Socialists ‘in parliament majority’
June 18, 2012 by admin
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Sunday, 17 June 2012
Francois Hollande’s Socialist party has won a solid majority in the French parliamentary elections
French president Francois Hollande’s Socialist Party has won a solid majority in parliamentary elections, polling agencies projected.
The win will fortify Mr Hollande in his push for governments to spend money, not cut budgets, to tackle Europe’s economic crisis.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives, who dominated the outgoing National Assembly, suffered a stinging loss, according to all estimations. Meanwhile, the far-right National Front party was on track to win a small but symbolically important presence in parliament for the first time in years.
“This new, solid and large majority will allow us now to pass laws for change, and gives us great responsibilities in France and in Europe,” foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on France-2 television as the results started coming in.
Elections in France and Greece will weigh on Europe’s future and whether its debt troubles will hobble markets and economies across the globe. France is the second-biggest economy in the eurozone and, along with powerhouse Germany, contributes heavily to bailouts for weaker nations and often drives EU-wide policy.
France’s Socialists will have between 308 and 320 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly after today’s second-round parliamentary elections, the TNS-Sofres Sopra Group, Ipsos and CSA agencies estimated. The pollsters’ projections were based on actual vote counts in select districts around the nation.
That’s well over the 289 the Socialists needed for a majority, and it means they won’t have to rely on far-leftists who oppose some of Mr Hollande’s pro-European policies to pass legislation.
Under Mr Sarkozy, France joined Germany in favouring government austerity measures instead of stimulus programmes as the antidote to the continent’s debt troubles – especially in countries such as Greece that turned to the European Union and others for billions in bailout dollars.
A solid parliamentary majority for Mr Hollande frees him up to make the changes to tax laws and impose the new spending he promised, and it gives him a stronger mandate to push for stimulus programs in global economic talks. He heads Monday to the G-20 summit in Mexico to meet leaders of the world’s most important economies.
Mr Hollande’s push for government-sponsored stimulus programs has met opposition from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but both have pledged to keep working together to ease Europe’s financial crisis.
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Egypt enters second day of voting
June 18, 2012 by admin
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Sunday, 17 June 2012
The Muslim Brotherhood has declared that its candidate, Mohammed Morsi, won Egypt’s presidential election (AP)
enlargeThe Muslim Brotherhood has declared that its candidate, Mohammed Morsi, won Egypt’s presidential election.
Mr Morsi “is the first civilian, popularly elected Egyptian president”, the group said on its website.
The declaration was based on returns the Brotherhood reported from 95% of the more than 13,000 polling stations nationwide.
The returns showed Mr Morsi with 52% of the vote, his opponent former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq with 48%. A million votes separated the two.
A Brotherhood spokesman said that meant Mr Shafiq could not overcome his opponent.
The figures were from results announced by election officials at individual counting centres, where each campaign has representatives who compile the numbers and make them public before the formal announcement.
The Brotherhood’s early, partial counts proved generally accurate in last month’s first round vote.
The final official result is to be announced by Thursday.
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