菅氏、解散の状況でない　発言が後退―自民総裁選

　自民党総裁選に立候補した菅義偉官房長官は８日夜のテレビ朝日の番組で、衆院解散・総選挙について、新型コロナウイルスの感染収束が最優先とした上で「こういう状況では解散とか、そういうことではない」と述べ、慎重な姿勢を示した。３日の別の民放番組では「状況次第」と含みを持たせていたが、発言を後退させた形だ。
　菅氏は感染状況が落ち着いてきたとの見方に関し「専門家の話をうかがわなければ駄目だ」と指摘。「まだまだ国民の皆さんはおびえているから、一日も早く安心して生活する、日常を取り戻す環境を整えるのが政府の仕事だ」と語った。（2020/09/08-23:09）

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, one of the three candidates in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's leadership race, has turned cautious about an early dissolution of the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.
   "The current situation does not allow a (Lower House) dissolution," Suga said in a television program on Tuesday night, noting that bringing the novel coronavirus crisis under control is of utmost importance.
   In a TV program last Thursday, Suga said that a Lower House breakup would "depend on the situation," hinting at the possibility of the chamber being dissolved at an early date for a snap general election.
   In Tuesday's TV program, Suga said, "We need to hear from experts," in response to the view that the pace of coronavirus infections in the country is starting to slow. "People are still scared, so it's the government's task to create an environment to help them return to a safe and normal life as early as possible," he added.
   Suga is believed to be ahead of his two rivals--LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Fumio Kishida and former LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba--in the race to choose the party's next leader to succeed Shinzo Abe, who is set to resign as prime minister and LDP president due to ill health. The next LDP president will certainly be named the nation's new prime minister in an election at the Diet on Sept. 16, thanks to the party's comfortable majority in the powerful Lower House.