International
The grand coalition takes shape in the face of the foreseeable lack of a majority of the far right
The foreseeable lack of an absolute majority of the far right in the French elections next Sunday makes a “grand coalition” of very opposite parties increasingly take shape as the only way to govern the country.
Two polls released on Thursday afternoon coincide with another published yesterday in the sense that the far-right National Association (RN) would not achieve an absolute majority in the National Assembly.
A first Ifop poll attributes to the far right 210-240 seats, far from the absolute majority of 289.
In second place will be the New Left Popular Front (NFP), with 170-200 deputies, while the current majority of President Emmanuel Macron will fall to the third position, with 95-125 seats.
The conservative LR would have 25-45, but a hypothetical sum with the ultra-right (to date very unlikely) would still not result in a majority. Independent candidates or candidates from small regionalist formations will take between 15 and 27 seats.
The poll predicts a very high participation (68%) with very motivated voters, since 92% say they are already sure of their voting option.
Another OpinionWay poll points out that the RN would get 205-230 deputies, for 145-175 for the left and 130-162 for the macronist bloc. The conservatives would have 38 to 50.
Both studies coincide, in essence, with another published on Wednesday by Harris Interactive and which assigned the RN between 190 and 220 deputies, even further from the majority.
If those results are confirmed within three days on Sunday’s return, France’s only governance option would go through what is defined as “republican front” or “grand coalition” that brings together all parties except the far right.
However, the strong ideological and programmatic differences in a political arc that goes from the conservative right to the communists and the rebellious left of La Francia Insumisa have meant that for now the parties and leaders have not wanted to define how to put that idea into practice.
For now, socialists, macronists, ecologists, communists, ‘submissos’ and conservatives prefer to focus on their campaigns to, if necessary, have the best possible cards in the face of an eventual negotiation.
The far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who warned today that the only options now are “the mud or an absolute majority of the RN,” insists on rejecting that idea.
Le Pen denounced again that a front against his party “has the sole objective of preventing the National Association from having an absolute majority.”
Meanwhile, the French football star, Kylian Mbappé, captain of the national team, again asked from the German European Championship for a national mobilization against the far right to “not leave the country in the hands of those people.”
“More than ever we must go to vote. There is a real urgency. We can’t leave our country in the hands of those people. It’s really urgent. I think we have seen the results, it is catastrophic and we really hope that it goes well and that people mobilize,” said the star striker of Real Madrid and the French national team at a press conference.
It is not the first time that Mbappé, with a Cameroonian father and a French mother of Algerian origin, has entered the campaign since the concentration of ‘les Bleus’, just as other players of the national team have done.
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced that a total of 30,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed on Sunday to avoid possible unrest or violent protests after the disclosure of the results.
The announcement comes after there have been a multiplication of cases of physical assaults on members of parties that were campaigning in recent days.
The most striking case has been that of the Government spokeswoman, Prisca Thevenot, whose group was attacked while sticking posters on Wednesday afternoon by some young people.
A Macronist militant suffered a fractured jaw and deputy Virginie Lanlo suffered a slight injury to one arm because of the aggression, which occurred in Meudon, on the southern outskirts of Paris.
The police arrived quickly and arrested three minors between the ages of 16 and 17 and a 20-year-old adult with a police record.
In recent days, the high tension of the campaign for the increase in calls to oppose the far right and the increase in racist or violent messages by some voices of the extreme right has resulted in a level of virulence much higher than that of other elections.
However, no episode has been really serious. Some blows or damage to cars have so far been the most serious thing that has happened, although several leaders and media have warned about the high level of tension in society.
International
The AP agency sues the Trump Government after being banned for writing Gulf of Mexico
The American press agency Associated Press (AP) announced this Friday that it has sued three members of the Donald Trump Administration after being banned from the Oval Office and the presidential plane Air Force One for not complying with the directive of calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
“The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not to be retaliated for it by the Government. The Constitution does not allow the Government to control freedom of expression,” the media maintains.
In its style guide, AP decided to continue calling the Gulf of Mexico “by its original name”, still mentioning the new name chosen by Trump, since it is a body of water that shares a border with Mexico and Cuba.
The White House formally blocked AP’s access to the Oval Office and Air Force One on February 14. “We are very proud of this country and we want it to be the Gulf of America,” Trump said on Tuesday.
The agency’s lawsuit, of 18 pages and filed before a federal court in Washington DC, alleges that they have decided to take this step to claim their right to editorial independence and prevent the Executive from coercing journalists to use only a language approved by it.
Trump signed the executive order to change the name to Gulf of America on January 20, the first day of his return to power. He later named February 9 as ‘ Gulf of America Day’.
The AP complaint is specifically directed against the president’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, his number two, Taylor Budowich, and the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt.
This Thursday, more than thirty US media asked the Government to restore AP’s participation in presidential events and not to take into account “the editorial point of view” when limiting access to the White House.
Among the signatories are the television networks Fox News and Newsmax, with a conservative tinge, in addition to other large newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The Wall Street Journal or The Atlantic.
AP highlighted when reporting on his complaint that this Friday Trump referred to that agency as “radical left-wing lunatics”: It is “a third-rate company with a first name,” he said about it, the main one in the country and founded in 1846.
International
Buenos Aires advances legislative elections to May 18 and suspends the primaries
The Legislature of the city of Buenos Aires approved this Friday the suspension of the open, simultaneous and mandatory primary elections (PASO), a measure that, according to the deputy head of government, Clara Muzzio, “allows to save 20 billion pesos (about 18,894 million dollars)”, and advanced the legislative elections for May 18.
“The City Legislature suspended the PASO, a measure that saves $20 billion for neighbors,” Muzzio announced on Friday.
For his part, the mayor of the City, Jorge Macri, maintained that the PASO “were an expensive mechanism that only solved the problems of politicians, not of the people.”
The May 18 elections, which were originally scheduled for July, will be held through the Single Electronic Ballot system.
In that instance, the inhabitants of the city of Buenos Aires will elect their local legislators and, in October, they will have to return to the polls to define, together with the rest of the country, the composition of the chambers of Deputies and Senators.
“The fact that the elections are in May allows each Buenos Aires to decide on their own city, without being tied to national discussions,” said the mayor.
The project was approved in the Buenos Aires legislature with 55 votes in favor, 3 against and one abstention, after an agreement between the main political forces.
The suspension of the primaries in the City of Buenos Aires occurs one day after the Argentine Parliament approved the same measure at the national level.
The original project sent by the national government sought the elimination of the primary system but finally, given the lack of support for that objective, the government chose to promote an initiative that suspends them for this year.
The primary election system was first implemented in Argentina to define the candidates for the 2011 general elections, based on a political reform approved by Parliament at the end of 2009, with the aim of democratizing political representation, transparency and electoral equity.
According to the PASO system, to be qualified to compete in the general elections, candidates or lists of candidates must achieve at least 1.5% of the total votes in the primaries.
All parties are obliged to participate in the primaries, although they do not necessarily have to present more than one list of candidates to decide which one will lead to the general elections, an option for which the majority of the forces have opted in the last elections.
That is one of the reasons why the system has been questioned, among which are also its costs and the cumbersomeness of the organization.
International
Trump threatens to impose tariffs on governments that apply digital fees to US companies
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order on Friday that threatens to impose tariffs on foreign governments that apply digital fees to US companies, including Spain, the United Kingdom and France.
The order states that “foreign governments have exercised a growing extraterritorial authority over US companies, particularly in the technology sector,” and directly cites the taxes on digital services that “several business partners” apply since 2019.
According to the text, the Trump Administration will impose tariffs on those governments that use taxes or regulations that are “discriminatory, disproportionate or designed to transfer significant funds or intellectual property from US companies to that government or its chosen domestic entities.”
Trump delegates to the US Trade Representative the possibility of “renewing investigations” on the so-called technology fees of Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Austria and Turkey, imposed in the first term of the Republican, and if so, “take all appropriate actions”, which would include the imposition of tariffs.
“US companies will no longer sustain failed foreign economies through fines and extortionational taxes,” says the White House document, which provides for a “process” for them to “report” these “disproportionate” measures to the Commercial Representative.
He also instructs him to investigate together with the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce whether in the European Union or the United Kingdom the use of products or services of US companies is “required or encouraged” to “undermine freedom of expression”, political activity or, “otherwise, moderate content”.
It also suggests to the Representative, among other things, to hold “a panel” with its partners of the T-MEC (Canada and Mexico) on the tax on digital services in Canada, and identify ways to achieve a “permanent moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions”.
The order does not mention any specific company, but mainly affects large technology companies such as Apple, Google (subsidiary of Alphabet), Meta and Amazon, which have precisely starred in a resounded approach to President Trump since he won the elections in November.
In his first term (2017-2021), Trump ordered to investigate the digital fees to his companies abroad and threatened to apply tariffs to the six countries indicated today; taxes were imposed in the government of his successor, the Democrat Joe Biden, and subsequently suspended.
Trump signed another executive order aimed at restricting access to US technology, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, what he calls “foreign adversaries”, including Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Russia and China.
The executive order does not specify in detail what measures will be taken to restrict the access of these “foreign adversaries” to US technology.
Under the label of “foreign adversaries”, the order identifies China, Hong Kong, Macau, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and the “regime of Venezuelan politician Nicolás Maduro”, according to the text.
Trump justifies his decision with the argument that “economic security is national security” and maintains that the country must protect its sensitive infrastructures and technologies, from artificial intelligence to semiconductors and advances in biotechnology.
The executive order focuses especially on China, pointing out that companies linked to Beijing have used investments in the US to access key technologies and that the Chinese government is taking advantage of US technology to modernize its military apparatus.
Since his return to the White House on January 20, Trump has announced several restrictions on trade with the aim of balancing the trade balance and pressuring countries such as Mexico and Canada to make concessions on immigration and efforts against drug trafficking.
It has imposed a 10% tariff on China, which is in addition to the rates already applied during its first term (2017-2021).
Trump’s new restrictions come after his predecessor, Joe Biden, took steps to limit exports of semiconductors and artificial intelligence technology to China, which led Beijing to respond with export controls on graphite, a key material for electric vehicle batteries.
The AP agency sues the Trump Government after being banned for writing Gulf of Mexico
Buenos Aires advances legislative elections to May 18 and suspends the primaries
Trump threatens to impose tariffs on governments that apply digital fees to US companies
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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