РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.

COM/WSNWS

B R E X I T: T WO Y E A R S A F T ER T H E VOT E | J U N E 2 1 -2 7, 2 0 1 8 | VO LU M E 4, N U M B ER 2 3
ISSN 2406-5250 | DAVID VINTNER / THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE VIA NEWS LICENSING

Nigel
Farage’s
last laugh
BY CHARLIE COOPER IN LONDON | PAGES 17-20
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
2 POLITICO JUNE 2, 2018

CATCHING OUR EYE BREXIT QUOTABLE

”Despite the
Angry British expats mistakes made
by leaders of

confront UK envoy at the European

People’s
Party at our
EU departure update expense, we
have decided
to continue
Britain’s ambassador to Belgium, Alison Rose, standing with
won plaudits for bravery when she faced frustrat- this European
ed and sometimes angry U.K. expats in leafy Ter- family of
vuren on Tuesday evening, but may regret her parties.” —
decision not to “hide away in the embassy” until Hungarian
after Brexit. “There is nothing that I have heard Prime Minister
tonight that reassures me,” said one of 50 Brits Viktor Orbán
gives a
who gathered in the British School of Brussels
lukewarm
to hear the ambassador’s update on Brexit talks. endorsement of
“It’s worrying that there’s no plan for ‘no deal.’” his own group.

Freedom of movement, or the potential lack

thereof, was a top concern. “I understand peo-
ple’s concerns, but we think it’s important to let
people know what’s been agreed and what still
has to be agreed,” the ambassador told POLITI- COCKTAIL TIP
At an AI Summit on Monday, futuristic employment agency Hubot let its imagination run wild. Can you CO’s Stephen Brown.
guess what this job of the future is? A) a robot octopus; B) a multifunction backpack; C) a six-handed
massage therapist. (See bottom right for answer.) Photo by European Economic and Social Committee 

EU
BRUSSELS BUBBLE

The dead-tree version of the No. 1 EU news

EU outreach prize Life is
Beautiful, the
and politics podcast. Your guide to the good, boomerangs back on original A-grade
but friendly
the bad and the absurd in European politics.
Brussels

COnFIDEnTIaL
Brussels
cocktail bar,
is celebrating
The European Commission this week is officially its second
awarding the Altiero Spinelli Prize for “outreach” anniversary
to 22 people, who will receive cash prizes of up this week by
to €50,000. One group of second-prize winners opening a store
for all your
plans to use their €30,000 with immediate effect:
home cocktail
Roberto Castaldi of the “Collective Pro-EU Appeal needs, opposite
and March for Europe” told EU Confidential the the bar on
group has enlisted the Union of European Feder- Rue Antoine
alists to organize a protest aimed at … EU leaders. Dansaert.
PRESENTED THIS WEEK BY MARTENS CENTRE BY RYAN HEATH AND GABRIELA GALINDO

The rally will urge national leaders at next week’s

European Council summit to “wake up” Europe
“if you still believe in the European project.” The
demonstration is set for June 28 at 1 p.m., next to
CATCHING UP WITH . . . the Schuman roundabout.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka EU WTF?!

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF U.N. WOMEN

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka roared light Initiative, a U.N. campaign to

with laughter at the idea that the eliminate violence against women
#MeToo movement has gone too and girls.
far. “There’s about 10 men at most “Domestic violence affects every
who have faced music” amid “a class, every race, every group. It is
billion women who are victims of a universal problem. There isn’t a
violence,” she told POLITICO’s Gin- country in the world that does not
ger Hervey  have this problem,” Mlambo-Ngcu-
Few people complain that cam- ka said. Today we host
paigns to hold accountable priests Fast facts She argued that when leaders our flagship
who have abused children have — she didn’t name names — can event: the
gone too far, she noted, adding High office: be elected despite having track re- Economic
that “only about 10 percent of Served as cords of sexual violence, “this is a Ideas Forum.
people who are affected by vio- deputy crisis of integrity of society.” #EIF18 is an
award-winning
lence actually report [it] and less president of But she said she’s expecting ma- conference
than 10 percent have their cases South Africa jor change soon. “The fact is that bringing
looked through up to comple-
tion.”
from 2005 to
2008.
people are afraid to report [abuse]
because they don’t think that they
Boris Becker’s together the
brightest minds
Mlambo-Ngcuka praised Hol-
lywood actresses and other high- Patriarchy:
will be believed.” 
As with campaigns against diplomatic career fault from Europe’s
digital and
profile individuals for their efforts “Is affirmative slavery and apartheid, attitudes political life.
to build a movement against sexual action for toward sexual violence will also The efforts of former tennis champion Boris If you haven’t
harassment and violence. “Many men.” evolve in the end, Mlambo-Ngcuka Becker to reverse a court-ordered bankruptcy registered
already or you
other women who do not enjoy said, just as attitudes toward rac- declaration hit a rough patch this week. Becker are not in Paris,
similar media attention have also Escaped: Left ism have fundamentally changed claimed diplomatic immunity — as the Central make sure to
been able to tell their stories,” she apartheid-era in just a few decades. African Republic’s attaché for sports and cultural tune in to our
said. “This was about sanction- South Africa in Today “people will respond if affairs in the European Union — only to watch livestream on
ing powerful men who otherwise 1984 to work someone is being racist to them. as the country’s ministers engaged in a sparring Politico.eu
would have seemed untouchable. for the World  They will report you. You know, match over whether his diplomatic passport is
It does convey a message that even Young Starbucks will close the shop and fake.
if you are very powerful, the law Women’s have a workshop the whole day to
may catch up with you.” Christian address this. Have you ever had It seems Becker will have started and ended his
MASSAGES”.
SIX-HANDED
The United Nations’ most senior Association  any company coming to a stand- diplomatic career quicker than the Trump ad- “OVERWHELMING
CAPABLE OF GIVING
advocate for women’s rights was (YWCA) in still because women are being ha- ministration could nominate an ambassador to SHIVA THERAPIST,
in Brussels to promote the Spot- Geneva. rassed?” Brussels. 
ANSWER: A

Listen to the podcast New episode every Friday | Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/politicoeuconfidential | Apple devices: Search podcasts for EU Confidential
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

SUMMIT 2018
OCTOBER 8-9, 2018 | Campus Biotech, Geneva

POLITICO and Le Temps are taking you back to Geneva on October 8-9 for their 3rd Annual Health Care Summit,
where the industry’s top minds together with key policymakers, scientists, and patient representatives will examine
the promises of prevention in making our health care systems fit for the 21st century.

„How can we effectively incentivize preventive care?

„How can we leverage innovative medical devices and diagnostics to accelerate prevention and early detection?
„How can we address vaccine hesitancy and further build immunity globally?

Discover more: www.healthcaresummit.eu

@EventsPOLITICO FEATURED SPEAKERS

@LeTemps
#POLITICOHealth

SORINA PINTEA
MINISTER OF HEALTH, ROMANIA

RIINA SIKKUT
MINISTER OF HEALTH AND LABOUR, REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA

JAYASREE K. IYER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ACCESS TO MEDICINE FOUNDATION

CARLO PETTINELLI
DIRECTOR OF CONSUMER, ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH
TECHNOLOGIES, DG GROW, EUROPEAN COMMISSION

PROFESSOR GUIDO RASI

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EUROPEAN MEDICINES AGENCY (EMA)

PRESENTING PARTNERS VENUE PARTNER

For sponsorship opportunities, please contact sromeo@politico.eu

 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
BRUSSELS BEAT
4 POLITICO JUNE 21, 2018

Agenda LOBBYING AROUND TOWN TRADE

Thursday: Report gives How (not) to

Eurogroup of
eurozone finance tips for EU brand a new
ministers meet to
discuss Greece, lobby world idea
Luxembourg.

Friday: EU A new report by consultancy Ell- MEPs in the European Parliament’s

economics wood Atfield estimates that 13,400
and finance people in the Brussels bubble work
ministers meet, directly for associations that at-
Luxembourg. tempt to influence the EU. Another
2,500 work as NGO and corporate
Monday: EU affairs advocates. The group rec-
foreign affairs ommends association members
and defense play like a team if they want to win
ministers meet, the EU influence game, and said
Luxembourg. individual accountability, shared
EU environment responsibility and open commu-
ministers meet, nication are the top attributes of
Luxembourg. successful association secretari-
ats. Report author Mark Dober,
who based his conclusions on a
Tuesday: EU27
randomly distributed survey, said
ministers in
a good association leader must be
the General
trusted by the people they want to
Affairs Council
influence, be able to cope with “be-
meet to discuss
ing rejected or slapped down by
Brexit talks,
policy-makers” and be proactive: a
Luxembourg.
rulemaker, not a rule-taker.
trade committee are on Thursday
set to debate the subject of “How
to include ‘Mode 5’ services com-
mitments in bilateral free trade
agreements and at multilateral
stage.” The concept of Mode 5 —
conceived by European Commis-
sion trade economists — is that
trade in services can happen as
part of the sale of a certain good.
For example, a car with GPS is a
bundle of products and services,
not just a physical car. It’s an exten-
sion of an old theory that there are
only four modes for trade in ser-
Moroccan football fans gather in a cafe in the Molenbeek district of Brussels, to watch vices. The problem: No one in the
their country’s World Cup match against Iran. The Moroccans left dejected, after real world knows anything about
conceding a last-minute goal to lose the game 1-0. BENAS GERDZIUNAS FOR POLITICO the first four modes and “Mode 5”
is not self-explanatory.
— Ryan Heath
Corrections
POLITICO is committed to correcting errors that appear in its print edition. To contact the newsroom
regarding a correction request, please email editorial@politico.eu or call (+32) 02 540 9090.

Career track
ON TO LUXEMBOURG: Viviane Reding,
a center-right MEP and former European
Commission vice president, will leave her
Parliament post in September to run in the
Luxembourgish general election.
PROTOCOL PROMOTION: Pernilla Sjölin
has been promoted to deputy chief of
protocol at the European Commission.
RECRUITMENT SPECIALIST: Paul
Adamson of Flint Global is now a senior
adviser at European Affairs Recruitment
Specialists.
TELECOMS MOVES: At AT&T, Karim
Antonio Lesina is now senior vice president Rodríguez-Toquero is going to the European
of international external and regulatory affairs Commission. Mateo Domecq has left to
and Antonio Amendola is now executive work for a judge at the Court of Justice of
director for EMEA regulatory affairs. the EU.
LEGAL LEAVINGS: At Hogan Lovells, BANKING: Malte Kilian has joined
Mélanie Perez is about to leave to go to Deutsche Bank as assistant vice president in
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Jaime government and public affairs.

SPONSORED JOB
P OL I T IC O SPR L
A JOINT VENTURE BETWEEN
POLITICO AND AXEL SPRINGER

EX EC U T I V E

John F. Harris
Managing Director SFC EDITOR IN CHIEF

Matthew Kaminski
'74GRTGUGPVCVKQP1HƂEG EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Sheherazade Semsar-de Boisséson

MANAGING DIRECTOR

The Swiss Finance Council is looking for Q Experience in regulatory positioning

a Managing Director to head its Brussels and advocacy on international level EDI T OR I A L
Ài«ÀiÃi˜Ì>̈ÛiœvwVi°
Q In-depth understanding of challenges
Stephen Brown Kate Day Nirvi Shah
The Council was established in 2013 to v>Vˆ˜}̅iw˜>˜Vˆ>ÃiV̜À MANAGING EDITOR EDITOR, UK EXPANSION EDITOR
engage in dialogue around policy de-
Ûiœ«“i˜Ìà ˆ˜ w˜>˜Vi° Ì >À̈VՏ>Ìià >˜` Q Track-record in senior stakeholder Florian Eder Tim Ball Stephan Faris
advocates for the interests of of Swiss management MANAGING EDITOR, EXPANSION CREATIVE DIRECTOR ENTERPRISE EDITOR
internationally active banks with EU insti-
tutions. QProven team management skills SENIOR POLICY EDITOR.................................................................JAN CIENSKI PRODUCTION EDITOR ....................................................... JEANETTE MINNS
SLOT NEWS EDITOR ................................................................ PAUL DALLISON SENIOR POLICY EDITOR ................................................. CHRISTIAN OLIVER
The key responsibilities of the Managing SKILLS NEWS EDITOR............................................................................... ANDREW GRAY NEWS EDITOR....................................................................JAMES RANDERSON
Director include: NEWS EDITOR/FINANCIAL SERVICES ................................. CHARLES LEE NEWS EDITOR/TECHNOLOGY .................................NICHOLAS VINOCUR
Q Excellent oral and written communica-
Q Manage the Council’s EU representa- tion and presentation skills
̈œ˜œvwVi
Q Strong understanding of corporate or- BUSINESS

Q Represent the Council with EU-level ganizations

institutions Guillaume Blandet Johannes Boege Dari Gessner
Q Articulate, persuasive, goal-oriented CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER

Q Develop joint policy positions on be- professional

half of the SFC
Q Pro-active and collaborative personal- P OL I T IC O. E U
Q Advocate for the interests of the SFC ity with the ability to act in a dynamic
with relevant policy-makers and complex environment FOLLOW US ON TWITTER SEND COMMENTS TO:
@PoliticoEurope letters@politico.eu
The Managing Director manages a small Q Fluent in English, preference for good
team of experts and reports to the SFC command of German C ONTAC T US
Chairman.
INTERESTED?
Editorial Sales Subscriptions
REQUIREMENTS
Direct applications only. (+32) 02 540 9068
EDITORIAL@POLITICO.EU
(+32) 02 540 9073
SALES@POLITICO.EU
(+32) 02 540 9098
SUBSCRIPTIONS@POLITICO.EU
Q Minimum 10 years of experience with
EU-level policy, regulatory or govern- Applications are being handled by Martin
mental affairs Kuonen, COO of the Swiss Finance Council
in Switzerland at sfc@centrepatronal.ch. Print edition: €199 (excluding VAT) for one year. Subscribe at politico.eu/subscribe. Printed on recycled paper by Corelio
Printing, Keerstraat 10, B-9420 Erpe-Mere, in the coldset printing department of VUM – Groot-Bijgaarden, Brussels. © POLITICO.
All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the the prior permission of: POLITICO SPRL Dénomination
sociale: POLITICO SPRL. Forme sociale: SPRL. Siège social: Rue de la Loi 62, 1040 Bruxelles. Numéro d’enterprise: 0526.900.436. RPM Bruxelles
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
NEWS
JUNE 21, 2018 POLITICO 5

IRELanD’S
BREXIT
DIVIDEnD
Momentum is gathering on both sides of
the border for the reunification of the island
The history of Ireland could one day be divided into two eras:
before the Brexit referendum, and after it ¶ Until Britain voted
to leave the European Union, the idea that Northern Ireland
would one day perform a Brexit of its own and leave the United
Kingdom to join the rest of the island in a single united Ireland BY NAOMI O’LEARY IN BELFAST

seemed at best a distant possibility ¶ Then came June 23, 2016. ILLUSTRATION BY PETER STRAIN FOR POLITICO

SEE IRELAND ON PAGE 30

 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
6 POLITICO NEWS
Brussels’ oncoming ‘illiberal’ headache
BY CARMEN PAUN
De facto IN BUCHAREST
leader in
Just don’t call him Kaczyński.
Bucharest Liviu Dragnea, president of Ro-
says the mania’s ruling Social Democrats
(PSD), may be running the country
EU needs without being prime minister, like Po-
to show land’s Jarosław Kaczyński. And fears
Romania are rising at home and in Brussels
that he is steering his country in the
more same “illiberal” direction as Poland
respect and Viktor Orbán’s Hungary.
The man himself dismisses talk of
any similarity with the Polish Law and
Justice party (PiS) leader, saying in
an interview with POLITICO: “I don’t
know Mr. Kaczyński, so I don’t know
if there’s any resemblance between
us. I’m myself, just like every politi-
cal leader is his own man.”
Whether Dragnea will truly be-
come Brussels’ next illiberal migraine
will depend a lot on how events un-
fold in the coming weeks. Since lead-
ing his party to a 45 percent victory
in a parliamentary election in 2016,
Dragnea has forced the resignation
Turkey’s
opposition
might actually
have a chance
Firebrand teacher brings the fight to
Erdoğan in Sunday’s snap election
BY ZIA WEISE
IN ISTANBUL
Turkey’s opposition, long written
off as toothless, has rediscovered its
bite.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s
challengers are gaining momentum
ahead of a snap election Sunday —
their confidence buoyed by the en-
“Come on ergetic campaign of Muharrem Ince,
television. a firebrand politician and former
Aren’t you physics teacher who has become
a world Erdoğan’s foremost rival in the race
leader? for Turkey’s presidency.
Ince — the nominee of the secular-
Why won’t ist Republican People’s Party (CHP)
you come? — has won popularity with boisterous
[...] Don’t political rhetoric not unlike Erdoğan’s
be afraid, I own.
won’t eat On Saturday, while campaigning
on Istanbul’s Asian side, he took the
you.” president to task over issues rang-
ing from economic mismanage-
Muharrem Ince ment to democratic erosion, taunt-
taunts Turkish ing Erdoğan for rejecting a televised
President Recep debate.
Tayyip Erdoğan. “We’ll only talk about the econ-
omy,” he shouted as he paced back
and forth on top of a campaign bus
in Üsküdar, a largely conservative
neighborhood where Erdoğan owns
a house. “Come on television. Aren’t
of two prime ministers, pushed for-
ward a controversial overhaul of the
justice system and infuriated other
Romanian politicians by suggesting
the country follow the lead of U.S.
President Donald Trump in Israel
and move its embassy to Jerusalem.
Dragnea — who is barred from
serving as prime minister because
of a suspended jail sentence for an
attempt to rig a referendum in 2012 —
is facing new charges of corruption,
with Romania’s High Court expected
to deliver a ruling Thursday.
As the date has neared, Dragnea
has ramped up tensions. At the end of
May, Romania’s Constitutional Court
ruled in favor of an effort by the PSD
government to fire the country’s top
anti-corruption prosecutor, Laura
Codruta Kövesi. Dragnea has threat-
ened to impeach Romanian President
Klaus Iohannis if he doesn’t proceed
with the dismissal.
“The potential [for Romania to
take an illiberal turn] is there,” said
Paul Ivan, senior policy analyst at the
European Policy Center. “There are
you a world leader? Why won’t you
come?”
The crowd packing the shorefront
square in the scalding June heat
cheered, but Ince was not finished:
“Look, the people of Üsküdar want
you to, Erdoğan. Don’t be afraid, I
won’t eat you. Come!” he roared.
‘ENOUGH’
The odds are still firmly in Erdoğan’s
favor on June 24, which will be the
first time Turkey holds simultane-
ous parliamentary and presidential
elections.
But the opposition candidates
hope to force him into a run-off on
July 8 — and most polls show Erdoğan
falling narrowly short of 50 percent in
the first round, suggesting they might
stand a chance.
Sunday will also mark the day
the country’s constitutional reforms
come into force, endowing the presi-
dent with vast executive powers as
approved in a controversial referen-
elements that point in that direction.”
At a recent PSD rally, Dragnea
accused what he calls “the parallel
state” — which he defines as a con-
spiracy by the intelligence services,
police officers, customs officials, fi-
nancial authorities, prosecutors and
judges — of trying to take down the
PSD government.
“Don’t think that only dignitaries
are targets,” he told the crowd. “You
can all become targets of this repul-
sive system,” he said. In response,
the crowd cheered: “Liviu Dragnea,
don’t give up, we are on your side!”
Romania’s foreign partners — in-
cluding NATO and the EU — encour-
aged and “partially financed this par-
allel state and this repulsive system,”
Dragnea said in a television interview
the next day.
BEER AND SAUSAGES
Gray-haired, 55 years old, with a dap-
per moustache, Dragnea presides
over the lower chamber of the Ro-
manian parliament from an impos-
ing office in the building erected by
dum last year. The opposition can-
didates have vowed to roll back the
changes and return to parliamentary
rule.
If a second round takes place,
Ince will likely be the one to face off
against Erdoğan — an unexpected
turn of events, as the president and
his ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) had counted on CHP to
nominate its mild-mannered leader
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Kılıçdaroğlu, however, surprised
many by choosing Ince, an outspo-
ken MP known for criticizing his own
party. It was a shrewd choice for CHP:
Unlike most secular politicians, Ince
has proven capable of reaching out
to voters beyond the party’s base.
Much like Erdoğan, Ince has em-
phasized his humble beginnings.
Born in a small village, he comes
from a pious family and prays regu-
larly, enabling him to connect with
religious voters despite his secular
politics.
JUNE 21, 2018
the late dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Unlike some of his predecessors
at the head of PSD, who sometimes
used elevated rhetoric to convey their
messages, Dragnea presents himself
as a man of the people, speaking a
language easily understood by the
PSD base in Romania’s rural areas.
In May, he responded to a chal-
lenge from a follower on his Facebook
page to post a picture proving he was
really the one writing his posts. “If
the one croaking here is the mous-
tache man, I offer a beer crate,” Bog-
dan Lungu, from the eastern city of
Galaŏi, wrote on Dragnea’s Facebook
page. “Bro, take a selfie and spite me.”
Dragnea responded with a selfie,
asking for the beer crate.
A week later, Lungu came to Bu-
charest, bought the crate and went to
meet Dragnea at PSD headquarters.
In return Dragnea offered traditional
Romanian sausages.
Dragnea, whose office is adorned
with Orthodox icons and paintings
SEE DRAGNEA ON PAGE 16
“Kılıçdaroğlu is a tired name, ev-
eryone knew that he wouldn’t do well
at all,” said Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, a fellow
at the European Council for Foreign
Relations (ECFR).
“But Ince — he’s not elite, he’s a
village kid, he knows how to ride a
tractor. His mother wears a heads-
carf. So, he cannot be labelled as an
elite hardline secularist. That makes
it difficult for Erdoğan to attack him,”
she said.
Erdoğan is still a force to be reck-
oned with. But in stark contrast to
previous elections, the president has
run a lackluster campaign plagued by
gaffes — from a malfunctioning tele-
prompter to gifting the opposition its
slogan of tamam (“enough”) when he
pledged to step down should voters
tell him “enough.”
FRESH BLOOD
Ince and his fellow opposition can-
SEE TURKEY ON PAGE 21
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
SPONSORED CONTENT
Show me the study!
How transparency about food production can open doors to an honest, trustworthy dia-
logue and a more sustainable future
BY LIAM CONDON, MEMBER
OF THE BOARD OF MANAGE-
MENT OF BAYER AG AND PRES-
IDENT OF THE COMPANY’S
CROP SCIENCE DIVISION
,Q WKH VSRUWV ƓOP Jerry Maguire,
7RP &UXLVH SOD\V D VSRUWV DJHQW
ZKRōV GRZQ RQ KLV OXFN DQG GHV
SHUDWHWRVLJQDSURPLVLQJ\RXQJ
DWKOHWHŋSOD\HGE\&XED*RRGLQJ
-UŋWRDORQJWHUPFRQWUDFW:KHQ
DVNHG ZKDW WKH DJHQW FDQ GR IRU
KLPWKHSOD\HUōVUHVSRQVHLVVLP
SOH EXW HPSKDWLF ŏ6KRZ PH WKH
PRQH\Ő7KHDWKOHWHōVEROGDQVZHU
VWLOOUHVRQDWHVWRGD\EHFDXVHLWXQ
GHUVFRUHV WKH YDOXH RI VXEVWDQFH
RYHUHPSW\SURPLVHV
7KH OHVVRQV RI Jerry Maguire FDQ
EHDSSOLHGWRWKHFRQFHUQVSHRSOH
KDYHDERXWWKHLUIRRGDQGWKHZD\
LWLVSURGXFHG'HVSLWHDVVXUDQFHV
IURPIDUPHUVFRPSDQLHVDQGUHJ
XODWRU\DJHQFLHVPDQ\FRQVXPHUV
DUHQōWFRQYLQFHGWKHLUIRRGLVVDIH
,URQLFDOO\DWDWLPHZKHQRXUIRRG
KDVQHYHUEHHQVDIHUPRUHQXWUL
WLRXVRUPRUHDIIRUGDEOHWKHGLV
FRQQHFW EHWZHHQ SURGXFHUV DQG
FRQVXPHUVKDVQHYHUEHHQJUHDW
HU2QHUHDVRQPD\EHWKDWIHZHU
SHRSOH ZRUNLQJ RQ IDUPV WKHVH
GD\VFRXOGPHDQIHZHUSHRSOHDUH
IDPLOLDU ZLWK ZKDW LW WDNHV WR VXF
FHVVIXOO\ UDLVH D FURS %XW , WKLQN
VRPHWKLQJ HYHQ PRUH LPSRUWDQW
LVKDSSHQLQJ
:H OLYH LQ D ZRUOG ZKHUH WUXVW LQ
PDQ\ LQVWLWXWLRQV LV DW DQ DOOWLPH
ORZ%D\HUVXUYH\HGFRQ
VXPHUV IURP  GLIIHUHQW FRXQ
WULHV DQG OHDUQHG WKDW ZKLOH PRVW
RI WKHP VXSSRUW LQQRYDWLRQV WKDW
JURZPRUHIRRGPDQ\KDYHFRQ
FHUQV WKDW WKH WHFKQRORJLHV IDUP
HUV XVH PD\ EH KDUPLQJ SHRSOH
DQG WKH HQYLURQPHQW 7KH PHV
VDJH FRXOGQōW EH FOHDUHU ,WōV QRW
HQRXJK WR JURZ FURSV HIƓFLHQWO\
FRQVXPHUV QHHG WR NQRZ WKHLU
IRRG LV SURGXFHG VDIHO\ DQG VXV
WDLQDEO\
3UHVHQWHGE\%D\HU
via Bayer
7KHVDIHW\VWXGLHVXQGHUO\LQJWKH “The HGJH LV PRUH SRZHUIXO WKDQ WKDW :KLOHSULYDWHFRPSDQLHVFRQGXFW
UHJLVWUDWLRQ RI FURS SURWHFWLRQ message RI DQ\ VLQJOH HQWLW\ 2XU ŏRSHQ WKHUHVHDUFKWKH\GRQōWJHWWRGH
SURGXFWV DUH XVHG E\ UHJXODWRUV couldn’t LQQRYDWLRQŐVWUDWHJ\H[WHQGVRXU FLGHZKHWKHUDVWXG\LVDFFHSWDEOH
WR HQVXUH WKHVH SURGXFWV ZLOO QRW be clearer: GLVFRYHU\ HFRV\VWHP E\ ZRUN QRU GR WKH\ KDYH D VD\ LQ KRZ LWV
KDUPSHRSOHZLOGOLIHRUWKHHQYL It’s not LQJ DFURVV PDQ\ LQGXVWULHV DQG UHVXOWVVKRXOGEHLQWHUSUHWHG7KDW
URQPHQW ZKHQ XVHG UHVSRQVLEO\ enough to HQJDJLQJLQPDQ\GLIIHUHQWSDUW UHVSRQVLELOLW\ OLHV ZLWK WKH SXEOLF
%XW EHFDXVH RXU UHJXODWRU\ V\V grow crops QHUVKLSV7KLVHQDEOHVXVWRDFFHO UHJXODWRU\ DXWKRULWLHV LQGHSHQ
WHPSODFHVWKHEXUGHQRIFRQGXFW HIÀFLHQWO\ HUDWH WKH GHYHORSPHQW RI EUHDN GHQW H[SHUWV ZKR ZRUN XQGHU
LQJWKHVHVWXGLHVRQWRWKHPDQX consum- WKURXJK WHFKQRORJLHV QHHGHG WR VWULQJHQW SURWRFROV $GGLWLRQDOO\
IDFWXUHU VRPH KDYH TXHVWLRQHG ers need to DGGUHVV WKH ZRUOGōV ULVLQJ IRRG DOO UHJXODWRU\ VDIHW\ VWXGLHV DUH
ZKHWKHUWKHVWXGLHVDUHREMHFWLYH NQRZWKHLU GHPDQG FRQGXFWHG XQGHU FRPSUHKHQVLYH
DQGLPSDUWLDO$WDWLPHZKHQFRQ IRRGLV LQWHUQDWLRQDO VWDQGDUGV VXFK DV
ƓGHQFH LQ LQVWLWXWLRQV LV ODFNLQJ produced ,QFUHDVLQJ WUDQVSDUHQF\ LQ RXU *RRG/DERUDWRU\3UDFWLFHVZKLFK
VD\LQJ ŏWUXVW PHŐ PD\ QRW VRXQG VDIHO\DQG VDIHW\ UHVHDUFK DQG EHLQJ PRUH VSHFLI\ WKH H[DFW PHWKRGV SUR
YHU\FRQYLQFLQJ VXVWDLQ RSHQ WR H[WHUQDO LQQRYDWLRQ DUH FHVVHV DQG UHFRUGNHHSLQJ UH
DEO\µ LPSRUWDQW VWHSV WKDW ZH KRSH TXLUHPHQWVWKDWPXVWEHIROORZHG
5HFRJQL]LQJWKDWLWWDNHVPRUHWKDQ ZLOO HQKDQFH SXEOLF WUXVW LQ RXU WRHQVXUHWKHUHVHDUFKLVFRQGXFW
UKHWRULFWRUHVWRUHVRFLDOWUXVW%D\ RUJDQL]DWLRQEXWZHNQRZWKHVH HGSURSHUO\DQGZLWKLQWHJULW\
HU YROXQWDULO\ GHFLGHG WR EHFRPH DFWLRQV DORQH DUH QRW HQRXJK
WKHƓUVWFURSVFLHQFHFRPSDQ\WR ,QGXVWU\FULWLFVEHOLHYHWKDWFRP %ULGJLQJ WKH JDS EHWZHHQ SXEOLF
PDNHLWVUHJXODWRU\VDIHW\VWXGLHV SDQ\IXQGHG VWXGLHV XVHG LQ WKH DQG SULYDWH LQWHUHVWV EHJLQV ZLWK
SXEOLFO\ DYDLODEOH 2XU WUDQVSDU ULVN DVVHVVPHQW SURFHVV DUH LQ OLVWHQLQJWRWKHYLHZVRIHDFKSDU
HQF\LQLWLDWLYHZKLFKZDVODXQFKHG YDULDEO\ WDLQWHG ZKLOH FRPSD W\DQGE\HQJDJLQJLQPHDQLQJIXO
DWWKHHQGRILVEDVHGRQWKH QLHVDUJXHWKDWSXEOLFIXQGLQJRI FRQYHUVDWLRQV$IWHUDOOZHHDWWKH
LGHD WKDW WKH LQWHJULW\ RI RXU UH VXFKUHVHDUFKZRXOGEHVXEMHFWWR VDPHIRRGVKDUHWKHVDPHZRUOG
VHDUFKLVZKDWJLYHVXVFRQƓGHQFH RYHUWSROLWLFL]DWLRQVWLŴLQJLQQRYD DQGZDQWZKDWōVEHVWIRURXUFKLO
LQWKHVDIHW\RIRXUSURGXFWVŋVR WLRQ7KLVEHJVWKHTXHVWLRQ:KDW GUHQ :H UHPDLQ FRPPLWWHG WR
ZK\QRWVKDUHLWDQGOHWWKHGDWDGR FRQVWLWXWHVŏUHVSRQVLEOHUHVHDUFKŐ H[SODLQLQJ RXU VWXGLHV DQG VKDU
WKHWDONLQJ"%\GLVFORVLQJZKDWZDV DQGKRZFDQLQGXVWU\EXLOGFRQƓ LQJRXUWKRXJKWVRQLQQRYDWLRQVR
RQFHFRQVLGHUHGFRQƓGHQWLDOLQIRU GHQFHLQWKHUHJXODWRU\SURFHVVWR WKDWRQHGD\ZHPLJKWDOOHQMR\WKH
PDWLRQZHEHOLHYH\RXZLOOVHHIRU HOLPLQDWHWKHSHUFHSWLRQRIELDV" IUXLWVRIDPRUHVXVWDLQDEOHIXWXUH
\RXUVHOYHVWKHVFLHQWLƓFULJRUWKDWōV
LQYROYHGLQHYDOXDWLQJWKHVDIHW\RI
RXUSURGXFWV:HEHOLHYHWKDWWKH
ŏVKRZ PH WKH VWXG\Ő DSSURDFK
LV D QHFHVVDU\ VWHS LQ EXLOGLQJ
EDFN FRQVXPHU WUXVW $QG ZHōUH
SOHDVHGWRVHHRWKHUSOD\HUVLQWKH
(XURSHDQ FURS SURWHFWLRQ LQGXV
WU\DGRSWLQJDVLPLODUDSSURDFKWR
GDWDWUDQVSDUHQF\
0DNLQJRXUVDIHW\VWXG\GDWDDYDLO
DEOH WR DOO LV RQO\ RQH SDUW RI RXU
PRYH WRZDUG JUHDWHU RSHQQHVV
2YHU WKH SDVW IHZ \HDUV %D\HU
KDVEHHQHQJDJHGLQŏRSHQLQQR
YDWLRQŐ D FRQFHSW WKDW FRQQHFWV
VWDUWXSV DQG SXEOLF LQVWLWXWLRQV
ZLWK%D\HUWRFUHDWHQHZLGHDVWR
KHOS PDNH IDUPLQJ PRUH VXVWDLQ
DEOH :KLOH RXU \HDU FRPPLW
PHQWWRLQKRXVHUHVHDUFKUHPDLQV
FULWLFDO WR RXU ORQJWHUP VXFFHVV
ZHNQRZWKDWRXUFROOHFWLYHNQRZO Liam Condon, member of the board of management of Bayer AG | via Bayer
РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

“Together we can
tackle climate change.”
Gregorio Magno, Founder of Ciclogreen, Spain

Frustrated with rising pollution levels in Spanish cities, Gregorio turned

to technology to create change. His app Ciclogreen converts sustainable
travel into rewards, ranging from a free coffee to a ticket for a concert.
Developing on Android’s open-source operating system enabled him
to reach the greatest number of people and make the biggest
environmental impact. Gregorio is now on a mission
to transform cities around the world.

Watch the mini-documentary about the app that rewards

sustainable mobility: g.co/androidstories
РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
10 POLITICO NEWS
Angela
rises from
the ashes
BY MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG
German IN BERLIN
chancellor Once again, Angela Merkel has sur-
survived vived to fight another day.
first With her chancellorship hanging
in the balance over her controver-
round of sial refugee policies, Merkel quietly
migration outmaneuvered political rivals who
row with saw an opening to bring her down.
After a weekend spent reinforcing
Bavarians support for her leadership among her
— but it’s Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel
forced a compromise with the Chris-
not quite tian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian
over yet wing of her center-right alliance, to
end the refugee standoff that nearly
toppled her government last week.
CSU leader Horst Seehofer, who is
also interior minister, agreed to put
off enforcing a new rule to turn back
refugees at Germany’s borders until
after the upcoming European Coun-
cil summit, in order to give Merkel
more time to negotiate with other
EU capitals.
It’s a long shot that Merkel will ac-
tually succeed in securing a sweep-
ing deal over the next two weeks to
return refugees who show up at Ger-
many’s border from Italy or Greece.
Whether the CSU is ready for another
faceoff with Merkel is another matter.
“Nothing is automatic and for the
CDU, it’s important that we first dis-
cuss the situation among ourselves
and then with the CSU to decide what
we will do” if a European deal isn’t
reached, Merkel said in Berlin.
For the Bavarians, the spat was al-
ways more about Merkel than refu-
gees anyway. The past week offered
the CSU leadership a chance to test
Merkel’s support in the CDU. On that
score, she emerged the clear winner.
Any illusions the CSU may have had
that the CDU would abandon Merkel
in the heat of the moment have evap-
orated.
The crucial moment came on
Thursday, when the two parties’
parliamentary groups, who normally
meet together, convened separately
to discuss the crisis. Dozens of CDU
MPs, even some who disagree with
Merkel’s migration policies, stood up
to support her leadership. Within the
CDU’s executive committee, only
Health Minister Jens Spahn, Merkel’s
most vocal internal critic, voiced op-
position to her course.
Once it became clear that Merkel
Michel Barnier: UK to lose EU security perks after Brexit
BY YASMINE SALAM
EU Brexit
negotiator The U.K. will be excluded from the
European Arrest Warrant and EU
called crime databases after it leaves the
for ‘more bloc, the EU’s chief Brexit negotia-
tor Michel Barnier said Tuesday.
realism’ Speaking at the EU Fundamental
from the Rights Agency in Vienna, Barnier out-
UK lined the bloc’s position on the “new
relationship” with Britain regarding
judicial and criminal matters. He ar-
gued that once Brexit takes place, the
EU will “cooperate strongly” with the
U.K. to fight terrorism, cyberattacks
and radicalization.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel at Meseberg Palace, the German government’s official guest house.
has the strong backing of her party,
including the powerful state govern-
ment heads, it was all but inevitable
that the CSU would back off.
Indeed, the denouement of
Merkel’s standoff with her Bavarian
rivals lacked even a hint of suspense.
It was clear to all but the most rabid
anti-Merkel partisans (of whom there
are many) that she would prevail.
If the CSU hadn’t backed down,
it would have risked destroying the
“union,” the decades-old alliance be-
tween the CDU and CSU. The CSU
is the primary beneficiary of the ar-
rangement because the affiliation has
guaranteed it outsized influence in
the German capital while keeping
Bavaria, where it currently has an
absolute majority, to itself.
In the event of a divorce, however,
the CDU would almost certainly make
a run for Bavaria — which it never
does, out of respect for the union —
thus diluting the CSU’s position just
as it’s trying to fend off the far-right
Alternative for Germany. In fact, it
was concern over its tepid poll num-
bers ahead of an October state elec-
tion that likely prompted the CSU to
challenge Merkel head on.
“If the CDU comes to Bavaria, the
common ground between the par-
ties would disappear,” Munich-based
daily Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote on
Monday. “The southern expansion,
as some in the CDU call it, would be
the last step, one that one only un-
dertakes when the divorce has been
completed.”
Bavaria has always been a conser-
vative bastion and many people in
the state, which has borne the brunt
of the refugee influx due to its geog-
But he called for “more realism”
from the U.K. on what degree of po-
lice and judicial cooperation would
be possible after Brexit and said there
would be a need for “safeguards”
from the U.K., including continued
membership of the European Con-
vention on Human Rights.
Barnier’s approach runs contrary
to the U.K.’s hope to maintain close
security links through existing EU
programs.
Barnier described the EU’s co-
operation in intelligence matters
as “unique” and “unprecedented,”
made possible from “trust between
raphy along the country’s southern
border, oppose Merkel’s decision to
open the borders.
Many German commentators
warned on Monday that the truce
between Merkel and the CSU could
collapse as soon as the EU summit
ends if she has no refugee deal in
hand. Merkel said she and her par-
ty would re-evaluate the situation af-
ter the summit. Seehofer, meanwhile,
signaled he would move full-speed
ahead with the new refugee policy
if Merkel’s efforts fail.
“The danger of a collision will re-
main if Merkel fails to achieve at the
European level what the CSU wants
to ensure with national measures,
namely a border regime that has
earned the name,” warned Berthold
Kohler, one of the publishers of the
conservative newspaper Frankfurter
Allgemeine.
Given the challenges, it’s unreal-
istic to expect Merkel to come home
in two weeks with a full-fledged refu-
gee deal. More likely is some progress
in bilateral talks with the  countries
on the frontlines of the crisis — Italy
and Greece.
What does the CSU do then? The
overall calculus for the party is un-
likely to change by the end of the
month. If the party brings down the
government by challenging Merkel
on refugee policy, the CSU would be
out in the cold having achieved little
beyond chaos.
THE CATCH IN SEEHOFER’S PLAN
A central fallacy of Seehofer’s plan
is that Germany could actually turn
refugees back at the border. In almost
all cases, this would entail pushing
member states.”
“This trust does not fall from the
sky and is founded by our common
ecosystem. If you leave this ecosys-
tem you lose these benefits,” the Brex-
it negotiator said.
Barnier laid out four pillars that
will govern the EU’s negotiating po-
sition on the future partnership with
the U.K. These pillars cover the ef-
fective exchange of information; co-
operation between law-enforcement
officials; measures against illegal fi-
nancial activities committed by ter-
rorists; and judicial cooperation in
criminal matters through strategic
JUNE 21, 2018
FILIP SINGER/EPA
them back over Germany’s 800-kilo-
meter border with Austria, the last
country most refugees pass through
before arriving in Germany. Because
Germany’s border infrastructure is
located inside German territory — not
on the border as was the case before
the Schengen agreement for freedom
of movement took effect — it’s not
possible to simply turn people away
before they enter the country.
The problem is that the Austrians
aren’t obligated to take anybody back.
Given the presence of the far-right
Freedom Party in Austria’s govern-
ment, the country is unlikely to will-
ingly accept any refugees Germany
doesn’t want.
So Germany’s only option would
be to reintroduce full border con-
trols, a step that would have seri-
ous economic consequences and
that even the CSU insists it doesn’t
want. Bavaria-based companies such
as carmakers BMW and Audi have
extensive supply chains throughout
Central Europe and rely on the open
borders.
In order to keep refugees out of
Austria, Vienna would likely reimpose
border checks on the Brenner Pass
on its frontier with Italy. In 2016, Vi-
enna made preparations for such a
step. Brenner is Europe’s main north-
south trade route.
“We are certainly not going to al-
low Austria to become a buffer zone,”
Hans Peter Doskozil, Austria’s former
defense minister and an architect of
its refugee response, told Bild TV on
Monday. He added that Seehofer’s
refugee policy “cannot be enacted
without the cooperation of other
member states.”
evidence sharing.
However, these pillars do not grant
the U.K. access to Europol databas-
es and the Schengen Information
System, which contain information
about people, weapons and vehicles
involved in crimes. He also said the
U.K. would lose the right to partici-
pate in the European Arrest Warrant
because “the U.K. is not ready to ac-
cept the free movement of people,”
a right enshrined to member states
of the EU.
“They [the U.K.] try to blame us
for the consequences of their choice,”
Barnier said.
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
JUNE 21, 2018
EUROPE’S CENTER RIGHT CANNOT HOLD
EUROPE AT LARGE
After the implosion of
the moderate left, it’s the
conservatives’ turn to
collapse
BY PAUL TAYLOR
IN PARIS
The second wheel is starting to fall
off Europe’s political wagon.
After the center left suffered
a working-class revolt against
globalization and austerity, the
mainstream pro-European center
right is being shredded by voters
demanding tougher action against
migration.
Battered by a growing assault
from the Euroskeptic populist
right, moderate conservatives from
Berlin to Paris and Rome are torn
between trying to outbid their
tormentors with anti-immigration
rhetoric or sticking to a more lib-
eral, pro-European message.
Neither recipe assures success,
and many in the conservative Euro-
pean People’s Party (EPP) fear a se-
vere blow to their political group’s
dominance of the EU institutions
in next year’s European Parliament
election.
In an “America first” world, re-
sorting to “Germany first,” “Italy
first” or “Hungary first” identity
politics and demonizing migrants
strikes some ambitious politicians
as more promising than milque-
toast appeals for closer European
cooperation.
U.S. President Donald Trump
has poured oil on the flames from
across the Atlantic, damning Ger-
man Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
free-trading, open-door centrism in
incendiary tweets while his ambas-
sador in Berlin has boasted that he
aims to empower nationalist con-
servatives across Europe.
Merkel’s decision in 2015 to
open the door to more than a mil-
lion refugees and migrants, many
of them fleeing civil war in Syria,
fueled the populism that is now
threatening to topple her in the
twilight of her chancellorship amid
widespread fear of uncontrolled
borders.
A rebellion from within her co-
alition has the veteran chancellor
hanging on the ropes ahead of next
week’s EU summit, where the bat-
tle for the soul of Europe’s center
right will be played out before the
cameras. Expect skirmishes over
migration and asylum policy as
well as the future of the eurozone.
OUTFLANKED ON THE RIGHT
Mainstream center-right parties
elsewhere in Europe are fracturing
or being outflanked by right-wing
populists riding a wave of hostility
to immigration and Islam, and aus-
terity fatigue.
In Italy, veteran center-right bil-
lionaire Silvio Berlusconi thought
he could tame the extreme right by
forging an electoral alliance with
Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigrant
League and the post-fascist Broth-
ers of Italy. Instead, his Forza Italia
party was outpolled, then sidelined
as Salvini joined forces with the
anti-establishment 5Star Movement
to form a government of populists.
In Germany, Merkel’s Bavarian
sister party, the Christian Social
Union (CSU), fears losing its abso-
lute majority in Bavaria in Octo-
ber due to the rise of the far-right,
anti-immigration Alternative for
Germany. German Interior Minister
Horst Seehofer, the CSU’s leader,
is demanding that border police
refuse entry to asylum seekers reg-
istered in another EU country.
Austria’s center-right chancel-
lor, Sebastian Kurz, who is govern-
ing in a coalition with the far-right
Freedom Party, provoked a chill by
calling for an “axis” of Germany,
Austria and Italy to crack down on
migration. He appeared not to be
aware of the dark history of that
term, which designated the alli-
ance of Nazi Germany and fascist
Italy in the 1930s.
In France, the leader of the con-
servative opposition Les Républic-
ains, Laurent Wauquiez, has just
fired his liberal deputy, Virginie
Calmels, after she objected to an
anti-immigration, Euroskeptical
leaflet entitled “France must re-
main France” that he distributed
without consulting the party leader-
ship.
Dozens of historic Gaullists and
center-right lawmakers have de-
fected from Les Républicains in
protest at Wauquiez’s lurch to the
right, which is aimed at winning
back voters lost to far-right leader
Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration
National Rally (formerly National
Front).
In Spain, former Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party gov-
ernment was toppled this month
over a corruption scandal. The
party is losing voters to the center-
right Ciudadanos party, which is
vying to displace it as the cham-
pion of Spanish nationalism in the
face of a separatist challenge in
Catalonia.
ORBÁN ASCENDANT
One big beneficiary of this trend
is Hungarian strongman Viktor Or-
bán, who has cowed the media, the
civil service and civil society, and
is gaining ground across Central
Europe with his illiberal majori-
tarianism. Far from being expelled
from the EPP for his deviation from
liberal values, as Dutch Christian
Democrats recently proposed,
Orbán emerged from this month’s
EPP congress stronger than ever.
Having struck an alliance with
Seehofer’s CSU, Orbán is position-
ing himself as the anti-Merkel lead-
er of a nativist “Christian Europe.”
Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Jus-
tice (PiS) party, which is busily dis-
mantling judicial independence in
Poland after purging the military,
public broadcasters and the civil
service, is a soulmate in the effort.
Orbán even allowed himself
the luxury, in a speech ostensibly
paying tribute to the late German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl, of threat-
NEWS ANALYSIS
POLITICO 11
ening to create a rival pan-Europe- Austrian
an formation of like-minded anti- Chancellor
immigration Christian parties, but Sebastian
said he prefers to stay and help a Kurz has been
renewed EPP “find its way back to squeezed by
its Christian democratic roots.” his far-right
Political scientists still expect the coalition
EPP to be the largest group in the partners.
next European Parliament, but the PETER KNEFFEL/AFP
center right is certain to lose seats VIA GETTY IMAGES
and could end up neck and neck
with the massed ranks of Euro-
skeptics, even if the populists do
not form a single coherent caucus.
EPP floor leader Manfred Weber
of the Bavarian CSU, who relies on
Orbán’s Fidesz party to help keep
his group as the largest in the EU
legislature, has toyed publicly with
the idea of Kaczyński’s PiS affiliat-
ing with the EPP after the election
to make up the numbers. Poland’s
main opposition party, the liberal
center-right Civic Platform, is an
EPP member, but PiS is looking for
respectability and a new family in
Parliament after the departure of
its main allies, Britain’s Conserva-
tives, next year.
Like Europe’s decimated social-
ists, the center right faces challeng-
es from new forces in the center as
well as on the radical fringes, mak-
ing its positioning even harder. The
more the mainstream conserva-
tives pander to right-wing popu-
list gut politics, the more they risk
losing moderate supporters of a
liberal, open society.
Those voters could be seduced
by French President Emmanu-
el Macron’s centrist La Répub-
lique En Marche party, which is
scouring Europe for allies to create
a pro-European, pro-business, so-
cially liberal reformist bloc capable
of holding back the tide of xeno-
phobia and nationalism.
While Europe’s conservatives
run their wagon into the ground,
it may be up to the Macronistas to
keep centrist, European liberalism
on track.
Paul Taylor, contributing editor
at POLITICO, writes the Europe At Large
column.
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
12 POLITICO NEWS
Mother
of all EU
summits
If it’s a big, controversial issue in
Europe, it’s probably on the agenda for
the June leaders’ gathering
BY DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
June is not supposed to be the rainy
season in Brussels.
Migration and asylum. Eurozone.
Brexit. Poland and the rule of law. A
trade war with Washington. The EU’s
long-term budget.
After a year-long reprieve, in which
election results in the Netherlands
and France and solid economic
growth gave the European political
mainstream a boost, EU leaders will
face a gathering storm at their June
Council summit next week.
“It’s a huge summit; let’s see how
long it will take,” an Austrian diplo-
As busy as mat said. “There are a lot of very di-
the agenda visive things to deal with.”
The June summit now stands to
may be, pose the toughest test yet of Coun-
there is cil President Donald Tusk’s pledge to
not the get the EU’s 28 to take control of the
sense of hardest issues and make difficult de-
crisis that cisions that they can defend to their
voters. With each country potentially
existed wielding a veto on most issues, it is
when the far easier said then done.
eurozone At the top of the list of divisive mat-
was in ters is the asylum and migration is-
meltdown sue, which is once again tearing at
the fabric of Europe, most notably
or when in Germany, where Chancellor An-
refugee gela Merkel’s government is at risk
arrivals of collapsing because of a fight with
peaked in her coalition partner, the Christian
2015. Social Union.
Merkel has raised the stakes for EU
leaders by publicly challenging the
European CSU leader, Interior Minister Horst
leaders take Seehofer, to wait until after the sum-
their seats mit to enact tougher asylum rules at
ahead of Germany’s borders. The delay buys
roundtable Merkel a little time to work out deals
discussions with frontline countries like Italy,
at the most Greece and Bulgaria but also amps
recent European up pressure on her fellow Europe-
Council summit an Council members to find consen-
in March 2018. sus on an issue that has now eluded
JACK TAYLOR/GETTY compromise through five EU presi-
IMAGES dencies.
Bulgaria, which will pass the presi-
dential baton to Austria on July 1, has
been pushing for a deal on a broad
legislative package, only to encoun-
ter the same unbridgeable divide be-
tween hard-line countries like Hun-
gary, which oppose any mandatory
distribution of asylum seekers, and
coastal nations like Italy that have
been hit hardest by the arrivals of
refugees and economic migrants, and
want quotas to spread the burden.
“The most important decision for
us, and what we are really waiting
for, is the decision on what happens
on migration/asylum,” the Austrian
diplomat said. “We don’t know what
will happen. Is there consensus next
week? We don’t think so. If there’s no
consensus, what will then happen?
Will the president of the Council tell
us to continue the Bulgarians’ work?
Will there be another mandate from
the European Council to the presi-
dency with some ideas of which way
we will go?”
EYES ON GERMANY
In many ways, a mini-summit on
Tuesday of the EU’s two most pow-
erful leaders — Merkel and French
President Emmanuel Macron at Mese-
berg Castle north of Berlin — served
as the opening act in what was shap-
ing up to be a series of pre-summit
consultations.
Creating some positive momen-
tum, Merkel and Macron announced
that they had reached an important
deal on the eurozone, which while
vague on many details nonetheless
signaled forward motion on an issue
that had stalled for months.
Macron, who had pushed hard for
changes to the eurozone, was able to
claim success in persuading Merkel
to move ahead with plans for a Euro-
pean Monetary Fund and other steps
that could lead to a common euro-
zone budget, including new emer-
gency mechanisms to deal with eco-
nomic shocks, while Merkel secured
agreement from Macron on the re-
turn of migrants that reach Germany
from France.
Overall, the meeting yielded
enough that leaders now seem to
have material for substantial con-
clusions at their eurozone summit
next Friday.
Then, continuing the pre-summit
gatherings, Comission President Jean-
Claude Juncker, announced Wednes-
day that he was pulling together a
mini-summit of EU leaders this week-
end in Brussels on the migration and
asylum issues.
The agenda is so crowded and
the issues so snarled that the Coun-
cil summit is starting to look like
Brussels traffic on a day when sev-
eral tunnels are unexpectedly closed
for roadworks with no indication of
when they might reopen.
In a remarkable sign of just how
busy and controversial an agenda
leaders will face when they arrive a
week from Thursday, two of the is-
sues expected to generate relatively
little disagreement are Brexit and the
EU’s seven-year budget, the Multian-
nual Financial Framework (MFF).
The MFF normally generates fierce
disputes — and those may come fur-
ther down the line. But at this point
leaders are mainly wrestling with the
question of whether to try to com-
plete the financial plan before next
year’s European Parliament election.
Merkel has thrown her weight behind
that idea, which most leaders think is
too ambitious. But they also see little
bandwidth to engage in protracted
debate. The conflicting wish lists and
red lines of nations favoring or oppos-
ing more spending are by now fairly
well-established.
On Brexit, no breakthroughs are
expected before the summit, which
will put pressure on negotiators in
the U.K. and at the European Com-
mission, but effectively spare the
leaders from spending too much time
fretting about the lack of progress in
clinching a final divorce agreement.
Germany’s point man on Brexit, Pe-
ter Ptassek, has noted that this leaves
Britain with no better clarity about
the odds of achieving a withdrawal
treaty.
The U.K. could find itself a victim
of benign neglect, some EU officials
said, as EU27 leaders are much more
intensely interested in discussing
their problems with U.S. President
Donald Trump, including his melt-
down following the G7 summit in
Quebec, as well as continuing fights
over trade tariffs and the Iran nuclear
agreement.
Trump, who called the EU “brutal”
in Quebec, threw kerosene on the fire
Monday by tweeting that Germans
are turning against their government
on the issue of immigrants — a re-
markable incursion into the domes-
tic politics of an allied country. His
tweet will likely steel the resolve of
EU leaders, who view the American
president’s unreliability as a good
reason to push ahead with greater
European integration.
NEW LEADERS
EU leaders are also expected to take
decisions on security and defense co-
operation in part to send a positive
message on military affairs ahead
of a July NATO summit in Brussels,
where Trump is expected once again
to pound on allies to increase their
military spending. Also up for discus-
sion: whether to give the green light
for membership talks with Albania
and Macedonia — or North Macedo-
nia, as it will be known if a deal to
end a dispute with Greece holds up.
The summit will mark the debut
of two new leaders — Prime Ministers
Pedro Sánchez of Spain and Giuseppe
Conte of Italy. Conte, in particular,
JUNE 21, 2018
will be the subject of much interest
given the unusual hybrid nature of
Italy’s new government, made up of
the far-right League party and popu-
list 5Stars.
Many officials are wondering if
Conte has any authority to take de-
cisions, or if Italy will now present
a repeat of the current experience
with Poland, in which the leader of
the governing Law and Justice par-
ty, Jarosław Kaczyński, is actually the
one calling the shots.
This will be especially crucial on
the issue of revising the EU’s Dub-
lin regulation on asylum, in which
Italy has a major role, but also in dis-
cussing other aspects of the debate,
including access of rescue ships to
Italian ports.
“The Italian prime minister has
said he has no mandate” to reach a
deal on Dublin reform, one EU dip-
lomat said. “No one knows if the Ital-
ian prime minister is the right one to
negotiate.”
In a flurry of consultations with
leaders ahead of the summit, Tusk
met Monday with Belgian Prime Min-
ister Charles Michel and will visit
Stockholm Tuesday to see Swedish
Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. He will
then fly on to Madrid to see Sánchez
that night.
Tusk will meet Conte and Italian
President Sergio Mattarella in Rome
Wednesday; then Austrian Chancel-
lor Sebastian Kurz in Vienna Friday
morning and Hungarian Prime Min-
ister Viktor Orbán in Budapest Fri-
day afternoon. Next week will include
trips to see Theresa May in London,
Merkel in Berlin and Dutch Prime
Minister Mark Rutte in The Hague.
Other leaders will be consulted by
phone.
The EU diplomat noted that many
of the issues to be discussed at the
summit can only be resolved with the
enactment of substantial legislative
packages, and any delay in decisions
could mean the Parliament and Coun-
cil will be under pressure to complete
those initiatives before next year’s Eu-
ropean Parliament election.
And yet, as busy as the agenda may
be, there is not the sense of crisis that
existed when the eurozone was in
meltdown or when refugee arrivals
peaked in 2015. Still, the diplomat,
said: “There’s quite a lot of stuff on
the plate.”
РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

It happens on your phone

right as it happens
in the world.
Qualcomm technology
made that possible.

Qualcomm created technology that enables your smartphone

to do all those things you love. From download speeds, to video,
to voice recognition, to faster battery charge, to longer battery life,
to security, to GPS, none of it would work the way you count on without
:%1'422+)99-3+9,)7)J789Ħ

qualcomm.com/weinvent

© 2018 Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Qualcomm is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries.
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

14 POLITICO NEWS JUNE 21, 2018

On the US-Mexico
border, children cry
and pressure builds

Thousands of immigrant children, many of whom have

been separated from their parents under a new “zero
tolerance” policy by Donald Trump’s administration,
are housed in tents next to the Mexican border in
Tornillo, Texas, above; and a two-year-old Honduran
asylum seeker wails as her mother is detained in
McAllen, Texas. Trump has doubled down on his anti-
immigration stance, blaming Democrats for a policy
his administration has chosen to enforce. Trump on
Tuesday tweeted that immigrants would “pour into and
infest” the country and questioned parents’ decisions
to send their children unaccompanied to the border.
“A government cannot commit open, widespread
and notorious violations of human rights under both
international and domestic law without substantially
dehumanizing the people that they’re inflicting the pain
upon to desensitize the nation to the injustices or make
the injustices appear okay,” said Jonathan Ryan, execu-
tive director of Texas-based Refugee and Immigrant
Center for Education and Legal Services, a group aiding
families separated at the border.

PHOTOS BY JOHN MOORE (LEFT)/GETTY IMAGES AND MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS

JOIN POLITICO LONDON PLAYBOOK WRITER

JACK BLANCHARD
AS HE TAKES PLAYBOOK LIVE
FOR A BREAKFAST CONVERSATION WITH

MATT HANCOCK
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DIGITAL,
CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

WATCH LIVE FROM 8:30 AM BST/ 9:30 AM CET

AT POLITICO.EU/PBHANCOCK

WEDNESDAY, JULY 4
@EVENTSPOLITICO
#PLAYBOOKBREAKFAST
РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

We invent.
The world
leaps forward.

9:%1'422ħ-3;)39-3+'42)8J789Ħ
,)3<)'433)'9)(9,)5,43)949,)-39)73)9ħ
4:7*4:3(%9-43%1-3;)39-438'7)%9)(9,)24&-1)7);41:9-43Ħ
4<ħ%8<)1)%(9,)<471(94Ũħ4:7-3;)39-438%7)+4-3+
94)3%&1)'4:391)883)<-3(:897-)894&)'7)%9)(ħ
%3(9,)3)=9+7)%9574(:'99,)<471('%3Ň91-;)<-9,4:9Ħ

qualcomm.com/weinvent

ŖťţŤū:%1'422)',3414+-)8ħ 3'Ħ11-+,98)8)7;)(Ħ:%1'422-8%97%()2%704*:%1'422 3'47547%9)(ħ7)+-89)7)(-39,)3-9)(9%9)8%3(49,)7'4:397-)8Ħ

 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
16 POLITICO NEWS
DRAGNEA
“No one CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
in the EU
goes for a of rural Romania, told POLITICO
photo op that one of the things he was proud
with him, of was never having been a mem-
because ber of the Communist Party — even
they see if most Romanians were obliged to
him as a under Ceaușescu. “Some of us were
crazier and didn’t want to,” he said.
person Before the 1989 revolution, he
with a jail studied transport engineering in Bu-
sentence.” charest. In the early ‘90s he got into
business by starting a bar in a village.
Dan Barna, “I took my fate in my own hands,”
president of he said. “I was very young, 20-some-
Save Romania thing.” By 1996, he was running dif-
Union ferent businesses, including a hotel
in a small town in southern Romania,
and employing nearly 1,000 people.
PHOTO OF LIVIU
DRAGNEA BY DANIEL One day, as he was pushing his
MIHAILESCU/AFP VIA daughter in a stroller heading to the
GETTY IMAGES
hotel, he noticed how hard she was
shaking because the sidewalk was
broken. “I took her in my arms and
told myself that it was impossible that
we couldn’t find someone to make
that town cleaner and better admin-
istered,” he recalled. That was the
moment he decided to entered poli-
tics, he said. Soon, he was running
his home county of Teleorman, in
southern Romania.
From 2012 to 2015, Dragnea served
as minister for regional development
and public administration under
then-Prime Minister Victor Ponta.
Ponta was forced out by street pro-
tests over a deadly nightclub fire in
Bucharest, and Dragnea, who had
become leader of the Social Demo-
crats just before Ponta’s resignation,
led the party to victory in the parlia-
mentary election the following year.
Though his conviction prevents
him from being prime minister,
Dragnea remains the most powerful
politician in the country. At the PSD
congress in March, he got standing
applause and a loud “yes” when he
asked members from the stage if they
wanted him to continue as the party’s
president. Applauding from the first
row, where she was seated alongside
leading PSD figures, was Dragnea’s
25-year-old fiancée, whom, according
to Romanian media reports, he met
while she was his assistant.
RULE OF LAW
Dragnea’s legal troubles date back to
his time as a regional county leader.
Prosecutors accuse him of having
pressured the local director of social
services to put two people working for
PSD on her payroll, and have asked
that he be sentenced to 10 years in jail.
In another case, Dragnea is accused
of having fraudulently obtained na-
tional and EU public money while he
was president of the county council.
Dragnea protests his innocence,
but said he prefers not to comment
on specifics so as not to prejudice
the cases.
Romanian opposition and civil so-
ciety groups say Dragnea’s problems
with the law are behind a controver-
sial overhaul of the legal system they
say will undermine the independence
of the judiciary and hinder the fight
against corruption.
The reforms include changes to
the retirement age and measures that
would increase the time it takes for
young judges and prosecutors to rise
in the hierarchy. This could shrink
the workforce, creating backlogs in
the judicial system, according to the
Council of Europe’s anti-corruption
body GRECO.
One amendment, passed on Mon-
day by the lower parliament cham-
ber to an overhaul of the Romania’s
criminal law could lift the ban on
Dragnea serving as prime minister.
It would require retrials for cases in
which not all judges signed off on the
sentence. One of the judges in Drag-
nea’s case retired before the ruling
was decided, according to Romanian
media reports.
Dan Barna, the president of Save
Romania Union, the second-largest
opposition party, said that while “Or-
bán and Kaczyński promote anti-lib-
eral policies to consolidate their pow-
er, in the case of Liviu Dragnea — who
also uses populist, anti-EU rhetoric
— the reason is much more insipid:
He wants to avoid going to prison.”
“No one in the EU goes for a photo
op with him, because they see him as
a person with a jail sentence,” Barna
added.
The PSD’s changes to the legal sys-
tem could put Romania on a colli-
sion course with Brussels, said Otilia
Dhand, senior vice president for Cen-
tral and Eastern Europe at Teneo In-
telligence, a political risk consultancy.
The European Commission has ex-
pressed worries that Romania is back-
sliding in its fight against corruption.
Commission First Vice President
Frans Timmermans, who has been
at the forefront in the standoff with
Poland over rule-of-law concerns,
urged Romania not to reverse years
of progress against corruption when
he visited Bucharest in March.
“Don’t stop, don’t stand still, and
for heaven’s sake, certainly don’t run
in the other direction,” he said.
Timmermans also stressed the
importance of independent courts.
In his interview with POLITICO,
Dragnea dismissed concerns that
the overhaul was being done for his
benefit.
“We’re interested in people’s fun-
damental rights and liberties being
respected,” he said. “We want every
citizen in Romania to have a fair trial,
and the right to defense and presump-
tion of innocence to be guaranteed.”
Recent disclosure of agreements
between Romania’s intelligence ser-
vices and anti-corruption prosecutors
and judges on gathering evidence
have thrown doubt onto some cas-
es, he suggested.
‘WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY’
Dragnea said there was no cause for
Brussels to be concerned. “Under
the PSD, Romania strongly respects
European principles, follows the Eu-
ropean interests, but — like any EU
country — thinks about its own inter-
ests as part of the common interest.”
After more than a decade of EU
membership, Romania doesn’t think
JUNE 21, 2018
like a candidate country anymore,
he said, and shouldn’t be treated as
one. It is now “a country becoming
aware of its rights, which wants to be
involved in the decision-making and
to enjoy all the benefits of a member
state, while respecting EU rules.”
He said his party had had to swap
out two prime ministers because of
the pace of implementing the govern-
ment program, which he said must
be “infernal” because that’s the only
way Romania can seize on a “window
of opportunity” to enter a strategic
development stage.
Dragnea said he didn’t mind not
being prime minister and said claims
that Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă
is his puppet were highly offensive.
“I generally don’t have any frustra-
tions,” he said. “I live in reality.”
Romania is growing rapidly (GDP
growth neared 7 percent in 2017) —
even if the Commission has warned
that the budget deficit would increase
significantly, mostly due to increas-
es in public sector wages. Brussels
said in May that Romania and Hun-
gary have failed to follow recommen-
dations on fiscal policy that would
keep them within the EU’s fiscal rules.
Next year, the country will elect
a new president, an office for which
Dragnea is eligible. He said his party
would decide whom to put forward
next year. In the meantime, the focus
should be on what Romanians expect:
new highways, a better health care
system, and higher salaries and pen-
sions, he said.
As for Romania’s relationship with
the EU, Dragnea said the country de-
serves more respect as it prepares to
take over the Council presidency for
the first time in 2019: “I don’t think
it’s exaggerated for us to want Roma-
nia to become an important voice, to
be a respected partner, at least to the
extent that we show respect.”
“I think the EU is better off having
a direct but honest and predictable
partner than a mute and frustrated
partner,” he said.
Anca Gurzu contributed reporting.
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

JUNE 21, 2018 NEWS POLITICO 17

“Nigel Farage undertook a brilliant reverse

takeover of the Tory Party. It is the most
remarkable coup in modern British politics.”

Nigel
Farage BY CHARLIE COOPER
IN LONDON

has a gin The sun is shining in Brussels on a

lovely May afternoon. While other
European parliamentarians are
repeat it. Otherwise the rest of life
will be a disappointment … What-
ever I did in the future, it could not
Farage finds
a microphone at
a Conservative

and tonic
debating the EU’s budget, Farage
is out for lunch. Some places in
this town don’t serve him, he says,
but this one, Invictus on Rue de
get any better than that.” Political Action
The U.K.’s vote to leave the conference in
EU two years ago this week was Maryland last
the fulfilment of a 20-year obses- year.

in his hand Trèves, is willing to oblige, and he

takes a table under an olive tree in
the walled courtyard out back.
sion for Farage. In the same year,
America elected a president who
shares Farage’s anti-globalist, na-
MARK PETERSON/
REDUX

and is
He is dressed in a dark gray
pinstripe suit, a stiff white shirt
and a spotty blue tie, and tucks his
napkin into his collar as his fruit de
tivist worldview — the icing on the
cake. Trump then hosted Farage in
New York, fêted him and posed for
a photo — the cherry on top. That

wondering
mer linguine arrives.
The man U.S. President Donald
Trump dubbed “Mr. Brexit” freely
admits that, whatever comes next,
photo still holds pride of place on
the desk of Farage’s Brussels office,
facing inward so he can look at it
while he works.

what to he’s already peaked.

“I remember thinking, the week
before Christmas [2016], about
So, what does a dog do when he
catches the car he’s been chasing
for so long?

do next.
what had happened that year, and
thinking the great secret with this
is to savor it. To never even believe
for one moment you could ever
Farage talks a lot about a return
to “frontline politics” if Prime
SEE FARAGE ON PAGE 18
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

18 POLITICO NEWS JUNE 21, 2018

FARAGE After his exertions, a series of

phone calls and meetings with staff
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17
who drop in and out, it is time for
lunch.
sometimes rising before 4 a.m. to do
an interview.
It’s America — and the realm of
entertainment — that has given Far-

Social media Minister Theresa May’s Conserva-

tive government “[makes] a balls of
Walking through the European
Parliament building is like running a
gauntlet for Farage. He attracts looks
age inspiration for life after Brexit.
“What next for me?” he asks
himself over lunch. “I’ve spent a lot

allowed Brexit.” But he’s vague about what

that means and what his comeback
might look like. Farage stood down
— curious ones, scornful ones — ev-
erywhere he goes, and shows every
sign of enjoying it.
of time in America. I think that ef-
fective broadcasters and journalists
who have got a high profile as being

Farage’s acts as leader of the United Kingdom In-

dependence Party in 2016 and now
says he is “very detached” from the
“That blonde girl in the lift gave
me quite a look didn’t she,” he re-
marks. “I didn’t know whether it was
opinion people can have probably
far more effect on public opinion
and events than being an elected

of subversion party.
“We’d just have to see wouldn’t
we. There’s UKIP possibilities,
a good look or a bad look. The as-
tonishing thing is if I go downtown.
I’m very careful in the evenings. We
politician.
“Would Sean Hannity in America
have changed more minds as a sena-

to reach an there’s setting up a national move-

ment, there’s trying to do a 5Star
type job. All those things are pos-
have had some troubling incidents,
some real aggression.”
Crossing the Espace Léopold with
tor rather than the radio and TV host
that he is today? The answer is obvi-
ous.”

audience sible,” he muses.

But he doesn’t really want to.
With the sun streaming down on
Aurélie Laloux — the French secre-
tary-general of the Europe of Free-
dom and Direct Democracy parlia-
As the waitress arrives to take the
plates away, Farage scans his emails
on his smartphone and reads out

unimaginable him in Brussels, highlighting a little

dark spot of linguine sauce on his
napkin bib, he says serenely: “Peo-
mentary political group that Farage
chairs — he plots another moment of
mischief.
loud: “‘Juncker high five caught on
camera’ … Goooood.”

in another era. ple say to me things like, ‘Oh no,

you’re not on the frontline the way
you were.’ Great! Good, I’m perfectly
Belgian Prime Minister Charles
Michel is addressing MEPs the next
day, and Farage says he is going to
FARAGE’S MOST NOTABLE POST-
BREXIT VENTURE is a call-in talk-
show on LBC, a London-based radio

“I remember happy where I am. I’m not craving

that level of attention.”
He is clearly still craving some at-
“tease them horribly.” (He does so,
prompting a brief flurry of headlines
the next day by telling Michel “Bel-
station.
Broadcast nationally for an hour
from 7 p.m. Monday to Thursday

thinking back tention though. And he has a new

role in mind to help him get it.
“If you’re a real opinion former,
gium is not a nation.”)
Why does he do it? “Because
that’s how you get attention. And
and two hours on Sunday morn-
ing, his on-air diatribes sometimes
prompt a news story on the website

in 2006, 2007 and you want to shift things,” he says

later that day, “you’ve got to make
people think. And sometimes, some-
then you’re on the television. And
then people want you to write ar-
ticles. And you’ve got a chance then
of the sympathetic Daily Express
newspaper — but otherwise the show
goes largely unnoticed by inhabit-

— I’m doing all times you do shock them a little bit —

to wake them up.”
“There are examples of people
to make your arguments. Plus, also
it’s fun, which should never be for-
gotten.”
ants of the Westminster bubble.
But they are not whom Farage is
interested in reaching.

this stuff, I’m who forged amazingly successful —

and lucrative — careers in America
doing that,” he continues. “I see that
At the restaurant, he and Laloux
are joined by the EFDD’s head of
communications Hermann Kelly,
Nor is the live radio broadcast,
which LBC says has 523,000 listen-
ers each week, his priority. He is

making things as a thing I could do, going on from

here. It would be very, very interest-
ing.”
who is wearing a crisp blue suit.
“What do you think of the new
suit?” he asks Farage.
more concerned about the pho-
tos, livestream and video clips that
will go on his Twitter feed and his

happen and no IT’S THE DAY IN MAY WHEN THE

EU’S next seven-year financial plan
“I went to the chamber, I high-
fived Juncker!” Farage tells him by
way of response.
Facebook page. Video clips of the
show were watched 11 million times
on Facebook in the past year, LBC

one’s noticing. is unveiled, the first without the U.K.

as a contributing member. Farage,
who arrives in town from London
Kelly, a tall, broad former Irish
journalist, “doubles as a bodyguard,”
Farage jokes, and sometimes refers
said, creating 52 million “news feed
impressions” on the social network-
ing site.

Then YouTube in the morning, hadn’t planned on

taking part in the debate in the Eu-
ropean Parliament. He didn’t think it
to his boss as “Il Duce.” (“Oh, well
that’s just a bit of fun isn’t it,” Farage
says later when asked about it.)
Farage himself has 1.1 million
Twitter and 800,000 Facebook fol-
lowers, more than any politician

came along and would be seemly to get involved in a

discussion about the EU’s direction
after the U.K.’s departure, which he
Lunch proceeds with talk of the
“Revolution of ’16”, as Farage re-
fers to it, and of Trump: “He can be
on the right of British politics. Only
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn
outdoes him on social media impact.

people started had worked for so long to try and

bring about.
Then he was reminded European
very, very funny.” Kelly says that in
politics, humor can be “the mur-
der weapon supreme,” and Farage
Farage’s team proudly points out
that in some weeks this year he had
the most site interactions on Face-

to notice. Commission President Jean-Claude

Juncker was going to be there.
So he spent the best part of an
agrees.
When Trump visits the U.K. in
July, for the first time as president,
book of any British politician.
The week after budget day in
Brussels, Farage is back in London.

It changed hour in the chamber, before return-

ing triumphant to his seventh-floor
office in the European Parliament
Farage expects to meet him, he says
later. “I should think it will be very
brief. He’s got a lot to do, and also
It is another bright May afternoon,
5 p.m., and a gleaming white BMW
with tinted windows pulls up out-

everything.” building.
“I high-fived Juncker!” he an-
nounces as he walks into the sun-
dappled room. “I hope the photog-
raphers got it, I’m sure they did.” He
pauses thoughtfully for a moment.
“I’m sure they did.”
he can’t be too provocative against
[May’s] government by seeing me.”
He makes a point of giving inter-
views on “Fox and Friends” when-
ever he can, and says he’s conscious
when doing so of speaking directly
to the president. He is on Fox a lot,
side the Speaker pub on Great Peter
Street, about a 10-minute stroll from
the Palace of Westminster. Farage’s
driver-cum-bodyguard Martin (his
team declines to give his second
name for “security reasons”) gets
out and opens the door for Farage,
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
who heads in for a pint.
He calls this his “sharpener,” and
he has one before nearly every LBC
evening show. There is a seasoned
Westminster journalist who says that
they only ever took one bit of advice
from Farage — a little alcohol before
public speaking is a good idea.
Alongside Farage is Dan Jukes, his
press aide, who looks after the social
media accounts. He calls them the
“nuclear football.”
Farage doesn’t get quite so many
stares here as in Brussels, but a few
people ask for selfies, and one man
who says he is a civil servant spots
him from halfway down the street
and walks up to congratulate him on
his work and complain that, as a gov-
ernment employee, he cannot speak
his mind. “It’s worse than slavery if
your mind’s enslaved,” the man says.
“That’s a great philosophy. You
should be in politics,” Farage replies.
Over pints of Hophead ale, Far-
age and Jukes discuss what he’ll
cover on tonight’s show. Italy’s 5Star
Movement and the League are in
negotiations to form a government.
He knows both parties well, having
previously been in a European Par-
liament group with the League, and
now chairing one which includes the
5Stars. Matteo Salvini, who has since
become Italy’s interior minister, is
an old friend, Farage says.
“Italy’s interesting isn’t it? Social
media in Italy is really big. Really, re-
ally big.”
In Beppe Grillo, the comedian
who founded the 5Star Movement,
he sees a potential model for his
new career outside the traditional
bounds of elected politics.
“What’s fascinating about Beppe
is the extent to which he’s changed
Italian politics without ever even
standing for office. These traditional
routes that people had to go down
to change political thinking — it’s
out of the window now. It’s gone.
It’s changed. Grillo proves that more
than anybody. He’s never even
stood, never even considered it.”
American right-wing political
commentators like Hannity, Rush
Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly are
the main inspirations though. He
knows Hannity “reasonably well,”
and while he has not sought direct
advice, has “watched what people
like him have done. He’s a very good
example.”
InfoWars founder Alex Jones is
also on Farage’s radar and he has at-
tracted criticism in the U.K. for a re-
cent appearance Jones’ radio show,
which has promoted conspiracy the-
ories about, among other things, the
Sandy Hook gun massacre. Farage
is unapologetic. “People can scream
and shout all they like. He is a phe-
nomenon,” he says, and points out
that Trump used to go on InfoWars
too. Jones was one of the first people
to help Farage gain an audience in
America, he says. “Even though I
may not agree with some of his stuff,
I stay loyal to my friends.”
AFTER THE SHARPENER, MARTIN
THE BODYGUARD/chauffeur drives
Farage and Jukes to the LBC studio
overlooking Leicester Square.
In the green room, Farage goes
through topics and timings with LBC
producer Christian Mitchell and
does a pre-recorded trail. He is good
at it, hits his cues and doesn’t need
to do many retakes. He says broad-
cast journalists used to call him
“one-take Farage” and attributes his
media profile over the years, partly,
to being good at soundbites. He re-
calls how a BBC correspondent in
Brussels once told him other MEPs
were complaining about the amount
of coverage UKIP was getting. “He
said to them: ‘That’s because Farage
turns up on time, does it in one take,
and there’s no fuss.’”
He does an Instagram story and a
photo for Twitter.
“We do, even though it’s a radio
show, have to be aware of visuals,”
he explains. In the resulting pic-
ture, partly aided by Jukes’ iPhone
X on ‘portrait mode,’ Farage looks
reasonably tanned and healthy for
a 54-year-old who famously smokes
and drinks liberally.
Is he cleaning up his act for life as
a media star? In Brussels recently, a
fellow MEP asked him whether he
was using a tanning cream. “I won’t
tell you what I said to him, but it was
two words!” Farage says. He declines
to say what those two words were,
but adds when pressed on the topic
of skincare regimes: “I don’t use any-
thing very special at all.”
The radio show is a slick, compact
vehicle for Farage to talk about what
he wants to talk about.
Every episode starts with a re-
cording of Donald Trump’s voice,
introducing Farage on stage at an
election rally in Mississippi back in
August 2016: “Mr … Nigel …. Far-
age!”
Then in comes Farage himself,
live on air. “Thank you Donald, and
good evening everybody!”
He introduces today’s topic — the
House of Lords — by quoting the
front page of that day’s pro-Brexit
Daily Mail newspaper. “TRAITORS IN
ERMINE!’ he reads. “Wow! I’ve said
one or two things in my time about
the establishment and the pro-EU
order, but they are really very, very
strong words.” (Ermine is a refer-
ence to the fur lining of the tradition-
al gowns of members of the House
of Lords.)
The night’s debate is over whether
the Lords are exceeding their consti-
tutional role as an unelected revis-
ing chamber, and instead seeking to
overthrow the will of the people as
expressed in the Brexit referendum.
He takes calls from those who
agree and those who disagree, and
LBC strives for balance. But he is
most enthused when building his
own personal brand. Steve, calling
from Islington in north London, ar-
gues against Farage’s wish for sweep-
ing House of Lords reform, accusing
him of wanting “revolution.”
“Absolutely,” Farage replies joy-
fully, conscious he’s got a soundbite.
“I am a revolutionary, a pinstripe
revolutionary!”
On a good night he gets about a
hundred calls — more in one hour
than in three hours of other shows,
says Assistant Producer Thomas
Danielian, who is in the control
room tonight.
“Usually the lines are completely
full the entire time,” he says.  “He’s
great at steering them. Not all politi-
cians can handle callers. He can.”
The phone rings again. Someone
else wanting to join Farage’s discus-
POLITICO 19
sion about the House of Lords. Dan-
ielian picks it up: “LBC. What would
you like to say? ... Ok … And why do “‘Juncker
you hate them?”
Emerging from the studio after
high five
the show, Farage banters with Jukes caught on
and Mitchell about how it all went. camera’ …
“It’s actually an interesting form Goooood.”
of the democratic process. Doing
that show is not dissimilar to walking ABOVE: PHOTOS
on the street and knocking on doors. BY EMMANUEL
DUNAND/AFP
I try and be very polite,” he says. VIA GETTY IMAGES
“You’re never nasty,” Jukes chips
in.
“Well, unless they are completely
cretinous. But I think talk radio plays
a very important part in the whole
democratic process. In America it
is just massive. Every single state,
state radio, national radio, town and
city radio. It’s just huge over there
and I think it’ll grow here. Interest
in politics is the highest it’s been for
decades.”
WHEN AFTER 20 YEARS AS MEP,
Farage finally leaves Brussels in
March next year, there is only one
thing he will miss, he says: “the cut
and thrust and the theater of the
chamber.” In another life, he jokes,
he could have been on the stage — an
“end-of-the-pier show entertainer”
or a stand-up comedian.
He can certainly deliver a line.
“You have the charisma of a damp
rag and the appearance of a low-
grade bank clerk, and the question
I want to ask is: ‘Who are you?’” —
Google former European Council
President Herman van Rompuy and
one of the first results is a YouTube
clip of Farage declaiming him with
these words in the European Parlia-
ment in 2010.
Despite his reputation among
supporters as a straight-talking, old
school Englishman, Farage is a much
more modern figure than many give
him credit for, acutely conscious of
the link between technology, the in-
ternet and populist politics.
Social media allowed his acts of At left,
subversion to reach an audience un- Nigel Farage is
imaginable in the pre-YouTube era. greeted by then-
For many British voters, the sight U.S. presidential
of Farage attacking the Brussels es- candidate
tablishment on democratic account- Donald Trump at
ability and, critically, immigration a campaign rally
would have been the first time they in Mississippi in
ever paid attention to the European 2016.
Parliament. JONATHAN
“YouTube was the great savior for BACHMAN/
GETTY IMAGES
me,” Farage admits, sitting in his Par-
liament office. He lights a Rothmans
cigarette. He’s not allowed to smoke
in here but has ignored complaints
about it from neighboring MEPs.
“I remember thinking back in
2006, 2007 — I’m coming over here,
I’m doing all this stuff, I’m making
things happen and no one’s notic-
SEE FARAGE ON PAGE 20
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
20 POLITICO NEWS
FARAGE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19
ing. Then YouTube came along and
people started to notice. It changed
everything, really.”
It is partly this realization that
makes him believe his next calling
will be to adopt what he calls “a
multimedia approach to campaign
and comment,” weaving together
radio and television appearances
with “a bit of writing and a lot of
social media.”
“What I enjoy about this is
moving arguments on,” he says.
“The challenge of being a bit like a
magnet and dragging things in the
direction I want them to go. And
that’s what I’ve been good at, re-
ally.”
ARE YOU SHIFTING THE OVER-
TON WINDOW — the range of
ideas tolerated in public discourse?
“Yes, that’s one way that some of
academia put it, but yes, the limits
of acceptability some would say,”
he pauses.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say it in
that way,” he says.
Farage has certainly shifted the
Overton window of British politics.
Whether for better or for worse
generally depends on your political
standpoint.
Born in Farnborough, in south-
east England, to stockbroker Guy
Farage (whom he still sees regu-
larly) and Barbara Stevens, the
younger Farage went straight from
private school at Dulwich College
to a job in the City of London se-
cured via an acquaintance at his
golf club.
After a modestly successful spell
on the London Metal Exchange, he
embraced politics full time, was a
leading figure in the newly-formed
UKIP, became an MEP in 1999 and
UKIP’s leader in 2006. It was under
electoral pressure from UKIP that
then-Prime Minister David Cam-
eron, in 2013, promised a referen-
dum on the U.K.’s EU status.
As for his personal life, he is no
longer living with his second wife
Kristen Mehr, a German woman,
with whom he has two daughters.
He told the BBC last year that he
was “separated and skint.” He now
says that while the latter situation
has improved, the former remains
the same — and he hated press
coverage of the fact his daughters’
have German passports: “Ludi-
crous. What has it got to do with
anybody?”
He remains a highly divisive fig-
ure in the U.K., but even his critics
concede the influence he has had.
Up to a point anyway.
“Farage deserves great credit for
bringing about the referendum,”
says Matthew Elliott, former chief
executive of the official Vote Leave
campaign. “Plugging away all those
years before the issue became in
any way popular or high profile”
was key to forcing Cameron to go
for a vote.
Andrew Adonis, the former
Labour Cabinet minister-turned-
anti-Brexit campaigner goes even
further. In a book released this
month, he devotes an entire chap-
ter to “How Mr. Farage became
leader of the Conservative Party.”
“Farage undertook a brilliant
reverse takeover of the Tory Party,”
Adonis says, becoming its “spiritual
leader … It is the most remarkable
coup in modern British politics.”
On the outcome of the vote
itself, Farage’s influence is more
questionable. The campaign group
he backed, Leave.EU, was not des-
American right-
wing talk-show
hosts Sean Hannity,
Rush Limbaugh and
Bill O’Reilly are the
main inspirations for
Farage’s future life.
ignated the official pro-Brexit cam-
paign. That status went to Elliott’s
Vote Leave, fronted by senior Tory
politicians like Boris Johnson and
Michael Gove.
Elliot believes Farage’s hard-line
approach on immigration — exem-
plified by the controversial “Break-
ing Point” poster depicting a queue
of refugees and migrants — was
too divisive to win a national vote.
“Had UKIP and Leave.EU run the
referendum campaign they would
probably have got about a third of
votes. It would have been a two-to-
one defeat,” Elliott believes.
THE LBC SHOW IS A CLUE TO
what Farage’s third act might look
like. For the remainder of the
month, he keeps himself busy in
various ways, all geared toward
building the brand.
He reinforces his relationship
JUNE 21, 2018
with Fox News by showing them
round London ahead of the royal
wedding. “You’re so famous here,
you were the man responsible for
Brexit so they love you,” says pre-
senter Ainsley Earhardt.
He takes a trip to Northern Ire-
land, mischievously appearing at
an event with MPs of the Demo-
cratic Unionist Party — who guar-
antee Theresa May’s majority in
parliament.
He also launches a new website,
bringing together all those LBC
clips, Fox News clips, and European
Parliament set-pieces in one place.
Speaking for a final time over
the phone at the start of June, he
expresses excitement about the
new Italian government, formed
just days before. He thinks it
proves him right — that the “Revo-
lution of ’16” is far from over — and
he predicts that Italy will “inevita-
bly” end up leaving the euro.
While allies in Italy are adopting
the mantle of government, pushing
a hard-line stance on immigration
and picking fights with Brussels,
Farage is far from the center of
power and about to lose his elec-
toral office.  He doesn’t seem to
mind. Despite his insistence that
he will return on a white charger if
Brexit needs him, he’s hopeful that
he won’t have to.
“It’s going to be a bumpy road,
a very bumpy road, but I still take
the view that we will leave the
[Lisbon] treaty on March 29th,
because I think not to do so would
be politically suicidal for the prime
minister.”
Which leaves him plenty of time
to reflect on where those YouTube
videos — his savior 10 or 15 years
ago — are taking him.
At Invictus restaurant in Brus-
sels, Farage had resisted the idea
that there is any contrivance —
“some great media image por-
trayal” — behind his persona. The
image, he had insisted, happened
by accident.  “Of course, when the
ball was rolling, you play up to it.
But it wasn’t designed like that.”
Now, he says, he “always
thought there was an entertain-
ment element to it, whether it’s
elected politics or whether it’s in-
fluencer commentary … The way
Trump does it is absolutely right.”
“The theatricality of the Euro-
pean Parliament — which of course
I used on YouTube in the early
days and, of course, the campaign-
ing — was hilarious. I’d always be
pictured in a pub, wouldn’t I? In
whatever village or town I was in.
It’s just so funny to see the other
political leaders try to mimic me in
the last couple of years, turning up
in pubs and looking very awkward.”
Farage bristles when it is sug-
gested to him that in trying to
become Britain’s Hannity, leaving
behind elected politics and the ac-
countability of the ballot box for a
makeup chair and studio lights, he
is betraying the democratic values
he says he holds dear. Hannity et al
might be influential — but how ac-
countable are they?
“You could say that of every
single author or journalist who has
ever lived. All any of you f**kers do
is chuck bottles,” Farage says with
a note of anger, before reflecting a
moment.
“Look, it’s not the same as elect-
ed politics, I would accept that.
But it is a reflection of the way the
world is changing. The big multi-
platform influencer of opinions,
we’ve seen them in America. You
say they’re not accountable, but
they are accountable, aren’t they?
Because if they make a mess of it
people stop listening.”
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
JUNE 21, 2018
TURKEY
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
didate Meral Akşener, the nominee
of the center-right Iyi Party, are in-
creasingly setting the tone of the cam-
paign. When both Ince and Akşener
decided not to appear on the state
television channel TRT, Erdoğan fol-
lowed suit.
When Ince declared he would lift
the two-year-old state of emergency
if elected, Erdoğan — who had previ-
ously insisted that the emergency law
was necessary for Turkey’s security
— pledged to do so, too.
And while Erdoğan hopes to win
over voters with a nationalist agenda,
blaming Turkey’s economic problems
on Western meddling and emphasiz-
ing the threat of terrorism, the oppo-
sition has run a campaign marked by
a sense of hope.
“Look, Ince, who has accused Erdoğan
Erdoğan is of creating a “society of fear,” has
a thief, no crisscrossed the country promising
question. democracy and rule of law, a stable
But Ince economy and greater freedoms. At
his rallies, he has charmed voters by
and the dancing and cycling on stage.
others, Recent polls suggest Ince may
all they score between 20 percent and 30
do is talk. percent of votes in the first round,
Erdoğan with Erdoğan between 45 percent
and 48 percent (though a few sur-
gets things veys put him at above 50 percent).
done.” Akşener’s vote share is projected be-
tween 9 percent and 15 percent.
Sedat, 56, driver Though most analysts predict a
in Üsküdar narrow victory for Erdoğan, a second
round would see a closely fought race.
Dilara, a 19-year-old first-time voter
who attended Ince’s event in Üskü-
dar, said she saw the CHP candidate
as “fresh blood” for the opposition.
“I’ve never seen Üsküdar like
this,” she said. “Things are changing.
WATCH LIVE
ON THURSDAY JUNE 21
POLITICO.EU/EUCHINA
FROM 6 PM CET
JOIN THE
CONVERSATION
Opposition candidate Muharrem Ince speaks during a campaign rally for the upcoming
Turkish presidential election in his hometown of Yalova. BULENT KILIC/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
There’s a chance — a small chance
— he can win in the second round.”
Like many voters, Dilara counted
Turkey’s economic troubles among
her chief concerns. Double-digit in-
flation, rising unemployment and
the plummeting lira pose major
threats to Erdoğan’s plans for re-
election, given his promise of con-
tinued growth.
But the president still dominates
the field, retaining a fierce grip on
Turkey’s media and state resources.
He also remains popular among large
swathes of the population.
Ince and the opposition still
needed to prove to voters that
they can turn Turkey’s floundering
economy around, said ECFR fellow
Aydıntaşbaş.
“What Ince needs to do now is to
show that he can run Turkey and more
importantly the Turkish economy,”
she said. “He hasn’t shown that yet.”
ELECTORAL ALLIANCE
Many voters still trust Erdoğan to
32/,7,&2őVHYHQWŐ(8&KLQDDUHWKH\WKHOHDGLQJSDUWQHUVKLSWRŵJKWFOLPDWHFKDQJH"ZLOOIRFXVRQ
WKH(8DQG&KLQDSDUWQHUVKLSLQWKHFOLPDWHFKDQJHEDWWOHLWVLPSOLFDWLRQVIRU(XURSHDQDQGKRZ
WRGHSOR\FOLPDWHWHFKQRORJLHVDWDIDVWHUSDFH
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:
MIGUEL ARIAS CAÑETE, (XURSHDQ&RPPLVVLRQHUIRU&OLPDWH$FWLRQDQG(QHUJ\
bring stability despite recent eco-
nomic woes and growing authoritari-
anism, pointing to his decade-long
track record of bringing prosperity
and investment to Turkey.
Sedat, 56, a driver standing by
Üsküdar’s ferry docks as the crowds
waited for Ince’s arrival on Saturday,
said he disliked Erdoğan but would
still vote for him.
“Look, Erdoğan is a thief, no ques-
tion. But Ince and the others, all they
do is talk,” he said. “Erdoğan gets
things done.”
Where the opposition stands a real
chance is in the parliamentary elec-
tion, where they are threatening the
AKP’s majority, thanks to an unlikely
alliance between secularists, Islamists
and nationalists.
After Erdoğan called the snap
elections two months ago, CHP and
Akşener’s Iyi Party formed a coali-
tion with the Islamist Saadet Party
and the tiny Democrat Party. This
move allows the two smaller par-
ties’ candidates to enter parliament
NEWS POLITICO 21
even if they are below the electoral
threshold.
The Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic
Party (HDP) has been left out of the
alliance, but Ince has gained popu-
larity among Kurdish voters with his
inclusive approach.
Ince has visited HDP’s imprisoned
candidate, Selahattin Demirtaş, in jail
— a risky undertaking that exposed
him to accusations of sympathizing
with terrorists — and pledged to sup-
port Kurdish-language education.
His overtures are paying off: Last
week, a large crowd welcomed him
in the Kurdish city Diyarbakır — a rare
feat for a lawmaker from CHP, the
party responsible for Turkey’s his-
torical repression of Kurds.
The Kurdish vote may prove cru-
cial. The AKP will only lose its major-
ity if HDP surpasses the 10 percent
threshold to enter parliament. Op-
position parties are also vying for
the vote of conservative Kurds, who
have favored AKP and Erdoğan in
the past.
“Kurdish voters are key,” said Baris
Yarkadas, a CHP MP for Istanbul.
“Whoever the Kurds vote for in the
second round will become president.”
With only a few days remaining
before the elections, opposition par-
ties and their supporters are grow-
ing bolder. Saturday’s Üsküdar rally
resembled a festival, with families
picnicking on the grass and vendors
hawking cotton candy.
Optimism abounded, as well as a
sense of unity. Aside from staunch
CHP supporters, many first-time vot-
ers and even supporters of other par-
ties were in attendance. Some waved
HDP and Iyi Party flags.
“It’s a different atmosphere this
time,” said Deniz Uludağ, 39, who
was at the rally with her siblings. “I
think the government, they’re a little
bit afraid.”
NOW
@EnergyVisionsEU
using #EnergyVisions
JO LEINEN,0(36 '*HUPDQ\&KDLURIWKH'HOHJDWLRQIRUUHODWLRQVZLWKWKH
3HRSOHőV5HSXEOLFRI&KLQD
GARY LEWIS,'LUHFWRUDL3URJUDPPHDQG3ROLF\'LYLVLRQ8QLWHG1DWLRQV
(QYLURQPHQW3URJUDPPH
LAILAI LI,'LUHFWRU:RUOG5HVRXUFHV,QVWLWXWH&KLQD
RØNNAUG SÆGROV MYSTERUD,&RQYHQRU(QHUJ\ 
&OLPDWH&KDQJH:RUNLQJ*URXS(XURSHDQ5RXQG7DEOHRI
,QGXVWULDOLVWV(57DQG+HDGRI(8$IIDLUV1RUVN+\GUR

23(1,1*5(0$5.6%<Harry Brekelmans, 3URMHFWVDQG

7HFKQRORJ\'LUHFWRU6KHOO
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
PRO BRIEFING
22 POLITICO
DATAPOINT
Germany remains the largest auto exporter in the world
Evolution of exports from the world’s top car-exporting countries.
ABOUT
DATAPOINT
DataPoint
provides
ready-to-use,
customizable
slides based
on research
by POLITICO
journalists and
analysts.
To request
access, email
pro@politico.eu
for a free trial. Sources: International Trade Centre (ITC) calculations based on UN COMTRADE and ITC statistics.
BREXIT
Germany’s Brexit point-man
takes Colombia posting
The German government’s lead
coordinator on Brexit, Peter Ptassek, will
leave the federal foreign ministry later
this summer to become ambassador
to Colombia. Ptassek has been deputy
director general for European affairs since
2014, and works to coordinate national
policy on the U.K.’s impending departure
from the bloc between the chancellery,
and the finance, economic and foreign
ministries. According to two ministry
officials, there is no concrete decision
on Ptassek’s replacement yet, but he is
expected to relocate to Bogotá in August.
HEALTH CARE
Theresa May outlines 10-year
priorities for NHS
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May laid out a
10-year plan for the National Health Service
on June 18, which is under pressure just
shy of its 70th anniversary. May gave no
new details on the funding source for an
extra £20 billion annually by 2023, which
she had announced June 17. She reiterated
Theresa May it would be a combination of a so-called
Brexit dividend — disputed across the
political spectrum — and tax increases.
Priorities include developing a workforce
strategy, encouraging innovation, stepping
up prevention and elevating mental health.
ENERGY & CLIMATE
Warning over higher costs to
stabilize German power grid
ARE YOU A Costs to ensure the stability of the
POLICY PRO? Germany’s electricity grid increased by 59
Pros get percent last year to €1.4 billion, the German
exclusive access federal network agency said on June 18.
to real-time, The agency’s president, Jochen Homann,
in-depth online said in a statement that the only way to
reporting, reduce costs is to expand the country’s
customizable electricity network. Germany’s grid
alerts and cannot always cope with the expansion
early morning of intermittent renewable energy, so
newsletters.To transmission system operators have had
learn more, email to resort to costly redispatch and feed-in
pro@politico.eu measures to stabilize the system.
AGRICULTURE & FOOD
UK gives boost to crop
research
The U.K. government will provide a new
funding package to research crop resilience
and quality, Environment Secretary Michael
Gove announced June 15. Four agricultural
research centers will receive around £5.3
million over five years to develop new
technologies and environmentally friendly
production for farmers and growers across
the country. The studies will focus on
boosting productivity for pulses, wheat,
leafy vegetables and oilseed rape. The
government has invested £160 million
through the agri-tech strategy to harness
the latest research and technologies.
German trainmaker Siemens Mobility will build 94 new trains for the London
Underground. OLI SCARFF/GETTY IMAGES
TRANSPORT
London tube deal goes to
Siemens Mobility
German trainmaker Siemens Mobility beat
off competition from its merger partner
Alstom and a tie-up between Hitachi and
Bombardier to bag a £1.5 billion contract for
94 new London Underground trains. The
deal was announced June 15, just days after
officials at Alstom and Siemens submitted
documentation to competition authorities
in Brussels to get approval for their mega
merger. If the merger is given the green
light, then the combined company will
work on the metro trains together.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple case heads to US
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court announced on June
18 that it will review a class-action lawsuit
brought against Apple by consumers.
Apple Inc. v. Pepper alleges Apple has
monopolistic control over its app store
and gets a cut of the revenue from each
app sold, thus playing a key role in setting
the prices that app creators charge per
download. The court must decide if a third-
party distributor like Apple can be sued
by consumers, even if the exact prices are
determined by an outside seller.
COMPETITION
Brussels OKs Comcast’s
proposed acquisition of Sky
The European Commission unconditionally
cleared the U.S. cable operator Comcast’s
acquisition of pay-TV operator Sky on
June 15. After a one-month review, the
Commission granted approval on the
basis that the transaction would not harm
competition in any of the markets where
the companies are active, such as pay TV.
The Commission also granted approval for
a rival offer for Sky by 21st Century Fox on
April 7.
JUNE 21, 2018
POLITICO DataPoint
FINANCIAL SERVICES
EU watchdog: Eurozone
shock absorber ‘insufficient’
The European Commission’s plans to
introduce a €30 billion economic shock
absorber to boost economic safeguards
for the eurozone are “insufficient” and only
serve as a “small stepping stone” toward
an effective rainy day fund, the EU’s fiscal
watchdog said in a report published June
18. According to the European Fiscal
Board, the fund should be a minimum of
€50 billion. The Commission’s “European
Investment Stabilization Function” would
come in the form of loans under the next
EU budget, which would help safeguard
primarily public investment.
SUSTAINABILITY
Ireland to comply with EU
water rules, 16 years late
Ireland will take another two years to
get its drinking water to meet the EU’s
health standards, according to a report
published on June 14 by the Environmental
Protection Agency. Although the country’s
water quality is high overall and meets
chemical and microbiological standards,
Ireland continues to struggle with
eliminating lead from drinking water and
keeping pesticides from entering the water
networks. The country is expected come
into compliance 16 years after the EU
deadline, which was in 2004.
HEALTH CARE
WHO updates international
diseases classification
The World Health Organization released a
new international classification of diseases
on June 18. Gender incongruence is no
longer listed as a mental health condition,
a gaming disorder has been added to the
list of addictive disorders, and a chapter on
traditional medicine has been included. The
classification is used by health insurers to
reimburse treatments and as a reference
for doctors. The changes are expected to
be adopted at the World Health Assembly
in May 2019 and take effect in 2022.
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
SPONSORED CONTENT
E-cigarettes: Harm reduction faces
obstacles
E-cigarettes: Getting to the facts about traditional tobacco alternatives
BY DUSTIN DAHLMANN, FOUND-
ING MEMBER OF THE INDEPEN-
DENT VAPE ALLIANCE (IEVA)
The electronic or e-cigarette is
now 15 years old and is extremely
successful with millions of people
using e-cigarettes as a much less
harmful alternative to tobacco. But
there is still a great need for educa-
tion in society.
According to a study published in
2016 by the Onassis Cardiac Sur-
gery Center, more than six million
tobacco smokers in the EU have suc-
ceeded in completely stopping their
tobacco consumption with the help
of e-cigarettes. Another nine million
smokers have been able to at least
reduce their dependence on tobac-
co cigarettes by using the electronic
alternative. A German study from
2017 found that 99 percent of all e-
cigarette users are current or former
tobacco smokers.
The recipe for success of the e-ciga-
rette, which was developed in 2003
in China, is based on a key charac-
WHULVWLFWKHVLJQLƓFDQWO\ORZHUKDUP
fulness of the product for smokers
compared to the tobacco cigarette.
“The typical smoker’s cough disap-
pears within a few weeks, the sus-
ceptibility to infection decreases
massively and the physical condition
improves,” explains the Graz-based
toxicologist Professor Bernd Mayer.
For him, the transition to the e-ciga-
rette in terms of health improvements
is comparable to stopping smoking.
SHUFHQWOHVVKDUPIXOŋDVLJQLƓ
cantly lower cancer risk
In August 2015, the British govern-
ment agency Public Health England
(PHE) published a landmark report
on e-cigarettes. In it, PHE reported
that the e-cigarette is 95 percent less
harmful than the tobacco cigarette.
In a further publication in early 2018,
PHE added that the risk of develop-
ing cancer is 99.5 percent less with
Presented by Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA)
e-cigarettes than with tobacco ciga-
rettes.
What are the reasons for such a sig-
QLƓFDQWO\ ORZHU GHJUHH RI KDUPIXO
ness? In his opinion written in 2016,
as an appointed expert of the fed-
eral government, Professor Mayer
H[SODLQHGWKHPRVWVLJQLƓFDQWGLIIHU
ence between e-cigarettes and con-
ventional cigarettes: “As e-cigarettes
Dr Renate do not burn, no combustion products
Sommer MEP are formed, and it is these that are
| via Dr Re- responsible for potentially fatal dis-
nate Sommer eases such as cancer, heart attacks,
strokes and COPD.”
“Hopefully,
we will not &ODULƓFDWLRQQHFHVVDU\
get into a The proven lower degree of harmful-
situation ness of e-cigarette has not yet pene-
in which WUDWHGVXIƓFLHQWO\LQWRWKHFRQVFLRXV
dispropor- ness of European society. A survey in
tionately Germany in 2017 revealed that more
GLIÀFXOW than half of the population believe
access to e- e-cigarettes are at least as harmful
cigarettes as tobacco cigarettes. Comparable
makes studies in Great Britain have come
smokers to similar conclusions. This also ap-
go back to plies to the only relevant target group
ordinary for e-cigarettes: adult smokers and
and more their relatives, for whom a switch
harmful to- FRXOG SURYLGH VLJQLƓFDQW UHOLHI ,Q
bacco ciga- this regard, public health bodies are
rettes.” encouraged to spread the generally
accepted facts about the e-cigarette
to the wider public, so that smokers
can correctly assess the alternatives.
Authoritative political regulation
required
The political regulation of e-ciga-
rettes implemented in the EU since
2016 has an essential consequence
for retailers and consumers: e-cig-
arettes may be traded freely under
FOHDUO\GHƓQHGFRQGLWLRQV,QVSLWHRI
this, two years after the EU Tobacco
Products Directive came into force
at national level, there are increasing
numbers of political voices calling for
stricter regulation of e-cigarettes and
taxes on e-cigarette liquids.
However, there are also divergent po-
litical assessments. Dr Renate Som-
mer is a member of the European Par-
liament, representing the European
People’s Party (EPP), and is a mem-
ber of the European Committee on
the Environment, Public Health and
Food Safety (ENVI). She considers the
regulators to have a responsibility not
to torpedo the development of e-cig-
arettes as an alternative to smoking
by implementing inadequate mea-
sures, and says: “Hopefully, we will
not get into a situation in which dis-
SURSRUWLRQDWHO\GLIƓFXOWDFFHVVWRH
cigarettes makes smokers go back to
ordinary and more harmful tobacco
cigarettes.”
Regarding the risks posed by e-ciga-
rettes, Dr Sommer agrees with the as-
sessment made by Professor Mayer:
“With regard to the pure smoking
process, e-cigarettes are proven to
contain less carcinogenic substances
and are therefore much less harmful
to health than it is the case with ‘real’
cigarettes.” However, there must
be measures to effectively protect
young people and children from both
tobacco products and e-cigarettes.
The concern among politicians re-
garding excessive regulation is also
shared by Dustin Dahlmann. He is
managing director of a successful
German e-cigarette company and
also chairman of the alliance for to-
bacco-free pleasure (BfTG). The BfTG
is an association of small and medi-
um-sized retailers and manufacturers
of e-cigarettes and e-liquids. It is thus
part of the small- and medium-sized
industry that supported and made
the e-cigarette big on the European
market long before the tobacco com-
panies turned to the tobacco-free
product in search of alternatives. A
current project of the independent
BfTG association is the establishment
of the European e-cigarette federa-
tion, Independent European Vape Al-
liance), which is intended to enable
better coordination of national and
individual interests at EU level.
wavwbreak3 via fotolia.com
Dahlmann is critical of the recent
statements about e-cigarettes made
by EU Health Commissioner Vytenis
Andriukaitis. He says: “In early May,
Mr Andriukaitis stated that he consid-
ered e-cigarettes to be less danger-
ous than traditional tobacco smoking.
Nevertheless, in the same article he
came to the conclusion that smokers
should not make use of e-cigarettes
to help them stop using tobacco.
With all due respect: the reasoning
is not thought through consistently.”
Protection of minors is a central
concern
Neither tobacco products or e-cig-
arettes should be in the hands of
children and adolescents. “E-ciga-
UHWWHV DUH D VLJQLƓFDQWO\ OHVV KDUP
ful alternative for adult smokers and
have been developed exclusively
for such people,” says Dustin Dahl-
mann. “That’s why we welcome all
youth protection measures, such as
the Youth Protection Act passed in
Germany in 2016, which prohibits the
sale of e-cigarettes to young people.”
Panel discussion about e-cigarettes
in Brussels
At 6 p.m. on July 10, 2018, a moder-
ated e-cigarette discussion event will
take place in the Members’ Lounge of
the European Parliament in Brussels.
Dr Renate Sommer, Professor Bernd
Mayer and Dustin Dahlmann will
take part in the debate, called: Can
we ignore that e-cigarettes are by far
less harmful than conventional ciga-
rettes? The discussion will also assess
the new HnB products compared to
e-cigarettes.
To register for the event, email
hermann.drummer@simply-europe.
eu
The aim of the event is to achieve
open dialogue and share knowledge
between participants in terms of the
opportunities and risks associated
with e-cigarettes. Because only an
exchange that is free of prejudice can
prevent incorrect assessments.
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
OPTICS
24 POLITICO JUNE 21, 2018

TURKEY’S PRESIDENT
LOOMS LARGE
Leader’s images crowd out competiton

BY ELIO GERMANI
IN TURKEY

T
he face of Turkey’s strong-
man president, Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan, with its reassuring ex-
pression of a resolved family man, is
everywhere: larger-than-life portraits
in public squares, nonstop TV cov-
erage, even souvenir rugs for sale at
city markets. His political campaign
has infiltrated cultural and religious
celebrations across the country ahead
of snap elections on June 24, embrac-
ing the iconography of a man leading
his “fatherland” with a firm hand.
The president’s oppressive omnipres-
ence leaves little room for competing
candidates. But will propaganda be
enough to hand him another term as
Turkey’s undisputed leader?
РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

POLITICO 25

Main image: A
rug shop in the
old bazaar of
Kayseri featuring
portraits of
ancient Ottoman
sultans and
modern political
leaders. And
clockwise, from
right: Custom
rugs at a stand
in Amasya;
an Erdoğan
backdrop in
Konya’s main
square; and
Erdoğan’s face
appears on
a banner in
Amasya.

Left: Erdoğan
looks down
from a banner in
Kayseri.
Below: A portrait
of Erdoğan
hangs outside
the local AKP
headquarters in
Bursa.

Near left: A
vendor sells
sweet corn
underneath
posters of
Erdoğan
and former
President
Mustafa Kemal
Atatürk in
Istanbul.
Far left: A
woman walks
past a campaign
portrait
supporting
Erdoğan’s
candidacy.
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
FORUM
26 POLITICO
Can Jacinda Ardern
reinvent social
democracy in
the South Pacific?
BY KONSTANTIN RICHTER
IN AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
W
hen the leaders of left-leaning par-
ties are looking for good news these
days, they have to turn to a small is-
land nation so remote that it’s often
omitted from world maps. Jacinda
Ardern took over as prime minister
of New Zealand late last year, just
before a hot and dry summer set in.
Many people thought she wouldn’t
last long. They said she lacked ex-
perience. Besides, Ardern’s coali-
tion government seemed somewhat
shaky, bringing together her own
Labour Party, the populists of New
Zealand First and, in a supporting
role, the left-wing Greens.
That hot New Zealand sum-
mer has long gone but Ardern is
still there. Her popularity remains
In the main pretty much undiminished. She
photo above, has kept the coalition together and
students from avoided the kind of major blun-
an Auckland ders her opponents had predicted.
boys school She has also raised her country’s
perform the profile abroad — and that’s not just
Haka, a Maori because she announced that she’s
war dance, to pregnant and would go on mater-
mark Prime nity leave — the first world leader
Minister Jacinda to ever do so. (The baby is due any-
Ardern’s arrival time now.) Or because she wore
at North Shore a cool Maori cloak when she met
Hospital. the queen in Buckingham Palace.
Or indeed because she featured in
HANNAH PETERS/
GETTY IMAGES a New Zealand Tourism campaign
that lobbies the world’s cartogra-
phers to literally put the country
back on the map.
The real reason why Ardern
seems more important geopoliti-
cally than her status as leader of
New Zealand would suggest is that
she makes for an excellent anti-
Trump. Ardern is, at 37, compara-
tively young, extremely agreeable
and — as the U.S. fashion magazine
Vogue recently put it — “unabash-
edly liberal.” During her campaign,
Ardern promised nothing less than
a transformational government
that would tackle climate change,
social inequality and other ills al-
legedly caused by the free-market
economy. So what has she been up
to since? Can frustrated leftists in
Europe and elsewhere take their
cues from her? Is social democra-
cy going to be reinvented in, of all
places, the South Pacific? When Ar-
dern was scheduled to visit Auck-
land’s North Shore Hospital recent-
ly, I decided to go and find out.
NORTH SHORE HOSPITAL IS LO-
CATED in the northern suburbs of
Auckland, an affluent area that has
some of the city’s best beaches and
most conservative voters. It’s also
got a community of Pacific people
who tend to side with Labour. And
so, representatives of the Pacific
community gathered on one side
of the auditorium, Maori leaders
on the other; hospital staff and
journalists sat in between. The stu-
dents of a local boys school were
warming up for their performance
of the Haka, the famous Maori war
dance. The audience fell to a hush
when told that Ardern was two
minutes away. An elderly Maori
woman stepped forward and broke
into song, launching a powhiri, the
welcoming ceremony that initi-
ates many official functions in New
Zealand.
Ardern appeared, walking down
the steps and sitting down on the
stage. She was wearing a pastel-
colored dress (a subtly stylish piece
of maternity fashion) and ankle
boots. This was Ardern’s first pub-
lic event after the release of the
new government’s budget. The
journalists were hoping that she
would talk about the numbers, a
key indicator of where her govern-
ment is headed politically. When
Ardern finally stood up to speak
— following more song, speeches
and, of course, war dancing — she
commented on how people would
inevitably liken the budget to her
pregnancy because they both took
up a lot of her time.
She also joked about how her
JUNE 21, 2018
staff has been scheduling a lot of
appointments at hospitals lately,
always making sure she tours the
obstetrics ward. This was all light-
hearted banter, not a lot of sub-
stance. But it did show that Ardern
knows how to connect with peo-
ple. She’s an experienced speaker.
And yet her delivery comes across
as fresh and authentic, not tainted
by routine. Later when making the
rounds, Ardern was introduced to
a heart-attack patient, an elderly
woman who was visibly disconcert-
ed by the presence of a dozen jour-
nalists. No need to feel intimidated,
Ardern said warmly, and pointed
at the people with the cameras and
the microphones: “It’s just me and
a few friends of mine.” The patient
laughed.
Ardern and New Zealand are still
in their honeymoon period, I was
told repeatedly in recent months,
the insinuation being that it must
end sometime soon. But it hasn’t
yet. Ardern’s ascent came quickly
indeed last summer when a man
inauspiciously named Andrew Lit-
tle stepped down as Labour leader
and asked her to fill in. Much like
Germany’s Martin Schulz, Ard-
ern miraculously rose in polls.
But while the Schulz-Effekt proved
short-lived, Jacindamania didn’t.
Schulz floundered in elections,
Ardern flourished, and now it’s Ar-
dern who gets to travel to Berlin —
as she did in April — and to lecture
SPD leaders on the future of social
democracy.
And why not? Ardern has
worked on Labour campaigns since
she was a teenager. She met com-
rades all over the globe when trav-
eling as president of the Interna-
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

POLITICO 27

At Buckingham
Palace, the
prime minister
wore a Māori
cloak adorned
with feathers
and bestowed
on chiefs and
dignitaries
to convey
prestige, respect
and power,
according to
an expert at
the national
museum of New
Zealand.

WPA POOL PHOTO BY

DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS
VIA GETTY IMAGES

FOR NEW ZEALAND’S LIBERAL

tional Union of Socialist Youth. And
she spent years working as a policy
adviser to Tony Blair’s government
in Britain. She should know a thing
or two about the difficulties of get-
ting the left back on track.
 
ON THE FACE OF IT, NEW ZEA-
LAND would seem to be well-
suited to the kind of politics that
Ardern stands for. Income inequal-
ity has risen sharply here in recent
decades, much more than in other
OECD countries. But that’s not how
New Zealanders like to see them-
selves. The country’s identity was
shaped by early settlers who left a
class-based society to create a bet-
ter Britain. That egalitarian ethos
— which feels more, say, Scandi-
navian than American — is still
palpable in everyday life. There’s
little tolerance for public displays
of great wealth.
Moreover, New Zealand has
been exempt from the kind of mi-
gratory pressures that have turned
left-leaning voters elsewhere into
fans of right-wing populists. Geo-
graphical isolation — a drawback
in some respects — works in the
country’s favor here. Refugees
from war-torn countries rarely
make it to New Zealand shores.
Anti-foreigner sentiment tends to
be directed at wealthy Chinese or
U.S. investors who buy property
and drive up housing prizes. It’s a
narrative that Ardern’s party can
embrace without seeming heartless
or racist. When entering coalition
talks, Labour and New Zealand
First quickly agreed on measures
to reduce immigration and to pre-
vent overseas investors from gob-
bling up real estate.
CHAMPION, IT’S BACK TO BASICS
One would also think that the
new government has money to
spend. Decades of fiscal reticence,
under both Labour and conserva-
tive governments, mean that public
debt is rather low at 22 percent of
gross domestic product. (House-
hold debt is more of a worry.) New
Zealand’s 10-year-bonds have been
trading at lower yields than those
of the U.S. Treasury, meaning the
government can borrow pretty
cheaply. That’s why a lot of Labour
Party supporters were hoping
that Ardern would put the money
where her mouth is and go for a
big and bountiful budget. But then
she didn’t.
 
BUDGET DAYS ARE SERIOUS
BUSINESS in New Zealand. Well
before the figures were released,
the media got excited, covering
the whole thing like a major sports
event. They had Budget Day live
tickers and Budget Day countdown
clocks. They also ran a lot of back-
ground stories on famous budgets
of the past. They wrote about the
Black Budget in 1958, when La-
bour, disastrously, raised taxes on
tobacco, petrol and alcohol, and
about the Mother of all Budgets
in the early 1990s when a hawk-
ish finance minister named Ruth
Richardson severely cut spending
on health, education and welfare.
And they wondered what moniker
they’d be giving this year’s budget.
In January, Ardern gave an in-
kling of what she had in mind. She
talked about her plans for a so-
called Wellbeing Budget. For years,
economists have been working on
developing criteria other than GDP
to measure a country’s prosper-
ity. They want to focus on more
than just the financials, taking into
account cultural, environmental,
social and even psychological fac-
tors. When Labour started thinking
about wellbeing, they studied the
OECD’s Better Life Index and the
Happy Planet Index developed by
the New Economics Foundation.
And they decided that New Zea-
land should be the first developed
nation to put these things to work
in a budget.
It’s an endeavor that fits in with
a current shift in leftist thought.
Battling right-wing populists for
hearts and minds, politicians in
Europe and elsewhere want to
leave the Third Way behind and re-
connect with voters. They want to
highlight the corrosive effect that
free markets have had on commu-
nities and societies. They want to
talk about the environment, about
cultural issues — and indeed about
individual happiness. Measur-
ing these things, or so the think-
ing goes, could change the public
perception of what governments
should be doing and spending
money on. It’s a promising idea.
But Ardern’s government decided
that it isn’t quite ready yet to mea-
sure happiness, and so they post-
poned wellbeing to 2019.
At North Shore Hospital, I asked
Ardern what social democrats in
Europe and elsewhere could learn
from her government. “Back to
basics,” she said, citing invest-
ments in health, education and
housing. Then she was rushed off
to a meeting with business leaders
in a five-star hotel. Indeed, more
money has been allotted to hospi-
tals, midwives and cheaper doctor
visits. New schools and classrooms
will be built, additional teachers
hired. More state homes are meant
to ease New Zealand’s housing cri-
sis. At the same time, Labour has
vowed to keep debt below 20 per-
cent of GDP and plans on running
large surpluses in years to come.
As a result, Labour’s budget didn’t
seem all that different from what
the conservative National Party
would have done.
Which, in a way, is perfectly un-
derstandable. The budget reflects
Ardern’s reluctance to impose her
politics on a country that hasn’t
given her the mandate to so. Na-
tional came out on top in the elec-
tions, after all. (It was only thanks
to the kingmakers of New Zealand
First that Labour got into govern-
ment.) Although the economy
thrives, business confidence re-
mains low. Ardern and her fellow
Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern
laughs as
Kavatoiana
Laufili,
16 months,
welcomes
her to North
Shore Hospital
last month in
Auckland.
HANNAH PETERS/
GETTY IMAGES
Labour Party leaders apparently
felt it is paramount to show busi-
ness leaders and other skeptics
that they are safe with this govern-
ment. A Keynesian spending spree
would have spooked too many
mainstream voters. The same goes,
of course, for a Wellbeing Budget.
 
NEW ZEALANDERS LIKE TO
THINK of their country as a kind
of social laboratory. More than
100 years ago, they gave women
the right to vote. The country was
one of the first to introduce social-
welfare policies such as old-age
pensions or unemployment ben-
efits. Then again, in the 1980s and
1990s, governments run by both
Labour and National liberalized the
economy faster and more radically
than others. They deregulated en-
tire industries, cut down on social
services and curbed restrictions on
foreign investment. New Zealand,
relatively small and geographically
isolated, has shown in the past that
it’s capable of shifting gears quickly.
That’s why Ardern’s allies had
been hoping that the country,
under the spell of Jacindamania,
would change direction once again.
But at least for now, social democ-
racy isn’t being reinvented in the
South Pacific. In an opinion piece
for Newsroom.co.nz, Bernard
Hickey, a well-known commentator,
called the government’s first budget
“the biggest opportunity in a gen-
eration wasted.” As for its moni-
ker, Ardern herself suggested the
budget should be called the Rebuild
Budget. But soon another name
was circulating that struck more of
a chord. Ardern’s budget could go
down as the Boring Budget.
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
OPINION
28 POLITICO JUNE 21, 2018

THE EUROZONE
ISN’T READY
FOR THE NEXT
BIG SHOCK
MIGUEL
OTERO-
IGLESIAS Here’s how to fix that
is senior analyst
at Elcano Royal
Institute and MADRID

T
professor at he return to economic
the IE School growth in the eurozone
of International has produced a danger-
Relations. ous sense of complacency on the
Old Continent, especially in the
richer countries of the north. But
RAYMOND Italy’s flirtation with an exit from
TORRES
the euro under a populist govern-
is director for
ment is a stark reminder that, if left
macroeconomic
unaddressed, the deep structural
and international
weaknesses that plague the single
analysis at
currency could trigger an existen-
FUNCAS. They
tial crisis across the EU. It would
are co-authors of
be a mistake, therefore, to believe
the paper “Quit
we can drive along in business-
kicking the can
as-usual mode, or just take a few
down the road: A
small steps toward more European
Spanish view of
integration.
EMU reforms.”
This week’s Meseberg Decla-
ration signed by Angela Merkel
and Emmanuel Macron, although
positive in its direction, is part of a
collective denial about what needs
to be done. You don’t need to be a
populist to recognize that Europe’s
monetary union is dysfunctional
and in dire need of more substan-
tial reforms that those proposed by
Germany and France. words, risks should be minimized safeguards to avoid irresponsible that stick to fiscal prudence and
To keep the single currency before they are shared among the behavior. commit to structural reforms will
alive, it needs two major structural group. This eurozone budget — which receive support.
improvements. But the experience of Spain and should be closer to €100 billion The question of what happens
First, it needs to reduce the others shows that this approach, than the €10 billion currently fore- when a member country misbe-
fragmentation in Europe’s banking although it may work in normal seen — would smooth macroeco- haves must also be answered. In-
system that has caused the Con- times, tends to produce unneces- nomic shocks and fund pan-Euro- troducing formal sovereign debt
tinent to experience more severe sary economic damage during a pean projects to increase growth restructuring in the eurozone to
crises than other parts of the world crisis. The strategy of placing most potential, ensure sufficient public ensure market discipline ex ante —
— most notably in comparison to of the burden on crisis-stricken investment, reduce inequality, pro- as Merkel has suggested — is prob-
the U.S. countries under the adjustment tect the borders and facilitate debt lematic.
Second, it has to develop a logic of the so-called troika can — in sustainability. As long as the central fiscal ca-
streamlined and legitimate deci- the long run — prove to be politi- It would be an ambitious mea- pacity is not large enough — and
sion-making process to respond cally unsustainable and undermine sure, and it can only happen if it won’t be for some time — sov-
quickly and boldly to the next ma- European citizens’ confidence in there is trust among member coun- ereign debt restructuring will be
jor recession. the euro. We saw it in Greece. We tries and a willingness to pool more both traumatic and destabilizing
The next crisis is likely to hit are now seeing it in Italy. fiscal sovereignty. For it to work, for Europe as a whole. Instead, a
some countries harder than others. Yes, Germany carried out suc- every member country would need member country should be able
For the The problem is that the only tools cessful reforms in the early 2000s. the backing of its citizens. to obtain financial support from
eurozone at the eurozone’s disposal to tackle But their success owes much to the Merkel and Macron neglect the central fiscal authority, while
to be these recessions are internal de- fact that other European coun- this point in their declaration. relinquishing its fiscal sovereignty
successful, valuations — which invariably lead tries were sustaining demand for But the truth is that reform will temporarily, and signing a memo-
we need to to income cuts and job losses. German goods and services. What be politically impossible without randum of understanding of mac-
The European Commission, aca- might be good for one country can first explaining to voters why their roeconomic reforms.
inject more demics and national governments be damaging if several countries government needs to finance a eu- This fiscal authority would have
democratic broadly agree on this diagnosis. act at the same time. rozone-wide fund, when it should to represent the interests of the
legitimacy The problem is that there is no We need to be more ambitious be activated and how it should be eurozone as a whole and not the
into consensus on the way forward. than simply proposing a eurozone deployed. The eurozone is, after sum of the individual members, as
how it is Some argue that eurozone coun- budget. Designing a relatively well- all, a public good. Politicians have a is now the case with the European
tries should take on more responsi- sourced fiscal capacity, managed responsibility to make a convincing Stability Mechanism as well as the
governed. bility when it comes to prevention by a central fiscal authority at the case for why it needs a eurozone future European Monetary Fund
and reform. That means putting European level will be crucial to budget to sustain it. proposed by Merkel and Macron.
IMAGE VIA ISTOCK public finances in order, boosting offset country-specific shocks. They must also address the To ensure this, the permanent
the solvency of banks — by reduc- This can take several forms: a concern — common in northern head of the central fiscal author-
ing the incidence of non-perform- Europe-wide fund to be mobilized member countries — that creat- ity should be put forward by the
ing loans — and reforming their depending on a country’s circum- ing a central fiscal capacity will Eurogroup and ratified by a newly
labor and product markets. stances; an investment fund, or an encourage some to misbehave and established euro committee in the
Action at EU level, according unemployment reinsurance system overspend. European Parliament.
to this view, should only become that tops up national schemes. This can be avoided with the The bottom line is simple. For
an option when each country has What matters is that it can be right incentives. The new frame- the eurozone to be successful, we
taken the necessary measures to quickly activated in the event of work should be set up in a way need to inject more democratic le-
get their house in order. In other a major shock and that there are that ensures that only countries gitimacy into how it is governed.
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
WHAT POPULISTS GET RIGHT
YVES
LETERME
is the former
No matter how you
prime minister define populism, you
of Belgium can’t deny it’s working
and secretary-
P
general of the
opulist parties are winning
International
elections across Europe.
Institute for
Instead of ignoring them, es-
Democracy
tablished parties should be taking
and Electoral
notes.
Assistance (IDEA).
Today, every fourth European
is governed by a populist leader.
SAM VAN Populists have grabbed the reins in
DER STAAK Italy, Greece, Poland, Hungary and
is the head of
the Czech Republic. They’re busy
International
reshaping the political landscape
IDEA’s Europe
in countries such as Austria and
program.
Finland, where they are in govern-
ment with established parties, and
in Germany and the Netherlands,
where they make up the largest op-
position force.
But first, what exactly is a popu-
list? So far, there hasn’t really been
a single, agreed-upon definition.
Pundits have defined it variously
as nativism (Viktor Orbán in Hun-
gary), majoritarianism ( Jarosław
Kaczyński in Poland), anti-elitism
(Beppe Grillo in Italy), econom-
ic surrealism (Alexis Tsipras in
Greece), and of course good old
Polish Prime
demagoguery (Donald Trump).
Minister
Nor do populists necessar-
Mateusz
ily agree on policy. Some are
Morawiecki,
left, and his
anti-austerity leftists, others are
Hungarian
anti-immigration right-wingers.
Take Kaczyński and the Dutch
counterpart
firebrand Geert Wilders. Both are
Viktor Orban.
populist politicians who oppose
JACEK TURCZYK/EPA immigration and rail against the
EU, but they hold diametrically op-
posed views on gay rights.
One thing is clear. No matter
how you define populism, it’s win-
ning votes. As the pundits are busy
arguing, politicians are jumping on
the bandwagon and adopting “pop-
ulism” as a nom de guerre to proud-
ly emphasize they are with and
of the people. As more and more
populists gain footholds in national
governments, populism is becom-
ing synonymous with “serving the
people” and giving them credence
as real democratic parties.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe
Conte used his maiden speech to
say he is proud to call his govern-
ment populist if it means “the
ruling class listening to people’s
needs.” Both Orbán and Trump’s
former strategist Steve Bannon
have used the “populist” label to
boost their image as “protectors of
the people.” And last year, Dutch
Prime Minister Mark Rutte — as es-
tablishment as they get — claimed
victory over “the wrong type of
populism,” suggesting there is a
“good” type too.
What unites Europe’s populist
movements is their refusal to play
by the rules of conventional poli-
tics. This is more a matter of style
than anything else — they are es-
sentially disruptive parties and like
to put on a good show — but the
idea clearly appeals to a growing
number of voters and could lead to
concrete changes in our political
system of representation.
That provides an opening for
mainstream parties. Populist par-
ties are winning elections by lower-
ing the barriers to entry, promising
to reform the political system and
providing voters with a sense of
control. Establishment politicians
might think about taking some pag-
es from the populist playbook.
A number of new parties, both
populist and not, are setting out
to lower the threshold for internal
participation. Newcomers in Italy,
Spain and France have all used a
mix of consultative policymaking,
open primaries and digital tools to
facilitate citizen involvement.
Populist parties have also made
reforming the political system a
key part of their agenda, claim-
ing to want to reduce the power
of parties, cut down the size of
parliaments and curtail lobbyism.
Controversially, the Polish and
Hungarian governments have intro-
duced reforms to reduce the power
of elites while tightening their grip
on power. Many populists promote
direct democracy, such as refer-
enda and citizen’s initiatives. It’s
telling that the European Parlia-
ment group that unites Italy’s 5Star
Movement, the anti-immigrant
Alternative for Germany, the far-
right Sweden Democrats and Euro-
skeptic UKIP calls itself “Europe of
Freedom and Direct Democracy.”
Populists have also championed
policies that give citizens a tangible
sense of the state working in their
favor. These include family ben-
efits in Poland and Hungary and
tax simplification in Italy. These
POLITICO 29
efforts, although they are under-
pinned by different ideologies,
serve the same purpose: They lend
citizens who feel alienated by their
government a sense of control.
Hard stances against immigration
and the EU fall under the same
rubric.
Mainstream parties should not
become populist. But they should
adopt some of their most success-
ful — and productive — traits. Un-
like some of the more radical fea-
tures on display — xenophobia or
virulent nationalism, for example
— these are not in themselves anti-
democratic or illiberal.
Austria’s young chancellor, Se-
bastian Kurz, and French President
Emmanuel Macron have shown
that established parties and mod-
erate movements can incorporate
certain populist strategies and win
elections. The parties that embrace
populism’s better ideas will be the
ones that survive to shape the po-
litical future.
Austria’s young chancellor,
Sebastian Kurz, and French
President Emmanuel
Macron have shown that
established parties and
moderate movements can
incorporate certain populist
strategies and win elections.
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

30 POLITICO NEWS JUNE 21, 2018

IRELAND
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

“It was like night and day, it was like

someone flicked on a light switch,”
recalled David McCann, a lecturer in
politics at Ulster University and dep-
uty editor of the Slugger O’Toole po-
litical commentary website.
Today, a vote on reunification is
looking increasingly probable — some
would say inevitable. Support for uni-
fication is rising on both sides of the
border, and politicians and activists
are scrambling to prepare for an
eventuality they say suddenly seems
more imminent.
“The referendum is coming,” said
Mark Daly, a senator with the opposi-
tion Fianna Fáil party who has been
studying the practicalities of holding
a vote on the issue. “The history of
Irish reunification is still to be writ-
ten. But it is going to be written in
the next 10 years.”
The island of Ireland will not
stay divided much longer, he add-
ed: “Brexit and the changing demo-
graphics of Northern Ireland is going
to see the end of it.”
BORDER TROUBLES
Northern Ireland was literally de-
signed to remain part of the U.K.
The border was drawn in the 1920s
to carve out six of nine counties of
the ancient Irish province of Ulster,
which between them contained a
comfortable majority of people who
wanted to stay British as the rest of
the island broke away to form a self-
governing state.
The requirement to create a union-
ist majority is part of the reason why
the establishing of a hard border after
Brexit would be such a logistical chal-
lenge. Rather than cutting west to east
across the island, the 300-mile bor-
der curves around to exclude incon-
veniently-nationalist Donegal on the
northwest coast, creating a winding
division that is longer than the entire
length of the island north to south.
During the 30-year conflict that
ended in 1998 with the Good Friday
Agreement, locals had to queue to be
searched by armed soldiers in order
to visit the shops, go to work or to
church across the border.
The creation of the European support for Sinn Féin and the Social securing the so-called “East German for in the Good Friday Agreement,
Union’s single market in 1993 elimi- Democratic and Labour Party — the precedent” in the EU’s Brexit negotia- which states that the decision to hold
nated the need for economic checks. region’s two largest nationalist par- tion agreement. This spelled out that a vote on the issue rests with the sec-
During the Peace in Northern Ireland — between ties — was its lowest in 18 years. were Northern Ireland ever to vote retary of state for Northern Ireland,
mostly Catholic nationalists who Soon after the Brexit vote, the as- to unify with Ireland, it would auto- a minister in the British government
30-year wanted an all-island Ireland and sembly collapsed in acrimony. The matically be part of the EU without in London, “if at any time it appears
conflict largely Protestant unionists who fa- election that followed revealed a gal- any need for an accession process. likely to him” that a majority favors
that ended vored remaining part of Britain — vanized electorate: Sinn Féin swept to It was a major boost to the pro- a united Ireland.
in 1998, brought down the military watch- its best-ever result. And for the first unification side in any future refer- The wording was designed to allow
locals had towers and re-opened the roads. time in the history of the province, endum, and it also re-normalized the both sides to read into it what they
Joint membership of the U.K. and unionist parties lost their majority concept. A united Ireland didn’t seem wanted. For Irish nationalists, it cre-
to queue the Republic of Ireland in the EU was in the assembly. so fantastical when it was on the front ated the possibility of eventual reunifi-
to be key to keeping Northern Ireland’s “For those who would argue in fa- page of the Financial Times. cation. For unionists the requirement
searched Irish-identifying population happy. vor of the union, it’s making it more The issue of a united Ireland then of a popular demand for rejoining Ire-
by armed It underpinned the peace agreement, difficult for those arguments to be became an issue in the Fine Gael lead- land was something they considered
soldiers in which allowed citizens of Northern Ire- convincing,” said Graham Walker, ership election to replace Kenny. Leo so unlikely as to be a confirmation of
land to choose British or Irish nation- a professor who works on North- Varadkar’s ultimately unsuccessful ri- the region’s place in the U.K.
order to ality, or both. The border disappeared ern Ireland and Scotland at Queen’s val, Simon Coveney, called his poli- Particularly with the Tories in pow-
visit the — the only clue are the subtly different University Belfast. “Obviously Brexit cy proposition “Uniting Ireland.” He er in Westminster (or the “Conserva-
shops, go road signs — leaving those who oppose revealed a very disunited kingdom.” became deputy prime minister and tive and Unionist” party to give them
to work or its existence largely free to ignore it.
EAST GERMAN PRECEDENT
foreign minister. It was a stark shift their full name), and reliant on the
to church Brexit flips that all on its head. A for a party that has always been seen support of the Democratic Unionist
hard Brexit, with the U.K. outside the Brexit shifted the debate in the Re- as, on the spectrum of Irish political Party for their majority, the idea of
across the single market and the customs union, public of Ireland too.  Although there parties, perhaps the most comfort- the secretary of state initiating a refer-
border. would cut through parishes, farms is broad support for unification south able with partition. endum may look remote to unionists.
and back yards, raising economic of the border, there was zero urgen- Varadkar has since vowed to stand But even before the Brexit vote,
barriers that haven’t existed for de- cy about the issue before the Brit- up for northern nationalists, promis- the island of Ireland had been un-
Northern Irish cades. Checks on goods and people ish vote. ing they would “never again be left dergoing several slow but powerful
Loyalists light a would disrupt the lives of the tens of An aspiration toward peaceful uni- behind by an Irish Government” in generational shifts. The first is demo-
bonfire during thousands of people who cross the fication is in the Irish constitution, a landmark speech in December. Ac- graphic. Among Northern Ireland’s
the anuual July border daily for work, study, to do and on principle all parties support cording to the Irish Independent, oldest residents, Protestants outnum-
12 celebration in their shopping, or even cross their it, but only Sinn Féin treated it as a Fine Gael has been polling focus ber Catholics by two to one, reflecting
Belfast. own property. live political issue. After the Brexit groups on whether the government how things were when the province
The extent to which Brexit upset referendum, however, the border and should “move towards a United Ire- was first drawn on the map. Among
Northern Ireland’s political order can Northern Ireland suddenly became land, if this made sense following a those of working age and younger,
JEFF J MITCHELL/
GETTY IMAGES be seen in the result of two elections vital issues of national concern. Brexit deal.” however, there is a Catholic majority.
for the region’s governing assembly. This quickly translated into poli- The 2011 census showed a Protes-
GENERATIONAL SHIFTS
In a vote held in May 2016, just before cy realities: In April 2017, then-prime tant population of 48 percent versus
the  Brexit referendum, the combined minister Enda Kenny succeeded in A path to Irish unification is provided a Catholic population of 45 percent,
 РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS
and some have predicted a Catho-
lic majority in Northern Ireland by
as soon as 2021. (Religion does not
map perfectly onto political beliefs
in Northern Ireland, but it is a good
predictor, and the two communities
use “Catholic” and “Protestant” as
shorthand for each other.)
The second shift is cultural. Once,
Northern Ireland was the more pro-
gressive of the two polities; its resi-
dents had access to divorce and con-
traception — both unavailable in an
Ireland under the tight grip of the
Catholic Church. Now, it is North-
ern Ireland that looks like a conser-
vative outlier, after the Republic of
Ireland voted to legalize gay marriage
and abortion by large popular man-
dates. (Both remain illegal north of
the border).
“A lot of educated, outward-look-
ing, liberal minded unionists would
tend to favor remaining in the Euro-
pean Union,” said Dan O’Brien, chief
economist of the Institute of Interna-
tional and European Affairs. “There
are a chunk of unionists reconsider-
ing [their options] in the context of
Brexit.”
Similarly, Northern Ireland was
once the wealthiest and most indus-
trialized part of the island. Today, its
GDP per capita is less than half that
of the south and east, according to
Eurostat. The United Kingdom once
looked like the economically sensible
option, compared to the reckless ro-
mance of nationalism; with Brexit,
now it is British politicians putting
ideology above prudence.
“Nationalism always had a big defi-
cit around economic issues. Now with
Brexit, a lot of business people — and
that’s one thing that has shocked me
with the people I deal with — now
query whether remaining in the U.K.
is the sensible option,” said McCann,
the lecturer at Ulster University.
POLICY VACUUM
Polls differ wildly on the level of over-
all support for unification in North-
ern Ireland. Two June polls showed
support for staying in the U.K. with a
narrow lead over backing for a united
Ireland: A LucidTalk poll had it at 45
percent to 42 percent; a survey by
Lord Ashcroft polls put it at 49 per-
cent to 44 percent. But a Queens Uni-
versity Belfast survey showed support
for unification at half that.
Yet the surveys are consistent in
showing that Brexit, particularly
a hard Brexit, eats into support in
Northern Ireland remaining part of
the U.K. In particular, it demolishes
support among Catholics — who vot-
ed against Brexit by an estimated 85
percent and whose acquiescence to
the status quo had until now secured
Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K.
A majority of people in Northern
Ireland now expect a referendum to
occur within the next 10 years, ac-
cording to the Lord Ashcroft poll.
“I didn’t think there would ever be
a border poll in my lifetime before
Brexit, but I genuinely think now
there will be,” said Jolene, a 29-year-
old Belfast social work student, who
said she would vote for a united Ire-
land. “I think it’s changed conversa-
tions in that people are now talking
openly about a border poll,” she add-
ed. “I do think it will be inevitable.”
Among those who agree with
her is Mark Daly, the Irish senator.
A member of the Irish parliament’s
Joint Committee on the Implementa-
tion of the Good Friday Agreement,
Daly spent 10 months after the Brex-
it referendum gathering all available
material on the practical steps to a
referendum and unification: the eco-
nomic implications, impediments,
uncertainties, and how it could be
achieved in law.
The result was “Brexit and the fu-
ture of Ireland: uniting Ireland and
its people in peace and prosperity”
a weighty report of over 1,000 pages
that is Ireland’s first parliamentary
report on unification — a direct re-
sult of Brexit.
Daly’s quest revealed a vacuum of
concrete policy on how a referendum
could occur. There is no consensus
on what a united Ireland would look
like: whether the capital would be
Dublin, whether the Northern Ire-
land assembly would continue as a
regional parliament, what would be
its flag and its anthem.
Even the criteria for holding a vote
remain vague. How is the U.K.’s sec-
retary of state for Northern Ireland
NEWS POLITICO 31
to determine that a majority for uni-
fication “appears likely”? Is “a major-
ity” 50 percent plus one, as had been
widely assumed, or something more,
as some politicians now argue? How
can the two health care and tax sys-
tems be reconciled? How can the large
financial subsidy Northern Ireland re-
ceives from London be replaced?
Daly fears that the British, Irish
and Northern Irish administra-
tions have all neglected to make a
policy on any eventual unification,
and could be caught unprepared if
events take a sudden shift. “Policy
neglect seldom goes unpunished,”
he said.
“The lesson of Brexit is this: You
do not have a referendum and then
tell everybody what the future looks
like. You only have a referendum at
the end of a long, long process where From top: The
you debate all the issues.” Irish border,
which has
OFF A CLIFF
emerged
Daly has an unlikely ally on the other as a thorny
side of the border. Growing up on the issue in Brexit
streets of unionist north Belfast, Ray- negotiations;
mond McCord was known as a fighter. Irish Taoiseach
He has been a crusader ever since the Leo Varadkar;
death of his son, Raymond Jr, who and voters go
was brutally beaten to death in 1997 to the polls in
at the age of 22 by loyalist paramilitar- Northern Ireland
ies from his own community. in March 2017.
McCord expects he would vote PAUL FAITH/AFP VIA
against a united Ireland in any ref- GETTY IMAGES
erendum, because he hasn’t heard CHARLES
any convincing case about why he MCQUILLAN/GETTY
IMAGES
would be better off in the republic.
“It’s just like Brexit,” McCord said.
“‘Let’s vote for a united Ireland.’ But
we don’t know what kind of united
Ireland we’d have. The health ser-
vice, housing, schooling, education.
All these things need to be explained
before any sort of poll could be done.”
McCord, a former welder and
bouncer, describes himself as a work-
ing-class unionist. But he’s a strong
believer in cross-community coop-
eration and believes that spelling out
the conditions needed for a border
poll will reduce acrimony in Northern
Irish politics by stopping the main
parties from using the issue to rile
up their electorates.
His current battle is to force the
British and Irish governments to
clearly spell out the path to a united
Ireland. He has begun judicial review
proceedings in both Belfast and Dub-
lin, arguing that  the lack of clarity
from both governments goes against
the Good Friday Agreement.
“You can’t have a border poll
called on the whim of a secretary of
state who doesn’t live here,” he said.
“It doesn’t affect them and they don’t
really care.”
Whether a referendum could come
quickly may be decided in the next
few months, and it may be decided
in Brussels.
If Britain reaches a deal with the EU
that replicates Northern Ireland’s cur-
rent status as part of the bloc, it would
likely quell talk of a border poll. It
would make the status quo look once
again like the less risky option.
But if Britain and the EU fail to
come to a deal the opposite could
occur. Any moves to erect a border
would inflame the issue, and an eco-
nomic downturn could puncture the
arguments of those who insist staying
in the United Kingdom is in Northern
Ireland’s best interests.
“If it goes off a cliff, if the Brexi-
teers get their way and they just run
out the door, and there’ll be no cus-
toms union and no single market, and
the border comes back, the reunifi-
cation argument could accelerate,”
said Daly. “It mightn’t be within eight
years, it might be in five, it might be
in three.”
“We’ve got to prepare, and we’ve
got to prepare now,” he added.
“Events take over, and politicians
forget this.”
РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS

Political wheeling and dealing is in high gear as the EU begins the most
ˆ˜Ìi˜Ãi LÕ`}iÌ w}…Ì ˆ˜ ˆÌà “œ`iÀ˜ …ˆÃ̜ÀÞ\ …œÜ ̜ `iÈ}˜ > ÃiÛi˜‡
Þi>À“Տ̈>˜˜Õ>w˜>˜Vˆ>vÀ>“iܜÀŽ]ܜÀ̅“œÀi̅>˜å£ÌÀˆˆœ˜° 1
Õ`}iÌ*Àœ܈V>«ÌÕÀiiÛiÀÞ“œ“i˜Ì]>Ã̅i˜iÜ 1ÓÇ`iVˆ`ið

CONTACT US AT PRO@POLITICO.EU TO REQUEST A TRIAL