Mexico president-elect meets predecessor to ready 'transformation'
AFP / PEDRO PARDONewly elected Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, running for "Juntos haremos historia" party cheers his supporters at a hotel after winning general elections, in Mexico City, on July 1, 2018
Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador lost no time Tuesday in preparing the transition to "profound change" in the country, promising to invite Pope Francis in an effort to restore peace and announcing a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The anti-establishment leftist known as "AMLO" won a resounding victory in Mexico's elections Sunday, claiming 52.96 percent of the vote, according to a near-complete count -- more than 30 points ahead of his nearest rival in the four-way race.
"We are going to invite Pope Francis," as well as "religious leaders, UN and human rights officials to bring everyone together with the goal of achieving peace in our nation," Lopez Obrador said after talks with outgoing leader Enrique Pena Nieto.
Lopez Obrador, 64, successfully tapped voters' anger over a seemingly never-ending series of corruption scandals and horrific violence that resulted in a record 25,000 murders last year.
The president-elect said he would meet Pompeo for talks which officials said would take place during a visit to Mexico by Pompeo on July 13. Pompeo will also meet Pena Nieto and Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.
Lopez Obrador will be the country's first leftist president in recent history when he takes office on December 1.
He met Tuesday morning with advisers in his campaign headquarters, before meeting Pena Nieto at the National Palace.
Pena Nieto said Monday he had called Lopez Obrador to congratulate him and offer his support to provide "all the necessary elements during the transition period."
Lopez Obrador's victory is the first time in Mexico's modern democracy that a candidate has won more than half the vote.
It amounted to a resounding rejection of the two parties that have governed the country since 1929, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and conservative National Action Party (PAN) -- especially the former.
The PRI ruled Mexico as a single-party state for 71 years, was ousted at the ballot box in 2000, then convinced voters to give it a second chance in 2012.
Many Mexicans would live to regret it: after six years of scandals, human rights violations, lackluster economic growth and horrific violence, Pena Nieto is poised to leave office as the most unpopular president in recent history.
- Strong mandate -
Lopez Obrador's coalition -- led by the party he launched in 2014, Morena -- also won a majority in the lower house of Congress, and was within striking distance of doing the same in the Senate, according to exit polls.
That gives him a strong mandate to effect the "transformation" he has promised.
But many Mexicans are also nervous over what Lopez Obrador's brand of change will look like.
Critics call him a "tropical Messiah" who will install Venezuela-style policies that could wreck Latin America's second-largest economy.
"We are not looking to construct a dictatorship, either open or hidden," Lopez Obrador said in his victory speech, promising to safeguard freedoms, respect the private sector and work to reconcile a divided nation.
- Soothing markets, wooing Trump -
But there are lingering market jitters over a politician who clashed openly with the business sector during the campaign.
Lopez Obrador's economic team spent the day Monday in conference calls with investors, seeking to reassure the markets.
The team is led by respected economist Carlos Urzua, Lopez Obrador's pick for finance minister.
In a recent interview, Urzua told AFP he would pursue fiscally responsible policies, pledging to safeguard the central bank's autonomy, balance the budget and respect all state obligations with the private sector.
Lopez Obrador has also been keen to start off on the right foot in another potentially tricky relationship: with US President Donald Trump.
Trump called Lopez Obrador to congratulate him Monday, and the president-elect said he had proposed a plan to reduce US-bound migration and improve security in Mexico.
"We had a great talk," said Trump, whose anti-immigration, anti-trade policies have deeply strained Mexico's ties with its giant northern neighbor and key trading partner
Poland's Supreme Court top judge defies retirement law
AFP/File / Jacek DOMINSKIPolish Supreme Court chief justice Malgorzata Gersdorf says government moves to force judges to retire early is a 'purge'
Poland's chief justice refused to step down Tuesday, defying a controversial new law by the right-wing government which requires her and other senior judges to retire early.
Chief Justice Malgorzata Gersdorf, in a heated showdown, branded the controversial Supreme Court reform lowering the retirement age of its judges from 70 to 65 as a "purge".
She said she was defying the reform that cuts short her constitutionally guaranteed six-year term, ending in 2020, and requires her to step down immediately.
"As for my status -- as the Supreme Court chief justice -- it has not changed after my talks with the president, because the constitution gives me a six-year term," Gersdorf told lawmakers in parliament after meeting with President Andrzej Duda.
The European Union on Monday launched legal action against Poland due to the reform, the latest salvo in a bitter battle over sweeping judicial changes introduced by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) government that critics have decried as unconstitutional.
The dispute could end up in the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the bloc's top tribunal.
Gersdorf, who is 65, announced that she would "come to work tomorrow (Wednesday), later I am going to go on vacation."
She also named a temporary replacement, Jozef Iwulski, to stand in for her during her absence, Supreme Court spokesman Justice Michal Laskowski said.
But presidential aide Pawel Mucha told reporters that Gersdorf was "going into retirement in accordance with the law" that takes effect on Tuesday at midnight and that the Supreme Court was now "headed by Judge Jozef Iwulski", who was chosen by Duda.
- 'Irreparable damage' -
Chanting "We are with you!", some 5,000 protesters rallied on Tuesday evening at the Supreme Court's offices in central Warsaw in support of Gersdorf and other judges.
The protesters vowed to assemble again early Wednesday morning when Gersdorf has vowed to show up for work along with other judges affected the contested retirement law.
Powerful PiS party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is widely regarded as Poland's de facto decision-maker and the mastermind behind the contested reforms told the pro-government Gazeta Polska weekly that the judges' defiance was "doomed to a disastrous defeat".
The PiS government has refused to back down despite the EU legal action, insisting the reforms are needed to tackle corruption and overhaul a judicial system still haunted by the communist era.
Twenty-seven of the top court's 73 judges are affected by the reform. Under the law, those judges can ask the president to prolong their terms, but he can accept or deny their requests without giving a reason. Sixteen judges have made requests, according to Polish media reports.
Other affected judges argue that justices who took up their duties before the day the new reform comes into force "should remain in their post until the age of 70, without meeting any additional conditions".
AFP/File / JANEK SKARZYNSKIDemonstrations took place in Warsaw last year over the controversial judicial reforms
The European Commission, the bloc's powerful executive arm, said Monday that the changes would undermine "the irremovability of judges" and judicial independence in Poland, breaching the country's obligations under EU law.
Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said swift action was needed to "avoid irreparable damage to the independence of the Supreme Court".
- 'Systemic threats' -
Poland has a month to respond to the commission's formal announcement, the first stage of a procedure that the ECJ may be asked to rule on.
Deputy foreign minister Konrad Szymanski said Monday the government would answer "in detail" within 30 days and warned that the ECJ would face a "very difficult task".
"Its decision will be very important for the EU because it will define the extent to which EU law can interfere in the autonomy of member states in the way they organise their judicial systems," Szymanski told AFP.
Brussels in December triggered so-called Article Seven proceedings against Poland over "systemic threats" to the rule of law, which could eventually see Warsaw's EU voting rights suspended.
According to a nationwide survey carried out last month by Ariadna pollsters, 44 percent of Poles believe the ruling PiS party's judicial reforms will increase political influence on the courts, while just 14 percent of respondents thought otherwise.
Judges in Poland are "experiencing political pressure" in connection with the judicial reforms, according to Amnesty International.
Tens of thousands of Poles have hit the streets since the PiS government came to power in 2015 to protest its judicial reforms and attempts to tighten Poland's already strict abortion law, among other causes.
Merkel's last-ditch migrant deal reopens deep EU divisions
AFP / John MACDOUGALLGermany's Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the 'very good compromise' with Interior Minister Horst Seehofer
German Chancellor Angela Merkel came under fire Tuesday from EU partners after she agreed to push back migrants in a last-ditch deal to save her fragile government, a move that threatened to unleash a domino effect of European nations shutting refugees out.
In high-stakes crisis talks overnight, Merkel put down a rebellion by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer with an agreement to tighten border controls and set up closed "transit centres" to hold migrants on the Austrian frontier.
But the deal, which essentially amounted to an about-turn in Merkel's liberal refugee policy, immediately sparked resistance from Germany's neighbours as well as the third member of her shaky coalition, the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Austria vowed to "protect its southern borders" while Italy slammed Berlin for adopting the "wrong attitude that brings no solution" and warned that the plan risked running up against last week's hard-fought EU fix that sees the bloc working together to curb migrant arrivals.
Vienna is "of course not ready to conclude deals that harm Austria," said Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
"Austria should not have to take on the legacy of a failed welcoming culture that is in Europe linked to some names," charged far-right Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, in an attack against Merkel.
Earlier the right-wing government had warned that if Germany pushes ahead with its plans, Vienna would be "ready to take measures to protect our southern borders in particular," meaning the frontiers with Italy and Slovenia.
- 'Erroneous attitude' -
Vienna's reaction raised the spectre of a domino effect in Europe, with member states taking increasingly restrictive measures to shut out refugees.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, whose country has flatly refused to take in migrants under a controversial EU quota, leapt on the chance to urge Europe to close its borders.
"Germany has made it very clear that people who disembark in Italy or Greece do not have the right to choose to live in Germany. Hopefully Italy and Greece will understand and close their borders," he tweeted.
Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte took aim at Merkel for seeking to tackle movements of migrants within the bloc, rather than stopping them from entering the EU in the first place.
"If we concentrate on the resolution of secondary movement, it's an erroneous attitude that brings no solution," warned Conte.
Hungary's hardline Prime Minister Viktor Orban told Bild daily that he planned to phone Kurz shortly to discuss the German plan.
But he stressed that "the Hungarian position has been known since 2015 and since last week's Brussels summit it is also the EU's position -- protection of the EU's external borders and reception centres outside the EU".
- 'Internment camps' -
AFP / Adam BERRYIn a pact both sides hailed as a victory, Merkel and Seehofer agreed to tighten border controls and set up closed holding centres to allow the speedy processing of asylum seekers and the repatriations of those who are rejected
Merkel's decision in 2015 to open Germany's borders to asylum seekers, many fleeing war in Syria and Iraq, has deeply divided the country and its neighbours.
Since then, popular misgivings over the migrant influx have given populist and anti-immigration forces a boost across several European nations, including Italy and Austria where far-right parties are now sharing power.
The simmering resentment in Germany erupted in June when Seehofer threatened Merkel with an ultimatum to curb arrivals, sparking the worst political crisis of her government of just barely 100 days.
After gruelling talks, Merkel and Seehofer agreed late Monday to hold migrants in "transit centres" on the Austrian frontier to allow the speedy processing of asylum seekers and the repatriation of those rejected.
They would either be sent back to EU countries that previously registered them or, in case arrival countries reject this, be sent back to Austria, pending a now questionable agreement with Vienna.
Seehofer was due to travel Thursday to Vienna to push his plan.
CSU general secretary Markus Blume called the hardening policy proposal the last building block "in a turn-around on asylum policy", even as the number of new arrivals has fallen dramatically over the last several months.
The accord covers about one-quarter of them, with 18,000 already-registered people crossing the Germany border between January and May this year.
But in what probably feels like a game of whack-a-mole for Merkel, dissent came from the left of her coalition just as she has put down the dispute from the right.
SPD deputy chairman Ralf Stegner voiced opposition to the transit centres, writing on Twitter: "We don't want any refugee families behind guarded fences."
One of the SPD's migration experts, Aziz Bozkurt, also charged that the proposed holding centres would be "impractical and fully on track with the AfD" -- the far-right anti-immigration party.
The centre-left's party leader Andrea Nahles sounded a more optimistic tone after talks with Merkel and Seehofer on Tuesday evening, saying that progress has been made.
But she said a new round of coalition leadership talks will be held on Thursday night before the party decides whether to rubberstamp the accord.
Other parties viewed the deal as a betrayal of Germany's welcoming face to refugees.
Annalena Baerbock of the opposition Greens party spoke of "internment camps", accusing the conservatives of "bidding goodbye to our country's moral compass".
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