The Venezuelan defence minister has described anti-government protests which erupted after the disputed election result was announced as “a coup”.

People took to the streets across cities and towns in Venezuela on Monday in protest after the government-dominated electoral authority had declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of the election.

Two leading NGOs in Venezuela have said that there have been several deaths and dozens of people injured.

As people gathered for fresh protest rallies, Gen Vladimir Padrino read out a statement saying that President Nicolás Maduro had the “absolute loyalty and unconditional support” of the armed forces, which would “defeat the coup”.

Venezuela’s attorney general, who is a close ally of Mr Maduro, said a member of the military had been killed in the anti-government protests.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab added that 749 people had been arrested.

He told journalists that most would be charged with “resisting authority and, in the most serious cases, terrorism”.

The opposition Voluntad Popular (Popular Will) party said among those who have been detained was their national political co-ordinator, Freddy Superlano.

The party warned that the government was stepping up its repression of activists who have been demanding the publication of results from polling stations, which the opposition say prove that their candidate won.

Protest erupted after the head of the National Electoral Council (CNE) – who is a member of Mr Maduro’s party and used to work as his legal adviser – declared the president re-elected for a third consecutive term.

The CNE had earlier announced that Mr Maduro had won with 51% of the votes, ahead of Edmundo González with 44%.

However, the electoral authority has so far failed to publish detailed voting tallies, which the opposition says show that the result the CNE announced was fraudulent.

The regional body for the Americas, the Organization of American States (OAS), has accused Venezuela’s government of completely distorting the results.

The opposition coalition backing Mr González said they had been able to review 73.2% of the voting tallies and maintained that they confirmed that Mr González was the winner by a wide margin.

“We have the records showing our categorical and mathematically irreversible victory,” Mr González said.

Opposition parties had united behind Mr González in an attempt to unseat President Maduro after 11 years in power, amid widespread discontent.

Almost 7.8m people have fled the economic and political crisis which has rocked the country under the Maduro Administration.

On Monday, crowds of people chanted “freedom, freedom” and called for the government to fall.

In some areas, posters of President Maduro were ripped down and burned while tyres, cars and rubbish were also set alight.

Miguel Sarzalejo, 64, told the BBC that “we want a better future for the youth because if not they will leave the country”.

“We have a rich country and he is destroying everything,” he added referring to President Maduro.

The opposition has urged its supporters to gather peacefully in squares across the country on Tuesday while the government has also called on its backers to rally.

The spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General, Stephan Dujarric, said Venezuelans must be allowed to exercise their right to peaceful protest.

“It’s important that all political leaders and their supporters reject all forms of violence, threats of violence or incitement to violence. It is also, as it is in every country, primordial that the authorities respect the right of people to demonstrate peacefully and that they should protect that right and not hinder it.”

By Ione Wells in Caracas and Vanessa Buschschlüter in London – BBC News

L’article Analysis. Venezuelan defence minister says protests constitute ‘coup’ est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

French President Emmanuel Macron has postponed a trip to Germany due to begin on Sunday after a fourth night of rioting in cities across France, as family and friends buried the teenager whose killing by police unleashed the unrest.

The killing of 17-year-old Nahel M. during a police traffic stop this week was a depressingly familiar addition to France’s list of police brutality cases. But when the UN called on the government to address racial discrimination in its police force, the official reaction was just as familiar and depressing for France’s minorities.

The family of Nahel M, a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan descent who was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday, held a private funeral at a mosque in Nanterre, a Paris suburb.

We are concerned by the killing of a 17-year-old of North African descent by police in France,” UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a press briefing in Geneva.

“This is a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement,” she added.

Shamdasani’s comments echoed innumerable statements released over the past few years by international rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, calling on the French state to address “systematic discrimination” particularly “the use of ethnic profiling” during identity checks.

If the UN human rights office believed the police killing of the teenager of Algerian descent, named Nahel M., could be the “moment” for an official French reckoning, it proved to be mistaken.

Shortly after the press conference in Geneva, the French foreign ministry released a statement rejecting the UN’s accusation of racism among its police. “Any accusation of racism or systemic discrimination in the police force in France is totally unfounded,” the foreign ministry said.

Race is a thorny issue in France, a nation that has become multi-ethnic since World War II and the subsequent decolonisation of several African and Asian countries.

The atrocities committed during World War II – including the complicity of the Vichy regime in deporting French Jews to Nazi concentration camps – continue to haunt the issue of ethnic and racial identity in France. The post-war state that emerged from the ashes of World War II is officially colour blind, grants equality to all its citizens, and tends to address social inequalities using class or geographic criteria.

But in the geographic neighbourhoods that experience the worst of police brutality and discrimination, that argument fails to persuade ethnically diverse residents.

Violent clashes continued on Friday night, despite the deployment of some 45,000 police officers backed by light armoured vehicles, and a similar number of police will again be on the street on Saturday night, according to the interior ministry.

The ministry said on Twitter that 1,311 people had been arrested overnight, compared with 875 the previous night, although it added the violence was “lower in intensity”.

Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti said 30 percent of detainees were under 18.

Looting and rioting took place in the cities of Lyon, Marseille and Grenoble with bands of youths pillaging shops, setting fires and pelting officers with projectiles.

Finance minister Bruno Le Maire said more than 700 shops supermarkets, restaurants and bank branches had been “ransacked, looted and sometimes even burnt to the ground since Tuesday”.

Rioters in Marseille, France’s second-largest city, looted a gun store and stole hunting rifles but no ammunition, police said.

Marseille’s Mayor Benoit Payan called on the government to send extra troops to tackle “pillaging and violence” after three police officers were slightly wounded on Saturday.

Events including two concerts at the Stade de France on the outskirts of Paris were cancelled, while LVMH-owned fashion house Celine cancelled its 2024 menswear show on Sunday, according to Women’s Wear Daily.

Tour de France organisers said they were ready to adapt to any situation when the cycle race enters the country on Monday from Spain.

Violence also erupted in some French overseas territories, where a 54-year-old died late Thursday after being hit by a stray bullet in French Guiana.

On the small Indian Ocean island of Reunion, protesters set rubbish bins ablaze, threw projectiles at police, and damaged cars and buildings, officials said. Some 150 police officers were deployed there on Friday night.

World Opinions + Agencies

L’article Teen’s killing raises a French policing issue that dare not be named.. Video est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Protests were held along the Gaza-Israel border in protest at the Israeli far-rights provocative march in Jerusalem.

 Israeli forces have used live fire and tear gas against Palestinians who joined a demonstration on the besieged Gaza Strip’s eastern border with Israel, injuring several Palestinians, as far-right Israelis held a so-called ‘flag march’ in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City.

Voilà comment sont traités les êtres humains #Musulmans en #Palestine 🇵🇸par les occupants juifs israéliens qui volent les territoires !
Honte à l’Occident qui laisse faire et qui cautionne de telles violences !
pic.twitter.com/HUsLZAshg1

— ❌Zone 51🇪🇭 (@ufoflyings) May 18, 2023

Hundreds of Palestinians joined the protest on Thursday, which was called for by Palestinian factions in response to the Israeli march. The Gaza demonstration condemned the ‘flag march’ in Jerusalem, and called for an end to Israeli attacks in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Israeli authorities said their forces had fired after Palestinians threw explosive devices at the barrier between Israel and Gaza.

Palestinian man still visits his home his family were forced to free during Nakba!#Nakba#FreePalestine #Palestine 🇵🇸 https://t.co/Cthoa8Um12

— Lance Dyer 〓〓 (@Lance63) May 18, 2023

Osama Abu Qamar, a 50-year-old resident of Gaza’s Jabaliya camp, told Al Jazeera that he had ccome to participate in the march to protest against the “provocative” march in Jerusalem, where far-right Israelis forced the closure of several Palestinian throughfares in the city as they chanted abusive slogans and waved Israeli flags.

According to The New York Post newspaper, the state assembly of New York has announced its intention to review proposed legislation that aims to prevent registered US charities from funding illegal #IsraeliSettlements in the occupied West Bank.#Palestine #JerusalemUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/fwusXLy2zs

— farahZpalestine 1 (@farahzpalestine) May 18, 2023

The event, which is held annually to mark the occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem, has led to violence in recent years, and with a truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad only coming into effect this week after four days of fighting that killed 33 Palestinians and one Israeli, there was fear of it sparking further violence.

“We will not surrender and we will continue to demand our rights and defend our occupied lands and our sanctities in Jerusalem,” Abu Qamar told Al Jazeera.

Israel is a terrorist zionist illegal state,the illegitimate child of the western world.Whr r all those countries n human right organisations who were weeping yesterday fr Ukraine n condemning Russia fr violating human rights. #hypocrites #Palestinewillbefree #Palestine https://t.co/4kZcXDGYtW

— Laiyla Khan (@LaiylaKhan) May 18, 2023

Huda al-Salibi attended the march with her family.

“A few days ago, the Gaza Strip was under an Israeli attack that lasted for days in an attempt by the Israeli government to implement racist policies by [far-right National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir and other extremist ministers,” al-Salibi told Al Jazeera. “Today, the violations in Jerusalem continue with the launch of the provocative march.”

Today, #Palestinians raise #Palestine's flags in occupied #Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood as a response to Israel's extreme-right provocative 'Flag March'.#Act4Palestine #JerusalemUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/tOpwKxl3Lc

— Free_Palestine (@zainafarah1) May 18, 2023

Israel deployed heavy security to prevent violence after past flag marches were marked by Israeli attacks on Palestinians and “death to Arabs” chants.

In 2021, the march was rerouted after violence erupted in the wake of the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, by Israeli forces and the evictions of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, also in East Jerusalem.

Des parlementaires #juifs israéliens du Likud, parti de Netanyahu, investissent l'esplanade des mosquées à Jérusalem et entonnent l'hymne israélien, pour provoquer la population #Musulmane de #Palestine 🇵🇸
Une provocation de plus. Ça dure depuis 75 ans.
pic.twitter.com/h9IzDw9y9L

— ❌Zone 51🇪🇭 (@ufoflyings) May 18, 2023

Hamas, which governs Gaza, called on international and Arab governments to stop the provocative flag parade in Jerusalem, warning that it would lead to further escalation in the coastal enclave, which has been under an Israeli air, sea and land blockade since 2007.

#Palestine || A group of settlers attack a Palestinian youth in the old city of #Jerusalem. 18.5.23 pic.twitter.com/8GC1tAQAS4

— Hala (@Hala31775951) May 18, 2023

‘Confront the occupation’

Abd Allatif al-Qanou’, a spokesman for Hamas, told Al Jazeera: “We will not allow Israeli occupation to pass a plan to extend its sovereignty or impose its control over Al-Aqsa Mosque through facilitating the march of the settler flags or the repeated incursions into it.”

🇵🇸 #Palestine || The Israeli occupation forces detain a Palestinian woman after raiding the flag of Palestine in Salah Eddin street in Jerusalem. 18.5.23 pic.twitter.com/VHgKvKRXSi

— #FreePalestine (@Noura_Pal) May 18, 2023

“We call for all Palestinians to go to Al-Aqsa to participate in the defence of the compound in order to protect it and to confront the occupation,” he said.

Al-Qanou’ accused the Israeli government of using what has become known as Jerusalem Unification Day to encourage, facilitate and protect the frequent storming on Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli settlers. The latest occurred on Thursday morning in the run-up to the flag march and was led by Israeli ministers and Knesset members.

The flag of Palestine flies in the sky of Gaza in response to Israel’s provocative “Flag March”#Palestine #FlagMarch #Gaza pic.twitter.com/EfMEQ3GP59

— ParsToday English (@ParsTodayEN) May 18, 2023

“This disgraceful behaviour represents a flagrant violation of our greatest religious symbols, our Islamic sanctities and our sacred capital,” he said.

The leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said in a statement that the Palestinian people and their resistance “will not be silent in the face of the so-called march of flags and the [Israeli] occupation’s repeated incursions of Al-Aqsa”.

“We call for urgent action to condemn these occupation policies and attacks against the Palestinian people, their rights and sanctities,” said the PFLP, which has presence in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Reham Owda, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera that Palestinians consider the flag march a provocative attempt by settlers and the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change the status quo in occupied East Jerusalem by “Judaising” it and exerting its control on the Old City.

Palestinians fear Israel has gradually been expanding its control over the Al-Aqsa compound, where Jews are not supposed to be allowed to pray.

The international community backs the so-called two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but successive Israeli governments have approved settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which is supposed to become the Palestinian state’s capital. Palestinians say the expanding settlements diminish the prospects for a viable, sovereign State of Palestine.

World Opinions +  AL JAZEERA

L’article Israel fires on Palestinians protesting ‘flag march’ in Gaza.. Video est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

At least 108 police officers have been injured in clashes across France with protesters angry at pension reforms, the interior minister has said.

#France is officially a police state.
In #Paris there exists no democracy. The so called "Free World" is actually a scam – in practice it's the opposite. #1deMayo #1deMayo2023 #parisprotests #1stMay #1stMay2023 #1stMayLabourDay https://t.co/HzVrJF2xGo

— Proud African (@MpeseProud) May 1, 2023

🇫🇷 #Macron: "Like it or not, his international stature and credibility is affected by what's going on in #France at the moment." @Blickch's @richardwerly explains, on the #F24Debate, as resistance to the French president's controversial #pensionreform continues ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/I6539mssw1

— The Debate – France 24 (@F24Debate) May 1, 2023

Gerald Darmanin said such a large number of police wounded was extremely rare, adding that 291 people had been arrested during the unrest.

Hundreds of thousands have been taking part in May Day demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s reforms.

Viva la #France https://t.co/oqnN9tMtbJ

— @SirCryptoShark (@sircryptoshark) May 1, 2023

Most were peaceful but radical groups threw petrol bombs and fireworks.

Police responded with tear gas and water cannon.

It is not clear how many protesters have been injured.

This is the latest day of mass action against changes that raise the state pension age from 62 to 64. The unions want the measures withdrawn.

Os números apontam para 3 milhões de pessoas nas ruas e 600 mil só em Paris. Os franceses já sabem o que é o Globalismo e o WEF. Isto nada tem a ver com a idade da reforma.#paris #France #DiaDoTrabalhador pic.twitter.com/ITystXez1Y

— Nuno Pereira 🇵🇹 (@matospereiracom) May 1, 2023

The Interior Ministry put the overall number of demonstrators at 782,000, including 112,000 in the capital Paris, but the CGT union say the figure is three times that number.

#BREAKING #FRANCE #PARIS

🔴 PARIS :#VIDEO MAY DAY PROTESTS OR WAR IN PARIS!
SEVERE CLASHES, CHAOS..

Tensions rise in Paris on Labor Day.
French police(CRS) hit by firebombs.
Many policemen & protesters injured. #BreakingNews #UltimaHora #Manif1erMai #Protests #Protestas pic.twitter.com/5H4tZe8Omc

— LoveWorld (@LoveWorld_Peopl) May 1, 2023

In Paris, one police officer suffered serious burns to his hands and face when struck by the petrol bomb.

Violence also broke out in Lyons and Nantes, and there were reports that protesters briefly occupied a luxury hotel in the southern city of Marseille.

#1erMai – #1erMai2023 #1erMaiUnitaire#Manif1erMai #manifestations #FranceProtests#France #Macron https://t.co/VEsVY2i7lj

— LauRañe (@lau_avel) May 1, 2023

World Opinions – Agencies

L’article France protests: More than 100 police hurt in May Day demonstrations.. Video est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Tens of thousands of people rally in Tel Aviv to protest against the government’s proposed judicial overhaul.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have joined protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the judiciary, despite soaring tensions after two deadly attacks a day earlier.

The protests against the plans, which were paused last month in the face of a wave of strikes and mass demonstrations, come amid surging violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

As protesters rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. Ahed Salim, 20, was hit in the chest and stomach by live fire in Azzun near Qalqilyah, the ministry said.

Separately, the Israeli military said three rockets were launched from Syria toward Israeli territory. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket launches, which caused no damage or casualties.

Around Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, tens of thousands of worshippers were expected for evening prayers amid concerns about a possible repeat of nighttime Israeli police raids this week that were followed by rocket barrages into Israel and Israeli air attacks on Gaza and southern Lebanon.

Israelis were also on edge after a car-ramming in Tel Aviv on Friday that killed an Italian man and wounded five other tourists, hours after a shooting attack killed two Israeli sisters and wounded their mother near an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu has mobilised border police reservists and ordered the army to reinforce security positions to head off possible trouble, amid calls for calm from the United Nations, the European Union and the United States.

People ignore government calls

In central Tel Aviv, crowds waving the blue and white Israeli flags that have become a hallmark of the protests during the past three months gathered in a show of defiance against plans they see as an existential threat to Israeli democracy.

Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Tel Aviv, said that some 145,000 people were expected to attend the protest.

“There were calls and warnings issued by the government asking people not to attend the protest today due to the security concerns,” he said.

“However, protesters say that the government is using security as an excuse and it is not going to stop them from taking to streets,” he said.

“They say that it is a historic moment for the country and they are here to save democracy in Israel.”

The judicial proposals, which would give the government effective control over the appointment of Supreme Court judges and allow parliament to overrule many decisions of the court, have caused one of the biggest domestic crises in Israel’s recent history.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, including army reservists, business leaders, members of Israel’s tech industry and leading academics have taken part, facing off against supporters of Netanyahu’s far-right religious-nationalist coalition.

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, said that the growing crisis is further isolating Netanyahu.

He said that he is losing control of his government and was being subjected to “blackmail” by his coalition partners.

“He is losing big time in the polls in Israel. He is also losing the security situation as well as so-called stability and prosperity in the country.”

The government, which has accused activist judges of increasingly usurping the role of parliament, said the overhaul is needed to restore a proper balance between the judiciary and elected politicians.

Critics have said it will remove some of the vital checks and balances underpinning a democratic state and hand unchecked power to the government.

Before the protests, police had urged people to leave roads clear to allow emergency services to move freely following Friday’s car-ramming on a popular shoreline promenade in Tel Aviv.

World Opinions –  AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

L’article Thousands join Israeli judicial protests amid soaring tensions est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Amid protests and increasing international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday agreed to suspend his proposed judicial overhaul. While in a televised speech he said he had decided to delay the vote “in order to give time for discussion,” in reality all he is doing is he is buying time to try and figure out how to solve the dilemma he is facing.

At this point in his career, in his sixth term in power, Netanyahu has one main target: staying out of jail. As a seasoned politician, he is driven by a sense of survival. He is facing accusations of fraud, breach of trust and bribery, which he denies. He needs to stay in power to stay out of jail. However, to do that, he needs to please the band of extremists in his government. And pleasing them means upsetting the street and Israel’s allies.

Before Netanyahu paused his reforms, the Histadrut labor federation — the General Organization of Workers in Israel — announced a general strike. The prime minister could not handle the general discontent or the international indignation. On the other hand, he cannot afford to lose any of his extremist partners. Hence, the best way to solve this dilemma was to postpone taking a decision.

Netanyahu is the king of deal-making. He is pragmatic and he does what it takes to get what he wants. Being pragmatic does not necessarily mean he is rational. Buying time will not change the choices he will face at some point in time. What he is banking on is making interim deals that can somehow become permanent. Netanyahu is very skilled at making distinctions between those whose acquiescence he requires and those he can simply discount.

Yoav Gallant, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party who reached the rank of major general in the Israel Defense Forces before entering politics, was fired by Netanyahu for objecting to the judicial reform. On the other hand, he had to humor Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is an integral part of his coalition. In return for supporting the delay, Ben-Gvir will be allowed to head his own armed militia outside of the jurisdiction of the Israeli army and police. This militia will not have to abide by the normal rules of engagement.

The Israeli prime minister’s plan seems to be to hang on to power as long as he can and delay the inevitable

Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib

Are we now back to the times of the Haganah and its offshoot, the Irgun? Probably. How will world opinion perceive such terrorism? Today is different from the early 20th century. Transgressions can easily be documented using a smartphone and spread all over the world. Will the world accept a new Haganah? Will the world’s Jewry identify with it? Probably not, and most likely they will be disgusted by it.

Where do the Palestinians stand in all this? They will be evicted from their homes, persecuted and even killed, and there will be no functioning justice system to defend them. Though the judicial system has always been biased against them, it was always there as a platform through which they could air their grievances. They do not even have the right to exist as a people, according to far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a main pillar of Netanyahu’s coalition. The Palestinians have no choice but to resist. A third intifada? Probably.

A rational actor would have thought through all these outcomes, but Netanyahu does not seem to be one of them.

How will the US look at Israel once it legitimizes Ben-Gvir’s illegitimate paramilitary force? How will Israel be different from some rogue country in South America? Can the US, which praises Israel for being an oasis of democracy in a desert of dictatorships, still stand by its ally? Will the US stand by an Israel where the rule of law is subjugated by the will of those in power and where the aim of the entire system is to preserve itself rather than serve the people.

However, Netanyahu is not thinking as a statesman, he is thinking as a politician. Tactical gains are what matter to him. What he can get now is what is most important. And his current most important goal is to stay out of prison. He is dividing the country, he is empowering the fanatics, he is driving away the Jewry worldwide and slowly losing the country’s allies. Nevertheless, this does not seem to matter. Netanyahu’s plan seems to be to hang on to power as long as he can and delay the inevitable. While hanging on to power, he tries to make deals and put on a balancing act to eliminate the negative externalities that might result from those deals.

He postponed the judicial overhaul to calm the raging streets and appease international allies. In parallel, to get the acquiescence of Ben-Gvir, he allowed him to have his militia that will go on a killing spree. Again, he can always use terror accusations against the Palestinians and a public relations campaign to attenuate the gravity of the crimes committed. This is the art of transactional politics aimed at keeping one’s position and gaining time.

However, Netanyahu does not seem to realize that this is not sustainable and it will blow up in his face at some point. When this tactic no longer works, what can he do? Provoke a fight with Lebanon or Iran, similar to what Ehud Olmert did in 2006 to divert public attention away from corruption accusations? Maybe, but this option involves too many risks and did not work well for Olmert. In fact, Olmert had to resign after his adventure in Lebanon as his popularity tanked. He eventually ended up in jail in February 2016.

In short, Netanyahu is buying time using these tactics of self-preservation. However, at some point, this will no longer work and he will be forced to face a tough reality, in which he will be held accountable.

By Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She is president of the Research Center for Cooperation and Peace Building, a Lebanese nongovernmental organization focused on Track II.

L’article Israel protests: Benjamin Netanyahu will have to face reality eventually est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Afew months before sweeping to power in the 2017 presidential election, Emmanuel Macron published a memoir-cum-personal manifesto, Revolution. In it, he made the case for rebellion against allegedly outmoded institutions and ideas that were holding back France. Six years on, it is the popular revolts against Mr Macron’s own policies which have taken centre-stage.

Recent months have seen some of the largest protests in the history of the Fifth Republic, as Mr Macron has sought to push through a deeply unpopular plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. On Monday, his government survived a related parliamentary motion of no confidence by the skin of its teeth. This followed the president’s controversial – though constitutional – decision to use executive powers to get his way, bypassing a vote in the national assembly that he thought he might lose.

Among his own MPs, the manoeuvre provoked public misgivings. Elsewhere, even allowing for the usual political game-playing, the response was authentically furious. One MP from the centre-right party Les Républicains – which Mr Macron’s minority government needs onside to achieve majorities – accused the president of acting in an “isolated, narcissistic way, impervious to French people’s lives”.

President Macron’s decision to force through his pension reforms without a vote damages French democracy

In this respect, the president could be said to have form. In 2018, his high-handed approach helped transform provincial protests against a fuel tax into the wider gilets jaunes revolt against elites. A penitent Mr Macron embarked on a nationwide “listening tour”. Then, when his Renaissance party lost its majority last June, he again promised a more consensual approach. But less than a year into his second term – amid widespread anxiety about falling living standards – he has reverted to Jupiterean type, defying the wishes of the two-thirds of the French population who oppose his reforms, and circumventing the democratic niceties of winning a debate in parliament.

For a smart president, this seems like strangely dumb politics. The protests and strikes may eventually fade, although more are planned and the sense of popular outrage is real. But Mr Macron’s reputation as an arrogant technocrat with little regard for social movements or civic sentiment is surely sealed. His prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, now appears to be a busted flush along with her government, but seems determined to stay in post. The president’s second term risks becoming a long and acrimonious goodbye, with little achieved.

An independent government body has judged that the pension system’s deficits are manageable for the foreseeable future, making it hard to understand why Mr Macron decided to take such a confrontational approach. Amid record levels of abstention at elections, the rise of online conspiracy theories and the all but accomplished normalisation of the far right, Mr Macron’s resort to government by decree has done nothing to ease the trust deficit in French politics. Marine Le Pen and the far right may well be the principal beneficiaries of that. Having presented himself as the right man to modernise the country, Mr Macron increasingly looks like a politician out of touch with the needs of the times.

World Opinions – The Guardian view

L’article  View on ruling by decree in France: deepening the trust deficit est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s move to force through his deeply unpopular pension reform, without a vote in parliament, could rekindle social unrest reminiscent of the Yellow Vest movement, union leaders and analysts have warned as protests continue to sweep the country.

Demonstrations against the government’s use of a special constitutional provision, known as article 49.3, to sweep aside parliamentary opposition to the reform have been angrier than anything seen over the past two months.

Unions, united in coordinating their protests, called for a ninth strike day next Thursday, but many expressed fears they could lose control of the protests as more radical demonstrators set the tone.

“Yes, we are worried,” Cyril Chabanier, the head of the moderate CFTC union, told AFP.

Commentators have begun to wonder whether the hardening of fronts could herald the return of the Yellow Vests, a grassroots movement that started in 2018 as a protest against rising fuel prices and snowballed into the biggest social action against Macron in his first term.

“It’s a social law of physics,” said Jean-Marie Pernot, a political scientist specialising in trade unions.

“If you don’t respect any of the channels meant for the expression of dissent, it will find a way to express itself directly,” he told AFP.

Early Yellow Vest action was marked by strikes, weekly demonstrations, the blocking of roads and fuel depots, and the worst clashes with riot police in decades.

It was only with the imposition of restrictions on movement brought about by the Covid crisis that the movement’s actions were brought to a halt.

‘Tougher action ahead’

“There may be tougher action ahead, more serious and further-reaching,” warned Fabrice Coudour, a leading energy sector representative for the hard-left CGT Union.

“It may well escape our collective decision-making,” he said.

The Yellow Vests prided themselves on having no designated leaders. They resisted attempts by left-wing politicians and unions to harness the movement’s energy for their own ends.

One of their more prominent spokesmen was Jerome Rodrigues, who lost an eye to a police rubber bullet during clashes at one demo.

Within hours of Macron’s pensions move on Thursday, Rodrigues told an angry, cheering crowd outside the National Assembly that the objective was now nothing less than “the defeat” of the president.

At the same time, protests erupted in many parts of France, some demonstrators destroying street furniture, smashing windows and setting bins on fire.

In the central French city of Dijon, protesters burned effigies of Macron.

The CGT announced that it would force the shutdown of energy giant TotalEnergies’ refinery in Normandy in France’s northwest as of this weekend.

Picket lines at power utility Electricite de France would also be extended, the CGT said. And early on Friday, CGT activists blocked Paris’s busy ringroad, the Boulevard Périphérique.

‘Government’s fault’

The unions have already put the responsibility for any future trouble at the government’s doorstep.

“Obviously, when there is this much anger and so many French people on the streets, the more radical elements take the floor,” said Laurent Escure, boss of the UNSA trade union federation. 

“This is not what we want, but it’s going to happen. And it will be entirely the government’s fault,” he told AFP.

For weeks, Laurent Berger, head of the moderate CFDT union, has been warning the government that there could be more trouble if protesters got the idea that the Yellow Vests achieved more with violence than established unions with their peaceful, mass demonstrations.

“What is the democratic outlook for a country that fails to respond to 1.5 or 2 million people in the streets on three occasions, but that did respond to a violent movement with a fifth of that number in the street?” he asked in an interview last month.

Macron made a number of concessions to the Yellow Vest movement.

Among other measures, he scrapped a planned carbon tax and boosted salaries for minimum wage earners, for a total estimated cost to public finances of 10 billion euros ($10.7 billion).

World Opinions – FRANCE 24 – AFP

L’article French unions see threat of Yellow Vest rerun over Macron’s retirement push.. Video est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Thousands of people have rallied in central Athens to protest over Greece’s deadliest rail disaster, which killed dozens of people last month.

The demonstrators expressed anger over safety deficiencies in Greece’s railway network and demanded punishment for those responsible for the head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train that killed 57 people on February 28. Police said that more than 8,000 people in Athens gathered outside Parliament to protest on Sunday.

Protesters flooded Athens’s Syntagma Square, waving banners that read “We won’t forget, we won’t forgive” and “We will become the voice of all the dead”.

“It was anger and rage that brought me here,” Markella, a 65-year-old Athens protester who gave only one name, told the AFP news agency.

Another demonstrator, 26-year-old Alexandros, added: “We’re getting desperate. You don’t know what to say, what to do – all you can do is join the protest.”

Demonstrators demand punishment for those responsible for a train collision that killed 57 people.

The protesters later marched to the offices of privatised train operator Hellenic Train. The company, which has been owned by Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane since 2017, isn’t responsible for the maintenance of the railway network. State-owned Hellenic Railways is in charge of upkeep.

Authorities shut down four metro stations on two lines running through central Athens because of the protest.

The rally was organised by civil servants, a pro-communist union and university students.

In Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, about 5,000 people demonstrated.

Sunday’s rallies, which passed off without serious incident, weren’t as well-attended as similar events earlier in the week, when more than 30,000 had turned out in Athens and more than 20,000 in Thessaloniki.

A memorial service was conducted for 12 students of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece’s largest university, who were killed in the train crash.

A stationmaster accused of placing the trains on the same track has been charged with negligent homicide and other offences, and the country’s transportation minister and senior railway officials resigned the day after the crash.

Public and private sector employees are expected to walk out again on Thursday.

‘Facetious’ reactions

Revelations of serious safety gaps on Greece’s busiest rail line have put the centre-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the defensive. He has pledged the government’s full cooperation with a judicial inquiry into the crash.

Mitsotakis, who is fighting to be re-elected later this year, has faced calls from some protesters to quit.

He has come under fire for initially pointing to “human error” for the accident, and blaming the stationmaster on duty at the time, who allegedly routed the trains onto the same stretch of track by accident.

But railway unions had long been warning about problems on the creaking, understaffed train network.

Al Jazeera’s Psaropoulos said the government “has been bending over backwards to appease public opinion.

“Just two days ago, the government announced that it would pay for national pensions equivalent to roughly $1,800 per family for each of those 57 people killed,” he said.

“The government is trying to reassure people that by the end of the month when railways start operating again – at least that is the government plan – all precautions will have been taken to have full staffing and properly trained staff on platforms and on trains.

“By the end of the summer, the prime minister has promised he’s going to have all those automated safety systems that didn’t work on the night of February 28, installed throughout the system – automatic signalling, automatic breaking and telemetry showing controllers where trains are and headed at all times.”

Elections in Greece are due later this spring, and opinion polls released over the past week have shown the ruling conservatives’ lead over the left-wing opposition shrink almost by half compared with polls published before the crash.

World Opinions – AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

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More than 250 protests have been staged in the French capital Paris and around the country against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms with rubbish collectors, utility workers, train drivers and others walking off the job against the proposed legislation.

An estimated 1.28 million people demonstrated nationwide on Tuesday against Macron’s plans to push back the retirement age to 64, the interior ministry said. The protests come weeks after an estimated 1.27 million people participated during the previous round of protests.

Big crowds took to the streets in Paris, Marseille, Nice and other cities. Some minor clashes with police broke out in Nantes, Rennes and Lyon.

In the French capital, workers, families and activists gathered in a joyful atmosphere, chanting slogans.

Despite the Paris march being largely peaceful, some scuffles sporadically broke out on the sidelines, with some people throwing projectiles at police who responded with tear gas.

Unions threatened to freeze up the French economy with work stoppages across multiple sectors, most visibly an open-ended strike at the SNCF national rail authority.

More than 1.28 million people took to the streets in France as unions intensify fight against Macron’s pension reform.

Some unions have called for open-ended strikes in sectors from refineries and oil depots to electricity and gas facilities. Workers in each sector will decided locally in the evening on that, Martinez said.

All oil shipments in the country were halted on Tuesday amid strikes at the refineries of TotalEnergies, Esso-ExxonMobil and Petroineos groups, according to the CGT.

Truckers have sporadically blocked major highway arteries and interchanges in go-slow actions near several cities in French regions.

A fifth of flights were cancelled at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport and about a third of flights at Orly Airport. Trains to Germany and Spain were expected to come to a halt, and those to and from the United Kingdom and Belgium will be reduced by a third, according to the SNCF rail authority.

Most high-speed trains and regional trains have been cancelled.

Public transportation and other services were disrupted in most French cities. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower was closed, as was the Palace of Versailles, west of the capital.

According to the education ministry, about one-third of teachers were on strike nationwide.

The reform would raise the minimum pension age from 62 to 64 and require 43 years of work by 2030 to earn a full pension, amid other measures. The government has argued that the system is expected to dive into deficit within a decade as France’s population ages and life expectancy lengthens.

The bill is under debate in the French Senate this week.

World Opinions – agencies

L’article French workers stage massive strike against pension reform.. Pictures est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.