France stifled by Canada in Euros warm up

Bordeaux (AFP) – In their final warm up friendly before Euro 2024 favourites France were held to a 0-0 draw by Canada on Sunday although late substitute Kylian Mbappe almost stole the win.

A TIE IS AS GOOD AS A WIN FOR CANADA 


09/06/2024 - AFP

Kylian Mbappe was a late substitute for France © ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP

With the superstar striker nursing an injury, France coach Didier Deschamps experimented with his attack.

With Olivier Giroud in a classic central role flanked by Marcus Thuram and Ousmane Dembele the coach withdrew Antoine Griezmann to a support role.

But France struggled with a motivated Canada who had lost 4-0 to the Netherlands in their last game.

Giroud was provided with rare service before fluffing a 55th minute sitter delivered by Griezmann and missing another good chance moments afterwards.

Mbappe came on with 20 minutes to go after missing full training the past two days.

France beat Luxembourg 3-0 in a friendly on Wednesday with Mbappe on the score sheet and picking up a knock.

But on Sunday Mbappe produced a flash of brilliance and almost stole the win, showing he'll be needed for France's Euro opener June 17 in Dusseldorf against Austria.

In a tournament that starts in Germany next Friday France are in Group D with Netherlands, Poland and Austria.

© 2024 AFP

Moby: My job now is animal rights, not music

Paris (AFP) – Moby is touring Europe for the first time in more than a decade and donating all the proceeds from his concerts to animal rights, which he says has become his real job.


Issued on: 10/06/2024 - 

Moby is playing seven dates in Europe in September 

© MAX NASH / AFP

There is no doubting the electro star's commitment -- the words "ANIMAL" and "RIGHTS" are tattooed in huge letters up his arms and "Vegan for Life" on the side of his neck.

"I've been vegan for 37 years," he told AFP. "Working on behalf of animal rights is my life's purpose.

"I don't think of music as my job any more. Music has become a joyful, calm refuge."

Moby, real name Richard Melville Hall, made an era-defining record 25 years ago in "Play" and has sold more than 20 million records worldwide.

Now 58, he is returning to Europe for seven dates, with the money divided between eight or nine animal rights and climate organisations. The names are due to be announced in the coming weeks.

Moby says he is dedicated to playing the hits -- mostly from "Play" and "18".

"It's what the audience is paying to hear. When I go see my favourite bands, it's very sad when they don't play the songs I know and love. It seems selfish to me," he said.

He takes issue with Radiohead, who famously refuse to play their biggest hit, "Creep".

"That's a great song. People like it. If you can make someone happy, why not play it?"

That attitude comes from clear memories of his scrappy start in punk bands around New York.

"I remember one show in a Chinese restaurant and there were four people in the band and two people in the audience... I never expected to have music that people knew or liked."
'Trump hates animals'

Most of his time these days is spent lobbying politicians on behalf of animals.

There are many well-intentioned people in the current government in Washington, he said, but in an election year they are terrified of doing anything that can help Donald Trump win.

"Donald Trump is a true sociopath. He famously hates animals. His ex-wife says she brought home a dog and he threatened to kill it.

"He hates animals because they can't do anything for him," he said.

Moby dates his veganism back to his troubled childhood -- his father's drink-driving death, being sexually abused as a young child, his shame at growing up poor.

Moby says it's 'selfish' not to play the hits 

© JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

"I learned from an early age not to trust humans, whereas animals were very predictable," he said.

There was a time when he would get even more directly involved, visiting animals as they were being taken to the slaughterhouse -- "bearing witness", offering moments of kindness before their deaths.

He says the meat companies got round them by shifting their animal deliveries to the middle of the night.

"Very few people are willing to get up at 2:30 am to drive across town and be one of three people standing in the freezing cold. They won that round."

Now he tries to approach his activism "in a very strategic way".

"It involves working in politics, philanthropy, venture capital for young vegan companies, media," he said.

"I try to identify all the things that are moving the needle away from the status quo and figure out how I can help them."

© 2024 AFP

Colorado.eduspot.colorado.edu/~norcross/Wh1.pdf

Famine, Affluence, and Morality Peter Singer Philosophy and Public ...

Famine, Affluence, and Morality. Peter Singer. Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 1, no. 1 (Spring 1972), pp. 229-243 [revised edition]. As I write this, in ...

Colorado.eduspot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/phil1200,Spr07/singer.pdf

All Animals Are Equal

* In TOM REGAN & PETER SINGER (eds.), Animal Rights and Human Obligations. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1989, pp. 148-. 162. Page 2. men are; dogs, on the other ...

Wordpress.comgrupojovenfl.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/peter-singer-animal-liberation-1.pdf

Peter Singer, Animal Liberation - WordPress.com

That's an important step forward, and a sign that over the next forty years we may see even bigger changes in the ways we treat animals. Peter Singer. February ...

Animallaw.infowww.animallaw.info/sites/default/files/Animal Rights Theory and Utilitarianism.pdf

Animal Rights Theory and Utilitarianism.pdf

In Practical Ethics, Peter Singer argues that ethics is not "an ideal system which is all very noble in theory but no good in practice." 1 Singer identifies ...

Libcom.orgfiles.libcom.org/files/2023-08/beasts of burden antagonism.pdf

Beasts of Burden: Capitalism - Animals - Communism - Libcom.org

Beasts of. Burden. Capitalism · Animals. Communism as on ent ons. s a een ree. Page 2. Beasts of Burden: Capitalism - Animals -. Communism. Published October ...

Libcom.orglibcom.org/article/letter-animal-liberation-gilles-dauve

Letter on animal liberation - Gilles Dauvé | libcom.org

Nov 18, 2005 ... Beasts of Burden forces to rethink the whole "primitivist" debate. ... Gilles Dauvé- Letter on animal liberation.pdf (316.85 KB). primitivism ..

German 16-year-olds  cast first votes in EU elections

A decrease in Germany's voting age from 18 to 16 could bring more than a million additional people to the polls for the European elections.

Fabian Navarro (left to right), Maria Viktoria Junker and Maja Steinbach were joint winners of a poster competition to get young voters to participate in the 2024 EU elections

Oliver Pieper

DW

June 10, 2024

As Germany's 16- and 17-year-olds wait for a train these days, they're regularly faced with numerous posters designed especially with them in mind.

The 1,000 posters are part of a nationwide competition to encourage young people to vote in the European electionsbefore polls close on June 9.

One of the winning posters has the ambiguous slogan "First kiss, first time, first vote" and was created by media design students Maja Steinbach, Maria Viktoria Junker and Fabian Navarro.

"We want to show that the election is a positive, exciting experience, that you can try something new," they told DW.

"Young people are currently in a phase of life where they are making their first important decisions," they said. "We want to reach them in that phase, and the ambiguity is our hook — the first kiss, the first relationship, the 'first time' — to have a poster that stands out, showing all the benefits of the EU."

The 'First kiss, First time, First election' campaign posters are targeting 16-year-olds across Germany

Image: Fabian Navarro Rubio

This is the first year people as young as 16 can vote in the elections for the European Parliament. As well as the posters, which come in six different versions, the EU campaign is running over a million ads. The goal is to hit the right nerve — to appeal to young people and not scare them off.

Steinbach, Junker and Navarro said targeting teenagers just a few years younger than themselves meant emphasizing individuality, engaging current trends and taking ever-shorter attention spans into account.

"If we can persuade just a few young people to vote in the European elections with our posters, we will be satisfied," they said.

Young people 'too rarely heard'

Delara Burkhardt, the environmental policy spokesperson for the Germany's center-left Social Democrats (SPD) at the European Parliament, became interested in politics when she was 15. She wishes she could have been eligible to vote in Germany back then.

In 2019, at the age of 26, she became Germany's youngest member of the European Parliament. For the European elections, which take place across the bloc from June 6 to 9, she is running on the Social Democrats' national list for the second time.

Burkhardt told DW that for far too long, far too little has been done to help young people have a stronger voice.

European lawmaker Delara Burkhardt supports the idea of having younger voters take part in the European elections

"Voting from the age of 16 is an important step to compensate for a demographic disadvantage and to boost the value of young people's voices at the political level," she said. "Our society is increasingly aging, and young people's perspectives are too rarely heard in the political debate."

According to the EU's statistics office, Eurostat, in 2022 Germany had the fourth-oldest population in the bloc, with an average age of 45.8. Only Italy, Portugal and Greece have older populations.

This has consequences for how, and for whom, politics work. In the latest survey by the Vodafone Foundation, three out of four young people between the ages of 14 and 24 said they were dissatisfied with how their interests have been taken up by politicians.

They said their main worries were inflation, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, scarce and expensive housing and climate change.


Burkhardt is especially committed to climate protection. She is also an avid user of social media, sending constant updates to her followers on TikTok, Instagram and X, previously Twitter.

"Young people are often surprised when I describe my work in Brussels," she said. "They say things like: 'I didn't know that the EU was concerned about this' or 'You really are interested in what we think.' They often feel that politicians are not taking notice of them."

When Burkhardt asked if politics affected students' everyday life during a recent visit to a vocational school, not a single person responded, she said.

"During the past five years, I've been one of the very few colleagues to use social media intensively," she said. "But I can see that many [politicians] are just starting to really activate their channels for the election campaign. But that's not how you build a community. That's not how you create coverage. That's not how you convey democratic values."

Expanding Germany's electorate

Constitutional lawyer Hermann Heussner has backed the idea to lower the voting age for the last 30 years.

"Youth researchers and psychologists say that when people are between the ages of 12 and 14, they have a surge in intellectual development," Heussner told DW. "Afterward, they are able to think in a largely abstract, hypothetical and logical way, like adults do. They are also able to empathize with others, and can perceive, and take other people's interests into account. And they can intellectually grasp [...] complex relationships."

Within Germany, 16-year-olds are eligible to vote in state elections in six states. But for that age to become eligible for voting in national elections, Germany's constitution would need to be amended.

Germany — along with Belgium, Austria, Greece and Malta — has now granted voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds in European elections.

Heussner has long campaigned to lower the voting age in Germany

Image: Hartenfelser/IMAGO

Opponents of lowering Germany's voting age have said young people are too immature to make informed political judgments.

The previous minimum voting age, 18, has led to an imbalance. Due to Germany's aging population, older people make up a greater percentage of the total voters.

In Germany's 2021 federal election, 39% of voters were over the age of 60 and only 14% were between the ages of 18 and 30.

Heussner is committed to going further, and now advocates for the right to vote from the age of 14 — and younger if necessary.

"This is only be the beginning," he said. "If you really want to take democracy seriously and get the demographic problem under control, you have to introduce the right to vote from birth. Children would have their own right to vote, and their parents would vote on their behalf until they are able to exercise that right themselves."

This article was originally written in German.

EU explained: What are its biggest issue 01:37

https://p.dw.com/p/4fh2d

Oliver Pieper Reporter on German politics and society, as well as South American affairs.

Belgium: National vote amid rise of far-right and far-left

As well as the EU elections, Belgians are voting in national and regional elections. The country is witnessing a rise of both the far right and far left, which could further complicate already tricky coalition building.

The national and regional elections set to see a surge for far-right Flemish separatists

Belgium goes to the polls on Sunday for national and regional elections. The elections in the linguistically divided country, which is split between Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north and French-speaking Wallonia in the south, are being held on the same day as the European Parliament elections.

The national vote is set to see a surge in support for far-right Flemish separatists, which could make it difficult to form a new government.

The last time Belgium held a federal election, in 2019, it took 493 days for a new prime minister to be sworn in to lead a seven-party coalition government.

The wait was even longer after the 2010 vote, when the country took 541 days to form a government, still a world record. Now there are fears that this record could be broken as support grows for the far right in Flanders and the far left in Wallonia.

Far right ahead, but isolated in Flanders

Two Flemish nationalist parties are poised to win the most votes in Flanders, according to the latest opinion polls. More than 25% of the vote is expected to go to the far-right Vlaams Belang, which supports independence for Flanders.

The party's rise follows a broader pattern of gains for the far right across Europe and the victory of ally Geert Wilders in the neighboring Netherlands last year.

Close behind Vlaams Belang is the right-wing nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which could get around 20% of the vote.

The victory of the hardline party pushing for Flanders to become an independent country has fueled talk that Belgium could be heading for a breakup. But other parties in Flanders, including the N-VA, have a long-standing agreement to keep the far right out of government in the region.

N-VA leader Bart De Wever, who wants to be the next prime minister, has repeatedly insisted that he will not make a deal with Vlaams Belang this time either.

Wallonia looks to the left

While Dutch-speaking voters are expected to swing to the right, more of their French-speaking compatriots in Wallonia may turn to the far left.

The Socialist Party is expected to win as much as a quarter of the vote, but its long-standing dominance in French-speaking areas could be eroded by the far-left Workers' Party.

According to the latest Ipsos poll, the Workers' Party could get close to 20% in the Brussels region and 15% in Wallonia. This means that its number of seats in the federal parliament would rise to 19, compared to 12 at present.

Combined with the 26 seats predicted for Vlaams Belang, this means that some 45 seats will be taken by radical parties that are likely to be excluded from any government deal. The number of seats in the Belgian Federal Parliament is constitutionally set at 150.

Poorer Wallonia, whose decline began in the 1960s as Flanders' economy boomed, traditionally leans toward national unity because the region would likely find it difficult to survive economically on its own.

dh/rc (AP, AFP)

EU Parliament lurches right, but center holds

Ella Joyner in Brussels

DW/AFP

Far-right parties dealt blows to leaders in Paris and Berlin — but fell short of derailing the centrist majority in the European Parliament.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressed supporters in Brussels on Sunday evening

 Piroschka van de Wouw/REUTERS

Dramatic gains for far-right parties in France and Germany failed to overturn the centrist working majority in the European Parliament as results poured in on Sunday night, putting Ursula von der Leyen on track to stay president of the European Commission until 2029.

"We won the European elections. We are by far the strongest party. We are the anchor of stability," the German conservative declared to journalists assembled in the European Parliament in Brussels as projections rolled in. "The center is holding."

Her center-right European People's Party (EPP) group has won 184 of the 720 seats, according to provisional projections from all 27 EU countries. In second place came the slightly weakened center-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group, with 139 lawmakers, followed by drastically pared-back liberal Renew group with 80 seats.

"We will build a bastion against the extremes from the left and from the right," 65-year-old von der Leyen told EPP supporters at a separate event earlier in the night, in a nod to the center-left and liberal runners-up she will need to work with to continue to push her agenda forward.

The AfD gained ground, but remains isolated in the European Parliament

Jörg Carstensen/dpa/picture alliance

After weeks of speculation about a far-right landslide, a series of stunning individual results for France's National Rally, the Freedom Party of Austria and the Alternative for Germany did not quite translate into an immediate shake-up of the EU political landscape.

But with more far-right members sitting in the legislature than ever before, their voices will have to be heeded going forward.
Bombshell in Paris

After four days of voting by almost 180 million people in 27 countries, the big shock of the night came from Paris where President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election before the final official tally was out.

His centrist pro-European party Renaissance scored just 15%, crushed by the far-right National Rally, which netted more than 30% of French votes cast.

"I've decided to give you back the choice of our parliamentary future through the vote. I am therefore dissolving the National Assembly," Macron said in an address to the nation. "Far-right parties [...] are progressing everywhere in the continent. It is a situation to which I cannot resign myself."

Theove is a huge gamble for Macron, as he apparently tries to regain control of the country. French voters will now head to the polls again on June 30 and July 7, just weeks before the Paris Olympics are due to kick off. Macron's own position is technically secure for now, as he was reelected as president in 2022, fending off National Rally candidate Marine Le Pen.

Far right jubilant, but divided — for now

In Paris, Le Pen immediately welcomed Macron's announcement. "We are ready to exercise power if the French give us their trust in these elections," she said. "We're ready to transform the country, to defend the interests of the French, to stop mass migration."

Le Pen is expected to contest the 2027 French presidential polls again, though 28-year-old member of the European Parliament Jordan Bardella now presides over the National Rally.

There was cause for celebration in both the hard-right parliamentary groups, the national-conservative ECR and the far-right ID, though increases were more modest than their members may have hoped. They took a projected 73 and 58 seats, respectively.

On top of those come a projected 15 European parliament members for Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which brushed off a series of scandals to emerge as the second biggest force in Germany behind von der Leyen's Christian Democrats.

But the AfD remains politically homeless in Brussels: The party was ejected from the ID group last month after its lead candidate Maximilian Krah was engulfed by allegations that he spread Russian influence, that his parliamentary aide conducted espionage for China and by controversial comments he made about Nazi SS troops that riled ally Le Pen, among others.

Whether the intensely divided far right can form a broad coalition to maximize their influence will be one of the most closely watched issues in the weeks to come.

EU election results 'huge blow' for Germany's government 03:11null

"The biggest winners of this election are the two families of the radical right," analyst Pawel Zerka of the think tank European Council on Foreign Relations commented in a statement to DW. "Collectively, including non-affiliated parties like the AfD and [Hungarian] Fidesz, they seem close to surpassing the one-third seat threshold, enabling them to obstruct EP legislation."

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has been pushing for this approach in recent weeks. Her Brothers of Italy party emerged on top in Rome, as did the Freedom Party in Vienna.

In Warsaw, Polish ex-prime minister and Law and Justice leader Mateusz Morawiecki told DW his party wouldn't support von der Leyen's bid to return as European Commission president as things stood right now.

Greens take a drubbing

In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD) came third, scoring its worst ever EU election result. One of the junior partners in Scholz's federal coalition government, the Greens, also took a heavy defeat, losing nine of their 25 seats in the EU legislature.

Across the EU, Green parties were not able to sustain the "Green wave" of record-breaking seats they achieved in 2019. Altogether they look set to lose 19 seats, retaining 52.

European Greens co-leader Bas Eickhout expressed hope that his party could still form a part of the majority coalition in parliament. "The only reliable, stable democratic coalition possible is with the Greens," he told journalists, warning that the future of the EU's flagship climate policies were at stake.

The runner-up center-left S&D group showed willingness to work with von der Leyen for a second term at the head of the EU executive branch on Sunday.

"It is clear that for us, we are open to strong cooperation with all democratic forces in this parliament," said the group's lead candidate Nicolas Schmit.

Von der Leyen has been accused by her political opponents, including the S&D, of courting right-wing forces in a bid to shore up support during her campaign.

The Left group in the European Parliament is projected to have lost one seat, holding onto 36, according to a provisional count.
What's next?

For Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations, "the key lesson of tonight is that the European Parliament election can matter a lot for national politics in the EU member states."

He pointed to Macron's snap election announcement, but also the sudden resignation of Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, whose Dutch-speaking liberal party Open VlD fared badly in the EU polls compared to hard-line Flemish separatist forces.

In the weeks to come, von der Leyen will seek to have a majority of EU lawmakers confirm her for a second term as European Commission president. Her chances of doing so look stronger after Sunday, but reappointment won't be straightforward.

This campaign season was marked by online disinformation warnings and a spate of violent attacks against politicians across the spectrum, including an assassination attempt against Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Voting in all 27 EU countries closed at 11 p.m. CET on Sunday. The projections provided by the European Parliament are subject to revision, pending final counts.

But they set the scene for intense weeks of political horse-trading and alliance-building before the first sitting of the new legislature in mid-July.

Edited by: Ben Knight

Ella Joyner Correspondent@EllaRoseJoyner

EU ELECTIONS

France’s Macron calls snap election in huge gamble after EU polls debacle

French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday he was dissolving the National Assembly and calling early legislative elections, setting off a political earthquake after his party suffered a humbling defeat at the hands of the far right in elections for the European Parliament.

Issued on: 10/06/2024 - 

French President Emmanuel Macron gestures from a vehicle as he leaves after voting for the European Parliament election, in Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, France, June 9, 2024. 

© Hannah McKay, Reuters

By:Benjamin DODMAN

Macron’s decision represents a major roll of the dice, with France’s far right polling at its highest-ever level, virtually all other parties in disarray, and the Paris Olympics just around the corner.

The call for snap polls follows a bruising defeat in Sunday’s EU elections, in which the National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen won 31.5 percent of the vote, according to Ipsos projections – more than double the support for Macron’s party.

In an address to the nation, the French president said he could not ignore the warning from voters, noting that in total far-right parties in France had won almost 40 percent of the vote. He said elections for the National Assembly would be called for June 30, with a second-round vote on July 7.

“This is an essential time for clarification,” he said. “I have heard your message, your concerns and I will not leave them unanswered ... France needs a clear majority to act in serenity and harmony.”

The announcement was naturally welcomed by Le Pen, whose National Rally will have its best chance yet of seizing power in the upcoming parliamentary vote.

“We are ready to take power if the French people have confidence in us in these forthcoming legislative elections,” said the runner-up in the last two presidential elections. “We are ready to put the country back on its feet.”

Should Le Pen’s anti-immigrant party win a shock majority in the National Assembly, the prime minister’s job would likely go to her protege Jordan Bardella, the telegenic 28-year-old who led the far right to its highest ever score in the EU elections.

In such a scenario, Macron would still direct defence and foreign policy, but he would lose the power to set the domestic agenda – and be remembered as the president who let in the far right.

A humbling for Macron

The outcome of Sunday’s elections means France, a founding member of the EU, will send to Brussels the largest contingent of far-right, Eurosceptic lawmakers among the 27-member bloc.

The National Rally has traditionally done well in European elections, topping the vote in 2014 and in 2019. Its massive 15-point margin of victory on Sunday – up from just 1 percent five years ago – suggests both that Le Pen’s party is at a historic high and that Macron’s camp is in a position of unprecedented weakness.

Read moreEU parliament: Four things to know about the European elections

The result marks a stinging rebuke of France’s Europhile president, who rose to power in 2017 on a promise to ensure French voters would “no longer have a reason to vote for extreme parties”.

Macron had upped the stakes during the campaign, warning that “Europe is mortal” and recently flagging the threat to the continent from a resurgent far right at D-Day commemorations.

His defeat is also a crushing blow to the country’s youthful prime minister, Gabriel Attal, who was appointed less than six months ago to breathe new life into Macron’s second term in office.

“Don’t be like the British who cried after Brexit,” Attal told voters days before the election, suggesting they would regret placing their future in the hands of Eurosceptics. Such dire warnings appear to no longer hurt Le Pen’s party, which abandoned its calls for “Frexit” long ago.

According to an Ipsos survey on Sunday, 68 percent of the RN’s backers said they voted “first and foremost to voice their opposition to the president and his government” – against 39 percent nationwide. And while the broader electorate said they voted predominantly based on EU issues, a massive 73 percent of Bardella’s voters said national concerns took precedence.

The same survey said immigration and the cost-of-living crisis – RN’s main vote winners – were the dominant issues on voters’ minds. Such topics are likely to remain high on the agenda as parties now scramble to prepare for parliamentary polls in just three weeks’ time.

Left divided and beaten

For the country’s fractious left, the European polls provided another sobering reminder of the pitfalls of division, just two years after the NUPES alliance came second in parliamentary polls behind Macron’s ruling coalition – raising hopes of an end to the factionalism and bickering that has hampered left-wing candidates over the years.

Those hopes were dashed in the run-up to the EU polls, leaving five separate lists to fight over a diminishing share of the electorate. At roughly 33 percent, their combined tally is three points shy of the far right’s cumulative score.

Tellingly, the main casualties of division were the Greens, the first party to announce it would stand alone rather than under the banner of the NUPES. That decision backfired spectacularly, with the Greens now projected to win just 5.5 percent of the vote, down from 13 percent in 2019, thus barely passing the 5% threshold to send lawmakers to Brussels.

France Unbowed, the radical left party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, fared better than five years ago with 8.7 percent of the vote – a higher-than-expected tally that partially vindicates its decision to put the war in Gaza at the heart of its campaign. But its dominance on the left will now be challenged by a resurgent Socialist Party, which is projected to win 14 percent of the vote.

It helped, perhaps, that the moribund Socialists were not led by one of their own, but rather by European lawmaker Raphaël Glucksmann, a former writer and commentator who emerged as the campaign’s third man – and a potential new champion for centre-left voters desperate for an alternative to Mélenchon.

Glucksmann and LFI were at loggerheads throughout the EU elections campaign, meaning chances of reviving the NUPES alliance in time for the June 30 polls look bleak, though left-wing politicians rushed to call for unity following Macron’s announcement.

‘Russian roulette’

Glucksmann said he was “flabbergasted” by Macron’s gamble, accusing the French president of bowing to the National Rally’s calls for a snap vote. He added: “This is an extremely dangerous game with democracy and institutions.”

Conservatives in the opposition were equally scathing, slamming a rash move that leaves them ill-prepared for battle after bruising European elections.

“Dissolving without giving anyone time to organise and without any campaign is playing Russian roulette with the country's destiny,” said Valérie Pécresse, a former presidential candidate for the centre-right Les Républicains, which took just over 7 percent of the vote on Sunday, their lowest-ever score.

There are ominous precedents for Macron.

The last French president to call a snap election was Jacques Chirac in 1997 – and his gamble is remembered as one of the greatest own goals in modern French politics.

Chirac’s rash move only further angered already disgruntled voters, who stripped the conservative president of his majority and forced him into a “cohabitation” with a left-wing government headed by Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

While voters today are arguably just as disgruntled, France’s political landscape is radically different.

Macron and the far right have effectively blown up the traditional left-right divide, making it more difficult for mainstream parties to alternate in government. And while two-round elections have so far barred the far right from power, voters have become increasingly weary of rallying behind the anti-Le Pen front – making the outcome of the upcoming election highly unpredictable. View the projections and final results of the European elections on our dedicated page.

Macron's call for snap elections: 'Defiance' among France Unbowed members


Issued on: 09/06/2024 - 

After the initial shock and surprise that followed French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement calling for snap legislative elections, the atmosphere at France Unbowed’s headquarters is one of defiance, FRANCE 24’s Vedika Bahl said. The party’s founder and former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon said Macron’s move has political as well as cultural, philosophical and moral significance.

01:28 Video by:Vedika BAHL

Jordan Bardella: the 28-year-old 'captain' of France's far-right party

Jordan Bardella, the far-right party leader who inflicted a stinging defeat on President Emmanuel Macron's alliance in European elections, is a self-confident 28-year-old hailed by supporters as a political phenomenon but seen by detractors as lacking substance.


Issued on: 10/06/2024 -

French Jordan Bardella, President of the French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National - RN) party and head of the RN list for the European elections in Paris, France, June 9, 2024.

 © Sarah Meyssonnier, Reuters

Bardella, raised in a single-parent home, in 2022 officially became the leader of the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party aged just 27, but boasting the communication skills of a much older politician.

The RN, with Bardella leading its list, scored double the number of votes of Macron's centrist alliance in the European Parliament elections -- prompting Macron to announce on television that he was dissolving parliament and calling snap elections for June 30.

"France has given its verdict and there is no appeal," said Bardella, as he earlier urged Macron to call elections.

"Our compatriots have expressed a desire for change but also a path for the future," he told supporters, adding the result showed the "determination of our country for the European Union to change direction".

"It is wind of hope and it is only the start," he said, describing Macron as a "weakened president".

'Not against Europe'

Bardella took over the RN's leadership from Marine Le Pen, who has been trying to rid the party of the racist and anti-Semitic imprint left by her father and party co-founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Le Pen, who was runner-up in the last two presidential elections, has remained party leader in parliament and is largely expected to run again in 2027.

But her charismatic successor, who has 1.2 million followers on TikTok, is proving to be a major asset in attracting an increasingly younger crowd to vote for the party.

Le Pen has signalled he would be prime minister if she wins the Elysee in 2027. But there have been rumblings within the RN that the young upstart could make an even better candidate than his mentor.

Bardella's carefully curated story has added to smoothing the image of the RN, which Jean-Marie Le Pen once ran from a chateau in a rich town west of the capital.

The RN leader in 2022 shared details about his childhood on the eighth floor of a drab tower block in the crime-ridden Seine-Saint-Denis area northeast of Paris.

During the campaign Bardella was widely seen as having won a televised debate against the little-known head of Macron's party list, Valerie Hayer.

Apparently nervous of Hayer's capacities in the head-to-head format, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal then himself took on Bardella in a debate on May 23 and succeeded in putting the RN chief under considerable pressure over Europe.

Attal sought to paint Bardella as leading a party without substance that had no serious interest in Europe and a vision "of turning in on ourselves and the end of the European Union."

Bardella countered: "I am not against Europe. I am against the way Europe works now."

Eyeing a prominent role in Europe after the elections, Bardella has steered the RN away from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction, saying it will no longer sit in the parliament with the faction after a succession of controversies.

'Captain, oh captain'

Bardella's critics accuse him of spending too much time honing his public image, and not enough studying important political issues.

Far-left European lawmaker Manon Aubry has described him as a "ghost parliamentarian" for often failing to show up in the European chamber over the past five years.

And his rise has not been entirely free of controversy.

A French television report alleged in January that he used an anonymous Twitter account to share racist messages when he was a local elected official, claims he has vehemently denied.

One 2017 post from the "RepNat du Gaito" account includes an obscene image mocking Theo Luhaka, a young black man who suffered severe anal injuries from a police baton that year, the France 2 report said.

A French court in January gave three officers suspended jail sentences in the case, a rare one of police brutality to make it to court.

Bardella has not revolutionised the party's belief system, experts point out, but he is still giving his party a youthful vibe.

"Captain, oh captain, we need you to guide us," goes the soundtrack to his campaign post on TikTok.

(AFP)

French PM’s Instagram pitch to young voters features Nintendo, condom

HOW FRENCH!

AFP
June 7, 2024


The government faces an uphill struggle to narrow the gap with the far right - Copyright Satellite image ©2024 Maxar Technologies/AFP -

French premier Gabriel Attal on Friday wielded objects including a condom and a Nintendo Switch in a last ditch bid on social media to win the votes of young people in European elections.

Attal’s centrist government is battling to narrow the far-right National Rally’s (RN) massive lead in opinion polls when France votes in the European parliament elections on Sunday.

On the final legal day of campaigning in France, Attal brandished a condom, a Nintendo Switch games player and a universal charger as proof of how Europe brings benefits to young people.

“These three objects have something in common — Europe,” Attal, at 35 France’s youngest prime minister, said in a video published on his Instagram page.

It was thanks to Europe, he said, that “all the condoms that you buy conform with all the demands in terms of resistance and security.”

He said Europe had forced Nintendo to replace free of charge Switch joysticks that no longer worked and was forcing manufacturers to have one single phone charger from December.

Reaffirming a mantra of President Emmanuel Macron, Attal said Europe was “in danger” and risked having a “blocking minority” of far-right deputies in the next European parliament.

“I count on you to vote on Sunday” for the ruling party’s list led by Valerie Hayer, he said.

Hayer has waged a troubled campaign, with Attal taking on a head-to-head duel with the RN list chief Jordan Bardella and then facing criticism for seeming to barge in on a debate where she was speaking.

A poll by OpinionWay published Friday showed the RN list on 33 percent of the vote and Macron’s centrist coalition on 15 percent only just ahead of the Socialists on 13 percent.

Macron had Thursday also spoken of the risks of a far-right victory, warning the French not to share the regrets of Britons who did not vote against Brexit in the 2016 referendum, only to see their country leave the European Union.

“Come on, go vote on June 9, it is very important. I say this because I always think back to our British friends who did not go to vote on Brexit day. Not going to vote is leaving the future of our continent and our country to others,” he said in a television interview. 

EUROPE VOTES

2024 European elections: Italy's PM Meloni solidifies top spot in EU vote

Issued on: 09/06/2024 - 

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's arch-conservative Brothers of Italy group won the most votes in this weekend's European parliamentary election, exit polls said, confirming its status as Italy's most popular party. FRANCE 24's Seema Gupta reports from Rome.

03:43 Video by: Seema GUPTA

'The story of the European elections in Hungary has two major takeaways'


"The story of the European elections in Hungary has two major takeaways," said FRANCE 24's correspondent in Budapest, Luke Brown.

"The record-high turnout – 50% of Hungarian voters – that's 13 percentage points higher than in 2019, but also the arrival on the scene of a new serious challenger to the Prime Minister Vikor Orban," he added.

Hungary's Orban says EU election win affirms government's policy course

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Sunday his ruling Fidesz party's victory in European Parliament elections affirmed his government's policy course amid an unexpectedly strong showing by an opposition newcomer.

"In a war situation and in a difficult battle, we have scored important victories," Orban, a nationalist, told supporters.

Von der Leyen confident she can win new mandate as EU Commission's president

Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday she was confident she could win a new mandate as the European Commission's president, after initial projections from the European Union showed her centrist European People's Party (EPP) with the most seats in the EU Parliament.

"Yes, I am confident, but of course I know there is a lot of hard work ahead of me. But I am definitely confident, as far as my running for a second mandate is concerned," she said.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

2024 European elections: PM Wilders' party performance dips in EU vote

Issued on: 09/06/2024 - 

Dutch Prime Minister Geert Wilders' right-wing populist party performed less well than expected in the European elections Sunday, winning only six out of the seven seats that were previously estimated. Meanwhile the Green-left labour alliance fulfilled projections in winning eight seats. FRANCE 24's Fernande Van Tets reports from Amsterdam.

02:49 Video by: Fernande VAN TETS

  

Far right surges in EU elections, dealing blows to leaders of France and Germany

Far-right parties made gains in elections to the European Parliament on Sunday, prompting a bruised French President Emmanuel Macron to call a shock early election and adding uncertainty to Europe’s future political direction.


Issued on: 09/06/2024

Overall across the EU, two mainstream and pro-European groups, the Christian Democrats and the Socialists, remain the dominant forces in the European Parliament. 

© John Thys, AFP

FRANCE 24

While the centre, liberal and green parties are set to retain the balance of power in the 720-seat parliament, the vote dealt a domestic blow to the leaders of both France and Germany, raising questions about how the European Union’s major powers can drive policy in the bloc.

Making a risky gamble in a bid to seek to re-establish his authority, Macron called a parliamentary election, with the first round on June 30.

Read moreFrance’s Macron calls snap election in huge gamble after EU polls debacle

Like Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also endured a painful night where his Social Democrats scored their worst result ever, suffering at the hands of the mainstream conservatives and hard right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

01:14

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni saw her position strengthened by her arch-conservative Brothers of Italy group winning the most votes, exit polls showed.

A rightwards shift inside the European Parliament may make it tougher to pass new legislation that might be needed to respond to security challenges, the impact of climate change or industrial competition from China and the United States.

However, exactly how much clout the euro-sceptic nationalist parties will wield will depend on their ability to overcome their differences and work together. They are currently split between two different families, and some parties and lawmakers for now lie outside these groupings.

The centre-right European People's Party (EPP) will be the biggest political family in the new legislature, gaining five seats to field 189 deputies, a centralised exit poll showed.

In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist Civic Coalition, a member of the EPP, was set to win the European vote. In Spain as well, the centre-right People's Party, also part of the EPP, came out on top, outperforming Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

01:28

Such results were good news for EPP member Ursula von der Leyen who seeks a second five-year term at the helm of the powerful EU executive arm.

And she was quick to present herself as a shield against extremes.

"No majority can be formed without the EPP and together ... We will build a bastion against the extremes from the left and from the right," she told supporters at the EPP's election night event in Brussels.

She added, later in the evening: "But it is also true that extremes and on the left and the right have gained support and this is why the result comes with great responsibility for the parties in the centre."

Von der Leyen may still need support from some right-wing nationalists, such as Meloni's Brothers of Italy to secure a parliamentary majority, giving Meloni and her European Conservative and Reformists (ECR) allies more leverage - which could upset other potential allies.

Blow to the Greens

The centre-left Socialists and Democrats are poised to be the second biggest political family, even as they lost four lawmakers to end up with 135, the exit poll showed.

Political observers attribute the shift to the right to the rise in the cost of living, concerns about migration and the cost of the green transition as well as the war in Ukraine – worries that nationalist and populist parties have seized on.

"I think a lot of people felt that Europe is doing things not with people, but just doing it on top of people," Greens' lead candidate Bas Eickhout told Reuters in an interview, asked why the far right was doing so well.

"And I think here we need to come up with a credible answer, otherwise, we're only getting further to the far right," he said, after the Greens and liberals lost ground in the election.





The exit poll projected that pro-European centre-right, centre-left, liberal and Green parties will retain a majority of 460 seats, but one which is slimmed down compared to their 488 in the outgoing chamber of 705 deputies.

Europe's Green parties in particular suffered heavy losses, subsiding to 53 deputies from 71 in the outgoing parliament.

The number of non-affiliated deputies who may choose to join other groups, including the euro-sceptics, jumped by 33 to 95, the exit poll said.

The European Parliament co-decides with the intergovernmental European Council on laws governing the 27-nation bloc of 450 million people.

View the projections and final results of the European elections on our dedicated page.

LGBTQ Georgians fear Russia-style crackdown

AFP
June 7, 2024

Success was the first openly gay bar in the Caucasus when it was founded in 2000

 - Copyright AFP Vano SHLAMOV

Caleb DAVIS

In Georgia’s oldest gay bar, Tato Londaridze carefully stepped around construction materials as he set out his ambitious plan to put a stage for drag queens on the dance floor.

“Success”, in the centre of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, was the first gay club in the Caucasus when it opened in 2000 — but a slew of anti-LGBTQ proposals from the government have now put its future at risk.

“We are an open gay bar,” Tato said. “And we don’t want to change that.”

On Tuesday, the ruling Georgian Dream party outlined a package of laws that would ban what it calls “LGBT propaganda”, mirroring similar legislation used to crack down on gay rights in Russia and, more recently, Hungary.

Billed as “protecting family values and minors”, the new laws would prohibit the promotion of same-sex relationships on television and in the education system, outlaw sex changes, and codify a ban on same-sex marriage and adoption.

They would also ban “gatherings and demonstrations” promoting same-sex couples, and while the laws would not target his establishment directly, Tato is worried they could have broader consequences.

“It’s not only dangerous for the gay community, it is dangerous for the owners of gay bars,” he told AFP when asked about the government’s proposals first put forward in March.

“Queer places will stop existing, queer parties will be closed,” the 29-year-old warned.

“We are looking for a solution. We don’t want to work undercover,” he sighed.

– ‘Afraid’ –

The draft legislation was announced a day after the Black Sea nation adopted a controversial “foreign influence” law placing onerous restrictions on Western-funded rights groups and the media.

Both measures have ignited fears ex-Soviet Georgia is moving back into Moscow’s orbit, despite opinion polls showing more than 80 percent of the population supporting membership of NATO and the European Union.

Londaridze said some of his friends were already planning to leave.

“Most of them are afraid. I know several people who have already bought tickets,” he told AFP.

“In the end, in Georgia, there will not be openly queer people,” he feared.

Across the street, in the small office of LGBTQ rights group Tbilisi Pride, co-founder Mariam Kvaratskhelia listed off a string of awareness campaigns and drag events they’ve been able to stage in recent years.

“It was never easy. Georgia was never a very LGBTQ-friendly country unfortunately,” the 31-year-old told AFP.

“But during the last two years, we have seen political homophobia really intensify.”

Last year, her group’s Tbilisi pride event in a park far from the city centre was mobbed by thousands of right-wing protesters, who completely destroyed the venue and forced its attendees to flee.

“The government did nothing to prevent the violence,” Kvaratskhelia said.

“I’m very sad to say this, but this year we are not planning Pride Week or any pride events.”


– ‘Existential fight’ –

With the government’s proposed laws, the LGBTQ community now faces an “existential fight”, Kvaratskhelia said.

Lawmakers have said they will consider the new bills during the current parliamentary session, ahead of October elections where the opposition hopes to form a united front.

The Speaker of Parliament Shalva Papuashvili said the sweeping package of 19 bills had the “absolute support of the country’s population” and would protect “family values”.

But opposition parties have accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of pushing through the legislation in a bid to win over conservatives and distract the population from real issues.

The bills are likely to further deepen a rift between Georgia and the EU, which warned the Caucasus country last month it was straying from its path to joining the bloc with the new Russian-style legislation.

Kvaratskhelia, whose office and apartment building have already been vandalised, said she feared the measures will further alienate LGBTQ Georgians.

“I myself have thought a lot about going abroad and having a peaceful life,” she said.

But she vowed to stay as long as it was possible.

“We are going to have huge information campaigns in Tbilisi and in the regions in order to have victory in the upcoming parliamentary elections in October,” she said.

“We are very determined to keep the fight going.”

Ivory Coast bets on solar in clean energy drive


By AFP
June 7, 2024

Solar panels in the northern town of Boundiali in Ivory Coast stretch across 36 hectares (89 acres) - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File MARIO TAMA

Marietou BÂ

The sun beats down from a cloudless sky on the town of Boundiali, where Ivory Coast’s first solar power plant embodies the drive to embrace clean energy without abandoning fossil fuels.

Unlike the wetter, cloudier south, the climate in northern Ivory Coast bordering Burkina Faso and Mali is hot and dry for around eight months of the year.

“Irradiance is very high” in the region, plant engineer Franck Alain Yayo told AFP, referring to the intensity of the Sun’s energy.

The Boundiali plant, which opened in June 2023, aims to improve the electricity supply to more than 430,000 households, the energy ministry said.

Although Ivory Coast has about 10 smaller solar power plants serving villages at a local level, Boundiali is the first on the national grid.

The country, which already exports about 10 percent of its electricity to neighbours, aims to generate nearly half of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that half the population of sub-Saharan Africa has no access to electricity.

And yet, it added in a recent report: “Africa is home to 60 percent of the best solar resources globally, yet only one percent of installed solar PV (photovoltaic) capacity.”

While the continent has doubled its capacity to produce clean energy in the last 10 years, African renewables still account for just two percent of global capacity.

– Call for private funding –

The northern Ivorian town has some 68,000 solar panels bought from China laid out in rows across 36 hectares (89 acres).

The panels convert sunlight, not heat, into electricity.

By the end of next year, the aim is to have twice as many panels to reach a production capacity of 80 MWp (Megawatt peak, a measure of the maximum potential output).

That would save some 60,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, say the authorities.

The 75.6-million-euro ($82.1-million) cost of building the solar power station was financed by Ivory Coast, a German loan and a European Union grant.

“This is the result of the EU’s long-standing commitment to the renewable energy sector, with almost 140 million euros since 2017,” EU ambassador to Ivory Coast Francesca Di Mauro told AFP.

However, international public funding to support sub-Saharan Africa’s transition towards clean energy will not be enough.

Last year, the IEA called for private investment to be stepped up to account for 60 percent of financing.

Solar power is currently a small part of the Ivorian energy mix — the Boundiali plant contributes just one percent of national production.

Nearly 70 percent of the country’s electricity comes from gas-fired thermal power plants, while hydroelectric power stations account for the rest, all located in the south.

By 2030, Ivory Coast has pledged to increase its share of renewable energy to 45 percent, including nine percent solar, and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent.

Fossil fuels however still play a key role.

– New oil, gas discoveries –

The West African nation recently discovered two huge oil and natural gas deposits.

One of them, the Calao field, “will eventually meet the country’s electricity production needs”, said Energy Minister Sangafowa Coulibaly.

It may also help reduce electricity bills, which would be a welcome relief to householders after prices rose by 10 percent in January.

“Every day the sun shines on our heads” the cost of production is “very low”, plant engineer Yayo said.

Yayo, who learned his skills in Burkina Faso, regretted that his country had neither the technology nor the expertise to train people.

Ivory Coast’s state-run company CI-Energies, which handles Boundiali plant’s infrastructure, temporarily subcontracts to French civil engineering firm Eiffage.

It is Eiffage which is training many of the employees, most of them local people.

In this region of around 92,000 people, some 350 have been hired since construction of the plant began.

Most were taken on with short-term contracts to install solar panels or carry out maintenance.

Among them was Oumar Konate, who previously worked in farming as well as doing odd jobs in town.

Employment in the rural area was hard to come by, he said. “I prefer to work here. The pay is better. I can feed my family.”