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Norway cuts Uganda aid in gay law protest

Norway has announced it is holding back 50 million kroner ($8m) of aid to Uganda in protest at its new draconian law against homosexuality on the grounds that the law violates "fundamental human rights".

Published: 25 February 2014 09:07 CET

Norway cuts Uganda aid in gay law protest

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at a meeting of the African Union in 2011 - Photo: Government of Zambia

"Norway deeply regrets that Uganda's president today signed a new and stricter law against homosexuality," Norway's foreign minister, Børge Brende, said in a statement on Monday. "It will worsen the situation of an already vulnerable group, and criminalize individuals and organizations working for the rights of sexual minorities."

The new law strengthens the existing penalties for homosexual acts, with gay men now facing life imprisonment if arrested and found guilty.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni accused his Western critics of social imperialism as he signed the law into force on Monday in a ceremony on the lawn at the presidential residence in Entebbe.

"We are sorry that you live as you do, but we keep quiet about it," he said.

"It is a sad day for the gay community in Uganda, because this law will affect everyone," Julian Peppe Onziema, a local gay activist said.

Danish aid minister Mogens Jensen also signalled that Denmark would divert 50m Danish kroner of aid from government programmes

Uganda has received around 6 billion kroner in aid from Norway since Museveni came to power in 1986. In recent years, the country has been giving about 400 million kroner per year.

Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, but the new law also makes it a criminal offence to sponsor or encourage homosexuality, or to fail to report any homosexual activity witnessed.

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'We'll be struggling well into next year': German borrowing to soar amid pandemic

The seating area of a restaurant closed off in Boltenhagen on the Baltic Sea coast. Photo: DPA

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government plans to borrow €300 billion ($364 billion) across 2020 and 2021 combined after the government pledged more than a trillion euros in aid, including through short-time work schemes (Kurzarbeit) and business support.

“The budget is the basis for everyone to be confident that we can provide the necessary economic and social support to get us through this crisis together,” Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told lawmakers.

The budget for 2021, which passed with 361 votes in favour to 258 against, provides for a total of €179.8 billion in new loans and nearly €500 billion in public spending.

It means for both 2020 and 2021, Germany will abandon its cherished “debt brake”, a constitutionally enshrined rule that forbids the government from borrowing more than 0.35 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), before planning to return to no new debt in 2022.

Restrictions to curb the second wave of Covid-19 – including shutting the food-and-drink, leisure and cultural sectors – continue to burden the economy, which previously pushed Berlin to amplify its aid to businesses.

Yet case rates continue to climb. On Friday, Germany reported a record nearly 30,000 new infections and almost 600 deaths in a 24-hour period.

Now, Merkel is facing calls to tighten restrictions again.

READ ALSO: Germany mulls three-week lockdown from December 20th

Aid can't be 'endless'

Despite the “ray of hope” of a vaccine rollout, Scholz said, “we know that… we're going to be struggling well into next year with the health, economic and social challenges that are going to follow from this pandemic.”

Businesses hit by the current closures are entitled to claim aid amounting to up to 75 percent of their revenues for November and December 2019, expected to cost the government some 30 billion euros.

However Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said last week that support for pandemic-hit firms implemented through November and December could not go on “endlessly”.

Nevertheless Altmaier on Friday said he aimed to increase the ceiling for aid from January in the case of a harder lockdown.

Germany's debt-to-GDP ratio will climb to 70 percent this year, Germany's central bank said in a report published Friday.

But public finances will likely improve as coronavirus measures come to an end, it said.

The government expects the economy to shrink by 5.5 percent this year, before rebounding by 4.4 percent next year.

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