Sri Lanka’s new leftist president takes office with economic recovery at stake

Special Sri Lanka’s new leftist president takes office with economic recovery at stake
Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, right, attends his swearing-in ceremony, in Colombo. (AFP/SRI LANKA PRESIDENT’S OFFICE)
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Updated 25 September 2024
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Sri Lanka’s new leftist president takes office with economic recovery at stake

Sri Lanka’s new leftist president takes office with economic recovery at stake
  • Anura Kumara Dissanayake won election with over 5.7 million votes
  • He now faces challenge of reforming political, economic systems, expert says

COLOMBO: Leftist lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office as Sri Lanka’s ninth president on Monday, promising clean politics and a commitment to face daunting challenges as the island nation reels from its worst economic crisis in more than 70 years.

The 55-year-old ran as head of the Marxist-leaning National People’s Power coalition and with more than 5.7 million votes defeated opposition leader Sajith Premadasa after a historic second round of counting.

Almost 80 percent of the 17 million eligible voters cast their ballots on Saturday for the first election held since 2022, when Sri Lanka’s financial collapse spurred mass protests and drove former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from power.

Dissanayake, who lacks the political lineage of some of his rivals in the election, gained support from voters angry at the country’s political elite, whom they blame for plunging the economy into crisis.

“I understand that we are inheriting a country facing many daunting challenges. Our politics must be clean and the people are expecting a culture of integrity. We are ready to commit to that,” Dissanayake said during his oath-taking ceremony in Colombo.

“We are inheriting a nation in a deep crisis. This crisis cannot be overcome by a government, a political party, or an individual alone … My responsibility is to be part of a collective effort to end this crisis.”

He said Sri Lanka would need international support and that he intended to “work with other nations to benefit our country.”

His presidency comes as the South Asian nation seeks to recover from a severe economic crisis that led to shortages of essentials such as food and fuel in 2022, with many people still struggling to make ends meet because of tax hikes and cuts to subsidies and welfare.

“The Sri Lankan voters have elected him with high expectations and hopes … The public strongly believes that the new president and his team possess the capacity to navigate these critical challenges,” said Dr. Mohamed Shariff Anees, a senior lecturer in the political science department at the University of Colombo.

Popularly known as AKD, Dissanayake is Sri Lanka’s first president with a leftist background. The country’s leaders since independence have had capitalist-oriented policies or mixed economic strategies.

In the 2019 election, his NPP coalition won only 3 percent of the vote.

“Dissanayake will encounter numerous challenges in reforming the political and economic systems of the country,” Anees said.

“Economically, he must address the ongoing crisis characterized by high inflation, dwindling foreign reserves and a reliance on international aid, particularly from the IMF and friendly nations. Politically, he faces public discontent over the previous government’s austerity measures and demands for transparency and anti-corruption reforms.”

Sri Lanka’s economic recovery also relies greatly on its relations with other countries. The US, EU member states and Arab countries are top sources of its foreign income, making them crucial contributors to the economy.

Meanwhile, countries like China, Russia, Japan and India also played important roles in supporting the country through economic assistance, Anees said.

“As a small nation significantly affected by economic challenges, Sri Lanka has a high degree of economic dependency on other countries,” he said.

“It is clear that, amid ongoing globalization, Sri Lanka cannot isolate itself from the rest of the world. The country requires political and economic support from other nations.”

Sri Lanka’s close neighbors India, Pakistan and the Maldives have congratulated Dissanayake on his win, along with China, the largest bilateral creditor.

A.L.A. Azeez, Sri Lanka’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva from 2018 to 2020, said Dissanayake should seek a “comprehensive” foreign policy approach, adding that previous governments had adopted and failed with their sectoral and fragmented negotiation approach.

“The president and his team would be expected to transform the country’s relationships within the region and beyond into one of enhanced trade and economic engagement that benefits the country in the long term,” he said..


Trump picks divisive ally to lead Justice Department

Trump picks divisive ally to lead Justice Department
Updated 11 sec ago
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Trump picks divisive ally to lead Justice Department

Trump picks divisive ally to lead Justice Department

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump announced firebrand lawmaker Matt Gaetz as his pick for attorney general Wednesday, naming a fierce defender who would be well-placed to make good on the president-elect’s threats of revenge against political foes.
“Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System,” Trump posted on social media. “Matt will end Weaponized Government... and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.”
Gaetz, a Floridian and a US congressman since 2017, is among Trump’s most controversial nominations as he looks to fill out his cabinet after victory against Democrat Kamala Harris in last week’s presidential election.
Trump has called for retribution against many perceived political foes whom he baselessly accuses of wielding the might of the Justice Department against him in politically motivated prosecutions.
Democrats fear that Gaetz, 42, will help him weaponize the department to launch exactly those types of “show trial” prosecutions.
As attorney general, Gaetz would drive all aspects of the work of the Justice Department, which for years has carried out an investigation into sex trafficking and obstruction of justice allegations involving him.
Gaetz, who denies all wrongdoing, was told last year that there would be no charges against him, but he remains the subject of a House ethics investigation.
Police began looking at Gaetz as they were investigating his friend, former tax collector Joel Greenberg, who was sentenced in 2022 to a prison term of 11 years after admitting to sex trafficking a minor and other charges.
In September, Gaetz said in a statement he would no longer help congressional investigators, accusing them of leading a “political payback exercise” and calling the probe “uncomfortably nosy.”
Republican and Democratic senators immediately voiced doubts that Gaetz’s nomination would survive the confirmation process, which can involve intense questioning during difficult, fraught hearings.
Gaetz will likely only be able to lose three Republicans and still get the green light from the Senate.
CNN, citing unnamed sources reported that House Republicans were meeting behind closed doors when news of Gaetz’s nomination emerged — prompting “an audible gasp from the members in the room.”
Republican Iowa Senator Joni Ernst said Gaetz would have “his work cut out for him,” according to Scripps News, which also reported that the party’s Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said: “Do you think he’s a serious candidate? Not as far as I’m concerned.”
A third senator from the party’s political middle, Susan Collins, told reporters she was “shocked” by the announcement.
“That shows why the advice and consent process is so important, and I’m sure that there will be a lot of questions raised at his hearing.”


Students occupy defense firm Leonardo’s Turin headquarters to protest over Gaza

Students occupy defense firm Leonardo’s Turin headquarters to protest over Gaza
Updated 50 min 5 sec ago
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Students occupy defense firm Leonardo’s Turin headquarters to protest over Gaza

Students occupy defense firm Leonardo’s Turin headquarters to protest over Gaza
  • Students say company supports Israel by providing remote technical assistance and spare parts to Israel’s air force

MILAN: Around a hundred students occupied Leonardo’s Turin headquarters to denounce what they say is the Italian defense group’s complicity in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
The students, who unfurled a flag of the Palestinian territories from the roof of Leonardo’s offices, said the company was supporting Israel by providing remote technical assistance and spare parts to Israel’s air force.
Leonardo declined to comment.
Images released by the students show them in Leonardo’s offices waving Palestinian flags and carrying spray cans. Outside they hung banners on the buildings saying ‘no arms to Israel’ and accusing the group of complicity in genocide.
They also clambered on top of a plane in the grounds of the company’s headquarters.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto condemned the protest, saying on X that the students were “destroying and defacing” the offices where an “important meeting with the staff of the defense ministry” was taking place.
“These people must be treated for what they are, dangerous subversives. Criminals have no political color, they are just criminals,” he said.
Crosetto said in March that Italy had continued to export arms to Israel, despite government assurances last year that it was blocking such sales following the Israeli army’s campaign in Gaza triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
In March the minister said only previously signed orders were being honored after checks had been made to ensure the weaponry would not be used against Gazan civilians.
Through its US subsidiary, Leonardo provides Israel with aircraft and owns an Israeli radar company called RADA.
Under Italian law, arms exports are banned to countries that are waging war and those deemed to be violating international human rights.


Sri Lanka president eyes parliament win in snap election

Sri Lanka president eyes parliament win in snap election
Updated 14 November 2024
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Sri Lanka president eyes parliament win in snap election

Sri Lanka president eyes parliament win in snap election
  • The 55-year-old leader is seeking a two-thirds majority in the 225-member legislature to press ahead with reforms after the country’s economic meltdown in 2022

OLOMBO: Sri Lanka votes Thursday in a second national election in as many months with a deeply divided opposition struggling to recover from a crushing defeat at presidential polls.
The snap parliamentary election was called by the new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake — the South Asian island’s first leftist leader — after he won polls on a promise to combat graft and recover the country’s stolen assets.
Dissanayake’s party is widely tipped to sweep Thursday’s parliamentary vote with analysts saying the opposition is in disarray.
The 55-year-old leader is seeking a two-thirds majority in the 225-member legislature to press ahead with reforms after the country’s economic meltdown in 2022, when then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was ousted.
Polls for 17.1 million voters choosing between 8,800 candidates, open at 7:00 am (0130 GMT) on Thursday and close at 4:00 pm, with initial results expected Friday.
Dissanayake’s JVP, or the People’s Liberation Front, is the main constituent of the National People’s Power (NPP) coalition of professionals seeking to form the next government.
The NPP held just three seats in the outgoing assembly.
Dissanayake had been an MP for nearly 25 years and was briefly an agriculture minister, but he distanced himself from traditional politicians accused of leading the country to its worst economic crisis two years ago.
His JVP party led two insurrections in 1971 and 1987, leading to the loss of at least 80,000 lives, but Dissanayake took power peacefully in elections on September 21.
Despite previous promises to renegotiate a controversial $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout secured by his predecessor Ranil Wickremesinghe, Dissanayake has chosen to maintain the agreement with the international lender.
The country’s main private sector lobby, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, is tacitly supporting Dissanayake and expects him to press ahead with reforms.
“Continuing reforms... could encourage both investor confidence and fiscal discipline, setting a foundation for sustainable growth,” CCC Secretary Bhuwanekabahu Perera told AFP ahead of voting.
He said Dissanayake’s approach to governance “may lean toward a balanced socialist-democratic model that acknowledges market realities.”
An IMF delegation is due in Colombo on Thursday to review economic progress before releasing the next tranche of $330 million of the bailout loan.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, who had campaigned to take part in a coalition government, vowed in his final campaign rally he would “put pressure” on Dissanayake to honor promises of tax cuts.
Poll monitors and analysts note that Thursday’s election had failed to generate the level of enthusiasm — or violence — seen at previous polls.
Political analyst Kusal Perera said there was little campaigning by opposition parties.
“The opposition is dead,” Perera said. “The result of the election is a foregone conclusion.”
Over 60 senior politicians from the previous administration have opted to stay out.
The outgoing parliament was dominated by the party of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa — the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), or the People’s Front — but it has since splintered.
Rajapaksa is not contesting, but his son Namal, a former sports minister, is seeking re-election.


French prosecutors demand Marine Le Pen be barred from office in fake jobs trial

French prosecutors demand Marine Le Pen be barred from office in fake jobs trial
Updated 14 November 2024
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French prosecutors demand Marine Le Pen be barred from office in fake jobs trial

French prosecutors demand Marine Le Pen be barred from office in fake jobs trial
  • The prosecution made the request in a Paris court where Le Pen, 56, and other defendants from her National Rally party are on trial accused of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament
  • They deny the charges

PARIS: French prosecutors in the embezzlement trial of France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Wednesday demanded she get a jail sentence and a ban from public office if convicted, potentially barring her from running for president in 2027.
The prosecution made the request in a Paris court where Le Pen, 56, and other defendants from her National Rally party are on trial accused of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament. They deny the charges.
If granted by the court, the ban would exclude her from running in France’s 2027 presidential election, in what would be her fourth attempt to become head of state.
The National Rally, like other far-right parties around Europe, is riding high following a strong performance in European elections in June.
The prosecution demanded all two dozen defendants be banned from public office for five years, effective immediately after the verdict, even if the defense team appeals.
“The law applies to all,” prosecutor Nicolas Barret told the court, as Le Pen sat in the front row of the defendants’ benches.
He added that the ban would “prohibit the defendants from running in future local or national elections.”
He demanded a five-year jail sentence for Le Pen, calling for at least two years of that to be a “convertible” custodial sentence, meaning there would be a possibility of partial release.
The prosecution also demanded the RN be fined two million euros ($2.1 million) and Le Pen herself 300,000 euros.
Le Pen promptly denounced the prosecutors’ motion as excessive, branding it an “outrage” and accusing prosecutors of trying to “ruin the (RN) party.”
“I think the prosecutors’ wish is to deprive the French people of the ability to vote for who they want,” she said.
The alleged fake jobs system, which was first flagged in 2015, covers parliamentary assistant contracts between 2004 and 2016.
Prosecutors say the assistants worked exclusively for the party outside parliament.
Addressing the trial last month, Le Pen said she was innocent.
“I have absolutely no sense of having committed the slightest irregularity, or the slightest illegal act,” she told the court.
The RN’s chairman Jordan Bardella called the prosecutors’ demands on Wednesday an “assault on democracy.”
“The prosecution is not acting justly,” he wrote on X. “It is seeking to persecute and take revenge on Marine Le Pen.”
Prosecutor Louise Neyton told the court earlier in Wednesday’s hearing her team was “not here to persecute” but as the result of a “long judicial investigation.”
She and Barret presented evidence that they said showed an “organized system” of embezzlement by which the party had aimed to “save money.”
Questioned last month about how exactly she selected her presumed parliamentary aides, and what their tasks were, Le Pen gave general answers, or said she could not remember.
If convicted, Le Pen would be able to lodge an appeal.
European Parliament authorities said the legislature had lost three million euros ($3.4 million) through the jobs scheme.
The RN has paid back one million euros, which it insists is not an admission of guilt.

Decoder


Greek, Turkish coast guards to boost cooperation against migrant smuggling

Greek, Turkish coast guards to boost cooperation against migrant smuggling
Updated 13 November 2024
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Greek, Turkish coast guards to boost cooperation against migrant smuggling

Greek, Turkish coast guards to boost cooperation against migrant smuggling

ATHENS: Senior Greek and Turkish coast guard officials have agreed to boost cooperation in restricting one of the main illegal migration routes into Europe, authorities said on Wednesday.

A Greek coast guard statement said Tuesday’s meeting on Greece’s eastern Aegean Sea island of Chios was the first of its kind in five years. It’s scheduled to be followed up in Turkiye in February 2025.

The talks came amid a gradual improvement in relations between the two historic regional rivals, following a low point in 2020 that saw a spike in military tensions over offshore gas exploration rights.

The statement said the coast guard officials agreed to increase cooperation in the field as well as in exchanging intelligence on organized migrant smuggling groups.

Every year, thousands of migrants risk the short but dangerous sea journey from Turkiye’s western coast to the eastern Greek islands, mostly in small, unseaworthy boats. Coming from the Middle East, Africa or Asia, they seek a better life in the European Union.

Greece’s minister for merchant marine, Christos Stylianides, said the Chios meeting “was held in an exceptional climate and we agreed on specific practical, operational conclusions” on limiting migratory flows and tackling smugglers.

According to UN data, more than 52,000 people have entered Greece illegally so far this year, the vast majority by sea from Turkiye. The rise in numbers is largely due to a surge in people making the longer and more hazardous sea crossing from Libya, with nearly 4,000 arrivals so far from the North African country. Most head for the southern Greek island of Crete, off which on Tuesday 19 people were picked up from a small boat by a passing cargo ship.

The Greek coast guard said that one of people on the boat was arrested on suspicion of belonging to a migrant smuggling ring that had charged up to $6,500 for a berth on the vessel. It had set off from Tobruk in eastern Libya, and was at sea for two days.