European Politics > Ministers leaving Sunak's Government like rats abandoning a sinking ship

 

Exit of two more Tory ministers forces Sunak

into mini-reshuffle

by Pippa Crerar, Guardian, March 26, 2024:

Two Tory ministers have quit the government in a double blow to Rishi Sunak, who has been forced to carry out a mini-reshuffle of the junior ranks.

The veteran MP Robert Halfon unexpectedly announced he would step down as education minister and would be leaving the Commons at the next general election.

The armed forces minister, James Heappey, who had already said that he planned to go, confirmed he had left his role at the Ministry of Defence in advance of standing down.

The pair join a growing exodus of Conservative MPs from the Commons as the party languishes in the polls, with Keir Starmer’s Labour party expected to enter government after the election this autumn.

Halfon becomes the 63rd Tory MP to say they will not stand in the next election, with Theresa May and the former cabinet minister Brandon Lewis confirming their departures in recent weeks. Four former Conservatives who now sit as independents are also leaving, meaning that just over a fifth of the Tory MPs elected in 2019 are quitting.

Ministers who declare they will stand down at the election do not have to leave government immediately, but prime ministers generally want a team that is gearing up to fight the election rather than counting the days until they go…..

Politics - New Zealand > Jacinda's Far-left Party slaughtered in election

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The personable Jacinda Ardern left the post of PM of New Zealand in January and her party has been on a steep downhill slide ever since as another left-wing government collapses.

New Zealand elects conservative government in decisive win

By Nick Perry  The Associated Press

Posted October 14, 2023 6:50 am

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Thursday that she will not seek re-election and plans to step down “no later than the 7th of February. This summer, I had hoped to find a way to prepare for not just another year, but another term – because that is what this requires,” a visibly emotional Ardern said during a televised statement. “I have not been able to do that.” – Jan 18, 2023

Conservative former businessman Christopher Luxon will be New Zealand’s next prime minister after winning a decisive election victory Saturday.

People voted for change after six years of a liberal government led for most of that time by Jacinda Ardern.

The exact makeup of Luxon’s government is still to be determined as ballots continued to be counted.

Luxon arrived to rapturous applause at an event in Auckland. He was joined on stage by his wife, Amanda, and their children, William and Olivia. He said he was humbled by the victory and couldn’t wait to get stuck in to his new job. He thanked people from across the country.

“You have reached for hope and you have voted for change,” he said.

Supporters chanted his campaign slogan which promised to get the country “back on track.”

Outgoing Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who spent just nine months in the top job after taking over from Ardern in January, told supporters late Saturday he had called Luxon to concede.

Hipkins said it wasn’t the result he wanted.

“But I want you to be proud of what we achieved over the last six years,” he told supporters at an event in Wellington.

Ardern unexpectedly stepped down as prime minister in January, saying she no longer had “enough in the tank” to do the job justice. She won the last election in a landslide, but her popularity waned as people got tired of COVID-19 restrictions and inflation threatened the economy.

Her departure left Hipkins, 45, to take over as leader. He had previously served as education minister and led the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

With most of the vote counted, Luxon’s National Party had about 40 per cent of the vote. Under New Zealand’s proportional voting system, Luxon, 53, is expected to form an alliance with the libertarian ACT Party.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party that Hipkins leads was getting only a little over 25 per cent of the vote — about half the proportion it got in the last election under Ardern.

And in a result that would be particularly stinging for Labour should it lose the seat, National was in a tight race for Ardern’s old electorate seat, Mount Albert. The seat has long been a Labour stronghold and was also held by another former Labour prime minister, Helen Clark.

The National Party candidate for the seat, Melissa Lee, told The Associated Press she was feeling excited but also nervous about the final result in Mount Albert.

“It’s been Labour since 1946. It has been the biggest, safest Labour seat forever,” she said. “It would be fantastic if we won it.”

Lee said that when she was door-knocking, people had told her they were tired of the current government and were concerned with the state of the economy and the spiraling cost of living.

David Farrar, a longtime conservative pollster, said there was still a good chance that Labour would end up holding the seat once all the votes were counted. However, he said, his initial impression of voting throughout the country was that it was turning out to be a “bloodbath” for the left.

Luxon has promised tax cuts for middle-income earners and a crackdown on crime. Hipkins had promised free dental care for people younger than 30 and the removal of sales taxes on fruit and vegetables.

Also at stake in the election is the government’s relationship with Indigenous Maori. Luxon has promised to axe the Maori Health Authority, which he says creates two separate health systems. Hipkins says he’s proud of such co-governance efforts and has accused Luxon of condoning racism.

Within days of taking the reins in January, Hipkins found himself dealing with a crisis after deadly floods and then a cyclone hit New Zealand. He quickly jettisoned some of Ardern’s more contentious policies and promised a “back to basics” approach focused on tackling the spiraling cost of living.

Warm spring weather in the largest city, Auckland, seemed to encourage voters, with queues forming outside some polling places. Early voting before Election Day was lower than in recent elections.

During a six-week election campaign, both Hipkins and Luxon traveled the country and hammed it up for the cameras.

Earlier in the week, Luxon, who served as chief executive of both Unilever Canada and Air New Zealand, told an energized crowd in Wellington that he would crack down on gangs.

“I’ve gotta tell you, crime is out of control in this country,” Luxon said. “And we are going to restore law and order, and we are going to restore personal responsibility.”

Luxon also got cheers when he promised to fix the capital’s gridlocked traffic with a new tunnel project.

Luxon is relatively new to politics but held his own against the more experienced Hipkins during televised debates, according to political observers. But Luxon also made some gaffes, such as when he was asked in a 1News debate how much he spent each week on food.

His answer of “about sixty bucks” (U.S. $36) was ridiculed on social media as showing he was out of touch with the cost of living.

European Politics > Spain's Sanchez trounced in regional elections - calls a federal election

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Spain PM calls snap election after local poll drubbing

Daniel SILVA

Mon, May 29, 2023, 11:14 AM PDT·4 min read

Yahoo News

Pedro Sanchez has had a rollercoaster political career characterised by his propensity to take risks

In a surprise move, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called Monday for a snap election on July 23, a day after his Socialist party suffered a drubbing in local and regional polls.

Widely seen as a dress rehearsal for a general election that had been expected at the end of the year, Sunday's polls saw the main opposition group, the Popular Party (PP), chalk up the largest number of votes.

The right-wing PP also scored significant gains at a regional level, seizing six regions that had been led by Socialists, including Valencia in the east and the Balearic Islands, which includes the holiday island of Ibiza.

But as pundits were mulling over the Socialists' drubbing in the polls, Sanchez stunned the political establishment by saying he had informed King Felipe VI of his decision to dissolve parliament and call a general election on July 23.

"I take responsibility for the results and I think it's necessary to respond and submit our democratic mandate to the will of the people," he said.

Sunday's results "require a clarification from Spaniards about.. which political forces should lead this phase," he said.

Opposition leader Alberto Nunez-Feijoo, still jubilant from Sunday's success, welcomed the snap election announcement saying: "the sooner the better".

Spain, he said, "has begun a path of change that is already unstoppable".

- 'Support for Vox will grow' -

Oriol Bartomeus, a politics professor at Barcelona's Autonomous University, said Sanchez was "facing a dismal defeat and now he's changed the playing field".

"The alternative was six months of governmental bloodletting and he has decided to gamble it all," he told AFP.

But in Madrid, many were doubtful about his snap election call.

"I don't think it was a good decision, he lost this time around and if he brings it forward, it won't change people's opinion much," 30-year-old Carla Gimenez told AFPTV.

"For me, the fear is a PP-Vox government," said Iris Hernandez, a 65-year-old jeweller, referring to the party's need to rely on the far-right Vox, Spain's third largest political force.

Although the PP seized power from the Socialists in six regions, it will only be able to govern there with support from Vox -- posing a major headache for Nunez-Feijoo.

But 76-year-old Juan Jose Garcia Gonzalez, who voted for Vox, said Sunday's results merely reflected "what a lot of us have been saying in the streets".

"I think support for Vox will grow" ahead of the election, he said.

- Feijoo's dilemma -

In office since 2018, Sanchez has struggled with public fatigue with his left-wing government as well as voter disenchantment over soaring inflation and falling purchasing power in the eurozone's fourth-largest economy.

He has also been hurt by the repeated crises with hard-left coalition partner Podemos, which also saw its support collapse in Sunday's vote.

Sanchez's reliance on the support of Catalan and Basque separatist parties to pass legislation has also harmed his standing.

The PP secured more than seven million votes (31.52 percent) in the municipal elections, compared with nearly 6.3 million for the Socialists (28.11 percent).

The other big winner was Vox, which is hoping to become an indispensable partner for the PP -- both at a regional level and, ultimately, nationally.

Since taking over as PP leader last year, Nunez-Feijoo has sought to moderate the party's line while keeping Vox at a distance. He will now have to enter negotiations with Vox on its role in regional and local governments.

"The Socialists will probably try to use these upcoming talks to mobilise left-wing voters against a potential PP-Vox government on the national level," said Antonio Barroso of the Teneo political consultancy.

It was not immediately clear how such negotiations would "affect the tendency to vote for the PP", he said.

Despite Sanchez's high-stakes gamble, "the odds of a right-wing government taking over in July are high, a 70 percent probability," said Eurasia Group analyst Federico Santi.

European Politics > Italy follows Sweden in hard lurch to right; Small Numbers make big difference in Sweden

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POLL SWING Italy set for ‘most far-right leader since Mussolini’

as outsider Giorgia Meloni tops exit polls in shock election win

Aliki Kraterou, The Sun

22:49, 25 Sep 2022

ITALY is set to have its first far-right leader since Benito Mussolini as outsider Giorgia Meloni has led exit polls in a shocking twist.

The Brothers of Italy, led by Meloni, 45, looks set to take office in a coalition with the far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.

The Brothers of Italy is set to take office in a coalition with Berlusconi's Forza Italia and The League's Matteo Salvini

An exit poll for state broadcaster RAI said the bloc of conservative parties, which also includes Matteo Salvini's League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, won between 41 and 45 per cent enough to guarantee control of both houses of parliament.

Italy's electoral law favours groups that manage to create pre-ballot pacts, giving them an outsized number of seats by comparison with their vote tally. Full results are expected by early Monday.

Meloni who campaigned on a motto of "God, country and family", hopes to become Italy's first female prime minister.

She tweeted: "Today you can participate in writing history."

A few hours earlier she shared a clip on Tiktok holding a pair of melons- a wordplay on her last name- which she captioned "I said it all."

Figures show turnout was lower than in the 2018 elections.

Many voters are expected to pick Meloni, "the novelty, the only leader the Italians have not yet tried", Wolfango Piccoli of the Teneo consultancy said.

Brussels and the markets are watching closely, amid concern that Italy - a founding member of the European Union - may be the latest country to veer hard right, less than two weeks after the far-right outperformed in elections in Sweden.

If she wins, Meloni will take over as her country battles rampant inflation and a winter energy crisis linked to the conflict in Ukraine.

The Italian economy, the third largest in the eurozone, rebounded after the pandemic but is saddled with a debt worth 150 per cent of gross domestic product.

Brothers of Italy, which has roots in the post-fascist movement founded by supporters of dictator Mussolini, pocketed just four per cent of the vote in 2018 and has never been in power.

Meloni, whose own experience of government is limited to a ministerial post in the 2008 Berlusconi government, has dedicated her campaign to try to prove she is up to the challenge.

She has moderated her views over the years, notably abandoning her calls for Italy to leave the EU's single currency.

However, she insists her country must stand up for its national interests, backing Hungary in its rule of law battles with Brussels.

Her coalition wants to renegotiate the EU's post-pandemic recovery fund, arguing that the almost 200 billion euros Italy is set to receive should take into account the energy crisis aggravated by the Ukraine war.

But "Italy cannot afford to be deprived of these sums", political sociologist Marc Lazar said, which means Meloni actually has "very limited room for manoeuvre".

The funds are tied to a series of reforms only just begun by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who called snap elections in July after his national unity coalition collapsed.

Meloni hopes to become the country's first female prime minister. Credit: Rex

Despite her Euroscepticism, Meloni strongly supports the EU's sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, although her allies are another matter.

Berlusconi, the billionaire former premier who has long been friends with Vladimir Putin, faced an outcry this week after suggesting the Russian president was "pushed" into war by his entourage.

A straight-speaking Roman raised by a single mother in a working-class neighbourhood, Meloni rails against what she calls "LGBT lobbies", "woke ideology" and "the violence of Islam".

She has vowed to stop the tens of thousands of migrants who arrive on Italy's shores each year, a position she shares with Salvini, who is currently on trial for blocking charity rescue ships when he was interior minister in 2019.

Salvini's judge will have a hard time convicting him with this government.

The centre-left Democratic Party says Meloni is a danger to democracy.

It also claims her government would pose a serious risk to hard-won rights such as abortion and will ignore global warming, despite Italy being on the front line of the climate emergency.

On the economy, Meloni's coalition pledges to cut taxes while increasing social spending, regardless of the cost.

The last opinion polls two weeks before election day suggested one in four voters backed Meloni, but around 20 per cent of voters were undecided.

In particular, support appears to be growing for the populist Five Star Movement in the poor south.

The next government is unlikely to take office before the second half of October.

Sweden: less special than it was

'Special' is not the description I would have chosen

HÅKAN BENGTSSON 

23rd September 2022

Social Europe

The recent elections showed the political centre of gravity in Sweden has shifted to the conservative pole.

Safe pair of hands: the Social Democrats’ leader, Magdalena Andersson (Liv Oeian / shutterstock.com)

Sweden is often referred to as ‘the land of the compromise’. In the 1930s the country chose a middle way between Communism and capitalism. The social-democratic ‘people’s home’ secured democracy and launched what was by international standards an ambitious and successful welfare state. This laid the foundation for prolonged social-democratic dominance in Swedish politics.

The image of Sweden throughout the world was thus established. But how accurate is it today—particularly in light of the recent election results, which have entailed the Social Democrats and their leader, Magdalena Andersson, relinquishing power to the Moderates and Ulf Kristersson, who leads a new right-wing constellation?

Moreover, in recent decades Sweden has swung from left to right and back again. It is no longer the country of moderation. After 1968, the left set the political agenda. The Social Democrats held power without interruption from 1932 to 1976, with around 45 per cent electoral support. Then came a switch to neoliberalism in the 1990s. Since then, the public sector has undergone significant ‘marketisation’. Healthcare and education have been to a substantial degree outsourced to private enterprise.

Today Sweden is the only country in the world which has embraced the proposal by the conservative economist Milton Friedman for vouchers in schools and has a large number of schools run by privately-owned companies, many quoted on the stock exchange. The gap between rich and poor has widened. Sweden adopted a very liberal refugee and immigration policy in 2011 but switched to a more restrictive stance after the influx of refugees in 2015.

More extreme

Sweden was also for a long time almost unique as a country which had no right-wing-populist party represented in parliament. But, after this year’s election, the Sweden Democrats, whose origins are more extreme than counterparts in many other European countries—in particular, other Scandinavian countries—comprise the second largest party. It has contested nine elections and increased its share of the vote each time.

The entry of the party into parliament in 2010 marked a change in the balance of power in Swedish politics. Since the 1930s the Social Democrats or the socialist bloc were most often victorious in the battle between left and right. Over time the social democrats and later the red-green bloc had a structural advantage. But since the Sweden Democrats made their entrance Sweden has had a predominantly right-wing majority in parliament, in the form of liberal and conservative parties and a strong right-wing-populist party.

Before this year’s election the political landscape was restructured. Some political scientists cast this more widely in Europe as the emergence of a new, identity-based political cleavage on top of the conventional, class-based cleavage between left and right. In Sweden, this so-called ‘green-alternative-left’ versus ‘traditional-authoritarian-nationalist’ (GAL-TAN) cleavage has changed the blocs on both sides of the classical left-right axis.

On the right, three right-of-centre parties (one of them the Liberals) fought the election undertaking to form a government with the support of, and based on negotiations with, the Sweden Democrats. Just four years ago all parties refused to countenance co-operation with the right-wing populists. On the other side, the red-green parties gathered with the Centre Party, which in recent times has become virtually neoliberal—but joined the left side because the party refused to admit the Sweden Democrats into the corridors of power.

Centre of gravity shifting

Although the right won by the smallest of margins, the political centre of gravity has shifted towards the conservative pole in Swedish politics. Through its welfare state Sweden formed a sort of ‘state individualism’, whereby the state liberated the individual from economic dependence on the family and civil society. In Scandinavia, and particularly in Sweden, cultural radicalism was strongly entrenched. Perhaps we are now witnessing a shift towards conservatism and a reaction against both cultural radicalism and ‘state individualism’. But it is also a rejection of globalisation in general and migration in particular, as has occurred in many countries.

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Neither did the issues which dominated the electoral debate favour the left. These were organised crime (a large number of murders coincided with the campaign) and the demand for more severe punishment, immigration and integration, and the soaring petrol and energy prices (for which the opposition tried to hold the government and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, responsible).

The Social Democrats had three overall priorities: first, to regain control over welfare and to forbid the taking of profit in private schools; secondly, to prioritise the environment; and, finally, to ‘fight the gangs’. The public focus was however on organised crime, and on electricity and petrol prices, which in the course of the year had become one of the voters’ priorities. In short, the Social Democrats failed to foreground the classical issues of social justice in the electoral debate. Neither was the Green Party able to focus attention on the environment.

In other words, the political climate in 2022 favoured a conservative agenda. And from Sweden having been a country which welcomed immigration, immigration has, in the public perception, become a problem. The right-wing parties fought the election on a policy of further tightening restrictions.

Increase remarkable

It is thus remarkable that the Social Democrats increased their support by two percentage points, thereby breaking a downward trend and finishing up with over 30 per cent. The Green Party also increased its share. This though both parties had been in power for two terms and had had difficulties pushing their policies through, due to the right-wing-oriented majority in the parliament.

Why, then, was there a change of government? The Left and the Centre Party both lost votes and as a result the numbers did not add up for another administration led by the Social Democrats. All three of the traditional right-wing parties saw their support decline, while the Sweden Democrats increased their share by three percentage points—which to all intents and purposes determined the outcome of the election.

Although the Social Democrats succeeded in reversing the negative trend, they are still a long way from their historical high. The party is still the largest among trade union members but if workers who are not union members are included the picture is far less rosy. It lost voters in suburbs of big cities with high concentrations of immigrants, where the Social Democrats had previously been particularly strong. But it generally increased support in the large cities themselves and, for example, regained control of Stockholm.

Reliable and stable

How has all this come about? The new party leader, Magdalena Andersson, was considered a reliable and stable politician (compare the German social-democratic leader, Olaf Scholtz) with a high degree of credibility among voters. The change of party leader in 2021 gave the Social Democrats new political energy. The fact that large towns are becoming more progressive is a well-known political phenomenon in a number of countries. In Sweden many voters in large cities voted social-democrat in 2022 to prevent the Sweden Democrats from gaining political influence. The considerable criticism of privatisation in the public sector, even among middle-class voters, may also have played a part.

In rural areas the Sweden Democrats increased their support substantially. It was here that the Centre Party (historically the party of the farmers and the countryside) lost voters. The Social Democrats have also seen a decline in support in many smaller industrial towns, in the Swedish ‘rust belt’. In the countryside concern about the increase in petrol and energy prices most probably played a major part in the election result.

The leader of the Moderates, Kristersson, has been tasked with forming a government, but with a majority of only three seats over the red-green block. The Moderates have now lost their role as the second-largest party in the parliament (held since 1979) to the Sweden Democrats. Negotiations within the government are likely to be complicated, while the tensions between the Liberals and the Sweden Democrats are expected to be considerable—on values as well as policies. The Sweden Democrats have however a strong bargaining position as the biggest party in the new right-wing coalition.

Necessary reflection

What lies ahead for the Social Democrats is a necessary reflection and a parliamentary term in opposition. Was the election of 2022 the beginning of a social-democratic revival, despite the party losing its governmental role? We have witnessed modest social-democratic successes, but successes nonetheless, in several European countries in recent years.

The increase of two percentage points in support for the Social Democrats in Sweden is undeniably a tilt forward. In the next election we shall find out if it is an enduring success or an aberration. Further gains will require alliances within the electorate and with other parties—and a political platform capable of building bridges between town and country, the working class and the middle class, young and old. That is essential for a progressive mandate for a red-green political programme.

Håkan Bengtsson

Canadian Election - Liberal Election Machine Coming Apart in First Two Weeks of Campaign

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Justin Trudeau called a Federal Election within minutes of hearing about the fall of Kabul. It was a stupid and arrogant decision, and it appears to have cost him a great deal. Canada's poor performance in rescuing Canadians and Afghan interpreters has thrown him off-message for the first two weeks and it shows in the numbers. He took a significant lead into the campaign and now is trailing the Conservatives. 

To make matters worse, it appears he is still falling and there is a chance he could end up in 3rd place. That would likely be the end of his political career. We can always hope!

To make matters even worse, the 4th wave of Covid is resulting in lockdowns and issues rising regarding school openings and precautions like vaxports, masks, human rights, etc. Furthermore, just yesterday, angry crowds gathered at a Liberal event featuring Trudeau, that had to be cancelled for fear of violence - a first for Canadian politics. 

Canadian PM Trudeau’s campaign rally axed over ‘safety reasons’

after irate protesters descend on event

28 Aug, 2021 06:06

Protestors react after an event was cancelled during Canada's Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's campaign

in Bolton, Ontario, Canada August 27, 2021. © REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

There is a surprising number of women in this photo

A campaign rally for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was abruptly called off after a rowdy group of demonstrators crashed the event, with the PM’s Liberal Party saying it canceled the appearance for “safety reasons.”

A sizable crowd of protesters attended an outdoor event for the prime minister on Friday, held in a hotel parking lot in Bolton, Ontario, 31 miles (50km) from Toronto. After a two-hour wait, however, Trudeau still hadn’t addressed supporters, and a campaign volunteer informed attendees that the event would no longer take place.

A party spokesperson later said the rally was axed for “safety reasons,” though didn’t elaborate.

Of course, he will not allow cameras to catch him in front of an angry mob.

Footage of the raucous demonstrators has circulated online, with some heard shouting expletives about the PM, while at least one protester was seen hoisting a flag emblazoned with the words “F**k Trudeau.” Many voiced outrage over Canada’s Covid-19 restrictions and potential vaccine requirements. 

According to one journalist present for the rally, some showed up to protest for their “vaping rights,” though she did not elaborate.

Trudeau later relocated the event to nearby Brampton, where he explained that his party “could not guarantee the safety of those in attendance” at the site in Bolton. He called for his detractors to be treated with “compassion,” saying the last year had been difficult for all Canadians, but that a political event is no place for such anger. 

Maybe he should have considered that before calling the election.

“This is not who we are,” he told supporters.  

Friday was not the first time Trudeau has been confronted with protesters, many of them angry at his push for vaccine passports, since he hit the campaign trail. The Canadian PM has fired back at demonstrators, shouting “please get vaccinated” on several occasions, prompting some observers to suggest that he himself was to blame for “inflaming tensions” with those opposing mandatory vaccination.

Trudeau, however, signaled that he did not plan to tone down his rhetoric, doubling down on the need for travelers and federal workers to be vaccinated shortly after he was forced to scrap the rally.

“Vaccines are the best way to finish the fight against COVID-19. That’s why we will make vaccines mandatory for anyone boarding a plane or train, or any federally-regulated worker. This is how we will keep everyone, including our kids, safe and healthy,” he tweeted.

The election is scheduled for Sept 20th, 2021, unless Trudeau goes back to the Governor General and asks for a do-over.

Can a Political Move to the Right in Guatemala Slow Migration to the USA

Guatemala elects conservative Alejandro Giammattei president

By Darryl Coote

Alejandro Giammattei (C) of the Vamos party and the party's candidate for vice president Guillemo Castillo (2-R)

celebrate victory during the preliminary election results at a press conference in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on Sunday.

Photo by Esteban Biba/EPA-EFE

(UPI) -- Guatemalans elected conservative Alejandro Giammattei as their next president, according to the South American country's Electoral Tribunal.

"Thanks, Guatemala!" Giammattei said in proclaiming his election victory on Twitter. "The confidence they placed in me will be the engine to continue our journey through a different Guatemala. Today, I become the top public servant of the nation and together, with the whole country, we will work to make the government that you deserve."

With 95 percent of the vote counted, the Electoral Tribunal announced Sunday that Giammattei of the right-wing Vamos Party had received 59 percent of the presidential run-off vote to beat out three-time runner-up and former first lady Sandra Torres of the center-left National Unity of Hope Party. She earned 41 percent of the vote.

Only 40 percent of the country's 8 million registered voters cast ballots in the election, a drop from 56 percent in 2015.

The drop is partially a reflection of voter apathy and a lack of confidence and trust as outgoing president and former comedian Jimmy Morales, who was ushered to the country's helm on a wave of public anger against corruption that forced President Otto Perez Molina to resign, has come under the scrutiny of a United Nations-backed commission for illegal campaign financing.

Giammattei, 63, will also be taking over the country as it deals with a massive surge of residents fleeing for the United States.

Guatemalan refugees are one of the main groups reaching the United State's southern border seeking asylum, an issue that has dogged President Donald Trump since his inauguration and has only worsened in the last several months following on-month increases in the number of people reaching the border and mass criticism against his administration's policies concerning the treatment of migrants, particularly children, once they make it to the United States.

The issue of asylum seekers to the United States has seen the Trump administration exert influence over countries such as Guatemala in an attempt to stem the flow of refugees, which signed a "safe third country" agreement with the United States in late July under the threat of tariffs.

However, Giammattei, the former chief of the nation's prison system, has opposed the unpopular deal signed in by his predecessor. He also ran on a platform that included building an "economic wall" through job creation to prevent the need for citizens to flee the country.

"We will focus on the construction of a different Guatemala," he said Sunday while proclaiming himself president-elect, the Washington Post reported.

Once inaugurated, Giammattei has the power to nullify the deal, which has been blocked from implementation by the country's highest court with a provisional injunction.

Trump's response needs to be some partnering with Guatemala to greatly improve their economy. This is morally the right thing to do since the USA fleeced Central America of most of its natural resources for at least a century. It's the only logical way to reduce migration to the US, but, I fear, Trump will bully them into implementing the safe third country deal or make their economy even worse.

Right-Wing Parties Gain Highest Voter Approval Ahead of EU Elections – Study

The election of a Republican Government in the US was tempered by the mid-term rise in the numbers of Democratic law-makers. But elsewhere, countries are turning more and more to the right.

In Canada, when the very Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau took power in 2015, there were 8 left-leaning provincial governments in our 10 provinces, and only 2 right-leaning governments. Since then, the country has flipped with only 4 left-leaning provincial legislatures and 6 right-leaning houses. 

This is not because the right-wing message is so appealing to Canadians, but because the far-left message of the very Liberal Trudeau and the far-left governments of Kathleen Wynne in Ontario and Rachel Notley in Alberta were simple rejected as 'not who we are as Canadians'. 

(L-R) Matteo Salvini, from Italy's Lega Nord, Austrian Freedom Party member Harald Vilimsky, Marine Le Pen,

France's National Front political party head, Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) leader Geert Wilders and

Belgium's Flemish Vlaams Belang party member Gerolf Annemans © Reuters / Francois Lenoir

One in 10 Europeans will back right-wing parties in the upcoming European Union elections, according to a new study, pointing to growing support for Euroskeptic movements across the bloc.

EU elections will be held May 23rd-26th, 2019.

A Bertelsmann Foundation study found that right-wing parties with a populist, nationalist or Euroskeptic bent received the highest level of voter approval of any single political grouping. 10.3 percent of voters said they would cast their ballots for right-wing parties, while only 6.2 percent said they positively identified with left-wing groups, and 4.4 percent with a Green party.

Right-wing parties have seen a surge in support amid growing disillusionment with Brussels. Those parties include Italy’s Lega Nord, France’s National Rally party, as well as the right-wing Alternative for Germany – commonly known by its German acronym, AfD.

The research indicates that voters care more about stopping parties and policies they dislike than advancing a positive agenda of their own, which, the researchers said, could end up feeding movements on the fringes.

“Many citizens no longer choose to back one party, but rather vote against parties they oppose the most,” said Robert Vehrkamp, a co-author of the Bertelsmann study.

“The populist parties have managed to create a stable and loyal voter base in a relatively short space of time,” he added.

Interesting, but aren't these two statements contradictory?

Nearly 24,000 voters were surveyed for the study, which conducted interviews in 12 EU member states. The EU’s parliamentary elections will be held May 26.

Even centrists such as French President Emmanuel Macron are beginning to bend to growing right-wing sentiment. In an apparent concession to the Yellow Vest protest movement, the French leader conceded that the Schengen agreement, which allows for visa-free travel between 22 EU member states and four non-EU countries, is no longer tenable. Echoing right-wing leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Macron also called for changes to the Dublin Regulation, which gives an EU member state the right to send back asylum seekers to their first country of entry to the bloc.

Black Friday: Spanish Public Broadcaster Employees Mourn the Death of Independent News

© mariola.cubells / Instagram

For the third week in a row, journalists at the Spanish public-service broadcaster RTVE wore black on Friday to protest PM Mariano Rajoy's party meddling in their news coverage, which they fear damages the channel's credibility.

The staff at Radio Television Espanola rebelled against the refusal of the Spanish ruling conservative Popular Party (PP) to support the opposition's bid for a public contest to appoint a new, independent chairman for the channel.

According to RTVE staff, this kind of management casts doubt on its credibility, following numerous cases of deliberate news manipulation in favor of the ruling party, whether by withholding information or inaccurate coverage.

Women at RTVE, who were supported by many male colleagues, said they dressed in black to show they want "a public broadcaster that includes all colours, one that is diverse, independent and professional."

One of the four major political parties in Spain, PP, does not have a majority in the government and normally needs external support to pass legislation. But, according to RTVE reporter Irene Montero, Prime Minister Rajoy's PP was still able to "abuse its power" and block the opposition from lobbying for the transparent appointment of a new chairman, rather than the direct government appointment.

RTVE's current chairman's judgment calls and his policies were put into question after the coverage of Catalonia's independence referendum in October 2017. According to the channel's staff, Jose Antonio Sanchez, who is known for his pro-government stance, steered RTVE to deliberately manipulate, censor and sometimes omit certain stories, which seriously damaged their credibility.

In an attempt to counteract the manipulation, the channel's staff published an ample 72-page report. 'The Consejo de Informativos de TVE' (The News Council of the TVE) report addresses a total of nearly 30 cases of unilateral news coverage that deliberately violated the notion of plurality and freedom of speech.

This journalist turned politician recounts a story of completely fake news. Video = 1:40

One of the revealed cases involved Catalonia's independence referendum, which, despite the fact that it was widely covered elsewhere, did not receive any special attention from the RTVE, while its significance was downplayed.

Outraged with the coverage policies, the channel staff questioned the reason for giving preference to the opinions of Spain's government over those of the referendum organisers.

"What is the professional reason for the lack of informative stories regarding what happened in Catalonia on Sunday, October 1st?" the channel staff asked in the report.

Among other violations, the report revealed numerous cases of intentional mistranslation of subtitles from Catalan into Spanish.

The RTVE's Black Friday protest was initially triggered by the acquittal of five rapists in Pamplona, and it was part of an ongoing national movement to denounce sexual discrimination and to defend women's rights through their empowerment.

After two weeks of Black Friday protests, one of the editors from RTVE Valencia office quit her job in disapproval of the channel's biased news coverage.

Journalists at RTVE have launched the hashtag #AsiSeManipula (that's how they manipulate) to share their experiences working on the pro-government channel.

The campaign, led by RTVE reporters, received support from journalists and actors such as Pepa Bueno, Rosa María Calaf, Javier Cámara and Marta Soros, who published a video to advocate for the promotion of freedom of speech on radio and television.

Responding to the accusations of news manipulation, Spain's Minister of the Treasury and Public Administrations and member of PP, Cristobal Montoro, said, "if you don't like TVE (news network), then you should change the channel (network). That's what freedom is about."

Freedom without truth is no freedom at all. I suggest you listen to Minister Montoro and turn RTVE News off.

Keeping the Fires Burning: Poland's Government Cultivates a Siege Mentality to its Benefit

Poland's conservative government is very popular in Poland, not-so-much elsewhere. I agree with their refusal to take more Islamic immigrants and for standing up to the EU in that regard. I also agree that they were victimized by the Nazis in WWII just as France was. But France had a powerful and courageous underground that fought the Nazi occupation; I'm not aware that such existed in Poland, if it did, it should be raised in profile.

But France also had those who collaborated with the Nazis; some because it was the best thing to do for France, and some because it was expedient and opportunistic. Some in France outed Jews and sent them on their way to... Poland! No doubt, some in Poland also cooperated with the Nazis for their own benefit. This cannot be swept under the rug.

There is also the matter that antisemitism seems to have infiltrated the Polish government. While they argue that they were not responsible for the genocide of millions of Jews, their recent actions have all the earmarks of antisemitism thereby undermining their attempts to whitewash their image.

Ruling Law and Justice party is polling just under 50% approval, way up from last election in 2015

By Don Murray, CBC News 

Members of the Solidarity trade union in Warsaw protest against EU objections to a new law by Poland's right-wing government lowering the retirement age. Relations with the European Union have been tense. (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP/Getty Images)

How do you douse the fires of controversy? You light a new blaze right next to it. Or perhaps two.

That seems to be the approach of the Polish government in the wake of the controversy unleashed by a new law criminalizing the use of words like "Polish death camps" to describe the Holocaust and the death of six million Jews during the Second World War.

The death camps situated in Poland were not Polish, the government says, but Nazi. To say otherwise is now to break the law in Poland.

International criticism was swift

The World Jewish Congress, in addressing the law, said it had set off a "firestorm of ill will." The new Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, tried to deflect the criticism but only made things worse when he referred to "Jewish perpetrators" who had been guilty, along with others, of Holocaust crimes.

The Polish government backpedalled, suggesting the new law was in a sort of state of suspended animation while the country's constitutional court looked at it.

But to keep the flames burning, the government has put an animal rights bill before Parliament that would effectively ban the kosher slaughter of meat for religious Jews in the country and for export.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says anti-Polish sentiment around the world has been gaining power because Poles haven't reacted enough. Now it's reacting.

(Thomas Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images)

And, lighting another fire, Poland's senior senator, Stanislaw Karcewski, sent out an open letter telling Poles abroad to document any "slander" of their nation and report it.

"Please document and react to all anti-Polish hostility, expressions and opinions that harm us. Notify our embassies, consulates and honorary consuls of any slander affecting the good reputation of Poland," Mr Karczewski's letter said.

The intensity of the reaction to these moves may have surprised Poland's  governing Law and Justice party, but not overly so. It sees the outside world as hostile.

"Anti-Polonism around the world has been gaining in power because of a lack of reaction from Poland and the weakness of this reaction for the last 10 years." Those are the words of Prime Minister Morawiecki in the wake of the recent uproar.

Polish trade unionist Lech Walesa with a crowd of workers in Zyrandow, Poland, on Dec. 18, 1981. A heroic figure at the time, Walesa and his peers have lately been described by Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski as 'Poles of the worst sort' who served foreign interests. (Keystone/Getty Images)

And one of the authors of the Holocaust bill, deputy justice minister Patryk Jaki, welcomed the fight. "There comes a time when our country needs catharsis," he said.

None of this has hurt the country's leadership in the polls. On the contrary, more than half of voters say they are satisfied with the president and the prime minister and those numbers are climbing.

And the ruling Law and Justice party, profiting from a booming economy and increased social welfare payments to constituents, is polling just under 50 per cent approval. That's way above the 35 per cent it won in elections in 2015.

This right-wing Polish government cultivates a siege mentality.

To be fair, it actually is under siege — from its big political brother, the European Union. Poland is a member, one of 28, of the EU, and with a population of 38.5 million, it's a major player.

It's also a difficult player.

Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski's core conviction is that the entire Polish elite after the fall of communism in 1990 betrayed the country, a failure characterized by 'post-communist pathologies.'

(Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images)

The present government has refused to take its quota of refugees agreed to by the EU in 2016. The country, it believes, must remain Catholic and white.

It has also taken aim at its own court system after moving quickly to bring to heel the country's public television networks. They are now run by party loyalists.

The ruling party first set out to replace the country's highest judges with its own nominees. It radically lowered the retirement age for supreme court judges to 65, which would remove 40 per cent of them. It also moved to take control of the judicial council that appoints judges.

Threat of sanctions

Ministers say the legal system is too slow, with judges overpaid and infected with ideas from the past.

These moves alarmed the EU. It has taken Poland, along with Hungary and the Czech Republic, to court for refusing to respect the agreement on refugees. And for the first time the European Commission has invoked Article 7 of the EU constitution against Poland.

It argues Poland is failing to uphold the democratic norms it agreed to when it joined in 2004.

On Feb. 27, the commission renewed its threat of sanctions — the loss of voting rights and possibly European subsidies. That could be major, since Poland is the biggest EU beneficiary with a total of $100 billion in subsidies scheduled between 2014 and 2020.

"The clock is ticking," the German European Affairs Minister Michael Roth said. "The EU is very concerned about the rule of law situation."

The Polish government seems much less concerned. "Europe has run out of gas," Prime Minister Marowiecki told the German magazine Der Spiegel in February.

In the next breath he insisted Poland doesn't want to imitate Britain by leaving the union. It simply wants a more decentralized, less intrusive EU. And he offered no concessions.

That's because it knows it has an ally, Hungary, which has said it's ready to veto any attempt to penalize Poland.

The Polish government also believes it's on a mission, directed by Law and Justice party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Kaczynski's core conviction is that the entire Polish elite after the fall of communism in 1990 betrayed the country.

'Treason in their genes'

The last 28 years have been, in his words "a failure" characterized by "post-communist pathologies."

The men and women who led the country, including Lech Walesa, Poland's first post-communist leader, were "Poles of the worst sort" with "treason in their genes."

They set up a para-democracy serving foreign interests, he believes. The EU is a Trojan horse serving those interests. The judges his government wants to get rid of are infected with these pathologies.

The Polish Holocaust law was born from the same drive to correct the past. Poland, in the eyes of its government, was a "victim nation" and its reputation is spattered with unthinking association with death camps.

"He who controls the past controls the future," George Orwell once wrote ironically in the book 1984. It's a dictum Poland's ruling party takes completely seriously.

After Partial Recount of Ballots, Ecuador Still has Left-Leaning Government

Lenín Moreno declared winner after Ecuador election recount

By Andrew V. Pestano  

Lenín Moreno has once again been declared the winner of Ecuador's 2017 presidential election following a

recount of nearly 1.3 million votes, the South American country's National Electoral Council said in a statement.

Photo courtesy of Lenín Moreno

UPI -- Following a recount of nearly 1.3 million presidential votes, Ecuador's National Electoral Council once again declared Lenín Moreno the winner of the election, this time by a slightly wider margin.

In the recount results, the electoral council, or CNE, said Moreno's Alianza PAIS movement received 5,062,018 votes, or 51.16 percent of the total. Moreno's competitor, Guillermo Lasso, and his CREO-SUMA political coalition received 4,833,389 votes, or 48.84 percent of the total.

"Thank you for showing us that we are an honest society," CNE President Juan Pablo Pozo Bahamonde said in a statement Tuesday. "As I said before, elections are not won with speculation. They are won with votes."

In the initial results following the April 2 election, Moreno received 5,060,424, or 51.15 percent, whereas Lasso received 4,833,828, or 48.85 percent. The CNE recounted 1,275,450 votes.

"After the recount of 1.2 million votes, it ratifies victory of Alianza PAIS. Thanks, we will not let you down! Ecuador expects peace and work," Moreno said in a statement. "It is time for agreements for major national goals. Democracy is strengthened, we look forward. The future never stops!"

Members of the opposition have been protesting for weeks after the CNE announced Moreno won, saying electoral fraud occurred.

Lasso has repeatedly rejected a partial recount, instead calling for a full recount in the election.

"This recount of the CNE, rather than making the results transparent, will reveal the accomplices of this fraudulent process," Lasso said in a statement on Tuesday.

Moreno served as leftist outgoing President Rafael Correa's vice president from 2007-13 before serving as U.N. Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility. He became paraplegic after being shot in the back in 1998.

Lasso, a center-right former banker who had the support of other opposition parties, ran on an economic platform in which he promised to create 1 million new jobs within four years. He is a conservative who vowed to reduce government spending and taxes.

Guatemala Elects Conservative Christian President

With apologies for not finding this story sooner.

The election occurred in October 2015.

Veronica Neffinger | Editor, ChristianHeadlines.com 

Guatemala has elected a comedian who has studied theology and holds conservative Christian values as the country’s new president.

Breaking Christian News reports that Jimmy Morales was initially considered an outsider, but ended up becoming a frontrunner and then going on to win the election.

Morales espouses conservative values, including opposing abortion, gay marriage, and the legalization of marijuana. Morales ran with the slogan “neither corrupt nor a thief”--a Biblical reference.

President Jimmy Morales

“According to my belief, my ideology, I would have to veto such laws," the president-elect told CBN News. "I think in Guatemala we will not have this because of conservative thinking. In case Congress approves such laws, my position would be against them."

Morales was elected in the wake of political crisis, including the resignation of previous president Otto Perez Molina, due to fraud and corruption.

Many Guatemalan Christians believe President Morales is an answer to their prayers.

The Guatemalan Church had been active throughout the election process, holding prayer meetings, prayer vigils, and fasting.

“God put His hand in Guatemala, it's a miracle what happened," prayer participant Marco Antonio Ruiz said. "We came together as Church and cried out with one voice. The effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. God heard the voice of all those who joined us in prayer."

The country’s main evangelical organization also organized the debate held right before the election, which was broadcast on national television and on the Christian network Enlace.

God bless him and keep him.