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London — Britons look set to elect a new government by landslide as the country prepares to head to the polls on Thursday July 4. The vote comes amid weak economic growth and struggling public services, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war in Gaza among the major foreign policy challenges lying ahead for the next administration.

The current opposition Labour Party under Keir Starmer is polling around 20% ahead of the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, who have been in power for the past 14 years, a period that witnessed Britain’s bumpy exit from the European Union and a much-criticized response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“There is clearly widespread and very deep dissatisfaction with the Conservatives,” said Ursula Hackett, a political expert at Royal Holloway, University of London. “The question there is the cost of living, but I also think it’s a sense of scandal and sleaze,” she told the Associated Press.

While Labour is in a buoyant mood ahead of the election, analysts caution that voter dissatisfaction appears to extend across the entire political spectrum — with little evidence of positive enthusiasm for the main opposition or its leader, Starmer.

Voter dissatisfaction

The town of Dartford, east of London, is known as a “bellwether” constituency. Its voters have picked a candidate from the winning party of every general election since 1964, making it a useful gauge of national political feeling.

Eighteen-year-old Yasmine Nicholls, who volunteers at a local food bank, is preparing to vote for the first time — but is already disillusioned.

“The people of England don’t actually get to decide on what is going to happen in the country. … We don’t really get to have a say in a lot of things that happen, we just have to follow,” she said.

Retired store worker Linda Skinner, who is 64, echoed that sentiment. “Governments are no longer for the people. To be honest, I haven’t voted for a long time. Our votes don’t count. The same people basically get in each time, Labour, Conservative, they are all the same,” she told AP.

For some, that lack of trust has been driven by recent political scandals.

“Across the board. I don’t trust any of them. Especially when our (former) Prime Minister Boris Johnson lied. He lied straight across the board. He went to a party when everybody was in lockdown, and then from that point onwards, that’s it, that was enough for me,” said pensioner Hilmi Hilmi.

Scandal

Johnson — who resigned last year following a series of scandals, including the breaking of COVID-19 lockdown rules — is one of five different Conservative prime ministers over the past eight turbulent years.

Analysts say the current Prime Minister Sunak is struggling to shake off that image amid new investigations by Britain’s Gambling Commission into Conservative members placing bets on the timing of the upcoming election.

Weak economy

The opposition Labour Party under Starmer is well ahead in most polls. But he would inherit a struggling economy, noted Anand Menon, a professor of international politics at Kings College London.

“We have crumbling public services after, in some cases, years of underinvestment. We’ve got very, very low median wage growth over the last 10 to 15 years. So we’ve got a public that is increasingly worried about the state of the economy.

“At the same time, we have very little in the way of money to address these problems. The tax burden is the highest it’s been since the end of the Second World War. Debt repayments are high, and crucially, growth is very, very low. One of the first big questions to face a Starmer government is going to be, how are you going to raise the money to fix our crumbling public services?” Menon told VOA.

Global challenges

The next government will also face a daunting list of global challenges. There is uncertainty over future Western military aid for Ukraine, as Kyiv battles to regain lost ground from invading Russian forces.

Amid huge loss of life in Gaza, members of the Labour Party are demanding that Starmer be more critical of the Israeli government’s actions. Starmer has said he wants to recognize a Palestinian state as part of a wider peace process.

China continues to pose an economic and geopolitical challenge to the West. But Britain’s allies shouldn’t expect a dramatic change of foreign policy, said analyst Menon.

“One of the striking things about British politics at the moment is that over the two big crises of our time, Gaza and Ukraine, there’s very little, if any, difference between the positions adopted by the big parties. So, I don’t think there’ll be much of a change,” Menon said.

Small parties

Britain’s smaller parties could play a big role in deciding the election outcome and the scale of Labour’s expected victory. The center-left Liberal Democrats have a chance of pushing the Conservatives into third place.

The anti-immigration, pro-Brexit Reform party could also peel off right-leaning Conservative voters. Reform leader Nigel Farage was widely criticized by other parties after saying the West provoked Russia into invading Ukraine, while party activists were recently filmed undercover using racist insults, drawing condemnation from across the political spectrum.
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PARIS — Candidates in France on Tuesday faced a deadline to register for the run-off round of a high-stakes parliamentary election, as President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp and a left-wing alliance scrambled to prevent the far right from taking power.

On Sunday, French people go to polls for the decisive final round of the snap election Macron called after his camp received a drubbing in European elections last month.

His gamble appears to have backfired, with the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen scoring a victory in the first round of voting last Sunday.

Macron’s centrists trailed in third place behind the left-wing New Popular Front alliance.

Faced with the prospect of the far right taking power in France for the first time since the country’s occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II, Macron’s camp has begun cooperating with the New Popular Front alliance which includes the hard-left France Unbowed party.

The rivals are hoping that tactical voting will prevent the RN winning the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.

Macron has called for a “broad” democratic coalition against the far right, with the political crisis overshadowing France’s preparations for the Olympic Games this summer.

Speaking to broadcaster TF1 on Monday evening, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal once again urged voters not to give the far-right an absolute majority.

“That would be catastrophic for the French,” he said, adding that the far-right would fuel divisions in society.

Third-place candidates who qualified for the second round have been urged to drop out to present a united front against the far right.

The deadline to decide whether to stand down is 6 pm Tuesday. According to a provisional count by AFP, more than 150 left-wing or centrist candidates have already dropped out.           

“Only a strong republican front, uniting the left, center and conservatives, can keep the far right at bay and prevent France from tipping over,” daily newspaper Le Monde said in an editorial.

Le Pen has urged voters to give the RN an absolute majority, which would see Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old RN chief with no governing experience, become prime minister.

But most projections show the RN falling short of an absolute majority — although the final outcome remains far from certain.

The RN garnered 33 percent of the vote last Sunday, compared to 28 percent for the New Popular Front alliance and just over 20 percent for Macron’s camp.

Speaking on television on Monday night, Bardella derided efforts by Macron’s camp and the left-wing coalition to put up a united front, suggesting that the “dishonorable” alliance had been formed out of desperation.

He accused the French president of coming “to the rescue of a violent extreme-left movement” he himself had denounced just days ago.

Macron convened a cabinet meeting Monday to decide a further course of action.

“Let’s not be mistaken. It’s the far right that’s on its way to the highest office, no one else,” he said at the meeting, according to one participant.

The emotion was palpable, with several ministers dropping out of the race.

“We’ve known happier meetings,” one minister told Le Monde.

Analysts say the most likely outcome of the snap election is a hung parliament that could lead to months of political paralysis and chaos.

With a total of 76 candidates elected in the first round, the final composition of the 577-seat National Assembly will be clear only after the second round.

The second round will see a three-way or two-way run-off in the remainder of the seats to be decided, although a tiny number of four-way run-offs are also possible.
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washington — The United States’ commitment to providing extended deterrence to South Korea is being put to the test, with some South Korean politicians publicly questioning the effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear umbrella after Russia and North Korea reached a new defense pact.

Debate over the U.S. extended deterrence was sparked by Representative Na Kyung Won, a five-term lawmaker of South Korea’s ruling People Power Party, who is running for the party leadership.

“The deterrence under the solid South Korea-U.S. alliance is currently working, but it does not guarantee the capacity to respond to the future changes in the security environment,” Na said in a social media post last week.

“The international situation, such as cooperation between North Korea and Russia, is adding uncertainty to the security of South Korea,” she added, referring to the stronger military ties between Russia and North Korea, bolstered by the comprehensive strategic partnership treaty signed by Russia’s President Vladmir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang last month.

The new treaty mandates Russia and North Korea to immediately assist each other militarily if either of them is attacked by a third country. The prospect of quasi-automatic Russian involvement in any future war between the two Koreas is now causing alarm in Seoul.

The credibility of extended deterrence is a frequent topic of conversation in today’s South Korea, where citizens must contend with seemingly endless threats and provocations from the North. 

  

Seoul is doing its best to allay citizens’ fears by invoking the April 2023 Washington Declaration, which reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea through its extended nuclear umbrella as well as robust missile defense and conventional forces. 

  

The Washington Declaration outlined a series of measures, including the establishment of the bilateral Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG), to deter North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons. 

  

In the joint declaration, the U.S. additionally vowed to enhance the visibility of its strategic assets, such as a nuclear-armed submarine, around the Korean Peninsula.

The Washington Declaration’s measures are collectively sufficient to deter aggression from Pyongyang, according to some experts in the U.S.

The joint declaration was “unprecedented in its strength and clarity,” Evans Revere, a former State Department official who negotiated with North Korea, told VOA’s Korean Service on Sunday. “And the NCG process is designed to be flexible, creative, and allow for adaptation to a broad range of future contingencies.”

Troop presence

David Maxwell, a former U.S. Special Forces colonel who served on the Combined Forces Command of the U.S and South Korea, told VOA’s Korean Service on Sunday that a large troop presence on the Korean Peninsula demonstrates Washington’s firm commitment to the defense of its key ally.

“How many Russian troops are committed to North Korea? There is no comparison as to the commitment,” said Maxwell, who now serves as vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy.

Currently, the U.S. has about 28,500 service members deployed in South Korea.

In contrast, Elbridge Colby, who served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development in the Trump administration, suggested the U.S. might have to go beyond the Washington Declaration to ensure the security of South Korea.

“I think we need to take very seriously how dire the threat from North Korea is, and that the Washington Declaration is not a solution,” Colby told VOA’s Korean Service on the phone last week.  

 

“It’s been a failure that both North Korea and China are a nuclear breakout. They’re increasing the size and the sophistication of the nuclear forces. So it’s very unsurprising that serious people in South Korea are coming to this conclusion.” 

  

Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, believes some South Koreans may lack confidence in the Washington Declaration because the NCG’s work is not made public.

“Because the NCG that it established has carried out most of its work in secrecy and provided little substance to reassure the South Korean people, many of the South Koreans with whom I have spoken are concerned that it is an inadequate means for rebuilding South Korean trust,” Bennett told VOA’s Korean Service on Sunday.

Responding to an inquiry from VOA’s Korean Service, a State Department spokesperson said Thursday that “the U.S. and the ROK are enhancing and strengthening extended deterrence through the Nuclear Consultative Group, established as part of the Washington Declaration.”

The spokesperson also stressed that the Washington Declaration is “a landmark U.S. extended deterrence commitment to the Republic of Korea.” The Republic of Korea is South Korea’s official name.

Earlier last week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell maintained that the series of mechanisms put in place between the United States and South Korea through the Washington Declaration “has given us what we need to work with” regarding the alliance’s deterrence posture.

North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles Monday, one of which is presumed to have failed and fallen inland near Pyongyang. The latest missile test came just five days after North Korea conducted a ballistic missile test in which it claimed to have successfully tested its multiple-warhead missile technology. South Korean authorities have dismissed such a claim.

Eunjung Cho contributed to this report.  
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France’s far-right has never been closer to power after winning the first round of snap legislative elections Sunday. It’s a stunning result that could see the far-right taking control of the government — and a far-right prime minister ahead of the Paris Olympics — if it wins big in the second round of voting July 7. The left and center are now calling for an alliance against extremism in one of Europe’s largest countries. Lisa Bryant reports from Paris.
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Paris — France’s far-right has never been closer to power after winning the first round of snap legislative elections Sunday. It’s a stunning result that could see the far-right taking control of the government — and a far-right prime minister ahead of the Paris Olympics — if it wins big in the second round runoff July 7.

The left and center are now calling for an alliance against extremism in one of Europe’s most important countries.

The far-right National Rally — and its leader, Marine Le Pen have been celebrating the latest results. She has spent years revamping the image of her anti-immigrant party from a racist fringe movement to an acceptable political alternative.

Her work appears to have paid off Sunday — the National Rally captured one-third of the vote, well ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party and its allies, which placed third, with just over 20%.

A leftist alliance called the New Popular Front came second, with roughly 28% of the vote.

Turnout was the highest in years, showing the stakes many voters place in these surprise, snap legislative elections. They were called by Macron — three years ahead of schedule — after the far-right’s strong showing in last month’s European Parliament elections.

Analysts say Macron is gambling his party and his reform plans can somehow prevail, after years of gridlock in France’s National Assembly, or lower house.

But the far-right’s platform — tough on crime and illegal immigration and focused on common worries — is resonating.

National Rally President Jordan Bardella — possibly France’s next prime minister, if his party wins the majority of seats — called on voters to rally behind his ticket in the runoff.

Not everyone is sold. At a polling center in northeastern Paris, considered a leftist stronghold, many voters are dismayed at a possible National Rally victory.

“With our current government, we already had some right-wing policies, but that would only make things worse. Particularly with respect to the right to demonstrate, of the rights of minorities and everything,” said Paris voter Matthieu Maguet.

Emmanuela Konan won’t say how she voted — but she says a National Rally win will be difficult for the country.

Christine Pekar voted for Macron’s alliance.

“I think he showed political courage in pushing through all the reforms he did over the last seven years,” she said.

In Paris and elsewhere in the country, people rallied against the far-right after the first results were announced.

Leftist politicians are calling for an alliance against extremism.

So is France’s ruling party — and Macron’s prime minister, Gabriel Attal. To give mainstream parties a chance, he said, his alliance will pull out of runoff elections in areas where it’s not likely to win.

But divisions between Macron and the left are big. And, despite efforts to curb them, there’s a chance the National Rally could prove unstoppable.

 
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Athens — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday the country faced a dangerous summer for wildfires, with a prolonged drought and unusually strong winds contributing to tinderbox conditions.

Wildfires are common in the Mediterranean country, but hotter, drier and windier weather that scientists link to the effects of climate change has increased their frequency and intensity.

This weekend, dozens of fires broke out across Greece, including two close to the capital, Athens.

“It is a summer which is expected to be particularly dangerous … the most difficult times are still ahead of us,” Mitsotakis said as he addressed his cabinet.

“We had a very difficult June in terms of weather conditions with high drought and unusually high gusts of wind for the season,” he said, praising firefighters for managing to contain the weekend fires. 

Mitsotakis said less than 100,000 square meters (24.7 acres) of land had been burned in the two fires, and that the damage was contained due to the response by state emergency authorities. Greece has scaled up its preparations this year by hiring more staff and increasing training, after forest fires last year forced 19,000 people to flee the island of Rhodes and killed 20 in the north of the country.

“Our arsenal might be stronger, but nothing – and that is seen in practice – beats being prepared, and for the public to also be involved in this collective defense against natural hazards,” Mitsotakis said. 
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Sofia, Bulgaria — Bulgaria’s Orthodox Church elected Daniil, a 52-year-old metropolitan considered to be pro-Russian, as its new leader Sunday in a vote that reflected the divisions in the church and wider society since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago.

Growing divisions between pro-Russian and anti-Russian factions within the senior clergy began after some of them attempted to warm relations with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople in 2019. Russian and most other Orthodox patriarchs refused to accept the designation that formalized a split with the Russian church.

Unlike his late predecessor, who in his last prayers criticized Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, Daniil has taken the side of the Moscow Patriarchy in its dispute with the Ecumenical Patriarch over the independence of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church.

Daniil also criticized the expulsion last fall of a Russian and two Belarusian clerics accused of spying for Moscow, and in his prayers, he blamed people who called Russia an “aggressor.”

The 52-year-old bishop, born Atanas Nikolov, studied theology in Sofia and eventually went to serve as a monk in a monastery. He belongs to the first generation of young Bulgarians who joined the church after the fall of communism.

The bells of the golden-domed Alexander Nevski cathedral in downtown Sofia announced the election of a new patriarch by the 138 delegates at the church council.

Shortly after, council speaker Cyprian said that “Vidin metropolitan Daniil was elected by the clergy and the people as Holy Bulgarian Patriarch and Sofia metropolitan.”

Daniil was clad in the green-and-gold patriarchal attire and put upon his head the white veil, symbol of his office.

In a tight second-round ballot, Daniil won support of 69 delegates against Grigory, the metropolitan of Vratsa, who was backed by 66 delegates. The patriarch is elected for life unless he steps down.

Daniil succeeded the soft-speaking and charismatic Patriarch Neophyte, who passed away in March aged 78 after leading the church for 11 years.

A church procession accompanied the newly elected patriarch to the cathedral, where he was enthroned in a sumptuous ceremony, attended by other Orthodox church representatives as well as Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians.

Bartholomew is considered first among equals among Eastern Orthodox patriarchs, which gives him prominence but not the power of a Catholic pope. Large portions of the Eastern Orthodox world are self-governing under their own patriarchs.

Though the church in Bulgaria is fully separate from the state, its constitution names Eastern Orthodoxy as the “traditional religion,” followed by some 85% of its 6.5 million people.
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Athens, Greece — Firefighters were battling a series of wildfires near the Greek capital, Athens, on Sunday evening, as the country braces for another scorching summer.

Greece faces a tough wildfire season after its warmest winter and earliest heat wave on record, with temperatures hitting 44°C (111°F).  

“Today in Attica two extremely dangerous fires that broke out in residential areas and spread rapidly due to strong winds in Keratea and Stamata were tackled,” Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vasilis Kikilias said late on Sunday.  

He said there was no longer an active front in Stamata, north of Athens, though there were some minor reignitions in the eastern area of Keratea.  

He said, “Ground forces will remain in the field throughout the night.”

Since Sunday midday, the authorities have called for the evacuation of at least eight areas near the capital, with flames destroying cars and houses.  

Ert channel reported that a 45-year-old-man died from cardiac arrest while trying to flee fires in suburban Athens.  

According to the police, the man was found unconscious in the yard of a house in Rodopoli and taken to the hospital, where he died.  

“Today is the hardest that the fire brigade has faced in this year’s firefighting season,” fire department spokesperson Vasilis Vathrakogiannis said on Sunday afternoon, during an emergency press briefing.

“The situation is very difficult, as strong winds continue to blow; they have not subsided and the outbreaks are many,” the mayor of Lavreotiki, Dimitris Loukas, told Athens News Agency Sunday afternoon.

He said a nearby military air base was not currently in danger from the flames.

A fire brigade spokesman noted that wind speeds had exceeded 60 km per hour in Keratea, while in Stamata, the blaze was fanned by strong northerly winds exceeding 70 km an hour.

Island fires

A fire also broke out Sunday in an industrial zone in Ritsona, near the island of Evia.  

Black smoke filled the sky above Ritsona after the fire started in a recycling factory, burning various flammable materials that were in the grounds around it, including tires and mattresses.  

Firefighters are fighting to prevent the flames from spreading beyond the recycling plant to other factories in the area.

The fire also approached a refugee center, but the Athens News Agency reported that this was not believed to be in danger.

Separately, a large wildfire broke out on Serifos island on Saturday afternoon but was also brought under control by firefighters early Sunday.

“All of southwestern Serifos has burned. We are talking about an area where the fire stopped at the sea,” Serifos Mayor Konstantinos Revintis told MEGA TV.  

The fire caused damage to houses, cottages, warehouses and chapels, according to the mayor.

The Fire Danger Forecast Map issued for Sunday by the Civil Protection Ministry predicted a very high category 4 risk of fire for Attica, the Peloponnese, Crete, the North and South Aegean Regions, and central Greece.  

A wildfire ignited Saturday afternoon in the area of Mount Parnitha — known as “the lungs of Athens” — was controlled Saturday evening with the help of reinforcements from other regions as well as volunteer firefighters.

More than 40 wildfires erupted across Saturday in Greece with wind speeds exceeding 100 kilometers per hour, according to fire brigade sources.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Greeks to brace for a difficult wildfire season in his weekly Facebook post on Sunday.

“The difficult times are still ahead of us. Our effort is continuous. In this effort, our allies are new tools that build a new culture of prevention and responsibility,” he said.
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Long-serving Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte urged his country to support Ukraine and international cooperation in his final address to his compatriots Sunday, as an inward-looking new government is set to take over the Netherlands in two days.

“It is crucial that our country is embedded in the European Union and NATO. Together we are stronger than alone. Especially now,” the 57-year-old Rutte said from his office in The Hague.

After leading the country for 14 years, he will take his experience with consensus-building to Brussels, where he will take over as NATO’s new secretary-general later this year.

He stressed the need to continue support for Ukraine, “for peace there and security here.” The new government, expected to take office on Tuesday, has pledged to maintain assistance. But far-right populist Geert Wilders, whose party won the largest block of seats in last year’s election, has expressed pro-Russia views and Kremlin backers cheered his victory at the polls.

Rutte described the MH17 tragedy in 2014 as “perhaps the most drastic and emotional event” during his tenure. The passenger jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine as it traveled from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, killing all 298 passengers and crew, including 196 Dutch citizens.

A Dutch court convicted two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian in 2022 of involvement in the downing of the Boeing 777.

Known for cycling to meetings and his dedication to politics, Rutte highlighted his country’s positive attributes.

“There is no war here, you can be who you are, we are prosperous,” he said in the 12-minute speech.

He acknowledged that there had been low points during his tenure, including a child benefits scandal that wrongly labeled thousands of parents as fraudsters.

Wearing a white shirt with several of the top buttons undone, Rutte said that his time in office had added some “gray hairs and wrinkles” to his appearance. 
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ISTANBUL — Turkish police detained at least 15 protesters in Istanbul on Sunday for participating at a banned LGBTQ+ Pride rally, after searching the streets having arrived at the scene after participants had dispersed, a Reuters witness said. 

Police declined to comment. 

The Istanbul Governor’s Office said earlier Sunday that the Pride March would not be permitted. Turkish police blocked central Istanbul to prevent the march from taking place, shutting down metro stations and blocking traffic on the main streets. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted AK Party has toughened its rhetoric against the LGBTQ+ community over the past decade and banned Pride marches since 2015, citing “security reasons.” 

The Istanbul Governor’s Office labelled the organizations calling for the Pride March as illegal. 

Following the ban, LGBTQ+ groups gathered in another part of Istanbul on the Asian side, with a representative reading a statement that said: “We never get tired of deceiving the police and forcing them to deal with us.” 

“You have closed all the streets and squares, you have stopped the life of a whole city, but you have forgotten that we will pierce the stone and find each other if necessary.” 

Police officers searched the streets for protesters and detained at least 15 people, the Reuters witness said. 

 
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Vienna — Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO), Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz and the populist Czech ANO party led by Andrej Babis are forming a new alliance in the European Parliament, they announced on Sunday.   

The move would reorder but possibly also split nationalist forces in the assembly, provided four more parties join. Parties from at least a quarter of the European Union’s 27 member states are needed to officially form a new political group.   

While Fidesz has remained outside larger groupings since it parted ways with the mainstream center-right European People’s Party (EPP) in 2021, the FPO is part of the Identity and Democracy political group along with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party in France. ANO is not part of a political group.   

“Today is a historic day because today we are entering a new era of European politics,” FPO leader Herbert Kickl said in an address to the media attended by Babis and Orban convened at short notice in a Vienna hotel.   

“This alliance is meant as a rocket that will bring other parties on board at the European level to join forces and give Europe a better future,” Kickl said of the “new patriotic Alliance.”   

Former Czech prime minister Babis said the new group would be called Patriots for Europe.   

All three men cited the fight against illegal immigration, which has long been a pressing concern for them, as well as transferring more powers from Brussels back to member states.   

In this month’s European Parliament election, nationalist parties capitalized on voter disquiet over spiraling prices, migration and the cost of the green transition, and are looking to translate their seat gains into more influence on EU policy.   

While the FPO has a clear lead in Austrian opinion polls ahead of a Sept. 29 parliamentary election, Orban faces a growing threat in Hungary from the new opposition party Tisza, which said this month it would join the EPP in the European Parliament.   

“Today we are creating a political formation that in my view will be off to a flying start and will very quickly become the largest group of the European right,” Orban said.   

“This will happen within days and then the sky is the limit,” he said.   

The three men took no questions but the FPO said a press conference would be held in Brussels or Strasbourg soon with other parties joining the alliance. 
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Istanbul — For Iris Mozalar, a young transgender woman living in Istanbul, Pride Week is “more about resistance than celebration” under Turkey’s conservative government, which is openly hostile towards the LGBTQ community.

“Ours is a struggle to survive,” the 24-year-old told AFP at her home in Istanbul where she studies urban planning and works as a DJ and model — on the eve of the annual Pride celebration, which Turkey’s government routinely bans.

During his re-election campaign last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his allies turned the LGBTQ community into his favorite target, railing against them as “perverse” and a threat to traditional family values, with activists saying it triggered an upsurge in hostility towards them.

“We are waging a struggle against the police, against the state security apparatus,” said Mozalar, a willowy figure with long tawny hair, a serious air and an engaging smile.

“That’s why I can never look at (the Pride march) as a celebration, because frankly we don’t have much to celebrate.”

Growing up in the southeastern coastal city of Mersin, she was bullied by peers and teachers who knew instinctively there was something different about her.

She couldn’t really explain it until one day when she was 17, she looked in the mirror and really saw herself for the first time.

“I can never forget the moment when I stood naked in front of the mirror and admitted to myself: ‘Yes, I am a woman’.”

Moving to Istanbul soon after, Mozalar started the process of transitioning — an “incredibly difficult” process in Turkey, involving months of sessions with psychiatrists and endocrinologists as well as examinations and detailed reports by experts in genetics, gynecology, urology and plastic surgery.

Only a court can approve gender affirming surgery, and after finally winning that, she began a year-long campaign to raise 90,000 Turkish lira for the operation — at the time around 30 times her rent.

The same operation today would cost up to 700,000 lira, she explained — an “impossible” sum for most transgender people, who are often earning the minimum wage.  

Despite the surgery, Mozalar still feels uncomfortable with parts of herself — “my feet, the length of my hands” — but has learned to see the beauty in her own body.   

“It was something of an inner revolution to say: yes, I am beautiful.”

‘An incredible challenge’

Although she has finally found peace with her identity, society remains largely hostile.

“It is an incredible challenge to exist as a trans-woman in Turkey,” she said.  

“Istanbul is not an LGBTI+ friendly city — there is no such city in Turkey,” Mozalar said. Although there are some friendly neighborhoods, she rarely feels safe in the streets.

“Some days I don’t go to the grocery shop because I know I’ll be harassed the moment I walk out the door. And I don’t feel up to it. Most trans people are detached from normal social life,” she told AFP, adding she only ever travels by taxi after nightfall.

But night is also when she really comes alive, as a DJ.

“I love DJing but it can be hard to deal with the men, so the places where I perform have to be LGBTQ and women friendly.” And it’s the same when she goes out at night, only going to places deemed friendly or “run by feminists” or socialists.

Despite the difficulties, she isn’t interested in leaving Turkey to seek asylum elsewhere.

“I was born and raised in Turkey and I believe I have a job to do here,” she says.

“I hope that we will see the day when Pride in Turkey is no longer a rebellion but a celebration.”
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