VIENNA: Thousands protested on Tuesday in Vienna against negotiations for Austria’s first far-right-led government, with efforts to form a ruling coalition dragging on toward a record period of time.
While the Freedom Party (FPOe) — which in September topped national polls for the first time ever — has been in government before, it has never led the Alpine nation of nine million people.
“We don’t want that... We want a good and humane government,” researcher Karl Bittner, 27, told AFP, as thousands protested in front of the chancellery.
Organizers put the number at 30,000.
Carrying posters that read “Nazis out” and “Never again,” many expressed fears an FPOe-led government would not respect the rule of law, as well as minority and other rights.
Another protester, a 32-year-old student who only gave her name as Alexandra, said she was rallying “against the right-wing surge in Europe gaining even more momentum.”
The FPOe has been negotiating since early last month with the long-ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP), which came second in September’s polls.
“The government negotiations are in a difficult phase,” the OeVP said in a statement late Tuesday, without giving details on the stumbling blocks.
The OeVP failed in an earlier attempt to form a government without the FPOe.
Set in the 1960s, the previous record time taken for negotiations to form a government was 129 days.
That mark will tumble on Wednesday.
Analysts still see an FPOe-led government in the EU member nation as the most likely outcome.
“There are differences, especially in their standpoints on the EU... However, the negotiations are unlikely to fail because of this,” political analyst Johannes Huber told AFP.
He added that the conservatives in recent years had demanded a “refocusing of the EU on economic issues,” which is “not far” from the EU-critical FPOe’s own demands.
Other sticking points include FPOe plans to slash the fees Austrians pay to public broadcaster ORF.
FPOe leader Herbert Kickl, in a Facebook post on Sunday, said that he continues to have “trust” in the conservatives.
Tuesday’s protest followed a rally last month which gathered tens of thousands of people across Austria.
In neighboring Germany, at least 160,000 people rallied in Berlin on Sunday to protest last week’s decision by the country’s conservatives to make overtures to the far right ahead of this month’s legislative election.
Austria has had a strong far-right political presence since the 1980s.
In 2000, the FPOe under Joerg Haider entered into a coalition government, a first in the European Union, triggering protests that drew up to 250,000 people.
The FPOe — led by the radical Kickl since 2021 — won almost 29 percent of the vote in September as anger and fears over inflation, migration, the war in Ukraine and the handling of the coronavirus pandemic weighed heavily on the ballot.
The FPOe currently leads one regional government in Austria and is part of regional governments in four other provinces.
Thousands protest as Austria braces for first far right-led govt
https://arab.news/zt7sx
Thousands protest as Austria braces for first far right-led govt

- Carrying posters that read “Nazis out” and “Never again,” many expressed fears an FPOe-led government would not respect the rule of law
- The FPOe has been negotiating since early last month with the long-ruling conservative People’s Party (OeVP)
Trump says he will announce reciprocal tariffs on many countries next week

- Higher tariffs to pay for extending 2017 tax cuts
- Trump, Republicans to unveil tax and spending plan this weekend
Trump did not identify which countries would be hit but suggested it would be a broad effort that could also help solve US budget problems.
“I’ll be announcing that, next week, reciprocal trade, so that we’re treated evenly with other countries,” Trump said. “We don’t want any more, any less.”
The move would fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to impose tariffs on American imports equal to rates that trading partners impose on American exports.
Trump made the announcement during a meeting with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. He said auto tariffs remained on the table amid reports that the White House was weighing potential exemptions.
The new US president has long complained about the European Union’s 10 percent tariffs on auto imports being much higher than the US car rate of 2.5 percent. He frequently states that Europe “won’t take our cars” but ships millions west across the Atlantic every year.
The US, however, enjoys a 25 percent tariff on pickup trucks, a vital source of profits for Detroit automakers General Motors , Ford and Stellantis’ US operations.
In recent confirmation hearings, Trump’s Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick voiced concerns about India’s high tariff rates, while US Trade Representative nominee Jamieson Greer discussed US complaints about Vietnam’s and Brazil’s tariffs and trade barriers.
The US trade-weighted average tariff rate is about 2.2 percent, according to World Trade Organization data, compared to 12 percent for India, 6.7 percent for Brazil, 5.1 percent for Vietnam and 2.7 percent for European Union countries.
Trump told Republican lawmakers of his plans during budget discussions at the White House on Thursday, three sources familiar with the plan told Reuters. Trump and top aides have said they plan to use higher tariffs on foreign imports to help pay for extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which independent budget analysts say could add trillions of dollars to the US debt.
Increased tariffs could offset some of that cost, though they have only accounted for about 2 percent of annual revenues in recent years.
Trump announced tariffs of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico on Saturday but delayed them after a negative reaction from investors. The two largest US trading partners agreed to increase enforcement efforts at the border, a top Trump priority.
Wall Street extended losses on Friday following the Reuters report of Trump’s discussion with lawmakers.
US consumer sentiment dropped to a seven-month low in February, and attitudes soured among Republicans as households took stock of what they believe will be a surge in inflation from Trump’s tariffs.
Trump and his Republicans aim to unveil their ambitious tax and spending package this weekend. It faces a perilous path through Congress, where Republicans hold narrow majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Republicans are expected to rely on arcane budget rules to bypass Democratic opposition, which will require them to work in lockstep.
Trump is due to have dinner with Senate Republicans on Friday and attend the Super Bowl with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday.
In his confirmation hearing on Thursday, Greer said other countries will need to reduce barriers to US exports if they want to maintain access to the US market, citing Vietnam in particular.
“I need, if I’m confirmed, to go to these countries and explain to them that if they want to enjoy continued market access to the United States, we need to have better reciprocity,” Greer said.
UK orders Apple to give it access to users’ encrypted accounts, Washington Post reports

- UK’s office of the Home Secretary has served Apple with a document called a technical capability notice, ordering it to provide the access, as per Washington Post
LONDON: Britain’s security officials have ordered that Apple create a so-called ‘back door’ allowing them to retrieve all the content any Apple user worldwide has uploaded to the cloud, The Washington Post reported on Friday citing people familiar with the matter.
Rather than break the security promises it made to its users everywhere, Apple is likely to stop offering encrypted storage in the UK, the report said, citing unnamed sources.
UK’s office of the Home Secretary has served Apple with a document called a technical capability notice, ordering it to provide the access, as per Washington Post.
Apple did not respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.
Britain’s interior ministry did not immediately comment on the report.
Britain in January used its regulatory powers to launch an investigation into Apple and Google’s smartphone operating systems, app stores and browsers.
Migrants who break law ‘will be deported’: Polish prime minister

- Tusk, whose centrist camp faces an electoral threat from the nationalists in the May presidential vote, has in past months vowed to suspend asylum rights partially and backed curbing benefits for Ukrainian refugees
WARSAW: Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday said his government would draw up plans to deport migrants who break the law of the EU country as Poland nears a key presidential election in May.
Tusk also reiterated criticism of the EU migrant relocation scheme during a press conference in the port city of Gdansk alongside European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
“Anyone who is hosted in Poland, takes advantage of our hospitality and violently violates the law will be deported from Poland,” Tusk said.
He added that the government was working on a “plan for an immediate response to organized crime and violent crime carried out by foreigners.”
He said an outline of the plan, drawn up by the justice and interior ministries, would be presented in the coming days.
Tusk, whose centrist camp faces an electoral threat from the nationalists in the May presidential vote, has in past months vowed to suspend asylum rights partially and backed curbing benefits for Ukrainian refugees.
On Friday, he also said Poland would not accept any “burdens” related to the EU migrant relocation scheme.
Last year, the EU significantly overhauled asylum rules, requiring member states to remove thousands of asylum-seekers from “frontline” states such as Italy and Greece.
Alternatively, they could provide money or other resources to under-pressure nations.
“If anyone in Europe were to say that Poland should take on even more burdens, then no matter who it is, I will tell them that Poland will not fulfill that. The end,” Tusk said.
He said Poland had already “opened its borders and hearts to two million refugees from Ukraine” following the Russian invasion and was facing illegal migration across its border with Belarus.
States in eastern Europe have accused Russia and its ally Belarus of pushing thousands of migrants over their borders in recent years as part of a campaign to destabilize Europe.
Zelensky says N Korean troops back on Russia front line

- “There have been new assaults in the Kursk operation areas... the Russian army and North Korean soldiers have been brought in again,” Zelensky said
- The Ukrainian leader said a “significant number” of opposing troops had been “destroyed“
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that North Korean troops were back on the front line in Russia’s Kursk region, after reports Moscow had withdrawn them due to heavy losses.
More than 10,000 soldiers from the reclusive state were sent to Russia last year to help it fight back a shock Ukrainian offensive into the border region, according to South Korean and Western intelligence.
A Ukrainian military spokesman told AFP last Friday that Kyiv had not encountered activity or clashes with North Korean troops for three weeks.
“There have been new assaults in the Kursk operation areas... the Russian army and North Korean soldiers have been brought in again,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
The Ukrainian leader said a “significant number” of opposing troops had been “destroyed.”
“We are talking about hundreds of Russian and North Korean soldiers,” he added.
Kyiv captured dozens of border settlements in its Kursk assault six months ago, the first time a foreign army had crossed into Russian territory since World War II.
The North Korean deployment, never officially confirmed by Moscow or Pyongyang, was supposed to reinforce the Russian army and help them expel Ukraine’s troops.
But as of February Ukraine still holds swathes of Russian territory, something Zelensky sees as a bargaining chip in any future negotiations with Moscow.
UK’s Lammy warns US aid cuts could see China step into ‘gap’

LONDON: British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Friday warned that US President Donald Trump’s moves to freeze foreign aid and dismantle the USAID agency could see “China and others step into that gap.”
The UK’s top diplomat pointed to reforms by Britain’s previous Conservative government to its foreign aid program as “a big strategic mistake” which the new Trump administration should “look closely at.”
In 2020 the UK government closed down the Department for International Development (DfID) and subsumed it into the Foreign Office, before slashing the aid budget the following year.
The moves earned widespread criticism at the time from aid groups and others in the sector, as well as the countries’ opposition parties.
“What I can say to American friends is it’s widely accepted that the decision by the UK with very little preparation to close down DfID, to suspend funding in the short term or give many global partners little heads up, was a big strategic mistake,” Lammy told the Guardian.
“We have spent years unraveling that strategic mistake. Development remains a very important soft power tool. And in the absence of development... I would be very worried that China and others step into that gap,” he added.
“So I would caution US friends to look closely at what went wrong in the United Kingdom as they navigate this decision.”
Trump on Friday called for the United States Agency for International Development to be shut down, in an escalation of his unprecedented campaign to dismantle the massive government aid agency that has prompted confusion and chaos among its global network.
His administration has already frozen foreign aid and ordered thousands of foreign-based staff to return to the United States, with reported impacts on the ground steadily growing.