priests encourage people to vote for the law and justice party and the law and justice party in theirrotected the church. we have had people like angela merkel saying these elections are really about how europe responds to the threat or the challenge from china, the challenge from russia and actually the challenge from america and you are telling me that is not cutting through with most polish voters. not really, no. asi cutting through with most polish voters. not really, no. as i said, suddenly we are in this huge war about values and in this very big tension between the big cities and the smaller cities, about people who are looking towards europe and towards western civilisation, if there is such a thing i am sort of juxtaposing this against sort of this polish identity which, actually, i don't know if anybody understands any more but we are still fighting for it, so something has changed, something happened and it has all become about identity and it has all become about identity and it has all become about identity and it has all become identity politics and not really about soc

while poland's law and justice party is one of a growing list of right wing populist parties that havebeen expected to make a strong showing in these european parliamentary elections and they're trying to become a united front here's a closer look at a growing force and european politics. and they see the come not to break europe but to remake it divided by language. united by populism should books with their brains let me be good at statistical reasoning and a common enemy. they are europe's far right leaders and together they are appending decades of e.u. rules and norms laying siege from within. the man hoping to lead best parts work of secularists it's of these deputy prime minister macho salvini his hardline actually forced to mount a face to help transform his friend's party and to government material and now he wants to do the same across the continent by ending together ideological bedfellows promising to tear up the rules. of our objective is to finally be a force for government and change your will to bring your blood. new hope a dream. for. his closest ally is marine le pen.

i find what's going on here a bit crazy when the right wing law and justice party came to power in 2015 it began introducing judicial reforms including lowering the retirement age of supreme court judges as a way of forcing out opponents of the government according to the e.u. the reforms threaten judicial independence putting democracy in jeopardy. the country's president is andre duda but poland's political mastermind is jaroslav conscience leader of the law and justice party. 2 years ago regular protests against the judicial reforms were held here among the demonstrators was monica much worse a member of the grassroots movement see a democrat see a. morning coat i hope you brought me the can to pay for you yes there's a lot of smoke and look from 2 years ago no not but similar yes almost the same yes do you remember the time 2 years ago. the movement slogan was a better and fairer poland in 2017 it mobilized thousands of people to protest against their reforms they took to the streets with candles night after night. but now some reason it stopped the west to protest going. i think yo

i find what's going on here a bit crazy when the right wing law and justice party came to power in 2015 it began introducing judicial reforms including lowering the retirement age of supreme court judges as a way of forcing out opponents of the government according to the e.u. the reforms threaten judicial independence putting democracy in jeopardy. the country's president is andre duda but poland's political mastermind is jaroslav kitchen leader of the law and justice party. 2 years ago regular protests against the judicial reforms were held here. among the demonstrators was monica much worse a member of the grassroots movement see a democrat see a. morning i hope you brought me the candle page where you say yes there's a lot of snow from 2 years ago no not but similar yes almost the same yes do you remember the time 2 years ago. the movement slogan was a better and fairer poland in 2017 it mobilized thousands of people to protest against the reforms they took to the streets with candles night after night. but now for some reason it's stopped a ways to protest going. i think you can i

dominic is a member of the polish parliament for the ruling law and justice party he sits on the foreign and e.u. affairs committee's journal line and has been a member of the european parliament for twenty years with a progressive alliance of socialists and democrats and is well known for his support for a federal europe max cry is vice chairman of the f.t. the i'll tell it evil for die client in the german state of saxony and number three in the party's federal list for the european elections that's our panel. before we take questions from our invited audience including members of civil society groups i'm going to ask each of our politicians to set out very briefly the kind of european future they'd like to see trophy and so can i ask you to start us off thirty minutes thank you very much and good evening everybody. we are living in a world of triumph china that's becoming stronger political global actor a world where we see big forces like facebook while way apple who are actually more powerful sometimes than states and that is why we need a very strong united and unify europe in orde

that a lot of parties have come on board but there is some major ones namely poland's law and justice party and hungry speech dance party they've not signed up yet but they're still trying to make as much of an impact come after the elections next week and now let's take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world. former u.s. president joe biden has officially kicked off his campaign for the 2020 presidential elections speaking to supporters in philadelphia he called on democrats to reject the anger and divisions that have become a hallmark of u.s. politics in recent years. head of the key european parliament elections next week thousands marched in warsaw to celebrate poland's membership in the european union was your opinion council president donald tusk was among those taking part opposition leaders hope to get out the pro e.u. vote poland's conservative government is highly critical of the e.u. and its institutions. ron's foreign minister has called for china and russia to take concrete actions to save the iranian nuclear agreement visiting beijing mohammad javad z

with that a lot of parties have come on board but there is some major ones namely poland's more justice party and hungry speech dance party they've not signed up yet but they're still trying to make as much of an impact come after the elections next week. rebecca very briefly do you believe that he actually has the power to do this. it's it's too hard to say yet the basically the parties that have joined they they are united on on many issues but there is still many things that they not united on it remains to be seen whether or not they can stay united once they are banded together in the parliament and we also didn't know how many seats or how many parties will actually join after next week's elections there's no doubt that they are bigger and stronger and that they will gain more seats in the parliament so there's a chance that they will be able to effect some change but just how effective they can be really remains to be saying decorators on for us thank you so much. let's turn now to some of the other stories making headlines around the world. thousands are marching in warsaw to celebrat

that a lot of parties have come on board but there is some major ones namely poland's law and justice party and hungry speed dance party they've not signed up yet but they still trying to make much of an impact come after the elections next week. analysts take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world ahead of the key european parliamentary elections next week thousands marched in warsaw to celebrate poland's membership in the european union european council president donald tusk was among those taking part opposition leaders hope to get out the pro e.u. vote poland's conservative government is highly critical of the e.u. and the 3rd situations. officials in afghanistan say several children were killed when an explosive device attached to a motorbike went off in a market in the western heritage province around or another 20 people were wounded including the district chief no one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing and in australia there's been a shock result in the national elections prime minister scott morrison the conservative coalition has retained offi

that a lot of parties have come on board but there is some major ones namely poland's law and justice party and hungry speed dance party they've not signed up yet but they're still trying to make as much of an impact come after the elections next week. there's been a shock result in australia's national elections prime minister's scott more since conservative coalition has retained office despite having trailed in the polls before the country's general election and a victory speech to supporters morson described his election win as a miracle after conceding defeat opposition labor party leader bill shorten said he would no longer lead the party after 6 years. chris trail is conservatives and their leader this is an unexpectedly sweet victory scott morrison had trailed in every poll since he became prime minister the former tourism executive has climbed on with a tenacious one man campaign successfully concealing divisions among his team and now against the odds morrison has been returned as a stray as prime minister. our government will come together after this night and we will get back to

pens national rally won just over 23 percent of the vote and in poland where the ruling law and justice party is leading exit polls with more than 42 percent but concerns about climate change i have also goes to the pro e.u. greens across the bloc. all right until now we have been getting a partial vote results will be back at the top of the hour with the 1st a visual results coming in and we'll of course bring you more now since our continuing special election. stay with us. influence when it comes to young people. and not trying to be european and russian and nobody can. go to that. young activist sound working hard for the european idea. and this time working hard against it. europe's young people europe's future. next. sometime in the 26th. my great granddaughter. what made the world seem like in your own life time in around half a century. your world will be around true degrees moment. inevitably sea levels rise by at least one member of the central. we're going to have some climate impacts return greater than we see over me. that's really frightening for. the. player. why are people mor

arts under pressure in poland since the new government came in under the conservative law and justice party in twenty fifteen is that politicians have accused the government of a concerted campaign against this one example was that they withdrew the funding. through funding for the march to festival in post nine when they write citizen the program was deemed to progressive actually since this government came to power a lot of artistic technique directors have not had contracts renewed their local authorities then organize competitions in order to install or they approve of the thing is that the right wing in poland feels that the theatre is dominated by left wing forces they accuse it of insulting the nation and the church of blasphemy and they want to change that so this is the just another salvo in that culture war very interesting it will certainly have to keep an eye on that story and more pictures of the madonna eating protests or is on facebook at culture if anyone wants to have a look at kennedy thanks very much for bringing me that story thank you. well it's exciting times for class

and poland the nationalist conservative ruling law and justice party won a crushing $42.00 and a halfpercent of the vote so what does this mean for europe. they're walking back to our special coverage of the 200-1000 european elections so we are bringing you.

and in poland the nationalist conservative ruling law and justice party won a crushing $42.00 and a half percent of the vote so what does this mean for europe. thanks for joining our live coverage of the elections to the european parliament results are still coming in from around the 28 member countries of the european union but some clear trends are already apparent looking now at the projected figures for how many seats each party group would have in the next european parliament the leftist european united left and nordic green bloc take $45.00 seats so far the center left social democrats get 146 seats 70 seats go to the greens while the liberal a l d e group would receive 97 seats the center right european people's party the biggest group takes 163 seats followed by the conservatives the . 57 seats then we come to the populist groups t e d d at 45 seats and the new proposed far right european alliance of peoples and nations at 72 seats. in those e.u. poland entry elections traditional centers parties in germany france and elsewhere have seen their support erode while the environmenta

violations is because they're the law and justice party is not a member of the e.p. family or any of the other families and that is why i was very honored to be ruppert chair of a proposal for a brought mechanism to uphold democracy the rule of law and fundamental rights in other words the so-called article two of the treaty values and i am very confident that even if it took some time for the european commission and the european council to come to the. realization that we need such mechanism i think it will materialize in the next in the next period and that needs all the member states will be incest on the basis of the same criteria on a regular annual basis something the council of europe decided in february an offshoot of the council of europe press freedom in europe is now in the worst state than at any time since the cold war how worrying is that to live a very briefly very briefly we're running out of time it's absolutely boring because those in power in some countries try to undermine the freedom of press and we have been on top third in new media we're fake

arts under pressure in poland since the new government came in under the conservative law and justice party in twenty fifteen is that that's why opposition politicians have accused the government of a concerted campaign against this one example was that they withdrew the funding. through funding for the mark to festival in post nine when they curators and the program was deemed to progressive actually since this government came to power a lot of artistic directors have not had contracts renewed the local authorities then. organize competitions in order to install just that they approve of the thing is that the right wing in poland feels that the theatre is dominated by left wing forces they accuse it of insulting the nation and the church because of blasphemy and they want to change that so this is the just another salvo in that culture war very interesting it will certainly have to keep an eye on that story more pictures of the banana eating protests or is on facebook at culture if anyone wants to have a look at kennedy thanks very much for bringing me that story thank you. well it's excit

appear to have materialized including former national rally party and friends of poland's law and justice party and for italy's right wing populist leader led by the hardline interior minister my tail but concerns about climate change have also given a boost to the pro greens group across the block. and let's take a look at the projected figures for how many seats that each party group would have in the next european parliament we have some figures on that now at the leftist european united left a nordic green bloc take $45.00 seats so far the center left social democrats a $147.00 seats the greens at $68.00 seats the liberal group would receive around $94.00 seats they're the center right european peoples party this is the biggest group taking $163.00 seats followed by the euro skeptic conservatives the e.c.r. at 60 seats now we come to the populist groups we have the e.f.t. at $46.00 seats and this new proposed far right european alliance of peoples and nations at $71.00 seats. so looking at those numbers i want to come back to what we said just before those numbers which are some of the take

analysts conservative ruling law and justice party won a crushing $42.00 and a half percent of the vote so what does this mean for europe. i'm serious i was gonna walk a back to our special coverage of the 200-1000 european elections so we are bringing you rolling coverage of the results across the 28 member states as 400000000 eligible voters have their say now polls have just closed in italy the last country to finish voting and one of the most closely watched italy's interior minister my tail salvini has been campaigning hard he's hoping that his right wing populist league party becomes the number one party in italy and one of europe's most influential he is trying to forge an alliance of european populists centered around the issue of immigration. and let's go right to milan thomas sparrow is standing by for us there he's been covering the vote in italy for us hi thomas so polls have closed there do we have any idea at this point how the results are looking. so we the 1st numbers have just been published you can imagine the reaction here from those 1st numbers we can see that the le

of dealing a blow to president mcauliffe at in poland the national conservative ruling law and justice party won a crushing $42.00 and a half percent of the folks so what does this mean for europe. i'm sorry someone's got to welcome back to our continuing special coverage of the european elections where the voting coming to a close bigger trends across the bloc are becoming clearer at this hour traditional . center parties in germany france and elsewhere have been watching their support erode while the environmentalist greens have been surging taking 2nd place in germany meanwhile the right wing populist parties are projected to have won in france and in poland now that is big news for france especially one of the e.u. member states and has once again proved to be a thorn in the side of the country's main street parties her national rally achieved just over 23 percent of the vote that is ahead of president in mind on my call centrist party that won just under 22 percent of the pen said the expected result quote confirms the new nationalist globalist division in france and beyond her party is

civil liberties dominic touchin scheme is a member of the polish parliament for the ruling law and justice party he sits on the foreign and e.u. affairs committee's journal and has been a member of the european parliament for twenty years with a progressive alliance of socialists and democrats and is well known for his support for a federal europe max crys vice chairman of the f.t. the ultimate evil for dyche lands in the german state of saxony and number three in the party's federal list for the european elections that's a panel. before we take questions from our invited audience including members of civil society groups i'm going to ask each of our politicians to set out very briefly the kind of european future they'd like to see for himself can i ask you to start us off one minute thank you very much and good evening everybody. we are living in a world of triumph china that's becoming stronger political global actor a world where we see big forces like facebook while way apple who are actually more powerful sometimes than states and that is why we need a very strong united and unify europe in

the fundamental rights violations and the rule of law violations is because they're the law and justice party is not a member of the family or any of the other families and that is why i was very honored to be repartee or of a proposal for a brought mechanism to uphold democracy the rule of law and fundamental rights in other words the so-called article two of the treaty values and i am very confident that even if it took some time for the european commission and the european council to come to the. realization that we need such. mechanism i think it will materialize in the next in the next period and that meets all the member states will be sent on the basis of the same criteria on a regular annual basis something the council of europe decided in february an offshoot of the council of europe press freedom in europe is now in a worse state than at any time since the cold war how worrying is that joe line very briefly very briefly we're running out of time it's absolutely boring because those in power in some countries try to undermine the freedom of press and we have been on top or the new me

membership is high in poland as 85 percent is among the highest even here the right wing ruling law and justice partyis highly critical of the e.u. and the country is deeply divided. now german chancellor angela merkel is also on the campaign trail ahead of european parliament elections pushing back against the rising tide of the far right speaking in the croatian capital zagreb merkel called on europeans to stand up to what she described as politicians for referring to the head in camera staying what. austrian vice chancellor of germany has of course been no exception to the growing influence of populists with a day party now the 3rd largest in the bundestag well some of the. highest leaders are common values mean we're all proud of our native countries but at the same time we want to build up europe patriotism and the european union are not in opposition to each other nationalism is the enemy of the european project and this is what we have to make clear in these final days before the european election hansal off hankel is a member of the european parliament from germany and he says racism is a com

poland as 85 percent is among the union's highest but even here the right wing ruling law and justice party is highly critical of the e.u. and the country is deeply divided. al-jazeera. now indians are voting in the final phase of national elections ending a 6 week long process more than 100000000 people across 7 states are eligible to vote in sunday's poll and they include those living in prime minister and his constituency he's seeking a 2nd 5 year term we will go live to my colleagues the hell ruckman who's involved are nasty which is prime minister mode is consistency isn't it and you're in it or pradesh sale aren't you which is the most populous state in india and what happens there with the big impact on the final result. yes it does martino's or pradesh you could say as the equivalent to florida in the us where we always hear about this particular state being influential in perhaps forming or choosing in america's case the next president here in india's case the potentially new political party that could rule the country and in 2014 of the 80 parliamentary seats that were available h

poland as 85 percent is among the union's highest but even here the right wing ruling law and justice party is highly critical of the e.u. and the country is deeply divided. al-jazeera. to australia now where the voting conservative coalition has clinched a surprise and action victory prime minister scott morrison says it's a miracle although it's not yet clear if he'll secure parliamentary majority and thomas reports from melbourne. he wasn't supposed to be the winner of australia as election opinion polls consistently had prime minister scott morrison and his rights of sense and liberal party behind the labor party rivals he and they defied expectations side friends. were going to work to do. we all work to do and we're going to get back to work we're going to get back to work for the a strategist that when i go to work every day. if i started struggles and trials every day they're looking for a fair go and they're having a go and they're going to get a guy from our government was in the sydney hotel hosting young expected that tree party the world's euphoria. good gosh it was the liberal

the governing polish law and justice party also reacted to films revelations pledging to confront the problem of clerical abuse its leader initiated a vote in parliament on longer prison terms for child abusers after the documentary began attracting widespread attention but he also accused some of using the situation to attack and undermine the church as a whole adding that there is no poland without the institution. everyone has the right to express their opinion but i think politicians need to be more careful with their what is it's not just a matter of individual offenders the crimes were covered up these things were known to be the church authorities this absent the way they moved the offenders from parish to parish is horrendous there should be real punishment merely losing the position in church is not punishment justice must be served. in support of the it's hard to say maybe kaczynski want to say it was an attack on christian values he is partly right it's like living in an apartment and closing the rise to the neighbor's pathological family and when a tragedy happens everyone

the governing polish born justice party has been widely supported by the country's religiously conservative population and positioned itself as a defender of christian values its leader initiated a parliamentary vote on longer prison terms for child abusers after the documentary attracted so much attention however he also accused those who raise the issue of abuse by priests undermining offending the church. everyone has the right to express their opinion but i think it is need to be more careful with their what it's not just a matter of individual offenders the crimes were covered up these things were known to be the church authorities because the absence of the way they moved offenders from parish to the parish is horrendous real punishment merely losing a position in a church is not justice must be so. it's a problem it's hard to say maybe kaczynski want to say it was an attack on christian values. he is partly right it's like living in an apartment and close in a race to the neighbor's pathological family and when a tragedy happens everyone wakes up but if you react early you can preven

dominic touchin ski was a member of the polish parliament for the ruling law and justice party he sits on the foreign and e.u. affairs committees joel leinen has been a member of the european parliament for twenty years with a progressive alliance of socialists and democrats and is well known for his support for a federal europe max prize vice chairman of the f.t. the i'll tell it even if advice lands in the german state of saxony and number three in the party's federal list for the european elections that's our panel. before we take questions from our invited audience including members of civil society groups i'm going to ask each of our politicians to set out very briefly the kind of european future they'd like to see sophie and can i ask you to start us off one minute thank you very much and good evening everybody. we are living in a world of trump china that's becoming stronger political global actor a world where we see big forces like facebook while way apple who are actually more powerful sometimes than states and that is why we need a very strong united and unify europe in orde

in hungary, viktor orban, the prime minister, and in poland, the ruling law and justice party, both hardline might not want to join salvini's new gang. and these eurosceptics might have a third of seats in parliament but might still be split and weakened. the big old pro eu centre parties are shrinking. angela merkel‘s conservatives and their centre—right allies across europe. keep the ce ntre—left allies across europe. keep the centre—left socialists real pressure in france. but together they might still dominate, though it's likely to be the other parties in the middle, macron, the liberals, the greens could be the kingmakers stopping the balance in europe is shifting, fragmenting. it's a struggle for europe's hearts and votes. they've become an ever more common sight in cities across the globe. they're meant to help with congestion and be kinder to the environment. one country that's resisted them is germany, but on friday, the upper house of parliament may vote to let e—scooters on to the country's roads. the bbc‘s tim allman has more. don't fancy riding a bike? well, how about trying on

doesn't lead people to go and it just makes them run away from him or the governing polish law and justice party has been widely supported by the country's religiously conservative population and positions itself as a defender of christian values its leader initiated a vote in parliament on longer prison terms for child abusers after the documentary attracted a lot of attention but he also accused those who raise the issue of abuse by priests of on reminding offending the church he earlier in fact said quote there is no poland without the church. everyone has the right to express their opinion but i think politicians need to be more careful with their what it's not just a matter of individual offend the crimes were covered up these things were known to be the church authorities just the opposite the way they move the offenders from parish to parish is horrendous there should be real punishment me losing the position in church is not punishment just to smoke. it's hard to say maybe kaczynski want to say it was an attack on christian values he is partly right it's like living in an apartment and c