BRUSSELS: European leaders welcomed a breakthrough Friday in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bid to form a coalition, hoping it will end months of political paralysis and unblock key EU reforms.
Merkel’s promise to give Europe a “fresh start” was seen as a positive signal to French President Emmanuel Macron’s ambitious proposals for rebooting the bloc after Brexit.
But as the EU awaited the return of its economic and political heavyweight to the political fray, questions remained about whether a new Merkel-led coalition would be strong enough to push through the reforms.
Macron said he was “happy and satisfied” that a coalition deal was in sight, while a French government spokesman said the blueprint was “good for Germany, good for France and above all good for Europe.”
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker hailed the German agreement as a “very significant, positive, constructive, forward-looking, purposeful contribution” to the future of the bloc.
Juncker, who heads the EU’s executive arm, has unveiled his own vision for eurozone reforms which differ from Macron’s in that they place more power in the hands of Brussels.
Macron has been eyeing the talks anxiously, hoping to see a government emerge that will swing behind his plans for deepening ties between members of the eurozone as well as the 28-member European Union.
And Europe generally has been in political limbo since September’s inconclusive election in which Merkel failed to win a clear majority, in part due to the rise of the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov — whose country has just taken over the EU’s six-month rotating presidency — urged Berlin to reach a final deal as soon as possible.
“All those topics that we raised depend on cooperation by Chancellor Merkel, on her support in solving the issues. So we are waiting for this quite impatiently,” Borisov said.
The initial signs from the in-principle deal in Berlin were encouraging for Europe.
Merkel said she would “find solutions” with France, while the coalition blueprint includes a pledge to “in close partnership with France, sustainably strengthen and reform the eurozone so that the euro can better withstand global crises.”
Lueder Gerken of the Center for European Study in Freiburg, Germany, said Paris in particular would be pleased.
“The fact that the coalition accord put Europe at the start of the blueprint is an important signal to European partners and particularly to French president Macron,” Gerken said in a commentary.
“A lot of his (Macron’s) ideas are in there.”
Charles Lichfield of the Eurasia Group political risk consultancy said the document was “a basis for discussions with Macron” and “certainly more constructive” than a coalition with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens would have been.
He said it was important that the coalition document mentions a common budget for the eurozone, one of the key proposals by the French president, who was holding talks with Austria’s new chancellor on Friday on the reforms.
Lichfield backed Merkel to get the reforms through.
“One of the reasons Merkel ran for a fourth term was to make sure that a sustainable EU was part of her legacy. So she cares about this deeply and can, I think, still manage divisions in her party enough to get a few small reforms done,” he told AFP.
That was especially true with the support of the SPD, led by the former European Parliament chief and arch federalist Martin Schulz, he added.
“The AfD and the FDP will criticize the direction this is going in, but they don’t have a majority.”
The agreement also mentions bigger German contribution to the EU’s multi-year budget post-2020, a thorny issue as member states try to fill the financial hole left by Britain’s departure in 2019.
Gerken of the CER however warned that this would “pointlessly weaken the German position in the coming negotiations.”
Impatient Europe hails German coalition breakthrough
Impatient Europe hails German coalition breakthrough
Russian drones target Kyiv in overnight strike
- Russia has regularly sent missiles and drones at Ukrainian settlements far beyond the front line
Air defenses destroyed around a dozen drones over the city, according to military administrator Serhiy Popko. No injuries were reported after debris fell on one city district, he said.
Reuters correspondents heard explosions above the city later in the morning during the second air-raid alert of the day.
Russia has regularly sent missiles and drones at Ukrainian settlements far beyond the front line of its nearly three-year-old invasion, targeting the energy grid in particular as winter sets in.
War has no winners, Taiwan president says in visit to Hawaii
- Taiwan President Lai Ching-te is making a sensitive two-day trip to Hawaii
- He is on his way to three Pacific island nations that maintain formal ties with Taiwan
TAIPEI: War has no winners and peace is priceless, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Saturday in Hawaii after visiting a memorial to the attack on Pearl Harbor on a trip to the United States that has angered Beijing.
Lai is making a sensitive two-day trip to Hawaii that is officially only a stopover on the way to three Pacific island nations that maintain formal ties with Taiwan, which China claims as its territory.
Speaking to members of the overseas Taiwan community and Hawaii politicians, including members of Congress Ed Case and Jill Tokuda, Lai referred to his visit to the USS Arizona Memorial earlier in the day and laid a wreath in memory of those who died in the 1941 Japanese attack.
“Our visit to the memorial today in particular reminds us of the importance of ensuring peace. Peace is priceless and war has no winner. We have to fight — fight together — to prevent war,” Lai said in English, in a speech carried live on television in Taiwan.
As Lai was attending the event, China said it had complained to Washington for arranging for his transit through US territory, while vowing “resolute countermeasures” against a potential arms sale to Taiwan that the US announced hours before Lai started his trip.
China’s foreign ministry lodged “stern representations” over the transit, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement.
“We are firmly opposed to official exchanges between the United States and Taiwan, and we are firmly opposed to the ‘transit’ of leaders of the Taiwan region to the United States under any name and for any reason,” it said.
Security sources have told Reuters that China could launch a new round of war games around Taiwan in response to his visit, his first overseas trip since assuming office in May, having won election in January.
China has staged two rounds of major war games around Taiwan so far this year.
In his speech Lai switched to Taiwanese, also known as Hokkien, and said that by uniting together, all difficulties could be overcome. “Taiwan’s democracy can become a model for the international community,” he said.
Lai and his government reject Beijing’s sovereignty claims and say they have a right to visit other countries.
After Hawaii, Lai will go to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, with another stopover in the US territory of Guam. Hawaii and Guam are home to large US military bases.
Turmoil overshadows Romania vote as far right hopes to gain ground
BUCHAREST: Still reeling from this week’s shock developments, Romanians return to the polls to elect their parliament on Sunday, with the far right tipped to win, potentially heralding a shift in the NATO country’s foreign policy.
Romania was thrown into turmoil after a top court ordered a recount of the first round of last week’s presidential election won by Calin Georgescu, a little-known far-right admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Despite accusations of Russian influence and alleged interference via TikTok, Sunday’s parliamentary elections were going ahead as planned.
While the recounting of more than nine million ballots appeared to proceed quickly, people on the streets of Bucharest expressed worries about the recent twists and turns.
“What’s going on now doesn’t seem very democratic,” Gina Visan told AFP at a Christmas market in Bucharest.
“They should respect our vote. We’re disappointed, but we’re used to this kind of behavior,” said the 40-year-old nurse, echoing voter’s distrust in traditional parties.
Polling stations open at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) and close at 9:00 pm, with an exit poll due to be published shortly afterwards.
The first official results are expected later in the evening.
Amid allegations of irregularities and possible interference in the election, concerns over the transparency of the electoral process have emerged, with independent observers being denied access to the recount.
According to Septimius Parvu of the Expert Forum think-tank, the recount order by Romania’s Constitutional Court had “many negative effects,” including undermining confidence in institutions.
“We’ve already recounted votes in Romania in the past, but not millions of votes, with parliamentary elections in the middle of it all,” said Parvu.
“No decision made during this crucial period should limit the right of Romanians to vote freely nor further put at risk the credibility of the election process,” the US embassy in Romania stressed.
But the top court’s decision is likely to boost the far right, Parvu said.
The NATO member of 19 million people has so far resisted rising nationalism in the region, but experts say it faces an unprecedented situation as anger over soaring inflation and fears of being dragged into Russia’s war in neighboring Ukraine have mounted.
George Sorin in Bucharest said he hopes the far right will score well, claiming the current parliament had mostly served the interests of “Brussels and Ukraine” instead of “national interests.”
Outgoing President Klaus Iohannis said Sunday’s vote would determine Romania’s future — whether it will “remain a country of freedom and openness or collapse into toxic isolation and a dark past.”
Romania’s political landscape has been shaped by two major parties for the past three decades, but analysts predict a fragmented parliament to emerge from Sunday’s vote, influencing the chances of forming a future government.
Polls show that three far-right parties are predicted to claim more than 30 percent of the vote share combined.
Among them is the AUR party, whose leader George Simion won nearly 14 percent of the presidential vote, which actually topped the latest polls on more than 22 percent.
“We are here, standing, alive, more numerous than ever, and with a huge opportunity ahead of us,” Simion — a fan of US President-elect Donald Trump — recently told his supporters.
The Party of Young People (POT), which was founded in 2023 and has meanwhile thrown its support behind Georgescu, could reach the five-percent threshold to enter parliament and there is also the extreme-right SOS Romania party, led by firebrand Diana Sosoaca.
In recent years, around 30 percent of Romanians have embraced far-right views, even if they have not always voted for them in elections.
Elena Lasconi’s pro-European USR party has warned that the country faces “a historic confrontation” between those who wish to “preserve Romania’s young democracy” and those who want to “return to the Russian sphere of influence.”
The ruling Social Democrats (PSD) and the National Liberal Party (PNL), which suffered a defeat in the presidential ballot, have centered their campaigns on their “experience.”
“The political scene is completely reset,” said political scientist Remus Stefureac, adding that 2025 “will be extremely complicated in terms of security risks.”
UK business confidence lowest since COVID-19 pandemic, IoD says
- The IoD survey took place between Nov. 15 and Nov. 27 and was based on 601 responses, mostly from small businesses
LONDON: Britain’s Institute of Directors said on Sunday that optimism among its members had fallen to the lowest since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, following tax rises in finance minister Rachel Reeves’ first budget on Oct. 30.
Investment plans and employment intentions were the weakest since May 2020 last month, while a gauge of business leaders’ optimism sank to its lowest since April 2020 at -65, down from -52 in October.
“As businesses continue to absorb the consequences of the Budget for their business plans, confidence has continued to plummet,” IoD Chief Economist Anna Leach said.
“Far from fixing the foundations, the Budget has undermined them, damaging the private sector’s ability to invest in their businesses and their workforces,” she added.
The IoD report adds to a chorus of complaints by businesses since the budget and other signs of an economic slowdown.
Last week Reeves promised the Confederation of British Industry that she would not be “coming back with more borrowing or more taxes” at future budgets.
Reeves announced 40 billion pounds ($51 billion) of tax rises at the budget, including a 25 billion pound increase in employers’ annual social security contributions.
Labour had only pointed to around 8 billion pounds of tax rises before the election and Reeves blamed the extra increases in large part on what she said was an unexpectedly poor fiscal legacy left by the previous Conservative government.
A planned tightening of employment laws was also likely to increase costs for employers, the IoD said.
The IoD survey took place between Nov. 15 and Nov. 27 and was based on 601 responses, mostly from small businesses.
Iceland votes for a new parliament after political disagreements force an early election
- Iceland, a nation of about 400,000 people, is proud of its democratic traditions, describing itself as arguably the world’s oldest parliamentary democracy
REYKJAVIK, Iceland: Icelanders voted to elect a new parliament Saturday after disagreements over immigration, energy policy and the economy forced Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson to pull the plug on his coalition government and call an early election.
All polling stations managed to open despite fierce weather in the sub-Arctic nation that left roads in many areas blocked by snow. Ballot-counting began after polls closed at 10 p.m. local time (2200GMT), with results expected early Sunday.
This is Iceland’s sixth general election since the 2008 financial crisis devastated the economy of the North Atlantic island nation and ushered in a new era of political instability.
Opinion polls suggested the country could be in for another upheaval, with support for the three governing parties plunging. Benediktsson, who was named prime minister in April following the resignation of his predecessor, struggled to hold together the unlikely coalition of his conservative Independence Party with the centrist Progressive Party and the Left-Green Movement.
“My expectation is like, something new (is) going to happen, hopefully,” said Hörður Guðjónsson, voting in the capital, Reykjavik. “We always have had these old parties taking care of things. I hope we see the light now to come in with a younger people, new ideas.”
Iceland, a nation of about 400,000 people, is proud of its democratic traditions, describing itself as arguably the world’s oldest parliamentary democracy. The island’s parliament, the Althingi, was founded in 930 by the Norsemen who settled the country.
How does the election work?
Voters are choosing 63 members of the Althingi in an election that will allocate seats both by regional constituencies and proportional representation. Parties need at least 5 percent of the vote to win seats in parliament. Eight parties were represented in the outgoing parliament, and 10 parties are contesting this election.
Turnout is traditionally high by international standards, with 80 percent of registered voters casting ballots in the 2021 parliamentary election.
Why now?
A windswept island near the Arctic Circle, Iceland normally holds elections during the warmer months of the year. But Benediktsson decided on Oct. 13 that his coalition couldn’t last any longer, and he asked President Halla Tómasdóttir to dissolve the Althingi.
“The weakness of this society is that we have no very strong party and we have no very strong leader of any party,’’ said Vilhjálmur Bjarnason a former member of parliament. “We have no charming person with a vision … That is very difficult for us.”
Despite the electoral headwinds, Benediktsson expressed confidence that his Independence Party could emerge on top.
“It was an uphill battle for my party, initially, but as we moved on into the election campaign, I think things started to turn our way and I feel that this will be a very exciting election day,” he said.
Why is Iceland’s politics so fractured?
The splintering of Iceland’s political landscape came after the 2008 financial crisis, which prompted years of economic upheaval after the country’s debt-swollen banks collapsed.
The crisis led to anger and distrust of the parties that had traditionally traded power back and forth, and prompted the creation of new parties ranging from the environment focused Left-Green Alliance to the Pirate Party, which advocates direct democracy and individual freedoms.
“This is one of the consequences of the economic crash,’’ said Eva H. Önnudóttir, a professor of political science at the University of Iceland. “It’s just the changed landscape. Parties, especially the old parties, have maybe kind of been hoping that we would go back to how things were before, but that’s not going to happen.”
What are the issues?
Like many Western countries, Iceland has been buffeted by the rising cost of living and immigration pressures.
Inflation peaked at an annual rate of 10.2 percent in February 2023, fueled by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. While inflation slowed to 5.1 percent in October, that is still high compared with neighboring countries. The US inflation rate stood at 2.6 percent last month, while the European Union’s rate was 2.3 percent.
Iceland is also struggling to accommodate a rising number of asylum-seekers, creating tensions within the small, traditionally homogenous country. The number of immigrants seeking protection in Iceland jumped to more than 4,000 in each of the past three years, compared with a previous average of less than 1,000.
What about the volcano?
Repeated eruptions of a volcano in the southwestern part of the country have displaced thousands of people and strained public finances. One year after the first eruption forced the evacuation of the town of Grindavik, many residents still don’t have secure housing, leading to complaints that the government has been slow to respond.
But it also added to a shortage of affordable housing exacerbated by Iceland’s tourism boom. Young people are struggling to get a foot on the housing ladder at a time when short-term vacation rentals have reduced the housing stock available for locals, Önnudóttir said.
“The housing issue is becoming a big issue in Iceland,” she said.
