NORTH IRELAND
Historic victory for Sinn Fein
Having won the local elections on May 5, the Irish nationalist party won 27 seats out of 90, and dethroned its unionist rival, the DUP. For the first time, a member of this movement, which was the showcase of the paramilitary group IRA, should be appointed head of the Northern Irish government, one hundred years after the partition of the island. However, if “Sinn Fein has called for a debate on Irish unification, many obstacles exist to a referendum on the question”, argues The Guardian. Starting with public opinion: a poll in April put the no to unification at 48.2% (31.9% for the yes).
HONG KONG
An ex-policeman at the head of the executive
He had overseen the repression of the pro-democracy movement in 2019. Alone in the running, John Lee, No. 2 of the outgoing Hong Kong government, obtained a 99.4% approval rate for his candidacy on May 8 from of the committee in charge of electing the new leader of the city of 7 million inhabitants. His designation “violates democratic principles and pluralism”, reacted the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell. the FinancialTimes recalls, for its part, that “the vast majority of the political opposition is in prison or fled the city after Beijing imposed a radical law on national security”.
AFGHANISTAN
The burka again compulsory
She was the symbol of rigorous oppression when the Taliban first ruled the country, from 1996 to 2001. A May 7 decree signed by their leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, stipulates that the full veil once again becomes a public obligation for women. , with the risk of imprisonment for their male guardians in the event of non-compliance. The new decree is the latest in a series restricting women’s freedoms since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan last summer. Al Jazeera on his site. Prohibited from traveling alone, they no longer had access to secondary education or public employment.
TURKEY
Towards a return of one million Syrians
Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on May 3 that his government is “preparing the voluntary return of one million” refugees to Syria. These would be installed in new towns in the northern part of this neighboring country, where the Turkish army has been deployed since 2016. “We fear that this plan will lead to counterproductive results in overcrowded areas”, s worries a leader of the Syrian opposition, quoted by the site Al Monitor. Half a million Syrians who previously took refuge in Turkey have already returned to these “safe areas”, according to the Turkish president.
UNITED STATES
New face at the White House
She said she was “everything Donald Trump hates”. Born in Martinique to Haitian parents, Karine Jean-Pierre, 44, was appointed new spokesperson for the presidency on May 5. A strong choice, since she is the first black and openly homosexual woman to occupy this very exposed position in American politics. She will have “the task, under high pressure, of providing daily briefings from the press room desk”, specifies the New York Timeswho recalls that she has already “worked on Joe Biden’s campaign and has a long career in Democratic communications”.
PHILIPPINES
A Marcos at the head of the country
His dictator father, who reigned for twenty years on the archipelago, had established martial law in 1972 before being driven out by the streets in 1986. Nevertheless: Ferdinand Marcos Jr won the election hands down presidential election on May 9, presenting himself as the “continuity candidate”, ready to continue the bloody war on drugs of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. “Marco Jr symbolizes the astonishing return to power of a family that court records and historical accounts hold responsible for massacres and an institutionalized kleptocracy,” the Singaporean daily said. The Straits Times.
COLOMBIA
Violence after the extradition of a baron
Terror reigns in the north of the country, where hundreds of vehicles have been set on fire by members of the Gulf Clan cartel, after they declared a four-day “armed strike” on May 5. The day before, their leader, Dairo Antonio Usuga David, alias “Otoniel”, had been extradited from Bogota to New York, where he is being prosecuted for cocaine trafficking and faces life imprisonment. “The state has not been able to break the power of the gang in the drug trade nor to impose its authority in these areas where the communities are infiltrated by criminals”, specifies the daily. El Tiempo.