Tuesday, May 6, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

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Large protests after annulled presidential election: “Romanians have chosen their president”

Published 14 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Photos from the protests in Bucharest.

In recent days, large-scale demonstrations have taken place in the Romanian capital Bucharest and other major cities.

The protests, which gathered more than 100,000 participants in Bucharest, target the incumbent President Klaus Iohannis and the current government, which the demonstrators consider illegitimate.

The demonstrations began after Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the results of the first round of the presidential election, in which Călin Georgescu won with 22.95% of the vote. A second round was to have been held on December 8, 2024 between Georgescu and reformist leader Elena Lasconi, but this was stopped by the court’s decision.

We are more than a 100,000 Bucharest. Iohannis has to leave, shouted one of the protesters, adding: This usurper of a president, who has elected an illegitimate government, has to leave urgently!

Protesters demand that Călin Georgescu, who won the first round of the presidential elections, be recognized as the legitimate leader of the country.

– Romanians have chosen their president. We have to resume urgently round two of the elections and let the people decide who must lead Romania!

The court’s decision was motivated by suspicions of foreign influence, particularly via social media, which allegedly benefited Georgescu’s campaign. This has been met with strong condemnation from both Georgescu and Lasconi, who say the decision is a threat to democracy.

Parallel protests in Serbia

Meanwhile, demonstrations have taken place in Serbia, where discontent over the government’s handling of a collapsed train station in Novi Sad has led to widespread protests. Some protesters have shown symbolic solidarity with their Romanian neighbors by waving Romanian flags and tearing up EU flags, underlining a regional frustration with political abuse of power.

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Only one in five deported migrants leave the EU

Migration crisis in Europe

Published today 8:33
– By Editorial Staff
Migrants at Stockholm Central Station, 2015.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at the European People’s Party (EPP) Congress in Valencia, expressed frustration that only 20% of migrants ordered to leave the EU are actually deported.

Brussels now says it is stepping up efforts to increase deportations of migrants who do not have the right to stay in Europe, reports Germany’s Welt.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen highlighted an alarming statistic during the EPP congress in Valencia: only a fifth of those ordered to leave the Union actually travel back.

She noted that the low deportation rate damages confidence in the EU’s migration policy, but could not say why.

– We cannot explain to our citizens why only one-fifth of the people who have no right to stay in Europe actually leave, von der Leyen pointed out.

She warns that the lack of results is fueling anti-immigration sentiment across the continent and that the Union must act decisively to restore citizens’ trust in the EU project.

Ursula von der Leyen

Significant increase in migrants

Migration to Europe increased significantly in 2023 with more than one million asylum seekers, according to Frontex, the EU’s border and coast guard agency. Member states are struggling to manage the influx, but the deportation process is complicated by several factors.

For example, many migrants destroy their identity documents to avoid identification, making it difficult to determine their origin.

Some countries also refuse to accept their nationals, while others lack diplomatic relations or administrative capacity to manage return migration. The EU is negotiating readmission agreements with third countries, but the process is moving extremely slowly.

Von der Leyen calls for increased cooperation with countries of origin to untie the knots.

– We must show that we can protect our borders and respect the rule of law at the same time, she adds.

She declares that illegal border crossings into the EU will be reduced by 30% by 2025, mainly thanks to cooperation with neighboring countries.

The issue is divisive

Countries such as Poland and Hungary oppose the EU’s attempt to introduce uniform asylum rules. Meanwhile, frontline countries such as Italy and Greece have expressed that they feel abandoned by more northern member states in the face of migration.

The political charge surrounding migration has long hampered cooperation within the EU. National-conservative parties in Parliament are pushing for tougher border policies and large-scale deportations, while left-liberal parties are putting the brakes on such developments.

Ursula Von der Leyen stresses that progress needs to be made quickly, such as faster judicial processes for asylum applications and more effective border controls. However, she acknowledges that the solutions are not simple and says member states need to take more responsibility for implementing common decisions.

– Without concrete progress, the EU risks losing further credibility in the eyes of its citizens, she warns.

Spain and Portugal paralyzed by massive power outage

Published 28 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Large parts of public transport in Portugal and Spain were without power.

A widespread power outage hit Spain and Portugal at lunchtime on Monday, paralyzing public transport, delaying air traffic and leading to emergency meetings of the governments of both countries.

The cause of the blackout is still unclear and efforts are underway to restore the electricity grid.

The blackout was reported in several of Spain’s largest cities – including Seville, Barcelona, Pamplona and Valencia – and in parts of southern France.

Metro services in Madrid and Barcelona were suspended, forcing travelers to evacuate trains and walk along the tracks. Phone lines went down in large parts of Spain and Madrid’s main airport was left without power.

Hundreds of office workers gathered outside buildings on the streets of Madrid as they were forced to leave their offices. Police diverted traffic and patrolled central stations with flashlights, Reuters reported.

Spain’s national system operator, Red Eléctrica, announced that a “major incident” in the transmission network could be the cause of the outage. In a press briefing, CEO Eduardo Prieto said the restoration work could take “between six and ten hours”.

In Portugal, the network operator REN explained that “it is still impossible to predict when the situation will be normalized” and that all resources are mobilized.

Want to activate the military

Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso appealed to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to activate military action to maintain order.

– We ask the national government to activate Plan 3 so that the Army can maintain order, if necessary, she said in a statement.

Sánchez immediately traveled to Red Eléctrica headquarters to follow the work on the ground.

Serbian leader warns of Western “color revolution”

Published 25 March 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Aleksandar Vulin says the forces behind the protests want to “destroy Serbia”.

According to Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin, the country is threatened by an imminent “color revolution” orchestrated by Western intelligence services.

Vulin believes the ongoing unrest in Serbia is aimed at enforcing a pro-Western power shift similar to Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution in 2014.

Student-led protests against alleged corruption and the government’s handling of a serious fatal accident have been going on for months in Serbia. The demonstrations were triggered in November 2024 after a concrete roof collapsed at a railway station in the city of Novy Sad, killing 15 people.

On March 15, thousands of protesters gathered in Belgrade, where dozens were injured in clashes between police and activists, and protests have continued to varying degrees over the past week.

A color revolution is taking place in Belgrade, Vulin declared during a meeting in Moscow this weekend, where he met Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council.

– Western security services are behind the color revolution as they want to put a new government in power, the Serbian minister continued, adding that the country’s authorities “would not allow it”.

Wants to “destroy Serbia”

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has also accused foreign actors of fuelling the unrest in order to destabilize the country, claiming that the opposition is working with intelligence services in Croatia, Albania and the West to overthrow his government.

According to Aleksandar Vulin, the West’s goal is to “destroy Serbia” because the government in Belgrade is considered pro-Russian and has refused to support sanctions against Russia despite pressure.

He predicts that the forces allegedly behind the protests could soon push for a “radicalization” of the demonstrations and that violence risks escalating.

– Those who organized (the March 15 rally) would like to see a ‘Maidan’ and are working on making that happen.

Riots and war

The 2013-2014 Euromaidan protests in Kiev were initially relatively calm but soon degenerated into full-blown riots and street wars between police and protesters with over 100 people also killed and at least 855 injured. In retrospect, it has emerged that intelligence services and other EU and US interests fueled the unrest.

In the end, pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was forced to resign and was replaced by a pro-Western interim government. The takeover was seen by many as an illegitimate coup d’état and led to the proclamation of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as independent people’s republics and Moscow’s annexation of the Russian-dominated and strategically important Crimean peninsula.

Since 2014, there has been a de facto war between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the East, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, a conflict that escalated sharply in February 2022 when Russia decided to invade Ukraine and “demilitarize” the country.

EU’s new regulations threaten the future of wood-burning stoves

The energy crisis in Europe

Published 21 March 2025
– By Editorial Staff
For many, the wood-burning stove is not only a source of energy but also a symbol of tradition and independence.

EU plans to tighten rules on wood-burning stoves and fireplaces have become a source of debate within the EU and not least in Sweden. Stricter emission limits and electricity connection requirements risk increasing costs for users by thousands of euros a year and affecting a beloved heating method.

The European Commission is currently drafting a new Ecodesign Regulation and plans to introduce it in 2027. The proposal lowers the soot particle limit from 1 500 milligrams to 500 milligrams and requires new stoves to be connected to the electricity grid for automatic combustion control.

The aim is to reduce emissions and support the EU’s climate goals, but the rules only apply to new installations – not to existing stoves.

Critics have reacted strongly to the proposal. The industry association CEFACD, which represents manufacturers of stoves and fireplaces, warns of soaring costs and fewer people upgrading to modern models.

“Threat to Swedish interests”

Frank Kienle from CEFACD states in conversation with Samnytt: – Higher prices can discourage upgrades, which harms both the environment and the industry.

– Some development is needed. It’s the same with the car industry. The lifetime of a car is maybe ten to fifteen years. For a stove it is a bit different. It can easily last for fifty years.

Swedish politicians, such as Beatrice Timgren (SD), agree and point to the risks for Sweden’s total defense, where stoves play an important role during power outages.

– The proposal now on the table is a direct threat to Swedish interests. Our total defense cannot be made dependent on the electricity grid, says Beatrice Timgren.

Translation of above tweet: “Who is affected by this proposal? There are at least 1.9 million different types of stoves and fireplaces in Sweden today. Like almost everything else in our lives, they are subject to EU micromanagement. A plethora of directives, regulations and decisions from Brussels govern every detail of the design of the products used to heat many of our cottages and houses.

House, villa and cottage owners can be forced to pay for expensive renovations and be forced to use less efficient heating systems. This is an ill-considered blow to the Swedish dream of disconnected and natural cottage life.

The rules are now proposed to be changed and will be discussed in the Commission’s expert group Forum on Ecodesign and Energy Labeling”

“The wood stove rebellion”

Sweden has a history of resistance to similar rules. In 2017, the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning introduced a ban on new installations of older wood-burning stoves, but after protests via the Facebook group “Vedspisupproret” (The Wood Stove Rebellion), the authority backed down two years later.

The movement brought together thousands of Swedes to defend the cultural and practical value of the stove, and the government was even sent logs to protest.

The current proposal is causing concern among small house owners, especially in sparsely populated areas. Electricity connection requirements work poorly for holiday homes without access to the electricity grid, with estimated costs of tens of thousands of euros for some users.

The industry argues that modern stoves meet the high standards set by the 2022 ecodesign rules, which reduce emissions by up to 90% compared to older models.

However, the EU’s work on the regulation has faced obstacles. Euractiv reported in February this year that the European Commission is postponing the presentation of the draft due to technical adjustments.

Timgren’s comments capture the frustration of many who see the stove as part of Swedish life, not just a source of heat. Meanwhile, European manufacturers risk losing ground to cheaper Chinese alternatives, according to CEFACD

Translation of above tweet: “What might the cost be? If cottage owners want to heat their houses, they will have to arrange their own electricity supply. If you live 600 meters from a connection point, such a connection costs SEK 148 875 (€13,600), according to Vattenfall.  There are over 610,000 holiday homes in Sweden. This is an attack on Swedish cottage life.”

Tradition and independence.

A 2018 European Commission report shows that domestic wood burning causes over 45% of fine particle emissions in the EU, despite accounting for only 2.7% of energy use.

Proponents argue that stricter requirements will improve air quality, while others wonder whether better information on burning techniques would be more effective. The debate thus reflects a difficult balancing act between different interest groups.

Past protests show that stoves are not just about heating, but also about tradition and independence. As the EU fine-tunes the rules, it will be crucial to balance environmental benefits against practical and cultural needs a challenge that is expected to continue to shape the debate until 2027.

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