EU sanctions Iranian individuals accused of targeting dissidents
The sanctions, over what it called "serious human rights violations" and "transnational repression", included asset freezes and travel bans, the council said.
The Council listed the Zindashti Network, which it said was a criminal group connected to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security that has carried out numerous acts of transnational repression, including assassinations of Iranian dissidents.
It also included the Zindashti Network's boss Naji Ibrahim Sharifi-Zindashti - who it said was an Iranian narcotics trafficker and organised crime boss - and some of his associates. Zindashti and his network have previously been sanctioned by the United States.
The Council, the European Union's governing body, is also targeting Mohammed Ansari, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Unit 840, who it said ordered the assassination of journalists critical of the Islamic Republic.
It said that the listings confirmed the EU's concerns about transnational repression by Iranian state bodies through the use of proxy agents, in particular involving criminals and organised crime networks targeting dissidents and human rights defenders across the world, including on EU territory. REUTERS
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AsiaOne
5 hours ago
- AsiaOne
France's PM wants to scrap 2 public holidays to help fix government finances, World News
PARIS — French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou proposed scrapping two public holidays and freezing most public spending as part of a 43.8-billion-euro (S$65.33 billion) budget squeeze he outlined on Tuesday (July 15). Bayrou's plan involves freezing welfare spending and tax brackets in 2026 at 2025 levels, not even adjusting for inflation, which was immediately criticised by left-wing and far-right politicians. Defence spending, however, will increase. France saw its budget deficit hit 5.8 per cent of gross domestic product last year, nearly double the official EU limit of three per cent of GDP, as a political crisis left four successive governments paralysed and incapable of tackling an unexpected drop in tax income and surge in spending for a second year. "Everyone will have to contribute to the effort," Bayrou said in a two-hour news conference with journalists, lawmakers and ministers, warning that public debt was a "mortal danger" for France and needed to be tackled head on. The welfare spending freeze will likely be as unpopular for many voters as scrapping two public holidays — possibly Easter Monday and May 8, which commemorates the end of the Second World War in Europe. There are simply too many public holidays in May, and the French must get back to work that month, Bayrou said, adding that this would mean several billion euros in additional revenues for the state, as everybody would work more and produce more. "This government prefers to attack the French people, workers and retirees, rather than root out waste," far right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said on X. "If Francois Bayrou does not revise his plans, we'll vote for a motion of no confidence against him." Left-wing parties were also damning. The Socialists leader Oliver Faure, whose party helped Bayrou pass the 2025 budget, said: "This isn't a recovery plan it's a demolition plan for the French (social) model." Bayrou, a veteran centrist politician, must persuade the opposition ranks in France's fractured parliament to at least tolerate his cuts, or risk facing a no-confidence motion like the one that toppled his predecessor in December over the 2025 budget. Any risk of a no-confidence motion would likely only firm up once a detailed budget bill goes to parliament in October. Macron's legacy President Emmanuel Macron has left Bayrou the task of repairing the public finances with the 2026 budget, after his own move to call a snap legislative election last year delivered a hung parliament too divided to tackle the country's spiralling spending. If he fails, a new political crisis could trigger more credit ratings' downgrades and drive up the cost of interest payments, which are already set to become the single biggest drain on the budget at over 60 billion euros. In the final two years of his second term, the dramatic deterioration of the public finances, which has left France with the biggest budget deficit in the euro zone, may tarnish Macron's legacy. Then a political outsider, he was first elected in 2017 on promises to break the right-left divide and modernise the euro zone's second-biggest economy with growth-friendly tax cuts and reforms. Successive crises — from protests, Covid-19 and runaway inflation — have shown he has failed to change the country's overspending habit, however. Bayrou aims to reduce the budget deficit from 5.4 per cent of GDP this year to 4.6 per cent in 2026, ultimately targeting the EU's three per cent fiscal deficit limit by 2029. "It's the last stop before the cliff, before we are crushed by the debt," Bayrou said on Tuesday. [[nid:719998]]
AsiaOne
5 hours ago
- AsiaOne
France's PM wants to scrap 2 public holidays to help fix government finances
PARIS — French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou proposed scrapping two public holidays and freezing most public spending as part of a 43.8-billion-euro (S$65.33 billion) budget squeeze he outlined on Tuesday (July 15). Bayrou's plan involves freezing welfare spending and tax brackets in 2026 at 2025 levels, not even adjusting for inflation, which was immediately criticised by left-wing and far-right politicians. Defence spending, however, will increase. France saw its budget deficit hit 5.8 per cent of gross domestic product last year, nearly double the official EU limit of three per cent of GDP, as a political crisis left four successive governments paralysed and incapable of tackling an unexpected drop in tax income and surge in spending for a second year. "Everyone will have to contribute to the effort," Bayrou said in a two-hour news conference with journalists, lawmakers and ministers, warning that public debt was a "mortal danger" for France and needed to be tackled head on. The welfare spending freeze will likely be as unpopular for many voters as scrapping two public holidays — possibly Easter Monday and May 8, which commemorates the end of the Second World War in Europe. There are simply too many public holidays in May, and the French must get back to work that month, Bayrou said, adding that this would mean several billion euros in additional revenues for the state, as everybody would work more and produce more. "This government prefers to attack the French people, workers and retirees, rather than root out waste," far right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said on X. "If Francois Bayrou does not revise his plans, we'll vote for a motion of no confidence against him." Left-wing parties were also damning. The Socialists leader Oliver Faure, whose party helped Bayrou pass the 2025 budget, said: "This isn't a recovery plan it's a demolition plan for the French (social) model." Bayrou, a veteran centrist politician, must persuade the opposition ranks in France's fractured parliament to at least tolerate his cuts, or risk facing a no-confidence motion like the one that toppled his predecessor in December over the 2025 budget. Any risk of a no-confidence motion would likely only firm up once a detailed budget bill goes to parliament in October. Macron's legacy President Emmanuel Macron has left Bayrou the task of repairing the public finances with the 2026 budget, after his own move to call a snap legislative election last year delivered a hung parliament too divided to tackle the country's spiralling spending. If he fails, a new political crisis could trigger more credit ratings' downgrades and drive up the cost of interest payments, which are already set to become the single biggest drain on the budget at over 60 billion euros. In the final two years of his second term, the dramatic deterioration of the public finances, which has left France with the biggest budget deficit in the euro zone, may tarnish Macron's legacy. Then a political outsider, he was first elected in 2017 on promises to break the right-left divide and modernise the euro zone's second-biggest economy with growth-friendly tax cuts and reforms. Successive crises — from protests, Covid-19 and runaway inflation — have shown he has failed to change the country's overspending habit, however. Bayrou aims to reduce the budget deficit from 5.4 per cent of GDP this year to 4.6 per cent in 2026, ultimately targeting the EU's three per cent fiscal deficit limit by 2029. "It's the last stop before the cliff, before we are crushed by the debt," Bayrou said on Tuesday. [[nid:719998]]
Business Times
9 hours ago
- Business Times
After years of overspending, France wants to slash public holidays to tackle ‘debt' curse
[PARIS] France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said on Tuesday he wanted to reduce the number of public holidays as part of an urgent plan to tackle what he called the 'curse' of his country's debt. Presenting his outline 2026 budget plan, Bayrou said two holidays out of France's total of 11 could go, suggesting Easter Monday as well as and May 8, a day that commemorates the end of World War II in Europe. After years of overspending, France is on notice to bring its public deficit back under control, and cut its sprawling debt, as required under EU rules. Bayrou said France had to borrow each month to pay pensions or the salaries of civil servants, a state of affairs he called 'a curse with no way out'. Bayrou had said previously that France's budgetary position needed to be improved by 40 billion euros (S$60 billion) next year. But this figure has now risen after President Emmanuel Macron said at the weekend he hoped for additional military spending of 3.5 billion euros next year to help France cope with international tensions. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up France has a defence budget of 50.5 billion euros for 2025. Bayrou said the budget deficit would be cut to 4.6 per cent next year, from an estimated 5.4 per cent this year, and would fall below the three per cent required by EU rules by 2029. To achieve this, other measures would include a freeze on spending increases across the board - including on pensions and health spending - except for debt servicing and the defence sector, Bayrou said. 'We have become addicted to public spending,' Bayrou said, adding that 'we are at a critical juncture in our history'. Remember Greece - The prime minister even held up Greece as a cautionary tale, an EU member whose spiralling debt and deficits pushed it to the brink of dropping out of the eurozone in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. 'We must never forget the story of Greece,' he said. France's debt currently stands at 114 per cent of GDP - compared to 60 per cent allowed under EU rules - the biggest debt mountain in the EU after Greece and Italy. The government hopes to cut the number of civil servants by 3,000 next year, and close down 'unproductive agencies working on behalf of the state', the premier said. Bayrou said that wealthy residents would be made contribute to the financial effort. 'The nation's effort must be equitable,' Bayrou said. 'We will ask little of those who have little, and more of those who have more.' Losing two public holidays, meanwhile, would add 'several billions of euros' to the state's coffers, Bayrou said. But the proposed measure sparked an immediate response from Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally. He said abolishing two holidays, 'especially ones as filled with meaning as Easter Monday and May 8 is a direct attack on our history, our roots and on labour in France'. Leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon of the France Unbowed party meanwhile called for Bayrou's resignation, saying 'these injustices cannot be tolerated any longer'. AFP
