France shifts to the left with Socialist win
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Francois Hollande comfortably defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy Sunday 6 May to become France’s new president, with 52 percent of the vote. The Socialist’s lead has been growing in the past week, following a first round of voting that eliminated candidates further to the left and right. They included Marine Le Pen, who outdid her far-right father’s ability to garner votes, before losing to Hollande and Sarkozy in the runoff.
The official result was announced at 20:00 in France, and although polls had been forecasting the result, French media were blocked from posting these. The French interior ministry earlier in the evening gave preliminary results which were not far off the final results.
Swiss media, not bound by French law, reporting polling results during the afternoon and evening.
La Bastille in Paris, long home to left-wing victories, was awash with crowds of cheering Hollande supporters Sunday night.
Both of the final cadidates have promised to balance the budget within five years, but the French appear to have joined the growing ranks of Europeans rebelling against austerity measures.
Greek voters move away from the centre over austerity programmes
Greek voters, who have been the hardest hit by European Union austerity programmes, moved away from the centre in their own voting Sunday, electing far-right and far-left candidates to parliament.
The Socialists in France have not had a president in office since Mitterrand left in 1995 and markets are waiting to hear whether Hollande plans to increase spending; he has promised to tax the wealthy more heavily and to bring back retirement at age 60, but only for those who have worked for 40 years.
The rest of the European community will also be watching closely, as France’s changing face could have an enormous impact on EU policies.
What French and world media are saying: Le Figaro, Le Monde, TF1 television, France and BBC, The Globe & Mail, Irish Times, NY Times, Reuters
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Rick Santorum has pulled out of the race for the Republican Party candidacy for the US presidential race, leaving it wide open for Mitt Romney. Santorum says he will continue to fight to unseat President Barack Obama, but he did not endorse Romney, who called him “an important voice” for the party and the country.
Santorum mentioned that his daughter’s illness over the weekend had caused him and his wife to reflect on their role as parents; their three-year-old, Bella, was hospitalized briefly with pneumonia. She suffers from a rare genetic disorder.
Links to other sites: CBS News, Los Angeles Times, NPR
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, finance minister, will be president for 2012
Alain Berset, Socialist, replaces Calmy-Rey
Micheline Calmy-Rey, Swiss president, says her farewells to parliament 14 December
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Alain Berset, the Swiss senate’s youngest member at age 31, was elected easily with 126 votes in a second round of voting, to Switzerland’s government.
The election of the Socialist from Fribourg completes the election of the 7-member government. He replaces Micheline Calmy-Rey, also a Socialist.
The two UDC candidates who were presented for several of the seven slots, failed to come close to majorities.
The party’s weak showing, on the heels of its parliamentary losses in October, reinforces the sense there is a parliamentary shift towards the centre.
The government now comprises one right-wing party member, three from the centre-right, one centre and two left.
New government member Alain Berset, Socialist, replaces Micheline Calmy-Rey, who is retiring (©2011 Reuters/Keystone/pool)
Berset is the only new member, with the others re-elected.
Parliament elects a chancellor, president and vice-president following the election of the government; chancellor Corina Casanova remains in her post with 186 votes out of 206.
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, finance minister, was elected president for 2012, with 174 votes out of 211 for the one-year post that rotates among Federal Council members.
Those watching US-Swiss talks over US investigations into Swiss banks will be relieved, for the lack of a change at the top in Switzerland will smooth the way for the discussions to be concluded. Widmer-Schlumpf has said recently, in her role as finance minister, that she is keen to see a solution found quickly.
The Swiss government’s seven members and their parties, in order of Wednesday’s voting:
Doris Leuthard, PDC (Christian Democrat), centre
Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf , PBD, centre right
Ueli Maurer, UDC (People’s Party), right
Didier Burkhalter, PBD, centre right
Simonetta Somaruga, PS (Socialist), left
Johann Schneider-Ammann, PLR, centre right
Alain Berset, PS (Socialist) , left
Swiss parliament voting for new federal council 14 December 2011 (©2011 Reuters/Keystone/pool)
The next complete re-election is in December 2015.
Useful links:
Wikipedia on Swiss political parties and their positions
Analysis of the Federal Council election in English, swissinfo
Details of the votes, Swiss Parliament (Fr)
Background on Swiss political system from ch.ch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Peru’s new president, Leftist former army officer Ollanta Humala, was congratulated by his opponent, Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the country’s former president, Alberto Fujimoro, who is serving a jail term. Despite what appears to be a peaceful transition of power, shares fell in the capital, Lima, by more than 10 percent, reports the BBC. Internationally-traded shares but particularly Peruvian mineral and precious metals mining company shares also fell on Wall Street, which US business publications attribute to Peru’s shift to the left.
Humala appears to have won by about 3 percent in a runoff vote: neither of them gained a necessary 50 percent majority in the first round of voting, which eliminated the three centrist candidates.
Links to other sites: BBC, Business Week, Wall St Journal
Washington Post video
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The FA, England’s national football association, has decided against voting for the next president of Fifa, the Zurich-based International Football, saying in a brief statement issued Thursday afternoon 19 May that it cannot support either candidate. AP sports writers put it more baldly, saying that the FA is “unable to choose between two candidates tainted by allegations of corruption scandal”.
The statement issued by FA Chairman David Bernstein, in its entirety:
“There are a well-reported range of issues both recent and current which, in the view of The FA board, make it difficult to support either candidate.
The FA values its relationships with its international football partners extremely highly. We are determined to play an active and influential role through our representation within both UEFA and FIFA. We will continue to work hard to bring about any changes we think would benefit all of international football.”
The two candidates are Sepp Blatter, who is seeking a fourth term from 2012 to 2016 and Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar, who successfully obtained the 2022 World Cup Games for his country.
Blatter has headed Fifa while a scandal involving members of the executive board unfolded, while there have been charges that Qatar paid Fifa board members to vote for it.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Hours after the Ugandan opposition leader claimed to have been barred from returning to Uganda from Kenya, Wednesday 11 May, Kizza Besigye says he has been granted permission to return.
Besigye, who leads the FDC (Forum for Democratic Change) had been receiving medical treatment in Kenya. He was attempting to board a flight from Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta airport to Kampala Entebbe with Kenya Airways when he was stopped, he said. He later told a group of reporters at the airport that he would be leaving on a late afternoon flight from Nairobi.
The controversy comes just days before Museveni is due to be sworn in for a fourth term as president, having held power in Uganda for 25 years. Besigye claims the recent election was rigged, and his supporters are expected to be out in large numbers to protest against Thursday’s inauguration of Museveni.
“The government has nothing to do with Besigye not coming to Uganda. We’re waiting for Besigye to come back and all the preparations have been made” Uganda’s information minister Kabakumba Matsiko told reporters. The national media centre director, Fred Opolot, denied at a press conference Wednesday that “the Government through the Civil Aviation Authority had instructed management of Kenya Airways not to allow Besigye, and [warned] that the airline would be denied air space if it did so,” according to Uganda’s New Vision news site.
Besigye had an important role in Museveni’s government until 10 years ago, though significant animosity has developed between the two since then. The end of April saw serious clashes between Besigye supporters and the police, including 29 April when two FDC supporters died and 90 people were injured.
Links to other sites: allAfrica, BBC, Kizza Besigye’s Facebook page, New Vision Uganda
The strong showing of Finland’s nationalist True Finns party in elections Sunday 17 April have put a damper on Portugal’s bid for a European Union financial bailout. The party zoomed from 6 to 39 seats in parliamentary elections, taking third place after the Conservative party, with 44 seats and the opposition Social Democrats with 42 seats.
The True Finns party turned the election into a vote over Finland’s willingness to back a rescue package for Portugal, which is currently negotiating one with the EU. Any such package requires a unanimous vote from the 17-member eurozone countries. The Conservatives will have to invite at least one of the other two parties to a coalition, reports Reuters, and while the Social Democrats are not against rescue packages, they oppose the current arrangements for funding them.
Links to other sites: Euronews, Reuters/The Globe & Mail, Guardian
Claims by former US presidential candidate Sarah Palin that she is on a purely private visit to Israel, where she stopped at Jerusalem’s Western Wall were undone somewhat by an analysis for CNN of her visit by a former consultant. Republican consultant Ford O’Connell, who worked on the McCain-Palin campaign in 2008, told the US television network that foreign policy is Palin’s greatest weakness but that “‘Foreign policy is moving up the ladder. If you want to be president, you have to have a good understanding of the global economy in the 21st century.’”
The visit to Israel follows a stop in India.
Palin has not officially announced her candidacy. She was criticized by some observers in the last presidential race because she had rarely set foot outside the US, although she has travelled abroad more since 2008. Her first overseas trip was in 2007, when she visited Alaska National Guard troops in Kuwait, who served under the US president rather than the governor. She stopped off in Germany to visit US troops there at the time.
Links to other sites: Anchorage Daily News (2008), The Week
Ireland is faced with the prospect of an election earlier than the one the prime minister has called for 11 March, with the Green Party leaving the ruling coalition Sunday 23 January. Prime Minister Brian Cowen called for an election Thursday, after six ministers resigned from the government, and he then said he would not lead his Fianna Fail party after the election. The Green Party says it will support Cowen’s austerity package, which is provoking anger among Irish voters, despite leaving the coalition. The government’s belt-tightening package is attempting to reduce the country’s high level of debt following the bailout of its banks.
Links to other sites: CNN, Irish Times, Telegraph
Former US President Bill Clinton has suggested that the ballots in November’s disputed election in Haiti be recounted under international supervision in order to break the deadlocked political process. The call came during meetings on international reconstruction efforts for Haiti with Haitian Premier Jean-Max Bellerive in neighbouring Dominican Republic 14 December.
The vote results published 7 December are widely disbelieved, and demonstrators went on a three-day rampage in the capital Port-au-Prince last week. Two of the three front-runners from November’s election say they will not participate in the run-off, and one, popular singer Michel Martelly, has called for an “open” second round, in effect a new election.
Links to other sites: AFP, Boston Globe, NPR, Reuters
Simonetta Sommaruga and Johann Schneider-Ammann elected to the Swiss Federal Council
Simonetta Sommaruga, new Swiss federal councillor
Simone Sommaruga, Socialist rose in hand, accepts congratulations in Swiss Federal Assembly
Complete coverage, Swiss Federal Council 2010 elections: background, Sommaruga win, Schneider-Ammann win
Update 3 12:52 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council, or cabinet, will have a majority of women, with the election of Socialist Simonetta Sommaruga as the fourth of seven councillors.
She replaces Moritz Leuenberger, also a Socialist.
Sommaruga, from canton Bern, received 159 votes in a fourth round of voting. A candidate must have an absolute majority, 121 votes, to win the seat.
She defeated Jean-Françoise Rime, the only right-wing UDC candidate for the two open seats on the council, who received 81 votes.
Italian speakers lose their candidate
Pleading for Italian-speaking Swiss
The second and third rounds of voting for the second seat on the council began with most candidates receiving similar votes, prompting a second round of votes, but canton Ticino’s candidate, who received only 12 votes, bowed out after making a plea for the Swiss government to end the marginalization of Italian-speakers.
Background, Swiss Federal Council elections, GenevaLunch
Japanese Prime MInister Naoto Kan has won the election for the presidency of the party he leads, the Democratic Party of Japan, and sent off a challenge by veteran politician Ichiro Ozawa, known as the “shadow shogun” for his behind-the-scenes deal making. Kan scored 721 points of the total 1,222 possible, against Ichiro’s 491 points in the vote 13 September.
The prime minister now faces the possibility that his party will split, as those who support Ozawa may walk out.
Rwandans are going to the polls 9 August to vote for president, among charges by the opposition that the vote is a sham. It is the country’s second presidential vote since the genocide in 1994. President Paul Kagame is expected to win.
Opposition groups charge that they have been harassed and jailed, while some have been killed. Rwanda has five million registered voters. Final results are not expected until Wednesday 11 August.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A US official in Geneva says that the United States “is very concerned” over the possibility of Iran becoming a member of the UN Human Rights Council. Iran is one of five countries presenting themselves for four seats. The vote will take place 13 May. The other countries vying for the Asia region seats are: Thailand, Qatar, Malaysia and the Maldives.
Iran would like the seat, says the official, “for legitimacy.” But the US is worried that the council, still struggling to leave behind the tattered reputation of its predecessor organization, the UN Human Rights Commission, will be weakened by the presence of a country with Iran’s poor record on human rights. The US was highly critical of Iran in February when it came up for its UPR (Universal Periodic Review). This is a regular assessment each country undergoes by others, of its human rights performance.
Fortunately, says the official, who asked not to be named, the other candidates are anxious to have council seats.
The US is not alone in arguing against admitting Iran.
Doris Leuthard, Swiss president in 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Doris Leuthard becomes president of Switzerland in 2010. The 46-year-old PDC (Christian Democrat) member was elected comfortably (153 of 187 votes) by parliament for the top job, a one-year post that is rotated among the seven cabinet members, the Swiss Federal Council. She is the only member of the council not to have yet held the post. She was in line for the job, as vice-president in 2009, but nevertheless needed the approval of the Federal Assembly, parliament’s two houses. Leuthard becomes the youngest president since 1934.
Leuthard is the third woman to serve as president of Switzerland: Ruth Dreifuss was the first, in 1999 and Micheline Calmy-Rey the second, in 2007.
Sixty percent of Honduran voters turned out 29 November to elect a new president, and they chose centre-right National Party candidate Porfirio Lobo over the former president Manuel Zelaya. Lobo is expected to play a unifying role, with support from several members of Zelaya’s own Liberal Party. Zelaya lost support when he began to move further left and closer to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivian President Evo Morales. Zelaya was forced out of the country into exile for several weeks but returned secretly in September. He has since been living in the Brazilian embassy. Lobo was defeated by Zelaya in elections in 2005. There were some clashes between police and protestors, but they appear to have been limited. Interim President Roberto Micheletti had banned gatherings before the election, to avoid violence.
Links to other sites: BBC, Voice of America
Hamid Karzai’s inauguration for a second term as president of Afghanistan has come with unusually high security in the capital Kabul, and renewed pleas to step up the fight against corruption, from former US President Bill Clinton and other world leaders. Regular flights in and out of the city have been cancelled, citizens urged to take a holiday and stay home, and heavier than usual patrols are out on the streets to ward off a possible Taliban attack.
Pakistan attack kills 15
Over the border in Peshawar, Pakistan, a suicide bomber killed 15 people and injured scores at a court building not far from the Pearl Continental Hotel where nine people died in June. Al Jazeera links the latest blast to a new military push: “The military launched its offensive nearly three weeks ago, pitting about 30,000 Pakistani troops against an estimated 10 to 12,000 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan.”
Links to other sites: Aljazeera,
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai has officially received nearly 55 percent of the vote in recent elections, according to official tallies published Wednesday. The winner will nevertheless be declared officially only in several weeks. The European Union reacted sharply, saying that one-quarter of the votes could be fraudulent, a criticism Karzai angrily rejected. World leaders are divided over how to react to allegations of fraud from several quarters. Al Jazeera, BBC, Yahoo News/Reuters
Canadians go to the polls Tuesday after Prime Minister Stephen Harper called an election to try to get his Conservative minority to gain a majority of seats in Parliament. This is the third election in four years. BBC, The Globe & Mail
