British MPs on Tuesday agreed to hold an early election on December 12, backing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s call to try to break the crippling political deadlock that has seen Brexit delayed three times.

Hours after the EU formally agreed to postpone Britain’s departure again, up to the end of January, parliament voted for the country’s third election in four years.

It is a gamble for Johnson, who leads a minority Conservative government, but he had nowhere left to turn after MPs rejected the Brexit terms he struck with Brussels less than two weeks ago.

His Conservatives are currently well ahead of the opposition Labour party in opinion polls, and he hopes to win a majority in the lower House of Commons in order to push through his Brexit plan.

But his failure to keep to his “do or die” pledge to leave the EU on October 31 risks a backlash among eurosceptic voters.

The election outcome could have huge implications for Britain’s tortuous Brexit process, which began with the 2016 EU referendum.

Labour is committed to a new “people’s vote”, while two smaller opposition parties want to reverse Brexit.

Many Labour MPs are wary of an election, fearful of defeat under their leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn, but he swung his support behind the poll.

Ahead of the vote in parliament, European Council President Donald Tusk confirmed the formal adoption of Monday’s decision by EU envoys to accept a Brexit delay of up to three months.

“To my British friends, The EU27 has formally adopted the extension. It may be the last one. Please make the best use of this time,” he tweeted.

The election bill will now go to the unelected upper House of Lords for debate on Wednesday, but peers are expected to back the plan, paving the way for parliament to be dissolved early next week.

 ‘New mandate’

Johnson took office in July promising to end the wrangling over Brexit which has bitterly divided the country, but a rebellion over his hardline strategy left him without a majority in parliament.

Unable to win MPs’ support for new divorce terms he struck with Brussels, he was forced by law earlier this month to ask EU leaders for a delay.

After three failed attempts to pass a normal election motion, which requires the support of two-thirds of MPs, Johnson on Tuesday took an alternative path.

He introduced a bill to legislate for an election — a method which required only a simple majority, and passed by 438 votes to 20.

“We are left with no choice but to go to the country to break free from this impasse,” he had told MPs.

A newly elected parliament would have a “new mandate to deliver on the will of people and get Brexit done”, he said.

In a move to unite his Conservative party ahead of the poll — the first in December since 1923 — Johnson readmitted 10 of the 21 MPs he expelled last month for defying his Brexit plan.

Radical campaign

Corbyn had sought to amend the government’s bill to hold the election on December 9, but this was defeated by 315 votes to 295.

The veteran socialist had been torn between rival camps within his own party over whether to proceed with the vote.

But the smaller Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats wanted a vote, making it hard for Labour to stand in their way.

Corbyn had publicly argued that he would not allow an election until Johnson’s threat to leave the EU without a divorce deal was removed.

The EU’s decision to delay Brexit meant that “for the next three months, our condition of taking no-deal off the table has now been met”, he announced.

“We will now launch the most ambitious and radical campaign for real change our country has ever seen.”

 ‘Boris has to win’

Experts warn that British politics remains deeply volatile almost three years after the referendum vote, and say the result could be unpredictable.

There was significant voter switching between the 2015 and 2017 elections.

Election specialist John Curtice from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow said Johnson is in a strong position to get a majority — but an election remains a gamble.

“Boris has to win. A hung parliament and Boris is out,” he said, warning that a Labour-led coalition would likely take over.

(AFP)

The European Union has agreed to grant Britain a new Brexit delay until Jan. 31 next year, EU Council chief Donald Tusk said in a Twitter post on Monday, just three days before the UK was due to exit the bloc.

“The EU27 has agreed that it will accept the UK’s request for a Brexit flex tension until 31 January 2020,” Tusk said of the idea of a “flexible extension”, which means Britain could go earlier if its fractious parliament ratifies the divorce bill.

The bloc now awaits an approval from London. Once that is in, a 24-hour countdown will start when member states can still object or else the decision will have been taken.

“This will allow for the decision to be formally adopted tomorrow,” an EU diplomat said.

An EU official warned, however, it might take as long as Wednesday, just a day before Britain would otherwise be due to leave the bloc on its current Oct. 31 deadline.

The decision came following a 30-minute meeting of the 27 EU ambassadors in Brussels after France dropped its objections that blocked the decision last week. Any delay to Brexit can only be granted unanimously by the 27 EU countries staying on together.

“The prospect of elections has strengthened significantly over the weekend,” a source close to French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier on Monday.

The third postponement of Brexit would come with conditions. They include a refusal to renegotiate their divorce agreement and giving a green light to the 27 capitals to meet without Britain to discuss the bloc’s future.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government on Sunday stepped up pressure on UK lawmakers to back an early election to break the impasse on Brexit three years after Britons voted to leave the EU.

A Downing Street source said the government would consider options including those proposed by opposition parties, after the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Liberal Democrats (LD) said they wanted a new poll on Dec. 9.

The delay envisages that Britain could also be out on Dec. 1 or Jan. 1, should parliament ratify the withdrawal agreement in November or December, respectively.

The bloc might ask London to name a candidate for the EU’s new executive European Commission, which is comprised of one representative from every member state and currently due to takeover on Dec. 1.

More than three years after Britain voted to quit the EU, the country and its parliament remain divided over how, when and even whether to leave.

The matter has triggered a spiralling political crisis in the country where Johnson is now sparring with the House of Commons over calling an early election.

For the EU, the unprecedented loss of a member is a historic setback. But the 27 are also fed up with the intractable divorce, which is sapping time, energy and political capital that should be spent on jump-starting their economies and tackling security and other challenges.

(REUTERS)

Members of Portugal’s new parliament took up office on Friday, among them the country’s first black women lawmakers who campaigned on promises to fight racism and inequality.

The three women, who all trace their origins to Guinea-Bissau, an impoverished former Portuguese colony in west Africa, won office in the October 6 general election when Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s Socialists were re-elected but without an absolute majority.

A total of 89 women were elected — an unprecedented number in the 230-seat parliament — following a new gender parity law requiring that 40 percent of elected lawmakers are female.

Portugal has a significant minority population from its former African colonies in Angola, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Guinea Bissau, and Cape Verde as well as Brazil.

Campaigners complain of discrimination in areas ranging from education to housing, employment to the justice system and of a shortage of black faces in business, the media and politics, although progress has been made in recent years.

After taking office in 2015, Costa, who is of Indian descent, nominated Portugal’s first black cabinet minister, appointing Francisca Van Dunem, who was born in Angola, as justice minister.

She is keeping the post in Costa’s new cabinet which will be sworn in on Saturday.

The best known of the newcomers is Joacine Katar Moreira, 37, an anti-racism activist who moved to Portugal from Guinea-Bissau when she was just eight and headed a list of upstart eco-socialist party LIVRE, or “FREE”, winning the new formation’s first and only seat in parliament.

The others are Romualda Fernandes, a 65-year-old lawyer and migration expert who won a seat representing the Socialists and Beatriz Gomes Dias, 48, the president of anti-racism association Djass, who ran with the far-left Left Bloc party.

Djass has proposed a memorial honouring the millions of African slaves which Portuguese ships transported to the Americas. The project has become a lightning rod for debate about the country’s colonial past.

Up until now the only black person to serve as a member of parliament since Portugal returned to democracy in 1974 was a man — Helder Amaral who represented the conservative CDS party between 2002 and 2019.

Moreira, who became a Portuguese national in 2003, vowed during her victory speech to become the voice of “anti-racism” and “leftwing radical feminism” in parliament.

Thousands of people have signed an online petition demanding that she not be allowed to take up her seat because at her victory celebration, several people were seen waving flags from Guinea-Bissau instead of Portugal.

“This has always been a war for people like me,” Moreira tweeted in response to the petition.

Source: AFP

Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on Thursday for a general election on Dec. 12 to break Britain’s Brexit impasse, a goal the leader has sought but so far failed to push through parliament.

Johnson said in a letter to opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn he would hand parliament more time to approve his Brexit deal but that lawmakers must back a December election, Johnson’s third attempt to try to force a snap poll.

Just a week before Britain was due to leave the European Union, the bloc looked set to grant Johnson a Brexit delay, something he has repeatedly said he does not want but was forced to request by the country’s divided parliament.

An election is seen by his team as the only way of breaking the deadlock over Brexit after parliament voted in favour of his deal, but then, just minutes later, rejected his preferred timetable which would have met his Oct. 31 deadline.

But he has twice failed before to win the votes in parliament for an election, where he needs the support of two-thirds of its 650 lawmakers. The main opposition Labour Party has repeatedly said it will only back an election when it is sure that he cannot lead Britain out of the EU without a deal.

“We will make available all possible time between now and 6 November for the WAB (Withdrawal Agreement Bill) to be discussed and voted through … this means we could get Brexit done before the election on 12 December,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Corbyn, posted on Twitter.

“But if parliament refuses to take this chance and fails to ratify by the end of 6 November, as I fear it will, then the issue will have to be resolved by a new parliament.”

More than three years after voting 52%-48% to be the first sovereign country to leave the European project, the future of Brexit is as unclear as ever with Britain still debating when, how or even whether it should go ahead.

Johnson won the top job in July by staking his career on getting Brexit done by Oct. 31, though he is almost certain to fail to do that after parliament defeated his proposed legislative timetable on Tuesday.

Several of his aides think he can weather any criticism for failing to meet the deadline at an election by arguing that he was thwarted by lawmakers, doubling down on his pre-election narrative pitting the “people versus the parliament”.

At a meeting of his political cabinet of top ministers, there was disagreement over whether the government should try for an early election, fearing that going to the polls before Brexit was settled might damage the governing Conservatives.

But, with another Brexit delay in the offing, local media reported there was eventual agreement that a new election was the only way forward to try to re-set the parliament, which voted down Johnson’s predecessor’s deal three times.

Labour has long said it cannot back an election until a so-called no deal Brexit is off the table. But if the EU grants an extension until the end of January, that would appear to remove the threat of Johnson taking Britain out of the bloc without an agreement.

Leave with Johnson’s deal

Earlier, a senior Downing Street source said Britain would ultimately leave the EU with Johnson’s deal despite the likely additional delay, with the EU considering offering London a three-month flexible Brexit extension.

“This ends with us leaving with the PM’s deal,” the Downing Street source said on condition of anonymity. “We will leave with a deal, with the PM’s deal.”

The timing of any election was also going to be determined largely by the EU and its decision on the length of any extension: Berlin supports a three-month delay, while Paris is pushing for a shorter one.

While both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron appear to be fatigued by Brexit, they fear a no-deal exit that would almost certainly hurt global growth, roil financial markets and create a potentially deeper EU crisis.

To offer Britain a long extension would take the pressure off British lawmakers to approve Johnson’s deal and open up possibilities such as a referendum on it. A short extension might focus minds in the British parliament.

Brexit was initially supposed to have taken place on March 29 but Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May was forced to delay twice – first to April 12 and then to Oct. 31 – as parliament defeated her Brexit deal by margins of between 58 and 230 votes earlier this year.

Johnson was forced by parliament on Saturday to send a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk requesting a delay until Jan. 31. He did so reluctantly, sending an unsigned photocopied note, but the correspondence was accepted.

“Our policy remains that we should not delay,” Johnson told parliament on Tuesday after parliament defeated his extremely tight legislative timetable for ratifying the deal he clinched in Brussels a week ago.

(REUTERS)

UK PM Boris Johnson has grown frustrated over whether to hold a snap election or try instead to push his Brexit-enabling withdrawal agreement bill through the House of Commons again.

Although MPs approved Boris Johnson’s bill during a second reading this week, they rejected his accelerated timetable, saying they needed more time to review the lengthy document.

Moreover, during the debate, Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, pointed out more problems with the legally-binding bill, including withdrawing workers’ rights and environmental standards, saying Mr. Johnson had delayed his own withdrawal bill.

MPs also passed the Letwin amendment, which left the premiere with no option but to send a request for an extension to the EU. (Mr. Johnson also sent a follow-up letter to the EU explaining why the body should reject the extension)

Frustrated, the PM decided to “pause” the legislation following his defeat in parliament.

Mr. Johnson is now waiting on the EU’s decision on whether to grant an extension. But the request is widely expected to be approved, much to the prime minister’s dismay.

Downing Street, in the meantime, is preparing for follow up scenarios, though with a divided cabinet. Half of the prime minister’s cabinet is calling for a pre-Christmas election, while the other half is expressing approval to go ahead with the Brexit deal if the EU grants an extension.

The prime minister has been warned of the likelihood that voters who approved the second reading of his bill may withdraw their support later in the process.

Many are saying, however, that Mr. Johnson’s best moment to win an election is now, as a majority of Conservative MPs fill parliament.

If it secures a two-thirds majority – which appears likely, with Labour preparing to back it – election day would be held five weeks after parliament is dissolved, just in time for Christmas.

The frustration is all Boris Johnson’s as he waits for the EU’s decision on an extension, which essentially will decide the prime minister’s fate on the future of the UK.

Reported by Presstv

You might be forgiven for thinking they had something to celebrate. EU leaders were all smiles despite their order of business being to partially break their 28-nation alliance as smoothly as possible. They have given the green light to a new Brexit withdrawal agreement negotiated under British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. 

Under the agreement, Brexit will not result in highly controversial border checks in Ireland as Northern Ireland would be aligned to the EU’s, as well as the UK’s, customs rules and single market. That’s a big problem for hardline unionists in the UK and so Johnson might fail to get his deal endorsed when it’s put to a vote in the House of Commons on Saturday. 

If Johnson’s agreement is rejected, business leaders and workers’ representatives insist efforts must continue to ensure Britain does not crash out of the EU at the end of this month without a deal. 

The Brexit debate has been raging now for years. More than three years have passed since the UK referendum took place, but the chaos and uncertainty surrounding the process continues. 

The ball is now firmly back in the UK’s court. That is the message being sent out loud and clear by EU leaders. But of course it’s not that simple because they know the potentially dire consequences of a no-deal Brexit. That possibility still exists.

Source: Presstv

Britain and the European Union (EU) have agreed on a long-awaited Brexit deal just a few hours before a meeting of the bloc’s leaders in Brussels.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made the announcement in a statement on Thursday, saying that the deal on Britain’s withdrawal from the EU was a “fair and balanced agreement.”

Juncker said he would recommend that the leaders of the other 27 member states approve the deal, adding it was “high time” to complete the divorce process and move on as swiftly as possible to negotiations of the EU’s future partnership with Britain.

In a straw hat and hiking boots, Jordi Soler set out from Girona with thousands of others on a 100-kilometre (60-mile) “freedom march” after Spain jailed nine Catalan separatist leaders.

“This is to show that we can bring Catalonia to a halt… to show that Madrid must do something because if not, it will soon be out of its hands,” warned the 25-year-old doctoral student.

With a Catalan separatist flag tied to his rucksack, he set off down the road among an endless line of marchers, from youngsters to pensioners, all of them protesting Monday’s Supreme Court verdict which handed nine Catalan leaders heavy prison terms for their role in the failed 2017 independence bid.

Following two days of mass protests, which at times turned violent, separatist activists on Wednesday organised five regional marches to Barcelona which are expected to reach the city by Friday.

The mass deployment down miles and miles of roads and highways is aimed at causing transport chaos in one of Spain’s most important economic regions, which is also a bottleneck for traffic moving between Spain and France, and the rest of Europe.

Organisers say some 10,000 people turned out for the start of the marches, with the biggest in separatist stronghold Girona, the hometown of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium to escape prosecution for his role in the crisis.

On a chilly morning barely warmed by the autumn sun, the crowds rallied in the town’s October 1 square renamed in honour of the date of the contentious referendum, which was banned by Madrid and marred by police violence.

And by 9:00 am (0700 GMT), they were on their way, setting out on a 100-kilometre journey to the Catalan capital that will take them through the verdant hilly countryside of Girona to the sandy plains of the Mediterranean coast.

– Independence struggle as ‘TV series’ –

Some will walk the entire way. Others will complete only part of it. With many passing cars honking their support, the march got under way in a festive atmosphere, moving aside only to allow the passage of ambulances or other emergency vehicles.

“It’s all very peaceful and that’s good… even if sometimes you have to more forceful,” Soler grins, in a nod to the overnight clashes in Barcelona.

When the independence movement began to gain momentum, he was just 18. Ensconced in leftwing Catalan circles, his involvement in the separatist movement came naturally, he says.

After seven years of demonstrations, protests and votes for independence, none of which had any effect, Soler admits feeling “a little worn out” by the struggle.

But he won’t give up.

“It’s like a TV series. You’ve watched seven seasons and the eight is rubbish, but you still watch it because you’ve come so far and hopefully it will have a good ending,” he explains.

The marches were organised by ANC and Omnium, the region’s two biggest grassroots pro-independence groups that have organised some of the largest separatist protests in recent years.

And both groups have been directly impacted by the verdict, with Omnium head Jordi Cuixart, and Jordi Sanchez, who headed the ANC during the 2017 independence bid, both sentenced to nine years behind bars.

– ‘I’m in a hurry’ –

The peaceful marches stood in stark contrast with the tense protests of recent days, led by activist groups like the radical CDR (Committees for the Defence of the Republic) or Democratic Tsunami, who brought 10,000 people to Barcelona airport, cutting off transport links and prompting the cancellation of more than 100 flights.

“These marches… show the best of the Catalan people,” said regional president Quim Torra, who joined the march as it set out from Girona.

After two hours, with the sun much higher in the sky, the tiredness began to show.

“I’m going to stop soon. I’m not a spring chicken any more,” admitted 74-year-old Maria Pilar Collell.

Disappointed with the regional leaders, who for the past two years have been divided over how to push ahead, this elderly protester who learned Catalan in secret during Franco’s dictatorship, when it was banned, is hoping she’ll live to see the day when Catalonia is an independent nation.

“The politicians keep telling us to be patient,” she told AFP.

“But I’m in a hurry, I’m not 20 any more!”

Source: AFP

With only a couple of days to go before a Brexit deal on Britain’s scheduled date of departure (October 31) from the European Union (EU) becomes impossible, there is much confusion about the outcome.  

In the latest development, the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Leo Varadkar, has said there are “many issues” to resolve before an agreement can be reached.

The Irish leader’s latest Brexit statement comes amid feverish activity by all sides as the EU prepares to hold its all-important summit in Brussels tomorrow.

Amid this frantic activity, and associated confusion, the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, told a committee of MPs that the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, will “comply” with the terms of the Benn Act.

The Benn Act, which received its royal assent only last month, compels the PM to seek a three-month delay to Brexit if a deal on exiting the EU cannot be reached by October 19.  

“I can confirm, as the prime minister has repeatedly set out, that firstly the government will comply with the law … And secondly, the government will comply with undertakings given to the court in respect of the law”, Barclay told the House of Commons Brexit committee.

In another development, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, is set to meet EU diplomats later today in order to determine if he can recommend a UK withdrawal agreement ahead of tomorrow’s summit in Brussels.

Source: Presstv

France’s Emmanuel Macron will hold talks Wednesday with Germany’s Angela Merkel for the second time in a week to chart a united front on issues ranging from Brexit to Syria ahead of this week’s EU summit.

Macron goes into the two-day meeting in Brussels starting Thursday still smarting from the rejection of his pick for European commissioner, Sylvie Goulard.

The resounding “No” by European MEPs to Goulard, who has been caught up in an investigation into fake jobs for parliamentary assistants, was seen as a blow to Macron’s drive to boost France’s influence in Brussels.

On Wednesday, the French and German governments will hold a joint ministerial meeting in the southwestern French city of Toulouse to discuss how to move forward with some of the European projects that Macron has championed.

The ministerial council is the first since the two countries signed a treaty in January committing to wide-ranging cooperation on areas such as foreign policy, defence and energy.

In a video podcast, Merkel said she and Macron wanted to arrive in Brussels with “common positions in so far as possible.”

After a dinner with Merkel in Paris on Sunday, Macron warned that Europe could “not afford the luxury of petty quarrels” at what he called a “worrisome” time for the international order.

They will be joined later Wednesday in Toulouse for talks by incoming European Commission chief, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen.

– Battle tank –

Von der Leyen’s visit — also her second to France in under a week — is part of a diplomatic blitz by Macron, who also hosted EU Council president Donald Tusk for talks in Paris on Monday.

The ardently pro-EU Macron is expected to use Wednesday’s ministerial council in Toulouse — home of European planemaker Airbus which he and Merkel will visit — to press Germany on closer defence and industrial ties.

Merkel said the two governments would discuss Franco-German plans to develop a European battle tank and fighter jet.

French presidential sources said Paris and Berlin would also attempt to develop common rules on arms exports, a bone of contention between the two powers, with France failing to follow Germany’s lead last year in halting arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A French presidential advisor defended Franco-German cooperation, saying that while it was “often put to the test”, in the end it “always moves forward on the essential topics”.

Macron and Merkel are also expected to discuss the make-up of the incoming European Commission after the thumbs-down for Goulard, as well as the Hungarian and Romanian candidates.

But a French presidential aide said Tuesday that Macron would not announce a new candidate until he was assured of the support of the main groups in the European Parliament, who voted down Goulard.

– Brexit ‘momentum’ –

Turkey’s offensive in northern Syria and the tentative progress made in talks between the EU and Britain on a revised Brexit deal are also expected to loom large over Wednesday’s talks in Toulouse and the EU summit in Brussels.

EU leaders have condemned Turkey’s operation against the Kurdish fighters who toppled the Islamic State group’s so-called caliphate earlier this year, warning that the Sunni extremists could take advantage of the offensive to regroup.

Britain, France and Germany have halted arms sales to Ankara, but EU foreign ministers on Wednesday stopped short of imposing an EU-wide weapons embargo on fellow NATO member Turkey.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told parliament on Tuesday that the decision by the US to withdraw its troops from northern Syria, seen as a green flag for the Turkish invasion, had underscored the need for “European sovereignty” and “European strategic autonomy.”

On Brexit, by contrast, there was an air of cautious optimism in Paris on Tuesday, with a French presidential aide hailing the “positive momentum” in talks on the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU.

The remarks represented a marked departure in tone from Paris, which has said repeatedly in recent weeks that it considers a no-deal Brexit on October 31 the most likely scenario.

Source: AFP