INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016 Farage bows out after ‘fairytale’

BOURNEMOUTH: yesterday said UKIP UKIP the best Christmas present we could ever have” had “changed the course of British history” with and invoke Article 50, the formal procedure for an EU Brexit as he handed over leadership of the euroscep- exit, before the end of this year. “Until we get a signa- tic party, which faces an uncertain future without its ture, we’re still in, they still tell us what to do,” she charismatic figurehead. Plainspoken Farage, one of told party members. Asked about the legacy of the key faces in the campaign that secured Britain’s Farage, James said she would not be a “Nigel-like, not shock decision in June to leave the European Union, even Nigel-lite”. quit soon after the referendum saying his lifelong Farage co-founded UKIP in 1993, growing it into ambition had been accomplished. Britain’s third biggest party by the number of votes Diane James, an MEP, was announced as his cast at last year’s general election. He too said the par- replacement at the party’s annual conference in the ty would continue pressuring May to go ahead with seaside resort of Bournemouth where Farage used his Brexit, warning UKIP would sweep up discontented farewell speech to hail the “fairytale” Brexit result. voters from both right and left if the government failed “Without us there would have been no referendum, to push ahead with the departure. He said he would without you and the people’s army there would have remain active in political life - with plans to travel been no ground campaign,” he said, as the crowd of across Europe and the US to meet similar political mostly older supporters waved Union Jack flags. BOURNEMOUTH: Outgoing leader Nigel Farage movements - but would not seek to influence James. “Together we have changed the course of British embraces new leader of the anti-EU UK history,” added Farage, who has campaigned for Independence Party (UKIP) Diane James as she is Infighting Britain to leave the EU since the early 1990s and has introduced at the UKIP Autumn Conference on the Five candidates ran for the party leadership, with famously clashed with EU leaders as an MEP in the southern coast of England yesterday. — AFP James the bookmakers’ overwhelming favorite. She - a role he will retain. “Nigel British public. A poll by YouGov this month found that takes over a party facing an uncertain future, torn by Farage will go down as one of the most important just eight percent of respondents knew who she was. infighting over its direction after the Brexit vote. “In politicians of his era,” Matthew Goodwin, a University the aftermath of the vote for Brexit, the party has of Kent politics professor and expert on the rise of Brexit for Christmas? become seriously divided between separate factions UKIP, said on Twitter. James, the party’s home affairs The new party leader vowed that UKIP would keep and might also struggle to sustain public support spokeswoman and a former pharmaceutical industry up the pressure on the government to deliver on from social conservatives in the new political land- executive, is in comparison little known by the wider Brexit. She urged Prime Minister to “give scape,” Goodwin told AFP. — AFP

Merkel: EU in ‘critical Swedish court upholds Assange situation’ after Brexit arrest warrant Leaders seek to thrash out reform ‘roadmap’ STOCKHOLM: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faced BRATISLAVA: German Chancellor with our actions that we can get better,” the EU. An EU official said the initial dis- another setback in his legal Angela Merkel warned yesterday that the Merkel said as she arrived at the special cussions had been “honest, without stand-off with Sweden yester- EU faces a “critical situation”, as European summit. French President Francois recriminations” while Tusk had submitted day after an appeals court leaders sought to plot the bloc’s post- Hollande, the other half of the EU’s “pow- his “roadmap” in the afternoon session. rejected his request to lift an Brexit future at a summit without Britain. er couple” with Merkel, was equally blunt. European Commission head Jean- arrest warrant for him over a The 27 leaders - minus British Prime “We face either break-up, weakening - or Claude Juncker had meanwhile submit- 2010 rape accusation. The Minister Theresa May - gathered at we choose the opposite, together giving ted his version on Thursday but there Stockholm appeals court upheld Bratislava’s towering castle overlooking Europe a purpose,” said Hollande, who were no major differences and it “mir- a district court’s ruling to main- the River Danube, determined to has made common cause with Berlin on rored” what was being discussed, the tain the European arrest war- rant, and also rejected respond to the challenges of mass migra- boosting EU defense cooperation. official said. Greeted by soldiers in bright Assange’s request to hold a Julian Assange tion, security, globalization and a stutter- blue uniforms and ceremonial plumes, hearing over the matter. ing economy. The aim was to thrash out a ‘Brutally Honest’ the leaders held a first round of talks in Assange “is still detained in absentia”, the court said, “roadmap” of reforms during talks in the EU President Donald Tusk had warned the castle then lunched on a river cruise adding that it “shares the assessment of the district court Slovak capital’s hilltop castle, and a boat on the eve of the summit that leaders on a German-flagged boat down the that Julian Assange is still suspected on probable cause of trip down the Danube. Merkel said the must “have a sober and brutally honest Danube to informally discuss Brexit. rape... and that there is a risk that he will evade legal pro- bloc simply had to improve but her influ- assessment of the situation”. The leaders The 27 leaders have insisted there will ceedings or a penalty.” Assange’s lawyer Per Samuelson ence as leader of the EU’s biggest econo- want to launch a “Bratislava Process” of be no formal Brexit talks until Britain trig- told AFP he would appeal against the ruling. The 45-year- my has been undermined by her unpopu- reforms at this summit, to be further dis- gers the two-year divorce process and old Australian has been holed up in the Ecuadoran lar decision to open Germany’s doors last cussed in Malta early next year and then says what it wants. Maltese Premier embassy in London since June 2012, seeking refuge there year to nearly a million refugees. “We are agreed in Rome in March 2017 to mark Joseph Muscat quipped in a tweet: after exhausting all his legal options in Britain against in a critical situation. We have to show the 60th anniversary of the founding of “Bratislava summit was so far a straightfor- extradition to Sweden. Assange has refused to travel to ward discussion of options for EU to move Stockholm for questioning over the rape allegation, which ahead. We are all on the same boat, literal- he denies, due to concerns Sweden will extradite him to ly.” Boosting defence cooperation is a key the United States over WikiLeaks’ release of 500,000 secret issue for the leaders who hope it will give military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. them something to rally around after This is the eighth time the European arrest warrant has deadly terror attacks in France and been tested in a Swedish court. All of the rulings have Belgium. Juncker earlier this week pro- gone against Assange. The appeals court said Assange’s posed an EU defense headquarters and a four-year embassy sequestration “is not a deprivation of common defense force, both ideas that liberty and shall not be given any importance in its own Britain had previously nixed because they right in the assessment of proportionality”. Assange’s might overlap with NATO. lawyers had urged Sweden to follow the non-binding rul- ing of a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which Cracks Everywhere said his confinement in the embassy amounted to arbi- But cracks in the union are evident trary detention by Sweden and Britain. The appeals court everywhere. The migration crisis is the noted that the length of his embassy stay and “the earlier most divisive issue, with many Eastern passivity” of police investigators were “arguments for set- European leaders blaming Merkel for ting aside the detention”. “However, the relatively serious opening the continent’s doors to refugees offence of which he is suspected means that there is a from conflict in Syria and elsewhere. strong public interest (in) the investigation being able to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is continue.” “At present, continued detention therefore BRATISLAVA: Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico (left), German Chancellor hosting the summit, said all wanted unity appears to be both effective and necessary so as to be Angela Merkel and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (right) alight after but a “very honest” exchange of views was able to move the investigation forward. — AFP taking a boat down the Danube River during an EU summit yesterday. — AP needed to make that possible. — AFP