Euirasian Aggregate News

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Euirasian Aggregate News Service

Euirasian Aggregate News brings you the latest news from Euirasia's most respected news outlets so you never miss a story

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Prime Minister Ventham announces Economic Reform Programme

Prime Minister Laurence Ventham today announced a programme of wide ranging economic reforms which he claims will allow Euirasia to gain a high performing, competitive modern economy.

In a speech to the National Assembly he said "“We have a unique opportunity before us to reconstruct our country and rescue the hope of our compatriots from the corruption, criminality, economic irresponsibility and ideological submission that are the legacy of the Social Democrats rule. Me and my Cabinet are therefore introducing the most wide ranging economic reforms in Euirasia's history with which we will restore the fortunes of our homeland and take our place among the nations of the world."

The first announced phase of the reforms programme involves the privatisation of a number of state owned monopolies including the Euirasian Telecommunications Corporation, Euirasian Coal & Gas, AirEuirasia, Euirasian Electric Company, National Rail & Omnibus Corporation and Euirasian Steel, Aluminium & Alloys. According to the Ministry for Trade buyers have already been lined up for all these companies, with some destined to be split into separate entities.

In addition to this the government has announced wide scale deregulation of markets which were previously protected from competition through the 'Sector of National Importance' designation. As a result the government expects a significant increase in foreign direct investment in the Euirasian economy.

Unions have reacted furiously to the announcement citing a lack of consultation from the government in making these sweeping changes, and expressing concern that the reforms could result in attacks on the conditions of their members. The unions are said to have called an emergency session of the All Euirasia Trade Union Congress (AETUC) to formulate a unified response to the plans.

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Prime Minister Laurence Ventham faced mass protests Tuesday as trade unionists seek to mobilise angry students and public sector workers into a joint movement against his multi-pronged drive to overhaul the Euirasian economy.
 
The hard-line AETUC union group has urged the broad spectrum of citizens opposed to Ventham's overhauls to come together on the streets, with some left-wingers dreaming of a re-run of the huge May 1979 demonstrations that shook Euirasia forty years ago.
   
Pressure has been mounting on Ventham nearly a year since the 40-year-old centrist swept to power, with a survey released Wednesday suggesting that 58 percent of voters were unhappy with his premiership. And on Tuesday Euirasian workers didn't hold back when voicing their anger against the Prime Minister and his plans to reform Euirasia's national services, including the removal of the special status enjoyed by state employees. Many stressed that it wasn't about protecting their own rights but the future of Euirasia's public service. 
 
"I am on strike to defend and preserve the public railway service," Arthur, a 50-year-old signalman in Grimston told The Tribune. "Privatisation is hell. We never go on strike for pleasure. We are fighting for people to have a better service tomorrow."
 
Others spoke of what they saw as the government's real reasons behind the reforms.

"I understand the public's frustration but the reform is not profitable. They say that competition will open the market but it's a lie, their goal is to make money, it's not just a question of our status, it is a matter of public service, public service is in the service of the people," maintenance worker Damien Hardy told us.
 
But despite workers taking to the streets on Tuesday, unions have struggled to enter talks with Ventham who appears to be taking a hard line against the union wrecking actions. "They are in the street because they don't want anything to change," Ventham said during a trip Monday to the eastern town of Saint Vosgove's, where he was booed by trade unionists.
   
Ventham's leftwing critics accuse the business-friendly former investment banker of seeking to take a sledgehammer to public services, citing his pledge to cut 120,000 public-sector jobs over his five-year term. Ventham insisted in interviews last week, part of a media blitz ahead of his one-year anniversary, that he was elected on a mandate for change and that he was determined to see his reforms through. "I'm doing what I said I would," he told TE1 television.

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All Out to Stop the Sellout!

The AETUC has called for all member unions to ballot for coordinated strike action following the refusal of Prime Minister Ventham to meet union leaders for consultation on his controversial privatisation plans. So far the government has resisted calls to negotiate even as surveys show public support for the reforms at a mere 32%.

AETUC President Jeremy Burgher said "Ventham and his Cabinet of Crooks think that they can ignore the will of the people, the vast majority of whom oppose his reckless drive to privatisation, and push through his damaging neo-liberal reform package without even the most basic of public consultations. As such we have been left with no option but to call for coordinated industrial action of our member unions to prevent this. Our message to ventham is clear; stop the selloff or we'll stop the country!"

A spokesman for the Prime Minister's office responded by saying that "Prime Minister Ventham was elected on the pledge to improve the economy and as such has a mandate to carry out the actions necessary to bring this about."

However critics point out that the privatisation of public services and utilities will result in increased prices, loss of jobs and do nothing to improve the economy. "We need investment, not privatisation." said one shop steward working for the Euirasian Electricity Company "Ventham's plans will enrich a small minority at the expense of the majority." he added.

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Snap Election called as General Strike paralyses Euirasia

The National Assembly has today voted in favour of a Bill calling for the dissolution of the XXXVII National Assembly of Euirasian Deputies and for emergency elections to be held within three weeks of the signing of the Act into effect. The Bill was put forward by Prime Minister Ventham in what many see as a bid to strengthen his mandate in the face of rising hostility from the Union Movement who have crippled the Euirasian economy with an ongoing General Strike.

Ventham is expected to campaign on a manifesto of introducing new labour relations powers to effectively regulate the activities of the unions, bringing an end to the economic blackmail of the AETUC. His administration is hoping to tap into anger at the spiralling inflation, rising unemployment and sluggish economy by pinning the country's woes on the organised labour movement.

However union leaders have responded jubilantly to the news of the Bill of Dissolution, citing it as proof that their campaign against the governments economic reform policies have been effective. It is expected that the unions will continue to pressure the government in the run up to the elections in a bid to unseat the Ventham Administration and return a socialist government more closely aligned with their interests to power.

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Markets panic as exit polls show hung National Assembly

Markets today went into panic after exit polls indicate that no party has been able to achieve the minimum of 61 seats to pass the threshold for victory. If this is confirmed by the final count then it will mean that the largest party will be forced to attempt to cobble together a coalition government.

This outcome proves that the fragmentation of the political landscape that first allowed Ventham's New Conservative Party to gain power has accelerated in the face of economic turmoil and civic unrest. With the exit polls suggesting that support for smaller parties has grown significantly it may be some time before a coalition agreement is able to be finalised.

The markets, already spooked by the high incidence of industrial action, rampant inflation and stalled reform programme, have gone into free fall with the Euiro suffering its largest single day drop in value since records began. With uncertainty around whether Ventham's reform programme will be continued under the future coalition investors and banks have began to make contingencies to withdraw from Euirasia, threatening further economic dangers in the near future. Thus it appears the fate of the Euirasian economy relies on whether Ventham is able to form a coalition willing to push ahead with his reforms, or whether parties hostile to the project force its abandonment.

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Ventham to lead right wing coalition after tense negotiations

After the recent elections produced a hung National Assembly (NA), Prime Minister Ventham has managed to hold on to his Premiership through negotiating a right-unity coalition led by his New Conservative Party.

Joining him in government is the soft right 'Centrist Group' (TCG), the hard right 'Progress and Development Party' (PDP) and the 'National Defence Party' (NDP) providing his new administration with 61 seats in the NA, a majority of 1.

While the government has not yet announced the full list of Ministerial appointments it is widely understood that in order to secure the support of the NDP and PDP Ventham was forced to make significant concessions, with the NDP being granted the 'Crime, Policing and Prisons' portfolio while the PDP is confirmed to have been given control of the 'Department of Immigration and Integration' as well as the Justice Department.

Opposition groups have reacted with fury to the appointments, with a spokesman for the Democratic Union claiming that "In Ventham's desperate bid to hold on to power he has sold the keys of Euirasian civil society to the very people who threaten it most. Euirasia stands at a dangerous crossroads, we call for the President to reject this coalition and allow the Democratic Union to attempt to form a government of national unity for the sake of our country's future."

It is unlikely that the President will grant such a request as even if the Democratic Union were able to form an agreement with the Liberal Party, Forward Party, Green Party, Socialist Party, Communist Party and the Socialist Worker's Party they would still be two seats short of an absolute majority, with one political commentator saying "whatever the posturing and rhetoric on the part of the opposition the simple truth is that the electoral arithmetic does not grant them the ability to form a stable government."

The unions and left wing parties have all promised ongoing civil disruption and threatened the possibility of a resumption of the national strike that paralysed Euirasia earlier in the year.

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Ventham's fascist agenda must be stopped!

The incoming government's legislative agenda has now been released and it makes frightening reading.

When it was announced that Ventham had decided to cling onto power by forming a coalition with the unashamedly fascist Progress and Development Party and National Defence Party it was clear that such a deal would come with a hefty price tag, today with the publication of the new government's legislative agenda we have been given a glimpse of what our new fascist overlords have in store for us.

Highlights include the 'Labour Harmony Act' which insiders have said seeks to severely limit labour rights and declaw the unions, essentially forcing them to gain approval from Cabinet before undertaking industrial action. Unions in violation of the act would be subject to severe fines or even dissolution - this will have a chilling effect on the rights of everyday workers to collectively bargain or defend their conditions.

The 'Migration Monitoring Act' seeks to bring in a new system of registration for non-citizen residents of the country. It is being touted as a way to ensure that the native workforce is not being unfairly disadvantaged by competition from the global labour market. In reality what this will mean is the creation of a database of all non-Euirasian residents recording their address, job, union membership, political and religious affiliation. The potential for such a database to be misused and directed as a tool of intimidation and oppression against migrant populations is clearly a grave concern for any nation that claims to be a civilised democracy.

Finally the 'Anti-Incitement Act' seeks to bolster existing laws around public disorder, notably making any group or body seen to be promoting, or exacerbating, civil strife guilty of the crime of 'Incitement' and therefore subject to punitive measures.

It is clear that the new government has set out on a programme of total class war in which it hopes to crush all opposition. The AETUC has called for mass mobilisation against the proposed legislation, up to and including a complete stoppage of all works. The government rules with the consent of the governed, and we the governed do not consent to what this regime intends for us.

Ventham's desperate bid to remain in power may have worked for now, but his days in office are limited.

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Government granted Supreme Court injunction against Unions

The government today received an injunction against the AETUC which orders the powerful trade union federation to immediately cease its activities organising politically motivated strike action. Failure to abide by the terms of the injunction will leave the federation financially liable for ongoing economic damage as well as criminally liable for public disorder offences; in such a circumstance decision makers in the union bureaucracy and their activists on the ground will be open to arrest and prosecution.

The injunction comes on the back of the recent passing of the Labour Harmony Act, which empowers the courts to impose orders to control labour disputes, and bans political strikes.

The Ministries of Domestic Affairs, Security and Labour relations have all issued statements announcing their intention to begin enforcement action on the back of the injunction if the AETUC does not call off the strikes and disassemble the pickets within the next 12 hours.

The AETUC has issued a statement calling the Supreme Court ruling a "travesty and a threat to the very democratic fabric of Euirasian society." They have promised to launch an appeal against the injunction, while agitators from the hard left have flooded the streets in protest in an attempt to incite resistance to the measures.

The Maldun Metropolitan Police have announced that all leave has been cancelled for its officers and have begun drafting in reserves from the surround municipalities in apparent preparation for imminent enforcement action, a spokesman for the force said "We hope that the AETUC will heed the injunction and peaceably end their rallies and pickets, it is not our desire for their to be a confrontation between officers and union members, however if they do not abide by the ruling of the court then we have little option but to ensure that the law is enforced."

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BREAKING: Prime Minister Ventham assassinated during Christmas Address

Euirasia is in shock today as the Prime Minister was gunned down while giving his annual Christmas address to the nation. The assassination occurred at 09:02 as Ventham left the Cathedral of St. Aloysius after the Christmas Morning Mass. He had approached the podium on the cathedral steps to provide the traditional seasonal speech when gunshots rang out across the plaza hitting the Prime Minister in the chest. Paramedics rushed to intervene while police began a security lock down of the capital, however Ventham succumbed to his wounds and was declared dead at the scene.

Police are reported to have arrested a man suspected of being involved in the assassination, but have declined to provide further information while they continue their initial investigation.

A curfew has been announced for all of Maldun and the police are asking citizens to comply with the requests of the security agents.

More updates as we receive them.

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August Crassen Sworn in as Prime Minister

National Party Leader August Crassen has today been sworn in as the Prime Minister of Euirasia following the Christmas day assassination of Laurence Ventham.

Crassen secured the support of the National Assembly with his promise to bring an end to the turmoil that has been afflicting the country, of which Ventham's murder has been the most severe manifestation. He has vowed to utilise recently passed legislation to crack down on what he is increasingly referring to as 'Leftist terror'.

Speaking after his inauguration Crassen said "Euirasia today stands at a critical juncture. We have seen the excesses of the trade unions and left-wing parties cripple our country, we have watched as they destroy our economy and murder our collective future; now they have even murdered a Prime Minister.

To those who stand obstinately in the way of our march to a brighter future I have this to say. We the people of Euirasia tire of you, we are disgusted by you and we will never bow down before your leftist terrorism.

I warn you now, this government has the means, and the will to end your reign of terror once and for all. Ventham may have sought compromise, but you shall find none from me. I will personally see to it that every last communist traitor is swept from our streets so that Euirasia can once again belong to the decent, hardworking Ardian people. This is my solemn promise to you!"