World
Liz Truss lasted just 45 days — who are Europe’s other short-term PMs?
British Prime Minister Liz Truss has resigned after simply 45 days on the job.
She solely formally took over from Boris Johnson on 6 September, however after a premiership of chaotic coverage choices, freefalling financial indicators, media gaffes and high-profile resignations — to not point out opinion polls which noticed her Conservative Occasion droop whereas the opposition Labour Occasion surged — Truss known as it quits.
Truss is formally Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister ever, beating the following candidate George Canning who was PM for 118 days till he died in workplace within the 1820s.
Who’re a few of the different short-term prime ministers in Europe?
We’ve put collectively a (non-exhaustive) checklist with a few of the highlights from the final 50 years or so of politics, with politicians who served 200 days or fewer — excluding those that had been caretakers or interim PMs (ruling out not less than one Portuguese politician, a Greek, a Finn, two Serbs and a Spaniard from our checklist!)
Montenegro: Dritan Abazović – 176 days (and counting)
Abazović is the latest casualty amongst European prime ministers, having misplaced his seat after a parliamentary no-confidence vote on 20 August — however he stays in workplace in the meanwhile.
The chief of the liberal-green URA occasion got here to workplace after the earlier authorities additionally collapsed in April, as political allies fell out over lack of progress, nationalism and obstructionism, a follow the place legal guidelines and insurance policies are intentionally delayed.
Abazović’s personal coalition of largely pro-European and minority events fell aside after he signed the controversial property settlement with the Serb Orthodox Church in early August, sparking rapid protests by the opposition as native media reported the contract was signed in secret.
The brand new prime minister of Montenegro is but to be named.
Belgium: Paul Vanden Boeynants – 165 days
Paul Vanden Boeyants served twice as Belgium’s prime minister: the primary time for 2 years within the Sixties after which once more for simply 165 days between 20 October 1978 and three March 1979.
After his stint as PM, Vanden Boeyants had a really vibrant life out and in of politics. He obtained a three-year suspended jail sentence within the Nineteen Eighties after being convicted of tax fraud.
Then, in 1989, he was apparently kidnapped by against the law gang and held hostage for a month whereas they demanded a ransom of 30 million Belgian francs (round €30 million).
Vanden Boeynants left full-time politics within the mid-Nineties. He died in 1991 from pneumonia after coronary heart surgical procedure.
Estonia: Andres Tarand – 161 days
Serving as Estonia’s prime minister for simply 161 days, Andreas Tarand was the Baltic state’s briefest chief up to now, in workplace from 8 November 1994 to 17 April 1995.
A life-long environmentalist, Tarand had studied climatology at college and was Estonia’s surroundings minister in two completely different governments.
Tarand was later elected to the European Parliament and served as an MEP from 2004 to 2005.
France: Bernard Cazeneuve – 161 days
French Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was in workplace for simply 5 months and 4 days from December 2016 till Could 2017.
He was appointed to the job by President Hollande after his predecessor launched a presidential marketing campaign, and Cazeneuve resigned on the finish of Hollande’s time period in workplace when Emmanuel Macron took over as President of France.
Kosovo: Albin Kurti – 121 days
When longtime protester and the chief of the primary opposition occasion in Kosovo, Albin Kurti, lastly turned prime minister in February 2020 after months of negotiations together with his coalition companions, he didn’t count on US President Donald Trump to unseat him.
Trump was wanting to get entangled in resolving the intractable political points between Kosovo and Serbia, and Kurti was standing in his manner.
The US envoy to the Balkans, Richard Grenell, put collectively a coalition of events in parliament that may launch a vote of no-confidence towards Kurti. It labored, and he was unseated after precisely 4 months in energy.
That being stated, when the Trump-backed authorities fell aside a couple of months later — Kurti was re-elected in a landslide.
Albania: Fatos Nano – 103 days
Fatos Nano got here from a distinguished household in communist Albania, and he steadily climbed the ranks of the Albanian Staff’ Occasion.
He was finally appointed PM of a transitional authorities and tasked with organising the primary post-communist democratic elections in 1991.
His occasion received the elections, and he turned prime minister. Nonetheless, a basic strike organised by unbiased unions pressured him to resign a couple of weeks later, in June 1991, after a complete of three months and 13 days in energy.
Nano went on to reform the Staff’ Occasion, reworking it from an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist entrance right into a social democratic occasion, and renamed it the Socialist Occasion of Albania.
He was re-elected prime minister for 2 further phrases, in 1997 and in 2002.
Italy: Amintore Fanfani – 102 days
Amintore Fanfani was prime minister of Italy six occasions in whole — the primary time only for 22 days within the Nineteen Fifties — however it was his final time period in workplace which landed the previous fascist politician on our checklist.
He was PM from 18 April to 29 July 1987, a interval of 102 days.
Fanfani began his political profession in Mussolini’s Nationwide Fascist Occasion and wrote about his imaginative and prescient for a fascist Europe led by authoritarian governments in Rome and Berlin. He was instrumental in banning Italian Jews from holding jobs in authorities or academia, and after Mussolini was killed, he fled to Switzerland till the top of the struggle.
When he got here again to politics, he turned a Christian Democrat and led six completely different governments within the Nineteen Fifties, Sixties and Nineteen Eighties and was nonetheless lively in politics, holding senior roles within the Italian Senate till the mid-Nineties.
He died in 1999, aged 91.
Romania: Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu – 89 days
Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu was appointed prime minister of Romania in February 2012 in an try to stabilise the nation amid a critical political disaster.
Ungureanu had been put within the job by Romania’s President and conservative mainstay, Traian Băsescu.
Băsescu’s transfer was labelled by some as a copy-paste of Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s promotion of Vladimir Putin – however Ungureanu and Putin had virtually nothing in widespread, and the previous director of the Romanian Intelligence Service didn’t go the no-confidence vote by the nation’s grand coalition in early Could of the identical 12 months.
Ungureanu remained lively in Romanian politics, serving as a member of parliament within the following years.
Finland: Anneli Jäätteenmäki – 69 days
Anneli Jääteenmäki was Finland’s first feminine prime minister, briefly, from 17 April to 24 June 2003.
She led her Centre Occasion to victory within the 2003 basic election however turned embroiled in a scandal when critical questions had been raised about how she obtained her arms on some confidential international ministry paperwork concerning the Iraq struggle, which she utilized in her election marketing campaign to discredit the opposition.
Jäätteenmäki claimed somebody despatched her the paperwork by fax, unsolicited, and that she didn’t know the way delicate they had been. A senior civil servant disputed her model of occasions and, with belief gone, she needed to hand in her resignation.
Anneli Jääteenmäki’s political profession didn’t finish there, nonetheless. She went on to turn into an MEP in Brussels from 2001-2019.
Bulgaria: Andrey Lukanov – 22 days
Though the Balkan nation isn’t any stranger to political upheaval, having had 4 basic elections — and 4 PMs — within the final 18 months, Andrey Lukanov holds the document for spending the least time as Bulgaria’s head of state, set in late 1990.
Because the Soviet Union’s affect in jap Europe waned, quite a lot of communist international locations discovered themselves at a crossroads, Bulgaria included.
Lukanov served because the final prime minister of the Socialist Republic of Bulgaria, and because the nation started its transition to a western-style democracy following multi-party elections, he held on to the function till 7 December 1990.
Regardless of his affords to type a coalition authorities with the opposition, it was rejected on the grounds that Lukanov — a former Communist Occasion loyalist and extremely ranked politician — needs to be held liable for the deteriorating financial system and the previous regime’s previous crimes.
He was finally pressured out of the workplace by large-scale demonstrations and a basic strike.
Lukanov was assassinated in 1996 exterior of his Sofia condominium. The true motives for his assassination are nonetheless unclear, whereas the perpetrators stay at giant.
Croatia: Josip Manolić – 22 days
Josip Manolić’s transient stint as Croatia’s prime minister got here at a really turbulent time as Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991, sparking a struggle with the ethnic Serbs within the nation, backed by Belgrade and the remnants of the Yugoslav Individuals’s Military.
Manolić turned the primary PM of the newly unbiased nation by default, persevering with in his function because the PM of Croatia inside Yugoslavia, a place he took up in August 1990.
Nonetheless, after President Franjo Tuđman signed the Brijuni Settlement in July 1991, additional severing the nation’s ties with different Yugoslav republics, Manolić was changed by Franjo Gregorić, tasked by Tuđman to guide a grand coalition authorities dubbed Authorities of Nationwide Unity.
Manolić, a former head of the Yugoslav safety company, OZNA, and a member of the Partisan anti-fascist resistance in World Conflict II was one of many key founders of the Croat nationalist centre-right occasion, HDZ, and was thought of to be the second-most-powerful man in Croatia on the time after Tuđman.
Nonetheless, after Manolić’s 1995 try to organise a mass defection of HDZ members to deprive Tuđman of a parliamentary majority failed, his star waned, and he turned largely uninfluential.
Manolić, who turned 100 in March 2020, is likely one of the oldest residing former PMs on the planet.
Lithuania: Albertas Šimėnas – 3 days
Often called one of many signatories to the March 1990 Act of the Re-Institution of the State of Lithuania, successfully declaring Lithuania’s independence from the Soviet Union, Šimėnas turned the Baltic nation’s PM on 10 January 1991 after the earlier authorities resigned attributable to financial turmoil.
Nonetheless, Šimėnas disappeared three days later, after the Soviet military entered the capital Vilnius and laid siege to key buildings within the metropolis in what was later dubbed as January Occasions.
Thought of to be one of many foremost blemishes of USSR chief Mikhail Gorbachev’s rule, the violent confrontations with the Lithuanian inhabitants led to 14 civilians killed and a few 140 injured.
As Šimėnas was nowhere to be discovered amidst the turmoil, Gediminas Vagnorius — one other signatory of the March 1990 act — held an emergency session and took over the reins.
Šimėnas reappeared on 14 January, becoming a member of Vagnorius’ authorities as minister of financial system till that authorities collapsed in July 1992.
Sweden: Magdalena Andersson – 7.5 hours
Sweden’s first feminine Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson solely lasted seven and a half hours in workplace, the primary time round.
In November 2021, after days of negotiations, Social Democrat chief Andersson was in a position to put collectively a minority authorities with the assist of two smaller events.
After parliament voted to approve her appointment, she offered a brand new finances plan for the nation, however one of many events withdrew their assist, and he or she resigned simply seven and a half hours after getting the job.
Just a few days later, the finances was again on the desk, amended and authorized, and Andersson was as soon as once more voted as Swedish prime minister, a job she continued till being changed in October 2022 following the overall election.
World
Trump threatens to take back control of Panama Canal over ‘ridiculous fees’
Trump also hinted at China’s growing influence around the canal, which connects the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.
United States President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to demand control of the Panama Canal after accusing Panama of charging excessive rates on US ships passing through one of the busiest waterways in the world.
“Our Navy and Commerce have been treated in a very unfair and injudicious way. The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
“This complete ‘rip-off’ of our Country will immediately stop.”
The US largely built the canal in 1914 and administrated territory surrounding the passage for decades. But Washington fully handed control of the canal to Panama in 1999 after a period of joint administration.
Trump also hinted at China’s growing influence around the canal, which connects the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.
“It was solely for Panama to manage, not China, or anyone else,” he said. “We would and will NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands!”
The post was an exceedingly rare example of a US leader saying he could push a sovereign country to hand over territory.
“It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. If the moral and legal principles of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” Trump said.
Trump’s tariff plan
It also underlines an expected shift in US diplomacy under Trump, who has not historically shied away from threatening allies and using rhetoric when dealing with counterparts.
Last month, Trump said he would impose tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports on day one of his administration and that the measures would remain until the “invasion” of undocumented migrants and drugs came to an end.
“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long-simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!” he posted on his Truth Social platform.
Authorities in Panama did not immediately react to Trump’s post.
An estimated 5 percent of global maritime traffic passes through the Panama Canal, which allows ships travelling between Asia and the US East Coast to avoid the long, hazardous route around the southern tip of South America.
The Panama Canal Authority reported in October that the waterway had earned record revenues of nearly $5bn in the last fiscal year.
World
Lo que nos dice la decisión de Trump de involucrarse en disputa de gastos sobre los próximos 4 años
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tras días de amenazas y exigencias, Donald Trump tuvo por qué mostrar una vez que los legisladores aprobaron un acuerdo presupuestario en las primeras horas del sábado, evitando por poco que las dependencias estatales se vieran obligadas a cerrar antes de Navidad por falta de fondos.
El presidente electo logró que los republicanos de la Cámara de Representantes eliminaran algunos gastos, pero no logró su objetivo principal de elevar el límite de la deuda. Esto demostró que, a pesar de su decisiva victoria electoral y sus frecuentes promesas de represalias, muchos miembros de su partido aún están dispuestos a desafiarlo abiertamente.
La decisión de Trump de involucrarse en el debate presupuestario un mes antes de su toma de posesión también mostró que sigue siendo más hábil para destruir acuerdos que para hacerlos, y presagió que su segundo mandato probablemente estará marcado por las mismas luchas internas, el caos y el juego al borde del precipicio que caracterizaron su primer mandato.
“Estén atentos. Abróchense los cinturones. Prepárense”, dijo el congresista Steve Womack, republicano de Arkansas, un asignador presupuestario sénior.
Una mirada a la agenda de Trump muestra una cascada de oportunidades para enfrentamientos similares en los años venideros. El presidente electo quiere ampliar los recortes fiscales que promulgó hace siete años, reducir el tamaño del gobierno, aumentar los aranceles a las importaciones y tomar medidas enérgicas contra los inmigrantes no autorizados. Muchos de esos esfuerzos necesitarán la aprobación del Congreso.
Para muchos de los seguidores de Trump, la disrupción podría ser un objetivo en sí mismo. El 37% de los que votaron por él este año dijeron que querían “un cambio total y completo”, según AP VoteCast, una extensa encuesta de más de 120.000 votantes. Un 56% adicional dijo que querían “un cambio sustancial”.
Pero los últimos días dejaron claro la dificultad que Trump podría enfrentar para cumplir rápidamente sus objetivos, especialmente dado que los republicanos solo cuentan con mayorías escasas en la Cámara de Representantes y el Senado. Algunos legisladores ya parecen cansados de la aparente ausencia de una estrategia unificada.
El senador Kevin Cramer, republicano de Dakota del Norte, dijo que la batalla presupuestaria fue “una lección valiosa sobre cómo organizarnos”.
El fracaso de las exigencias de Trump
El problema comenzó cuando los principales legisladores publicaron una copia de la iniciativa de ley, conocida como una resolución continua, que era necesaria para asegurar el funcionamiento del gobierno federal hasta marzo. No fue el presidente electo, sino Elon Musk, el hombre más rico del mundo y confidente de Trump, quien primero comenzó a generar oposición a la ley en las redes sociales al calificarla de gasto excesivo.
Trump eventualmente se sumó a la batalla. Ordenó a los republicanos cancelar el acuerdo bipartidista que habían hecho con los demócratas y exigió que aumentaran el límite de la deuda, el tope de cuánto puede pedir prestado el gobierno, con la esperanza de evitar que ese espinoso problema surgiera cuando ya estuviera en funciones.
Aumentó la presión incluso después de haber modificado sus demandas iniciales. Primero quería eliminar el límite de la deuda por completo. Luego quería suspenderlo hasta 2027. Luego propuso una extensión hasta 2029.
Si las dependencias estatales se vieran obligadas a cerrar por falta de fondos, el presidente demócrata Joe Biden sería culpado, insistió Trump.
“Todos los republicanos, e incluso los demócratas, deberían hacer lo que es mejor para nuestro país y votar ‘A FAVOR’ de esta iniciativa de ley, ¡ESTA NOCHE!”, escribió Trump el jueves, antes de una votación sobre una versión del proyecto de ley que incluía un límite de deuda más alto.
En cambio, 38 republicanos votaron en contra. Fue un desaire sorprendente para Trump, quien a veces pareciera no tener ningún control sobre su propio partido.
“Sin esto, nunca deberíamos hacer un acuerdo”, escribió en Truth Social, su red social.
Si no conseguía lo que quería, Trump dijo que debería haber un cierre del gobierno. También dijo que sus correligionarios pagarían el precio en las elecciones primarias si se negaban a seguir adelante, y dijo que “los obstruccionistas republicanos tienen que ser eliminados”. Señaló especialmente al representante Chip Roy, de Texas, por su nombre y con insultos.
Pero al final, los legisladores dejaron fuera ese aumento del techo de la deuda, y un acuerdo final se aprobó el sábado a primera hora.
Musk y otros aliados de Trump intentaron presentarlo como una victoria porque la ley final se redujo significativamente y omitió elementos impopulares como un aumento salarial para los miembros del Congreso. Charlie Kirk, un prominente activista conservador, escribió en X que Trump ”¡ya está dirigiendo el Congreso antes de asumir el cargo!”.
El presidente de la Cámara de Representantes, Mike Johnson, republicano de Luisiana, dijo que había estado en “contacto constante” con Trump, quien, aseguró, estaba “ciertamente feliz con este resultado”.
Si Trump estuvo de acuerdo, él mismo no lo dijo.
Tras días de publicaciones frecuentes en redes sociales, Trump volvió a guardar silencio el viernes. No ofreció una reacción a la votación final ni emitió ningún comunicado. En cambio, fue a jugar golf en su resort en Florida.
Karoline Leavitt, una vocera de Trump, dijo que el presidente electo ayudó a prevenir un acuerdo original “lleno de despilfarros demócratas y aumentos salariales para los miembros del Congreso”.
“En enero, el presidente Trump y el Departamento de Eficiencia Gubernamental (DOGE, por sus siglas en inglés) continuarán esta importante misión de eliminar el despilfarro de Washington, una ley a la vez”, dijo. El DOGE es un panel asesor que será liderado por Musk y el empresario Vivek Ramaswamy.
Más enfrentamientos en el horizonte
La atmósfera circense de la lucha por el presupuesto recordó al primer mandato de Trump. En aquel entonces, un enfrentamiento presupuestario llevó a un cierre del gobierno cuando Trump exigió dinero para su muro fronterizo entre Estados Unidos y México. Después de 35 días, el cierre más largo de la historia, accedió a un acuerdo sin haber logrado los fondos que había exigido.
Fue un punto bajo político para Trump, y el 60% de los estadounidenses lo culparon por el cierre, según una encuesta realizada por The Associated Press y el NORC Center for Public Affairs Research en ese momento.
Trump no dejó de intentar doblegar a los republicanos a su voluntad en ese entonces y ciertamente no lo hará en este momento.
Trump está aumentando la presión sobre su propio partido por sus elecciones para el gabinete, empujando a senadores republicanos reacios a aceptar algunos de sus nombramientos más controvertidos, como el activista antivacunas Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a quien eligió como secretario de Salud y el presentador de Fox News Pete Hegseth como secretario de Defensa.
Pareciera que los debates sobre el presupuesto del próximo año definitivamente pondrán a prueba aún más la influencia de Trump en la Cámara de Representantes. Muchos conservadores ven el rápido crecimiento de la deuda federal como una amenaza existencial para el país que debe abordarse. Pero algunos republicanos temen una reacción negativa de los votantes si se realizan recortes drásticos a los programas federales de los que dependen los estadounidenses.
Las preocupaciones sobre el gasto deficitario podrían intensificarse si Trump impulsa los recortes fiscales costosos que prometió durante la campaña, como eliminar los impuestos sobre las propinas, la Seguridad Social y el pago de horas extras.
Trump también pretende ampliar los recortes fiscales que promulgó en 2017 y que deberán llegar a su fin el próximo año. Ha pedido una reducción adicional de la tasa de impuestos corporativos de Estados Unidos del 21% al 15%, pero sólo para las empresas que producen en Estados Unidos.
Trump ha dicho que pagará las caídas en los ingresos con aranceles agresivos nuevos, los cuales, advierten los economistas, resultarán en precios más altos para los consumidores.
El representante Dan Crenshaw, republicano de Texas, dijo que la reducción del gasto público probablemente seguirá siendo un abismo entre Trump y los republicanos de la Cámara de Representantes.
“Eso nunca ha sido realmente una promesa de campaña de Trump, pero es una gran prioridad para los republicanos de la Cámara de Representantes”, dijo.
No había indicios de que la animosidad estuviera disminuyendo el sábado. Algunos republicanos culparon al liderazgo de la Cámara de Representantes por no asegurar la “bendición” de Trump en el acuerdo original. Los demócratas presentaron a Trump como segundo violín de Musk.
Mientras Trump se mantenía callado, Biden anunció que había promulgado la ley presupuestaria.
“Este acuerdo representa un compromiso, lo que significa que ninguna de las partes obtuvo todo lo que quería”, dijo. “Pero rechaza el camino acelerado hacia un recorte de impuestos para multimillonarios que buscaban los republicanos, y asegura que el gobierno pueda continuar operando a plena capacidad”.
___
Boak reportó desde West Palm Beach, Florida, y Colvin desde Nueva York.
____
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de la AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
World
Pope to skip outdoor Sunday prayer after catching cold days ahead of Christmas Eve, Day Masses
The pope has contracted a cold and will skip his usual outdoor Sunday prayer, instead giving the blessing indoors just days ahead of his Christmas Eve and Day Masses, the Vatican said Saturday.
Chilly weather and the pope’s busy schedule during Christmas week were cited as reasons for the 88-year-old giving the blessing from his residence at the chapel of the Vatican’s Santa Marta quarters.
The pope usually addresses the public from the window of St. Peter’s Basilica overlooking St. Peter’s Square on Sundays.
BIDEN HEADING TO VATICAN CITY NEXT MONTH TO MEET WITH POPE FRANCIS, MELONI IN FINAL OVERSEAS TRIP
Pope Francis sounded congested on Saturday as he gave his annual Christmas greeting to Vatican bureaucrats.
The octogenarian has suffered from bronchitis before, including last year when he was hospitalized, and he also missed a climate change meeting in Dubai last year because of the flu and lung inflammation.
POPE FRANCIS REVEALS HE WAS NEARLY ASSASSINATED DURING HISTORIC IRAQ TRIP
The pope developed pleurisy in his 20s and was forced to have part of his lungs removed in his native Argentina.
Christmas Eve also marks the beginning of the Vatican’s Holy Year in which around 32 million pilgrims are expected to head to Rome throughout 2025.
The pope will open the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve and On Dec. 26, he will go to Rome’s main prison to inaugurate the start of the Holy Year there.
The Holy Year, also known as the Jubilee, is usually held every 25 years.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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