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

The National Communication Council has imposed sanctions on certain journalists and media houses, Cameroon Concord News has learned.  The TV Channel Vision 4 and its promoter are among those targeted by the Biya regime.

Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga, head of the television was suspended for 2 months while Ernest Obama, Vision 4 star journalist and Sidoine Monkam received a two months suspension order respectively. Their colleague Parfait Ayissi was given a one month ban. To justify the decision, the so-called National Communication Council stated that the media organization breached Cameroon ethics.

We understand Vision 4 news desk has already denounced the decision taken by the NCC. Peter Essoka and his gang noted that the rising television channel is supporting the Southern Cameroons revolution.

The publisher of “Le Tribune de l’Est” was banned indefinitely from practicing the profession in Cameroon while Harrys Mintsa, of “Le Devoir” was suspended for a period of 6 months.

By Sama Ernest

UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn says he is likely to replace Theresa May as the country’s new prime minister sometime in the next 12 months.

In an interview with Grazia magazine published Monday, Corbyn said he expected another general election in 2018, projecting himself as the favorite.

“I will probably win. I’m ready to be prime minister tomorrow,” he asserted. The next general election will be held in 2022.

Latest YouGov popularity poll puts Corbyn slightly behind May 37 percent to 28 percent. However, the Labour leader proved earlier this year that he is well capable of turning the page on his Conservative rival.

When earlier this year May called for a snap general election in June, she was certain that Corbyn stood no chance against her as the two were split by double-digit numbers in almost all polls.

That did not hold the Labour leader back as his party made a huge comeback and won enough number of parliamentary seats to strip the Tories from their majority and forced May to strike an embarrassing deal with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party to form her new government.

From there, it has all been downhill for May, who is facing a Tory rebellion over Brexit in the parliament. Her cabinet also seems divided over the issue.

Corbyn, who campaigned against Britain’s divorce from the European Union (EU) in last year’s referendum, said the vote that saw 52 percent of Britons favor Brexit “was the largest participation of people in an electoral process ever in Britain” and the outcome had to be respected.

Having held his own meetings with EU officials about Brexit, Corbyn said May’s government needed to secure a transition deal for the process to prevent a “mess” by the March 2019 deadline.

“I think we should continue putting pressure on the Government to allow a transition period to develop, because at the moment we’re in danger of getting into a complete mess in March 2019.”

Source: Presstv

Opposition lawmakers in Albania have thrown smoke bombs inside parliament to disrupt a session for the appointment of an interim prosecutor general, which they said was unconstitutional.

Albanian opposition MPs on Monday threw smoke grenades into the parliament chamber to protest the election of Arta Marku with 69 votes out of 76 by the ruling Socialist Party.

The move to stop the election, however, was in vain as Marku was eventually sworn in as temporary prosecutor general.

Opposition legislators claimed that parliament was not entitled to elect an interim prosecutor general and should wait for the creation of a permanent commission to do that.

They also argued that a prosecutor should be installed once some 800 judges and prosecutors are vetted and elected with three-fifths of votes in parliament.

Rightwing opposition leader Lulzim Basha censured socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama before the Monday parliament session for appointing a “puppet” to follow his commands.

Basha said Marku’s appointment “is a constitutional violation and can lead to the destabilization of the country.”

During his speech in parliament, Basha also warned the Albanian prime minister against a constitutional “putsch” in an effort to protect corrupt officials, including his former interior minister.

“You have decided to violate the Constitution to protect your wealth. This is the last moment that I ask you in the name of the Constitution to withdraw. This is the command of the people. Obey it or face the consequences,” the opposition leader said.

While the 41-year-old prosecutor general was taking oath of office in front of the Albanian lawmakers, several thousand activists and supporters of opposition parties Democratic Party (DP) and Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI) were protesting outside the cordoned-off parliament building.

Albanian police clashed with opposition supporters trying to force their way into the building, with local media reporting that a number of people had been injured.

Marku is due to fill the vacant position of prosecutor general for the next two or three months until a new prosecution high council has been created.

Marku’s appointment is supported by the European Union and the US, as the move paves the way for judicial reforms needed for the country’s bid to launch EU membership negotiations.

Albania was granted EU candidate status in 2014 and hopes to launch negotiations next year.

Source: Presstv

More than half of the British people now want to stay in the European Union, according to a new poll that shows “Remainers” outnumbering “Leavers” by ten percentage points.

While 51 percent of Britons prefer to keep European Union membership, 41 percent want to leave the bloc, according to the BMG Research poll of 1,400 people conducted for The Independent.

According to The Independent, the lead for “Remain” over “Leave” was the biggest in any poll so far since the Brexit referendum in June 2016.

However, BMG Research head of polling cited a shift in opinion among those who chose not to vote last year as the reason for the change.

“The last time Leave polled ahead of Remain was in February 2017, and since then there has been a slow shift in top-line public opinion in favor of remaining in the EU,” said Michael Turner.

“However, readers should note that digging deeper into the data reveals that this shift has come predominantly from those who did not actually vote in the 2016 referendum, with around nine in ten Leave and Remain voters still unchanged in their view,” Turner added.

This comes as EU President Donald Tusk said EU leaders approved the opening of the next stage of Brexit talks Friday after reaching a deal on divorce terms with Britain.

At a meeting in Brussels, members of the bloc said there has been enough progress on key issues. The next phase will involve discussions over future relations and trade ties between the UK and the EU.

Negotiations on the transition period will resume in January.

But talks on trade will not begin until March as EU members need more clarity on the UK’s post-Brexit plans.

British Prime Minister Theresa May signed the divorce deal with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on December 8 after months of negotiations. The deal covers Britain’s exit bill, the future of the Irish border and the rights of EU expatriates in the UK.

Source: Presstv