this country back more than one or two generations. This raises enormous questions about our leaders’ ability to bring people together around a common identity, values and culture, and avoid the risk of becoming what Sir Keir Starmer called in May ‘a nation of strangers’“, he notes.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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