BERLIN: German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel is raising hackles among conservatives in the coalition government with plans to tighten rules on arms exports, amid tit-for-tat sanctions between the West and Russia.
“If you’re not very careful, (selling arms abroad) can very quickly become a deal with death,” Gabriel, who is also vice chancellor, warned recently on public television.
Normally, the position of deputy chancellor is largely a symbolic one.
But Gabriel, a Social Democrat, is taking advantage of the absence on holiday of conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel to lobby publicly for a topic close to his heart.
Exporting arms was already an issue for his Social Democratic Party (SPD) during last year’s general election campaign, but with the crisis in Ukraine, it has taken on added currency.
Gabriel believes that European sanctions against Moscow do not go far enough, and last week he blocked a major contract for German company Rheinmetall to provide a fully-equipped training camp to Russia.
The minister is not looking to change Germany’s current laws on arms exports.
But he wants the authorities to be much more watchful when awarding export licences, particularly with regard to the country buying the weapons and their record on human rights.
MADRID: A new Spanish leftist party which grew out of grass-roots protests against economic inequality and austerity is the third most popular choice among voters, a poll published yesterday showed.
Podemos, which means “We Can” in Spanish, would garner 10.7 percent of the vote in parliament if elections were held today, according to the Metroscopia poll published in centre-left daily newspaper El Pais.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s ruling conservative Popular Party, and the main opposition Socialists, which last month chose a new leader, are running neck-and-neck, the poll showed.
The Popular Party have 32.3 percent support while the Socialists have 31.7 percent.
Podemos stormed past older opposition groups to take fourth place in Spain’s EU elections in May, winning 8.0 percent of the vote and five seats in the European Parliament.
Agencies
