UN conference adopts global ‘migration pact’

Macron addresses France

MARRAKESH, Morocco, Dec 10, (Agencies): A United Nations conference adopted a migration pact in front of leaders and representatives from around 150 countries in Morocco on Monday, despite a string of withdrawals driven by antiimmigrant populism.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration – finalised at the UN in July after 18 months of talks – was formally approved with the bang of a gavel in Marrakesh at the start of a two day conference.

But the United States and 15 other countries either opted out or expressed concerns, with some claiming the pact infringes national sovereignty. Billed as the first international document on managing migration, it lays out 23 objectives to open up legal migration and discourage illegal border crossings, as the number of people on the move globally has surged to more than 250 million.

Describing it as a “roadmap to prevent suffering and chaos”, UN Secretary General sought to dispel what he called a number of myths around the pact, including claims that it will allow the UN to impose migration policies on member states.

The pact “is not legally binding”, he said. “It is a framework for international co-operation ... that specifically reaffirms the principle of state sovereignty.

“We must not succumb to fear and false narratives,” he told an audience that included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela and Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras.

Merkel launched an impassioned defence of the pact and multilateralism, saying her country “through Nazism brought incredible pain to humanity”.

“The answer to pure nationalism was the foundation of the United Nations and the commitment to jointly searching for answers to our common problems,” she said.

The pact, said Merkel, seeks to prevent, rather than encourage, illegal migration. “This is about safe orderly and regular migration – it says (this) clearly in the title.”

Guterres

Macron addresses France:

French President Emmanuel Macron was preparing to speak to the nation Monday at last, after increasingly violent and radicalized protests against his leadership and a long silence that aggravated the anger. Many protesters only want one thing: for him to declare “I quit.”

That’s an unlikely prospect. Instead Macron is expected to announce a series of measures to reduce taxes and boost purchasing power for the masses who feel his presidency has favored the rich. He’s being forced to act after four weeks of “yellow vest” protests that started in struggling provinces and spread to rioting in the capital that has scared tourists and foreign investors and shaken France to the core.

Macron met Monday morning in his presidential palace with local and national politicians, unions and business leaders to hear their concerns. In the evening, he will give a national televised address, his first public words in more than a week.

Among steps the government is considering are abolishing taxes on overtime, speeding up tax cuts and an end-of-year bonus for low-income workers. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday the government could delay some payroll taxes, but expressed resistance to restoring the wealth tax or lowering taxes for retirees, among protesters’ demands. He stressed that the measures should focus on helping the working classes.

“We are ready to make any gesture” that works, he said on RTL radio. “What is important now is to put an end to the crisis and find peace and unity in the country again.”

Party to reject Lofven as PM:

Attempts to form a new Swedish government were back at square one on Monday after the Centre Party said it would vote against Social Democrat leader Stefan Lofven’s return as prime minister because he had rejected their policy demands.

Sweden has been without a government since a Sept 9 election delivered a hung parliament which subsequently voted Lofven out as prime minister after four years in office and then also rejected the candidacy of the leader of the four-party centreright Alliance.

The Centre and Liberal parties, nominally party of the Alliance, said last month they were willing to support Lofven if he accepted a number of major policy compromises, including lower taxes and more liberal labour laws.

Armenian PM wins snap vote:

Armenia’s acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has won a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections, results showed Monday, cementing his authority months after sweeping to power in a peaceful revolution.

Pashinyan, a 43-year-old former journalist, has pledged to root out endemic corruption and address widespread poverty in the impoverished, landlocked ex-Soviet republic of three million people.

With all votes counted, the bloc led by Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party had taken 70.43 percent of the vote, the central election commission said.

The Prosperous Armenia party led by influential oligarch and former arm wrestler Gagik Tsarukyan came a distant second with 8.27 percent.