The Nordic countries in particular have long viewed close relations with Washington as fundamental to their military and security interests. But the breakdown in relations between America and Europe is having a major impact on these countries, which are responding by launching major rearmament programmes.
All parties, from the far-right Progress to the Socialist Left and ex-Maoist Red Party, agree that Oslo must massively expand its military spending. While no expense will be spared on equipping Norway to serve as a junior partner of the imperialist powers, broad sections of the population confront high energy prices and a rising cost of living.
Nominally “left” parties are seeing their support grow at the expense of the establishment right and far-right organisations, which currently hold power in Finland and Sweden.
One major NATO exercise has followed another, with tens of thousands of troops participating, while the US has expanded its bilateral defence agreements with Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden to create what resembles a massive American staging ground for an invasion of Russia from the north.
The finalization of Sweden’s membership comes amidst a significant deterioration of NATO’s position in Ukraine and threats to directly deploy NATO combat troops against Russia.
The deal arrived at between the British government and the Democratic Unionist Party has allowed the revival of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive.
A new wave of COVID-19 infections is beginning to accelerate across Northern Europe. With the prediction of a severe flu season, combining these deadly pathogens will significantly affect the population’s health.
The ruling elites in both Scandinavian countries, which maintained formal neutrality after World War II, have seized on the Russian government’s reactionary invasion of Ukraine to overcome long-standing opposition among working people to the aggressive US-led military alliance.
Sweden’s response to the pandemic, which involved allowing schools and businesses to stay open while most of the world enacted lockdowns, was hailed as a model by all sections of the US and European political establishment.
Revelations that US officials conspired to lie to the public about the severity of the coronavirus pandemic also expose the politically criminal role of the EU.
The Kirklees area has had several workplace-based outbreaks of COVID-19, including at the Kober meat processing plant in Cleckheaton.
After receiving a €7 billion public bailout, the French-Dutch airline is preparing to slash between 6,000 and 10,000 jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Social Democrats want to limit immigration from non-Western states and set up reception centres for asylum seekers outside the country.
The EU elections revealed the deep discrediting of the political establishment and its imperviousness to growing demands from the working class for political change.
The aristocracy and gentry still own 30 percent of the land, while 18 percent is owned by corporations and a staggering 17 percent is in the possession of oligarchs and bankers.
As the pile of negative yielding government debt passes the $10 trillion mark, it has been described as a “supernova that will explode one day.”
Washington’s aggressive military build-up throughout Eastern Europe, in close collaboration with its NATO allies, has brought the entire region to the brink of war between nuclear powers.
As many as 200,000 oil-related jobs could be lost in the UK.
The new government plans to implement a significant shift in foreign policy, integrating Finland still further into the US-led anti-Russian NATO alliance.
The aggressive US-led drive to encircle Russia in eastern Europe and the Baltic will be one of the main issues confronting the incoming administration.
