Nieuws Democracy

From 6 to 8 September the European Forum, in cooperation with the Foundation Max van der Stoel (FMS), the UK Labour Party and the Ettakatol party organized the second seminar of the Future Leaders Training. The young and promising future politicians came from social democratic and left progressive parties from Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan.

Afgelopen weekend (31 augustus-1 september) reisden FMS trainers naar Tunesië om een training te geven aan de sociale democratische zusterpartij Ettakatol. De training werd georganiseerd in samenwerking met de Britse Labour Party. Namens de Labour Party gingen er twee trainers mee. Tunesië bereidt zich voor op verkiezingen, die momenteel gepland staan voor december. Ettakatol is alvast begonnen zich op deze verkiezingen zo goed mogelijk voor te bereiden. Daarom vroeg de partij ons om een campagnetraining te verzorgen voor campagneleiders en kandidaten.

Afgelopen weekend organiseerden we samen met onze Moldaafse partner, de Democratische Partij (DPM), een politiek zomerkamp in Moldavië. De deelnemers waren 60 jongeren van de DPM uit het hele land, die een brede scala aan kennis en ervaring opdeden: behalve FMS trainers hadden ze ook trainers van onze Duitse zusterstichting, de Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) en trainers en experts van de eigen partij.

Today the Egyptian army has tightened security in Cairo and in other cities in response to calls from the Muslim Brotherhood for marches from 28 mosques after Friday prayers. It has been reported that security forces closed off entrances and roads leading to Cairo's Tahrir Square with armoured personnel carriers and barbed wire. In the meantime, protests have started across the country. The Muslim Brotherhood announced these protests after hundreds of people were killed in police action that ended two sit-ins in Cairo that began after the army deposed President Mohamed Morsi on July 3. The Muslim Brotherhood has called the day "Friday of rage". This was the same title that was given on January 28, 2011, during the 18-day revolt against Hosni Mubarak's rule. There are fears of renewed clashes after authorities have said the police are entitled to use live ammunition to protect themselves and key state institutions from attack.

Afgelopen weekend organiseerden wij de jaarlijkse Leadership Academy in Armenië. Voor de 5e keer op rij, reisden trainers van de FMS, VVD en CDA naar Armenië om een uitgebreide training te geven aan jongeren uit 7 verschillende partijen, zowel regering als oppositie.

Millions of Zimbabweans took to the polls yesterday to cast their votes in the country’s presidential elections. Unlike the elections in 2008, voting passed peacefully and without major incidents. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC is again hoping to unseat President Robert Mugabe of ZANU-PF, though a ZANU-PF source has told Reuters that it is again 89-year old Robert Mugabe that has won the elections, while the MDC calls the elections rigged.

Despite ousting the Finance Minister Mlađan Dinkić and his United Regions of Serbia (URS) from the ruling coalition, no early elections will be held in Serbia. According to the main opposition Democratic Party (DS), that has called for early elections, the government reshuffle is a farce through which the government tries to distract attention from its catastrophic results.

On July 29, Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh has called for early elections, in order to cease the unrest after the murder of legislator Mohamed Brahmi on July 25. The elections are to be held on December 17. The Tunisian opposition had been calling for the resignation of the Islamist led government, stating that the murder of Brahmi signaled the governments inefficiency of protecting its citizens. The social democratic party Ettakatol, one of the ruling Troika coalition partners, has joined opposition forces in calls for a ‘government of national unity’, that would replace the current government.

On July 24 the Egyptian First Deput Prime Minister and Minister of Defence General Abdel Fatah al-Sissi called on Egyptians for mass rallies on Friday Juli 26, to support the military efforts towards confronting terrorism and violence and to show support of what’s happening in the country. “Egyptians must take to the streets on Friday to give me the mandate to face violence and terrorism,” Sisi said.
The speech followed a deadly bombing of a security headquarter in the city Mansoura, in which one died and 27 officers and civilians were injured.

On 24 July dozens of hooligans and anti-gay-demonstrators shouted ‘kill the gays’ at the first ever gay pride parade in Montenegro coastal town of Budva. Eggs, stones and bottles where hurdled at around 40 participants in the parade mostly arriving in a police escorted bus from the capital Podgorica.