propaganda pro russian map
Europa-Parlaments afstemning om en resolution anset for at være ekstremt kritisk overfor Rusland har givet muligheden for at tegne et meget præcist billede af hvilke lande der har de mest pro- og antirussiske medlemmer af Europa-Parlamentet (MEP). Vote Watch websiden tillader os at se nøjagtig hvordan hvert MEP stemte og hvem "rebellerne" er.

Parlamentet vedtog den 23. november en meget polariserende "EU strategic communication to counteract anti-EU propaganda by third parties" Resolutionen, der er baseret på et udkast lavet af Anna Elżbieta Fotyga (PiS, Poland) fokuserer ikke alene på Rusland (den taler også om propaganda fra Islamisk Stat), men den mobiliserede i almindelighed MEP'erne i to lejre - de som støtter det synspunkt at Rusland forfølger en hybrid krigsførelse med det mål at ødelægge EU og de som tænker at den slags formuleringer kun kan være uproduktive.

Resolutionen blev vedtaget med 304 "For", 179 "Imod" og et meget højt antal der undlod at stemme - 208


Kommentar: Delvist oversat af Sott.net fra Member of the European Parliament draw map of pro and anti-Russian countries in the EU

Vote Watch siden kan man se, hvordan de enkelte lande stemte: For Danmark var der følgende billede:

Fra Finland var der 6 seks for, 5 imod, og 2 undlod at stemme. Fra Sverige var der 9 stemmer for, 10 undlod at stemme og én stemte ikke. Fra Danmark var der, som det ses ovenfor 4 stemmer for, 7 undlod at stemme og 2 stemte ikke.


France the most pro-Russian?

Without any doubt, the southern part of the EU rejected the resolution. Many parliamentarians voted according to national lines, especially in France and Italy. Only three French MEPs out of 68 present, and only eight Italian MEPs, out of 69 present, supported the resolution.

In a televised debate last night (24 November) French conservative frontrunner François Fillon said Russia must be anchored to Europe, or else Moscow would couple with China, to the detriment of the continent.

From the Greek MEPs, out of 18 present, not a single one supported the resolution. Only six out of 20 Portuguese MEPs voted "For".

In Bulgaria, a traditionally pro-Russian country for historic reasons, all socialist MEPs voted against, despite the position of the S&D group to abstain; all MEPs from the mainly Turkish party DPS abstained, which is also considers a "rebel" attitude vis-a-vis their political group ALDE who advised to vote "For". All EPP-affiliated MEPs voted "For", according to the position of their political family.

Overall data for the 28 countries show that the centre-right EPP group voted mostly in favour, but still had abstentions, especially from France and Italy.

Most of the overall S&D vote followed the instruction of their political family to abstain. An S&D source told EurActiv that the reason was that the group didn't like mixing the issues of Russian and Islamic State propaganda in the same resolution.

The anti-European Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, chaired by Nigel Farage, voted massively against the resolution. The far-right group of Marine Le Pen, "Europe of Nations and Freedom", was even more united against the text.

On the other hand, Central and Eastern Europeans, as well as Germans, Belgians and Dutch were highly in favour of the resolution, in range of approval between 50 and 70%. Even Viktor Orbán's party, Fidesz, voted in favour of more action in countering anti-EU propaganda.

Clearly the strongest pro-resolution vote (more than 70%) was expressed by MEPs from Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia.

The votes by countries and political groups, as well as the individual votes can be accessed here.