International
The far right in the European Parliament expels AfD after the scandals of its head of the list
The far-right group in the European Parliament, Identity and Democracy, decided on Thursday to expel the entire delegation of Alternative for Germany (AfD) because of the scandals in which the head of the list of this formation for the European elections, Maximilian Krah, has been involved.
“The ‘bureau’ of the Identity and Democracy group in the European Parliament has decided today to exclude the German delegation, AfD, with immediate effect. The ID group does not want to remain associated with the incidents involving Maximilian Krah, head of the AfD list for the European elections,” the group said in a statement.
Hours earlier, seven of the nine MEPs of the formation had asked ID to expel their leader to prevent the exclusion of the entire delegation from the parliamentary group, on the grounds that it has damaged “the cohesion and reputation” of ID.
In practice, the decision has a small impact because the European Parliament no longer has legislative activity and its MEPs are mainly campaigning in their countries of origin. After the elections, the groups will be composed from scratch and it was already public that AfD would not be welcome again in Identity and Democracy.
After the head of the list of the German far-right affirmed that in the Nazi organization SS “not everyone was criminals,” the National Group (RN) of the French Marine Le Pen and La Liga of the Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini distanced themselves and affirmed that they will not share a parliamentary group in the European Parliament again.
Krah’s words about the SS are only the last of the chain of scandals in which he has been involved during the campaign.
At the end of April, one of its employees in Brussels was arrested on suspicion of espionage for China and the Dresden prosecutor’s office (east of Germany) has opened preliminary proceedings to determine whether Krah could also have received payments from Beijing.
On the other hand, along with his number two, Petr Bystrom, Krah is under suspicion of having collected money from Moscow in exchange for spreading certain pro-Russian opinions, for example through contributions on the Voice of Europe platform.
The leadership of Alternative for Germany (AfD) said on Thursday that it maintains “optimism” for the next elections to the European Parliament, despite the fact that the party was expelled today from the far-right group in the European Parliament Identity and Democracy (ID).
“We are aware of the decision of the ID parliamentary group. We still see with optimism the election night and the following days,” said the co-leaders of the ultra-German formation, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, in a brief statement.
They indicated that the AfD will strive to increase the number of representatives it has in the European Parliament and stressed that in order to have a political effect in Brussels, a collaboration with close parties is “indispensable”.
“We are confident that we will also have reliable partners by our side in the new legislature,” Weidel and Chrupalla concluded.
International
Florida declares a state of emergency due to severe floods in five southern counties
The Government of Florida declared a state of emergency on Thursday in five southern counties where severe floods have occurred due to the torrential rains that began last Tuesday.
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, today issued the order covering Miami-Dade, Broward, Collier, Lee and Sarasota counties, where for now there have been no victims but mainly road flooding, putting drivers and their families at risk.
The state government stressed that tropical humidity will continue to cause heavy scattered rains in southern Florida and that the flood alert will remain in effect throughout this region and the Keys of Florida, a succession of islets in the extreme south of the state.
These storms have also caused tornadoes, highway cuts, suspension of classes and flight cancellations, about 200 this Thursday, at the airports of Miami and Fort Lauderdale, according to the Flightaware platform.
Several areas in the vicinity of Fort Lauderdale airport were impacted, as well as Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach and Lauderdale Lakes, where floods forced the cancellation of transport services.
Although the storm subsided this Thursday, several sectors remained underwater, including Hallandale Beach, whose residents today asked for more pumps to evacuate it. In addition, several vehicles remained stranded and some were even submerged.
Meanwhile, the Brightline train had to temporarily close its stations in Miami and Aventura, the two further south, and several universities and schools have suspended classes.
The mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, declared a local state of emergency on Wednesday night, with immediate effect.
International
The IMF approves the disbursement of another 800 million dollars for Argentina
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the eighth revision of the agreement with Argentina, which allows an immediate disbursement of approximately 800 million dollars for the country.
The financial agency indicated in a statement that this disbursement “will support the efforts of the authorities to restore stability and strengthen Argentina’s external viability.”
The total disbursements made under the Fund’s agreement with Argentina amounts to about 41.4 billion dollars.
The IMF stressed that, when completing the review, “the Executive Board considered that the program was firmly on track, with all the quantitative performance criteria until the end of March 2024 met with margins.”
“Non-compliance exementions for a new exchange rate restriction and multiple exchange practices were also approved in the context of some relaxation of the restrictions on the payment of dividends.”
To maintain solid progress, according to the IMF, “it is necessary to improve the quality of fiscal adjustment, to initiate steps towards an improved monetary and exchange policy framework, implement the structural agenda.”
Likewise, “continue efforts to support the most vulnerable, expand political support and ensure agility in the formulation of policies.”
In March 2022, the then Government of the Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) signed an agreement with the IMF to refinance loans for about 45 billion dollars that the agency had granted to Argentina in 2018, during the presidency of the conservative Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
The pact includes quarterly revisions such as the one now surpassed on the level of compliance with demanding goals in terms of fiscal discipline, accumulation of monetary reserves and limits on monetary issuance.
The approval for new disbursements to Argentina by the agency depends on the fulfillment of those goals and the approval of each review, funds that, in turn, the South American country uses to cancel its debt to the entity, which amounted to 40,899 million dollars at the end of 2023.
On Tuesday, the Argentine Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, said that he will negotiate a new program with the IMF after the eighth review of the organization: “From there we will begin to negotiate a new program with them,” he said.
The IMF had highlighted in a statement last May that Argentina reached this eighth review with a “stabilization plan” where it could reach “the first quarterly fiscal surplus in sixteen years,” a “rapid fall in inflation” and “a strong reduction in sovereign risk.”
Argentina had passed this last review in May, but that step had to go through a formal procedure and be approved by the Executive Board of the IMF, something that took place this Thursday, to receive the 800 million.
This eighth review corresponds to the first quarter of 2024, a period marked by the drastic change in economic policy in Argentina after the arrival of Javier Milei to the presidency in December and the implementation of a severe adjustment plan to recover the fiscal surplus this year.
International
Xóchitl Gálvez challenges the presidential election before the authority and asks for a sanction for López Obrador
Former opposition presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz presented this Thursday to the National Electoral Institute (INE) of Mexico a challenge to the electoral process and asked that it open an investigation and, if so, sanction the probable intervention of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador as well as the violence of organized crime.
Gálvez clarified that “it is not about asking for the annulment of the election, but that there is a sanction to President López Obrador for his interference in the electoral process” that culminated in the triumph of Claudia Sheinbaum, who obtained 35 million votes, that is, almost 60% of the votes in the elections on June 2.
He explained that a “Judgment for the Protection of the Political-Electoral Rights of the Citizen” was presented with the purpose of contributing elements to the presidential qualification and that in the recitals of his sentence his arguments are taken into account.
“Yes, I am challenging. I am not asking for the cancellation of the election. What I am asking is that the Court sanction the President because there have been more than 50 yellow cards. In a soccer game with two yellow cards you are expelled and not here. The President followed, continued, continued and the Court has to do something,” he said.
He said that he will also ask the Court to investigate the use of public resources in the campaign of Sheinbaum, candidate of the Sigamos Haciendo Historia coalition, since López Obrador “presented the social programs as his own and expressed that if another party won, they would be removed.”
In the document he delivered to the INE, Gálvez recalled that before the start of the electoral process, López Obrador used the space of his everyday conferences to act as a true “campaign head” of Sheinbaum.
In addition, Gálvez said, “there was a clear systematic and repeated intervention of the governors, who dedicated themselves to promoting Sheinbaum’s candidacy.”
This Thursday, the Specialized Chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Mexican Federation (TEPJF) concluded that López Obrador committed gender-based political violence against Gálvez.
The body, according to a statement, determined this position as a result of “expressions expressed” by the president in several of his daily conferences in June and July 2023.
And he added that there was a “symbolic violence” from the “woman and indigenous character” of Gálvez because the stereotype of “inferiority or dependence to access public offices” was “reinforced.”
The then candidate of Force and Heart for Mexico filed complaints with the electoral authority since July 2023 against the president and officials of his Government for the misuse of public resources and gender-based political violence.
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