标签： Europe

In a cliffhanger vote that has underscored deep divisions over reproductive rights in the tiny Alpine European nation of Liechtenstein, the country’s 25-seat parliament has passed a grassroots citizens’ initiative by just a single vote to liberalize the country’s strict abortion laws. The proposal, spearheaded by a coalition of women’s advocates and led by 28-year-old Tatjana As’Ad from the small left-wing Free List party, would legalize abortion on request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, end the national ban on abortion-related information, and mandate that health insurance cover costs for the procedure.

After weeks of tense debate, the final vote count came in at 13 in favor to 12 against, a razor-thin margin that reflected the polarizing nature of the issue in the predominantly Catholic country. Despite the narrow parliamentary approval, the legislation is all but certain to be blocked: Hereditary Prince Alois, Liechtenstein’s de facto ruler who holds sweeping executive and legislative powers rare for a modern Western European monarch, has publicly threatened to veto the initiative since it was first introduced.

To bring the proposal before parliament, supporters gathered more than 4,900 valid signatures from the country’s 41,000 residents – nearly five times the minimum requirement needed to force a parliamentary vote. Advocates have argued that public opinion has shifted sharply in favor of liberalization since Liechtenstein’s last national referendum on abortion in 2011, when 52% of voters rejected a similar proposal. At that time, Prince Alois also signaled he would oppose any change to the status quo.

Currently, abortion is only permitted in Liechtenstein in extremely limited circumstances: when the pregnant person’s life is at direct risk, or when the pregnancy is the result of sexual violence. Any person who performs an unauthorized abortion can face up to three years of prison time, while a woman who undergoes the procedure can be jailed for up to one year. These restrictions have forced hundreds of Liechtenstein women annually to travel to neighboring Austria or Switzerland to access abortion care. Since 2015, women have not faced criminal penalties for seeking abortion abroad, but the costs of the procedure are not covered by domestic health insurance, creating a financial barrier for low-income residents.

Lawmakers rejected a separate amendment that would have put the issue directly to a public referendum, leaving the final decision in the hands of the hereditary prince. Roman Catholicism, which officially remains the state religion of Liechtenstein, counts nearly 80% of the population among its adherents, and the church has maintained strong opposition to abortion legalization. The Princely House has echoed this position, stating that its core objection to the initiative is that it does not include sufficient protections for unborn life. That said, Prince Alois has left the door open for more modest adjustments to current law, including lifting the existing ban on abortion-related public information and clarifying ambiguous language in the current regulations.

Prince Alois exercises all day-to-day public governing duties on behalf of his father, Prince Hans-Adam II, and holds an extraordinary range of powers for a constitutional monarch in 21st century Europe: in addition to being able to veto any legislation passed by parliament, he can dismiss the sitting government or individual ministers, appoint all federal judges, and propose legislative changes directly. Reproductive rights advocates have framed the initiative as part of a broader push to bring Liechtenstein’s abortion laws in line with most other European countries, where abortion is legal on request in early pregnancy across the vast majority of EU member states.

As widespread protests backed by Spain’s main opposition movement swept across the country, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stood before the national parliament Thursday to push back against growing criticism of his administration’s response to an unprecedented mass migrant influx into the North African Spanish exclave of Ceuta.

In late May, more than 72,000 migrants crossed the border from Morocco into Ceuta, one of the only two European Union land border outposts on the North African mainland. When addressing lawmakers, Sánchez rejected widespread claims that his government had advance knowledge of the surge and intentionally failed to act, calling such accusations “absurd”. He also doubled down on previous claims that there was no concrete proof the Moroccan government orchestrated the mass crossing, emphasizing that Madrid and Rabat had maintained “close coordination” on migration management throughout the incident.

Sánchez’s stance conflicts with a recent internal Spanish police report that noted the “total permissiveness” shown by Moroccan security forces towards migrants attempting the crossing, though senior Spanish officials have moved quickly to clarify the document does not officially accuse the Moroccan government of direct involvement. To date, more than 90% of the arriving migrants have been repatriated to Morocco, but roughly 5,000 people, including an estimated 1,400 unaccompanied minors, remain stranded on Ceuta’s public streets and beaches, creating a strained humanitarian and administrative situation for the small exclave.

Multiple independent reports have confirmed that Spanish officials received advance warnings of an expected surge in border crossings after a Spanish court ruling was widely misinterpreted by migrants as a guarantee that they would not be pushed back if they successfully crossed into Ceuta. Though Sánchez has long avoided public criticism of Morocco, he broke his silence to denounce what he called “unacceptable” comments made by two Moroccan ministers regarding both Ceuta and its sister Spanish exclave Melilla.

The Spanish government’s handling of the crisis has already sparked friction with other European Union member states. Italy, which has long struggled with its own migrant arrivals, moved quickly to implement new border restrictions for travelers coming from Spain in response to the Ceuta incident.

During his parliamentary address, Sánchez defended the actions of Ceuta’s local police force, praising officers for prioritizing “the defense of human life” over rigid border enforcement when the mass crossing began. He also reiterated that close bilateral cooperation with Moroccan authorities allowed for the repatriation of more than 90% of migrants within just 72 hours of the crisis beginning.

Acknowledging the severe disruption the influx has caused for Ceuta’s local residents, Sánchez framed the events of late May as a complex incident shaped by multiple overlapping actors and interests. He repeated his earlier claims that hoaxes and false rumors spread across social media platforms were a key trigger for the mass migration, a position that has already drawn significant criticism. Previously, Sánchez drew condemnation from both Russia and Israel after he blamed trafficking gangs and suggested social media accounts linked to both countries, alongside an international far-right movement, had fueled the crisis. He told lawmakers Thursday that while there is no evidence of direct state involvement from any country, he stood by his claims that linked social media accounts tied to Russia and Israel helped spread destabilizing misinformation.

Sánchez closed his address by describing the situation in Ceuta as both a pressing humanitarian crisis and a major administrative challenge for the Spanish state, as authorities work to find long-term solutions for the thousands of migrants still remaining in the exclave.

A fresh wave of diplomatic escalation between Russia and Germany has sent tensions soaring across European political circles, following Berlin’s accusations of a Russian-state-backed attempted drone attack at a key German airport. On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced Moscow’s decision to shutter all of Germany’s Goethe-Institut cultural centers operating across Russian territory, with targeted closures confirmed in three major cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg.

This countermove comes directly in response to actions taken by Berlin earlier this month, after German authorities blamed Moscow for an explosive drone plot discovered at Leipzig/Halle Airport on August 4. The airport, a critical international freight hub that logistics support for Kyiv amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, had an explosive-laden drone found near a Ukrainian aircraft, which was safely defused by bomb disposal teams. Following the incident, Germany moved to close the Russian Consulate in Bonn and the Russian House cultural center in Berlin, cutting off two key Russian cultural and diplomatic presences in the country.

Speaking from the Eastern Economic Forum held in Vladivostok, Lavrov emphasized that any response less than the closure of German cultural institutions would have amounted to a betrayal of Russian self-respect. He added that German leadership could not have failed to anticipate that shutting down Russian House in Berlin would trigger a reciprocal end to Germany’s own cultural footprint within Russia’s borders.

The incident has sparked broader debate across the European Union, where foreign ministers gathered this week in Ireland to debate a coordinated bloc-wide response to the alleged attack. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas told reporters ahead of the closed-door meeting that the attempted attack bears all the markings of state-sponsored terrorism, though ministers struggled to reach consensus on new non-military retaliatory measures. Options on the table included expanding existing sanctions, imposing new visa restrictions on Russian officials, and ordering the closure of additional Russian consulates across EU member states.

To date, the EU has rolled out nearly 24 separate packages of economic and political sanctions against Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, targeting more than 3,000 individuals and entities ranging from senior government officials and billionaire oligarchs to major Russian banks, energy firms, and drone manufacturers. Kallas confirmed that the bloc is already finalizing new travel bans and asset freezes for an additional 1,600 Russian individuals tied to the Kremlin’s war effort.

Western governments have broadly accused Russia of waging a sustained campaign of hybrid sabotage and disruption across Europe, aimed at eroding public support for Ukraine and destabilizing Western political institutions. Berlin has pushed back against Russian denials, noting that while Germany is “not at war” with Russia, it has become a regular target of the Kremlin’s hybrid operations.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected all accusations out of hand, arguing that German authorities are pushing the unsubstantiated claims to distract voter attention from domestic policy failures and growing public discontent with Berlin’s current governing agenda. All evidence presented to back up the sabotage allegations has been “planted,” Putin claimed. German Foreign Minister Johan Wadephul countered that Berlin had thoroughly prepared for the fallout of its actions, and that “now Russia must live with these consequences.” He also called on Moscow to return to the negotiating table for productive talks, particularly to resolve the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Nearly 100 years after the Nazi regime forced one of the 20th century’s most influential art and design movements to close, Germany’s iconic Bauhaus school has re-emerged as a flashpoint in a bitter cultural conflict between the country’s centrist political establishment and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Founded by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany, in 1919 before relocating to its iconic Dessau campus, Bauhaus revolutionized global creative practice by erasing traditional boundaries between fine art and industrial manufacturing. Its radical interdisciplinary approach laid the groundwork for modern mass-produced design and contemporary architecture, and its aesthetic legacy shapes creative fields around the world to this day. When the Nazis rose to power in 1933, they labeled the movement degenerate art and forced the school to shut down, driving most of its faculty and students into exile. Bauhaus practitioners spread the movement’s philosophy across the globe, from Chicago’s modernist skyline to Tel Aviv’s White City, cementing its status as one of Germany’s most important cultural contributions to the world. Today, the original Dessau campus and accompanying museum draw 150,000 international visitors annually, remaining a top cultural attraction and a symbol of Germany’s progressive creative identity.

Now, as the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt prepares for a pivotal state election this Sunday, the far-right AfD has once again targeted Bauhaus as part of its nationalist campaign. The party is projected to win an absolute majority in the state legislature — a historic shift that would mark the first time a far-right party has controlled a German state government since the end of World War II. If successful, the outcome would send shockwaves through German national politics and raise urgent questions about the future of cultural freedom in the region.

In AfD’s state-level election platform, the party has condemned Bauhaus for intentionally rejecting what it calls “national rootedness,” and labeled the movement an “aberration of modernism.” During a 2024 debate in Saxony-Anhalt’s state parliament, AfD cultural policy spokesperson Hans-Thomas Tillschneider went further, claiming that Bauhaus “violated the human need for security and comfort in every conceivable way.” The party has also pledged to replace the state’s current marketing slogan “Think Modern” with the nationalist catchphrase “Think German,” arguing that the existing tagline represents a “policy of a lack of identity.”

While lead AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund has attempted to soften the party’s stance in recent campaign appearances, telling the Associated Press that “Bauhaus itself wasn’t a problem” and that the party merely objected to centering Bauhaus as the sole representation of German culture, political analysts warn that an AfD majority would give the party the power to slash state funding for the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

The AfD’s attacks have sparked fierce pushback from Germany’s national cultural leadership and mainstream cultural institutions. German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer, who is leading the defense of Bauhaus, drew a direct parallel between the AfD’s rhetoric and the Nazi persecution of the movement a century ago. “The AfD is attacking the Bauhaus, using the very same words the Nazis used 100 years ago,” Weimer told the AP. “And that is why democrats, whether they lean conservative or left, are fighting back against it.” Weimer emphasized that Bauhaus has grown into a global brand synonymous with innovative design, progressive architecture, and cross-disciplinary creative practice, adding that the movement’s open, collaborative ethos has long been a target of authoritarian far-right ideology. “This idea, which is very modern, of bringing together elements from different disciplines has always been hated by the far right. The Nazis banned and persecuted it. And today we have new Nazis … growing stronger, and attacking the Bauhaus all over again.” To protect the institution, Weimer vowed that Germany’s federal government will continue to fund the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation independently, guaranteeing its survival and autonomy even if the AfD wins the state election.

In August, Weimer spearheaded a pro-Bauhaus manifesto pushing back against the AfD’s attacks, which has now been signed by more than 2,500 cultural institutions, individual creators, faith groups, and civic organizations. The manifesto commits the broad coalition to defending Bauhaus from anti-democratic aggression, and rejects cultural nationalism that runs counter to the movement’s values. “The Bauhaus stands for intellectual, social, and aesthetic openness and continuous renewal. It stands for exchange, transnational networking, and mutual inspiration. This openness is a great strength of German culture and enriches Germany,” the document reads.

Barbara Steiner, director and CEO of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, welcomed the widespread show of support, and dismissed the AfD’s criticisms as based on a false, stereotyped version of the movement that never existed in history, nor exists today. “They have in mind a version of the Bauhaus that never existed historically and, of course, doesn’t exist today either,” Steiner said.