Tucker Carlson interviews Vladimir Putinby T.P. Wilkinson / February 17th, 2024This week former Fox News commentator, now self-employed audio-visual journalist, Tucker Carlson interviewed the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. According to his own account, it was a mission opposed—secretly by the agencies of the “Vatican on the Potomac” and with it the hierarchy of the American Church. A summary of the sermons and homilies published by its national and international propaganda organs indicates concerted efforts to spin this encounter in ways that profess the faith and confirm the purported apostasy of the successor to that patriarch of the beloved if short-lived Russian-American Church, Boris Yeltsin.Carlson has acquired a wide and varied following not only because of the topics he began to cover but by some things conspicuously absent from the broadcasting and cable genre in which he made his career—a robust sense of humor and allowing the people to whom he talks to speak without rude interruptions. Throughout the illegal and unconstitutional mass incarcerations starting in 2020 he insisted without reservation that Americans have rights that are being violated. George Carlin would have said their temporary privileges had been suspended or revoked. As a personally wealthy individual from an establishment background, Carlson is essentially a believer in the status quo or at least the status quo of the era in which he grew up. As a media professional he is sensitive to the way the business works and the role people like him play in it. He does not pretend to identify with everyone he meets. Despite his clearly conservative position he has acquired a reputation for sincerity throughout what is called “alternative journalism”. There was an age, long forgotten by many, when a journalist of reputation or representing a major media outlet did not have to explain publicly why he chose to report on something or talk to somebody. The fact that Tucker Carlson felt compelled to give several introductory explanations for speaking to the elected leader of a major nation with whom his country has been at war (unofficially since 1917) reflects the dismal state of affairs even in a profession subject to corruption since its institutionalization by magnates like Pulitzer, Hearst, Rothermere and Beaverbrook.By his own admission, Carlson was surprised at among other things the history lesson he was given in the first third of the interview. One might ask if in the course of his preparation he had viewed Oliver Stone’s extensive interviews with the Russian president in 2017? Anyone who watched them would not have been surprised by Vladimir Putin’s style or substance. Stone, who had much more time, asked many of the same questions Carlson asked. In those interviews President Putin was very detailed in his answers with frequent historical explanations given as context. Perhaps that is what most surprised Carlson since the absence of context is the primary characteristic of what passes for journalism in the West. However Tucker Carlson, began no later than the 22 February 2022 Russian intervention, to add context and history to his own reporting. What is more logic acquired a greater role than dogma. So what role was Tucker Carlson performing?Perhaps his questions were formulated to simulate the kind of bar, living room and dinner table discussions his viewers are likely to have when the subjects of Putin or Russia are raised. If one wants to inform a notoriously isolated and ignorant population one has to start with their knowledge base and the things they are likely to ask. President Putin asked Carlson after the first question, was this a talk show or a serious conversation? By surrendering to a serious conversation he was breaching the unstated barrier of all domestic political gossip and chatter. Yet it was too late to change either his style or his pattern of questions. Without diminishing the value of the interview as a whole, it is worth considering the role model upon which Carlson explicitly drew. He has mentioned Barbara Walters. Those who can still recall her career in American television will remember how she became the first woman to co-anchor that TV slot for the nightly news. She replaced Chet Huntley after he died to share the NBC show with David Brinkley. Then she went on to conduct “star” interviews with world leaders. Those performances raised the TV presenter to a certain mutual celebrity in the penumbra of the personality interviewed. It also created a new platform for selected leaders to be displayed to a mass television audience, not unlike the 1969 broadcast of the putative moon landings. Political leaders obtained a new kind of pulpit with this precursor to the ubiquitous talk show. Performers from the news theater genre were able to enhance their credibility as conduits for official views presented in living room conversation format. David Frost was the master of this format- although even his famous Nixon interviews were just a bit too English for an average US audience (unless sedated by Masterpiece Theater episodes). Barbara Walters in contrast was the Maria Callas of the grand interview. At least Maria Callas knew she was only a performer and used her own voice. Tucker Carlson can be forgiven for avoiding the David Frost style. However had he learned something from Oliver Stone he might have transcended the living room TV style and focussed on things Americans and Westerners really need to understand.Repeated questions to Vladimir Putin were couched in phrases like “why do you think America does something?” From the Stone interviews he would have learned that the Russian president does not try to guess why other people act as they do. He merely describes the actions as he sees them and what he thinks they mean for Russia. Carlson’s approach indirectly reflects the absence (or impossibility) of any serious questioning by Americans as to why their government acts as it does? Vladimir Putin pointed both Stone and Carlson toward home saying essentially- Ask the people who act for their reasons. I can only tell you why we act as we do. The critical viewer will immediately recognize that Western policy is never honestly explained. Hence while the whole world (except the citizens of NATO countries) can know why the Russian Federation acts, no one has an honest answer from those in the West who drive US actions.Another curious aspect of the interview is Carlson’s questions about diplomacy and the implied question about the “special services”. Tucker Carlson’s father was a journalist working with the American “special services” or other government agencies. The level of passive and active cooperation between the corporate media and the CIA (or FBI) is a matter of record. Originally discrete, they even operate overtly today. As a former intelligence officer (like George H W Bush), the Russian president respects the rules by which those services operate. In contrast to the legions of CIA assets in the US and the West as a whole, Vladimir Putin neither denies this stage in his career nor does he trivialize the functions these services perform. Yet he comes just short of suggesting that the lead Western services drive policy. In contrast one hears little to indicate that the Russian president is run by his country’s covert action branch. Does Carlson appreciate this difference? Vladimir Putin answers Carlson with the rhetorical question, who is Boris Johnson? To which Carlson seemed to have no answer. Again a critical viewer could understand the insinuation. Boris Johnson, who was no longer British prime minister was in Kiev on someone’s behalf. Johnson himself, unlike a member of the Biden family, had no obvious personal interest in Ukraine. Yet his words were apparently enough to destroy the Istanbul format where Russia and Ukraine had initialed accords that according to President Putin would have ended the war. So on whose behalf was the backbencher sent? What did he offer or threaten to persuade Kiev to renounce what they had already accepted? Even if Tucker Carlson did not know the answer the question was hard to overlook.Already before FOX sacked him Tucker Carlson had begun to question the appearances of government in the US. However little attention has been paid to the “secret team”, the term Prouty used to describe the permanent government, and how it rules and disseminates propaganda. So little critical attention is given to covert government because it also transcends the political and social categories in which the mass and sacraments of the American Church are celebrated. Carlson ended his interview with questions couched in the language of Christian catechism. He asked the Russian president, as a Christian, if he would not act in accordance with a platitude of that same Sunday school version of Christianity characteristic of the West: “why don’t you turn the other cheek?” Sensibly Vladimir Putin responded as a head of state and not a pupil summoned to the principal’s office for fighting on the playground. He said with calm neutrality that the West was more “pragmatic” than Russia. Without demeaning the West, Vladimir Putin answered in a way deeply consistent with the Orthodox Christianity overthrown by Rome in the Fourth Crusade. His conviction was that Russians had a life and soul that were indivisible. The implication was that the West in its pragmatism could dispense with one or the other.Certainly the enormous viewer numbers Tucker Carlson reaches will uniquely benefit if they really listen to the conversation. Nonetheless the legacy of Walters will be hard to transcend. Carlson as the celebrity interviewer risks not just being unheard. There is still the opportunity for a new news entertainment brand to emerge by which the medium remains the message. Tucker Carlson then would join the pantheon of celebrity with surprising but increasingly superficial product. The Church has always known how to absorb divergence into entertainment (if it could not be suppressed) and its grand corporate successors, who Putin correctly identified as directly or indirectly controlling almost all the world‘s mass media, have refined those methods using both natural and artificial intelligence.Dr T.P. Wilkinson writes, teaches History and English, directs theatre and coaches cricket between the cradles of Heine and Saramago. He is also the author of Church Clothes, Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa. Read other articles by T.P..

Journalism and Entertainment

Tucker Carlson interviews Vladimir Putin

by T.P. Wilkinson / February 17th, 2024

This week former Fox News commentator, now self-employed audio-visual journalist, Tucker Carlson interviewed the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. According to his own account, it was a mission opposed—secretly by the agencies of the “Vatican on the Potomac” and with it the hierarchy of the American Church. A summary of the sermons and homilies published by its national and international propaganda organs indicates concerted efforts to spin this encounter in ways that profess the faith and confirm the purported apostasy of the successor to that patriarch of the beloved if short-lived Russian-American Church, Boris Yeltsin.

Carlson has acquired a wide and varied following not only because of the topics he began to cover but by some things conspicuously absent from the broadcasting and cable genre in which he made his career—a robust sense of humor and allowing the people to whom he talks to speak without rude interruptions. Throughout the illegal and unconstitutional mass incarcerations starting in 2020 he insisted without reservation that Americans have rights that are being violated. George Carlin would have said their temporary privileges had been suspended or revoked. As a personally wealthy individual from an establishment background, Carlson is essentially a believer in the status quo or at least the status quo of the era in which he grew up. As a media professional he is sensitive to the way the business works and the role people like him play in it. He does not pretend to identify with everyone he meets. Despite his clearly conservative position he has acquired a reputation for sincerity throughout what is called “alternative journalism”. There was an age, long forgotten by many, when a journalist of reputation or representing a major media outlet did not have to explain publicly why he chose to report on something or talk to somebody. The fact that Tucker Carlson felt compelled to give several introductory explanations for speaking to the elected leader of a major nation with whom his country has been at war (unofficially since 1917) reflects the dismal state of affairs even in a profession subject to corruption since its institutionalization by magnates like Pulitzer, Hearst, Rothermere and Beaverbrook.

By his own admission, Carlson was surprised at among other things the history lesson he was given in the first third of the interview. One might ask if in the course of his preparation he had viewed Oliver Stone’s extensive interviews with the Russian president in 2017? Anyone who watched them would not have been surprised by Vladimir Putin’s style or substance. Stone, who had much more time, asked many of the same questions Carlson asked. In those interviews President Putin was very detailed in his answers with frequent historical explanations given as context. Perhaps that is what most surprised Carlson since the absence of context is the primary characteristic of what passes for journalism in the West. However Tucker Carlson, began no later than the 22 February 2022 Russian intervention, to add context and history to his own reporting. What is more logic acquired a greater role than dogma. So what role was Tucker Carlson performing?

Perhaps his questions were formulated to simulate the kind of bar, living room and dinner table discussions his viewers are likely to have when the subjects of Putin or Russia are raised. If one wants to inform a notoriously isolated and ignorant population one has to start with their knowledge base and the things they are likely to ask. President Putin asked Carlson after the first question, was this a talk show or a serious conversation? By surrendering to a serious conversation he was breaching the unstated barrier of all domestic political gossip and chatter. Yet it was too late to change either his style or his pattern of questions. Without diminishing the value of the interview as a whole, it is worth considering the role model upon which Carlson explicitly drew. He has mentioned Barbara Walters. Those who can still recall her career in American television will remember how she became the first woman to co-anchor that TV slot for the nightly news. She replaced Chet Huntley after he died to share the NBC show with David Brinkley. Then she went on to conduct “star” interviews with world leaders. Those performances raised the TV presenter to a certain mutual celebrity in the penumbra of the personality interviewed. It also created a new platform for selected leaders to be displayed to a mass television audience, not unlike the 1969 broadcast of the putative moon landings. Political leaders obtained a new kind of pulpit with this precursor to the ubiquitous talk show. Performers from the news theater genre were able to enhance their credibility as conduits for official views presented in living room conversation format. David Frost was the master of this format- although even his famous Nixon interviews were just a bit too English for an average US audience (unless sedated by Masterpiece Theater episodes). Barbara Walters in contrast was the Maria Callas of the grand interview. At least Maria Callas knew she was only a performer and used her own voice. Tucker Carlson can be forgiven for avoiding the David Frost style. However had he learned something from Oliver Stone he might have transcended the living room TV style and focussed on things Americans and Westerners really need to understand.

Repeated questions to Vladimir Putin were couched in phrases like “why do you think America does something?” From the Stone interviews he would have learned that the Russian president does not try to guess why other people act as they do. He merely describes the actions as he sees them and what he thinks they mean for Russia. Carlson’s approach indirectly reflects the absence (or impossibility) of any serious questioning by Americans as to why their government acts as it does? Vladimir Putin pointed both Stone and Carlson toward home saying essentially- Ask the people who act for their reasons. I can only tell you why we act as we do. The critical viewer will immediately recognize that Western policy is never honestly explained. Hence while the whole world (except the citizens of NATO countries) can know why the Russian Federation acts, no one has an honest answer from those in the West who drive US actions.

Another curious aspect of the interview is Carlson’s questions about diplomacy and the implied question about the “special services”. Tucker Carlson’s father was a journalist working with the American “special services” or other government agencies. The level of passive and active cooperation between the corporate media and the CIA (or FBI) is a matter of record. Originally discrete, they even operate overtly today. As a former intelligence officer (like George H W Bush), the Russian president respects the rules by which those services operate. In contrast to the legions of CIA assets in the US and the West as a whole, Vladimir Putin neither denies this stage in his career nor does he trivialize the functions these services perform. Yet he comes just short of suggesting that the lead Western services drive policy. In contrast one hears little to indicate that the Russian president is run by his country’s covert action branch. Does Carlson appreciate this difference? Vladimir Putin answers Carlson with the rhetorical question, who is Boris Johnson? To which Carlson seemed to have no answer. Again a critical viewer could understand the insinuation. Boris Johnson, who was no longer British prime minister was in Kiev on someone’s behalf. Johnson himself, unlike a member of the Biden family, had no obvious personal interest in Ukraine. Yet his words were apparently enough to destroy the Istanbul format where Russia and Ukraine had initialed accords that according to President Putin would have ended the war. So on whose behalf was the backbencher sent? What did he offer or threaten to persuade Kiev to renounce what they had already accepted? Even if Tucker Carlson did not know the answer the question was hard to overlook.

Already before FOX sacked him Tucker Carlson had begun to question the appearances of government in the US. However little attention has been paid to the “secret team”, the term Prouty used to describe the permanent government, and how it rules and disseminates propaganda. So little critical attention is given to covert government because it also transcends the political and social categories in which the mass and sacraments of the American Church are celebrated. Carlson ended his interview with questions couched in the language of Christian catechism. He asked the Russian president, as a Christian, if he would not act in accordance with a platitude of that same Sunday school version of Christianity characteristic of the West: “why don’t you turn the other cheek?” Sensibly Vladimir Putin responded as a head of state and not a pupil summoned to the principal’s office for fighting on the playground. He said with calm neutrality that the West was more “pragmatic” than Russia. Without demeaning the West, Vladimir Putin answered in a way deeply consistent with the Orthodox Christianity overthrown by Rome in the Fourth Crusade. His conviction was that Russians had a life and soul that were indivisible. The implication was that the West in its pragmatism could dispense with one or the other.

Certainly the enormous viewer numbers Tucker Carlson reaches will uniquely benefit if they really listen to the conversation. Nonetheless the legacy of Walters will be hard to transcend. Carlson as the celebrity interviewer risks not just being unheard. There is still the opportunity for a new news entertainment brand to emerge by which the medium remains the message. Tucker Carlson then would join the pantheon of celebrity with surprising but increasingly superficial product. The Church has always known how to absorb divergence into entertainment (if it could not be suppressed) and its grand corporate successors, who Putin correctly identified as directly or indirectly controlling almost all the world‘s mass media, have refined those methods using both natural and artificial intelligence.

Dr T.P. Wilkinson writes, teaches History and English, directs theatre and coaches cricket between the cradles of Heine and Saramago. He is also the author of Church Clothes, Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa. Read other articles by T.P..

Moscow Patriarchate Can’t Fill Places on Court to Try Anti-War Priests, Thus Opening the Door for Rise of Alternative Orthodox Church in Russia Itself

            Staunton, Feb. 12 – The last week brought two signs of the weakening of the influence and power of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church: The Lithuanian government registered as a legal person an exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, and the ROC MP found itself unable to try many anti-war priests inside Russia.

            By its actions, Lithuania becomes the final Baltic republic to break the Moscow church’s monopoly among the Orthodox on its territory and further reduces that church as an agent of Vladimir Putin’s Russian world (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/02/12/konstantinopolskii-shelter-dlia-ispovednikov-mira and jamestown.org/program/baltics-and-ukraine-move-to-reduce-russian-orthodoxy-to-smaller-national-church/).

            Vilnius’ move and even more the call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to ban the portion of the Orthodox in his country that in his view and that of many others still remains tied to Moscow have attracted both attention and especially in the latter case criticism by Orthodox and human rights activists.

            But an even more important sign of the ROC MP’s declining fortunes may be taking place inside the Russian Federation. There, the Patriarchate has brought charges against an increasing number of priests and even some hierarchs for refusing to support Putin’s war in Ukraine (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/01/20/skoro-stanet-neprilichnym-byt-ne-lishennym-sana and novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/01/20/skoro-stanet-neprilichnym-byt-ne-lishennym-sana).

            This effort is backfiring not only because each case highlights the fact that the ROC MP is far less monolithically behind the Kremlin than Kirill wants but also and potentially even more significantly it has highlighted a weakness that the Patriarchate won’t be able to rectify any time in the near future.

            And that is this: the church court which is supposed to review cases where priests have been stripped of their offices can’t act because it doesn’t have enough members and can’t replace those already serving beyond their terms because it can’t convene a church council to elect new ones (ng.ru/faith/2024-02-14/1_8948_rule.html).

            As a result, a new category of priests has emerged in the Russian Federation: those whom the Patriarch has acted against but who are awaiting trial. The Universal Patriarch in Constantinople has already come out in support of some of them as have activists among independent Orthodox in Western Europe (mir-vsem.info/about).

            It is entirely possible that priests in that gray area will become the basis for the emergence of an Orthodox church within Russia itself that chooses to subordinate itself to Constantinople rather than Moscow. That is what has just happened in Lithuania; and it is entirely possible that it will soon happen in Russia as well. 

Russia Now has More Churches than Schools, Sparking Worries about Country’s Future 

            Staunton, Feb. 13 – Since Putin became president, the number of schools in the Russian Federation has declined from 68,000 to 40,000, according to the latest data from Rosstat, while the number of churches has risen from 21,000 to 42,000, according to the Russian Orthodox Church.

            This decline in the number of schools is the product of the Kremlin leader’s drive to save money by consolidating smaller schools, a process he calls “optimization,” while the rise in the number of churches reflects the Russian government’s support for construction of churches (newizv.ru/news/2024-02-13/vpered-v-proshloe-shkol-v-rossii-vse-menshe-tserkvey-vse-bolshe-427182).

            Most of the schools which have been closed are in the villages, but their elimination has had serious consequences. When the schools are shuttered, villages tend to die because parents move to where the schools remain open; and that is leaving large swaths of the country without any residents.

            Many Russians are worried about this especially because the rate of closure of schools appears to have accelerated as Moscow scrambles to find money to finance its war in Ukraine. Concerned teachers and parents note that even during World War II, the Stalin regime did not close schools and ask why Putin can’t find money for them.

            And some see consolidation not as offering children more education opportunities but setting the stage of a return to the situation in rural areas of the Russian Empire at its end. One Nizhny Novgorod oblast teacher says that if current trends continue, what will re-emerge will be parish schools tied to churches, something that will destroy rural Russia’s educational prospects.

Ukraine troops withdraw from frontline city of Avdiivka in victory for Moscow

AN ADVANCE IS NOT A VICTORY

Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the frontline city of Avdiivka to avoid being encircled, new military chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Saturday, handing Russia its biggest symbolic victory following Kyiv's failed summer counter-offensive.

Issued on: 17/02/2024 -

File photo taken November 8, 2023, of a Ukrainian serviceman walking past a residential building damaged by Russian strikes in Avdiivka, in Ukraine's Donetsk region. 

© Serhii Nuzhnenko, Reuters

By:FRANCE 24|

Video by: Gulliver CRAGG


Russia has been trying to capture Avdiivka for months. It is the most significant territorial gain for Russian forces since they seized the eastern city of Bakhmut last May and comes ahead of the second anniversary of the start of the invasion.

"I decided to withdraw our units from the city and switch to defence on more favourable lines," Syrsky said on Facebook.

"Our soldiers performed their military duty with dignity, did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units and inflicted significant losses on the enemy."

It is Syrsky's first major decision since his appointment on February 8 and he said it was taken to preserve the lives of soldiers and prevent their encirclement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed his army's capture of Avdiivka as an "important victory" on Saturday, Russian state news agencies reported.

"The President congratulated our military and fighters on such an important victory, on such a success," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media.

Ukraine faces mounting pressure on the eastern front because of ammunition shortages, with a $60 billion US military aid package held up in Washington since last year by congressional wrangling.

General Oleksandr Tarnavsky, who commands the Avdiivka area, said of the withdrawal: "In a situation where the enemy is advancing over the corpses of their own soldiers with a ten-to-one shelling advantage, under constant bombardment, this is the only right decision."

"Encirclement was prevented, personnel were withdrawn, and our soldiers took up defence at the designated lines," he posted on Telegram.

Before issuing orders to pull out of Avdiivka, Tarnavsky on Friday said several Ukrainian soldiers had been captured by Russian forces.

The battle for the industrial hub, less than 10 kilometres (six miles) north of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk, has been one of the bloodiest of the two-year war.

Many compare it to the battle for Bakhmut, in which tens of thousands of soldiers were killed.
Security pacts

Avdiivka had around 34,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion. Most of the city has been since destroyed but around 1,000 residents remain, according to local authorities.

The city has important symbolic value, and Moscow hopes its capture will make Ukraine's bombing of Donetsk more difficult.

Avdiivka lies in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which the Kremlin has claimed to be part of Russia since a 2022 annexation that remains unrecognised by nearly all United Nations members.

It briefly fell in July 2014 into the hands of pro-Russian separatists led by Moscow, before returning to Ukrainian control and remaining so despite the invasion and its proximity to the separatist capital Donetsk.

After the failure of Kyiv's counter-offensive in the summer, Russian forces went on the attack, facing a Ukrainian army struggling to replenish its ranks and running low on ammunition.

Russian authorities said they had foiled several Ukrainian drone attacks overnight.

In Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that two drones had been shot down while in Kaluga oblast southwest of Moscow governor Vladislav Shapsha said four drones were downed. According to preliminary assessments, they said there were no casualties or damage.

The fall of Avdiivka comes as President Volodymyr Zelensky is on a tour of Europe to secure desperately needed military aid.

Zelensky on Friday signed bilateral security pacts with France and Germany to lock in support for Kyiv in its battle against Russia.

Both accords include military assistance and security arrangements.

With the Ukraine war about to enter its third year, Zelensky is set to make further pleas for financing and armaments at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, where leaders such as US Vice President Kamala Harris have gathered.


Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe

A research institute that monitors assistance estimated Friday that the European Union would have to double its military support to Ukraine to fill a gap left by the United States.

"It is highly uncertain whether the US will send further military aid in 2024," the Germany-based Kiel Institute said in a report.

According to the institute's most recent data, the United States sent 42.2 billion euros ($45.4 billion) in military aid to Ukraine between February 2022 and December 2023, at a rate of around two billion euros a month.

The European Union and its 27 members have promised 49.7 billion euros of military aid since the start of the war, but have so far delivered or earmarked just 35.2 billion euros.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Thousands of Senegalese march in first authorised protest since election postponement

Thousands on Saturday joined the first authorised protest in Senegal's capital since President Macky Sall postponed elections for his successor, only for a top court to overturn his ruling.


Issued on: 17/02/2024 -

Thousands of Senegalese demonstrate in Dakar against the postponement of Senegal's presidential election on February 17, 2024

John Wessels, AFP

By: NEWS WIRES

In a sign of calming tensions in the West African country, the protests passed peacefully and police largely kept their distance.

Sall's last-minute move to delay the February 25 poll triggered traditionally stable Senegal's worst crisis in decades.

The Constitutional Council intervened on Thursday and the president, under growing pressure at home and abroad, vowed to organise the elections "as soon as possible", without any date being set.

On the streets of Dakar, demonstrators donned black T-shirts emblazoned with "Aar Sunu Election" (Protect our Election), the name of the civil society collective that organised the peaceful protest held in a festive atmosphere.

They held up placards reading "Free Senegal", "Respect the election date" and "No to a constitutional coup d'Etat".

Gendarmes were out in force around the march area, but they did not wear riot gear as they had during previous demonstrations.

Previous protests against the postponement of the ballot were all banned and ended in violence. Three people have been killed, and many arrested.

Tensions have eased since the council's ruling and the authorities gave the go-ahead for Saturday's march.

"Today's watchword is mobilisation... Senegal has no room for error," presidential candidate Malick Gakou said at the march.

Senegal must organise the election in March so that the handover of power to the new president can take place on April 2, the end of Sall's official mandate, he said.

His decision to follow the council's call "lifts a lot of stress", said rapper El Maestro le Kangham, draped in a Senegal flag.

"I don't trust him and I'm waiting to see if he keeps his word," the 34-year-old demonstrator said.
'United for same goal'

"I am proud to see that all Senegalese are united for the same goal, holding the elections as quickly as possible. We are ready to elect a new president," added Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane Gueye.

At the end of the march, the Aar Sunu Election collective issued a communique calling on its members to "continue the mobilisation, to remain alert, and to monitor the republican process."


Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe

Sall, in power since 2012 but not running for a third term, said he called off the vote over disputes about the disqualification of potential candidates and concern about a return to unrest seen in 2021 and 2023.

The international community has voiced its concern over the unrest and called on Senegal to hold a vote as soon as possible, an appeal reiterated by African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat on Saturday.

Despite Sall's pledge to respect the Constitutional Council's ruling, the new date for the election and the candidates are unclear.

Jailed opposition figurehead Ousmane Sonko was another major point of contention during Saturday's protest, with marchers chanting "Free Sonko" and "Sonko, we miss you".

(AFP)

Could mini nuclear stations plug South Africa's power gaps?

Pretoria (AFP) – South African nuclear scientists want to build a new generation of mini nuclear reactors, both to plug holes in their own country's blackout-plagued grid and to build an export industry for the future.


Issued on: 18/02/2024 

South Africa's Koeberg nuclear power station in Melkbosstrand, near Cape Town, uses sea water, unavailable inland, as a coolant 

© RODGER BOSCH / AFP

One company has designed a gas-cooled small modular reactor that it says can be installed within three years on a site smaller than a football field and safely produce enough power for a city.

Similar projects are underway in other countries, as the world confronts the challenge of powering a future economy of electrified transport, heating and data centres while slashing carbon emissions.

Europe is divided on the way forward. Some countries, led by France, are betting on nuclear. Others, like Germany, are hoping that renewables like wind and solar will replace fossil fuels and make-up for the loss of access to Russia's natural gas exports.

South Africa will rely on coal for some time to come but, with power already in short supply, it is betting on building up its nuclear programme.

And some experts like Kelvin Kemm, a nuclear physicist and chief executive of Pretoria-based private outfit Stratek Global, think South Africa is uniquely placed to take the lead in developing fourth generation reactors.
Rolling blackouts

"I believe the future is not only around the corner, I believe the future has arrived," Kemm told AFP in an interview in his garden in the Pretoria suburbs.

"I see in the next half dozen years, there is going to be a massive worldwide proliferation of nuclear power of all sizes, that there will be a huge change of heart over the next 24 months. I believe South Africa is already a leader."

South Africa's civilian nuclear journey began in 1976 when construction began on the Koeberg nuclear power plant, on the South Atlantic coast just north of Cape Town.

It was commissioned 40 years ago and has a capacity of just under 2,000 megawatts, a small chunk of the 27,000 MW that South Africa's much-derided state electricity firm Eskom can deliver, thanks largely to carbon-intensive coal-fired plants.

But domestic demand for power often peaks at more than 32,000 MW per day, and South Africans face rolling blackouts or "load-shedding" of up to 12 hours a day, a serious burden on the economy of what should be the continent's powerhouse.

In December, the government announced that it planned to bring the first of a new series of nuclear plants on stream by 2033, adding another 2,500 megawatts of capacity, while planning to renew Koeberg and extend its life for another 20 years.

 

Dr Kelvin Kemm, nuclear physicist and chairman and chief executive of Stratek Global, thinks South Africa can become an exporter of mini nuclear power plants

 © Dave CLARK / AFP

But, even with solar panels springing up on homes and developments across the country, that still leaves the country short of power in the medium term. This is where, in the plans of nuclear evangelists like Kemm, small modular plants come in.

Large plants like Koeberg, with its two French-designed pressurised water reactors (PWR), must be situated by the ocean to allow for 80 tonnes of cold water a second to be pumped in to cool its reactors.

Most of South Africa is dry, however, and its commercial hub Johannesburg and its energy intensive mines and industry are far from the sea. The capital Pretoria is as far from Cape Town's cool Atlantic shore as Rome is from London.

This is where Stratek hopes to come in with its High Temperature Modular Reactor (HTMR-100).

According to Kemm, who is already in talks with international operators from as far away as France as well as South Africa, these helium gas-cooled reactors can be installed in groups of up to 10 or typically six to power off the shelf steam turbines.

These plants would generate less than 300 megawatts each, enough for a major industrial mining complex or domestic use in a city the size of Pretoria.
Weak rand

But above all they would be easier to supply -- running off less than a truck-load of uranium fuel pellets in hand portable cricket-ball sized spheres per year -- and easy to cool without sea water.

By the standards of the nuclear industry, with notoriously long and expensive development schedules, they would be relatively cheap and quick to install, and prices will fall after the first prototype unit is up and running.

Despite large coal mines and a four-decade history of civilian nuclear power, South Africa's economy has been hobbled by rolling power blackouts © - / AFP

Kemm said the weakness of the rand meant that his firm could quote $470 million as the cost of the first reactor and aim to get subsequent builds down to $300 million each.

"We are exceedingly cheap by world standards," he said.

© 2024 AFP

UK modelling agency breaks catwalk taboos

London (AFP) – Smashing the fashion world's rigid conventions, UK modelling agency Zebedee has been filling catwalks with a diverse array of models for seven years.


Issued on: 17/02/2024 - 
Albino and non-binary model Nan M © HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP
ADVERTISING


On the catwalks at London Fashion Week, which started on Friday, it is now common to see models from all ethnic backgrounds, with minorities now making up around half of shows, compared to 14 percent just 10 years ago, according to a report published in January.

Zebedee also works to find greater exposure for models with visible disabilities or who are transgender.

"It's still incredibly rare to see anybody with a disability feature. London, Paris, Milan, New York, it's still very, very rare," Zebedee's co-founder Laura Winson told AFP.

A former social worker who often worked with disabled people, Winson founded the agency in 2017 with her sister-in-law Zoe Proctor, a former model.

ADVERTISING


"We launched it because we felt that there was a lack of representation and fashion and media," she explained.

Zebedee works like any other agency, except that all of its models have a "visible difference".

Some are in wheelchairs, have atrophy of limbs or albinism, while others have Down syndrome.

Around 15 percent of the world's population, or one billion people, live with some form of disability, according to UN figures.

"Yet figures show that maybe around one percent of people featured in advertising have a disability", with catwalk representation even worse, pointed out Winson.
Relentless campaign

Two Zebedee models will tread the catwalk at London Fashion Week: Vic, a young woman in a wheelchair who will show for Gasanova, and Oscar, a transgender model with autism, who will display for Helen Kirkum.

It is reward for Winson's years of relentless campaigning to convince designers and brands of the advantages of employing a diverse roster of models.

"The first thing is, of course, it's morally the right thing to do, everybody should be awarded the same equality of opportunity," she explained.

"Secondly, you can develop some amazing creative campaigns. We know that our models can do the job."

"And then the third reason, and which is what interests most customers, is the financial aspect," because people with disabilities represent an important market, she added.

For Zebedee, success really began in 2020 when Gucci chose one of their models, Ellie Goldstein, who has Down syndrome.

Goldstein has since graced the cover of British Vogue, and Zebedee has also gone from strength to strength, representing more than a thousand models in Europe, the United States and Australia.
'Genuine change happening'

Junior B, a Briton who uses the non-binary pronouns they/them, started working with the agency in 2020. Suffering from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Junior B often uses a wheelchair.

"Before modelling, I didn't think any job was possible for anyone in my position," Junior B told AFP.

"I think there is definitely some genuine change happening," particularly among small businesses "or those where younger people are in charge," added the model.

"Some brands have really got the message".

Despite the wins, Winson complained that progress is still too slow.

Laura Winson, co-founder and director of Zebedee, says progress is still too slow

 © HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP

"Everybody knows who we are, everybody knows we exist. They can book disabled models if they want to... but for some reason, it's not happening," she complained.

"So I am getting to the point where somehow brands need to be held to account," she added.

Caroline Rush, director of London Fashion Week organiser the British Fashion Council, said that "in terms of size inclusivity, we've been the number one fashion capital for a few seasons."

"The catwalks in London feel, I think, very different to quite a few of the other fashion capitals. They feel that they are a real reflection of the society in London," she added.

In London, a city known for its innovative young talent, designers like Sinead O'Dwyer are known for holding inclusive shows.

However, Rush acknowledged that "there's still quite a lot of work to do behind the scenes".

© 2024 AFP

Japan's 'naked men' festival succumbs to population ageing

Ōshū (Japan) (AFP) – A steam of sweat rose as hundreds of naked men tussled over a bag of wooden talismans, performing a dramatic end to a thousand-year-old ritual in Japan that took place for the last time.

Issued on: 18/02/2024 -

Japan's "Sominsai" festival is the latest tradition impacted by the country's ageing population crisis

 © Philip FONG / AFP

Their passionate chants of "jasso, joyasa" (meaning "evil, be gone") echoed through a ceder forest of the northern Japan's Iwate region, where the secluded Kokuseki Temple has decided to end the popular annual rite.

Organising the event, which draws hundreds of participants and thousands of tourists every year, has become a heavy burden for the ageing local faithful, who find it hard to keep up with the rigours of the ritual.

The "Sominsai" festival, regarded as one of the strangest festivals in Japan, is the latest tradition impacted by the country's ageing population crisis that has hit rural communities hard.

"It is very difficult to organise a festival of this scale," said Daigo Fujinami, a resident monk of the temple that opened in 729.

"I cannot be blind to the difficult reality."

Ageing population

Japan's society has aged more rapidly than most other countries'. The trend has forced countless schools, shops and services to close, particularly in small or rural communities.

Kokuseki Temple's Sominsai festival used to take place from the seventh day of Lunar New Year through to the following morning.

But during the Covid pandemic, it was scaled down to prayer ceremonies and smaller rituals.

The final festival was a shortened version, ending around 11:00 pm, but it drew the biggest crowd in recent memory, local residents said.

The "Sominsai" festival at Kokuseki Temple draws hundreds of participants and thousands of tourists every year 

© Philip FONG / AFP

As the sun set, men in white loincloths came to the mountainous temple, bathed in a creek and marched around temple's ground.

They clenched their fists against the chill of a winter breeze, all the while chanting "jasso joyasa".

Some held small cameras to record their experience, while dozens of television crews followed the men through the temple's stone steps and dirt pathways.

As the festival reached its climax, hundreds of men packed inside the wooden temple shouting, chanting and aggressively jostling over a bag of talismans.
Changing norms

Toshiaki Kikuchi, a local resident who claimed the talismans and who helped organise the festival for years, said he hoped the ritual will return in the future.

"Even under a different format, I hope to maintain this tradition," he said after the festival.

Other temples in Japan continue to host similar festivals where men wear loincloths and bathe in freezing water 

© Philip FONG / AFP

"There are many things that you can appreciate only if you take part."

Many participants and visitors voiced both sadness and understanding about the festival's ending.

"This is the last of this great festival that has lasted 1,000 years. I really wanted to participate in this festival," Yasuo Nishimura, 49, a caregiver from Osaka, told AFP.

Other temples across Japan continue to host similar festivals where men wear loincloths and bathe in freezing water or fight over talismans.

Some festivals are adjusting their rules in line with changing democraphics and social norms so that they can continue to exist -- such as letting women take part in previously male-only ceremonies.

From next year, Kokuseki Temple will replace the festival with prayer ceremonies and other ways to continue its spiritual practices.

Some festivals are adjusting their rules in line with changing democraphics and social norms 

© Philip FONG / AFP

"Japan is facing a falling birthrate, ageing population, and lack of young people to continue various things," Nishimura said.

"Perhaps it is difficult to continue the same way as in the past."

© 2024 AFP

Berlin film fest grapples with Nazi past, far-right threat

Berlin (AFP) – This week's Berlin international film festival is wrestling on- and off-screen with the weight of the Nazi past and the menace of a resurgent far right.

18/02/2024 

Inspired by a true story, the film examines decades of family silence about the Nazi period 

© JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP

The 74th Berlinale, as the event is known, has a reputation for confronting political realities head-on with high-profile movies and hot-tempered debates.

German director Julia von Heinz brought together an unlikely pair, US actor Lena Dunham and Britain's Stephen Fry, for her drama "Treasure" about a Holocaust survivor who returns to Poland with his journalist daughter.

Inspired by a true story, the film shows their journey following the fall of the Iron Curtain, after decades of family silence about the Nazi period.

Fry plays the seemingly jovial Edek searching for a connection with his uptight daughter Ruth (Dunham).

Their travels take them to Edek's childhood home in Lodz, where they make the chilling discovery that a family living in his old flat is still using his parents' porcelain tea service, silverware and a green velvet sofa they abandoned when they were deported.

Fearful it is the last chance to record his memories, Ruth convinces Edek to return to Auschwitz.

'A new perspective'

Von Heinz, speaking after a warmly received screening, said that a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the wake of the Gaza war had spurred her to finish the film for the Berlinale.

She rejected suggestions there had been "enough" movies dealing with the Nazi period.

"There can never be enough stories to be told about this and I think we are giving it a new perspective."

Fry added: "While history may not repeat itself, as somebody once put it, (it) rhymes and there are similar feelings now as we know rising up."

The actor, who had several relatives who were killed at Auschwitz, said it was "an extraordinary feeling" to shoot scenes outside the former death camp.

Dunham, who also lost ancestors in the Holocaust, insisted its lessons are both rooted in the Jewish experience and transcend it.

"It's important to acknowledge that the far right, be it here or in the US -- there's an incredible and shocking amount of anti-Semitic rhetoric and there's also a shocking amount of Islamophobic rhetoric, anti-black rhetoric, transphobic rhetoric," she said.

"The goal is to isolate people based on their identities and make them feel inhuman and that's a universal story unfortunately."

Resistance 'superheroes'

"From Hilde, With Love," starring Liv Lisa Fries of international hit series "Babylon Berlin", also debuted at the festival over the weekend.

It tells the true story of Hilde Coppi, a member of the "Red Orchestra" anti-Nazi resistance group, who gave birth to a son in prison while awaiting her execution for "high treason" in 1942.

Director Andreas Dresen grew up in communist East Germany, a region where the far-right AfD is poised to make strong gains in key state elections later this year.

Dresen grew up in communist East Germany, a region where the far-right AfD is polling strongly © John MACDOUGALL / AFP

He said that in school resistance members were often portrayed as larger-than-life "superheroes", meaning many felt incapable of having similar courage to stand up to authority.

Fries, whose vivid portrayal impressed critics, said Coppi joined the Red Orchestra in trying to sabotage the Nazi war effort out of a basic sense of right and wrong.

"It was not only decency but also a sense of solidarity -- solidarity is always worth standing up for," she said.

Dresen stripped the movie of historical images familiar from Nazi movies such as "waving swastika flags and thumping jackboots".

"Political terror is part of our present and unfortunately not as far away as we would like," he said.

"I really wish this film weren't so topical."

"From Hilde, With Love" is one of 20 films in competition for the festival's Golden Bear top prize Saturday.

Commitment to 'empathy'

The two films premiered amid a fierce debate over whether the Berlinale should continue to invite AfD politicians to its galas.

A bombshell revelation last month -- that party members attended a meeting outside Berlin at which mass deportations of foreigners and "poorly assimilated" German citizens were discussed -- raised the stakes.

After initially insisting that the elected representatives should attend, the Berlinale backtracked and disinvited five AfD officials, citing its commitment to "empathy, awareness and understanding".

Nyong'o, was asked whether she would have attended Thursday's opening ceremony if far-right officials had attended © Ronny HARTMANN / AFP

The move was widely praised by the artistic community, but dissenters argued that democratic culture meant tolerating even offensive views.

Kenyan-Mexican actor Lupita Nyong'o, the festival's first black jury president, was asked whether she would have attended the opening ceremony Thursday in the presence of far-right officials.

"I'm glad I don't have to answer that question," she replied. "I'm glad I don't have to be in that position."

© 2024 AFP

'No reason to stop': German fans vow to continue investor protests

Berlin (AFP) – German football fans have vowed to continue protests against an investor deal struck by clubs which have resulted in delays to dozens of matches as fans litter the pitch with tennis balls and chocolate coins.

Issued on: 16/02/2024 - 

Dozens of football games in Germany have been delayed by tennis balls and foil-covered coins thrown on the pitch

The throwing of the objects has resulted in long interruptions, with some games coming close to being postponed entirely.

The protests are in response to a plan from the DFL, the association of German clubs which organises the Bundesliga, to sell off an eight percent share of future TV rights in exchange for capital injection to help market and promote the league internationally.

In December, a proposal to "secure long-term and sustainable success" was passed by a two-thirds majority of German clubs.

Fan groups have called for another ballot, arguing the deal -- passed less than a year after a similar proposal was rejected -- lacked transparency and was undemocratic.

Despite excellent stadium attendances and a strong domestic broadcasting contract, international interest in the Bundesliga lags behind that of England's Premier League or Spain's La Liga.

International revenue has become a crucial source of financing in England, for example.

"The aim is for the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 to continue to be competitive in sporting and commercial terms," the DFL said.

'Suspicious of over-commercialisation'

German football teams must comply with the '50+1' rule, which ensures member control and restricts the influence of external investors.

Fans display a banner reading 'No to investors in the DFL' © MICHAELA STACHE / AFP/File

The rule is incredibly popular among German fans, many of whom value it more than success on the field.

Journalist Matt Ford told AFP "the general attitude of German football fans is that they're suspicious of over-commercialisation."

"That has to do with the social and cultural history of German football.

"German football clubs have always been member-owned, whereas English football clubs have been privately owned since the 19th century."

Kristina Schroeder from fan organisation Unsere Kurve said: "German football's member-based clubs make it special."

She added that the protests sought to re-assert that "members and fans are an important part of football and must be included in far-reaching decisions."

Protesters argue the vote in December, which took place behind closed doors, made it difficult to determine whether club representatives voted in accordance with direction from their members.

'Because they work'

In February, the second division match between Hertha Berlin and Hamburg was halted for 30 minutes in the second half as fans from both sides rained tennis balls and other objects down on the pitch.

Since then, few games have been spared interruptions.

Fans protesting against the DFL show their feelings during the Bundesliga 

match between Borussia Dortmund and SC Freiburg © Sascha Schuermann / AFP/File

Oliver Jauer, 43, a contributor to Union Berlin site Textilvergehen, said the protests "have increased because they work."

The fans believe more is at stake than just a relatively small share of TV rights income.

Jauer told AFP the protests have been a way of "voicing our anger and helplessness against 'modern football'."

Union's 1-0 win over Wolfsburg on Saturday was delayed by 40 minutes, with the only goal coming in the 25th minute of first-half injury time.

The protests are not limited to the politically-engaged 'ultra' fans.

Sam Witt, 43, a Union Berlin fan, told AFP "the protests are organised by the ultras but get the support of normal fans, as the entry of an investor would change the sport for everyone."

Witt said fans were motivated by concerns the 50+1 rule is being eroded, along with changes like VAR and increased advertising.

Ford, the journalist, noted that German fans have succeeded in getting Monday night kick-offs scrapped through similar tennis ball protests.

'As long as it takes'

The successful proposal included several 'red lines', including guaranteeing that the DFL, not investors, would control kick-off times and scheduling, as well as maintaining the 50+1 rule.

Ford said fans "suspect those things won't remain the same."

Tennis balls and chocolate coins are thrown on to the pitch by fans 

protesting against the DFL © Sascha Schuermann / AFP/File

On Tuesday, the DFL told AFP subsidiary SID that one potential investor, Blackstone, was dropping out of the bidding process, leaving just one remaining.

The DFL said it was "always aware that the red lines would place high demands on potential partners".

Ford said there was no sign of the protests stopping.

"(The fans) feel empowered by Blackstone dropping out of the running."

Schroeder said "as long as the status quo is not reviewed, with a new and more transparent vote, there is no reason to stop protesting."

Witt said "the protests will continue until we have protected our sport... or until us football fans all turn away in disgust."

© 2024 AFP

El Salvador, where a miscarriage can land you in jail

AFP
February 16, 2024

A report found Lilian's baby had died of neonatal sepsis, yet she spent eight years behind bars for 'aggravated homicide' - Copyright AFP Marvin Recinos
María Isabel Sánchez

Lilian was 20 when her newborn baby died of medical complications at a hospital in El Salvador, where abortion is a crime and even the suspicion of one can land a woman in jail.

Lilian was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison for “aggravated homicide” after her infant daughter passed away at a public hospital in Santa Ana in the country’s west in November 2015.

“I gave birth naturally, but I had a tear in my uterus,” recounted Lilian, now 28, who declined to give her full name to protect her family.

She was sedated for a procedure to fix the tear, and when she awoke, “I knew my baby was dead.”

Her nightmare did not end there.

“I was first accused of abandonment and neglect, but the prosecution called it ‘aggravated homicide’ and I was convicted in May 2016,” she told AFP.

Last year, a medical report concluded that her baby had died of neonatal sepsis, a finding that resulted in Lilian’s early prison release in November with the aid of women’s rights NGOs.

By then, she had already served eight years behind bars.

“If she (the baby) had been treated in time, she would not have died. I wouldn’t have wasted so many years of my life in prison,” said Lilian, whose other daughter was just two when it happened and was raised by her grandparents.

“I only saw her twice, I did not see her grow up.”


– ‘Unfair’ –


Lilian is the last of 73 Salvadorans to be released from prison in the last decade under a campaign by rights groups to free women serving sentences of up to 50 years for abortions, miscarriages or birthing complications.

Almost all are from poor backgrounds in rural areas where health services are precarious, said Arturo Castellanos, a social worker with the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion.

Alba Lorena Rodriguez, now 36, became pregnant at 21, after an acquaintance raped her.

Five months pregnant, she went into premature labor at home.

“I had to give birth to him myself, I fainted, I dropped” the baby, she told AFP.

A neighbor called the police, and Rodriguez, who has two other daughters, was arrested at the infant’s funeral.

“I felt the world come crashing down on me, because I knew I wasn’t going to see the girls, and they were punishing me for something I hadn’t done,” she said.

“The one who raped me was on the outside with his family and I (was)… imprisoned. The law is unfair,” said Rodriguez, who said she had no defense lawyer and no chance for anything like a fair trial.

Rodriguez served 10 years of a 30-year sentence before she, too, was released.

Both women chose to talk to AFP in the capital San Salvador, far from their own villages where the punishment has not stopped.

When the jailed women leave prison, “the community discriminates against them and stigmatizes them,” Castellanos said.


– ‘The struggle continues’ –


In Latin America, elective abortion is legal in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba and Uruguay.

It is banned outright, without exceptions for health risks or other circumstances, in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Nowhere are the penalties as severe as in El Salvador, however.

Under the law there, abortion is punishable by two to eight years in prison. But the charge is often changed to “aggravated homicide,” which carries a penalty of 30 to 50 years.

Since 1998, when abortion was criminalized in El Salvador, 199 women have been sentenced.

Since Lilian’s release last year, none remain imprisoned, but seven women are awaiting trial, according to the Citizens’ Group.

“No one can give me back my lost time. I’m rebuilding the bond with my daughter,” said Lilian, who would like to see the law changed so that other women do not have to go through what she has.

But President Nayib Bukele, newly elected to a second five-year term with near-total control of parliament, has said there will be no change to abortion laws in the deeply Christian country.

“The struggle continues,” said Lilian.

Tens of thousands protest Hungary child abuse pardon

By AFP
February 16, 2024

A scandal over a presidential pardon for an accomplice in a child sexual abuse case is is proving to be the biggest political crisis Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has faced since his return to power in 2010 - Copyright AFP Marvin Recinos

Tens of thousands protested Friday in central Budapest against a presidential pardon in a child abuse case that is becoming the biggest political crisis Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has faced since his return to power in 2010.

Meanwhile another prominent Hungarian figure resigned, following President Katalin Novak and former justice minister Judit Varga — who both stepped down on Saturday.

Calvinist Bishop Zoltan Balog announced his resignation Friday as the head of Hungary’s largest Protestant church after coming under pressure for supporting Novak’s pardoning of the accomplice of the director of a children’s home convicted of abusing kids and adolescents in his care.

Balog had also previously served as a government minister.

Later Friday, tens of thousands of people crowded Budapest Heroes’ Square to protest the pardon.

“They (the government) should stop feeling that everything is permitted,” a 65-year-old retired teacher who only gave her name as Margit said.

Laszlo Risko, a 50-year-old office worker, said the government under Orban had “taken the trampling of democratic rights to its zenith”.

The demonstration was organised by popular personalities from the music and cultural scene and online influencers.

“The Hungarian state has failed. There is no transparent, thorough and independent investigation to clarify responsibility,” Edina Pottyondy, one of the organising influencers, said in a fiery speech.

In a press conference Friday, Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas insisted the prime minister did not have knowledge of the pardon until last week.

“The prime minister himself learned about the affair in the press,” he said.

Orban has not spoken on the scandal this week, but was set to deliver his annual state-of-the-nation speech on Saturday.

Two weeks ago, independent news site 444 revealed that Novak pardoned a former deputy director of a children’s home.

He was sentenced in 2022 to three years and four months in prison for helping to cover up his boss sexually abusing kids and adolescents there.

Though the scandal is not expected to force out Orban, public outrage has been amplified by the fact that Novak, a former minister for family affairs, had been the face of the government’s key “family-friendly” policies.