Iver Ørstavik's Avatar

Iver Ørstavik

@iverorstavik

Senior Adviser at Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, Bergen, Norway. Philosopher by education. Opinions sometimes my own, never someone else's.

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Latest posts by Iver Ørstavik @iverorstavik

Some of them also would consider the possibility that they might end up in jail?

01.03.2026 13:33 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Post image

BREAKING: The US Supreme Court just ruled Trump’s tariffs are illegal.

So why is the EU Parliament about to vote on the Turnberry deal that endorses them?

Europe is preparing to legitimise what America’s own courts have struck down.

cnn.it/4bZtaLo

20.02.2026 17:35 👍 11 🔁 6 💬 4 📌 1

Irrelevant for the question of whether we should support Ukraine with all our resources, but highly relevant for the question of whether or how we should include them in the EU. Not wise to offer a seat and veto power in the Council anytime soon.

29.11.2025 21:56 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

"Treason for money" pretty much sums up the awful mess presented by the Trump administration as a "Peace plan for Ukraine".

22.11.2025 14:14 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Spectator society.

08.10.2025 15:49 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Tja. Et parti er parti som støtter en fascist er ikke nødvendigvis fascistisk. De kan selvsagt støtte fascisten som det minste ondet. Men hvordan er det mulig å forstå USA slik?

27.06.2025 17:37 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0
Preview
Setback for Europe after Trump insists Ukraine has ‘immediate’ peace talks with Russia Zelenskyy had no choice but to accept Putin’s invitation to talks, diplomats say

If #Europe wants #Putin to agree to a ceasefire, the easiest way is:
- Give a lot of #Taurus
- 20x investment into #Ukraine #Drone production
- Set up Air defense for Western #Ukraine
- Stop oil and gas traffic in baltic
- Tariffs on all remaining LNG, Oil imports
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

13.05.2025 10:15 👍 28 🔁 9 💬 2 📌 60

Trump, on the leader of Russia:
"Putin is tired of this whole thing and he’s not — he’s not looking good. And he wants to look good”

It's hard to imagine a more fundamental misunderstanding.
No, Putin is not "tired of the whole thing" - the war is the only thing keeping his economy going

18.05.2025 05:29 👍 2772 🔁 636 💬 92 📌 19

Of course. We may still be able to make Trump think it is in his own interest to protect NATO allies in Europe. But we cannot make him commit. We must expect that he or someone like him will be the President of the USA until some very significant institutional reform is completed. So NATO is dead.

14.05.2025 21:25 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Would it be possible for the EFTA countries to sue the EU Commission and/or Council for failure to secure that Hungary abides by the EEA?

14.05.2025 21:12 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Orbán’s Fidesz party proposes Russia-style crackdown on Hungary’s civil society The new bill fits into a pattern of democratic backsliding for the Central European country.

@politico.eu: "The bill says threats to national sovereignty include influencing public opinion, promoting democratic debate, or challenging state-defined values like Christian culture and traditional family roles."

14.05.2025 10:19 👍 35 🔁 28 💬 1 📌 9

The nasty Trumpist bait and switch.

27.03.2025 14:33 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

"If you give in to extortionists, they’ll extort you and others for more ... Which brings me to @columbiauniversity.bsky.social’s president and trustees, who today surrendered the university’s #academicfreedom to the Trump regime"
robertreich.substack.com/p/the-shame-...

23.03.2025 10:06 👍 13 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

@hasyv.bsky.social Hei Håvard, har du slettet FB-kontoen?

20.03.2025 10:13 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Indeed. So no, Canada will not become a member of the EU. And Scotland will probably not detach itself much more from England. Unless they discover a new gigantic gas field or something similar...

12.03.2025 08:23 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Would be genuinely interesting to learn about the constitutional position of the First Nation people in such a context. The relationship between the constituent nations and polities, the states, and the union in the EU as of now is very complicated. And I think likely to change in the years to come.

12.03.2025 07:47 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I hope my fellow Europeans would not see that as a ground for exclusion.

12.03.2025 07:16 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Dead kangaroo walking! The "Constitutional Tribunal" made to serve the former Polish gov under PiS is slaughtered by CJEU.

11.03.2025 21:02 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

But does it define "European"? Values, culture, and institutions are the important criteria. Canada have all, and more than for example Hungary under Orban?

11.03.2025 20:36 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
Making the World Safe for Criminals The United States is undergoing repatrimonialization as we speak.

I disagree with @frankfukuyama.bsky.social Fascism is essentially syncretic. Opportunistic use of lies is the core of Fascism. A dangerous mistake suggesting that it can be fought by identifying inconsistency, falsehood, immorality. But it feeds itself on it.
www.persuasion.community/p/making-the...

08.03.2025 16:21 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Preview
Trump 'planning to revoke legal status of 240,000 Ukrainian refugees' - key developments The planned rollback of protections for Ukrainians was reportedly underway before Trump publicly feuded with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week.

Beelzebub.
uk.news.yahoo.com/trump-ukrain...

06.03.2025 12:48 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Everything we have must now be used to prevent this from happening. United we stand, divided we fall. 11

05.03.2025 22:00 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Whether this cooperation succeeds or not is crucial for the future of Europe. If the nations of Europe assess the situation from the point of view of how each can best save itself from the rocks we have ahead of us, then the fleet of European nations will scatter and be defeated. 10

05.03.2025 22:00 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Putin, Trump, Vance, and Musk's next goal is to sabotage the Europeans cooperation to save Ukraine, which is taking place in the EU and the coalition of the willing assembled by Macron, Starmer, and Merz/Scholz, all declared as political adversaries by one of these three men. 9

05.03.2025 21:59 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Hungary is already an electoral autocracy, and has been for a long time. Poland was very close to consolidating itself as such. Slovakia is in acute danger. The risk is significant that Italy, France, Austria, the Netherlands and others will move in the same direction in the coming years. 8

05.03.2025 21:57 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Then the rule of law and democracy will collapse at the member state level, when states are hit unequally by waves of refugees, the costs of rearmament, economic burdens on ordinary people, painful choices made by governments in completely uncharted waters, fear and lies. 7

05.03.2025 21:56 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

A collapse of Ukraine clearly has the potential to destroy rule of law and democracy in Europe. First at the supranational level, by paralyzing the EUbCouncil and rendering the EU Commission incapable of enforcing European law because the necessary cooperation with EU member states fails. 6

05.03.2025 21:55 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Trump sees alternative gains in cooperation with Russia. So do several European states, most obviously Hungary and Slovakia, and a strong opposition in several other countries. 5

05.03.2025 21:54 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

This is not the situation now.
The possible or probable expansion of the crisis in Ukraine is dividing NATO member states. The US under Trump is the dominant member and does not consider itself threatened by Ukrainian collapse. 4

05.03.2025 21:54 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

The declaration was tested after 9/11, a situation that was shocking and frightening, but not really threatening to any of the NATO states, all of which had a common interest in thwarting Islamist terrorism, and which did not risk anything existentially by the current intervention in Afghanistan. 3

05.03.2025 21:53 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0