Italy is facing a third month of political paralysis after talks between the center-left and the Five Star Movement over a coalition government failed to get off the ground Thursday.

President Sergio Mattarella’s office announced in a statement that a fresh round of consultations would be held at the presidential palace on Monday “to see if the parties have other ideas for a government majority”.

On Sunday, just days after acting Democratic Party leader Maurizio Martina had said he was willing to talk to Five Star head Luigi Di Maio, former premier Matteo Renzi closed the door on any coalition deal with the anti-establishment upstarts.

Renzi stepped down as prime minister after his Democratic Party slumped to third place in the March 4 vote, behind the right-wing coalition led by the nationalist League that won the most seats, and Five Star, which became Italy’s largest single party.

Renzi still wields huge influence among his party’s MPs and senators however, many of whom are hostile to Five Star after it ferociously criticised them when they governed Italy.

At a conference on Thursday the Democratic Party’s national leadership voted unanimously not to engage in government talks with the Five Star Movement.

“With Five Star, the chapter is closed,” declared Martina.

(Source: AFP)

The UK’s two main parties, the ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labour, are set to lock horns in this year’s local elections across England.

Polling stations across the country will open on Thursday between 7am and 10pm local time and voters will head to the ballots to choose candidates that will take more than 4,000 seats across 150 councils in England.

All the seats in capital London’s 32 boroughs and the metropolitan districts of Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Newcastle are also up for grab.

There are no polls in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

While Prime Minister Theresa May’s party is hoping to keep its grip over main positions, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is positive that his party is set to repeat another strong showing like the one they had in last year’s snap general election.

“The biggest elections are going to be in the main cities, particularly London, Birmingham, Newcastle – we’re going to be working very hard on them. In London particularly, they are going to focus on housing,” he said last December, before proceeding to criticize the Tory government’s treatment of local authorities.

“But it’s also emphasizing the way local authorities have been so underfunded by this government that they are all facing real difficulties … this is the product of seven years of austerity,” he argued. “I’m hoping we do very, very well, but I’m not putting a figure on it.”

May called the snap election thinking that it would easily hand her stronger support in parliament but ended up costing her party its decisive majority.

She further embarrassed the Tories and herself by appealing to Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to form a majority government.

A month before the snap election, however, the Conservatives won 1,900 seats in the local elections, up 558 from the year before, while Labour lost 320 to end up with 1,151.

Source: Presstv

French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that there is a growing temptation of authoritarianism both inside the European Union and around the world, urging the continental bloc to reinforce its democratic process. Macron said on Tuesday that the EU was facing a sort of “civil war” after Britain decided to pull out of the bloc in a referendum in June 2016.

The French leader, however, urged the EU states to double their efforts for the protection of the bloc against further division. “There seems to be a sort of European civil war. There is a fascination with the illiberal and it’s growing all the time,” Macron stated in his first speech to the European Parliament in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.

Macron became known as an ardent pro-Europeanist when he defeated far-right candidate Marine Le Pen to win the French presidential election last year.

The 40-year-old president is, however, faced with the rise of eurosceptic populists across Europe, including in Hungary, Poland and Italy. Outlining his vision for the future of the EU, Macron said in his Tuesday speech that the EU states had to do their utmost to protect the EU’s sovereignty.

“I don’t want to belong to a generation of sleepwalkers, I don’t want to belong to a generation that’s forgotten its own past,” he said, adding, “I want to belong to a generation that will defend European sovereignty because we fought to obtain it. And I will not give in to any kind of fixation on authoritarianism.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker welcomed Macron’s speech, saying it was a sign that “The True France” was returning to the bloc. Macron will travel to Berlin later this week to win support for his proposed reforms in the eurozone. Some German politicians have expressed doubts about Macron’s plans for earmarking a separate budget for the relocation of refugees, a thorny issue which has divided many countries in the bloc.

Macron said Tuesday in a separate proposal that the EU could create a fund to for communities that take in refugees. “I propose creating a European program that directly financially supports local communities that welcome and integrate refugees,” he said.

Source: Presstv

Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request by Catalonia’s pro-independence presidential candidate Jordi Sanchez to be let out of jail and sworn in as regional head.

The Catalan parliament had been scheduled to hold a debate and vote on Sanchez’s candidacy on Friday, but after the court’s ruling Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent announced on Twitter he had suspended the session indefinitely.

Sanchez was remanded in custody in October pending charges over his role in last year’s failed Catalan independence bid.

An attempt to appoint him as president failed last month after Spain’s Supreme Court turned down a request for his release from jail.

But Torrent put Sanchez’s name forward as a candidate again earlier this month after the United Nations Human Rights Committee defended his political rights.

In letters sent last month to Spanish authorities and Sanchez’s lawyers, the UN committee requested the state take all steps to ensure he is allowed to exercise his political rights.

Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena once again turned down Sanchez’s request, arguing there were signs that he could “move in the direction of a rupture of the constitutional order”.

The judge argues it was justified in limiting Sanchez’s political rights given the risk that his release would pose to the collective rights “of the rest of the community”.

Torrent had appealed earlier on Thursday for the judge to agree to let Sanchez, a former leader of influential grassroots independence group ANC who was elected to the Catalan parliament in snap polls in December, leave jail to be sworn in.

“The court has the opportunity to take note of international law and the protection of political rights or write another dark chapter in the history of the Supreme Court,” he said in an interview to news radio station Cadena Ser.

The court ruling comes as Barcelona is gearing up for a huge protest on Sunday to mark the six month anniversary of the jailing of Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, the leader of another separatist organisation.

(Source: AFP)

Pro-independence Catalans celebrated the decision by a German court to release on bail the former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont but also protested for the freedom of other jailed separatists in Spain.

The state court in Schleswig, Germany said the 55-year-old ex-president could leave a prison in northern Germany with a 75,000-euro ($92,000) payment. It wasn’t immediately clear when Puigdemont would be released.

In the town of Figueres, around 100 pro-independence protesters stood in silence for a half hour while wearing white masks with red crosses on their mouths. Demonstrators said the masks and crosses symbolize the oppression by the Spanish government.

The protest ended peacefully with a long round of applause.

(Source: AP)

A German court said on Monday it was likely to take several days to decide whether to extradite former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to Spain to face rebellion charges over the region’s campaign for independence.

Puigdemont appeared on Monday before a regional court in the northern German town of Neumuenster, which extended his detention pending a decision on extradition.

Another court, the Higher Regional Court in the town of Schleswig, will be responsible for deciding whether to grant Spain’s request. The court is unlikely to make a final decision on Puigdemont’s extradition before Easter, a spokeswoman for the state prosecutor said.

He had entered Germany from Denmark on Friday after leaving Finland, where he had attended a conference and was caught off-guard by the Spanish Supreme Court’s unexpected decision to reactivate his arrest warrant.

Puigdemont, who fled Spain five months ago for Belgium after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed his regional administration and imposed direct rule from Madrid, faces charges of rebellion that could lead to 25 years in prison.

(Source: Reuters)

Catalonia’s former President Carles Puigdemont has been detained by German police as he was crossing the border with Denmark by car.

The arrest on Sunday came just two days after Spain’s Supreme Court vowed to prosecute 13 key separatists, including Puigdemont and his nominated successor Jordi Turull, over their role in the region’s failed breakaway bid.

Puigdemont “was arrested today at 11:19 am by Schleswig-Holstein’s highway patrol force,” a German police spokesman said, adding that the detention was based on a European warrant.

“He is now in police custody”, added the spokesman.

Separately confirming his arrest in Germany, Puigdemont’s party spokeswoman Anna Grabalosa said, “It happened as he crossed the Danish-German border. He was treated well and all his lawyers are there. That is all I can say.”

Puigdemont was picked up by German police as he was traveling back to Belgium, his lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas said on Twitter.

He “was heading to Belgium to present himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian courts,” added Alonso-Cuevillas.

On Friday, Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena issued an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont, accusing Catalonia’s former president of organizing the vote on secession in October last year.

The independence referendum, called by Puigdemont despite objections from Madrid, triggered an unprecedented political standoff between Catalonia and Spain. Puigdemont used the yes vote as a base to make a declaration of independence on October 27, prompting Madrid to dismantle his government and the regional chamber, where he made the declaration.

Following the referendum vote, Puigdemont fled to Belgium to avoid prosecution on charges of sedition and rebellion. A number of his ministers, along with senior regional authorities, have been jailed or freed on bail over similar charges.

The new Catalan parliament was formed after snap elections in December in which pro-independence parties, like that of Puigdemont’s, retained their majority.

While separatist parties won Catalonia’s regional elections, they have been unable to form a government for the region as numerous leaders are in exile abroad or in jail.

Puigdemont to appear in court on Monday

Later on Sunday, Spanish court officials said Puigdemont would appear before a judge on Monday after he was detained by German police on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.

“The sole purpose of this appearance is to verify the identity of the person arrested. The regional tribunal of Schleswig-Holstein in the town of Schleswig will then have to decide if Mr. Puigdemont has to be taken into custody” in view of handing him over to Spain, the court was quoted by AFP as saying.

Source: Presstv

Former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi has announced his resignation as leader of the ruling center-left Democratic Party (PD) after suffering a crushing defeat in the country’s general election.

“I will obviously step down as leader of the Democratic Party,” Renzi told reporters at PD’s headquarters in Rome on Monday, after the party obtained just under 20 percent of the vote and delivered its worst result since its creation in 2007.

The center-left party came in the third place with 115-155 seats, trailing former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition Forza Italia (Go Italy) with 37 percent of support and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement with 31 percent.

Renzi also noted that his party would refrain from any coalition talks led by the anti-immigrant League Party and the Five Star.

“The Italian people have asked us to be in opposition and that is where we will go,” he said.” We will never form a government with anti-system forces.”

More than 30 million Italian people took to the polls on Sunday to cast their ballots in general election that would determine the makeup of the country’s parliament and its next government amid concerns over immigration and the economy.

Under a new law passed last year, each party needed at least 40 percent of the votes to command an overall majority of the seats in both chambers of parliament.

Exit polls showed that Italy was set for hung parliament as none of the three main parties had enough seats to govern alone.

According to reports, Italian President Sergio Mattarella is not expected to open formal coalition talks until early April.

Source: Presstv

Italians are taking to the polls to cast their ballots in general elections that would determine the makeup of the country’s parliament and its next government.

Polling stations opened at 07:00 local time (0600 GMT) and will close at 23:00 (2200 GMT) on Sunday, with more than 30 million people eligible to vote.

The voters will choose members of both chambers of the parliament, including 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies and the 315 members of the Senate.

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement, the ruling Democratic Party, and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition Forza Italia (Go Italy) are the main rivals in the Sunday general elections.

The 81-year-old ex-PM cannot hold public office due to a tax fraud conviction but has allied himself with the anti-immigrant League Party to be able to compete in the race.

Under a new law passed last year, roughly a third of the seats are to be selected by the direct “first-past-the-post” system, with the remainder to be selected by proportional outcomes divided among allied parties and coalitions.

Each party would need at least 40 percent of the votes to command an overall majority of the seats in both chambers of the parliament.

Opinion polls have indicated that Berlusconi’s coalition is in the lead but will not win an outright majority, and Five Star has been widely projected by pollsters to emerge as the single biggest party. The ruling center-left Democratic Party, led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi, is predicted to finish in third place.

The general elections are held amid concerns over immigration and the economy.

The International Organization for Migration (IMO) says more than 600,000 refugees and asylum seekers have made perilous journeys from Libya across the Mediterranean to reach Italy since 2013. The huge influx of refugees has worried many Italians and politicians, triggering violent clashes between far-right supporters and anti-fascist protesters.

Italy’s economy index is almost six percent lower than a decade ago, and some 18 million people are at risk of poverty, with unemployment standing at 11 percent.

Experts and analysts have expressed optimism that the Sunday general elections under the new system will pave the way for reforms to create an economy boost and a hike in the employment rate in the European country.

The official results of the elections are expected to be released in the early hours of Monday.

Source: Presstv

French prosecutors have filed charges against far-right leader Marine le Pen over a series of tweets showing gruesome executions by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

A judicial source said Thursday that Le Pen was being investigated over suspicions of disseminating violent images.

The embarrassing tweets were posted in December 2015 and contained three graphic images of Daesh beheading American journalist James Foley.

The investigation comes as Le Pen prepares to present her plans for a restructuring of her National Front party in its annual congress next week. Le Pen lost to Emmanuel Macron during last year’s presidential election despite huge anticipations for her victory.

The probe is not expected to cost Le Pen her popularity among National Front loyalists although it could further affect her approval rating among the public.

Le Pen, who had described the investigation in its earlier stages as a “political interference,” said Thursday the probe was a sign the political establishment was trying to silence her.

“If they are trying to silence me, they will not succeed,” she said.

Le Pen and her party face other investigations into their financial conduct. In one case, the National Front is accused of paying parliamentary assistants from the European Union funds. There is also a probe into how the party has financed the past election campaigns.

Under the French judicial law, if a person is placed under formal investigation, like the one Le Pen is involved in over Daesh tweets, the person could be sent to trial. If Le Pen is convicted of the charges, she could face a maximum sentence of several years in jail and a 75,000 euro fine.

Source: Presstv