In South Korea, voters weary of political crisis are poised to return progressives to power
Grandstands set up in the heart of Seoul made it clear: South Korea was ready to celebrate the winner of the presidential election on Tuesday, June 3. But the attention to detail in the preparations could not hide the lack of conviction among the 44.3 million voters called to elect a successor to conservative Yoon Suk Yeol (2022-2025), who was removed from office on April 4.
Seven candidates – all men, a first since 2007 – are vying in this single-round election. The Democratic Party (PD, opposition) standard-bearer, Lee Jae-myung, leads with nearly 50% of voting intentions, well ahead of the People Power Party (PPP, conservative) candidate Kim Moon-soo, polling at almost 39%. The controversial Lee Jun-seok, also conservative, has 10% support.
Lee Jae-myung, valued for his working-class background, is a former human rights lawyer and was an unsuccessful challenger to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election; he has since shifted from his earlier radicalism to a more pragmatic approach. The Democrat pledged to create a "true Republic of Korea" with jobs and a fair society. On June 1, he held the final rally of his campaign in his hometown of Andong, 190 kilometers Southeast of Seoul, before meeting voters in Gyeongsang Province, a conservative stronghold. His final message was directed at veterans. "I will make independence, national defense and democracy the three pillars of our support for veterans, so they can be better recognized and respected as they deserve."
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Euronews
11 hours ago
- Euronews
Italians to vote on easing citizenship rules amid low turnout fears
Italians will begin voting on Sunday in a referendum on whether to relax citizenship laws, but there are fears that turnout will be so low that it will invalidate the result. The two-day referendum, ending on Monday, will also ask voters if they agree with reversing a decade-old liberalisation of the labour market. The labour market questions aim to make it more difficult to dismiss some employees and increase compensation for workers who are made redundant by small businesses, reversing a law passed by a Democratic Party (PD) government around a decade ago. But it's the question about citizenship which has attracted the most attention among Italian voters. Concerns about the scale of immigration helped push Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party to power in 2022. Italians will be asked if they support the idea of reducing the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship from 10 years to five. Organisers of the referendum say that, if passed, it could affect around 2.5 million foreign nationals in Italy. Italy's birth rate is in steep decline, and economists say the country needs more foreigners to boost its stagnant economy. For foreigners in Italy, the primary channel to citizenship is through naturalisation, which can occur after 10 years of continuous residence in the country. The applicant must also demonstrate that they have integrated into society, possess a minimum income, have a clean criminal record, and can speak Italian adequately. The residence prerequisite is considerably shorter for citizens of other EU member states, who have to wait just four years to apply. Riccardo Magi, secretary of the liberal Più Europa party, supports decreasing the length of time required to apply for citizenship. He calls the current rules "old and unjust" and says they have only been in force for so long because successive governments have lacked the political will for change. Magi thinks the referendum proposal is reasonable because it only reduces the residence time requirement while leaving the other requirements unchanged. He says the current law "forces hundreds of thousands of girls and boys born or raised in Italy to live as foreigners in what is also their country." Magi also believes the amendment would have indirect positive effects on many of these minors born or resident in Italy, to whom citizenship would be passed on by at least one New Italian parent. "Those are who are rooted, work, pay taxes, study... must be able to vote and participate in public votes. This is the liberal idea of citizenship," he said. But the Noi Moderati party has said its position on the referendum is a resounding no, the centrist party's vice-president Maria Chiara Fazio told Euronews. "Citizenship is the deepest link between the state and the individual," Fazio stressed. "It cannot be the subject of a referendum simplification: it is a topic that requires in-depth study, mutual listening and a serious parliamentary debate." Fazio defended the structure of the current law, but acknowledged some bureaucratic aspects need to be tightened up as they leave many candidates in limbo. But the Noi Moderati's position on the referendum is not unusual. The leaders of two of the coalition parties, Antonio Tajani of Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini of Lega or the League, have both said they will not vote on Sunday. Meloni will attend a polling station but will also not cast a ballot. That indifference to the referendum appears to have trickled down to regular voters too. A Demopolis institute poll carried out in May estimated turnout to be between 31% and 39%, well short of the threshold required to make the result binding. The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has indicated that a US-style blanket travel ban on foreign citizens could be "viable" in the United Kingdom, stressing that it should no longer be the "world's softest touch." The Leader of the Opposition said on Friday that Britain is being "mugged" by illegal migration, local media reported. She added "parliament needs to be able to decide who comes into the country, for how long and who needs to leave," explaining that this can be done through measures such as travel bans. "There are scenarios where this is viable." In a resurrection of his controversial first term "Muslim ban", Trump on Wednesday announced travel bans to the United States for citizens from 12 countries he has deemed "out of control." It will apply to people from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The ban is set to go into effect on Monday and will bar nationals from these countries from entering the US unless they qualify for an exemption. Travel restrictions will also come into force for citizens of a further seven countries on the same day. However, Badenoch then went on to say she didn't fully support a Trump-style ban for the UK, adding that she hadn't seen which countries were affected. "That doesn't mean that I agree with what Donald Trump has done. I'm much more focused on…what's happening here." Badenoch made the remarks after a speech at the Royal United Services Institute in Westminster in which she launched a commission tasked with analysing leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The international human rights treaty between the 47 states which are members of the Council of Europe (CoE) protects the basic rights and freedoms of people. She argued that the UK had "lost control of the asylum system" and is "being blocked". Referring to the ECHR, she vowed to crackdown on "lawfare" which she said is obstructing border control and is used to stop migrant deportations. 'I have always said that if we need to leave the convention we should and having now considered the question closely I do believe that we will likely need to leave because I am yet to see a clear and coherent way to fix this within our current legal structures." Badenoch has enlisted a senior barrister to review the legalities surrounding the a potential UK withdrawal from the ECHR. The senior lawyer is expected to provide his report at the Tory party conference later this year, at which point the Tory leader will make a final decision on the ECHR "problem." However, she stressed she would not do so without a clear plan. Leader of the far-right Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, stated earlier this year that the first thing he would do as Prime Minister would be to withdraw the UK from the ECHR. Meanwhile, the current Labour government has ruled out leaving it. Last month, nine EU countries signed an open letter calling for the ECHR to be reinterpreted to allow for policy changes on migration. The signatories, who believe it should be easier to expel migrants who commit crimes, said the ECHR's interpretation of the convention should be examined. The CoE's Secretary Alain Berset criticised their politicising of the court.
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Trump orders inquiry into 'conspiracy' to cover up Biden's declining cognitive health
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered an investigation into what Republicans claim was a "conspiracy" to cover up Joe Biden's declining cognitive health during his time in the White House. The move is the latest in a long-running campaign by Trump to discredit his predecessor, which has been joined by Republican Party politicians and their cheerleaders in the conservative media. But it also comes as a growing chorus of Democrats begin to acknowledge the former president appeared to have been slipping in recent years. Those concerns were thrown into stark relief by a disastrous debate performance against Trump during last year's presidential campaign, in which the then-81-year-old stumbled over his words and repeatedly lost his train of thought. "In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden 's aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden's cognitive decline," a presidential memorandum issued Wednesday reads. 11:02 "This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. "The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden's signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts." Republicans have long claimed that Biden was suffering from intellectual decline even as the White House pressed ahead with major legislation and presidential decrees during his term. They cite his infrequent public appearances, as well as his apparent unwillingness to sit for interviews as evidence of what they say was a man incapable of doing the demanding job of Commander-in-Chief of the United States. They insist that those around him covered up his physical and cognitive decline, taking decisions on his behalf and using a device that could reproduce his signature to allow them to continue to run the country in his name. "The Counsel to the President, in consultation with the Attorney General and the head of any other relevant executive department or agency... shall investigate... whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden's mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President," the document says. The probe will also look at "the circumstances surrounding Biden's supposed execution of numerous executive actions during his final years in office (including) the policy documents for which the autopen was used (and) who directed that the President's signature be affixed." Biden's calamitous debate performance ultimately sank his bid for reelection, with key Democratic Party figures soon calling for him to drop out of the race. But it was only several weeks later, after unsuccessful attempts to quieten his critics, that he withdrew, anointing his vice-president Kamala Harris, who eventually lost to Trump. The Democratic Party is increasingly riven by squabbles about whether Biden could have been forced to step down earlier to give the party chance to find a more popular presidential candidate. The fight has been given oxygen with the publication of a book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that claims the former president's inner circle connived to keep him from public view because of his decline, which included forgetting familiar faces like Hollywood star and party stalwart George Clooney. "aggressive" prostate cancer, with some voices on the right insisting -- without evidence -- the diagnosis must have been known some time ago to those close to the former president.
LeMonde
2 days ago
- LeMonde
Trump orders inquiry into 'conspiracy' to hide Biden's health decline
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, June 4, ordered an investigation into what Republicans claim was a "conspiracy" to cover up Joe Biden's declining cognitive health during his time in the White House. The move is the latest in a long-running campaign by Trump to discredit his predecessor, which has been joined by Republican Party politicians and their cheerleaders in the conservative media. But it also comes as a growing chorus of Democrats begin to acknowledge the former president appeared to have been slipping in recent years. Those concerns were thrown into stark relief by a disastrous debate performance against Trump during last year's presidential campaign, in which the then-81-year-old stumbled over his words and repeatedly lost his train of thought. "In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden's aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden's cognitive decline," a presidential memorandum issued Wednesday reads. "This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history." "The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden's signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts," it continued. Biden responded in a statement Wednesday night: "Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false." Republicans have long claimed that Biden was suffering from intellectual decline even as the White House pressed ahead with major legislation and presidential decrees during his term. They cite his infrequent public appearances, as well as his apparent unwillingness to sit for interviews as evidence of what they say was a man incapable of doing the demanding job of Commander-in-Chief of the United States. They insist that those around him covered up his physical and cognitive decline, taking decisions on his behalf and using a device that could reproduce his signature to allow them to continue to run the country in his name. 'Conspired to deceive the public' "The Counsel to the President, in consultation with the Attorney General and the head of any other relevant executive department or agency... shall investigate... whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden's mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President," the document says. The probe will also look at "the circumstances surrounding Biden's supposed execution of numerous executive actions during his final years in office (including) the policy documents for which the autopen was used (and) who directed that the President's signature be affixed." Biden's calamitous debate performance ultimately sank his bid for reelection, with key Democratic Party figures soon calling for him to drop out of the race. But it was only several weeks later, after unsuccessful attempts to quieten his critics, that he withdrew, anointing his vice-president Kamala Harris, who eventually lost to Trump. The Democratic Party is increasingly riven by squabbles about whether Biden could have been forced to step down earlier to give the party a chance to find a more popular presidential candidate. The fight has been given oxygen with the publication of a book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that claims the former president's inner circle connived to keep him from public view because of his decline, which included forgetting familiar faces like Hollywood star and party stalwart George Clooney. Trump's claims of a cover-up were also boosted by news that Biden is suffering from an "aggressive" prostate cancer, with some voices on the right insisting – without evidence – the diagnosis must have been known some time ago to those close to the former president.
