Macron has a new prime minister but the same old problems

Macron has a new prime minister but the same old problems
France's newly appointed Prime Minister Francois Bayrou reacts on the day of the handover ceremony at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, France, December 13, 2024. (REUTERS)
Short Url
Updated 57 sec ago
Follow

Macron has a new prime minister but the same old problems

Macron has a new prime minister but the same old problems
  • Bayrou, 73, named prime minister to replace Michel Barnier
  • Analysts expect little progress on reducing deficit

PARIS: When veteran centrist Francois Bayrou, France’s new prime minister, was education minister in the 1990s, his plan to increase subsidies for private schools led to nationwide protests. He quickly caved in and would stay in the post for four more years.
Three decades later he will face a different force in the shape of a fractured and fractious parliament where one of his earliest tasks — as President Emmanuel Macron’s fourth prime minister of the year — will be to pass a budget for 2025.
First he must name a government which, like that of his predecessor Michel Barnier, will have minority support in parliament and be vulnerable to attack from far-right and left-wing opponents.
The ouster of Barnier and his cabinet — the first time France’s parliament had voted to remove a government since 1962 — seemed to stun even those behind the move. For now, there is cross-party support for emergency legislation to ensure government funding does not dry up — but then the hard work on a budget for next year will begin.
“The difficulties remain the same as under Michel Barnier,” Arnaud Benedetti, a professor at the Sorbonne university, told Reuters. “At least, a motion of no-confidence doesn’t seem likely in the very short-term.”
A Macron aide said Bayrou was the “most consensual candidate able to bring people together.” Socialists said he represented more of the same.
A career politician, Bayrou, 73, was the torch-bearer of centrism until Macron reshaped the political landscape in 2017, dynamiting the traditional mainstream parties in a campaign Bayrou rallied behind.
Bayrou has in the past talked tough on the risks posed by France’s rising debt pile.
He did so again on Friday, saying the country’s debt was a “moral problem” as much as a financial one. “I hear your warning on the seriousness of the situation and I agree,” he told Barnier.
But he has placed a high value on keeping the peace, whether with the unions, lawmakers or the myriad of powerful vested interests in France.
Keeping the peace in a National Assembly dominated by three warring factions will be nigh-on impossible, however.
Lawmakers’ pushback over the 2025 budget bill led to Barnier’s downfall and left-wing leaders say they may try to topple Bayrou should he also use special constitutional powers to ram through the budget without a vote in parliament.
“Bringing onboard demands from opposition parties may be fiscally costly and the degree of fiscal consolidation may be limited next year as a result,” said JP Morgan’s Raphael Brun-Aguerre in a note.
Far-rights budget red lines endure
Through the week Macron held talks with party chiefs spanning the center-right Republicans to the Communists.
He appealed to all ‘Republican forces’ to unite but opted to resist Socialist Party calls to appoint a premier from within their ranks, unwilling to risk unwinding reforms that liberalized the euro zone’s second-largest economy and placed the pension system on a more financially sound footing.
Even so, the president’s 2023 pension reform will remain in his opponents’ crosshairs.
“Our red lines remain,” Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally told reporters shortly after Bayrou was named. Those red lines include indexing pensions to inflation throughout 2025.
One opinion poll this week showed that 35 percent-38 percent of voters intended to support Bardella’s boss, Marine Le Pen, in the next presidential election due in 2027 — a level not seen before for the far-right leader and putting her in the lead.
Furthermore, even if Bayrou’s political opponents do not get in the way, the challenges for his future government will be immense.
It will need to reduce the budget deficit from a projected 6.1 percent for 2024 whilst keeping protest-prone trade unions at bay, increasing military spending for Ukraine and finding ways to support an ailing industrial sector.
Barnier had promised to bring the deficit down with tax rises for the wealthy and for big companies, as well as a curbs on the planned rise in pension payments. But these measures fell by the wayside when his government was toppled.
Former finance minister Bruno Le Maire, who has been grilled by lawmakers investigating his role in France’s failure to curb its deficit, gave a scathing indictment of parliament.
“This assembly taxes, spends, censors,” he said. “It has long lost any sense of economic and budget realities.”


Bangladesh inquiry recommends feared police unit shut

Bangladesh inquiry recommends feared police unit shut
Updated 14 sec ago
Follow

Bangladesh inquiry recommends feared police unit shut

Bangladesh inquiry recommends feared police unit shut

DHAKA: A Bangladesh commission probing abuses during the rule of toppled leader Sheikh Hasina has recommended a much-feared armed police unit be disbanded, a senior inquiry member said Sunday.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to neighboring India on August 5 as a student-led uprising stormed the prime minister’s palace in Dhaka.
Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of hundreds of political opponents and the unlawful abduction and disappearance of hundreds more.
The Commission of Inquiry into Enforced Disappearances, set up by the caretaker government, said it found initial evidence that Hasina and other ex-senior officials were involved in the enforced disappearances alleged to have been carried out by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).
The RAB paramilitary police force was sanctioned by the United States in 2021, alongside seven of its senior officers, in response to reports of its culpability in some of the worst rights abuses committed during Hasina’s 15-year-long rule.
“RAB has never abided by the law and was seldom held accountable for its atrocities, which include enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and abductions,” Nur Khan Liton, a member of the commission, told AFP.
The commission handed its preliminary report to the leader of the interim government Muhammad Yunus late Saturday.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of the country’s largest political parties, also called for RAB’s abolition.
Senior BNP leader M. Hafizuddin Ahmed told reporters that the force was too rotten to be reformed.
“When a patient suffers from gangrene, according to medical studies, the only solution is to amputate the affected organ,” he said.
The elite police unit was launched in 2004, billed as a way to provide rapid results in a country where the judicial system was notoriously slow.
But the unit earned a grim reputation for extrajudicial killings and was accused of supporting Hasina’s political ambitions by suppressing dissent through abductions and murders.


Australia says ‘Bali Nine’ prisoners have returned home

Australia says ‘Bali Nine’ prisoners have returned home
Updated 59 min 20 sec ago
Follow

Australia says ‘Bali Nine’ prisoners have returned home

Australia says ‘Bali Nine’ prisoners have returned home

SYDNEY: The five remaining members of the Australian “Bali Nine” drug ring have returned home after 19 years in jail in Indonesia, the Australian government said Sunday.
Indonesian police arrested the nine Australians in 2005, convicting them of attempting to smuggle more than eight kilograms (18 pounds) of heroin off the holiday island of Bali.
In a case that drew global attention to Indonesia’s unforgiving drug laws, two of the gang would eventually be executed by firing squad, while others served hefty prison sentences.
“The Australian Government can confirm that Australian citizens, Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen, and Michael Czugaj have returned to Australia,” Canberra said in a statement.
“The men will have the opportunity to continue their personal rehabilitation and reintegration in Australia.”
Accused ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed by firing squad in 2015 despite repeated pleas from the Australian government.
Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen died of cancer in 2018, months before Renae Lawrence was released after her sentence was commuted.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had thanked Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto for his government’s cooperation on the men’s return.
“Australia shares Indonesia’s concern about the serious problem illicit drugs represents,” Albanese said in a statement.
“The Government will continue to cooperate with Indonesia to counter narcotics trafficking and transnational crime.”
The Australian government did not give further details on the agreement with Jakarta, including whether they would need to continue to serve their sentences following their return home.
The Indonesian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Australian government said it had consistently advocated for the men and provided consular support to them and their families during their incarceration.
It asked the media to respect their privacy following their return.
Muslim-majority Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, including the death penalty for traffickers.
It is not uncommon for foreigners to be arrested for drug offenses in Bali, which attracts millions of visitors to its palm-fringed beaches every year.
The release of the Australians follows weeks of speculation that a deal for their return was in the works.
In November, a senior Indonesian minister said Jakarta aimed to return prisoners from Australia, France and the Philippines by the end of this year.
Earlier this month, Indonesia signed an agreement with the Philippines for the return of mother of two Mary Jane Veloso, who was arrested in 2010 after the suitcase she was carrying was found to be lined with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin.
Her supporters claim she was duped by an international drug syndicate, and in 2015, she narrowly escaped execution after her suspected recruiter was arrested.
France last month requested the return of its citizen, Serge Atlaoui, a welder arrested in 2005 in a drugs factory outside Jakarta, according to a senior Indonesian minister.
 


Francis makes first visit by a pope to Corsica

Francis makes first visit by a pope to Corsica
Updated 15 December 2024
Follow

Francis makes first visit by a pope to Corsica

Francis makes first visit by a pope to Corsica
  • Tens of thousands of people are expected to welcome Pope Francis in Ajaccio
  • Around 90 percent of Corsica’s 350,000 inhabitants are Catholic

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis will visit Corsica, a stronghold of the Catholic faith, on Sunday, with locals hotly anticipating the first-ever trip by a pontiff to the French Mediterranean island.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to welcome Francis in Ajaccio, capital of what is popularly known as the “Ile de Beaute” (Island of Beauty).
The city was already decked out Saturday in decorations in the papal colors, yellow and white, while cars had been banished from central streets with parking bans.
Around 2,000 police reinforcements were sent to Ajaccio to beef up security.
Francis, 87, is expected to arrive around 9:00 a.m. (0800 GMT) and leave just after 6:00 p.m., the Vatican said.
His short trip, based around a congress on faith in the Mediterranean region, comes just a week after he snubbed the re-opening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris five years after a devastating fire.
The relaunch was attended by a long list of bigwigs, royalty and world leaders, including US President-elect Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Francis declined the French government’s invitation to attend.
But he agreed to the Corsica trip hosted by the island’s popular, media-savvy cardinal, 56-year-old Francois-Xavier Bustillo.
“Corsica has been preparing to host (Francis) for a long time,” Bustillo said this week.
Although “it’s a poor diocese... we’ll manage a welcome worthy of the pope” thanks to donations from businesses and individual churchgoers, he added.
Corsica’s prefect Jerome Filippini said that the visit would also cost the French state “several million euros” over its few hours.
Workers have repainted the facade of Ajaccio’s Notre-Dame de l’Assomption cathedral and built a wheelchair ramp for Francis, who has limited mobility, to enter by its main door.
New pews have been delivered and yellow-and-white flags hung behind the altar.
Near the cathedral, a colorful street-art style fresco by Ajaccio artists shows Francis in front of stained-glass windows and a map of Corsica.
Francis, who will turn 88 two days after his trip, will make two speeches and celebrate mass at an open-air theater.
He is also expected to greet the crowds from his Popemobile in Ajaccio’s streets.
“We’re proud, it’s a privilege for (the pope) to come here rather than Paris,” said Paule Negroni, a 52-year-old bookshop owner.
Around 90 percent of Corsica’s 350,000 inhabitants are Catholic, according to the local Church.
Francis “comes to see poor people and children, he’s very popular,” said Helene Politi, who will be one of 250 people singing for Francis at mass.
The pope has made several visits around the Mediterranean, from the Greek island of Lesbos to Malta and Sicily.
The sea embodies several of the priorities of his papacy, chief among them inter-religious dialogue and welcoming migrants.
But this is the first visit by a pope to Corsica, a French region with a distinctive identity, fierce independence movement and a special constitutional status currently under discussion between Paris and local elected officials.
It is Francis’s third visit to France as pope, after eastern city Strasbourg in 2014 and Mediterranean port Marseille last year — although none has been an official state visit to the country.
Some have seen a sign of his disapproval for French policy changes away from Church doctrine during his papacy, including gay marriage and an ongoing public debate about assisted dying.
There have been expressions of disappointment among French Catholics that he stayed away from Notre Dame’s grand reopening.
Francis’s defenders highlight that the pontiff, concerned with the world’s marginal people, largely shuns capital cities and sumptuous receptions.
Born in Argentina, he has never visited Spain, Britain or Germany as pope.
Even in the Vatican, he prefers closed-door audiences with pilgrims, homeless people or migrants to meetings with the powerful.
Francis is expected to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron just before his departure.
Recent health problems have not kept the pope from looking in good form in recent months.
The Corsica trip will be his 47th since his 2013 election and the third in 2024.
“I saw him on Saturday (December 7). He’s in good shape and happy to be coming,” cardinal Bustillo said.


South Korea’s acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after impeachment

South Korea’s acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after impeachment
Updated 15 December 2024
Follow

South Korea’s acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after impeachment

South Korea’s acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after impeachment
  • Main opposition party will not seek to impeach South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo
  • Han was elevated to acting president while Yoon Suk Yeol’s case moves to the Constitutional Court

SEOUL: South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, moved on Sunday to reassure the country’s allies and calm financial markets a day after President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and suspended from his duties over a martial law attempt.
Han spoke with US President Joe Biden by phone, the White House and Han’s office said.
“South Korea will carry out its foreign and security policies without disruption and strive to ensure the South Korea-US alliance is maintained and developed steadfastly,” Han said, according to a statement from his office.
In a further attempt to stabilize the country’s leadership, the main opposition party announced it would not seek to impeach Han for his involvement in Yoon’s Dec. 3 martial law decision.
“Given that the prime minister has already been confirmed as acting president and considering that excessive impeachments could lead to confusion in national governance, we have decided not to proceed with impeachment procedures,” Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung told reporters.
Han, a longtime technocrat picked by Yoon as prime minister, was elevated to acting president in accordance with the constitution while Yoon’s case moves to the Constitutional Court.
NORTH KOREAN THREAT
Yoon’s surprise martial law declaration and the ensuing political crisis spooked markets and South Korea’s diplomatic partners worried over the country’s ability to deter nuclear-armed North Korea.
Biden told Han the ironclad US-South Korea alliance remained unchanged and Washington would work with Seoul to further develop and strengthen the alliance as well as trilateral cooperation including neighbor Japan, Han’s office said.
The White House said in a statement that the US president “expressed his appreciation for the resiliency of democracy and the rule of law in the ROK and reaffirmed the ironclad commitment of the United States to the people of the ROK,” using the abbreviation for the country’s formal name, the Republic of Korea.
“President Biden expressed his confidence that the Alliance will remain the linchpin for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region during Acting President Han’s tenure.”
Han convened his cabinet and National Security Council shortly after Saturday’s impeachment vote and vowed to maintain military readiness to prevent any breach of national security.
South Korea’s partners wanted to see a credible and constitutional temporary leadership put in place as soon as possible, said Philip Turner, a former New Zealand ambassador to South Korea.
“They will be pleased to see Prime Minister Han take over as acting president,” he said. “He is capable, experienced and well respected in foreign capitals.”
But even with an acting president in place, international partners face months of uncertainty before a new president can be elected and a new government established, Turner added.
The Constitutional Court has up to six months to decide whether to remove or reinstate Yoon. If he is removed or resigns, a new election will be held within 60 days.
“During that time Korea’s highly competent professional bureaucracy can be relied on to keep the country’s foreign policy running, but they will find it hard to provide clear direction,” Turner said.


UK officially joins Indo-Pacific trade bloc 

UK officially joins Indo-Pacific trade bloc 
Updated 15 December 2024
Follow

UK officially joins Indo-Pacific trade bloc 

UK officially joins Indo-Pacific trade bloc 
  • Officials hope membership will boost Britain’s flagging economy by £2.0 billion a year
  • Created in 2018, alliance has been seen as a bulwark against Chinese dominance

LONDON: Britain on Sunday became the first European nation to join a major Indo-Pacific trading bloc, in what has been hailed as the country’s biggest trade deal since Brexit.

The UK is officially now the 12th member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The UK formally signed the accession treaty last year.

Officials hope membership will boost Britain’s flagging economy by as much as £2.0 billion ($2.5 billion) a year.

According to government figures, the value of UK total trade in the 12 months to the end of September was £1.7 trillion.

The alliance comprises fellow G7 members Canada and Japan, plus long-standing allies Australia and New Zealand, alongside Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Created in 2018, it has been seen as a bulwark against Chinese dominance in the region, although Beijing has applied to join.

The bloc, which accounts for about 15 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP), will give British businesses trade access to a market of more than 500 million people.

The previous Conservative government signed Britain up in July 2023, with then Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch calling it “the biggest trade deal” since the UK left the European Union.

Britain has secured a number of post-Brexit trade deals, including with Australia, New Zealand and Singapore since it left the EU’s single market at the start of 2021.

It is also pursuing one with Gulf countries, and last month Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that Britain and India are to resume stalled talks to agree a free trade deal.

A much sought-after trade deal with the United States remains elusive and could become even less likely when Donald Trump enters the White House in January.

A deal with Canada has also failed to materialize.