Europe is witnessing a rise in extremist politics following a decline in moderate centrist representation in the European Parliament, said Finnish President Alexander Stubb during an interview with China Media Group (CMG) on Wednesday.
Stubb pointed out that disinformation is undermining centrist politics, allowing extremist right, left ideologies to gain traction.
"I don't necessarily agree with the thesis that there was a big move to a populist right. I think in Europe, there has been a move to extremes, both left and right. And there's sort of a lack of moderate center. And we're seeing it being gnawed from both sides. And a lot of that is about disinformation, in fact. So how do I see it? I think the first thing to understand is that Europe is imperfect. There's no such thing as a perfect society. So the European Union always advances on three phases; first, there's a crisis, secondly, there's chaos, and thirdly, there's some optimal solution. And what populists often do is they try to find simple solutions to complicated problems," he said.
"Just one gentle reminder, the European Union exists for four very simple reasons; peace, prosperity, security and stability. It's an imperfect union, which is more than an international organization but less than a state. And this is the mess that we are trying to solve in Europe. It's never pretty, but it seems to be working quite well," he said.
Stubb arrived in Beijing on Monday for a four-day state visit to China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Europe increasingly polarized amid growing influence of extreme ideologies: Finnish President
Europe increasingly polarized amid growing influence of extreme ideologies: Finnish President
Chongqing, a major city in southwest China, has been leveraging financial tools to fuel consumption, with an initiative bringing together dozens of financial institutions to unveil new measures aimed at stimulating consumer spending.
On Wednesday, the Financial Support to Boost Consumption Action Conference was held in Chongqing's Nan'an District, in which 41 financial institutions jointly launched an action plan and released detailed measures to boost consumer confidence and their willingness to spend.
The city's financial regulator said it will continue to guide financial institutions to ramp up support for consumer spending. It will allocate at least 1.6 billion yuan, or around 224 million U.S. dollars worth of resources designed for reducing costs and providing incentives for consumers in 2024, which is expected to drive individual consumption loans to surpass 2.5 trillion yuan (about 350 billion U.S. dollars) for the year.
"As of the end of the third quarter, the balance of loans for consumption use in Chongqing's banking sector had reached 628.54 billion yuan (about 88 billion U.S. dollars), up 21 percent year on year. This resulted in direct savings of over 1.2 billion yuan for customers, contributing a 3.8-percent increase to the city's total retail sales of consumer goods, which is 0.5 percentage points higher than the national average," said Jian Weibo, deputy director of the No.2 Non-bank Services Section under Chongqing Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau.
Local authorities say campaigns in the first three quarters in support of green renewals and upgrades in consumer goods have been extremely successful.
"In the next phase, we will optimize the allocation of financial resources, offer more diverse financial products, strengthen the support for consumption on both the supply and demand sides, and guide financial institutions to help boost consumption," said Jian.
China's Chongqing unleashes fresh financial stimulus to boost consumption
