Focus Merit

Category: International Appointments

Spain: Pedro Sánchez sworn in as Prime Minister

January 9, 2020

Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) leader Pedro Sánchez was sworn in as Spain’s Prime Minister a day after his proposed coalition with a left-wing party narrowly slipped through a vote in Parliament. Sánchez decided to forgo religious symbolism and took oath over the Constitution on the presence of King Felipe VI, the head of state. It is the second time in less than two years that the socialist leader has been sworn-in as prime minister.

Zoran Milanovic wins Croatia presidential election

January 9, 2020

Former Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic won Croatia’s presidential election. He belongs Social Democratic Party (SDP). He defeated centre-right incumbent Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who was the first female president of Croatia.

Milanovic, the Social Democrat candidate, took 52.7 percent of the vote, while President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic garnered 47.3 percent. Milanovic who will take office on 19 February, will have a higher profile as President than usual, as Croatia has just taken over the rotating presidency of the European Union for six months.

Iran: Esmail Qaani named as new Commander

January 4, 2020

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei named the Deputy Head of the Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations arm Esmail Qaani to replace Qasem Soleimani as its commander.

Soleimani was killed in a pre-dawn US strike in Baghdad. Qaani was one of the most decorated commanders of the Guards during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Ireland: Hillary Clinton appointed as new chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast

January 3, 2020

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been appointed the new chancellor of Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland for a five-year term.

The position of chancellor has been vacant since the death in 2018 of Thomas J Moran, chairman, president, and chief executive of Mutual of America Life Insurance Company.

Clinton, who has been a regular visitor to Northern Ireland going back to the first visit of President Bill Clinton in 1995, becomes the university’s first female chancellor.

Guinea-Bissau: Umaro Cissoko Embalo wins presidential election

January 1, 2020

Guinea-Bissau opposition leader Umaro Cissoko Embalo, a former prime minister, won the presidential election beating rival Domingos Simoes Pereira, head of the country’s ruling PAIGC party, by about 54% to 46%.

He was also a prime minister, he served under Vaz – between 2016 and 2018, before representing Madem, a party formed by PAIGC rebels.