In his final weeks in office, Mexico’s popular President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO, is pushing through controversial judicial reform legislation. The bill overhauling the judiciary cleared its first legislative hurdle on Sept. 4th when Mexico’s lower house passed the reform package despite protests by federal court employees, justices and magistrates. The legislation must still be passed by a 2/3 vote in the Senate where AMLO’s Morena party is one seat shy of a supermajority.
(“Can AMLO Overhaul Mexico’s Democracy in His Final Month,” Foreign Policy, Aug. 29, 2024; “Mexico’s Congress Advances a Controversial Bill to Make All Judges Run for Re-Election,” Foreign Policy, Sept. 4, 2024)
Germany’s far right Alternative for Deutschland party, or AfD, is celebrating a historic victory in the eastern state of Thuringia, where it won almost a third of the vote, nine points ahead of the nation’s conservative party. This was first time an extreme right-wing party has won in a state parliament election since the Nazis were in power during World War II. The AfD’s leader in Thuringia state has used pro-Nazi rhetoric at his election rallies.
(“AfD Leaders Demand Inclusion in State Coalition Talks After Election Success,” Guardian, Sept. 2, 2024; “Scholz Urges German Parties to Exclude the Far-Right as AfD Poised for Election Victory,” Guardian, Sept. 2, 2024)
The landscape in rural Michigan is quickly changing as green energy investments are building large scale wind and solar farms. The State’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Witmer and the Democratic legislature passed bills requiring utilities to generate 60% of electricity from wind, solar or water sources by 2035. The legislation also gives the state final authority to site large-scale renewable projects, with the ability to supersede local zoning restrictions.
(“What’s Fueling Michigan’s Green Energy Backlash,” Barn Raiser, Aug. 19, 2024)
