Tag: Emmanuel Macron

A dog day afternoon in French politics as Macron uses ‘nuclear option’ to raise retirement age

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France entered a period of political uncertainty on Thursday as French President Emmanuel Macron rammed a controversial pension reform through parliament without a vote by invoking a special executive measure. With the opposition braced for a no-confidence vote and the unions threatening more strikes, France witnessed a dramatic afternoon in politics.

The scenes in the National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament, on Thursday appeared to have been lifted from historical dramas dating back to the country’s revolutionary past.

“Aux armes citoyens, formez vos bataillons,” sang opposition lawmakers as the chamber echoed with the rallying cry of La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, rallying citizens to take up arms and form battalions. “S’il vous plait, s’il vous plait,” pleaded Yaël Braun-Pivet, the speaker of the National Assembly, ineffectually trying to get order in the house.

Far-left lawmakers in the National Assembly hold placards and sing La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, on March 16, 2023. The placards read “64 years old: No!” © Pascal Rossignol, Reuters

The session was suspended for two minutes before Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne could announce the triggering of Article 49.3 of the French constitution, which grants the government executive privilege to pass a bill without a vote. Triggering Article 49.3 also permits the opposition to respond with a no-confidence motion. 

“Today, we are faced with uncertainty that hinges on a few votes. We cannot take the risk of 175 hours of parliamentary debates collapsing,” said the 61-year-old French prime minister, raising her voice above the din. “On the basis of Article 49.3 of the constitution, I engage the responsibility of my government on the pension reform bill.”

With that, the likely unlikely happened in French politics on Thursday afternoon. President Emmanuel Macron was reelected last year after running on a campaign pledge to raise the retirement age. His reputation as an economic reformer hinged on his ability to make the French work longer by raising the official retirement age from 62, the lowest of any country in the EU.

The French president initially proposed a retirement age of 65, but that was brought down to 64 in January, when he floated the pension reform plan following months of talks with trade unions, employers and political parties.

For Macron, it was the mother of all reforms. For the opposition, particularly the far-left NUPES (New Ecological and Social Popular Union) alliance, it was the mother of all political opposition battles. France’s powerful unions were also on the opposition’s side, and they made it clear with eight nationwide strikes over the past three months, drawing over a million people on the streets almost every week.

While both sides played dare, the threat of Article 49.3 – or simply 49.3 as its popularly known – hung in the air. It was a nuclear option that neither side wanted and few imagined would come to pass. But now that it has, it leaves Macron weakened, Borne particularly vulnerable, and France in a state of shock as the politicians plot their next moves, keeping the country on edge.

An anxious weekend

Under the French constitution, once the prime minister invokes Article 49.3, the opposition has 24 hours to table a motion of censure.

Shortly after Borne’s address in the National Assembly on Thursday, Marine Le Pen said her far-right National Rally party would file a no-confidence motion. Communist lawmaker Fabien Roussel said such a motion is “ready” on the left.

For a no-confidence vote to be put to the chamber, the motion must be signed by at least one-tenth of the National Assembly’s 577 deputies.

Once the no-confidence motion is tabled, the National Assembly has to wait 48 hours before it is discussed in the chamber.

French law provides the 48-hour period to enable the government to convince undecided parties, and to allow lawmakers to make their decision after careful deliberations.

A no-confidence vote requires a majority, which means a minimum of 287 votes.

With a no-confidence motion set to be tabled on Friday, a vote is likely early next week, leaving the French in a state of heightened political anxiety over the weekend. What’s more, by opting for 49.3, Macron may have taken a safe option, but there’s no guarantee it will bring him any peace.

‘Reaping the harvest’ of the 2022 legislative elections

From the onset of the mass mobilisation against the pension reform, Article 49.3 was viewed as a risky option. But with the government unsure of getting the minimum 287 votes in the National Assembly needed to approve the pension bill, Macron chose to play it safe by opting for the nuclear option.

The conservative- dominated Senate approved the reform earlier Thursday in a move that was widely predicted. The political drama was always going to be in the lower house, where the president’s centrist La République en Marche (Renaissance) party does not have a majority.

With just hours to go before the National Assembly vote, Macron held a Cabinet meeting at the Elysée presidential palace to strategise the next move as the country waited with baited breath.

The decision to opt for 49.3 came just a few minutes before the scheduled vote in the National Assembly. The roots of the controversial decision, though, date back to the June 2022 legislative elections, when Macron’s alliance lost its parliamentary majority.

“The president was already weakened when his centrist grouping, Renaissance, failed to gain an absolute majority in the legislative elections back in June,” explained FRANCE 24’s International Affairs Commentator Douglas Herbert. “We’re basically reaping the harvest of the last legislative elections. What we’re seeing right now are the vulnerabilities of a presidential movement or party when it doesn’t have a parliamentary majority.”

Thursday saw the article used for the 100th time under France’s modern constitution, which created an all-powerful president in 1958, overturning the previous one and its parliamentary system.

Under the modern fifth republic, 16 prime ministers have used the article and have managed to stay in power.

Macron’s government is expected to survive a no-confidence vote after the head of the conservative Republicans party in the opposition said it would vote with the president’s allies, which are 39 seats short of a majority in the 577-seat assembly.

But the anger on the streets is likely to undermine the very purpose of his pension reform. Raising the retirement age, Macron noted, was necessary to make the French economy more competitive and in tune with the rest of the developed world, where people are living longer and healthier lives with security benefits threatening to put budgets into deficits.

However the social fallout of Macron’s latest political gamble is unlikely to increase France’s economic competitiveness while highlighting its exceptionalism as a country deeply committed to maintaining the existing official retirement age.

By Thursday night, thousands of protesters had gathered on Place de la Concorde, across the river Seine from parliament. Police fired tear gas as angry demonstrators hurled cobble stones at security officers. In several other French cities, including Marseille, there were also spontaneous protests against the reform.

French unions called for another day of strikes and action against the reform on Thursday, March 23.

It was just one sign of things to come, according to Herbert. “If you thought things were already tense in France over the past couple of weeks, couple of months, stand by, because passions are about to be even more inflamed,” he warned.

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Macron kicks off Olympic countdown 500 days before Paris Games

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French President Emmanuel Macron launched the countdown to the 2024 Paris Olympics on Tuesday, taking stock of preparations for the mammoth event as officials race to get the city’s transport network into shape and stage an opening ceremony unlike any other.  

Macron, who has promised an “unforgettable” curtain-raiser, hosted the Olympics’ organisers and business partners at the Élysée Palace to discuss preparations for the world’s biggest sporting event. He addressed several hundred civil servants involved in the effort in a speech at Paris police headquarters, on the banks of the River Seine, later Tuesday. 

On the eve of his visit, Macron teased the event by tweeting the cover of Time Magazine’s latest issue, headlined on the race to clean up “the world’s most romantic river”. 

“With 500 days to go, we are within reach of achieving one of the greatest legacies of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris,” the French president wrote, referencing a hugely ambitious 1.4-billion-euro plan to clean up the heavily polluted waterway in time for the Games. 


Making the Seine fit for swimming is an old Parisian dream. In 1988, former French president Jacques Chirac, then the city’s mayor, famously promised to make the river swimmable “in three years” – a pledge he never delivered on. 

The dream has become a necessity now that Paris has pledged to stage several Olympics events, including the 10 kilometre swimming marathon, in the Seine – as it did back in 1900, when it first hosted the Games. 

The prospect of athletes swimming down the world-famous river, alongside Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower, was a major asset for the French capital’s bid to host the “biggest show on earth”. 


 

Olympia-sur-Seine 

The city’s famed waterway is the focus of another mammoth challenge for organisers of the 33rd Summer Olympiad, one that is bound to give French officials many a sleepless night over the coming 500 days. 

In perhaps the biggest gamble of Paris 2024, organisers plan to take the opening ceremony out of its traditional stadium setting and stage it on water. 

The vision, outlined by Macron, is for sporting delegations to sail down the Seine in an armada of boats, in view of up to 600,000 spectators lining the river’s banks over a six-kilometre stretch.  

The appeal of projecting such a bold statement of French ambition before a global TV audience of hundreds of millions is clear. Turning it into reality is said to be giving planners cold sweats. 

As the Games loom into view, the number of boats, the arrangements for spectators, crowd control and security measures are still the subject of intense discussions. A first practice run is expected in July this year, with 30 to 40 boats set to participate.   

“Everyone is working flat-out on preparations,” one senior French official involved in the process told AFP on condition of anonymity. “A ceremony like this has never taken place before. But we’ll manage it, we’ll be ready.” 

FRANCE IN FOCUS
FRANCE IN FOCUS © FRANCE 24

 

Some security experts have voiced concerns, however, warning about the dangers of uncontrolled crowd movements close to the water, and the challenges of securing such a long stretch of water with overlooking buildings. 

Sceptics point to the chaotic scenes at last year’s Champions League final in Paris, when Liverpool fans found themselves in a crush outside the stadium, as a reminder of the dangers of badly organised sporting events.  

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who faced severe criticism for his handling of the Champions League fiasco, travelled to the World Cup in Qatar in November last year on a fact-finding mission. While there, he warned of the dangers of “a drone loaded with explosives that falls on a crowd, on an exposed team, on an opening ceremony like at the Olympic Games, for example”.

Transport woes 

For the opening ceremony, Darmanin is counting on 35,000 members of the security forces being on duty, with police already warned that requests for leave over the summer holiday period will not be permitted. 

The interior ministry has also suggested 25,000 private security agents should be used for less critical missions, with thousands currently being screened, recruited and trained. However, the low bids being offered by the organising committee mean many private security companies are struggling to recruit staff, another source close to the event told AFP. 

On Tuesday, Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said there would be “no taboo” on drafting in the army if necessary, as was the case at the 2012 Olympics in London. 

In another recruitment headache, the Paris region’s transport system is scrambling to bounce back from a year of chronic staff shortages and sporadic strikes – one of which precipitated the chaos of the Champions League final. 

Like the football final, much of the Olympics will take place in the Seine-Saint-Denis département northeast of Paris, the poorest in metropolitan France and the most densely populated after Paris, known for its creaking transport infrastructure. 

There are serious questions about whether the extension of a key metro line to the Athletes’ Village will be completed in time for the Games and a major shortfall in the number of bus drivers is causing concerns too. 

“We will do everything we can to be ready in time,” Macron’s former prime minister Jean Castex, now in charge of the RATP transport operator, told reporters last week, promising a massive recruitment drive.


 

Adding to organisers’ woes, plans to break up the RATP’s monopoly on bus services soon after the Olympics threaten to throw a spanner in the works, with trade unions fiercely opposed to the move and the threat of industrial action hanging over the Games. 

Mindful of the tight schedule, Valérie Pécresse, the conservative head of the Paris region, has leveraged the Olympics to secure an additional 200-million-euro budget from the central government, threatening to delay the opening of new transport lines that fall under her remit. 

In the best-case scenario, transport will already be well short of what organisers promised when they submitted their final bid seven years ago. A future metro line that promised to link Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport with the Athletes’ Village in “under 30 minutes” will not be ready in time for the Games; nor will the long-delayed CDG Express train linking the airport with the heart of Paris. 

(With AFP)



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Rubbish piles up in streets of Paris as France’s pension battle enters final stretch

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A protracted strike by rubbish collectors has added a new twist to France’s festering dispute over pension reform as the battle over President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply unpopular reform enters a make-or-break week with tonnes of uncollected garbage piling higher by the day.

“When the rubbish collectors go on strike, the trashers are indignant.” Jacques Prévert’s iconic play on words has long been a favourite slogan of the French left – and indeed of all advocates of workers’ right to lay down their tools in protest.

Two months into a bitter tussle over pension reform, and with garbage piling up in the streets of Paris and other cities, the French poet’s words resonate with a festering labour dispute that opponents of Macron’s reform have successfully reframed as a battle for social justice.

The fight over Macron’s flagship – and deeply unpopular – pension overhaul has now entered the final stretch, moving through tricky political territory in parliament even as unions and protesters continue to challenge it in the street.

At its heart is a plan to raise the country’s minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 and stiffen requirements for a full pension, which the government says is required to balance the books amid shifting demographics. Unions, however, say the proposed measures are profoundly unfair, primarily affecting low-skilled workers who start their careers early and have physically draining jobs, as well as women with discontinuous careers.

>> ‘I can’t take any more’: Working-class French lament Macron’s push to raise retirement age

A week of strike action by dustbin collectors has resulted in some 5,600 tonnes of garbage piling up across the French capital, including in front of the right-wing-dominated Senate, which gave the pension reform its preliminary backing in a late-night vote on Saturday.

 

Piles of rubbish litter the banks of the Seine, opposite the Eiffel Tower. © Michel Euler, AP

 

But the plan to raise France’s minimum retirement age faces further hurdles in parliament later this week – with rubbish piles growing by the day, the smell of decaying food wafting in the wind, and only late-winter temperatures sparing Parisians a greater stench.

Betraying France’s essential workers

The government, trade unions, and Paris city officials have been trading the blame for allowing the streets of the world’s most visited city to be fouled, with tourist hotspots among the areas affected by the strike.

In a flurry of tweets on Sunday, Sylvain Gaillard, a lawmaker from Macron’s ruling Renaissance party, urged Mayor Anne Hidalgo’s left-leaning administration to “requisition” garbage trucks and incinerators blocked by the strikers, while Olivia Grégoire and Clément Beaune, the junior ministers for tourism and European affairs respectively, both slammed the municipality’s “contempt for Parisians”. The next day, Gabriel Attal, the junior budget minister, accused Hidalgo of encouraging the city’s employees to go on strike.

Paris officials were quick to fire back, laying the blame squarely on the government’s shoulders.

“Rubbish collectors worked throughout the pandemic; it took this infamous pension reform for them to lay down their tools,” Ian Brossat, a deputy mayor of Paris, hit back in a tweet. “And how does the government thank them? With two more years of work!”

At the Ivry incinerator on the eastern edge of Paris, one of three blocked facilities that process most of the capital’s waste, sewage worker Julien Devaux said he was not surprised to see the government “turn its back” on the essential workers it championed at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I think the public was truly grateful, but we also knew those in power would not live up to their word,” said the 46-year-old representative of the CGT trade union, manning the picket line along with a few dozen colleagues.

Striking workers have occupied this incinerator in Ivry-sur-Seine, on the edge of Paris.
Striking workers have occupied this incinerator in Ivry-sur-Seine, on the edge of Paris. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

 

Rubbish collectors can currently retire from the age of 57 owing to the particularly tough nature of their jobs, while sewage workers can leave at 52. According to the CGT, both categories will have to work two more years under the government’s planned reform, a prospect Devaux says is untenable.

“I can assure you that spending three to four hours down in the sewers, as we do on an average day, is like working 48 hours round-the-clock,” he explained. “I know plenty of colleagues who are physically crushed by the time they reach their mid-40s. Some die even before retirement while many more fall critically ill soon after.”

According to studies by the IRNS health watchdog, sewage workers are twice as likely to die before the age of 65 as the rest of the population. The huge discrepancy reflects broader inequalities affecting blue-collar workers, who stand to lose most from the planned pension overhaul.

Should the reform pass, Devaux added, “there will be more and more of us who never get to enjoy the pension they deserve”.

Public support

The perceived inequity of Macron’s pension reform has touched a raw nerve in a country that has the word “égalité” (equality) enshrined in its motto. Talk of its unfairness has been a key driver of the mass protests that brought millions to the streets in cities, towns and villages across the country, drawing from well beyond the ranks of the left.

The notion of pénibilité (arduousness) in particular has been a recurrent theme, with protesters lamented the government’s refusal to acknowledge the hardship endured by low-income workers who perform physically-draining tasks. Macron has in the past said he was “not a fan” of the word pénibilité, “because it suggests that work is a pain”.

In January, more than a hundred public figures, including last year’s Nobel literature laureate Annie Ernaux, signed a petition denouncing a reform that “runs contrary to the history of social progress, (…) hitting hardest those who work in the most difficult, physically and psychologically demanding jobs, and who are less likely to enjoy a peaceful retirement and imagine a future after the age of 64”.

Polls have consistently shown that more than two thirds of the country oppose the government’s plans – including a staggering three in four women, according to a recent Elabe poll. A broad majority of the French has also expressed support for strikes that have disrupted schools, public transport and fuel deliveries.

>> ‘Not just about pensions’: French protesters see threat to social justice in Macron’s reform

At the picket line in Ivry, Devaux said the public had been broadly supportive of their struggle, “directing their wrath at the government that caused this situation in the first place”.

“Our job is to keep Paris clean – none of us are happy to see rubbish pile up,” he said. “But the public understand that this is the only tool we have to defend our rights.”

Over in central Paris, pastry chef Romain Gaia offered support for the rubbish collectors even as he complained of rats and mice gathering around smelly piles of trash. “They are quite right to strike,” he told AFP. “Normally they have no power, but when they lay down their tools, that’s when they have power.”

Russian roulette

Despite promises to “grind the economy to a halt”, France’s united front of trade unions has so far proved powerless to stop the pension reform in its tracks, while the ebbing number of protesters who turned out at rallies on Saturday led some analysts to suggest their momentum may be fading.

Still, the scale of opposition to the reform has piled the pressure on ministers and lawmakers alike, adding to the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of looming votes.


 

Unions are planning more strikes and an eighth round of nationwide protests on Wednesday, the day the pension reform heads to a committee of seven senators and seven lower-house lawmakers. They will aim to find a compromise between the two chambers’ versions of the legislation.

If the committee reaches a deal, the approved text will be put to a vote the following day in both the Senate and the National Assembly. However, the outcome in the latter chamber, where Macron’s centrist alliance lost its majority last year, is hard to predict, with the government dependent on support from conservative lawmakers in the opposition.

At the weekend, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne tweeted her optimism that the measure would be “definitively adopted in the coming days”. She is hoping the government won’t have to resort to a special constitutional option, known as the “article 49.3”, that would force the pension reform through without a vote.

Borne has used that mechanism 10 times before, but invoking it for such a sensitive issue would be seen as an explosive move, almost certainly triggering a no-confidence motion that many opposition parties would be tempted to support.

That prospect means the government effectively faces a choice between two gambles, the conservatives’ top senator Bruno Retailleau quipped on Sunday: “Either playing Russian roulette (with a vote on the bill) or firing the Big Bertha gun (and facing a no-confidence vote)”.

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Macron’s Africa reset struggles to persuade

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Paul Taylor is a contributing editor at POLITICO.

PARIS — The bigger the humiliation, the more grandiloquent the relaunch. 

After a year that saw French forces conducting counterinsurgency operations against jihadist rebels hounded out of Mali and Burkina Faso by military coups, anti-colonialist street protests, and Russian disinformation and mercenaries, President Emmanuel Macron announced a fundamental overhaul of France’s Africa strategy. 

“Humility,” “partnership” and “investment” are now the keywords in a reset that Macron outlined in a speech he delivered before embarking on his 18th trip to Africa in just eight years. 

Many Africans were understandably skeptical as the French president took his new doctrine on a tour of Gabon, Angola, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — an eclectic mix of former French, Belgian and Portuguese colonies that have big economic potential, and are being heavily courted by Russia and China as well as Europe. 

“The days of la Françafrique are well and truly over,” Macron insisted in Gabon’s capital Libreville.  He was not the first president to promise an end to the postcolonial manipulation of African politics, with crony ties between the French elite and long-serving African autocrats.  

The French leader’s enunciation of a sea change in Franco-African ties sounded oddly like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s proclamation of a Zeitenwende — an epochal turning point in Berlin’s policy toward Moscow since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“We have reached the end of a cycle of French history in which military questions held preeminence in Africa,” Macron said, the first French president to be born after the end of colonial rule. Henceforth, “there will be no military bases as such,” but “new military partnerships” with African allies, and French forces on the continent will be focusing on training local troops. 

In a conscious effort to shed the mantle of paternalism and hard security, Macron built his four-day trip around the themes of saving African forests, developing agriculture, investing in African business and supporting a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. He also went clubbing in Kinshasa, beer in hand, with Congolese singer Fally Ipupa. 

He steered clear of France’s traditional West African backyard, where Paris’s counterinsurgency policy suffered its deepest setbacks.

“Our destiny is tied to the African continent. If we are able to seize this chance, we have the opportunity to anchor ourselves to the continent, which will increasingly be one of the youngest and most dynamic economic markets in the world, and one of the great centers of global growth in the decades to come,” Macron said. 

He was making a virtue of necessity, to say the least.  

By shrinking its military footprint without abandoning key footholds in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Djibouti, France hopes to avoid further forced retreats from the continent’s strategic corners. Then, referring to Russia’s Wagner mercenaries who have supplanted French forces in Mali and the Central African Republic, Macron said he was sure Africans would soon regret the paramilitary group’s presence.  

But small crowds of anti-French demonstrators in Libreville and Kinshasa were a reminder of France’s tarnished image among many young Africans, as well as accusations of political interference that dog Macron’s attempt at a new start.  

In Gabon, protesters accused the French leader of helping veteran President Ali Bongo’s reelection campaign — a charge he felt obliged to deny. And in the DRC, he faced both public criticism from President Felix Tshisekedi, as well as protests by opposition activists.  

If you’re France, in Africa, you simply can’t win. No one is going to take your professions of good faith, political neutrality, partnership and brotherly love at face value. 

Macron has arguably been the most progressive French president when it comes to Africa, officially acknowledging colonial France’s mistreatment of Algerians, and seeking an ever-elusive reconciliation. He has apologized in Rwanda for his country’s role in failing to prevent the 1994 genocide by Hutu militias against ethnic Tutsis. He has created a commission to investigate colonial massacres in Cameroon too.  

Macron has reached out to youngsters, civil society and start-ups, sometimes over the heads of African governments. He has agreed to scrap the CFA franc — the eight-nation West African currency tied to France — to be replaced by the Eco in 2027. He is the first French leader to have returned cultural treasures to Africa as well, sending a collection of statues to Benin in what is likely to set a precedent. 

Yet, though they make French nationalists’ blood boil, such gestures are too little, too late for many Africans. 

France would probably be best advised to channel its efforts instead under the more politically acceptable banner of the European Union, which is building a comprehensive partnership with the African Union — the key principles of which were outlined at a summit in Brussels in February 2022.  

As bad luck would have it, however, that budding relationship has been overshadowed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has monopolized the EU’s political and financial attention. 

Africans clearly see how the bloc — France included — has plowed billions of euros in military and financial assistance into Ukraine, while support for African peace and security efforts has been far more constrained. They also see how Ukraine has gained EU candidate status and been center stage at every summit, while Africa had to struggle to secure even belated help in procuring COVID-19 vaccines.  

Moreover, the war in Ukraine has added to food insecurity and an energy-price squeeze on the continent. For many Africans, Europe seems more concerned with blaming Russia than helping. 

Macron’s African reset is in many ways a halfway house — he admitted as much in his big speech. “We are held accountable for the past without having been totally convincing about the shape of our common future,” he said. 

The decision to rebrand the African bases as joint training ventures was itself reportedly a compromise between advisers who argued against yielding another inch to France’s adversaries, and others who want to shutter most outposts and refocus the armed forces on preparing for possible high-intensity warfare in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. 

While 61 percent of voters think France should stay in Africa because of its economic and security interests — as well as to help prevent mass migration to Europe — an Odoxa poll for Le Figaro showed that a similar majority is pessimistic about Franco-African ties, and doubtful of Macron’s ability to build a new relationship. 

This may not be the last Franco-African reset.



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The challenge of enshrining abortion rights in the French constitution

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During a speech given on International Woman’s Day, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the decision to put forward a bill enshrining abortion rights in the country’s constitution. Despite being lauded by women’s rights groups, changing the constitution may be more difficult than it appears.

Perhaps in an attempt to divert attention from the backlash his government is facing over the recent pension reform proposal, Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, March 8 announced his intention to cement abortion rights in the French constitution as he paid tribute to feminist activist Gisèle Halimi, who greatly influenced the passing in 1975 of the Veil Act granting women the right to abortion and contraception.

“Progress made through parliamentary talks initiated by the National Assembly and informed by the Senate would allow, I hope, to inscribe this freedom in our founding text through a bill amending our constitution  introduced in the coming months,” Macron said at the Palais de Justice courthouse in Paris.

The two parliamentary chambers both recently voted – the National Assembly in November, the Senate in February – on adding abortion rights to the constitution, though in different terms.

While the news was warmly welcomed by women’s rights groups, which saw the move as a “victory”, consecrating the right to abortion in the Constitution is still far from reality.

On one hand, a bill put forward by the government is voted on by parliament in a joint session and passes with a three-fifths majority, contrary to a bill submitted by legislators, which is voted on via referendum and seen as more risky.

On the other hand, contrary to the legislators’ proposal, Macron’s government is opting for a bill that looks to bring about wider change in current institutions instead of one that is specifically targeted at consecrating abortion rights.

The draft law is expected to include changes such as the redrawing of current regional borders and the redefining of elected officials’ mandates, according to people close to the president.

Macron has himself evoked the possibility of returning to a seven-year presidential mandate with mid-term elections to uncouple presidential and legislative elections, according to an interview with Le Point magazine given in April 2022.

Conditions for amending the constitution have “never been less favorable since 1962”

But burying abortion rights in a myriad of other institutional reforms is largely criticised by the opposition, which cites fears of being coerced.

“Emmanuel Macron is starting to take some steps and it’s a good thing. But it’s doomed to fail if he wants to make us agree to things that are inacceptable, such as the return of the seven-year term and the proportionality feature,” left-wing political party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) head legislator Mathilde Panot said, adding that the failure of the project would then be entirely the president’s fault.

Indeed, with a fractured National Assembly and no absolute majority, it appears quite implausible for Emmanuel Macron to obtain the 60% of parliamentary votes needed to amend the constitution.

“It seems completely unrealistic,” said Benjamin Morel, a public law professor at the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas. “The conditions for amending the constitution have never been less favourable since 1962. The Senate and the National Assembly currently exhibit different political colours, and the presidential party doesn’t even have an absolute majority in the Assembly. When Nicolas Sarkozy amended the constitution in a significant way in 2008, despite having a relatively large majority in the Senate and Assembly on his side, the bill passed by a single vote.”

Emmanuel Macron already had a taste of defeat during his first term as president when he submitted a constitutional amendment bill in 2018. This bill included the “dose of proportionality” feature regarding legislative elections, in which the parties would potentially be awarded a number of legislators in line with their results at the national level in addition to the legislators elected in each district, as well as a 30% reduction in legislators, a limit on accumulated mandates, and the abolishment of the Republic’s Court of Justice. The Benalla affair that came to light in the summer of 2018 put a stop to the reform. It was reintroduced in 2019 before being buried once and for all by the Covid-19 crisis.

Has Macron learned his lesson? At a meeting in early February with his presidential predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, he evoked the subject of amending the constitution. According to our information, he aims to create a cross-party commission on the subject of reform, which had already been mentioned during the last presidential campaign. This commission would aim at “reaching a consensus along the lines of what currently exists on abortion rights”, the Élysée Palace indicated.

“Freedom” instead of “right”

Macron’s strategy, however, is unlikely to convince the opposition, especially given that the political left doesn’t present a united front on abortion.

The Senate, with its right-wing majority, has voted in favour of enshrining “women’s freedom” to access abortion in the constitution. This wording leaves out the idea that it is a “right” to access abortion, which the political left in the National Assembly prefers. It is thus the Senate’s wording that Macron adopted in his  speech on Wednesday.

This clash over semantics is anything but trivial. While Emmanual Macron seeks to appease Senators from the conservative party Les Républicains, the use of the word “freedom” instead of “right” has legal consequences, according to Mathilde Panot.

“It’s a pity and dangerous that Emmanuel Macron is choosing the Senate’s version,” she said. “The National Assembly had a strong desire to reaffirm that abortion is a fundamental right for women. By using the word ‘freedom’, they weaken the text,” she added.

Benjamin Morel, however, does not share this view, and considers that access to abortion is guaranteed by either of the wordings. “The difference between ‘right’ and ‘freedom’ is the fact that the Senate’s version leaves the various methods of access to abortion for the Parliament to decide, while the ‘right’ to access abortion as written in the National Assembly’s proposal would hand this power to the Constitutional Council”, he explained.

Still, the whole debate could very well be a show in political manoeuvring, taking into account the unlikelihood that the constitution will actually be amended. When asked for more information, the Élysée Palace had little to say on the exact content of the future constitutional amendment bill, as well as on the timing and the way in which the cross-party commission on the subject would be organised.

This article is a translation of the original in French.

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‘We can defeat Macron’: Why women’s anger is fuelling French pension protests

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Issued on:

Huge crowds marched across France on Tuesday in a sixth round of protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age, signalling continued opposition to a controversial reform that polls say up two three-quarters of French women reject.

In the French capital, where organisers say well over half a million people turned out (police put the number at fewer than 100,000), unionists and left-wing parties traded their traditional eastern rallying points for the wealthy 6th arrondissement (district) of central Paris, gathering along the fashion boulevards of the left bank.

Outside the famed Lutetia palace hotel, puzzled tourists and shoppers worked their way through a sea of union and other flags. A few steps away, dozens of women danced to the tune of Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive”, each of them dressed as the feminist champion Rosie the Riveter in her iconic blue overalls.

Unionists gather outside the Lutetia palace hotel in Paris ahead of Tuesday’s rally. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

Among them was Camille, a 54-year-old publisher who said she turned out to protest in solidarity with the low-income workers – many of them women – who “stand to lose most” from the pension overhaul. She slammed a reform “hashed out in a hurried and brutal manner, without consultations and despite overwhelming opposition”.

“Women are structurally underpaid and their pensions are lower as a result. And yet they have some of the most exhausting jobs, working absurd hours on top of caring for the young and the elderly,” she said, pointing to the fact that women’s pensions are on average 40 percent lower than men’s.

She added: “The fact that they’re being asked to work longer now only adds insult to injury.“

The reform’s Achilles’ heel

Macron has staked his reformist credentials on passage of his flagship pension overhaul, which polls say around two thirds of the French now oppose – including a staggering 74 percent of women, according to a recent survey by the Elabe institute.

The government argues that raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and stiffening the requirements for a full pension are required to balance the pension system amid shifting demographics. But unions say the proposed measures are unfair and would disproportionately affect low-skilled workers who start their careers early, as well as women.

>> ‘I can’t take any more’: Working-class French lament Macron’s push to raise retirement age

Opponents of the reform have succeeded in framing the pension debate in much larger terms, focusing on the questions of how wealth is distributed under Macron, and whether the poorest and most vulnerable will carry the burden of his proposals.

Talk of the text’s gender imbalance has gained particular traction, not least since one of Macron’s own ministers admitted in January that it would “leave women a little penalised” – in one of several PR blunders that have marred the government’s attempts to promote its increasingly unpopular plan.

“Macron and his government have lied by claiming that women would be better off thanks to this reform,” said Camille at the Paris rally. “This injustice towards women is the reform’s Achilles’ heel: a united front of French women can defeat it.”


 

The sense that the government had misled women was shared by many protesters, fuelling their resentment of the proposal, which is currently being hurried through parliament.

“The government claimed the reform would foster ‘justice’ and ‘equality’, but it soon turned out to be a publicity stunt,” said Sandrine Tellier, 47, a representative of the energy and mining branch of the Force Ouvrière trade union. “In reality, it merely aggravates existing inequalities.”

Justice at stake

France’s enduring gender pay gap is reflected in a discrepancy between the average pensions paid out to men and women. That discrepancy is exacerbated by rules penalising those who worked part time or whose careers are interrupted by childcare.

They include 64-year-old Florentine Delangue, whose record of unpaid apprenticeships and career interruptions mean she is yet to qualify for a full pension, despite getting her first job at a hair salon aged 16.

“I started working two years before my husband, but I will have to keep going after he’s retired,” she said. “That’s why I’m angry.”

As in past protests against Macron's pension reform, students featured prominently in Tuesday's rally.
As in past protests against Macron’s pension reform, students featured prominently in Tuesday’s rally. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

Jacqueline, a 57-year-old lab worker at a Paris hospital, said she couldn’t bear the prospect of having to work an extra two years before qualifying for a full pension. She claimed she had never taken part in a protest before.

“I worked part-time to raise my daughter, but I had no choice. It’s not like I went part-time to go to the beach or something,” she said. “This is too much. I’m too tired and there’s too much injustice.”

>> ‘Not just about pensions’: French protesters see threat to social justice in Macron’s reform

The notion of pénibilité (arduousness) was a recurrent theme at the rally, where protesters lamented the government’s refusal to acknowledge the hardship endured by low-income workers who perform physically-draining tasks. Macron has in the past said he was “not a fan” of the word pénibilité, “because it suggests that work is a pain”.

Such a stance reflects politicians’ “insensitivity” and “ignorance of the realities of life”, said veteran theatre director Ariane Mnouchkine, adding that “parliamentarians should try working as hotel cleaners to see what back-breaking work really feels like”.

Mnouchkine’s troupe from the Theatre du Soleil carried a huge statue of Lady Justice, blindfolded and holding a balance and sword. The 84-year-old director said the very principle of justice was at stake in France’s pension battle.

“The government is sentencing those who live the toughest lives to tougher retirement, whereas they deserve a more comfortable one,” she explained. “The only consolation is that everyone seems to have realised just how unfair this is.”

A statue of Lady Justice carried by members of Ariane Mnouchkine's Theatre du Soleil at the Paris protest.
A statue of Lady Justice carried by members of Ariane Mnouchkine’s Theatre du Soleil at the Paris protest. © Benjamin Dodman, FRANCE 24

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The West still doesn’t know what winning looks like in Ukraine

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Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe. 

More than anything else, the Munich Security Conference was founded to foster dialogue between adversaries. Yet, this year’s three-day gabfest was focused on exchanges between allies and friends rather than foes, and in formal sessions, there were earnest colloquies about Russia’s war on Ukraine and what next steps should be taken to help Kyiv.

Ahead of the gathering, some had warned that Munich would thus likely turn into an echo chamber of the like-minded this year. But it didn’t — certainly not in the margins or informal meetings. And it still remains unclear whether Ukraine’s partners are, in fact, singing the same song of unity.

Munich gave us the “chance to sense the mood, especially on the most important questions like how the war is going, and how our support is going, and how long support is going to last,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told POLITICO in an exclusive interview.

But, at the same time, the conference reinforced rather than eased some of his anxieties — as well as those of his Baltic compatriots — about the staying power of all Ukraine’s Western partners. And this is because ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion — despite unprecedented Western sanctions and massive arms supplies — the allies haven’t really agreed on any clear war aims.

Ukraine, of course, has been consistent about theirs — namely, the restoration of all sovereign territory including Crimea, Russian war reparations and security guarantees. But in April and May, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi all floated ceasefire balloons.

Macron and Scholz have since hardened their talk. Last week in Munich, Macron said the time isn’t right for dialogue, and he hasn’t spoken with Putin since September. Meanwhile, Germany’s chancellor quipped in his speech on Friday about how laggardly the allies have been in supplying Leopard tanks. “Those who can send such battle tanks should really do so now,” Scholz said, relishing the cheeky role reversal.

Yet peace balloons still continue to be floated, even more surreptitiously than China’s spy blimps.

Did CIA Director William Burns waft one up at the Ankara meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Naryshkin in November? Two Ukrainian officials say he did. Asking not to be identified for this article, as they haven’t been authorized to discuss the issue with the media, the officials also confirmed a report that in January, Burns had urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make as much battlefield headway as quickly as he could, because the scale of military support could start falling off.

Burns’ warning came after predictions that the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Congress would soon set out to reduce support. And a Zelenskyy adviser told POLITICO, Kyiv is worried that some in President Joe Biden’s administration would be happy to use Congress as an excuse to wind down military aid and encourage Ukraine to agree to pare down its war aims.

“I think both on Capitol Hill and in the administration, there are people who are looking to calibrate security assistance to incentivize the Ukrainians to cut some sort of deal, I’m afraid,” the adviser said.

Of course, that may go against Biden’s promise during his surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday that the U.S. will continue to back Ukraine for “as long as it takes” — but without defined war aims, even that presidential pledge could be blown off course, the adviser confided.

Meanwhile, for Landsbergis, the failure to not just clearly define Western partners’ war aims but even debate them in earnest has been a crucial omission. And this failure to discuss outcomes and objectives is leaving room for those who waver to waver even more.

“My main question is why haven’t we ever had a conversation about the end goal? The only discussions or ideas that get floated around are about negotiations and peace processes — and all that makes a lot of people in my part of Europe quite nervous. Okay, so we talk about victory, and we talk about standing with Ukraine to the very end — but let’s also talk about this.”

According to Landsbergis, military experts know exactly what’s needed to finish the job. “It’s mathematics,” he said.

But without having agreed on objectives, everything is ad hoc — without a real attempt to match equipment and munitions, missiles and armor — and it’s left to Ukraine to push for whatever it can secure. “So, we ambiguously commit to Ukrainian victory, but do not go into detail,” he added.

Interestingly, during a similarly fateful February in 1941, Britain’s Winston Churchill gave a take-stock speech to the House of Commons, noting that “In wartime, there is a lot to be said for the motto: ‘Deeds, not words.’ All the same, it is a good thing to look around from time to time and take stock, and certainly our affairs have prospered in several directions during these last four or five months, far better than most of us would have ventured to hope.”

Britain had been receiving some military aid from the U.S. at the time, and much like Ukraine today, it was on a just-in-time basis at best.

Landsbergis sees the current situation as similar.

“We’re approaching a very important period,” he said. Without defined war aims, he and other Baltic and Central European leaders are eager to at least secure defined arms and resupply commitments for the months ahead. “Let’s commit for the summer. Let’s commit for the next wave. Let’s commit for ammunition, let’s commit for additional tanks, let’s commit for additional howitzers,” he called.

The foreign minister also said that there are “people saying, look, ‘Russia has already lost, has lost strategically,’ and on this, I would completely disagree.” For him, a strategic loss means Russia undergoing a historic change and being “unable to continue the way that it has been for decades,” even if that means it creates the conditions for the breakup of the Russian Federation — although Landsbergis isn’t advocating for that as a war aim.

Rather, his point is that back when the Soviet Union broke up, there were leaders in the West urging the Baltic states and Ukraine not to declare independence, as they were fearful of all the instability and repercussions it might trigger. “People were so afraid, they couldn’t imagine a world without the Soviet Union,” he said.

And likewise, some now worry about the repercussions of the war leading to turbulence inside Russia and even its breakup. “So, should we stop? Should we ask the Ukrainians to put a moratorium on the regaining of their territory?” Landsbergis asked.

“That’s impossible.”



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Live: Russia escalates attacks in Ukraine, striking Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia

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Russian forces struck critical infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and launched multiple strikes on energy infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia early Friday as Moscow stepped up its attacks in Ukraine’s south and east and air raid sirens went off across much of the country. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+1). 

2:30pm: Russia using surface-to-air missiles to target Ukrainian cities

Russian forces unleashed a barrage of missile and drone strikes against targets in eastern and southern Ukraine early Friday, striking critical infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and Zaporizhzhia.

The latest barrage saw Moscow’s forces use S-300 surface-to-air missiles to target infrastructure on the ground, says FRANCE 24’s correspondent Gulliver Cragg, reporting from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.


 

1:20pm: Ukraine says 61 of 71 Russian missiles destroyed

The Ukrainian air force said Friday its defence systems shot down 61 out of 71 Russian missiles launched in a fresh wave of attacks.

“The enemy launched a massive missile attack on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine,” the air force said. “Sixty-one out of 71 enemy missiles (have been) destroyed,” it added.

1:09pm: Italy’s Meloni says supporting Ukraine only way to achieve peace

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni dismissed critics at home who have chided her decision to continue sending arms to Ukraine, saying those who supported Kyiv were working for peace.

“Those who say Ukraine should not be helped are working against the sovereignty and freedom of a nation,” Meloni told a news conference at the end of an EU summit.

She added that she hoped Italy would be able to announce in the coming days that it was ready to supply Ukraine with a SAMP/T missile defence system, which it will deliver jointly with France.

12:29pm: Romania denies Russian missiles crossed country

Romania on Friday denied Russian missiles flew over the country, rejecting Kyiv’s claims that two Russian missiles crossed the airspace of the NATO-member on their way to Ukraine.

Romania detected an “aerial target launched from the Black Sea from a ship of the Russian Federation” but “at no point did it intersect with Romania’s airspace,” its ministry of defence said.

11:57am: Ukrainian electricity producer says four power plants damaged

Leading Ukrainian electricity producer DTEK said four of its thermal power plants were damaged in Russian missile attacks on Friday.

It said in a statement that, according to preliminary information, two employees had been wounded.

Ukraine’s energy minister said earlier on Friday that Russia had hit power facilities in six Ukrainian regions, forcing authorities to launch emergency electricity shutdowns across most of the country.

11:53am: Moldova summons Russian ambassador after missile overflight

Moldova on Friday said it would summon Russia‘s ambassador after Chisinau claimed that a missile crossed the airspace of the ex-Soviet republic.

The ambassador would be summoned “to indicate to the Russian side the unacceptable violation of our airspace by a Russian missile that today flew over the sovereign territory of Republic of Moldova,” the foreign ministry said in a press release.

11:40am: Putin to deliver state of the nation address on February 21

Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver his state of the nation address on February 21, the Kremlin said Friday, just days before Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine passes its first anniversary.

“On February 21, the President of the Russian Federation will address the Federal Assembly”, which includes lawmakers from both chambers of parliament, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

11:24am: Russian attacks hit Ukrainian power facilities in six regions

Russia hit power facilities in six Ukrainian regions during missile and drone strikes on Friday, forcing authorities to launch emergency electricity shutdowns across most of the country, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.

“Unfortunately, there are hits at thermal and hydro generation facilities and also at high-voltage infrastructure in six regions,” Galushchenko said. “The most difficult situation is in Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and Khmelnytskiy regions.

11:20am: Ten Russian missiles shot down over Kyiv, mayor says

Ukraine shot down 10 Russian missiles over the capital Kyiv on Friday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

“There is damage to power grids. There are no casualties. Energy workers are working to restore the network,” Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app, quoting the Ukrainian military.

11:18am: Russia likely lost dozens of tanks in failed attack on Vuhledar, UK says

Russian forces likely lost dozens of armoured vehicles during a failed attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Vuhledar, British intelligence said on Friday.

Vuhledar, a Ukrainian-held bastion at the strategic intersection between the eastern and southern front lines, has seen some of the bloodiest fighting of the war as Russia continues a relentless assault on the eastern front.

“Russian troops likely fled and abandoned at least 30 mostly intact armoured vehicles in a single incident after a failed assault,” Britain’s defence ministry said in a daily briefing.

11:09: Russia says it will cut oil production over Western caps

Russia will cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day next month in response to the West capping the price of its crude over the war in Ukraine, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Friday, according to multiple Russian news media reports.

“As of today, we fully sell all our crude output, but as we stated before, we will not sell oil to those who directly or indirectly adhere to the ‘price ceiling,’” Novak said, in remarks carried on the Russian TASS news agency.

“In connection with that, Russia will voluntarily cut production by 500,000 barrels a day. It will help restore market-style relations,” he said.

10:42am: Ukraine says two Russian missiles crossed into Romania, Moldova airspace

Two Russian missiles crossed into Romanian and Moldovan airspace before entering Ukraine on Friday, the top Ukrainian general said.

Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said two Kaliber missiles launched from the Black Sea had entered Moldovan airspace, then flew into Romanian airspace, before entering Ukraine. FRANCE 24 could not immediately verify the statement. Russia did not immediately comment on it.

The Ukrainska Pravda media outlet quoted the air force spokesperson as saying separately that Ukraine had the ability to shoot down the missiles but did not do so because it did not want to endanger civilians in foreign countries.

10:35am: Kyiv renews calls for fighter jets as Russian strikes pummel Ukraine

A close aide to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed calls for Western allies to provide Kyiv with long-range missiles and fighter jets after the latest wave of Russian missile and drone attacks.

“Russia has been striking at Ukrainian cities all night & morning,” presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter. “Enough talk & political hesitation. Only fast key decisions: long-range missiles, fighter jets, operational supplies logistics for Ukraine.”

Earlier in the day, French President Emmanuel Macron said he did not rule out sending fighter jets to Ukraine at some point, but that Kyiv was in need of more immediate military firepower.


9:32am: Russia complains it can’t export grain through Black Sea deal

Russia‘s ambassador to the UN said on Friday that Moscow has not been able to export any grain as part of the Black Sea grain deal struck between Russia and Ukraine last year due to Western obstacles, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The deal, struck last summer, facilitates the export of Ukrainian agricultural products through its southern Black Sea ports with the supervision of Turkey and the United Nations. It was not intended to facilitate Russian grain exports and Russia continues to export large volumes of grain and other agricultural products outside of the deal.

8:15am: Ukrainian air defence ‘sometimes has 100 percent success rate’

The mobile air defence teams intercepting Russian missiles have become crucial to Ukraine’s war efforts as it defends its people and infrastructure from attacks.

“It’s become almost part of daily life for inhabitants of Kyiv and its region; once every 10 days or so, sirens will go off and explosions will be heard just afterwards, and people turn to the media to find out what percentage of the rockets or drones were shot down by air defence systems, FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg reported, on the ground with one such team in area around the Ukrainian capital. “It’s almost always the majority; sometimes it’s even 100 percent success rate.

 

A rescuer stands ouside a residential building partially destroyed after a missile strike in Kharkiv on January 30, 2023.
A rescuer stands ouside a residential building partially destroyed after a missile strike in Kharkiv on January 30, 2023. © Sergey Bobok, AFP

 

7:32am: Air raid alert declared across Ukraine

An air raid alert was declared in all of Ukraine on Friday as officials warned of potential Russian missile strikes, urging residents to take shelter.

“There is a big threat of the missile attack. I want to stress again – do not ignore the air alert sirens,” said Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv city military administration.

5:44am: Russia escalates attacks in Ukraine, striking Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv

Russian forces struck critical infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and launched multiple strikes on energy infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia early Friday as Moscow stepped up its attacks in Ukraine’s south and east and air raid sirens went off across much of the country.

Zaporizhzhia City Council Secretary Anatolii Kurtiev said the city had been hit 17 times in one hour, which he said made it the most intense period of attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In Kharkiv, authorities were still trying to establish information on victims and scale of the destruction, with Mayor Ihor Terekhov saying there may be disruptions to heating and the electricity and water supply.

Military analysts say Russian President Vladimir Putin is hoping that Europe’s support for Ukraine will wane, as Russia is believed to be preparing a new offensive.

5:35am: France says Ukraine needs firepower now, doesn’t exclude planes later

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday he did not rule out sending fighter jets to Ukraine at some point, but that Kyiv was in need of more immediate military firepower, as Ukrainian officials said a fresh Russian offensive was underway.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has long urged Ukraine’s allies to send jet fighters and on Thursday said that several European leaders were ready to supply aircraft.

“I exclude absolutely nothing,” Macron said when asked about the possibility of sending jets at the end of a summit of EU leaders, attended by Zelensky.

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, February 8, 2023.
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, February 8, 2023. © Sarah Meyssonnier, AP

 

5:30am: Macron weighs kicking Putin out of French Legion of Honour

French President Emmanuel Macron pinned the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour medal on Volodymyr Zelensky’s chest after the two met in the French presidential palace Thursday, a move Macron said was meant to show France’s “immense” recognition for Ukraine’s valour since Russia invaded it a year ago.

Some French legislators and activists have called on Macron to rescind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s award because of the war.

Macron didn’t rule out stripping Putin of the honour bestowed by then-President Jacques Chirac in 2006.

Macron told reporters Friday that such a decision “has serious meaning, and it should be taken at the right moment.’’ He noted that he has rescinded the honor in the past.

9.20pm: War crimes seen everywhere Russian forces have deployed, US ambassador tells FRANCE 24

The US ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, Beth Van Schaack, told FRANCE 24 in an interview Thursday that war crimes and other atrocities have been seen everywhere Russia’s forces have been deployed. There is no question that this exercise has been a strategic failure for Putin and for the Kremlin, she said, and they are responding to that with increasingly desperate measures targeting civilians directly.

Van Schaack said the international community’s response to the Ukraine crisis has thus far focused on three main pillars: strengthening Ukraine’s capabilities on the battlefield, mitigating the humanitarian crisis, and ensuring justice and accountability for any crimes committed.

As the one-year mark for the war approaches, there will be a lot of activity at the United Nations focused on trying to implement a just and durable peace, she said.

© France Médias Monde graphic studio

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)



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Live: Ukraine is fighting ‘the most anti-European force’ in the world, Zelensky tells EU lawmakers

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President Volodymyr Zelensky told the European Parliament on Thursday that Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russian troops are battling “the most anti-European force” in the world as he reiterated requests for more EU military support. Follow our liveblog for all the latest developments in the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+1). 

4:58pm: Tourism collapses in Russia following Western sanctions

The number of foreign tourists visiting Russia collapsed last year due to the impact of Western sanctions and strict Covid restrictions in China, industry professionals said Thursday.

Only 200,100 foreigners visited Russia in 2022, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) said, citing figures from border services, a drop of 96.1 percent from pre-pandemic years. 

“The reasons are clear: the closed skies between Russia and the vast majority of European countries, as well as the impossibility to use foreign-issued Visa and Mastercard cards in Russia,” ATOR said.

Most of Europe closed its airspace to Russian planes a few days after the Kremlin launched the Ukraine offensive in February 2022. 

Beginning in March 2022, Russian national carrier Aeroflot suspended its international flights, though it gradually resumed travel to “friendly countries”.

But draconian Covid-related restrictions in China that Beijing only recently abandoned kept Chinese tourists from taking advantage of the situation. Before the pandemic Chinese tourists were the top visitors to Russia.

4:43pm: One in four Ukrainians at risk of severe mental health conditions, says WHO

A quarter of Ukraine’s population is at risk of developing a severe mental health condition as the country grapples with the year-long Russian invasion, according to a special advisor to the World Health Organisation.

Michel Kazatchkine, special advisor to the WHO Regional Office for Europe, said the conflict in Ukraine had not only resulted in a shortage of medical supplies and personnel but had also caused a major threat to mental health.

“WHO estimates that at this time, one out of four people in Ukraine is at risk of severe mental health conditions,” Kazatchkine told reporters.

Describing a recent visit to the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, Kazatchkine said he had seen dozens of military personnel hospitalised with “acute and tragic anxiety, depression and psychiatric conditions.”

“Mental health is becoming a predominant public health issue in Ukraine,” he said. “The war and its consequences have led to an increased use of licit and illicit psychoactive substances.”

4:40pm: Slovakia to get German air defence systems to cover Ukraine border

Germany will donate two close-range MANTIS air defence systems to Slovakia to protect its eastern border with Ukraine, the Slovak defence ministry has announced.

NATO member Slovakia has boosted its air defences with the help of several Patriot systems operated by NATO allies after donating its ageing S-300 system to Ukraine last year, and has sought to get additional equipment.

The automated, stationary MANTIS systems made for the German army serve to protect limited areas such as bases. “(MANTIS) will strengthen protection of the eastern border with Ukraine, secured by forces and means of the Slovak armed forces,” the ministry said in a statement.

Each has up to eight turrets, two sensor units and a control centre. It can protect from incoming rockets, drones, artillery and mortar shells.

4:34pm: Ukraine’s armoured vehicles to be repaired in Czech Republic

The Ukrainian army’s armoured vehicles will be repaired in the Czech Republic as part of Prague’s military help against Russia’s aggression, the Czech Defence Ministry said.

State-owned company VOP CZ signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine’s government arms manufacturer Ukroboronprom on the repairs this week, the ministry said, without giving further details.

“The memorandum …contains a specific plan and timetable for the repairs or securing of spare parts,” said Ales Vytecka, director of Czech government’s AMOS agency for military cooperation, who co-signed the memorandum.

The Czech Republic has been one of the top weapons providers to Kyiv among NATO alliance allies since Russia invaded Ukraine last February, supplying Ukraine with armoured personnel carriers, tanks or howitzers.

4:10pm: ‘Symbolism, but few deliverables’ from Zelensky’s meeting with European Council

Reporting from Brussels, FRANCE 24’s Dave Keating said Ukrainian President Zelensky was “hitting the same themes” on European unity and values during the press conference following his European Council meeting.

But the Ukrainian president did get some tough questions from journalists at the end, when he was asked if there were any specific deliverables promised during his meetings in Brussels and in Paris last night, noted Keating.

“President Zelensky didn’t want to sound overly negative,” said Keating. “We always knew there wasn’t going to be a big deliverable. This was very much about symbolism.”


European Council President Charles Michel (R), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (C) and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (L) at a press conference in Brussels on February 9, 2023. © Ludovic Marin, AFP

 

3:07pm: ‘Certain agreements’ with Macron, Scholz cannot be made public: Zelensky

The Ukrainian president and top EU leaders faced tough questions from reporters, who asked if there were any concrete deliverables from Zelensky’s meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris on Wednesday night or his meetings in Brussels on Thursday.

Zelensky replied that he had discussed enhancing Ukraine’s military capabilities during his meeting with Macron and Scholz, adding that he could not make all elements of the talks public.

“There are certain agreements which are not public, but which are positive. I don’t want to prepare the Russian Federation, which is constantly threatening us with new aggressions,” Zelensky said during a joint press conference with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday.

2:38pm: New EU sanctions will target ‘Putin’s propagandists’: von der Leyen

Speaking after Zelensky, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announced new European sanctions against Russia that will include new export bans worth more than €10 billion ($10.7 billion) and will take on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s propagandists.

“We will target Putin’s propagandists because their lies are poisoning the public space in Russia and abroad,” von der Leyen said during the joint press conference with Ukrainian President Zelensky and European Council President Charles Michel.

The new sanctions “will further starve Russia’s military machine and shake the foundations of its economy”, she added.

2:25pm: ‘Europe will be with us until our victory’: Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked EU leaders for their support in countering Russia’s invasion following his participation in a European Council meeting – for the first time ever – in Brussels.

At a joint press conference with European Council chief Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Zelensky said it is “only fair” that Ukraine “takes part in meetings of European leaders and that Ukrainian language is part of the European Parliament”.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with EU leaders, Zelensky said the EU was ready to provide Kyiv with aircraft to help it fight for Ukraine’s “independence” and “freedom”.

“Europe will be with us until our victory. I’ve heard it from a number of European leaders … about the readiness to give us the necessary weapons and support, including the aircraft,” he said.

“I have a number of bilaterals now, we are going to raise the issue of the fighter jets and other aircraft,” he added.

2:15pm: EU’s Michel: We need to provide maximum support for Ukraine

The EU must continue to provide maximum support to Ukraine, said European Council President Charles Michel at a press conference in Brussels.

“We understand that the coming weeks and months will be of decisive importance. We must remain open-eyed, we must continue to provide maximum level support,” Michel said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen.

“Artillery, munitions, defence systems (…) you have told us exactly what you need and what you need now”, Michel added, looking at the Ukrainian president standing next to him on the podium.

1:36pm: Ukraine intercepted Russian plans for ‘destruction’ of Moldova, Zelensky says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that his country has intercepted plans by Russian secret services to destroy Moldova.

Speaking to European Union leaders in Brussels, Zelensky said he recently told Moldovan President Maia Sandu about the alleged scheme. “I have informed her that we have intercepted the plan of the destruction of Moldova by the Russian intelligence,” Zelensky said through a translator.

The Ukrainian president said the documents showed “who, when and how” the plan would “break the democracy of Moldova and establish control over Moldova”. Zelensky said the plan was very similar to the one devised by Russia to take over Ukraine.

1:28pm: Zelensky shows ‘dynamism’ while Putin is ‘distant and stiff’

Zelensky’s speech to the EU Parliament in Brussels on Thursday morning was “very much about mood and thanks and appealing to people”, noted FRANCE 24 international affairs editor Angela Diffley. “Who would have thought a year ago that this guy […] who had previously been a comic actor, that he would be such an inspirational leader, that people would be flocking into this auditorium, keen to be seen shaking his hand?”

“I remember a year ago newsrooms around the world thinking ‘within four or five days Kyiv will have fallen, let’s prepare for that in terms of our news coverage’. It is extraordinary just to note that.”

Zelensky’s speech to the EU Parliament also demonstrated once more that his style shows such a “contrast –  even the Russians must be aware – with Vladimir Putin”, Diffley continued. “Zelensky knows how to connect; he projects a kind of dynamism; Putin [is] distant and stiff.”


 

1:09pm: Zelensky urges EU leaders to speed up weapons deliveries

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday called on EU leaders at a summit in Brussels to supply Ukraine weapons quicker, before Russia can gather its forces for fresh assaults.

“We have to enhance the dynamics of our cooperation, we have to do it faster than the aggressor,” Zelensky told his European counterparts.

12:51pm: No free Europe without free Ukraine, Zelensky says 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told European Union leaders in Brussels there was no free Europe without free Ukraine as he tours Europe to ask allies for more arms to fight Russia and push Kyiv’s bid to join the Western bloc. 

“Europe should not have gray zones, our whole continent should be open to European destiny,” Zelensky told the 27 national EU leaders gathered for a summit in Brussels ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion against Ukraine.  

“Free Europe cannot be imagined without free Ukraine,” he said. “Europe is free, Europe will be free, and Europe is united.” 

A Ukraine that is winning its war with Russia should be a member of the European Union, Zelensky said, arguing the bloc wouldn’t be complete without it.

“A Ukraine that is winning is going to be member of the European Union,” he said.

“Europe will always be – and remain – Europe as long as we … take care of the European way of life,” he said.

Zelensky also reiterated his request that membership talks should start later this year.    

12:49pm: Zelensky thanks EU leaders for ‘unwavering support’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked EU leaders at a summit in Brussels for their backing for Kyiv in its nearly year-long fight against Russia’s invasion.

“I have to thank you personally for your unwavering support of our country and our aspirations, our aspirations to live in a united, free Europe,” he told the 27 leaders.

12:42pm: Zelensky ‘hitting theme of European unity very hard’

In his address to the EU Parliament on Thursday, Volodymyr Zelensky was “really hitting the theme of European unity very hard”, FRANCE 24’s Dave Keating reported from Brussels. “He said maybe some of you in the room didn’t feel this power of the European way of life before the invasion, implying that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has rekindled passion in all of Europe. He said the EU is winning, Ukraine is winning, Ukraine will be in the EU.”

“So he was very much hitting this plea for EU membership,” Keating continued. “He was less hitting the note of asking for more military assistance than I was expecting. He certainly devoted less attention to that in this speech than he did in his speech to the British Parliament [on Wednesday].”

It was notable that Zelensky spoke in Ukrainian after addressing the US Congress and the British Parliament in English, Keating went on: “English is the main working language of the EU; he could have spoken English here but he chose to speak Ukrainian. I think that’s important because if Ukraine were to join the EU, Ukrainian would become an official language, and the MEPs from Ukraine sitting in that chamber would be speaking Ukrainian and having that interpreted. So he was very much normalising this idea that Ukraine is part of the EU and Ukrainian is a language you will be your language in your interpretation.”

European Council President Charles Michel (R), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (C) and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (L) at a press conference in Brussels on February 9, 2023.
European Council President Charles Michel (R), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (C) and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen (L) at a press conference in Brussels on February 9, 2023. © Ludovic Marin, AFP

 

12:35pm: Moscow says Russia destroyed four artillery depots in Donetsk region

Russia‘s Defence Ministry said on Thursday that its forces were continuing offensive operations in Ukraine‘s Donetsk region and had destroyed four artillery depots.

In its daily briefing, the ministry said it had also destroyed a US-made radiolocation system and an M109 Paladin artillery system.

12:08pm: German arms company Rheinmetall in talks with Ukraine about Panther battle tanks

German arms maker Rheinmetall wants to deliver its latest tank models to Ukraine, including Panther battle tanks, Chief Executive Armin Papperger told Handelsblatt business daily on Thursday.

“Ukraine is interested in the Lynx and the Panther – the most modern infantry fighting vehicles and battle tanks,” he was quoted as saying, adding there were already talks with Kyiv.

The German government would have to approve any export of Panther tanks, which were developed in Germany, Handelsblatt reported.

11:37am: Victorious Ukraine will join EU, Zelensky says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that he believed his country would join the European Union after emerging victorious from its war with Russia.

He made his remark during an address to the European Parliament in Brussels. Ukraine became a candidate to join the EU last June but the process of joining the 27-nation bloc takes several years.

11:34am: Ukrainian troops are fighting ‘the most anti-European force’ in the world, Zelensky tells EU

Addressing the European Parliament on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that in fighting against Russian forces, Ukrainian troops are fighting “the most anti-European force” in the world as he urged more EU military support.

“We are defending against the most anti-European force of the modern world. We are defending ourselves – we Ukrainians on the battlefield – along with you,” Zelensky told MEPs.


 

11:33am: Zelensky, Macron meeting important for ‘optics’ for both sides

The meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace on Wednesday evening was valuable for both leaders because they “needed it for the optics”, said FRANCE 24 International Affairs Editor Angela Diffley. “It was important to make clear that Zelensky fully agrees, accepts that France fully supports Ukraine in this war – and that’s because of this confusion […] where Macron was, right in the early stages, keen to keep a channel open to Putin […]. Earlier on Macron also said let’s be careful not to see Russia ‘humiliated’. And some of that contributed to an idea that France wasn’t fully on board.”

“Macron, according to Zelensky, has changed since then, and wants to be clearly seen to be on the side of Ukraine,” Diffley continued. “France has always been on Ukraine’s side in that it has sent weapons – but it has been a little less vocal about cobdemning Putin, certainly earlier on.”

Zelensky needed to “make it clear that he understands Macron is fully on board” while Macron needed to “make it clear to everybody that France is fully behind Ukraine”, she summarised it.

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, February 8, 2023.
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, shakes hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, February 8, 2023. © Sarah Meyssonnier, AP

 

11:22am: UN nuclear chief due in Russia for Ukraine talks

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi is due to arrive in Moscow on Thursday for talks on nuclear safety in Ukraine amid ongoing fighting, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said.

Atomic sites have been a key concern throughout the nearly one year-long conflict, with attacks around several facilities raising fears of a nuclear incident.

Grossi visited Ukraine last month to dispatch International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) teams at several nuclear facilities, building on its mission at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia plant near the frontline.

11:19am: Ukraine fighting ‘biggest anti-European force of the modern world’, Zelensky says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told MEPs at the EU Parliament in Brussels that his country together with Europe was “defending ourselves against (the) biggest anti-European force of the modern world.”

11:14am: EU must quickly consider giving Ukraine jets, EU parliament chief says

European Union countries must quickly consider providing fighter jets to Ukraine, the head of the bloc’s parliament said on Thursday as she hosted President Volodymyr Zelensky, touring Europe to win more arms to fight against the Russian invasion.

Referencing the biblical fight between David and Goliath, European Parliament head, Roberta Metsola said in addressing Zelensky in the chamber:

“You need to win and now (EU) member states must consider quickly as the next step providing long-range systems and the jets that you need to protect your liberty.”

11:11am: EU Parliament greets Zelensky with cheers, standing ovation

The European Parliament on Thursday greeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a standing ovation as he arrived to address MEPs on his first visit to Brussels since Russia‘s invasion.

“Ukraine is Europe and your nation’s future is in the European Union,” parliament president Roberta Metsola said in a speech. “States must consider, quickly, as a next step, providing long-range systems and the jets you need to protect the liberty too many have taken for granted.”

10:35am: Italy’s Meloni calls Zelensky’s Paris invitation ‘inappropriate’

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday said the invitation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, was “inappropriate”.

“I believe our strength is community and unity […] but there are times when favouring internal public opinion risks being to the detriment of the cause, and this seems to me to be one of those cases,” she said in Brussels.

Meloni will meet Zelensky in Brussels on the sidelines of the European Union leaders meeting, Italy’s Foreign Minister said late on Wednesday.

10:28am: ‘Welcome home, welcome to the EU’: EU Council chief tells Zelensky

EU leaders on Thursday hailed Volodymyr Zelensky‘s arrival in Brussels for his first visit to the heart of the union since Russia‘s invasion.

“Welcome home, welcome to the EU,” European Council chief Charles Michel tweeted above a picture of him shaking Zelensky’s hand, alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

10:25am: Kremlin calls for international inquiry into Nord Stream blasts

The world “must know the truth” about who was behind explosions affecting Nord Stream gas pipelines, the Kremlin spokesman said on Thursday, after a US investigative journalist alleged US involvement in last September’s blasts.

Speaking to reporters, Dmitry Peskov also said the blog post by journalist Seymour Hersh should prompt an international investigation into the incidents.

The White House on Wednesday dismissed the Hersh report, which said an attack on the pipelines was carried out last September at the direction of US President Joe Biden.

9:40am: Russia steps up eastern Ukraine attacks, local governor says

Russian forces have significantly stepped up attacks in eastern Ukraine and are trying to break through Ukrainian defences near the town of Kreminna, a regional governor said on Thursday.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said Ukraine’s military were holding their ground near Kreminna,

which Russian forces have held for months, but said they needed more weapons and ammunition to hold out.

“I can confirm that there has been a significant increase in attacks and shelling. And it is in the direction of Kreminna that they are trying to build on their success by pushing through out defenders’ defences,” he told Ukrainian television. “So far they have had no significant success, our defence forces are holding firmly there.”

9:17am: Estonia says EU countries should jointly buy arms and ammunition for Ukraine

EU member states should jointly buy arms and ammunition for Ukraine, Estonia‘s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told reporters on Thursday ahead of an EU summit in Brussels.

“It is very important that we speed up the military aid to Ukraine,” she also said.

7:20am: Russia’s Wagner halts prisoner recruitment campaign, founder says

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Thursday.

“The recruitment of prisoners by the Wagner private military company has completely stopped,” Prigozhin said in a response to a request for comment from a Russian media outlet published on social media. “We are fulfilling all our obligations to those who work for us now,” he said.

Wagner began recruiting prisoners in Russia’s sprawling penal system in summer 2022, with Prigozhin, a catering entrepreneur who served nine years in prison during the Soviet Union, offering convicts a pardon if they survived six months in Ukraine.

6:58am: Russian rouble slumps to weakest vs dollar since late April

The Russian rouble slid to its weakest level against the dollar since late April on Thursday, driven down by market demand for foreign currency and Russia’s lower export earnings.

At 05:50 GMT, the rouble was 1.1% weaker against the dollar at 73.10, after hitting its lowest point since April 27, 2022 at 73.3850 earlier in the session. It had lost 1.2% to trade at 78.35 versus the euro and shed 0.9% against the yuan to 10.77.

Russia is now selling 8.9 billion roubles ($121.83 million) worth of foreign currency per day, compensating for lower oil and gas revenues, down 46.4% year-on-year in January. Slumping energy revenues and soaring expenditure pushed Russia’s federal budget to a deficit of about $25 billion in January, as sanctions and the cost of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine weigh on the economy.

6:41am: Zelensky, Macron to travel together to EU summit in Brussels

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron will fly together on Thursday morning from Paris to a summit of EU heads of state and government in Brussels, the Élysée Palace announced.

The two leaders will leave Villacoublay, near Paris, at around 08:30am (07:30 GMT). They are expected to arrive in Brussels at 10:00am (09:00).

The Ukrainian president, who is on a surprise tour of Europe, is leaving his country for the second time since the beginning of the Russian offensive on February 24, 2022. He travelled to Washington in December.

On Wednesday, he went to London, his closest ally after the United States in terms of military aid, and then to Paris, where he dined at the Élysée Palace with Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz before spending the night.

4pm: SpaceX curbs Ukraine’s use of Starlink internet for drones

SpaceX has taken steps to prevent Ukraine’s military from using the company’s Starlink satellite internet service for controlling drones in the region during the country’s war with Russia, SpaceX’s president said Wednesday.

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, which has provided Ukraine’s military with broadband communications in its defence against Russia’s military, was “never never meant to be weaponised”, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, said during a conference in Washington, DC

“However, Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement,” she said.

Russia has attempted to jam Starlink signals in the region, though SpaceX countered by hardening the service’s software, Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive, has said.

3am: Australia vows to hold Russia accountable for MH17 disaster

Australia on Thursday pledged to hold Russia accountable for shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, after a team of international investigators halted its probe into the disaster.

The team said there were “strong indications” Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved supplying the missile system that eventually downed the flight – but halted the investigation because there was no “conclusive evidence”.

The Boeing 777 was shot down over Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 passengers on board, including 196 Dutch, 43 Malaysians and 38 Australian residents.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus on Thursday said Russia had repeatedly tried to thwart the investigation, making it “impossible” to collect proof.

They added that Australia would “hold Russia to account for its role in the downing of the civilian aircraft”.

 

© France Médias Monde graphic studio

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

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‘Live to work or work to live?’: Why France’s youth are fighting Macron’s pension reform

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France’s youth have featured prominently in mass protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s planned pension overhaul, rallying against a reform they consider to be unfair and symptomatic of a broader rollback of social rights. FRANCE 24 spoke to young demonstrators who took part in the latest protest in Paris.

Hundreds of thousands of French people marched in a third day of nationwide protests on Tuesday against the government’s plan to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 while strikes and walkouts disrupted public transport and schools. Though turnout was lower than on previous occasions, young people – including many teenagers – continued to feature prominently in the rallies in towns and cities across France. 


© france 24

 

While retirement is a distant prospect for students and young workers mobilised against Macron’s planned pension overhaul, their opposition to the reform ties in with generational concerns about climate change, youth unemployment, societal reform and the widespread perception that governments are steadily chipping away at France’s cherished welfare model. 

FRANCE 24 spoke to young protesters who took part in Tuesday’s rally in the French capital. 

‘We live in a productivist society that is destroying our planet’

  • Rose, 16, high-school student

It’s important to go out and protest because this reform takes us a huge step back. It will mean rolling back the social progress and rights won in the past. 

We live in a productivity-obsessed society that is preoccupied with economic growth and which has been destroying our planet for decades. Now we’re being asked to work for two more years so we can produce even more. This system is wrecking our planet – it’s normal to rebel against it. Among my generation, we’re overwhelmingly concerned about the environment; we have no choice. But we know that small steps alone won’t change things. I’m vegetarian, I recycle as much as I can … but if we don’t resist more, it won’t be enough.  

I’m not very optimistic for the future, unless we profoundly change the way our society functions. That’s why I protest – and why I’ll still be out protesting in 20 years’ time. It’s not about young people wanting to skip class. It’s about our political commitment on issues that are fundamental for us. 

‘We should be able to live longer and in better health, without working ourselves to death’

Yannaël, 24, says the reform is unfair to people who perform physically demanding jobs.
Yannaël, 24, says the reform is unfair to people who perform physically demanding jobs. © Lou Roméo, FRANCE 24

  • Yannaël, 24, studies medieval history at the Sorbonne University in Paris 

This reform is unfair because it categorises physically arduous jobs the same as any other. I can understand the need to balance budgets when the population is getting older. But any reform must take into account the fact that some jobs are physically more demanding than others. 

>> ‘I can’t take any more’: Working-class French lament Macron’s push to raise retirement age

We should be able to live longer and in better health without working ourselves to death. Besides, if they’re talking about retiring at 64 now, what will it be when I’m 60? Will I have to work until I’m 70 or 75? 

This is the first time I am protesting, because the government is pushing us too far. They refuse to listen to the people. (…) My aim is to become a teacher, but I’m worried I’ll be paid a pittance to do a difficult job with classes that are becoming ever-larger. That’s what I’m scared of and that’s why I’m out here protesting: to better our society and our future. 

‘Will we work all our lives instead of working for a living?’ 

  • Shaïma, 17, high-school student in Vitry-sur-Seine, southeast of Paris 

I’m anxious for my parents and grandparents, but also for my generation. Will we even get a pension when our time comes? Or will we just work all our lives instead of working for a living? 

I worry for my parents, who are both 55 and have work-related illnesses. They wonder whether they’ll live long enough to retire. My mother is a care worker and my dad works at the post office, sorting mail all day long. They both need surgery. If the retirement age is pushed back, will they ever get a chance to rest and enjoy life? 

I worry for my own future too. I’m scared that I won’t find work after my studies because more jobs will be taken by older workers whose retirement has been pushed back. I see people all around me who can’t find work despite their degrees. Young people are also affected by this. 

‘Older people should be able to participate in society without having to make money’

The reform is
The reform is “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, says 23-year-old neuropsychologist Bertille. © Lou Roméo, FRANCE 24

  • Bertille, 23, neuropsychologist at a Paris hospital 

This reform is the straw that broke the camel’s back. There comes a point when you start thinking, ‘are there any social benefits they haven’t rolled back?’ And when will we finally say enough is enough? Our hospitals are at breaking point, inflation is sky-high… and yet nothing changes. Now is our chance to force the government to back down, because this issue affects everyone.  

Of course, we’re still young and retirement is a distant prospect for us. But the more we let them eat away at our rights, the less we will have when it’s our turn to retire. It’s everyone’s duty to protect our rights, to protect society’s most vulnerable, and to make sure we continue progressing.  

>> ‘Not just about pensions’: French protesters see threat to social justice in Macron’s reform

We should also remember that most people’s health begins to decline around the age of 64. After a lifetime of work, it is only fair that people should enjoy some time for themselves while they are still healthy and able to participate in society without having to make money. It’s what many elderly people already do: looking after others and playing active roles in charities. It might not be lucrative, but it’s beneficial. 

‘There are other ways to finance pensions, like taxing the ultra-rich’

Amélie, 21, says there are other ways to finance France's pension system, such as reintroducing a wealth tax scrapped by Macron.
Amélie, 21, says there are other ways to finance France’s pension system, such as reintroducing a wealth tax scrapped by Macron. © Lou Roméo, FRANCE 24

  • Amélie, 21, studies sociology at the university of Paris Cité 

People say the young are lazy and don’t want to work – but it’s not true. My generation has been hit hard by Covid and the situation hasn’t improved. Most of my fellow students have to work to pay for their studies. And we have no guarantee we’ll find jobs with decent salaries after we graduate. 

I think the government’s reform presents us with a false dilemma. There are other ways of financing our pension system, like taxing the ultra-rich, restoring the wealth tax that Macron’s government scrapped, and giving proper contracts to delivery workers who currently have no job protection and do not pay into the system. We could also hike wages and thereby increase pension contributions.  

The vast majority of the French are opposed to this reform. It should be cancelled, full stop. 

This article was translated from the original in French.

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