In a television interview one Croatian Commercial Court judge Mislav Kolakušić announced his plans to stand as a candidate in the upcoming European Elections. The statement raised the question whether Kolakušić, being an active judge, has the right to do so. We examined national and EU laws and regulations on political participation of judges which…
The political party Groen (the Flemish green party) claims that Belgium is way behind when it comes to green energy. They also say our energy bill is ranked the third most expensive in Europe. Groen mentions this claim on both Facebook and in an article on their website. The party repeats the claim multiple times,…
On Friday 22/03/2019, at 8.20 p.m., the famous performer Uri Geller posted on his official Facebook page a text, entitled “An open letter to Theresa May”. In this Facebook post, Uri Geller, urges Theresa May to prevent Brexit. He points out that the majority of the English citizens are not in favor of Brexit and…
What role did the media play in the run-up to the Dutch provincial and Senate elections of 20 March? These were won by the far-right populist Forum for Democracy and its leader Thierry Baudet. Shouldn’t the media have fact-checked, corrected and brought to attention the danger that the party and its leader present? This is…
A young Austrian politician and candidate for the EU parliament election recently stated that there were between „25.000 and 30.000 lobbyists“ working in Brussels“ spending around 1,15 billion Euros (yearly) in order to influence policies and laws. One would assume that numbers are easy to verify. We thought so as well. However, we got confronted…
In an article on the Viennese online news portal, www.vienna.at, Julia Herr, Austrian Social Democratic Party candidate for the European parliament election, was recently quoted, that there were supposedly „between 25.000 to 30.000 lobbyists“ working in Brussels. According to the article, Herr had made this claim on March 5th, 2019 during a discussion on the…
At the end of February, British Prime Minister Theresa May posted a video on her Twitter profile containing a number of statements. She talked about increased employment, increased wages and reduced national debt. Research has shown that this is mostly true. “We have more people at work than ever before.” A first thing Theresa May…
On March the 4th Dutch leader of the right-wing Forum for Democracy Thierry Baudet reacted to a statement by liberal politician Rob Jetten about homophobia in The Netherlands. Baudet stated on Twitter: ,,Jetten’s anger about the increased homophobia in The Netherlands is justified, but he doesn’t see the causes: the uncontrolled immigration and the…
On March the 4th, 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted “an appeal” to Europe.
On the 14th of March, the British Parliament decided they don’t want a no-deal. The House of Commons voted by 312 to 308 to reject a no-deal Brexit under any circumstances.