Europe

Spain: thousands of “indignados” defy protest ban

Tens of thousands of protesters have filled the main squares of Spain’s cities for the past week to protest government austerity measures—in defiance of a government ban imposed ahead of municipal and regional elections.

Europe

Italy: government shelves nuclear development plans

Italy’s government announced it is indefinitely suspending plans to build the country’s first nuclear power plants—ahead of a June referendum on the atomic development plans, which the administration says is no longer necessary.

Europe

Russia moves ahead with plans for Belarus nuclear plant

Even as the world is gripped by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Russia announced it will build a reactor in neighboring Belarus—where large areas still remain closed off due to the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown.

Europe

Germany: 60,000 march against nuclear power

Some 60,000 Germans marched against nuclear power, forming a 45-kilometer human chain from Neckarwestheim power plant to the city of Stuttgart in Baden-WĂĽrttemberg state.

Europe

Nazis turned back in Dresden, march in Budapest

Thousands of anti-fascists encircled Dresden to block a neo-Nazi “funeral march” commemorating the city’s 1945 bombardment, while fascists marched in Budapest to mark its fall to the Allies.

Europe

Thousands march in Milan, Belgrade

Thousands took to the streets in Milan and Belgrade to demand their respective governments step down—although the Italian protests played to the left and the Serbian to the populist right.

Europe

Albania: the next Tunisia?

Prime Minister Sali Berisha accused the opposition of fomenting “Tunisian scenarios” after three protesters were killed by police in the Albanian capital, Tirana.