Germany’s Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, has called for new election if the members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) say “No” to a new coalition with the conservative bloc.

The SPD’s 464,000 members are voting in a postal ballot on whether to approve a power-sharing deal with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany party (CDU) and the CSU. The CDU/CSU bloc and the SPD have been coalition partners since 2013.

The result of the vote will be announced on Sunday.

Merkel was forced into coalition talks with the SPD after negotiations with two lesser-known parties failed last November following inconclusive general elections in September.

“If the second attempt at a government now fails, then we should have new elections,” the leader of the CSU, Horst Seehofer, told journalists in Munich on Wednesday, stressing that he was against a minority government.

Top officials from the CDU, CSU and SPD are scheduled to meet on Thursday, before the SPD vote ends, to settle outstanding issues on the formation of a coalition government, according to party sources.

The SPD members have until Friday to submit their votes.

The coalition deal between Merkel and the SPD came earlier in February, after weeks of tough negotiations, which saw Merkel relinquish the key ministry of finance to the coalition partners while offering other concessions over issues of immigration, health and tax.

Source: Presstv

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says Edinburgh will refuse to agree to London’s planned Brexit deal with the European Union, arguing that the exit bill would undermine the whole foundation on which the UK devolution system was built.

Sturgeon made the announcement in an interview with BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, a day after the British government said it expected to reach an agreement with the devolved nations – Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales – on how power would be shared after the Britain’s separation from the 28-member bloc.

“We are simply trying to protect the powers that the Scottish Parliament already has – things like agriculture, fishing, environmental policy, food standards, justice and health. These are all currently responsibilities of the Scottish Parliament,” Sturgeon said.

“At the moment we have to exercise those powers within the confines of European law, but after Brexit, in terms of the devolution settlement, those powers should return to the Scottish Parliament and it should be up to us how we exercise them,” she added.

The Scottish first minister criticized the settlement and said London was trying to use the issue of Brexit in order to take control of devolved powers with the consent of the parliament in Edinburgh.

“Westminster effectively wants to be able to impose uniformity in these areas and that’s not acceptable in terms of the broad sweep and fundamentals of the devolution settlement,” Sturgeon said. “What the Withdrawal Bill seeks to do is restrict and constrain the ability of the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly to legislate in these devolved areas.”

Sturgeon noted that it is “very likely” the Scottish Parliament will not give consent to the exit bill unless the UK government changes its mind.

London needs a deal before the summer in order to pass the EU exit bill in the national parliament.

Sturgeon also warned on Tuesday that she retains “a mandate” to hold a second independence referendum if London tries to impose its will on Scotland.

In the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum, 52 percent, or 17.4 million people, voted to leave the EU while 48 percent, or 16 million, voted to stay.

The British government has faced fierce criticism both at home and by the EU for its lack of clarity on its Brexit strategy.

The uncertainty has raised fears that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a trade deal, incurring heavy costs on its domestic economy.

Last month, Sturgeon accused the British government of a “reckless and irresponsible approach” in the negotiations so far, arguing London had entered talks with unachievable aims.

London and Brussels are due to move on to the next stage of Brexit negotiations this year, after reaching agreement in December on exit terms.

Source: Presstv

German chancellor Angela Merkel has named a key opponent of her centrist ideas as a minister in her cabinet for a fourth term in office.

Merkel said she would appoint Jens Spahn as health minister in her new government if a coalition deal with center-left Social Democrats (SPD) is finalized.

The 37-year-old Spahn, a leading advocate of sharper conservative profile, is known for his fierce criticism of Merkel’s moderate centrist approach, especially the one Merkel applied in talks with the SPD to reach a coalition deal.

Merkel hopes a congress of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) would on Monday sign off on the deal with the SPD which should also pass the major hurdle of gaining the approval of the congress of SPD members on March 4 before it goes into action.

Senior figures from Merkel’s CDU hailed the chancellor’s decision to include people like Spahn in a future cabinet, saying it was a sign Merkel had a desire to tolerate critics in her fourth term in office.

“It’s a good sign because he is a dedicated politician who has shown for years that he is acting in the interests of this country … He will certainly be a good health minister,” said Michael Kretschmer, a member of the CDU’s right wing and leader of Germany’s state of Saxony.

In a bid to quell surging discontent in the right wing of the CDU ahead of the Monday congress, Merkel also appointed newcomers like 45-year-old Julia Kloeckner as agriculture minister; 46-year-old Anja Karliczek as education minister and 45-year-old Helge Braun as her new chief of staff.

However, Merkel stood firm with loyalists like Ursula von der Leyen, the mother of seven who would be reappointed as defense minister and also close ally Peter Altmaier who would serve as minister of economy.

Based on the coalition deal reached this month, Merkel and the CDU would have six positions to fill in the future cabinet as she should relinquish the influential portfolio of finance ministry to the SPD.

Source: Presstv

A new opinion poll shows that French President Emmanuel Macron’s approval rating has fallen to below 50 percent, its lowest level since October last year.

The results of the survey by Ifop, the French Institute of Public Opinion, published on Sunday revealed that only 44 percent of the respondents approved of Macron’s performance.

The results showed a 6-percentage-point decline compared to those of a previous poll in January and also marked the lowest approval rating for the French president since October last year, when it stood at 42 percent.

The Sunday poll was conducted from February 7 to 17.

The French government earlier this month announced plans to shake up the country’s costly civil service and modernize the public sector despite opposition. France already has one of the highest public spending ratios in the world.

French Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin said a voluntary redundancy plan for government employees could be a possible move.

Macron won the French presidency last year, and his party subsequently won a commanding majority in parliamentary elections. Macron’s pro-Europe, pro-business party controls 309 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly. It recently lost two by-elections.

Source: Presstv

The centrist party of French President Emmanuel Macron has lost two by-elections for parliamentary seats, its first losses since a landslide victory last year.

Two lower house seats were won by the conservative Republican Party on Sunday.

One of the conservatives was re-elected in the Belfort 1 constituency in the east of the country with 58.93 percent of the votes, against 41.07 percent for the candidate supported by Macron’s party, the Republic on the Move.

The second seat was lost by Macron’s candidate in the Val d’Oise area north of Paris.

Macron’s pro-Europe, pro-business party still controls 309 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.

Other parties, including the far-right National Front, had been eliminated in the first round of elections last Sunday.

The new leader of the conservative Republican Party, Laurent Wauquiez, who is also a hard-hitting critic of the president, described the results of the by-elections as “a blow which severely punishes the government’s policies.”

Wauquiez said that the impact of the government’s policies “on the ground is being judged harshly by our fellow citizens: tax rises for the middle class and pensioners and an unprecedented explosion in immigration and crime.”

He also accused Macron of being out of touch with rural France. Macron has formerly dismissed the accusations.

Macron won the presidency last year, and his party subsequently won a commanding majority in parliamentary elections.

Source: Presstv

UK Prime Minister Theresa May says European Union citizens arriving in Britain during its post-Brexit transition period should not be afforded the same rights as those who arrived earlier.

The embattled premier appears set for a clash with EU negotiators after telling reporters on a trip to China that “there is a difference between those who came prior to us leaving and those who will come when they know the UK is leaving.”

She added that the status of such EU citizens would be “a matter for negotiation” when Britain meets with EU officials again in March to set the terms of the transition period, which is expected to last around two years after Britain officially exits the bloc in March 2019.

Brussels on Monday warned London that “citizens’ rights during the transition are not negotiable.”

The European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt said that “for the transition to work” there could not be “two sets of rights for EU citizens.”

That would mean the continuation of free movement and citizens’ rights for EU nationals residing in the UK during the Brexit transition, an arrangement that would cause anger among pro-Brexit lawmakers and ministers within May’s Conservative Party.

Deputy Brexit Secretary Robin Walker on Thursday insisted that Britain would not accept such an agreement.

“The citizens’ rights agreement reached in December does give certainty about the rights of EU citizens already here going forward but this agreement does not cover those who are arriving after we leave the EU,” he told Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons.

The EU and UK negotiated an agreement in December that safeguards the rights of EU citizens who arrive in Britain before it leaves the bloc next year, giving reciprocal protections for British citizens living in the EU.

The agreement allows those who have lived continuously in Britain for five years to be able to apply for settled status, while others will be able to remain in order to build-up five years’ continuous residence.

The British government has faced fierce criticism both at home and by the EU for its lack of clarity on its Brexit strategy.

The uncertainty has raised fears that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a trade deal, incurring heavy costs on domestic economy.

Source: Presstv

Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) has voted in favor of coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc, paving the way for Europe’s top economy to work for the formation of a new government following months of political impasse.

The SPD, which had initially ruled out governing with Merkel in charge again, narrowly voted for coalition negotiations with her center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on Sunday.

Out of the SPD’s 642 delegates, 372 said ‘Yes’ to talks with the CDU during a special party congress in Bonn.

SPD leader Martin Schulz and the leader of Merkel’s Bavarian allies, Horst Seehofer, are scheduled to meet on Monday, but the full formal talks may start as early as Tuesday or Wednesday.

Schulz, possibly the next foreign minister, tweeted on Sunday that the vote for coalition talks handed him a “duty to fight for all those who had voted against. Let us now concretely improve the lives of people in the country.”

The CDU also expressed satisfaction with the vote, with Saxony Minister President Michael Kretschmer, a CDU member, saying the result “is an approval but it is also clearly showing the disunity of the SPD.”

The coalition talks will likely see Merkel return to power again after the chancellor’s CDU suffered heavy losses to the far-right in last September’s inconclusive election, making her unable to form a government with the Bavarian ally, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

The chancellor was further weakened by the collapse in November of three-way coalition talks with other parties.

She now wants the SPD to agree to a re-run of the “grand coalition” between the two biggest parties that has ruled the nation since 2013. The coalition talks, for now, saved Merkl from risking her position by calling for snap elections.

The chancellor, however, is still far from a done deal. Many Social Democrats still blame her for a poor election result in September and there are many inside the party are opposed to another four years of her chancellorship.

A possible SPD/CDU agreement will form a new German government, but failure in coalition talks would likely put the European Union’s most powerful economy on the path towards repeat elections, which would also put the political future of Merkel to question.

Source: Presstv

Germany’s Social Democratic (SPD) Party is scheduled to hold a meeting on Sunday to decide whether the center-left party should initiate formal coalition talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, a decision that may help pull the European country out of a protracted political limbo.

Some 600 delegates from the SPD and its 45-member board would gather for a make-or-break conference in the western German city of Bonn on Sunday to vote on whether to pursue a coalition deal with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

The meeting marks a crucial moment in the four-month effort to establish a new German government and will also be watched closely elsewhere in Europe, where Germany is the largest economy.

The Sunday vote aims to endorse the conditions of a preliminary deal that was struck between SPD leader Martin Schulz and Merkel’s conservative parties earlier this month, which calls for more concessions on labor, health, and migration policies.

The 28-page agreement demands the abolition of Germany’s dual public-private health insurance system in favor of a single citizen’s insurance, scaling back temporary employment contracts and allowing family reunions for asylum seekers suffering unusual hardship.

A negative vote by the SPD would prolong the political deadlock and leave Merkel with the option of either leading an unstable minority government or facing snap polls.

“Social Democrats in all of Europe are looking at this party conference,” Schulz said on Saturday.

In an interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, SPD parliamentary leader Andrea Nahles said she expected formal talks to happen, stressing, “I ask everyone in my party to take responsibility: Please consider the consequences if this government option fails.”

A leader of Merkel’s Bavarian CSU sister party also said that a “no” vote would be “a political catastrophe” for Germany.

“I can only appeal to everyone to get it together and help bring about a government,” Horst Seehofer said in a recent interview with Bildnewspaper.

Germany has been in political limbo since elections in September last year, which saw heavy losses for the centrist “grand coalition” that has been ruling the country for the past four years.

Merkel, seeking a fourth term in office, has been looking to form a coalition with the Social Democrats after her center-right bloc lost some support to the far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party in the elections and her attempts to form a three-way tie-up with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens failed.

The two mainstream German parties, the CDU and the SPD, fear that a lack of consensus among them could give the far-right nationalist parties more of a say in German politics as the September general elections clearly showed that they are on the rise.

In her annual New Year’s address, Chancellor Merkel said Germans had rarely been so split over the changes taking place in their society, stressing that she was committed to helping tackle the challenges of the future by working rapidly to build a stable government.

The results of a survey, which was conducted by the Forsa polling company last week, found that 61 percent of SPD voters were in favor of moving on to formal coalition talks. The same poll found that the center-left party would score just 18 percent if elections were held now, below the 20.5 percent garnered in September.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that there are still “big obstacles” in the way of forming a “grand coalition” between her conservatives and the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Merkel said Thursday in final hours of negotiations between the SPD and her alliance of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party — the Christian Social Union (CSU) — that the two top parties had yet to surmount major differences before they could declare there were common grounds to form another coalition government.

She said her alliance would “work constructively to find the necessary compromises but we are also aware that we need to execute the right policies for our country.”

SPD leader Martin Schulz also talked about “big obstacles” that remained in the way of a final deal between the two parties, although he was upbeat that such an agreement could finally come through.

Schulz said his party and the Merkel-led alliance had “broad agreement on the fundamentals of European policy,” adding that the SPD wanted to gain assurances from Merkel that a new coalition government would be committed to work for the progress of the European Union.

EU policies are among main bones of contention between Merkel and SPD leaders while the two sides also disagree on immigration, social welfare, tax and other issues.

There is also a possibility that SPD’s mid-rank members could manage to block the initiation of coalition talks with the conservatives, a scenario which would leave Merkel with her last option to form a minority government.

Merkel’s failure in reaching a coalition deal with the Greens and the Liberals following the September elections prompted the German president to call on the SPD to revise its previous decision to go into the opposition. However, opinion polls suggest Merkel’s chance of surviving a full fourth term in office is grim as the veteran leader’s approval rating is falling, mainly due to her controversial asylum policies, which many say have helped the rise of the far-right in Germany and fueled the current political limbo.

Source:Presstv

British Prime Minister Theresa May will conduct a Cabinet reshuffle on Monday amid reports that senior ministers are set to be axed.

The reshuffle aims to make May’s government more diverse and youthful in addition to bringing in more women.

She has been forced to make changes following two resignations and one sacking.

Sir Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, resigned in November 2017 amid allegations around his conduct.

One week later, international development secretary Priti Patel quit after a row over unauthorised meetings with Israeli officials.

And in December, first secretary of state Damian Green was sacked over his “misleading statements” about the discovery of pornographic images on his Commons computer during a police raid.

According to sources, except for the Cabinet big beasts, Education Secretary Justine Greening, Business Secretary Greg Clark and Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom are likely to be sacked or demoted.

Chancellor Philip Hammond, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Brexit Secretary David Davis and Home Secretary Amber Rudd will stay in place, according to reports.

“Some people have gone as far as they can. It’s a case of the glass ceiling,” a source told The Sun.

A minister added, “Some ministers have been around for years and not going anywhere.

“This reshuffle will show how emboldened she is now. She is unlikely to touch the big beasts but the question is how far will she go below that.”

The changes will also enable May to promote Tory MPs who were elected in 2015.

Source: Presstv