German gay couples tie knot after decades of struggle

Yahoo – AFP, Tom BARFIELD, 29 September 2017

Some 94,000 same sex couples in Germany can marry after a June vote which
gave participants cause to celebrate at Berlin's annual gay pride parade weeks later

Germany's first gay couples to be married will tie the knot Sunday, after decades of struggle that campaigners say still has ground to make up.

Couples will convert existing civil partnerships or set the seal on their relationships for the first time in Berlin, while others exchange rings in Hanover, Hamburg and other cities.

Local authorities rushed to get weddings underway as soon as possible, after lawmakers voted on June 30 to give Germany's roughly 94,000 same-sex couples the right to marry.

But German bureaucracy being what it is, government software will be unable to officially record two men or two women as married until next year -- meaning some online paperwork will still register them as "husband" and "wife".

"Finally our country is joining the rest of Europe!" said Joerg Steinert, head of gay and lesbian rights organisation LSVD in Berlin and Brandenburg state.

The Netherlands was the first country to legalise gay marriage in 2000, followed piecemeal by 14 European neighbours like Spain, Sweden, Britain and France.

But Germany made do with a 2001 civil partnership law, extended over the years to remove more and more gaps between gay and straight couples' rights.

That was "a first breach in the institution," Steinert said, paving the way for Sunday's "very symbolic step."

"We won't be a second-class couple any longer," Bode Mende, who with partner Karl Kreil will form the first couple to marry in Berlin, told newspaper Neues Deutschland Thursday.

Mende and Kreil, together since 1979, have for years campaigned for equal marriage rights.

The law now reads "marriage binds two people of different sexes or the same sex for life".

By extending existing law to same-sex pairs, they automatically gain the same tax advantages and adoption rights as heterosexual families, avoiding the endless back-and-forth in some nations over adoption.

Along with the Greens party, the LSVD began its battle for equal marriage rights around the year 1990.

By 2017, same-sex relationships have become so normalised that polls show around 75 percent of Germans are in favour of gay marriage.

Unlike in France, there were no rallies of hundreds of thousands against the law.

"Lots of people were amazed by the end that it hadn't already happened, asking themselves, 'surely we have that already?'" said MP Johannes Kahrs, gay and lesbian affairs commissioner for the SPD -- who himself will act as witness in a close friend's wedding Sunday.

Despite a "memorable experience" meeting a lesbian foster couple German 

Chancellor Angela Merkel voted against the June bill while giving other conservative

lawmakers the chance to follow their personal conscience

'Thanks for nothing!'

Lawmaker Kahrs enjoyed a flash of fame in June, when he laid into the snap decision by Chancellor Angela Merkel allowing conservative MPs to follow their conscience on a gay marriage vote -- the trigger for the rush to pass a bill.

"Thank you for nothing, Frau Merkel!" he stormed, pounding the lectern in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) with rage.

Merkel explained her thinking changed after a "memorable experience" when she met a lesbian couple who lovingly care for eight foster children in her Baltic coast constituency.

Her surprise shift in position -- after 12 years of blockade by her Christian Democrats and their Bavarian allies -- was seen by some as a cynical ploy to rob her challengers of a popular cause ahead of September's election.

The chancellor herself voted against the bill, arguing that the German constitution still defines marriage as "the union of a man and a woman".

"I still think it was indecent to delay for so many years, and the fact that she voted no," Kahrs told AFP.

Even now, the conservative Bavarian government has put experts to work investigating a constitutional challenge against the law.

But Kahrs is confident that a case will never be brought -- or, if it were, that judges would uphold gay marriage.

Long way to go

June was a bumper month for gay rights in Germany, as MPs also voted to quash the convictions of thousands of men convicted under a Nazi-era law against same-sex relationships which had remained on the statute book until 1994.

But there are still an array of issues familiar across western democracies, like blood donation or access to reproductive medicine, where homosexuals can be treated differently.

And the constitution -- which forbids discrimination based on sex, parentage, race, language, homeland and origin, faith, religious or political opinions or disability -- must be extended to protect against discrimination over gender or sexual orientation, Kahrs insisted.

"These are all things that we'll tackle bit by bit," the MP said.

"The important thing is that we've pushed through the opening of marriage, and that's the signal everyone needed."

Fish finger fighting fund to aid EU food crackdown

Yahoo – AFP, 26 Sep 2017

Fish finger fighting fund to aid EU food crackdown

Brussels (AFP) - The EU unveiled plans Tuesday to crack down on food makers selling poor quality versions of products including Coca-Cola, Nutella and fish fingers in different parts of the bloc, particularly in eastern Europe.

Eastern member countries have complained bitterly of "food apartheid" or being treated as "Europe's garbage can" by manufacturers who use the same label for everyday goods that are of far lower standards than in the west.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm and watchdog, will give member states one million euros to help improve tests for comparing products to detect differences in quality.

"These products are presented in exactly the same packaging but for instance the coffee contains less caffeine and more sugar, fish fingers contain less meat in one country than another," EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Vera Jourova told a news conference.

"So when I say I take this issue very seriously I mean it," she added.

The plans also include making sure EU states are fully aware of the way to enforce the bloc's food rules.

The steps unveiled on Tuesday came after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a keynote speech earlier this month that "there can be no second class consumers" in the EU.

"Slovaks do not deserve less fish in their fish fingers. Hungarians less meat in their meals. Czechs less cacao in their chocolate. EU law outlaws such practices already," Juncker said.

Jourova held back from "naming and shaming" the products but said she was waiting for evidence of cheating.

Asked which EU country had the worst fish fingers, she added: "There was an alarmingly low percentage of meat in my country, the Czech Republic, but it can be the case also in some others."

In February Hungary's food safety authority said many food products sold with identical packaging were superior in neighbouring Austria.

Among a list of discrepancies, the agency said the version of Nutella, the children's favourite chocolate-and-hazelnut spread from Ferrero, appeared to be "less creamy" than the Austrian version.

The aroma of Coca-Cola was seemingly "less rich, less complex" in Hungary, the agency said, while the flavour of Nestle's Nesquik cocoa powder was "more harmonious and intense" in Austria.

France's Macron enacts contested labour reforms

Yahoo – AFP, Gina DOGGETT, 22 September 2017

France's Macron enacts his contested labour reforms

Paris (AFP) - President Emmanuel Macron on Friday signed sweeping changes to France's complex labour code into law, ramming through a landmark reform four months into his administration despite protests from hardline unions.

"The reform... constitutes an unprecedented transformation of our social model (and) the economic functioning of our country," the 39-year-old Macron said, adding that it had been "carried out in record time".

The measures are designed to give employers more flexibility to negotiate pay and conditions with their workers while making it easier and less costly to shed staff.

Macron signed the reform, contained in five executive orders, seated at his desk in the Elysee Palace before television cameras in a US-inspired novelty for a French president.

The overhaul, eagerly awaited by the business community and France's EU partners, was fast-tracked via executive orders as a way of avoiding a prolonged debate in parliament.

The measures chip into worker protections that have long been sacrosanct in France, frustrating reform-minded governments whether on the left or the right.

But Macron insisted Friday that the reform contained "new rights and new protections", such as a provision for higher payouts to workers made redundant.

'Watch out, Macron!'

Three months of negotiations with union leaders produced a split between those willing to compromise -- the CFDT and FO -- and those determined to fight the reforms, led by the largest and most militant union, the CGT.

But the resistance has been weaker than that faced by Macron's Socialist predecessor Francois Hollande over his more limited changes to the labour code, which sparked a wave of sometimes violent protests last year.

On Thursday, some 132,000 people demonstrated across France, just over half the numbers who took part last week in the first major protests to challenge Macron since his election in May.

The CGT has vowed to continue to combat his reforms, while radical left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon wants to get tens of thousands into the streets on Saturday.

Melenchon, the head of the France Unbowed party, has led opposition to the measures, occupying ground vacated by the traditional left and right parties, which have been eclipsed by Macron's centrist Republic on the Move.

But the reform comes as the former investment banker's approval ratings plunge, with recent polls showing that only around 40 percent of French voters are satisfied with his performance.

Protesters have seized upon his recent criticism of opponents to the labour market changes as "slackers", with slogans such as "Watch out, Macron, the slackers are in the street".

France's 'pharaoh'?

CGT leader Philippe Martinez warned Macron: "When you are president, you should show humility rather than strutting about."

Philippe Braud, professor emeritus at Paris's Sciences Po university, said he believed popularity was not a concern for Macron.

"He knows he won't be defeated in the street," Braud told AFP.

Macron insists that his signature reform offers the best cure to France's stubbornly high unemployment rate, which stands at 9.6 percent, roughly twice the levels in Britain or Germany.

"The reform offers pragmatic solutions for very small companies and small and medium-sized businesses... which create the most jobs today," he said Friday.

Public opinion is divided, according to a recent BVA poll, with most respondents saying they think the reform will boost France's competitiveness but fail to improve employees' working conditions.

Critics say the use of executive orders -- which kept parliamentary debate over the proposals to a minimum -- bolster perceptions of Macron as a monarchical or even "pharaonic" leader.

But Macron insists he has a mandate for change after his presidential win in May and his party's thumping parliamentary victory in June.

"Democracy does not happen in the street," Macron said in New York on Wednesday in another broadside at the protesters.

The reform will enter the statute books on Monday, though a few changes, including a measure to streamline workers' committees, will not take effect until the end of the year.

Dutch prosecutors reach $274m deal with Telia in Uzbek corruption case

DutchNews, September 22, 2017

Photo: Despositphotos.com 

Three Rotterdam based subsidiaries of Swedish telecom giant Telia have agreed to pay $274m in an out of court settlement for bribing government officials and keeping inaccurate books and records. 

The fine relates to the company’s efforts to gain access to the Uzbek telecom market, during which officials paid bribes to the eldest daughter of the former president of Uzbekistan via its Dutch subsidiaries, the public prosecution department said. The deal covers the period 2007 to 2010. 

Telia has also reached settlements with the US department of justice and the US securities and exchange commission. In total, the company has agreed to pay $965m to settle the charges. 

The Netherlands considers the fine as ‘appropriate’, the Dutch prosecutor said in a statement. ‘It is a punishment that hurts, and it does justice to the significance of the acts committed as well as to the disruption these acts caused to the legal order.  The parallel [US] government action against corruption demonstrates that corruption is tackled internationally.’ 

Serbia's lesbian PM at Pride takes tolerance 'one step at a time'

Yahoo – AFP, Rachel O'BRIEN, September 17, 2017

Serbia's prime minister Ana Brnabic (2nd right) attends the Gay Pride parade
on September 17, 2017 in Belgrade (AFP Photo/ANDREJ ISAKOVIC)

Belgrade (AFP) - Serbia's lesbian prime minister said Sunday that she was working "one step at a time" towards a more tolerant society, as she joined Belgrade's annual gay march held under heavy security.

Ana Brnabic, 41, became one of the few openly gay government leaders in the world when she came to power in June, but activists say homophobia remains a widespread problem in the conservative Balkan country.

Setting off on the Pride parade with hundreds of activists waving rainbow flags and balloons, Brnabic was keen to give a more positive message, saying Serbia was "finally showing what I believe is its true face".

"We do have a very loud minority, an aggressive minority of people who are against this, but most of the people in Serbia, I think, are people who think in terms of 'live and let live'," she told AFP.

She encouraged gay youths to be "full of understanding for people who are very traditional and who do not yet truly understand what this is about".

A child helps to wave a huge rainbow flag during the Gay Pride parade on

September 17, 2017 in Belgrade (AFP Photo/ANDREJ ISAKOVIC)

In 2010, Belgrade's Pride parade descended into clashes between anti-gay protesters and police, injuring more than 100 people and prompting a three-year ban on the event.

This is the fourth consecutive year the march has gone ahead under a huge security presence, and the first time a prime minister has attended.

Brnabic, who wore jeans and a dark jacket and posed for selfies with marchers, said the parade was "more relaxed" than in previous years, with a sharp reduction in police numbers.

Around 2,000 armed officers guarded the cordoned-off streets as activists marched through the city, accompanied by a soundtrack of pop music and a police helicopter buzzing overhead.

'Pinkwashing' suspicions

Brnabic was chosen for the top job by her predecessor, Aleksandar Vucic, after he was elected president. She had entered politics less than a year earlier as public administration minister.

Her appointment, endorsed by parliament, made international headlines. But sceptics suspected an attempt at "pinkwashing", with Brnabic used as a puppet by Vucic to improve Serbia's image as it campaigns to join the European Union.

This is the fourth consecutive year the Pride march has gone ahead under a huge security 

presence, and the first time a prime minister has attended (AFP Photo/ANDREJ ISAKOVIC)

Critics allege that Vucic -- still the country's most powerful politician -- is a populist authoritarian who styles himself as the only one capable of maintaining Serbian stability.

Brnabic, a technocrat with a business background, has dismissed allegations that she was chosen merely because of her sexual orientation.

"I'm proud to be living in a country with a president who has actually, out of all the people, said 'I do not care whether she's gay or straight, I care whether I think she's capable'," she said at the march.

'A pragmatic person'

In a survey conducted in 2015 by the Washington-based National Democratic Institute, only 12 percent of Serbian respondents said they would completely support their child if he or she were homosexual.

Although the country has various legal acts addressing gender identity and anti-gay discrimination, rights activists say that implementation is poor.

They are now campaigning for the adoption of a law on same-sex partnerships, for which they hope to win the premier's support.

Asked whether she would like to see the law pass, Brnabic said: "I can't give you my personal opinion right now because I'm here as the prime minister representing the Serbian government."

People carry signs and rainbow flags during the Gay Pride parade on

September 17, 2017 in Belgrade (AFP Photo/ANDREJ ISAKOVIC)

She said she would discuss the issue with ministers and civil society groups to "see what is it that we need to do to enable civil liberties in Serbia".

"I'm a very pragmatic person, for me it's one step at a time, and I think if we go one step at a time, that is how we build a more tolerant society."

The premier's attendance at the march drew a largely positive response from participants who spoke to AFP, though Ivana Mitrovic, a 35-year-old from the northern city of Novi Sad, was sceptical.

"I don't like the government. It's all for show," she said.

Others thought Brnabic's visibility could inspire young gay and transgender people even in traditionally minded villages.

"For me that's a good thing," said Nevena Pupic, 34, a rights activist and financial officer from Belgrade.

Related Article:

Ireland's first gay prime minister enters office

Another town scraps Australia Day, drawing government ire

Yahoo – AFP, 14 Sep 2017

Another town scraps Australia Day, drawing government ire

   

Sydney (AFP) - Marking Australia Day is like celebrating the Holocaust, a Melbourne politician said as her council scrapped a holiday it deemed offensive to Aboriginal people, in a move the government on Thursday labelled "extreme and divisive".

The council in the Melbourne suburb of Moreland became the third in Victoria state to decide not to recognise Australia Day.

The annual holiday, on January 26, commemorates the arrival of the country's first British settlers in 1788 and is a time when citizenship ceremonies are held.

But it is termed "Invasion Day" by many indigenous Australians who say it marks the beginning of the decline of Aboriginal culture.

In debating the issue Wednesday, Moreland Socialist Alliance councillor Sue Bolton said commemorating Australia Day "would be like celebrating the Nazi Holocaust", state broadcaster ABC reported.

Assistant Minister for Immigration Alex Hawke said in a statement the government rejected "the extreme and divisive nature of the discussion Greens and Socialist councillors are promoting".

He said the government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull "strongly condemns comparisons of Australia Day with the Nazi Holocaust as deeply offensive to all Australians".

"Australia Day is a recognition of our shared history and the Turnbull government, along with the vast majority of Australians, indigenous and non-indigenous, fully support Australia Day remaining on January 26."

Australia's colonial history credits Captain James Cook with discovering the country, but Aboriginal people inhabited the land for more than 60,000 years before the first European explorers arrived.

Last month a war of words erupted over colonial-era statues in Australia, with several in Sydney defaced, including one of Cook with the words "change the date" in reference to Australia Day.

The vandalism sparked a furious response from Turnbull, who brushed off calls for the statues to be torn down, adding that the defacement was "what Stalin did" in denying history.

Aborigines remain the most disadvantaged Australians. They were believed to have numbered around one million at the time of British settlement, but now make up only about three percent of the total population of 24 million.

Town scraps Australia Day, calling it offensive to Aboriginal people. Government says move is "extreme and divisive" https://t.co/GicfnvGVrU pic.twitter.com/xrT7JsgrtR

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 14, 2017

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