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A30 world news
Diasabra 25 Juni 2022

UK Conservatives lose 2 elections in blow to Boris Johnson

(AP) — British Prime Defeat in either district tion, with Russia’s war in back on the side of working on the “partygate” scandal
Minister Boris Johnson would have been a setback Ukraine squeezing supplies people, winning seats where said Johnson must bear re-
suffered a double blow as for the prime minister’s of energy and food staples at we lost before, and ready for sponsibility for “failures of
voters rejected his Con- party. Losing both increases a time of soaring consumer government.” leadership and judgment”
servative Party in two spe- jitters among restive Con- demand while the coronavi- that created a culture of rule-
cial parliamentary elec- servatives who already worry rus pandemic recedes. Pollsters had said the Tiver- breaking in government.
tions dominated by ques- the ebullient but erratic and “I’m not going to pretend ton and Honiton race was
tions about his leadership divisive Johnson is no longer these are brilliant results,” tight, but the Liberal Demo- He survived a no-confidence
and ethics. an electoral asset. Johnson said at a news con- crats overturned a 24,000- vote by his own party this
ference in Kigali. “We’ve got vote Conservative majority month but was left weakened
He was further wounded Party chairman Oliver to listen, we’ve got to learn. to win by more than 6,000 after 41% of Conservative
when the party’s chairman Dowden resigned, saying … When people are finding votes. The election was called lawmakers voted to remove
quit after the results came “our supporters are distressed it tough, they send messages when the district’s Conserva- him.
out early Friday, saying Con- and disappointed by recent to politicians, and politicians tive lawmaker resigned after
servatives “cannot carry on events, and I share their feel- have got to respond.” being caught looking at por- Under party rules, Johnson
with business as usual,” and ings.” nography in the House of can’t face another such vote
a former party leader said the Johnson won a big majority Commons chamber. for a year, but Friday’s de-
country needed “new leader- “We cannot carry on with in a 2019 general election by feats will increase pressure to
ship.” business as usual,” said keeping the Conservatives’ Even with the defeats, which change that.
Dowden, previously a traditional voters — afflu- erode his already shaky au-
The centrist Liberal Demo- staunch Johnson loyalist. ent, older and concentrated thority among his own law- “These are pretty dire re-
crats overturned a big Con- in southern England — and makers, Johnson his party sults,” said Conservative
servative majority to win “I will, as always, remain loy- winning new ones in poor- holds a large majority in Par- lawmaker Geoffrey Clifton-
the rural southwest England al to the Conservative Party,” er, post-industrial northern liament. But Conservatives Brown, a senior member of
seat of Tiverton and Honi- he said, without offering an towns where many residents are increasingly concerned the committee that oversees
ton, while the main opposi- endorsement of Johnson. felt overlooked by govern- that the qualities that led party no-confidence votes.
tion Labour Party reclaimed ments for decades. them to make Johnson their
Wakefield in northern Eng- Former Conservative leader leader — including a populist “Serious discussions will be
land from Johnson’s Tories. Michael Howard, who like Thursday’s elections brought ability to bend the rules and had in the next few days and
Johnson was a strong backer defeat on both fronts. Rural get away with it — may now weeks and then we will all
The contests, triggered by of Britain’s exit from the Eu- Tiverton and Honiton has be a liability. have to make difficult deci-
the resignations of Conser- ropean Union, urged the par- voted Conservative for gen- sions,” he said.
vative lawmakers hit by sex ty to remove him as leader. erations, while Wakefield is Ethics allegations have buf-
scandals, offered voters the a northern district that the feted the prime minister for Johnson also faces a parlia-
chance to give their verdict “The party, and more impor- Tories won in 2019 from La- months, culminating in a mentary ethics probe that
on the prime minister just tantly the country, would be bour. scandal over parties held in could conclude he deliber-
weeks after 41% of his own better off under new leader- government buildings while ately misled Parliament over
MPs voted to oust him. ship,” Howard told the BBC. Labour’s widely expected millions of others were “partygate” — traditionally a
victory in Wakefield — banned from meeting friends resigning offense.
“The people of Tiverton and The prime minister was whose previous Conservative and family during coronavi-
Honiton have spoken for 4,000 miles (6,400 kilome- legislator resigned after being rus lockdowns. Conservative lawmaker Rog-
Britain,” said the area’s newly ters) away at a Common- convicted of sexual assault — er Gale, a long-time Johnson
elected Liberal Democrat wealth summit in Rwanda as is a boost to a party that has Johnson was one of 83 people critic, reiterated his calls for
lawmaker, Richard Foord. the drama unfolded. been out of office nationally fined by police for attending the prime minister to quit
“They sent a loud and clear since 2010. the parties, making him the now.
message: It’s time for Boris The electoral tests came as first prime minister found to
Johnson to go, and go now.” Britain faces the worst cost- Labour leader Keir Starmer have broken the law while in “The soul of our party is at
of-living crisis in a genera- said it showed the party “is office. A civil servant’s report stake,” he said.

Auschwitz Museum says it’s a target of Russian propaganda

(AP) — The Auschwitz- southern Poland, an area un- ganda.”
Birkenau museum alleged The museum said that social der German occupation dur- Several online posts claimed
Friday that it was the tar- media posts falsely claim to ing World War II. the stickers went up on June When Russia invaded
get of “primitive” propa- show anti-Russian stickers 22, which is the anniversary Ukraine on Feb. 24, Presi-
ganda spread by Russian placed around the memo- “Russia and Russians,” the of Nazi Germany’s invasion dent Vladimir Putin said the
state agencies on social rial at the former site of the stickers appearing in fake im- of the Soviet Union in 1941. goal was to “denazify” the
media. Auschwitz death camp site in ages say, “the only gas you The Soviet Union’s army lib- neighboring country, whose
and your country deserve is erated Auschwitz in 1945. democratically elected presi-
Zykon B.” That is a refer- dent is Jewish and lost family
ence to the gas the Germans The Auschwitz Museum said members in the Holocaust.
used in the mass murder of no such stickers were found
Jews and others at the camp, at the places depicted in the “The use of the Auschwitz-
which operated during 1940- images, and that security Birkenau Memorial for pro-
1945. cameras did not capture any- paganda that lends credence
one affixing anything to the to alleged Russophobia and
The images were tweeted by locations on or before June strengthens theories about
official Russian sites, includ- 22. It said an analysis showed the need for denazification of
ing the Russian Arms Con- the photos were manipulated Ukraine should be opposed
trol Delegation in Vienna and the stickers added digi- by all thinking people world-
and retweeted by the Russian tally. wide,” it added.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
They appeared intended to “Everything indicates that More than 1.1 million peo-
portray Russians as targets of the photographs are simply a ple, most of them Jews, were
vicious Russophobia. Some manipulation,” the museum murdered by the Nazis and
posts claimed the stickers said, describing the images as their collaborators at Aus-
were the work of Ukrainians. “primitive and gross propa- chwitz.