14, February 2017
Germany: Chancellor Merkel could be voted out 0
A new opinion survey in Germany suggests the country’s left-wing political parties can now gather enough votes to oust the ruling government of Chancellor Angela Merkel in September’s polls. The survey, conducted by the INSA institute and due to be published in the Bild newspaper on Tuesday, found that for the first instance “in a long time” a left-of-center coalition would gain sufficient support to force Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) out of office.
According to a report by the German daily prior to the release of the survey results, the country’s three left-leaning parties are now shown to have enough votes since the last election in 2013 to defeat rightist CDU and its sister Bavarian sister party in the next election.
In the 2013 electoral race, the leftist parties failed to form a coalition to defeat Merkel’s CDU party due to lingering opposition by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to alliances with the hard-left Linke Party. Support for all three leftist parties then dropped drastically following the 2013 poll and never recovered until this new survey.
The poll found that the SPD would win 31 percent of the vote, along with 10 percent support for the far-left Linke Party as well as seven percent of votes for the pro-environment Greens Party, adding up to a total of 48 percent and giving the edge to a leftist coalition in the September poll.
The right-wing parties, led by CDU’s 30-percent support, would then be left with 47 percent of the vote, the survey of 2,028 voters found. The remaining five percent would represent much smaller parties. Merkel, however, remains optimistic for a revival of support for her party before the fall election later in the year.
Presstv
4, March 2017
Prime Minister May says Scotland ‘obsessed’ with independence, should remain part of UK 0
British Prime Minister Theresa May has blasted Scotland’s “obsession” with independence from the UK, saying the country needs to stay united as it withdraws from the European Union. Speaking to the Scottish Tory conference in Glasgow on Friday, May said it was a “personal priority” for her to keep all devolved UK states united. “We are four nations, but at heart one people,” she said. “The Union I am determined to strengthen and sustain is one that works for working people across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”
The premier lashed out at the Scottish National Party (SNP)’s attempts to launch a new independence bid amid the Scottish Labour’s inaction. In a 2014 referendum, 55 percent of Scots voted against independence, but the discussions about the issue gained steam again following the Brexit vote.
“For too long a feeble and incompetent Scottish Labour opposition did nothing to scrutinize the SNP for their failures,” she said. “An SNP government interested only in stoking-up endless constitutional grievance and furthering their obsession with independence, at the expense of Scottish public services like the NHS and education, was given a free pass by Labour,” the PM added.
Earlier this week, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned May that she was pushing Scotland towards a new independence bid, noting that last year’s vote by 52 percent of Britons to end the UK’s membership in the European Union had changed the landscape.
This is while, Scottish voters overwhelmingly voted in last year’s EU referendum to remain a part of the 28-member bloc. Sturgeon has repeatedly asked for a “key role” for Scotland in the Brexit process, a request May has strongly turned down.
The problem grew bigger when May announced her plans for a “clean exit” from the EU, where the UK would lose its access to the EU single market against Scotland’s desire. British Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell said on February 22 that Scotland was leaving the EU whether or not it becomes an independent state.
May said in her speech that Scotland “makes a huge contribution to the UK’s global role” and should stay part of the country in today’s “changing world.”
Presstv