World

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have provided aid funds to artists and cultural programs hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, triggering an outcry from opposition lawmakers, who vowed to override him.

Named for a widely beloved comedian and actor who died of Covid-19 last year, the Paulo Gustavo Bill aimed to provide 3.86 billion reais ($820 million) in federal funds to local and state governments to aid the cultural sector, still reeling from the impact of pandemic shut-downs.

It had passed Congress with broad support, by a vote of 74-0 in the Senate and 411-27 in the Chamber of Deputies.

Bolsonaro’s veto, published in the official gazette, was for economic reasons, the administration said. It argued the bill would breach the government’s spending cap without sourcing enough funds elsewhere to compensate.

Opposition lawmakers called that an excuse from the far-right president, long criticized for alleged attacks on culture and the arts.

Bolsonaro, who comes up for reelection in October, downgraded the culture ministry to a secretariat on taking office in 2019. His administration has faced repeated accusations of using its control over federal funding for the arts to try to censor projects it deems ideologically threatening.

“It’s not surprising that Bolsonaro vetoed the Paulo Gustavo Bill, given that this is an administration that hates culture,” tweeted Senator Zenaide Maia of opposition party PROS.

“But his veto also shows tremendous lack of vision, since investing in the cultural sector helps Brazil exit the current crisis. Culture is good in and of itself, but it also creates jobs and income.”

Congressman Odair Cunha of the left-wing Workers’ Party tweeted that Bolsonaro is “afraid of culture and freedom of expression, like every lover of dictatorship,” vowing: “We’re going to override that veto.”

Lawmakers would need an absolute majority in both houses of Congress to override.

Thousands of Greeks demonstrated in Athens against soaring prices Wednesday as a general strike shut down public services.

Some 10,000 marched in the capital, with more protests held in other major cities, police said.

Ferry and train services were halted, though airports were unaffected by the walkout.

“Compared to the cost of living, salaries are paltry,” said one of the demonstrators, 32-year-old teacher Yannis Bitzoulis.

“Society is on its knees,” he told AFP.

Countries across Europe are facing rising inflation as energy prices have jumped since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, with the growing cost of living also sparking strikes and protests in fellow EU nation Spain.

Greeks have been hit by rising electricity and heating bills as well as housing costs.

Prices rose 6.2 percent in January compared with a year earlier — a record for Greece since it adopted the European Union’s single currency in 2001. It bumped up to 7.2 percent in February.

“Everything is more expensive, we can no longer cope,” said Evangelia, who works for a social collective and declined to give her surname.

The country’s biggest civil service and private sector unions, which called the industrial action on Wednesday, are demanding a raise in the minimum wage — currently at under 780 euros a month — that is among the lowest in the eurozone.

The Communist-affiliated Pame union on Wednesday said that the minimum wage had been slashed by 22 percent in 2012, at the height of Greece’ near-decade debt crisis.

Facing a drop in popularity ahead of 2023 elections, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis last month announced a 1.1-billion-euro ($1.2-billion) benefits package to help poor households weather rising prices.

Thousands protested in Sudan against military rule on the anniversary Wednesday of previous popular uprisings, most recently against autocrat Omar al-Bashir three years ago. 

In the capital Khartoum, where hundreds took to the streets, security forces fired tear gas at the crowd, said witnesses.

The security forces also “stormed al-Jawda hospital and fired tear gas inside, scaring patients and health workers and causing suffocation among some of them,” said the independent Central Committee of Sudan Doctors. 

Sudan has grappled with an October 25 coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan that has derailed a political transition period and hammered the economy of one of the world’s poorest countries.

Pro-democracy activists have warned online of a people power “earthquake of April 6” — a momentous day in Sudan’s history that was key in bringing down earlier strongmen.

In 1985, the day saw a popular uprising that ousted president Jaafar Nimeiri. In 2019 it marked the start of a mass sit-in outside army headquarters, after months of protests, against Bashir’s three decades in power.

“It is an important day… so we expect many to take to the streets despite the heat and Ramadan,” the Muslim month of fasting, said one Khartoum protester, Badwi Bashir.

“We just want to bring down the coup (leadership) and end the prospect of any future coups.”

Sudan’s latest putsch has “set fire to all aspects of life, turning our country into an arena of crises,” said the civilian alliance Forces of Freedom and Change, or FFC.

As protesters started to gather in the capital, security forces sealed off key bridges and deployed around the presidential palace and army headquarters.

In Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, they set up barbed wire blockades on streets leading to the parliament building. 

Hundreds marched in the eastern state of Gedaref with banners that read “No to military rule” and “Away with the government of hunger”, said one witness, Ahmed Salah. 

A demonstration was also held in Nyala, South Darfur, according to witness Mahdi Adam. 

– ‘Defeat the coup’ –

Five days after the start of the 2019 sit-in, generals bowed to the pressure on the streets to remove Bashir. 

But the protesters stayed on to press for civilian rule, only to be dispersed in a crackdown in June that year by men in military fatigues that claimed 128 lives according to medics.

Sudan’s civilian and military leaders later agreed on a transition of power, which promised greater international engagement for the country as well as foreign aid and investment.

But last October’s coup upended those plans, leading to the current wave of protests. At least 93 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in the crackdown since, medics say.

“We have to defeat the coup,” FFC spokesman Jaafar Hassan said last week. 

“We have tried a partnership with the military, and it failed, ending in this coup, and we shouldn’t do this again.”

Burhan said last Saturday he would only “hand over power to an honest, elected authority, accepted by the all the Sudanese people”.

The United States on Wednesday warned against “the use of any violence” and demanded Sudanese authorities “keep their word and hold accountable those responsible for abuses.”

Since the coup, Sudan’s already ailing economy has suffered severe blows, as Western donors cut crucial aid pending the restoration of a transition to civilian rule.

Prices of food, fuel and basic commodities have soared and crime has spiked. Violence has intensified in remote areas, particularly the restive Darfur region, the UN says.

Burhan last week threatened to expel UN special representative Volker Perthes, accusing him of “interference” in the country’s affairs after Perthes warned of the deepening crisis in Sudan during a UN Security Council briefing.

A key member of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party said Wednesday she was quitting his coalition government, in a surprise move that leaves him without a parliamentary majority.

Idit Silman’s announcement left Bennett’s coalition, an alliance of parties ranging from the Jewish right and Israeli doves to an Arab Muslim party, with 60 seats — the same as the opposition.

Although Silman´s defection does not mean the fall of the coalition, it raises the spectre of a potential return to office by veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu, less than a year after he lost the premiership to Bennett. 

“I tried the path of unity. I worked a lot for this coalition,” Silman, a religious conservative who served as coalition chairperson, said in a statement.

“Sadly, I cannot take part in harming the Jewish identity of Israel.”

On Monday, Silman lashed out at Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, after he instructed hospitals to allow leavened bread products into their facilities during the upcoming Passover holiday, in line with a recent supreme court ruling reversing years of prohibition.

Jewish tradition bars leavened bread from the public domain during Passover.

“I am ending my membership of the coalition and will try to continue to talk my friends into returning home and forming a right-wing government,” Silman said.

“I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.”

Bennett’s coalition may continue ruling with 60 seats, although with difficulty passing new legislation. 

If another member of the coalition defects, however, the Knesset could hold a vote of no confidence and lead Israel back to the polls for a fifth parliamentary election in four years. 

Political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin told AFP that if Silman “is the first person to really prepare to bring down the government, she is doing it from the place of conviction”.

“She is religious, and I think we all underestimate the power of theology,” said Scheindlin. 

In a formal resignation letter addressed to Bennett, Silman said: “We must admit that we tried. It’s time to recalculate and try to form a national, Jewish, Zionist government.”

There was no immediate comment from Bennett, whose Yamina party has suffered numerous splits and defections since its inception in 2019. 

Israeli media reported that Bennett convened his party amid fears of more defections. Yamina now holds just five of parliament’s 120 seats.

– ‘Limp government’ –

Following the announcement, Silman was embraced by the same right-wing politicians who had relentlessly attacked her since she followed Bennett into the governing coalition last year, reneging on campaign promises.

“Idit, you’re proof that what guides you is the concern for the Jewish identity of Israel, the concern for the land of Israel, and I welcome you back home to the national camp,” opposition leader Netanyahu said in a video recording.

“I call on whoever was elected with the votes of the national camp to join Idit and come back home, you’ll be received with all due honour and open arms,” the right-wing former prime minister added.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, who was in office from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 until June, had pledged to play the role of spoiler against Bennett’s government which brought an end to his years in power.

At a special session of the Knesset, which is currently in recess, Netanyahu said: “There is a weak and limp government in Israel today. Its days are numbered.”  

The Knesset will reconvene on May 8 to resume its legislative work. 

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu lured Silman by promising her the health portfolio should he become premier again. 

To form a coalition of his own without new elections, Netanyahu would need the support of at least 61 lawmakers, which he currently does not have.

Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionism party, once a political partner of Bennett, expressed his appreciation to Silman for her “courage to make the difficult move”, and predicted the ruling coalition would not survive her defection.

“This is the beginning of the end of the left-wing, non-Zionist government of Bennett and the Islamist Movement,” he wrote on Twitter.