Austrian “neutrality” has become a farce. In recent months, the Austrian Freedom Party has repeatedly criticized the fact that Austria’s neutrality has been undermined, and they clearly see Austria in the NATO camp simply because of hundreds of Western military transports which are being allowed to pass through the country.
This is all the more serious as the “perpetual neutrality” to which Austria has committed itself in its constitution was the most important prerequisite for the withdrawal of the Soviet occupation troops. On 27 July 1955, only when the neutrality pledge entered into force, the withdrawal of the occupying troops began.
The Neutrality Act states that Austria’s perpetual neutrality must be maintained and defended and that Austria will not join any military alliances and will not permit the establishment of military bases of foreign states on its territory.
Vienna recently presented itself as a possible mediator in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. The department head responsible for Austria in the Russian Foreign Ministry, Oleg Tyapkin, however, rejected the idea. He ruled out that Austria could play a mediating role between Russia and the Ukraine. “It has to be noted with regret that Austrian neutrality is indeed being undermined,” explained the official.
The Austrian government has supported all of the EU’s “anti-Russian sanctions measures,” distinguished itself with harsh “anti-Russian statements,” and “contributed to a staged campaign to expel Russian diplomats,” Tyapkin said in an interview with Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti, published this week.
“However much official representatives of Austria may try to convince themselves and the public of the steadfastness of neutrality – the facts speak to the contrary,” the high-ranking diplomat said.
Bloody crime committed among migrants: An Iraqi (19) from Vienna attacked a compatriot (53) on his doorstep in Klagenfurt with a knife, stabbing him twice. The victim had previously criticised the situation in their home country on Youtube for several years.
An Iraqi (19) has been arrested in Vienna. He is the suspect in a case of attempted murder of a fellow countryman (53) in Klagenfurt in June, the police reported on Wednesday. There is video footage of the crime, and police suspected a hired man was involved while investigating the case. The suspect says he was angry because of social media statements made by the victim, he denies an intention to kill, prosecutors said. “I just wanted to scare him,” the man explained. The victim has been making critical comments about politics in Iraq as well as about other religious groups on YouTube for years. Because of this, the Iraqi got into more and more trouble in his home country and then fled to Klagenfurt. He continued to publish his videos there.
The Iraqi was attacked with a knife in front of his home in Klagenfurt on June 7, when he was about to unlock the front door. On the surveillance video, the perpetrator can be seen running up, stabbing the victim several times in the shoulder-neck area and then running away again. He briefly chased the offender, a second man fled together with the offender, this video recording was also secured. In order to protect the victim, the police have so far kept a low profile.
🔴 Info @Cnews: Une surveillance policière a été mise en place autour d'un lycée d'Evry, après qu'un professeur d'histoire-géo a reçu une lettre de menace, envoyée à l'école 👇 Le prof a porté plainte ce lundi. Son témoignage dans la matinale de @Rdesarbres sur @CNEWS, demain pic.twitter.com/l8o2LWjHpF
Info @Cnews : A police surveillance was set up around a high school in Evry after a history and geography teacher received a threatening letter sent to the school 👇 The teacher filed a complaint on Monday. His statement on the morning show by. @Rdesarbres On @CNEWS , tomorrow
Firebrand conservative Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy (FdI) have reached a new record high in the polls as she continues her work in forming the next Italian government.
The new poll, conducted by the firm Swg, shows Meloni and her FdI polling even higher than their September 25th election result at 27.5 per cent, the highest polling number the party has ever achieved in its history.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party (PD), which finished second in last month’s election, are on the decline with 17.5 per cent of the vote, below their election result of around 19 per cent, the newspaper Il Giornalereports.
The Five Star Movement (M5S), who collapsed in the last election compared to their performance in the 2018 election, are gaining ground according to the Swg poll, and sit at 17 per cent, possibly heading past the PD.
Meloni’s centre-right coalition, which includes Matteo Salvini’s League, Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and others, remains dominant with 44.2 per cent of the vote in the poll, while the leftist coalition polls at just 24.4 per cent, a near-20 per cent gap.
Expected to assume the helm as Italy’s first female Prime Minister, Ms Meloni has been working on forming a government since her party placed first in last month’s national elections and had vowed to appoint technocrats to key ministries if no suitable candidates from her coalition can be found.
Responsibility and strong nerves. The moment is important and I want to do well because in this government it is I who put my face to it. We have a huge weight on our shoulders, but I assure you that we will put the maximum effort into it,” Meloni said.
Much of Meloni’s support during the election came from traditionally left-wing areas such as Tuscany and Emilia Romagna, with her party smashing the so-called “red wall” traditionally held by the Democratic Party.
A breakdown of voting by the firm Ipsos also revealed that much of Meloni’s support has come from workers and the middle class, while the wealthier and more university-educated Italian population voted heavily for the left-wing PD.
A Chechen family illegally occupies a beautiful house in the La Cépière neighbourhood. The owner tried in vain to get them to leave. He is afraid that they will ruin the beautiful house in the La Cépière neighbourhood in Toulouse, which he inherited from his father who died in 2021.
The 20-year-old Asrab, born in Goudermès, the second largest city in Chechnya, walks through the front door of the house he has occupied since October 7, accompanied by a woman wearing a light-coloured chador, without quickening his steps. He sees Bruno, the owner of the beautiful building on the Chemin d’Abadie in the La Cépière district.
Asrab is confident of his situation and says a meaningful sentence: “Do you remember what the police said? We have been here for over 48 hours (*). They can’t evict us anymore.”
The Chechen national added: “I am not afraid of anything. Since I was a little child, I have witnessed a lot. The attempt of your neighbours cannot upset me. If they do it again, I will beat them up”.
(…) “With my sisters and our lawyer Me Laspalles, we will file a lawsuit to get our property back, but we know it will take a long time. This house belonged to my grandparents and later to my father. It is terrible that it is occupied by strangers. Now I just hope they don’t do any damage, that the property doesn’t lose too much of its value…”, Bruno sighed. La Dépêche
Anti-racism organizations and ethnic-group activists in France are trying to link those who complain about noise on buses, trains, and subways with racism.
The question is not just about how immigration is leading to record population levels in Western countries, which means more people in cars, buses, and on the streets and invariably increases noise pollution, but also how these different ethnic groups and cultures conduct themselves in relation to “noise,” all the way from personal conversations on a bus to how they celebrate weddings and other events.
According to the anti-racist North African interest group, NEOIFRI, those who express concerns about people speaking too loudly or making claims like “your weddings are to noisy,” are guilty of the new term “volume racism.”
Europe, which features a culture that traditionally values quiet and a respect for lower volumes in public spaces, is unlike much of the rest of the world, where noise reins supreme. The issue has led to public laws being changed in France, as Muslims and different non-European groups are known to conduct, for example, loud weddings that can cause public disturbances and feature convoys of cars honking their horns. Some of these weddings have even become dangerous, resulting in French municipalities in Seine-Saint-Denis, Alsace, and even Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhône establishing strict noise pollution laws to guarantee quiet for the citizens. The politicians behind the laws argue that they are necessary due to loud horns and “urban rodeos,” which involve drivers doing tricks and skidding out their vehicles in circles, which have even resulted in the death of young pedestrians.
The phenomenon of honking Muslim car convoys is not just relegated to France either; this video from Germany demonstrates it is a typical spectacle in cities across that country as well.
In 2012, the current mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, announced that weddings at the town hall of his city should occur without shouting, whistles, foreign flags, or unauthorized “folk” music, with such infractions penalized with a 24-hour wedding ban until the rules are complied with. The move created a backlash from the city’s left-wing opposition, which claimed it led to the “stigmatization of people from Maghreb countries.” The mayor, however, countered that these behaviors were “likely to disturb (…) the tranquility [of residents] and the solemnity of the moment.”
However, the issue grows even more contentious at the personal level. Many Middle Easterners are known to speak at a higher volume level while simply talking on the phone or in personal conversations, and while there are no studies on the phenomenon, there are forum topics on the issue across the web, with many of the Arab respondents admitting it is simply a part of their culture to be loud.
In fact, the American-Palestinian anti-racist activist Sbeih, who has over 750,000 followers on TikTok and who actually claimed to coin the phrase “volume racism,” says himself that Black and Brown people are simply “loud” and White people need to deal with it.
“I’m Arab and I’m Filipino, there can be three people in one room, and it will sound like it’s 50. There’s just no escaping it, and that’s considered normal to us. When we’re talking, it might sound like we’re arguing to other people, but that’s just how we talk. And you just gotta accept it; you can’t just expect everyone to speak at the same volume as you, Kristen,” said Sbeih, who uses derogatory terms for White people throughout the video, referring to them as “Karens” or “Kristens.”
He also claims that “volume racism” only applies to White people.
“Volume racism, ok, this is where White people will discriminate with Black or Brown folk because of our volume. Whether it’s how loud we speak, how loud we engage with each other, or how loud our gatherings or our music or our weddings,” he said while explaining the term.
Others like feminist activist Elsa Miské, also known as Zazem, have praised the term and piled on against White people who enjoy lower noise levels in public settings.
“This concept is brilliant and hyper-relevant, for example, when you are in a restaurant and there are White people who come to the table of racialized people to tell them that they are making too much noise,” said Miské, creator of an “anti-racist and postcolonial” web show.
However, even within the cultures and people of Europe, there is a certain degree of difference about what level of noise is acceptable. For example, Northern Europeans are the most known for valuing low noise levels, whereas in Mediterranean countries such as Italy or Spain, people are known for speaking more loudly and tolerating more noise.
“In Northern Europe, in the French bourgeoisie, speaking rather softly is synonymous with good education,” said the historian Virginie Girod, a specialist in antiquities. “But to say that speaking loudly would be the prerogative of racialized people is an intellectual manipulation. The Latins speak loudly, and they are Caucasians. These are cultural codes that vary in space and time.”
Are White people allowed to complain about noise?
Undoubtedly, cultures outside of Europe and certain Asian nations, such as Japan and South Korea, are noisy, loud, and often unsettling to Europeans, who normally place a high value on simple quiet. Anyone who has paid a visit to India, for example, is all too familiar with the habit of drivers endlessly honking their horns in mass numbers. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) lists Delhi as the city with the worst noise pollution in the world, and city governments across India have been forced to take action against a populace that appears unable to refrain from honking their horns, including raising fines for honking and putting up signs across cities in India urging motorists not to needlessly honk their horns.
Countries like Hungary have rejected multiculturalism and mass migration, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán lamenting that Europe’s embrace of mass migration will not only dilute Europe’s vibrant cultures but also lead to various social ills.
“I also see that law enforcement and police are on the streets, and yet there is a wave of violence. Statues are being toppled, the conditions are deplorable, and there are gang wars on the beautiful streets of small towns in civilized Western European countries,” Orbán said in 2020. “I look at the countries of those who are advising us on how to conduct our lives properly and on good governance, the proper operation of democracy, and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
