PARIS, FRANCE – France’s Socialists face the choice of Martine Aubry and Francois Hollande for the 2012 presidential election, after a weekend vote. Arnaud Montebourg and Ségolène Royal failed to attract as many voters as Hollande, the former party chairman who received 39 percent of the vote, and the mayor of Lille and former French labour secretary Aubry, with 31 percent.
The first-ever open primary by the nearly 100-year-old party pulled in some 2 million voters worldwide. The two leading candidates face off 16 October and the winner that day will join the presidential race against President Nicolas Sarkozy and other candidates.
The Socialists at one point looked set to have Dominique Strauss-Kahn as their presidential candidate, before he was charged (with charges later dropped) with raping a hotel maid in New York in early 2011.
Muehleberg peaceful anti-nuclear protest (©2011 Herbi Ditl, flickr.com/photos/herbivore)
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss anti-nuclear groups are continuing to call for an end to nuclear power plants, with the latest in a series of peaceful protests taking place Tuesday 26 April at Muehleberg.
An estimated 500 people formed a human chain around the centre from 07:00 to 08:30, but workers were allowed to enter the plant.
A human chain around BKW, which owns the Muehleberg nuclear power plant in Switzerland, 26 April (©2011 Herbi Ditl, flickr.com/photos/herbivore)
The protest was supported by the Socialist and Green political parties, as well as several groups, including Greenpeace. It marked the day 25 years ago when Chernobyl became the world’s worst nuclear accident, with an explosion and fire at the power plant in Ukraine that spread radioactivity across much of Europe.
The Bernese power station received a vote of confidence from citizens in February, who agreed to plans to rebuild the aging plant, but after Japan’s post-earthquake Fukushima nuclear problems Switzerland’s energy minister, Doris Leuthard, called a temporary halt to all nuclear power plant construction.
The groups protesting in Bern have set up a camp in front of the offices of BKW, which owns Muehleberg, and say they will stay there until the plant is closed down. The city of Bern is currently tolerating their presence.
Ed. note: Herbi Ditl on flickr has a collection of photos of the camp as well as protests
Geneva elections, Socialists lose seat
Update 15:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Cantonal elections in Geneva for the executive council, the Conseil d’état, confirmed a rightward shift in the political mood, Sunday 15 November. The centre-right alliance won four of the seven seats, while the centre-left won three. Two women are on the council, and extremists on either side of the spectrum were eliminated.
On the centre-right: the Radical party’s François Longchamp, Christian Democrat Pierre-François Unger and the Liberal party’s Mark Muller were re-elected. They were joined by newly elected Liberal Isabel Rochat.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU centre-right bloc polled almost 34 percent in the German general election Sunday 27 September while her government coalition partners, the centre-left socialist party, SPD, obtained their worst results since the Second World War, with 23.4 percent. The results allow Merkel to ditch the socialists and open talks with the business-friendly liberal party, FDP about forming a new government underpinned by a stable majority in parliament.The FDP obtained almost 15 percent of the vote, its best result ever.
Germany is in the midst of its worst economic crisis in decades, the economy is expected to contract by five percent this year, and the liberal party will want to discuss health care reform, tax cuts and a reduction of the welfare state before joining a government. CNN, NZZ, Reuters
Rosy tax rates for rich foreigners could end in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – The Socialist Party in Geneva has submitted a proposal that would change the canton’s tax laws by abolishing lump sum tax agreements for very wealthy foreigners. Geneva currently has some 650 foreign residents who benefit from the lump sum break, worth CHF70 million a year in revenue for the canton, according to Le Temps.
The margin by which Martine Aubry defeated Ségolène Royal to lead the Socialist Party in France was so tiny, 0.04%, that the party’s already badly divided leadership has been thrown into turmoil, and “it is now being ridiculed for its personal enmities and rivalries, making it seem less a serious political alternative than an afternoon soap opera,” writes the Paris-based International Herald Tribune.
