On 11 -13 of May Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation arranged a conference in Sarajevo in co-operation with PDP, one of the two Bosnian parties that the foundation works with. The participants were young candidates and campaign managers and the focus was on preparing for the local elections in October. The speaker was Oscar Öholm, MP, Kristoffer Tamsons, senior consultant at Hallvarsson & Halvarsson and Sebastian Tham, press secretary. (more…)
During the weekend representatives of the Ukrainian opposition held a political forum in the centre of Kyiv. The attending parties discussed the final draft of a resolution representing the united opposition before the upcoming Parliamentary elections. The participants condemned repressions and the deteriorating democracy in Ukraine. The meeting also criticized the situation for human rights in Ukraine, the government’s economic policies, especially those that have led to soaring taxes and an unfavourable pension reforms. (more…)
May 7-10, the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation arranged a party leadership visit to Brussels for the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan (NIPA). The goal with the visit was to strengthen the party’s contacts with European institutions and politicians. NIPA is an opposition party to the Azeri dictatorship and since many years a member of the International Democrat Union (IDU). One of the party’s goals for its international cooperation is to become an observer member of the European People’s Party (EPP). (more…)
Georgian Youth Politicians Learn About Campaigning
May 11th, 2012 Caucasus | Education | Georgia | News“Act instead of talking” was the slogan of the Georgian government party, United National Movement (UNM) in the last Presidential election in 2008. Since then, the government has in fact acted. Corruption, which after independence was widespread, has been reduced and economic growth has increased. There is still work to be done in order for the country to become a full democracy and in October it will be determined whether President Mikheil Saakashvili and the UNM will get four more years to approach that goal. The election campaign has already begun and international election observers have been invited. (more…)
Oleg Buklemishev.
Vladimir Putin has for a third time taken office as Russian president. Though, he is coming back to a country in a very different mood, says Oleg Buklemishev, Economist and Advisor to opposition leader Mikhail Kasyanov. “The scene of the inauguration car passing through an empty city is quite symbolic”. Buklemishev is convinced that the authorities’ violence towards mostly peaceful protesters shows that “intolerance towards dissent will only increase during new Putin term. Instead of bridging the national divide he has clearly chosen to polarize society even more”. Her believes that even the “weakest” of Medvedev’s “political reform” can be revoked in this environment (more…)
With almost 98 percent of the votes counted, social liberal incumbent Boris Tadić, Democratic Party (DS) received 25.33 percent of the votes, while ex-nationalist Tomislav Nikolić from Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) got 24.99 percent in the presidential elections on May 6, reported b92.net. It came as no surprise that these are the two rivals that will face each other in the second round on May 20. Serbia won EU candidate status in March and both parties favor EU-membership.
The presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) Vojislav Kostunica won 7.44 percent of the votes, while the candidate of the United Regions of Serbia (URS) Zoran Stankovic scored 6.56%, reported the Serbian government on its home page srbija.gov.rs. The Hajlmarson Foundation is cooperation with both these parties. (more…)
Copyright Ilya Yashin (Solidarnost)
Today Vladimir Putin will for a third time take office as Russian president. At the same time he is facing protests against his command over political affairs in Russia.
“Police on Sunday used batons and charging tactics to break up an anti-Putin rally in the centre of Moscow which had been sanctioned by the authorities but had descended into chaos,” reported British The Telegraph. The opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on his home page nemtsov.ru wrote that “according to the Interior Ministry in Moscow 436 people were arrested”, though the opposition claims that the list is much longer: about 650 detainees. Three key leaders of the protest movement were arrested: anti-corruption campaigner and blogger Alexei Navalny, liberal politician Boris Nemtsov and left-wing leader Sergei Udaltsov. Nemtsov was released after being sentenced to pay a fine. The other two opposition leaders are still imprisoned. (more…)
The Croatian President Ivo Josipovic last week joined European leaders who will not attend a Yalta summit in mid-May. The Croatian president’s office said that one of the reasons for the decision is suspected human rights violations in Ukraine. The news comes after a foreign ministry spokesman in Ukraine said on April 30, that the presidents of Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Slovenia has informed Kiev that they will not attend the Yalta meeting of Central and Eastern European leaders on May 11-12.
The boycott of the Yalta meeting reflects mounting concern over the hunger striking opposition leader and the treatment of her in jail. Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced last fall to seven years imprisonment for abusing power while she was in office. She has denied the allegations. (more…)
New Thematic Page about Azerbaijan
May 2nd, 2012 Azerbaijan |The Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation has resently launched a thematic page aboutAzerbaijan called Democracy for Azerbaijan. Developments in Azerbaijan causes concern regarding human rights but also the political opposition’s ability to operate.
The thematic page is meant to serve as information hub for facts about Azerbaijan.
Go to Democracy for Azerbaijan
The Foundation has also organized two seminars on Azerbaijan
in Örebro on March 16 (in English)
in Stockholm on April 27 (in Swedish)
The Foundation has also published an interview report (March 2012) about the developments Azerbaijan.
General, local and presidential elections will be held in Serbia on May 6. Single national lists will enable voters, for the first time, to cast ballots at any polling station in the country. In previous elections, Serbs could vote only at their registered place of residence. Some 70,000 Serbians have joined political parties since the beginning of this election year, taking the total over the 2-million barrier in the country of 7 million, reports balkaninsight.com. (more…)
Hans-Gunnar Adén (left) and Gunnar Hökmark
MEP Gunnar Hökmark who recently visited Azerbaijan in his role as chairman of the Policy Committee of Euronests Parliamentary Assembly and Hans-Gunnar Adén, former ambassador to Azerbaijan participated on Friday in a seminar on developments in Azerbaijan. An interested crowd of about 30 people had gathered to listen and ask questions.
Hans-Gunnar Adén started out referring to a number of international index that “classify” Azerbaijan as unfree and as a dictatorship. He noted that the Azerbaijani society rather go backwards than forwards in terms such as human rights. (more…)
The Front for Change Party, the Batkivschyna all-Ukrainian Union (prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s party) and another four parties today announced their unification for participation in the elections to the Parliament on October 28, 2012, reported the Kyiv Post.
“We have united in order to win the parliamentary elections in Ukraine, [and] to restore democracy and justice in Ukraine,” First Deputy Chairman of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Union Oleksandr Turchynov said, reading out the declaration of unity at a press conference on Monday, Apr. 23. (more…)
NIPA Demands Investigation into Beating of Journalist
April 20th, 2012 Azerbaijan | News | Theme: Democracy for Azerbaijan (sticky)On April18, 2012, Azerbaijani journalist Idrak Abbasov was severely beaten by guards from Azerbaijan’s state oil company when he tried to film the demolition of houses by company employees in the village Sulutapa. The demolition seems, as numerous buildings in Azerbaijan, to have been expropriated to make way for new government projects. A number of international journalist organizations, such as Reporters without Borders and PEN, have protested against the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan (NIPA) of the democratic opposition. NIPA is the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation’s cooperation partner in Azerbaijan.
(more…)
During the weekend, two leading Belarusian oppositional activists were released from prison. Both had been detained and sentenced to prison in according with the “mass riots” criminal case after the presidential elections on December 19, 2010. (more…)
In 2011 European Stability Initiative published the report Generation Facebook in Baku. Please visit the homepage of ESA for further reading about Azerbaijan and analysis about the developments in the country.
“Visit the Political Opposition When Visiting Baku!”
April 11th, 2012 Azerbaijan | News | Theme: Democracy for Azerbaijan (sticky)
It is disturbing that President Aliyev seems to have changed his mind in regards to Azerbaijan’s cooperation with the EU. Earlier he talked about a wish to become members of the EU in the future. Today he wants his country to be an ally of the EU. It looks like he wants to have the advantages of geopolitically belonging to the West but not wanting to abandon the “privileges” of a dictatorship”, said MEP Gunnar Hökmark who recently visited Baku as chairman of the Policy Committee of Euronests Parliamentary Assembly.
He explains that the Azerbaijani government doesn’t want to comply with the requirements the EU imposes on a democracy. (more…)
Russia will not allow Belarusian oppositional politicians, journalists, aso, to enter the country. Up until this time the Belarus opposition - individuals who are banned from leaving Belarus – have been able to use Russia as transit hub to travel abroad. (more…)
Arseniy Yatsenyuk
April 3, the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation hosted a breakfast seminar with the Ukrainian party leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk, former minister for foreign affairs and speaker. Yatsenyuk is a key figure in the attempts to unite the democrat opposition in Ukraine prior to the next parliamentary elections in October this year.
Reports of the developments in Ukraine confirm that the democracy is suffering under President Viktor Yanukovych. What does this mean to this year’s parliamentary elections and how does the democrat opposition work? Those are some of the questions that Arseniy Yatsenyuk answered during the seminar. (more…)
Mustapha Ussif (left) and Anthony Puowele Karbo.
“We have learned how important the institutions are for democracy to work,” explains Anthony Puowele Karbo, Chairman of the NPP’s youth organization in Ghana. He and Mustapha Ussif was part of a group of young politicians from the Foundation’s sister party in Ghana that visited Sweden for a week in March.
Mustapha Ussif recounts the group’s visit to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the City of Stockholm. He was impressed by that fact that the department’s work goes on as planned also when the political leadership of the city changes.
“This is not the case in Ghana”, he explains, adding that in this respect Ghana has something to learn from Sweden.
Anthony Puowele Karbo is impressed by the great tolerance that political opponents show each other. (more…)
Today the Council of the Europian Union introduced new restrictions again the Belarusian regime.
The Europian Union has decided to add 29 companies and 12 individuals to some 230 Belarusians already blacklisted in response to repression of the political opposition by President Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s regime. (more…)
Report on Azerbaijan prior to Eurovision Song Contest
March 16th, 2012 Azerbaijan | Seminars | Uncategorized |
Thomas Gür holds up the JHS-report on Azerbaijan. To his left,Fuad Muxtarli and to his right Gerald Knaus.
The Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation has during the last ten years been supporting democracy in Azerbaijan. An authoritarian state in which the political opposition only can work within the narrow conditions of the regime. The foundation’s partner in the country is the National Independence Party of Azerbaijan (NIPA).
Due to the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, taking place in Baku on May 26, the JHS arranged a seminar at the Moderate Party’s Annual Conference for Regional and Local politicians in Örebro on Mars 16 and presented a new report on the political situation in the country. Fuad Muxtarli, former international secretary for the opposition party NIPA and Gerald Knaus, chairman of the think tank European Stability Initiative (ESI) participated in the discussion, led by Thomas Gür, senior advisor to JHS.
The ESI will in the end of Mars release a report on the political situation in Azerbaijan and the regime’s relation with the Council of Europe. The report will be available on www.esiweb.org
The seminar on Azerbaijan was well-attended and even more people watched it live on the web.
The conversation focused on the roll of the political opposition and its possibilities to work under President Aliyev and his authoritarian regime. How journalists are persecuted and use self-censorship was also discussed, as was the election frauds taking place on various levels. “You almost can’t believe that it is true,” was one of the comments on how the regime operates in silencing critical voices.
New Report: Azerbaijan – in the Shadow of a Dictatorship
March 15th, 2012 Azerbaijan | Reports | Theme: Democracy for Azerbaijan (sticky)
An interview report written by Elisabeth Precht, Head of Information at the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation.
Read or download the report (pdf)
Norman Quijano, Mayor of San Salvador and up for reelection.
Sunday March 11, legislative and municipal elections will take place in El Salvador. Opinion polls confirm the decline of the support of president Mauricio Funes (FMLN) and his government. A survey carried out by Mitofsky in February 2012 shows an increasing mistrust in the Government, as no improvement has been made, rather the contrary. The positive approval rates of the president has fallen 17 percent, and currently six out of ten Salvadorians believe that Funes has lost control over the Government and that he is also losing control of the country.
When president Mauricio Funes assumed the presidency 35 percent of the respondent in the polls believed that he didn’t have control over the country, today the aqivalent number is 60 percent. In November 2009, 22 percent estimated that the Funes Government was not what they had expected, now a 62 percent shares this opinion. (more…)
Yesterday, on Sunday of March 4, 2012, Vladimir Putin, currently Russia’s prime-minister, declared his victory in the Russian presidential elections; the victory that was overshadowed by widespread reports of vote-rigging, ballot fraud and other violations during the electoral process across the country. The Central Election Commission announced that with around 25 % of the ballots counted preliminary results indicated that Vladimir Putin won the elections with slightly more than 63 % of the votes, which was predicted by exit polls almost the moment polls closed. (more…)
Walburga Habsburg Douglas and Åsa Lindstam outside the prison.
Walburga Habsburg Douglas, MP representing the Moderate party and Deputy Chairman of the OSCE:s parliamentary assembly was refused on Monday to visit the Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko in prison. Both the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Prisons Authority rejected the application for a visit.
“Ukraine must offer transparency immediately and allow the international community to visit Yulia Tymoshenko in prison and see first-hand the conditions in which she is being kept. Ukrainian diplomats and parliamentarians have offered numerous accounts of how ‘comfortable’ the conditions are in Kharkiv for the former prime minister, harping on the fact that she has comforts of home, like a washing machine” said Walburga Habsburg adding that “the fact is that these messages are no substitute for in-person visits.If the government has a story to tell about the conditions in Ms. Tymoshenko’s cell, then authorities should allow international visitors at once.”
“By focusing the discussion on the prison, the Ukrainian foreign ministry has tried to divert attention from the larger issues related to rule of law and political prosecution,” stated Walburga Habsburg.
“In expression of solidarity and unity, it was agreed that the ambassadors of the EU member states in Minsk will all be withdrawn for consultations to their capitals,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement. It was also decided that all EU Member States will summon Belarusian ambassadors to their foreign ministries. (more…)
Evelina Lorentzon on Free Enterprise
Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation in cooperation with the Turkish think-tank Association for Liberal Thinking held a youth conference on the Principles for a Free Society, February 17-19. The seminar, arranged in Ankara, Turkey, was based on Prof. Nigel Ashfords book in which he describes the fundaments for an open and democratic society.
Thomas Gür, senior advisor to JHS, moderated the conference and also led a discussion on civil society. In addition, a handful of Turkish and Swedish scholars and politicians led the discussions, as Atilla Yayla on human rights, Tanel Demirel on democracy, Bilal Sambur on freedom, Bugra Kalkan on spontaneous order, Evelina Lorentzon on free enterprise, Magnus Nilsson on property rights and Adnan Kücük on rule of law.
Young Macedonian Politicians Promote EU Membership
February 16th, 2012 Education | Macedonia | The European Union
Young politicians from Macedinia visiting the Commission in Brussels.
Macedonia is one of the current candidates for a future EU membership. More than 85 percent of the population supports a membership in both EU and NATO. But before entering either of the two organizations, the sensitive naming dispute with Greece must be resolved.
As part of the EU integration project in the Balkans, the Jarl Hjalmarson Foundation invited youth politicians from the party in power in Macedonia – VMRO-DPMNE – to a conference in Brussels, February 7-10, 2012.
The group of enthusiastic young politicians visited major EU Institutions such as the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.
In the Parliament, they met with Anna-Maria Corazza Bildt, who described her work as a Member of Parliament. At the Commission, EU experts Willem Noë and Mark Corner summarized the history of the Union.
The participants’ key area of interest was, as is to be expected, the enlargement of the EU. The Macedonians were eager to receive information about when their country could become a member, but understandably no-one could give them anything but a general timetable for the process.
Moreover, discussions about membership were in focus during the meetings at the NATO headquarters. Due to security matters, Macedonia regards a NATO membership as even more important than a membership in the EU. In 2008 the country was ready to join the European/North American defense alliance, but was blocked by Greece.
“In our country, everyone discusses politics”, one of the participants said. 21 years have passed since declaring its independence and Macedonia is still in an extensive transition phase. However, one thing is clear: the wish to be part of Europe is one of the top priorities of the new generation.
Henrique Capriles, a governor, former legislator and founder of the center-right Justice First party, February 12, 2012, won the nomination of a broad coalition of Venezuela’s opposition parties – called the Democratic Unity Panel. Mr. Capriles will face off in October elections against Hugo Chávez, since 13 years the authoritarian leader of Venezuela. “Analysts believe Venezuela’s oft-divided opposition, which for the moment has put its differences aside, has the best chance to oust the president at the polls— if it is able to stay united”, writes the Wall Street Journal.
Following the election Henrique Capriles was slandered by state media stating, among other things that “This is our enemy, the Zionism that Capriles today represents”. “Zionism, along with capitalism, are responsible for “90% of world poverty and imperialist wars.” (more…)
