Far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron have advanced to France’s presidential runoff scheduled for May 7. According to the preliminary results released late on Sunday, the two candidates are engaged in a close race as a spokesman for defeated candidate, François Fillon, says he has suffered ‘huge disappointment’. French interior ministry says with 33.2 million votes counted, Macron is leading with 23.11 percent of the votes and Le Pen with 23.08 percent. According to AFP, if this result is finally approved, it would put the eurosceptic, anti-immigration Le Pen within striking distance of the presidency in the forthcoming election.

Nearly 47 million voters cast their ballots on Sunday under tight security to decide whether to back a pro-EU centrist newcomer, a scandal-ridden veteran conservative who wants to slash public spending, a far-left eurosceptic admirer of Fidel Castro, or a first woman president who would shut borders to refugees and ditch the euro.

The final outcome of the French presidential poll is being anxiously monitored around the world as a sign of whether the populist tide that saw Britain vote to leave the EU and Donald Trump’s election in the United States is still rising or starting to ebb. Emmanuel Macron, 39, is a centrist ex-banker, who set up his party just a year ago. Before Sunday election, he was the opinion polls’ favorite to win the first round and beat Le Pen.

Months of campaigning has been marred by scandals, which have left many voters agonizing over their choice. A survey from Harris Interactive estimated the final abstention rate at 21.5 percent, while one from Ifop-Fiducial for Paris Match and CNews put the abstention rate at 19 percent.

The abstention rate was 20.52 percent in 2012, according to Interior Ministry figures. About 50,000 police and 7,000 soldiers have been deployed around France to protect voters in the wake of a policeman’s killing on Thursday.

France’s ultra-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has highlighted themes such as immigration and national identity to excite her supporters at a Paris rally as she leads a tight race with her three top rivals.

The Monday rally came as the country’s unpredictable presidential campaign neared its finish just a week before the first-round polls will be held to narrow the field of 11 to a May 7 runoff vote between the top two vote getters.

Le Pen is competing with independent centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron for the lead in polls, while hard-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative Francois Fillon begin to close the gap.

According to the latest polls, Macron and Le Pen currently lead polls with 22 and 23 percent respectively, while Melenchon and Fillon follow behind with 19 and 21 percent, meaning that they all have a chance to reach the runoff since as many as a third of eligible voters reportedly remain undecided.

During her speech at the rally, Le Pen — who claims France has been subjugated by the European Union and waves of immigration – described the upcoming vote as “historical.”

“What is being played next Sunday is an issue of civilization,” she said, vowing to end the borderless Schengen Treaty so France can control its frontiers and thus stop both immigration and “the terrorist threat.”

“We opened the door of the house of France to the mafia, to terrorists who quickly understood the benefits they could get from our incredible powerlessness and send their soldiers of hate among the migrant flows to hit our country in the heart,” Le pen said.

Clashes broke out between riot police and scores of opponents of Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Front Party ahead of her rally, delaying its start. Demonstrators also threw rocks at police forces, who in turn fired tear gas.

Macron, the former economy minister in the Socialist government and one-time investment banker, pledged an “open, confident, winning France” in contrast with his far-right and far-left rivals.

Melenchon, who is enjoying a late poll surge, also campaigned on a barge floating through the canals of Paris on Monday as conservative candidate Francois Fillon took his tough-on-security campaign to the southern French city of Nice, which suffered a bloody truck attack last year.

Meanwhile, Fillon’s austerity-focused campaign has been damaged by accusations that he misused taxpayer funds to pay his wife and children for government jobs that they allegedly did not perform. French investigators are probing the allegations as Fillon denies any wrongdoing.

The Socialists’ campaign has suffered from internal divisions as well as the dismal image of Socialist President Francois Hollande, who remains so unpopular that he is not seeking a second term.

France’s presidential race is being closely watched internationally as a key gauge of populist sentiment, mainly promoted by Le Pen, with her nationalist program presented under the slogan “In the Name of the People.”

Presstv

Top European officials have reacted to the recent referendum in Turkey by calling on Ankara to choose its next steps carefully and seek broader consensus in implementing constitutional reforms. Turkey held a referendum on a package of constitutional changes on Sunday. Later in the day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had campaigned heavily for a “Yes” vote, declared victory.

The reforms will change Turkey’s parliamentary system into a presidential one; the office of the prime minister will be abolished; the president will appoint the cabinet and an undefined number of vice-presidents, and will be able to select and remove senior civil servants without parliamentary approval.

The changes would also potentially keep Erdogan in power until 2029. He has already been there since 2003. Erdogan said after the voting that 51.5 percent of the voters — 25 million people — had supported the reforms. Yet, almost as many people were opposed to them, meaning that an all-encompassing alteration in Turkish politics would proceed to take effect in spite of opposition from almost half of the electorate.

Pointing to that aspect of the vote, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in a joint statement called “on the Turkish authorities to seek the broadest possible national consensus” in the implementation of the reforms. The Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member, also issued a statement on Sunday, saying that, “In view of the close result, the Turkish leadership should consider the next steps carefully.”

“It is of utmost importance to secure the independence of the judiciary in line with the principle of rule of law enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights,” said the Council’s Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland. He said the Council “stands ready to support the country [Turkey] in this process.”

The European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, Kati Piri, also described the reforms as “a major shift away from European values.” “Erdogan’s autocratic behavior has deeply polarized Turkish society and harmed the economy,” she said. The final results of the referendum will be announced in about 10 days after objections have been considered. The Turkish opposition has already challenged the results, saying it would want some 60 percent of the ballots recounted.

Erdogan has called the referendum results “very significant” because, according to him, it was the first time change was being brought about peacefully and not through military coups, a regular feature of decades of Turkish politics. But a population almost evenly divided over the constitutional changes could prove difficult to govern, which would in turn provide a basis for political violence.

Three people were killed in a gunfight between two groups at a school that was being used as polling station in the southeastern province of Diyarbaki on Sunday. The shootout erupted after the two groups of relatives started arguing over political disagreements during the voting, reports said. Erdogan himself survived a coup in July last year. He has since been overseeing a crackdown on putschists and their sympathizers. Some 47,000 people have been detained and 120,000 fired or suspended from their jobs in the purge. Turkey has been under a state of emergency since that coup attempt.

Source: Presstv

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for stronger ties with France in order to ensure the European Union’s future a day after Britain triggered the formal process of leaving the bloc. Steinmeier visited Paris on Thursday on his first foreign trip as president since he was elected last month. He met French President Francois Hollande to discuss the path forward after the Brexit vote.

“I’m glad that the Germans and the French are ready to keep moving forward side by side,” he said in a joint statement with Hollande. “Whether we want it or not, Germany and France will have to assume a greater responsibility … to build Europeans’ hopes,” Steinmeier added.  For his part, Hollande said the two countries needed to move forward “arm in arm” to create “the Europe of tomorrow”.

Hollande warned against “the trap of nationalism” that EU counties faced, adding that the members needed to show greater commitment to EU solidarity. The two European heavyweights are encountering new challenges after Britain’s exit from the European Union.  On Thursday, Hollande told UK Prime Minister Theresa May on behalf of the 27 remaining EU member states that the conditions of the Brexit must be settled.

“First, we must begin discussions on the modalities of the withdrawal, especially on the rights of citizens and the obligations arising from the commitments that the United Kingdom has made,” Hollande told May on phone. After the conditions is settled, “we could then open discussions on the framework of the future relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union,” he said, according to a statement released by the Elysée Palace.

Downing Street, however, said it believed negotiations between London and Brussels regarding the Brexit and the conditions for future cooperation between Britain and the EU bloc “should take place in parallel.” May wrote in articles published in several European newspapers on Thursday morning that she wanted the UK’s new relationship with the EU to ensure the region’s security remained intact.

Presstv

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has triggered the formal, two-year process of withdrawing Britain from the European Union (EU), likely to be the most complex London has held since World War Two. Launching the process of Britain’s exit from the EU, popularly known as Brexit, was announced by the prime minister on Wednesday at the UK Parliament, after more than 40 years of membership in the bloc.

On behalf of May, British Ambassador to the EU Tim Barrow hand-delivered a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels to officially notify the EU of Britain’s decision to withdraw from the bloc. The six page letter invoked Article 50 of the EU Treaty, the mechanism for starting Britain’s divorce process.  In her speech to Parliament, which was planned to coincide with the letter’s delivery, May urged the country to come together as it embarks on a “momentous journey.” “The Article 50 process is now under way and in accordance with the wishes of the British people, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union,” she said. “This is a historic moment from which there can be no turning back.”

Brussels is expected to deliver its first response to London on Friday, followed by a summit of EU leaders on April 29 to adopt their own guidelines, possibly taking weeks before formal talks start. The United Kingdom held a referendum last June in which Britons voted by a 52-48 percent margin to leave the EU, the first member state ever to do so. However, there is a chance that the Brexit negotiations will break down and the UK will be forced to exit the EU without any deal in place. The EU is determined to preserve its own unity and has said that any Brexit agreement must not encourage other member states to leave the bloc.

Although Britain as whole voted to leave the EU, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay in the bloc. The Brexit referendum has prompted nationalists in Scotland and Northern Ireland to call for a referendum on independence from the United Kingdom. There is broad consensus among economists that Brexit will have a prolonged effect of the British economy and will ultimately diminish output, jobs and wealth to some degree. Many business leaders are also concerned about May’s decision to leave the EU single market, a free trade area of 500 million people, fearing its impact on jobs and economic growth.

Presstv

Scotland’s parliament has announced that it will resume its independence referendum debate next week, Tuesday. The session was suspended following Wednesday’s deadly attack in the British Parliament at Westminster in London, an incident which left four people, including a policeman and the assailant, dead and more than a dozen people injured.

Scotland’s first minister has urged lawmakers to support her plans to leave Britain. Nicola Sturgeon says remaining in the UK would jeopardize Edinburgh’s stance in Europe. Also the parliament announced that it would increase security measures with immediate effect following the attack.

“While there is no intelligence to suggest there is a specific threat to Scotland, Edinburgh or Holyrood (the devolved parliament), we have increased security with immediate effect at the Scottish Parliament as a precaution,” parliament’s chief executive office said in a statement. “We are aware of a developing situation at Westminster this afternoon and are monitoring matters very closely,” it added.

British Prime Minister Theresa May last week said she will not allow another independence vote before the Brexit negotiations as she has vowed to fight for what she has called the “precious union” of the United Kingdom. London’s permission for a new Scottish referendum is required since any legally binding vote on United Kingdom constitutional matters has to be authorized by the UK parliament. The call for a second referendum in Scotland came after Britons decided to exit the EU in last year’s vote.

Sturgeon, who argues that Scotland’s vote to keep its EU membership in last June’s referendum has been ignored in May’s Brexit arrangements so far, is seeking authority for a second referendum from the Scottish parliament, to be held in late 2018 or early 2019.

Presstv

The former president of the French National Assembly, Henri Emmanuelli has died. The news was made public on Tuesday in France. French media reports say if there is a man who will be affected by the departure of the celebrated French Socialist; it will be the former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo currently being detained at the International Criminal Court.

The former Ivorian leader constantly referred to him as my white twin and for good reason.  The two men seen here share the same date of birth. To be sure, both men were born on the 31^st of May 1945. Other affinities, more ideological ones contributed to bring the two leaders closer together.  A statement by the former Ivorian head of state through his spokesman Justin Katinan Koné is expected soonest.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The 84 year old Cameroonian dictator, Paul Biya and wife Chantal Biya shall on Monday 20^th of March 2017 begin a state visit to Italy. The visit comes at the invitation of his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella.

The Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, made public a press release stating that the visit will end on 22nd March 2017 but did not say if the CPDM Chairman will return home or jet to his second home in Swiss. President Paul Biya and his wife will be hosted in Rome – the political capital of Italy.

State radio and television reported that the visit will provide an opportunity to strengthen cooperation ties between Italy and Cameroon which came into focus a year ago when President Sergio Mattarella made a four day marathon trip to Cameroon. An agreement on visa exemption for holders of service and diplomatic passport was signed on the 17th March 2016.

CRTV

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

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