In disbanding the assembly, Lasso made first use of the Ecuador presidency’s nuclear option under the constitution in conflicts with the legislative branch, turning his country into the latest in Latin America where rival constitutional powers come to a head.
The conservative president, who has denied wrongdoing, can now govern for up to six months by decree under the oversight of Ecuador’s top court. While Lasso appeared to have the support of the country’s armed forces, his move swiftly drew pushback from critics who said his ouster had been imminent.
Known colloquially as the “death cross,” the option to disband the congress and temporarily rule by decree was established in Ecuador’s constitution in 2008 as a means of avoiding protracted periods of political paralysis.
Helsinki’s pride festival committee has caused a bit of a storm with their decision to deny permission for two political parties to be official partners of the festival, reports Helsingin Sanomat.
The pride parade has expanded in recent years with companies and political parties joining to declare their support for LGBTQ+ communities.
This time round, however, the pride festival committee has said that the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party (NCP) are not welcome as pride partners.
They say partnership demands commitment from the partnering organisations to advance the human rights of sexual and gender minorities, and the NCP does not fit the bill.
The party had given MPs a free vote on the contested trans law that passed earlier this year.
That enabled the law to pass, because that the government was also split on the measure — Centre Party MPs were permitted a free vote, a majority of them opposed the reform and it would not have passed without support from 26 NCP lawmakers.
Despite that, the pride committee said they would have wanted all NCP MPs to have voted for the reform, and that defence of human rights should not be a matter for individual MPs’ conscience.
Both the Centre Party and the NCP participated in the pride parade in previous years.
