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According to sources inside the Moncloa Palace, the events of the last few days appear to have had a disastrous effect on the Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, starting with the Eta threat as published in Zutube, that appears to be denting daily his own self imposed image as ‘the great pacifier’. On top of that, the final outcome of the Catalan elections, which have now shown that the most voted party counted for nothing at all after the machinations of Josep Lluis Carod Rovira resuscitated the image of Catalan Socialist leader Jose Montilla – the big loser as far as the Catalan electorate is concerned. The on-going results of these elections will also seriously affect how the minority parties will now vote in debates in the Madrid Parliament. As a consequence of all this, it now appears that the Prime Minister is considering calling snap elections for next March, whilst his credibility still appears to remain high. If that is indeed the case, Mr. Zapatero will have to present his formal resignation to King Juan Carlos next month.
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Joaquin Leguina, the former Socialist President of the Madrid Community has issued a public warning to the head of the Madrid Socialists Rafael Simancas to the effect that Mr. Simancas ‘will have a houseful of problems’ with Miguel Sebastian, Mr. Rodriguez Zapatero’s candidate for the mayoral seat of Madrid in the May elections. Mr Leguina has also told Mr. Simancas: “ you’re going to have problems with him, as he holds ideas that have nothing at all in common with yours or mine.” He also went on to state that the presence of Mr. Sebastian amongst the Madrid Socialists ‘was like having an enemy inside your own organization’.
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Juan Ignacio de Juana Chaos, one of the Basque terror organisation Eta’s worst assassins with 25 killings under is belt has clearly seen how effective a hunger strike can be, after the prosecutor reduced his possible sentence from 96 years in jail to just 12. Now, one day before he was officially notified of his new sentence, de Juana Chaos announced that he was undertaking a second hunger strike as a further means of pressuring the Government.
The disciplinary Committee of the Judges’ Federation CGPJ is now expected to fully examine the case of Laura Alabau, the Denia Judge who was amongst the first in Spain to refuse to perform gay marriages. The charges against Mrs Alabau are ‘Serious’ – for having publicly criticised the Madrid Government, and ‘Light’ - for arguing with the local prosecutor. In a letter to the Superior Court, Mrs Alabau wrote that she was ‘undergoing a persecution led by the Propaganda department of the Socialist government’. The judge is now expected to make an appearance before an examination committee that will issue their findings probably before the end of the year.
Democrats in the United States last night managed to capture a majority in the House of Representatives, and in the process deliver a stern rebuke to President George W. Bush for the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq and a rash of scandals that have tainted several Republicans. Control of the Senate, however at the moment is still up in the air with the results in many states too close to call. However, the Democrat victory in the House firstly removes the Republicans from the majority they have held over the past twelve years, and secondly paves the way for Nancy Pelosi of California to become the first female Speaker of the House in United States History. The results thus far have shown that the Democrats have captured three districts in Indiana, two in Florida, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and New York and one in Connecticut, Kentucky, Ohio and North Carolina. As for the Senate race, the Democrats have managed to take three of the six seats they need to get a majority in that chamber by being the winning party in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Ohio.
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Panama yesterday was elected to a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council after being chosen by Latin American and Caribbean nations as a compromise candidate to end the stalemated contest for the seat between Guatemala and Venezuela that had been going on since last month. In the 48th round of balloting, Panama received 164 votes in the 192-member General Assembly, more than the 120 needed to win the post that begins on 1 January. Venezuela got 11 votes, Guatemala 4 votes, and Barbados 1 vote. There were nine abstentions. Speaking after the vote, the ambassador of Guatemala “thanked members of the Assembly for their patience and… congratulated the people and Government of Panama,” Assembly spokesperson Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainte told a news briefing. Venezuela’s ambassador also thanked members of the Assembly for their “support and understanding,” she said, adding that he “also voiced his hope that Panama would be an independent, impartial and balanced member of the Security Council.” Today’s vote comes after the foreign ministers of both Guatemala and Venezuela decided late last week to withdraw their candidatures at a meeting in New York and proposed Panama to the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States. Throughout the earlier voting Guatemala maintained its lead over Venezuela, except in one tie vote, but was never able to reach the necessary two-thirds majority to serve as the region’s member for the two-year term, replacing Argentina. In the 47th round last Tuesday, when 122 votes would have been enough to secure victory, Guatemala obtained 101 votes, Venezuela received 78, and Barbados, Ecuador and Uruguay received one vote each. There were seven abstentions. At the start of this year’s balloting on 16 October Assembly members, following an agreed geographic allocation, elected Belgium, Indonesia, Italy and South Africa to serve as new non-permanent members, replacing Denmark, Greece, Japan and Tanzania when their terms end on 31 December. The Council’s five other non-permanent members, whose terms end on 31 December 2007, are Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia. The five permanent members, the only ones with veto power when voting, are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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