International
The formation of a government with Wilders’ radical right in the Netherlands is successfully completed
Geert Wilders’ radical right successfully completed on Monday the formation of a government in the Netherlands, in coalition with three other right-wing parties, which will have as prime minister Dick Schoof, an expert official in security and asylum, at the head of a team of ministers with political experience.
According to the report presented on Monday to Parliament, the future government will have 15 ministers and, despite the initial promise that half will be technocrats, finally all the members of the cabinet come from politics: five from the radical right of the PVV, four from the liberals of the VVD, four from the Christian Democrat NSC and two from the BBB peasant party.
The new Dutch cabinet, which will not include Geert Wilders or any of the leaders of the other three parties, will devote the next two months to detailing the government program, after taking office on Tuesday, which puts an end to almost 14 years of legislatures of the liberal Mark Rutte, who says goodbye to the policy to take over the general secretariat of NATO in October.
The report, presented by mediator Richard van Zwol, points out that the program of the future government “will be presented to the States General in time for Budget Day,” on Tuesday, September 17, and also “will be dedicated to the legislative quality and the viability of the political and legislative proposals” that the initial pact includes in general lines.
The document, which does not offer much information on how the government pact will be applied, emphasizes that the planned cuts in government employees will be made in a “responsible and achievable way” and “special attention will be paid to the importance of an adequate supervision function (inspections) and an adequate network of missions abroad.”
The four parties have included in their agreement a 22% reduction in the public service, which alarmed many ministries, such as Foreign Affairs, which fear the closure of embassies.
Early in the morning, the new team of ministers formally met for the first time in what is called a “constitutive meeting,” under the leadership of Schoof and Van Zwol.
The far-right deputy Fleur Agema (PVV) stressed that she was “very proud” of being the future deputy prime minister and Minister of Public Health of the “most right-wing” cabinet in Dutch history, although “with a warm social heart,” she said. “I’ll take care of that,” he promised.
His PVV colleague, Marjolein Faber, who will be in charge of the new Ministry of Migration and Asylum, spoke of “a historic day” for the Netherlands and stressed that he does not want to “look back, only forward,” when asked about his defense of “ethnic substitution”, the conspiracy theory of the Great Replacement, which believes that immigrants are “repopuling” the West.
Both Faber and the far-right deputy Reinette Klever, who will be Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, were heavily criticized for having used racist claims and known terminology of National Socialism in the past. “I’m not going to say anything else about that,” Klever said today.
In parliamentary hearings in recent weeks, Faber distanced himself from the term “ethnic substitution,” and Klever described it as “a factual description of a demographic development.”
Van Zwol will meet today with King William Alexander of the Netherlands and introduce him to Schoof, before the inauguration this Tuesday.
International
Seven bodies found with signs of torture in Sinaloa
Mexican authorities discovered seven lifeless bodies on Wednesday, showing clear signs of torture, in the rural area of Culiacán, Sinaloa, just one day after the same number of bodies was found in several municipalities in the western state of Mexico.
Six of these seven victims were found along the side of the highway that connects Culiacán to Mazatlán, near Laguna de Canachi, according to local media reports, which also noted that messages addressed to a criminal group were found near the bodies.
This brings the total number of violent deaths in the region to seven within just 24 hours. On Tuesday, authorities reported more victims found in the municipalities of Culiacán, Elota, and Mazatlán.
Among the victims identified was a local cattle rancher named Ramón Velázquez Ontiveros, as well as a police officer from Mazatlán, who was killed by a motorcyclist outside his home in San Marcos.
International
Málaga paralyzed by new storm as torrential rains hit Spain
Thousands of people were evacuated and trains were suspended as torrential rains once again struck Spain on Wednesday, following the devastating floods that killed at least 223 people two weeks ago, most of them in the Valencia region.
The national meteorological agency (Aemet) issued a maximum, red-level alert for the Andalusian province of Málaga in the south, and for Tarragona in the northeast, due to the new DANA (isolated depression at high levels), also known as a cold drop.
The city of Málaga appeared to be the hardest hit by the rains, with more than 3,000 people evacuated from 1,000 homes near rivers, flooded streets, and the suspension of urban transport and train services to Madrid.
“Today Málaga is paralyzed,” said Andalusia’s regional president, Juan Manuel Moreno, to reporters. “I know it is a problem for citizens not being able to take their children to school or go to work, but after what we saw in Valencia, we need to ‘prevent’ and minimize the impact in terms of loss of life,” he added.
The storm also led to the postponement of a match between Spain and Poland in the Billie Jean King Cup women’s tennis competition, which was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Málaga.
International
Hezbollah launches explosive drone strike on Israel’s defense headquarters
The Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah claimed on Wednesday that it launched an attack with explosive drones against the Israeli army’s headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The Iran-backed organization reported in a statement that it had carried out “an aerial attack with a squadron of explosive drones” targeting the site that houses Israel’s main defense institutions.
Hezbollah later stated that it also fired a barrage of rockets at the Glilot military intelligence base in the suburbs of Tel Aviv.
The Israeli military indicated that “sirens sounded in several areas of northern and central Israel following the launch of projectiles from Lebanon.”
It later clarified that “five projectiles were identified over the territory, and some were intercepted.”
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