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Democracy Domestic Politics and Society Elections

Once in power, the PP may take up its traditional backseat in EU politics, said Kirstina Kausch, a Madrid-based senior fellow of the German Marshall Fund, and not make any major waves. “I worry more about the rise of the Spanish Right in the European Parliament elections and a stronger conservative majority. Imagine what would have happened with the Nature Restoration Act. Maybe the Parliament would have rejected it,” she said.”

Defense Cooperation NATO Security and Geopolitics

But those plans, and the dollars, euros and political will to fulfill them, remain in doubt. And nowhere are those doubts deeper than in the Baltic states, where Russia’s threat is existential. “If you want to prove that the alliance is real and credible, this is the place,” said Kristine Berzina of the German Marshall Fund, which organized a research trip to Latvia for several transatlantic security experts and me this month.”

Authoritarian Interference Global Implications of China's Rise Security and Geopolitics

“FAU is aware that under these contracts CSC scholarship holders will be unable to fully exercise their academic freedom and freedom of expression as stipulated under German Basic Law,” the email said. Such wording in contracts “would be unthinkable in Germany, I don’t think you could have this kind of contract with any scholarship holder here”, Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow working on China at the German Marshall Fund think tank in Berlin, told University World News. “Some of the issues in the contract have caused some debate here in Germany. Universities have to ensure people can enjoy the rights they’re normally guaranteed in Germany, like anybody else, such as freedom of speech, freedom of expression,” she said. More German universities are expected to follow suit. But “it’s probably going to be a hard decision for most universities”, Ohlberg noted. [...] As indicated by FAU, the contract requires them to report back to the Chinese embassy on a regular basis, with violations of the conditions subject to disciplinary action. The contract also stipulated that they must return to China after their PhD and that the terms of the CSC contract only expired after two years of having returned home. According to Ohlberg, who has seen older versions of the CSC contract, if they are in breach, “[t]hey can technically be asked to repay the scholarship, plus some additional fee on top”. If the person breaks the contract, for example by staying abroad, and does not pay back the money, then the two people that are forced to remain in China would have to pay. “It also sends a political message, that also adds additional incentive and additional pressure on the person not to do anything that could be seen as breaking the contract,” Ohlberg said.”

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