Your Weekly RecapUp to 5 Wage Increases Considered; A Week Full of Politics

What you need to know at the end of this week:

• The Government prepared for Tripartites on Wage Indexations.
• The Pirate Party accused the Government and Claude Turmes of favouring oil companies.
• A powerful SOTEU speech underlined a new chapter in foreign policy for the EU.
• Sweden’s elections gave the right (and the far right) a narrow victory.
• China’s Xi and Vladimir Putin met in Uzbekistan.

Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and President of UEL Michel Reckinger meet to prepare for Tripartites that begin September 18.

© RTL

1. The Government prepared for Tripartite meetings that start on Sunday

• The Government met employers’ representatives (UEL) and union leaders on Thursday to discuss indexation plans and inflation data.

• UEL wants measures to be put in place over the next 18 months rather than focusing solely on wage increases.

• The Prime Minister said the government is ready to spend.

3 Scenarios: STATEC prepared 3 proposals, depending on inflation projections, between 3 and 5 wage indexations are proposed.

Relevant: Fokus, the new political party, presented its idea of a social wage indexation system. Their proposal would see those with lower salaries gain a 3% increase in their wages.

Sven Clement and Marc Goergen at a Press Conference. They accused the government of favoring oil companies over consumers.

© François Aulner / RTL

2. The Pirate Party accused the government of favouring oil companies over consumers.

• Sven Clement’s accused the government of using “deliberate political action” to increase the profits of oil companies.

• They accused Minister for Energy Claude Turmes (dei Greng) of either incompetence or bad intentions.

Sven Clement said: “Luxembourg has a minister who… has now increased oil prices in Luxembourg, but not to boost climate protection, but benefit the war chests of multinational oil companies”

Also in Politics: Viviane Reding, (CSV) announced her retirement after 43 years in politics. This is a year before legislative elections. Elisabeth Margue will replace her in the Chamber as MP.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her State of the European Union speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

3. SOTEU speech focused on Ukraine, Energy and Foreign Policy.

• EU Commission president von der Leyen emphasised the EU’s support of Ukraine in her 4th State of the European Union speech.

• She detailed plans to mitigate the cost of sanctions against Russia.

• Proposals to counter high gas and electricity costs were unveiled.

• The Commission wants to decrease our dependence on China’s supply chains

• Further EU enlargement, from Ukraine to Georgia also made the speech.

Europe Will Prevail:Key Points from the President’s Speech.

Relevant: Ukraine gained back most of the northern region of Kharkiv after a lightning advance from its troops. Germany is facing more pressure to send help to Ukraine.

Ulf Kristersson, head of the Moderates. His right-wing bloc won 176 of 349 seats in Parliament.

© Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency, via AFP

4. Sweden’s Right won a narrow election vowing to “restore order”.

• Ulf Kristersson will lead a coalition of right and far-right parties, after winning a very narrow majority of 176 seats.

• 73 of them went to the far-right Sweden Democrats

• The left won 173 seats.

• Never before has a Swedish government relied on the support of the anti-immigration and nationalists.

An anti-immigration vote gave nationalist Sweden Democrats the big win in Sunday’s election.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping in the ancient Silk Road city of Samarkand.

© AFP

5. China’s Xi and Vladimir Putin met to challenge the West’s global influence.

• They met with other Asian leaders in Uzbekistan for a regional summit touted as a challenge to Western global influence.

• Putin gave away that China has ‘concerns’ over Russia’s war in Ukraine and condemned ‘attempts to create unipolar world’.

• Xi condemned the ‘provocations’ of the US and their ‘satellites’ in the Taiwan Strait.

• Xi, earlier, vowed full support for Kazakhstan’s sovereignty, a country spooked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

• India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and several other countries had delegations.

The Pope was also in the region for a three-day trip to take part in an inter-religious summit in Kazakhstan were 26% of the population is Christian.

+2 Technology stories worth knowing about:

Ethereum completed its “Merge”, upgrading to Proof of Stake, which will reduce its energy consumption by nearly 99.95% and reduce global energy consumption by 0.2% according to co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Googlewas right to be fined, that’s what the EU’s General Court, based in Luxembourg, said by upholding a record multibillion-dollar fine issued against Google in 2018.

• In recent years, the EU has accused Google and other tech giants of tax avoidance, stifling competition and raking in billions from news organisations without paying for content and spreading misinformation.

And in case you missed it:

• SNHBM’s after-sales service had major problems on 3 construction sites over the last four years. We recently reported complaints against the National Affordable Housing Company from dissapointed tenants.

• The WHO published new policy briefs to help end the Covid-19 pandemic, whose end could be in sight.

• Queen Elisabeth II lied in state as thousands queued to pay their last respects to the Queen.

• Armenia and Azerbaijan reported new troop deaths in their worst fighting since a 2020 war.

Your Weekly Recap is published every Friday morning. Read earlier versions.

What did you think? What would you like the Weekly Recap to include? Let me know: christos.floros@rtl.lu

Christos Floros covers News and Politics for RTL Today @christosfloros