BERLIN: Former European Parliament President Martin Schulz vowed on Sunday to shake up German elections and unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel with a campaign aimed at overcoming “deep divisions” that he said had fueled populism in Germany in recent years.
Schulz, nominated to lead the Social Democratic Party (SPD), told over 1,000 people at its Berlin headquarters he would fight for fairer tax rules, better education and to ensure that people in rural areas had the same benefits as in big cities.
But Schulz will be hard pressed in this year’s elections to unseat Merkel, who has led Germany since 2005 and is Europe’s most powerful head of government. She also remains very popular despite discontent over her immigration policies.
“A jolt is going through the SPD. We want to build on this momentum,” Schulz, 61, said after the party’s executive committee voted unanimously for him to become the party’s top candidate in the September election. Party members will vote to formalize the decision in Berlin on March 19.
Schulz called for greater solidarity in Europe on the migrant issue and described the actions of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has resisted attempts by the EU to coordinate migration, as an affont to European unity.
He took aim at the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and its support for France’s far-right National Front party, saying Germans had experienced during the Nazi era where “blind nationalism” would lead.
The center-left party in a surprise move on Tuesday had announced it would nominate Schulz to replace current party leader Sigmar Gabriel, who said he was standing aside to enhance the party’s chances in the Sept. 24 election.
Gabriel said the SPD was serious about ending its role as a junior partner to Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats in the “grand coalition” that has ruled since 2013.
“Germany needs a new start that cannot happen with the (conservative Christian Democratic) Union,” he said. “We’ve come to the end of what we can achieve with a divided conservatives.”
German news magazine Der Spiegel portrayed Schulz as the party’s savior on Sunday, carrying a photo on its front cover of a beaming Schulz with the headline “Saint Martin.”
A poll carried out last week showed Merkel’s Christian Democrats would get 34 percent of the vote if the election were held today, while the SPD would win 23 percent.
The AfD would become the third largest party in Parliament with 13 percent of the vote, the poll conducted by Ipsos showed.
The Greens would win 11 percent, with the Left party seen winning 10 percent, a slight increase from previous polls.
The SPD wants to form a coalition with smaller parties on the left, but most analysts still think another right-left coalition is the most likely outcome of September’s election.
Schulz vows to shake up German elections
Schulz vows to shake up German elections
Bangladesh begins exhuming mass grave from 2024 uprising
- The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power — deaths that formed part of her conviction last month for crimes against humanity
DHAKA: Bangladeshi police began exhuming on Sunday a mass grave believed to contain around 114 unidentified victims of a mass uprising that toppled autocratic former prime minister Sheikh Hasina last year.
The UN-supported effort is being advised by Argentine forensic anthropologist Luis Fondebrider, who has led recovery and identification missions at mass graves worldwide for decades.
The bodies were buried at the Rayerbazar Graveyard in Dhaka by the volunteer group Anjuman Mufidul Islam, which said it handled 80 unclaimed bodies in July and another 34 in August 2024 — all people reported to have been killed during weeks of deadly protests.
The United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in crackdowns as Hasina attempted to cling to power — deaths that formed part of her conviction last month for crimes against humanity.
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Md Sibgat Ullah said investigators believed the mass grave held roughly 114 bodies, but the exact number would only be known once exhumations were complete.
“We can only confirm once we dig the graves and exhume the bodies,” Ullah told reporters.
- ‘Searched for him’ -
Among those hoping for answers is Mohammed Nabil, who is searching for the remains of his brother Sohel Rana, 28, who vanished in July 2024.
“We searched for him everywhere,” Nabil told AFP.
He said his family first suspected Rana’s death after seeing a Facebook video, then recognized his clothing — a blue T-shirt and black trousers — in a photograph taken by burial volunteers.
Exhumed bodies will be given post-mortem examinations and DNA testing. The process is expected to take several weeks to complete.
“It’s been more than a year, so it won’t be possible to extract DNA from the soft tissues,” senior police officer Abu Taleb told AFP. “Working with bones would be more time-consuming.”
Forensic experts from four Dhaka medical colleges are part of the team, with Fondebrider brought in to offer support as part of an agreement with the UN rights body the OHCHR.
“The process is complex and unique,” Fondebrider told reporters. “We will guarantee that international standards will be followed.”
Fondebrider previously headed the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, founded in 1984 to investigate the tens of thousands who disappeared during Argentina’s former military dictatorship.
Authorities say the exhumed bodies will be reburied in accordance with religious rites and their families’ wishes.
Hasina, convicted in absentia last month and sentenced to death, remains in self-imposed exile in India.
