SOME SPRINGTIME SUNSHINE
and said he wouldn’t rule out traveling to the region if it would help.
Speaking to reporters en route home from Malta, Francis said he and Patriarch Kirill were thinking of a possible location in the Middle East, but he provided no details other than to recall that they spoke by video on March 16.
Kirill has called for peace and for civilians to be spared but has seemingly justified Russia’s invasion by casting it as a “metaphysical” battle with the West and its “gay parades.”
Francis was asked what he would say to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and recalled what he had told Maltese leaders upon his arrival. In the speech, Francis blasted the “potentate” for his “infantile and destructive aggression” that he had justified under the guise of “anachronistic claims of nationalist interests.” Still, he did not name Putin in the speech.
Serbs vote in triple election set to keep populists in power
BELGRADE, Serbia – Long lines formed in front of polling stations in Serbia on Sunday as voters cast ballots in a triple election that was projected to keep in power a populist government which has refused to impose sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine.
Some 6.5 million voters are choosing the president and a new parliament, as well as local authorities in the capital, Belgrade, and over a dozen other towns and municipalities.
Opinion surveys ahead of the vote have predicted that President Aleksandar Vucic will win another five-year term and that his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party will yet again dominate the 250-member assembly.
But opposition groups stand a chance of winning in Belgrade, analysts say. This would deal a serious blow to the populists’ decade-old unchallenged rule in Serbia.
Opposition groups said Sunday multiple irregularities were spotted during the vote and that the ruling party was ready to use violence to prevent an opposition victory. An opposition leader was attacked outside Vucic’s party offices in a Belgrade suburb, suffering facial injuries.