COVID-19: Narendra Modi offers free vaccines for all adults in India as several states lift lockdown and cases fall - Sky News

India is offering free vaccines to all adults as it eases lockdown in several states following a steady fall in cases.

"It has been decided that from 21 June all adults over the age of 18 will be vaccinated free," Prime Minister Narendra Modi told a televised address on Monday.

The new policy means the federal government will take over India's vaccine rollout, which has been widely criticised for being too slow amid the recent deadly wave of cases.

It comes as several states ease their COVID restrictions after the country recorded its lowest number of infections in two months.

Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced free vaccines for all adults

Shops, restaurants and other businesses are allowed to reopen with limited hours in New Delhi and Mumbai, with some restrictions also lifted in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

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The Delhi metro, which serves the city and surrounding areas, has reopened at 50% capacity, but Mumbai's state rail network remains closed.

Coronavirus infections peaked at around 400,000 a day in May after a devastating wave hit India at the start of April.

More on Covid

But on Monday, the number of new COVD cases was the lowest it has been for two months - with 100,636 reported in the past 24 hours.

Despite recorded infections steadily declining, experts fear the virus is spreading unchecked through India's rural areas - where the majority of its people live.

India is still second to the US in terms of total cases globally - with almost 29 million - but a lack of testing facilities and hospital capacity mean that figure is thought to be a vast underestimate.

The country's health ministry said 2,427 new deaths were registered in the latest 24-hour period on Monday, taking the total to 349,186.

Image: A man gets his hair cut at a barbers in Mumbai. Pic: AP

So far 222 million COVID-19 jabs have been given out across India - with less than 5% of its 1.39 billion population fully vaccinated.

Before his address on Monday, Mr Modi was under mounting pressure over the rollout, which previously only offered free jabs to the over-45s and frontline workers.

He has also been widely criticised for the £1.27bn redevelopment of New Delhi's historical centre, which includes a new 15-acre residence for him.

Recently MP Rahul Gandhi tweeted to say the cost of the Central Vista project was equivalent to 450 million vaccines or 10 million oxygen cylinders.

Image: The Delhi metro system has reopened. Pic: AP

Under the old vaccine system, anyone under 45 who was not a frontline worker had to pay for their jab at a private hospital unless they could get state funding.

India has just ordered 300 million doses of an unlicensed vaccine made by an Indian company called Biological E in a bid to boost supplies.

The jab is still in phase three trials, but previous ones have shown encouraging results.

Last month the UK sent 1,000 ventilators to India as cases spiralled out of control, families begged for oxygen equipment and officials struggled to deal with the number of dead.

The Delta variant, a double mutation of the virus that originated in India, has left health systems overwhelmed.

Meanwhile politicians have focused on trying to the save the economy, with New Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal saying on Monday: "Now the corona situation is under control. The economy must be brought back on track."

But other states are being more cautious when it comes to restrictions, with the southern states of Jammu and Kashmir and Tamil Nadu extending their lockdowns for at least another week.

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2021-06-07 12:56:15Z
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Iran honour killing: Parents who dismembered son also killed daughter and son-in-law - Daily Mail

Iranian parents 'who stabbed their son to death in honour killing over his unmarried status confess to murdering their daughter and son-in-law years earlier'

• Akbar and Iran Khorramdin, 81 and 74, arrested for murder of son Babak in May
• They have since confessed to murders of daughter Arezou and son-in-law Faramarz over the course of the last decade, police say
• All three were drugged, stabbed and then dismembered in 'honour' killings 
• Akbar told a court hearing that he has 'no guilty conscience' for the murders and those he killed were 'highly morally corrupt'

By Chris Pleasance for MailOnline

Published: 09:14 BST, 7 June 2021 | Updated: 09:55 BST, 7 June 2021

An Iranian couple accused of sedating, stabbing and then dismembering the body of their son in an honour killing have also confessed to murdering their daughter and son-in-law in the same way. 

Akbar and Iran Khorramdin, 81 and 74, were arrested three weeks ago in Tehran on suspicion of murdering their film-maker son Babak after his dismembered body was found in a dumpster near their house.

While being questioned by police, the pair admitted to having killed him because he was unmarried before confessing to killing son-in-law Faramarz and daughter Arezou years earlier for their 'immoral' behaviour, Iranian media reports.

'I don't have a guilty conscience for any [of the killings]. Those I killed were highly morally corrupt,' the father said during an initial court appearance. 

Akbar and Iran Khorramdin, 81 and 74, have confessed to killing their son, daughter, and son-in-law in a series of honour killings spanning 10 years (faces muzzed by Iranian media)

Iran, Babak's mother, added: 'We both [planned the murders]. My husband said it and I said, "OK." I'm not sad at all. I suffered a lot because of them.'

Police are still investigating the crimes, according to Iranian news site Tasnim.

The pair face up to 10 years in jail for killing their children under Iran's strict interpretation of Islamic law that grants lighter penalties for parents who murder their children.

However, they could face life in prison if convicted of murdering their son-in-law.  

The grisly story first came to light on May 16 when garbage workers in Tehran discovered a dismembered body in a dumpster near the Ekbatan neighbourhood.

Police were called, fingerprinted the body, and identified the victim as Babak Khorramdin, a filmmaker who studied and worked in London starting in 2010 before returning to Iran to teach.

Officers went to the parents' house and arrested them after discovering evidence of a murder inside.

The pair initially denied the killing, but later confessed - saying they had put sedatives in Babak's food and then stabbed him while he was semi-conscious.

They then took Babak's body to a bathroom where they dismembered it, put the body parts in a suitcase, and dumped it in the trash, according to Iranian reports.

Police say the pair then confessed to killing daughter Arezou three years ago and to killing her husband Faramarz 10 years ago, using similar methods.

Faramarz was killed because he was abusive and Arezou was killed because she was using drugs and bringing boyfriends home, Tehran police chief Hussein Rahimi said.

The couple claimed that both Faramarz and Arezou had gone missing, suggesting they had run away to live abroad, and police never investigated the disappearances.

The pair were caught after the body of son Babak (pictured) was found dismembered in a bin in Tehran three weeks ago, leading police to their house 

Officers are now investigating the pair, and are looking into whether any other family members have gone missing in suspicious circumstances.

Akbar and Iran have two other children - Afshin and Azar - both of whom are alive.

Police said last week that no other crimes have so-far been uncovered, but investigations are still ongoing. 

Babak graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran in 2009 with a master's degree in cinema.

The following year, he moved to London to further his study of film, before returning to Iran to teach film to students. 

He made a number of short films while in London including Crevice and Oath to Yashar, which focused on his experience moving country and being away from his family. 

Middle East Analyst and Editor at Iran International TV, Jason Brodsky said: 'I think the horrific death of Babak Khorramdin is only the latest example of a long pattern of domestic violence that we have seen in Iran. 

'It follows the tragic death of Ali Fazeli Monfared, who was killed by family members after they found out he was gay. 

'That is not to mention the case last year of Romina Ashfrafi, a 14-year-old girl who was beheaded by her father in an honour killing.'

He added: 'Despite a child protection law being passed in 2020 in Iran, honour killings and domestic violence continue more broadly, and this is an area the international community needs to address with Iran.'

There has been a rise in domestic violence and family homicides during the pandemic while people spend time with relatives at home. 

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2021-06-07 08:14:23Z
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Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau died after setting off explosive while being chased by rivals, IS offshoot claims - Sky News

The leader of Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram is dead, according to reports.

News agency Reuters said it had heard an audio recording made by Boko Haram's rivals The Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP), which said Abubakar Shekau died around 18 May.

He died after detonating an explosive device, according to a person on the recording who identified himself as ISWAP leader Abu Musab al Barnawi.

Image: Abubakar Shekau has been a wanted man for years

Al Barnawi said his fighters had sought the warlord on orders of Islamic State leadership, chasing him and offering him the chance to repent and join them.

"Shekau preferred to be humiliated in the afterlife than getting humiliated on Earth, and he killed himself instantly by detonating an explosive.

"Abubakar Shekau, God has judged him by sending him to heaven," he added.

Shekau has been reported as dead on numerous occasions, only to later appear in videos.

More on Boko Haram

The latest claims, however, appeared to have been confirmed by a Nigerian intelligence report shared by a government official and by people who have studied Boko Haram.

Image: Abubakar Shekau taunted parents of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls after they were kidnapped

The death has also been reported in Nigerian news outlets.

Since Shekau took the lead, Boko Haram has transformed from an underground sect to a fully fledged insurgency, killing, kidnapping and looting across Nigeria's northeast in the past decade.

The group has killed more than 30,000 people and forced about two million to flee their homes.

It was behind the 2014 kidnapping of more than 270 girls from the northern town of Chibok, which sparked the #BringBackOurGirls campaign backed by then US First Lady Michelle Obama.

About 100 of the girls are still missing.

ISWAP was part of Boko Haram before it pledged allegiance to Islamic State five years ago.

However, it is thought that Shekau's death could lead to Boko Haram fighters moving over to the ISWAP group, meaning the two can concentrate on fighting Nigeria's military and government.

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2021-06-07 03:21:02Z
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Boko Harem leader DID kill himself, rival jihadis confirm - Daily Mail

Boko Harem leader DID kill himself during fierce battle with ISIS-supporting militants, the rival jihadis confirm after weeks of rumours

• Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau has killed himself, rival militant group say 
• It comes two weeks after reports first emerged that he had died
• Boko Haram has not yet officially commented on the death of their leader 

By Afp

Published: 01:05 BST, 7 June 2021 | Updated: 01:11 BST, 7 June 2021

Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau has killed himself in a fight against rival jihadist fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) according to audio obtained from the group on Sunday. 

It comes two weeks after reports emerged that he had died.

His death marks a major shift in Nigeria's 12-year-old jihadist insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced around two million in the northeast.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau holds a weapon in an unknown location in Nigeria in this still image taken from an undated video obtained on January 15, 2018

Boko Haram has not yet officially commented on the death of their leader while the Nigerian army said it was investigating the claim.

'Shekau preferred to be humiliated in the hereafter to getting humiliated on Earth. He killed himself instantly by detonating an explosive,' said a voice resembling that of ISWAP leader Abu Musab Al-Barnawi, speaking in the Kanuri language.

The audio, which was not dated, was given to AFP by the same source who conveyed previous messages from the group.

ISWAP described in the audio how it sent fighters to Boko Haram's enclave in the Sambisa forest, that they found Shekau sitting inside his house and engaged him in a firefight.

'From there he retreated and escaped, ran and roamed the bushes for five days. However, the fighters kept searching and hunting for him before they were able to locate him,' the voice said.

Leader of the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau at an undisclosed location in Nigeria

After finding him in the bush, ISWAP fighters urged him and his followers to repent, the voice added, but Shekau refused and killed himself.

'We are so happy,' the voice said, describing Shekau as 'the big troublemaker, persecutor and destructive leader of the nation.'

ISWAP split from Boko Haram in 2016, objecting to Shekau's indiscriminate targeting of Muslim civilians and use of women suicide bombers. 

'This was someone who committed unimaginable terrorism and atrocities. For how long has he been leading people astray? How many times has he destroyed and abused people?' the voice said.

In the past two years, ISWAP emerged as the more dominant force in the region, carrying out large-scale attacks against the Nigerian military.

As the group now looks to absorb Shekau's fighters and territory, Nigeria's army potentially faces a more unified jihadist force, analysts say.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau speaks in front of guards in an unknown location in Nigeria in this still image taken from an undated video obtained on January 15, 2018

But ISWAP may also struggle to control or persuade Boko Haram factions loyal to Shekau outside Sambisa, especially in border areas.

'It may not be over yet,' one security source said. 'ISWAP will have to subdue or convince these camps to coalesce (them) into its fold to fully consolidate its control.'

Jihadist infighting may present opportunities for Nigeria's army to seize.

But should ISWAP absorb part of Shekau's men and weapons, it might be in a position to cut off roads to and from the Borno state capital Maiduguri, said Peccavi Consulting, a risk group specialising in Africa.

'If ISWAP convinces Shekau's forces to join them, they will be controlling the majority of the enemy forces as well as having a presence in most of the ungoverned spaces in the northeast,' it said in a note.

Since 2019, Nigeria's army has pulled out of villages and smaller bases to hunker down in so-called 'supercamps', a strategy critics say allows jihadists to roam free in rural areas.

Following its takeover of Sambisa, ISWAP sent messages to locals in the Lake Chad region, telling them they were welcome to its self-declared 'caliphate', said Sallau Arzika, a fisherman from Baga.

Locals were chased out of the lake islands after ISWAP accused them of spying for the military. Al-Barnawi said they could now return for fishing and trading after paying tax, with the assurance they would not be harmed, Arzika said.

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2021-06-07 00:05:01Z
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Why Kim Jong-un is waging war on slang, jeans and foreign films - BBC News

North Korea has recently introduced a sweeping new law which seeks to stamp out any kind of foreign influence - harshly punishing anyone caught with foreign films, clothing or even using slang. But why?

Yoon Mi-so says she was 11 when she first saw a man executed for being caught with a South Korean drama.

His entire neighbourhood was ordered to watch.

"If you didn't, it would be classed as treason," she told the BBC from her home in Seoul.

The North Korean guards were making sure everyone knew the penalty for smuggling illicit videos was death.

"I have a strong memory of the man who was blindfolded, I can still see his tears flow down. That was traumatic for me. The blindfold was completely drenched in his tears.

"They put him on a stake and bound him, then shot him."

'A war without weapons'

Imagine being in a constant state of lockdown with no internet, no social media and only a few state controlled television channels designed to tell you what the country's leaders want you to hear - this is life in North Korea.

And now its leader Kim Jong-Un has clamped down further, introducing a sweeping new law against what the regime describes as "reactionary thought".

Anyone caught with large amounts of media from South Korea, the United States or Japan now faces the death penalty. Those caught watching face prison camp for 15 years.

And it's not just about what people watch.

Recently, Mr Kim wrote a letter in state media calling on the country's Youth League to crack down on "unsavoury, individualistic, anti-socialist behaviour" among young people. He wants to stop foreign speech, hairstyles and clothes which he described as "dangerous poisons".

EPA

The Daily NK, an online publication in Seoul with sources in North Korea, reported that three teenagers had been sent to a re-education camp for cutting their hair like K-pop idols and hemming their trousers above their ankles. The BBC cannot verify this account.

All this is because Mr Kim is in a war that does not involve nuclear weapons or missiles.

Analysts say he is trying to stop outside information reaching the people of North Korea as life in the country becomes increasingly difficult.

Millions of people are thought to be going hungry. Mr Kim wants to ensure they are still being fed the state's carefully crafted propaganda, rather than gaining glimpses of life according to glitzy K-dramas set south of the border in Seoul, one of Asia's richest cities.

• Orphans are volunteering as miners, North Korea says
• The South Koreans enslaved in the North's mines
• North Korea's sidelined human rights crisis

The country has been more cut off from the outside world than ever before after sealing its border last year in response to the pandemic. Vital supplies and trade from neighbouring China almost ground to a halt. Although some supplies are beginning to get through, imports are still limited.

This self imposed isolation has exacerbated an already failing economy where money is funnelled into the regime's nuclear ambitions. Earlier this year Mr Kim himself admitted that his people were facing "the worst-ever situation which we have to overcome".

What does the law say?

The Daily NK was the first to get hold of a copy of the law.

"It states that if a worker is caught, the head of the factory can be punished, and if a child is problematic, parents can also be punished. The system of mutual monitoring encouraged by the North Korean regime is aggressively reflected in this law," Editor-in-Chief Lee Sang Yong told the BBC.

He says this is intended to "shatter" any dreams or fascination the younger generation may have about the South.

"In other words, the regime concluded that a sense of resistance could form if cultures from other countries were introduced," he said.

Choi Jong-hoon, one of the few defectors to make it out of the country in the last year, told the BBC that "the harder the times, the harsher the regulations, laws, punishments become".

"Psychologically, when your belly is full and you watch a South Korean film, it might be for leisure. But when there's no food and it's a struggle to live, people get disgruntled."

Will it work?

Previous crackdowns only demonstrated how resourceful people have been in circulating and watching foreign films which are usually smuggled over the border from China.

For a number of years, dramas have been passed around on USB sticks which are now as "common as rocks", according to Mr Choi. They're easy to conceal and they're also password encrypted.

"If you type in the wrong password three times in a row, the USB deletes its contents. You can even set it so this happens after one incorrect input of the password if the content is extra sensitive.

"There are also many cases where the USB is set so it can only be viewed once on a certain computer, so you can't plug it in to another device or give it to someone else. Only you can see it. So even if you wanted to spread it you couldn't."

Mi-so recalls how her neighbourhood went to extreme lengths to watch films.

She says they once borrowed a car battery and hooked it up to a generator to get enough electricity to power the television. She remembers watching a South Korean drama called "Stairway to Heaven".

This epic love story about a girl battling first her step-mother and then cancer appears to have been popular in North Korea around 20 years ago.

Mr Choi says this is also when fascination with foreign media really took off - helped by cheap CDs and DVDs from China.

The start of the crackdown

But then, the regime in Pyongyang started to notice. Mr Choi remembers state security carrying out a raid on a university around 2002 and finding more than 20,000 CDs.

"This was just one university. Can you imagine how many there were all over the country? The government was shocked. This is when they made the punishment harsher," he said.

Kim Geum-hyok says he was only 16 in 2009 when he was captured by guards from a special unit set up to hunt down and arrest anyone sharing illegal videos.

He had given a friend some DVDs of South Korean pop music that his father had smuggled in from China.

SBS

He was treated like an adult and marched to a secret room for interrogation where the guards refused to let him sleep. He says he was punched and kicked repeatedly for four days.

"I was terrified," he told the BBC from Seoul where he currently lives.

"I thought my world was ending. They wanted to know how I got this video and how many people I showed it to. I couldn't say my father had brought those DVDs from China. What could I say? It was my father. I didn't say anything, I just said, "I don't know, I don't know. Please let me go."

Geum-hyok is from one of Pyongyang's elite families and his father was eventually able to bribe the guards to set him free. Something that will be near impossible under Mr Kim's new law.

Many of those caught for similar offences at the time were sent to labour camps. But this didn't prove to be enough of a deterrent, so the sentences increased.

"At first the sentence was around a year in a labour camp - that changed to more than three years in the camp. Right now, if you go to labour camps, more than 50% of the young people are there because they watched foreign media," says Mr Choi.

"If someone watches two hours of illegal material, then that would be three years in a labour camp. This is a big problem."

We have been told by a number of sources that the size of some of the prison camps in North Korea have expanded in the last year and Mr Choi believes the harsh new laws are having an effect.

"To watch a movie is a luxury. You need to feed yourself first before you even think about watching a film. When times are hard to even eat, having even one family member sent to a labour camp can be devastating."

Why do people still do it?

"We had to take so many chances watching those dramas. But no-one can defeat our curiosity. We wanted to know what was going on in the outside world," Geum-hyok told me.

For Guem-hyok, finally learning the truth about his country changed his life. He was one of the few privileged North Koreans allowed to study in Beijing where he discovered the internet.

"At first, I couldn't believe it [the descriptions of North Korea]. I thought Western people were lying. Wikipedia is lying, how can I believe that? But my heart and my brain were divided.

"So I watched many documentaries about North Korea, read many papers. And then I realised they are probably true because what they were saying made sense.

Collage

"After I realised a transition was going on in my brain, it was too late, I couldn't go back."

Guem-hyok eventually fled to Seoul.

Mi-so is living her dreams as a fashion advisor. The first thing she did in her new home country was visit all the places she saw in Stairway to Heaven.

But stories like theirs are becoming rarer than ever.

Leaving the country has become almost impossible with the current "shoot-to-kill" order at the tightly controlled border. And it is difficult not to expect Mr Kim's new law to have more of a chilling effect.

Mr Choi, who had to leave his family behind in the North, believes that watching one or two dramas will not overturn decades of ideological control. But he does think North Koreans suspect that state propaganda is not the truth.

"North Korean people have a seed of grievance in their heart but they don't know what their grievance is aimed towards," he said.

"It's a grievance without direction. I feel heartbroken that they can't understand even when I tell them. There is a need for someone to awaken them, enlighten them."

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2021-06-06 23:38:14Z
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Kremlin may restrict more food exports to shield it from high prices - Financial Times

Russia has warned that it is prepared to continue with its export curbs on key food products after recent price rises prompted the Kremlin to cap the domestic cost of staple goods such as sugar and flour, the country’s economy minister said.

Maxim Reshetnikov, minister of economic development, told the Financial Times that Russia, one of the world’s biggest grain exporters, was considering how to best support its food exports while protecting domestic consumers from rising prices.

The United Nations global food price index hit its highest level in almost a decade in May, surging nearly 40 per cent year-on-year. Food prices are a key political issue for the Kremlin given that 20m people, or one in seven Russians, live below the poverty line, and rationing and hyperinflation are within living memory.

In December, Vladimir Putin ordered officials to impose temporary price controls on key foodstuffs such as sunflower oil and pasta. A wheat export quota was announced earlier this year with export duties added this month. Moscow said the moves were needed to compensate for years of falling incomes that have made essential goods unaffordable for many.

Reshetnikov said that Russia was continuing to monitor and adopt export measures, including a floating tariff of “flexible export duties” on additional goods, as prices continue to rise. As for domestic consumption, Russia was ending most of the price caps but would continue to subsidise certain staples, such as bread and flour.

“There’s no guarantee that global food prices have stabilised and peaked,” Reshetnikov said. “Any news about crop forecasts can provoke . . . yet another rally for some foodstuffs, so we are constantly paying close attention to them and taking some measures when need be.”

The export curbs, which Reshetnikov called a price “shock absorber”, are also meant to encourage domestic producers to invest more. “This is one of our sources of growth by adding new value chains — grain moves animal husbandry forward, animal husbandry moves milk forward, and so on,” he said.

Russia only began exporting key foodstuffs such as wheat after 2014, when it banned most western food imports in response to US and EU sanctions and then began heavily developing domestic agriculture. Agricultural goods such as wheat accounted for almost 8 per cent of Russia’s $419bn of exports in 2019, according to World Trade Organization data.

However, the country still lacks the infrastructure to amass food stores on the same level as the US or Europe. These would allow it to weather price spikes by increasing supplies, warehousing the extra production and releasing it as needs be.

Still, the proposed export limits have won support in the food retail sector, where executives claim recent price rises are due to increased demand from Chinese importers willing to pay more. Sugar prices rose 65 per cent in Russia last year.

By contrast, officials have blamed higher Russian food prices on what Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has called “the greed of certain producers and retail networks”. This has prompted fears of a crackdown throughout the sector.

More than three quarters of Russian businessmen said they feel unsafe from unfounded criminal prosecution by the state, according to a presidential security service survey last month; moreover, 18 per cent of prosecutors agreed with them.

The worries are so widespread that one MP joked at Russia’s showcase economic conference in St Petersburg last week that “we’ve taken the first step [to an investment climate] — three days into the forum and nobody’s been arrested”.

Reshetnikov said any future business measures would probably take the form of higher taxes.

“If you invest all your profits, even if they’re very high, in new production, development, research, and so on, that’s one thing. If you pay dividends, which is also fine [ . . .] it may well be that another tax level is appropriate to stimulate investment in business,” he said.

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2021-06-06 19:46:10Z
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Merkel’s party surges in German state vote, beating far right - Financial Times

Germany’s Christian Democrats won a decisive victory in elections in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, in a huge boost for their leader Armin Laschet and his bid to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in September.

The CDU was able to hold off a strong challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which had sought to capitalise on widespread public discontent over the Covid-19 lockdown.

It was a sobering night for the Greens, who have been riding high in the polls since naming the popular MP Annalena Baerbock as their first candidate for chancellor in April. They had hoped for a breakthrough but scored only 6.0 per cent.

Projections by German public broadcaster ARD, traditionally seen as an accurate predictor of final results, put the Christian Democratic Union on 36.6 per cent, up more than 6 points on the state’s last elections in 2016. The AfD trailed at 22.0 per cent, down 2.3 percentage points on its 2016 result.

The projections, based on exit polls, suggest that the current coalition of CDU, Social Democrats and Greens, led by the CDU’s Reiner Haseloff, will have enough seats in the regional parliament to continue in power. But the CDU could also choose to form a partnership with the SPD and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

“I have been prime minister for ten years, and people know me, they know . . . what I stand for,” Haseloff, a 67-year-old former academic, told ARD. “I think this credibility was a decisive factor.”

Annalena Baerbock © Mika Schmidt/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

He also thanked voters for “building a clear firewall against the far-right” by supporting the centre-right CDU rather than the AfD.

Some polls prior to the election had suggested the AfD could beat the CDU into the second place. Even if that happened, however, it would not be in a position to form a government as no other party is willing to form a coalition with it.

The AfD’s stunning result in 2016, when it won nearly a quarter of the vote, reflected the public backlash against Angela Merkel’s liberal immigration policies and the influx into Germany of more than a million asylum-seekers, most of them from the Middle East, north Africa and Afghanistan.

It was a depressing night for the Social Democrats, junior partner in Merkel’s grand coalition government, who saw their share of the vote shrink 1 point to 8.4 per cent — one of its worst results in postwar Germany. The Greens rose to 6.0 per cent, up 0.8 points on 2016.

“We increased our share of the vote, but not as much as we had hoped,” said Annalena Baerbock, the Greens’ candidate for chancellor.

“This evening the Baerbock train derailed,” said Friedrich Merz, one of the CDU’s most prominent politicians. 

The pro-business FDP garnered 6.5 per cent of the vote, up 1.6 points on 2016. The hard-left Die Linke, which has its roots in the former Communist Party that once governed East Germany, slumped to 11.0 per cent, down from 16.3 per cent five years ago.

Saxony-Anhalt is a small state with a voting-age population of only 1.8m. German reunification plunged it into an economic depression from which it is still recovering, and the population has shrunk by 24 per cent since 1990 as young people drifted westwards in search of better jobs.

The state also faces more economic upheaval in coming decades as Germany moves to shut down its lignite mines — a big employer in Saxony-Anhalt — as part of efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The result was a victory for Armin Laschet, prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, who will stand as the joint chancellor candidate of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party the CSU in September’s federal election, which will mark the end of Angela Merkel’s 16 years as chancellor.

The CDU slumped in the polls earlier this year, hit by public frustration at the slow pace of the vaccination campaign, and a corruption scandal involving a clutch of Christian Democrat MPs.

There have also been doubts about Laschet’s ability to win the Bundestag election which were exploited by the Bavarian prime minister Markus Söder, who sought himself to be named the CDU/CSU chancellor candidate, triggering a bitter power struggle. Laschet will be hoping that the decisive result in Saxony-Anhalt finally dispels those doubts.

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2021-06-06 17:18:04Z
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