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| Far-right Freedom party poised to win quarter of vote in Vienna election Exit poll puts Freedom party second behind Social Democrats on 23-26%, compared with 15% in 2005Austria's resurgent far-right party is poised to win a quarter of the vote in Vienna's provincial election today, according to an exit poll.The Social Democrats under Michael Häupl, the mayor since 1994, are projected to win with 42-46% but risk losing their absolute majority. As at the national level, they are likely to turn to the third-placed conservatives if they need a coalition partner.The far-right Freedom party is projected to get 23-26% of the vote, according to the exit poll published by the state broadcaster ORF, compared with 15% in 2005.AustriaThe far rightguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Newsreader Kaplinsky leaves Five TV newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky is to leave Five at the end of the year, the broadcaster has confirmed. bbc.co.uk |
Turkish president urges Germany to help immigrants integrate Abdullah Gül warns politicians not to exploit integration issue for their own gain, during state visit by German presidentTurkey's president, Abdullah Gül, has warned German politicians not to exploit the topic of integration for their own gain, urging them instead to assist Turks – Germany's largest ethnic minority – to assimilate more easily."Instead of using the issue of integration politically, everyone must help reach a solution," he said today.Gül's comments came during a state visit to Ankara by the German president, Christian Wulff, who had earlier sought to quell the heated integration debate in Germany by saying he thought it was wrong to "blanket judge" immigrants.Wulff's visit – the first by a German head of state to Turkey for a decade – comes days after the chancellor, Angela Merkel, declared that multiculturalism in Germany had "utterly failed" and one of her closest political allies, Horst Seehofer, said immigration from "alien cultures" should end.The remarks have been widely interpreted in Istanbul as a sweeping condemnation of all German Turks and have raised fears of growing anti-Turkish sentiment in Germany.Wulff, who is set to become the first German president to address the Turkish parliament, told the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet that it was wrong to condemn any group en masse."I consider it wrong to claim that a whole group cannot and does not want to integrate," he said. "I am against any blanket judgement." At the same time he urged Turks to learn German and to recognise the constitution if they wanted to live and work in Germany.Earlier this month in a speech that caused a stir particularly amongst his fellow conservatives, Wulff said that Islam was "now part of Germany".But the debate in Germany – which kicked off this summer when a former board member of the Bundesbank published a book blaming the high birthrate among Turks and Arabs for "dumbing down" the German population – has caused alarm in Turkey.Bekir Alboga, from Ditib, a state-run Turkish organisation which operates mosques in Germany, said he feared Turks were becoming increasingly vulnerable to persecution."Antisemitism is being replaced by Islamophobia," he told Hürriyet. "It is shocking that anti-Islamic feelings are growing in Germany despite all the government's efforts to solve the integration problems."Kenan Kolat, the chairman of the Turkish community in Germany, said: "The most dangerous thing is that racism in Germany is changing from being the viewpoint of Nazis to being racism with a tie … a middle-class racism."GermanyTurkeyKate Connollyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Panama's President: Trying on a Strongman Role? Critics complain that Ricardo Martinelli's autocratic streak is getting in the way of democracy and government feedproxy.google.com |
German-U.S. Relations Will Survive WikiLeaks -- But the Trust is Gone Germany insists that the latest WikiLeaks revelations won't harm its new-found friendship with the U.S. But it will be a while before German politicians can trust their U.S. counterparts again feedproxy.google.com |