Catalonia’s former President Carles Puigdemont has been detained by German police as he was crossing the border with Denmark by car.

The arrest on Sunday came just two days after Spain’s Supreme Court vowed to prosecute 13 key separatists, including Puigdemont and his nominated successor Jordi Turull, over their role in the region’s failed breakaway bid.

Puigdemont “was arrested today at 11:19 am by Schleswig-Holstein’s highway patrol force,” a German police spokesman said, adding that the detention was based on a European warrant.

“He is now in police custody”, added the spokesman.

Separately confirming his arrest in Germany, Puigdemont’s party spokeswoman Anna Grabalosa said, “It happened as he crossed the Danish-German border. He was treated well and all his lawyers are there. That is all I can say.”

Puigdemont was picked up by German police as he was traveling back to Belgium, his lawyer Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas said on Twitter.

He “was heading to Belgium to present himself, as always, at the disposal of Belgian courts,” added Alonso-Cuevillas.

On Friday, Spanish Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena issued an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont, accusing Catalonia’s former president of organizing the vote on secession in October last year.

The independence referendum, called by Puigdemont despite objections from Madrid, triggered an unprecedented political standoff between Catalonia and Spain. Puigdemont used the yes vote as a base to make a declaration of independence on October 27, prompting Madrid to dismantle his government and the regional chamber, where he made the declaration.

Following the referendum vote, Puigdemont fled to Belgium to avoid prosecution on charges of sedition and rebellion. A number of his ministers, along with senior regional authorities, have been jailed or freed on bail over similar charges.

The new Catalan parliament was formed after snap elections in December in which pro-independence parties, like that of Puigdemont’s, retained their majority.

While separatist parties won Catalonia’s regional elections, they have been unable to form a government for the region as numerous leaders are in exile abroad or in jail.

Puigdemont to appear in court on Monday

Later on Sunday, Spanish court officials said Puigdemont would appear before a judge on Monday after he was detained by German police on a European arrest warrant issued by Spain.

“The sole purpose of this appearance is to verify the identity of the person arrested. The regional tribunal of Schleswig-Holstein in the town of Schleswig will then have to decide if Mr. Puigdemont has to be taken into custody” in view of handing him over to Spain, the court was quoted by AFP as saying.

Source: Presstv

Former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi has announced his resignation as leader of the ruling center-left Democratic Party (PD) after suffering a crushing defeat in the country’s general election.

“I will obviously step down as leader of the Democratic Party,” Renzi told reporters at PD’s headquarters in Rome on Monday, after the party obtained just under 20 percent of the vote and delivered its worst result since its creation in 2007.

The center-left party came in the third place with 115-155 seats, trailing former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition Forza Italia (Go Italy) with 37 percent of support and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement with 31 percent.

Renzi also noted that his party would refrain from any coalition talks led by the anti-immigrant League Party and the Five Star.

“The Italian people have asked us to be in opposition and that is where we will go,” he said.” We will never form a government with anti-system forces.”

More than 30 million Italian people took to the polls on Sunday to cast their ballots in general election that would determine the makeup of the country’s parliament and its next government amid concerns over immigration and the economy.

Under a new law passed last year, each party needed at least 40 percent of the votes to command an overall majority of the seats in both chambers of parliament.

Exit polls showed that Italy was set for hung parliament as none of the three main parties had enough seats to govern alone.

According to reports, Italian President Sergio Mattarella is not expected to open formal coalition talks until early April.

Source: Presstv

Italians are taking to the polls to cast their ballots in general elections that would determine the makeup of the country’s parliament and its next government.

Polling stations opened at 07:00 local time (0600 GMT) and will close at 23:00 (2200 GMT) on Sunday, with more than 30 million people eligible to vote.

The voters will choose members of both chambers of the parliament, including 630 members of the Chamber of Deputies and the 315 members of the Senate.

The anti-establishment Five Star Movement, the ruling Democratic Party, and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition Forza Italia (Go Italy) are the main rivals in the Sunday general elections.

The 81-year-old ex-PM cannot hold public office due to a tax fraud conviction but has allied himself with the anti-immigrant League Party to be able to compete in the race.

Under a new law passed last year, roughly a third of the seats are to be selected by the direct “first-past-the-post” system, with the remainder to be selected by proportional outcomes divided among allied parties and coalitions.

Each party would need at least 40 percent of the votes to command an overall majority of the seats in both chambers of the parliament.

Opinion polls have indicated that Berlusconi’s coalition is in the lead but will not win an outright majority, and Five Star has been widely projected by pollsters to emerge as the single biggest party. The ruling center-left Democratic Party, led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi, is predicted to finish in third place.

The general elections are held amid concerns over immigration and the economy.

The International Organization for Migration (IMO) says more than 600,000 refugees and asylum seekers have made perilous journeys from Libya across the Mediterranean to reach Italy since 2013. The huge influx of refugees has worried many Italians and politicians, triggering violent clashes between far-right supporters and anti-fascist protesters.

Italy’s economy index is almost six percent lower than a decade ago, and some 18 million people are at risk of poverty, with unemployment standing at 11 percent.

Experts and analysts have expressed optimism that the Sunday general elections under the new system will pave the way for reforms to create an economy boost and a hike in the employment rate in the European country.

The official results of the elections are expected to be released in the early hours of Monday.

Source: Presstv

French prosecutors have filed charges against far-right leader Marine le Pen over a series of tweets showing gruesome executions by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

A judicial source said Thursday that Le Pen was being investigated over suspicions of disseminating violent images.

The embarrassing tweets were posted in December 2015 and contained three graphic images of Daesh beheading American journalist James Foley.

The investigation comes as Le Pen prepares to present her plans for a restructuring of her National Front party in its annual congress next week. Le Pen lost to Emmanuel Macron during last year’s presidential election despite huge anticipations for her victory.

The probe is not expected to cost Le Pen her popularity among National Front loyalists although it could further affect her approval rating among the public.

Le Pen, who had described the investigation in its earlier stages as a “political interference,” said Thursday the probe was a sign the political establishment was trying to silence her.

“If they are trying to silence me, they will not succeed,” she said.

Le Pen and her party face other investigations into their financial conduct. In one case, the National Front is accused of paying parliamentary assistants from the European Union funds. There is also a probe into how the party has financed the past election campaigns.

Under the French judicial law, if a person is placed under formal investigation, like the one Le Pen is involved in over Daesh tweets, the person could be sent to trial. If Le Pen is convicted of the charges, she could face a maximum sentence of several years in jail and a 75,000 euro fine.

Source: Presstv

Germany’s Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, has called for new election if the members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) say “No” to a new coalition with the conservative bloc.

The SPD’s 464,000 members are voting in a postal ballot on whether to approve a power-sharing deal with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany party (CDU) and the CSU. The CDU/CSU bloc and the SPD have been coalition partners since 2013.

The result of the vote will be announced on Sunday.

Merkel was forced into coalition talks with the SPD after negotiations with two lesser-known parties failed last November following inconclusive general elections in September.

“If the second attempt at a government now fails, then we should have new elections,” the leader of the CSU, Horst Seehofer, told journalists in Munich on Wednesday, stressing that he was against a minority government.

Top officials from the CDU, CSU and SPD are scheduled to meet on Thursday, before the SPD vote ends, to settle outstanding issues on the formation of a coalition government, according to party sources.

The SPD members have until Friday to submit their votes.

The coalition deal between Merkel and the SPD came earlier in February, after weeks of tough negotiations, which saw Merkel relinquish the key ministry of finance to the coalition partners while offering other concessions over issues of immigration, health and tax.

Source: Presstv

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says Edinburgh will refuse to agree to London’s planned Brexit deal with the European Union, arguing that the exit bill would undermine the whole foundation on which the UK devolution system was built.

Sturgeon made the announcement in an interview with BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, a day after the British government said it expected to reach an agreement with the devolved nations – Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales – on how power would be shared after the Britain’s separation from the 28-member bloc.

“We are simply trying to protect the powers that the Scottish Parliament already has – things like agriculture, fishing, environmental policy, food standards, justice and health. These are all currently responsibilities of the Scottish Parliament,” Sturgeon said.

“At the moment we have to exercise those powers within the confines of European law, but after Brexit, in terms of the devolution settlement, those powers should return to the Scottish Parliament and it should be up to us how we exercise them,” she added.

The Scottish first minister criticized the settlement and said London was trying to use the issue of Brexit in order to take control of devolved powers with the consent of the parliament in Edinburgh.

“Westminster effectively wants to be able to impose uniformity in these areas and that’s not acceptable in terms of the broad sweep and fundamentals of the devolution settlement,” Sturgeon said. “What the Withdrawal Bill seeks to do is restrict and constrain the ability of the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly to legislate in these devolved areas.”

Sturgeon noted that it is “very likely” the Scottish Parliament will not give consent to the exit bill unless the UK government changes its mind.

London needs a deal before the summer in order to pass the EU exit bill in the national parliament.

Sturgeon also warned on Tuesday that she retains “a mandate” to hold a second independence referendum if London tries to impose its will on Scotland.

In the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum, 52 percent, or 17.4 million people, voted to leave the EU while 48 percent, or 16 million, voted to stay.

The British government has faced fierce criticism both at home and by the EU for its lack of clarity on its Brexit strategy.

The uncertainty has raised fears that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a trade deal, incurring heavy costs on its domestic economy.

Last month, Sturgeon accused the British government of a “reckless and irresponsible approach” in the negotiations so far, arguing London had entered talks with unachievable aims.

London and Brussels are due to move on to the next stage of Brexit negotiations this year, after reaching agreement in December on exit terms.

Source: Presstv

German chancellor Angela Merkel has named a key opponent of her centrist ideas as a minister in her cabinet for a fourth term in office.

Merkel said she would appoint Jens Spahn as health minister in her new government if a coalition deal with center-left Social Democrats (SPD) is finalized.

The 37-year-old Spahn, a leading advocate of sharper conservative profile, is known for his fierce criticism of Merkel’s moderate centrist approach, especially the one Merkel applied in talks with the SPD to reach a coalition deal.

Merkel hopes a congress of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) would on Monday sign off on the deal with the SPD which should also pass the major hurdle of gaining the approval of the congress of SPD members on March 4 before it goes into action.

Senior figures from Merkel’s CDU hailed the chancellor’s decision to include people like Spahn in a future cabinet, saying it was a sign Merkel had a desire to tolerate critics in her fourth term in office.

“It’s a good sign because he is a dedicated politician who has shown for years that he is acting in the interests of this country … He will certainly be a good health minister,” said Michael Kretschmer, a member of the CDU’s right wing and leader of Germany’s state of Saxony.

In a bid to quell surging discontent in the right wing of the CDU ahead of the Monday congress, Merkel also appointed newcomers like 45-year-old Julia Kloeckner as agriculture minister; 46-year-old Anja Karliczek as education minister and 45-year-old Helge Braun as her new chief of staff.

However, Merkel stood firm with loyalists like Ursula von der Leyen, the mother of seven who would be reappointed as defense minister and also close ally Peter Altmaier who would serve as minister of economy.

Based on the coalition deal reached this month, Merkel and the CDU would have six positions to fill in the future cabinet as she should relinquish the influential portfolio of finance ministry to the SPD.

Source: Presstv

A new opinion poll shows that French President Emmanuel Macron’s approval rating has fallen to below 50 percent, its lowest level since October last year.

The results of the survey by Ifop, the French Institute of Public Opinion, published on Sunday revealed that only 44 percent of the respondents approved of Macron’s performance.

The results showed a 6-percentage-point decline compared to those of a previous poll in January and also marked the lowest approval rating for the French president since October last year, when it stood at 42 percent.

The Sunday poll was conducted from February 7 to 17.

The French government earlier this month announced plans to shake up the country’s costly civil service and modernize the public sector despite opposition. France already has one of the highest public spending ratios in the world.

French Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin said a voluntary redundancy plan for government employees could be a possible move.

Macron won the French presidency last year, and his party subsequently won a commanding majority in parliamentary elections. Macron’s pro-Europe, pro-business party controls 309 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly. It recently lost two by-elections.

Source: Presstv

The centrist party of French President Emmanuel Macron has lost two by-elections for parliamentary seats, its first losses since a landslide victory last year.

Two lower house seats were won by the conservative Republican Party on Sunday.

One of the conservatives was re-elected in the Belfort 1 constituency in the east of the country with 58.93 percent of the votes, against 41.07 percent for the candidate supported by Macron’s party, the Republic on the Move.

The second seat was lost by Macron’s candidate in the Val d’Oise area north of Paris.

Macron’s pro-Europe, pro-business party still controls 309 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.

Other parties, including the far-right National Front, had been eliminated in the first round of elections last Sunday.

The new leader of the conservative Republican Party, Laurent Wauquiez, who is also a hard-hitting critic of the president, described the results of the by-elections as “a blow which severely punishes the government’s policies.”

Wauquiez said that the impact of the government’s policies “on the ground is being judged harshly by our fellow citizens: tax rises for the middle class and pensioners and an unprecedented explosion in immigration and crime.”

He also accused Macron of being out of touch with rural France. Macron has formerly dismissed the accusations.

Macron won the presidency last year, and his party subsequently won a commanding majority in parliamentary elections.

Source: Presstv

UK Prime Minister Theresa May says European Union citizens arriving in Britain during its post-Brexit transition period should not be afforded the same rights as those who arrived earlier.

The embattled premier appears set for a clash with EU negotiators after telling reporters on a trip to China that “there is a difference between those who came prior to us leaving and those who will come when they know the UK is leaving.”

She added that the status of such EU citizens would be “a matter for negotiation” when Britain meets with EU officials again in March to set the terms of the transition period, which is expected to last around two years after Britain officially exits the bloc in March 2019.

Brussels on Monday warned London that “citizens’ rights during the transition are not negotiable.”

The European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt said that “for the transition to work” there could not be “two sets of rights for EU citizens.”

That would mean the continuation of free movement and citizens’ rights for EU nationals residing in the UK during the Brexit transition, an arrangement that would cause anger among pro-Brexit lawmakers and ministers within May’s Conservative Party.

Deputy Brexit Secretary Robin Walker on Thursday insisted that Britain would not accept such an agreement.

“The citizens’ rights agreement reached in December does give certainty about the rights of EU citizens already here going forward but this agreement does not cover those who are arriving after we leave the EU,” he told Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons.

The EU and UK negotiated an agreement in December that safeguards the rights of EU citizens who arrive in Britain before it leaves the bloc next year, giving reciprocal protections for British citizens living in the EU.

The agreement allows those who have lived continuously in Britain for five years to be able to apply for settled status, while others will be able to remain in order to build-up five years’ continuous residence.

The British government has faced fierce criticism both at home and by the EU for its lack of clarity on its Brexit strategy.

The uncertainty has raised fears that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a trade deal, incurring heavy costs on domestic economy.

Source: Presstv