Saturday, May 25, 2024

 

Gen Z stakes claim in European Elections



Copyright AP Photo and Facebook
By Romane Armangau

Born from the mid-90s to mid-2000s, hailing from both left and right, meet the young candidates reshaping the stage for lawmakers.

Currently, only three members of the European Parliament (MEPs) under 30 years age may reasonably claim to belong to Gen Z. This is likely to change this June with the arrival of a new generation of elected representatives. Euronews selected a handful of candidates to reflect on their precocious political journeys.

Maylis Roßberg: The Activist

Country: Germany Party: South Schleswig Voters' Association (EFA) Age: 24 

Maylis RoßbergGerard Magrinyà Berenguer/Marc Puig I Perez

Maylis Roßberg is clear, she is an activist, not a politician. She was nevertheless chosen by the European Free Alliance (EFA), which advocates for the right to self-determination of peoples, to represent them as a Spitzenkandidat among the top brass of European politics.

Born in 2000 in Schleswig-Holstein, she comes from a family belonging to the Danish minority of this northern German state. Her political awakening came very young: as a pre-teen, she ventured into political slam poetry, which led to her being noticed by the South Schleswig Voters' Association (SSW), the party representing the state's Danish and Frisian minorities. They invited her to get involved in politics - which she did the day after her fourteenth birthday. She told Euronews that growing up, she did not feel represented in the political landscape as a young woman and a minority, which is why she now wants to inspire others.

She advanced within the party, leading its youth section in 2020, and became involved with its European equivalent, EFA Youth, of which she became president in 2024. When she was offered the role of Spitzenkandidat alongside Catalan Raül Romeva, she hesitated. On the one hand, she felt honoured to be part of a party that trusts its youth; on the other , she feared the social media vitriol often directed at “young women who speak up”. But she took her chance and embarked on her candidacy in October 2023.

Maylis Roßberg gained a burst of notoriety during the Maastricht debate, where she discussed issues affecting youth alongside leading candidates, the EPP's Ursula von der Leyen, Socialist Nicolas Schmit, and Dutch Green MP Bas Eickhout. She told Euronews that she was nervous but thought the best approach was to “be yourself and you won’t regret anything ... as I believed what I had to say was important.”

Outside of her role as Spitzenkandidat, she is a busy young woman juggling her work as a political advisor for the SSW, her studies in socioeconomics at Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, and her passion for football.

Priorities: Recognition of minorities, Democracy and diversity in political representation.

Where to find her: on Instagram @maylisrossberg 

Sebastião Bugalho: The Boomer soul

Country: Portugal Party: Democratic Alliance (EPP) Age: 28 


Sebastião BugalhoAliança Democrática

"A talented young man, (...) known throughout the country," although "a bit controversial and disruptive," are the words used by by Luís Montenegro, the Portuguese Prime Minister, to describe the lead candidate of the Democratic Alliance. Bugalho is a familiar face in Portugal since the 28 years old’s TV appearances as political commentator accumulate hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and he is “controversial” for the conservative, right-wing positions he ardently defends on TV.

In just a few years, he has managed to establish himself in the Portuguese media landscape. Coming from a family of journalists, his mother describes him as being cut from different political cloth from the rest of the family: “My eldest son and I, agree that we disagree on almost everything, he is right-wing, Catholic and conservative." He followed in his parents' footsteps, however, by writing columns as a 20-something political science student. Quickly, he was given a television program in which he made a name for himself by interviewing leading political figures – that is when he acquired the nickname “prodígio” (the prodigy in portuguese). Despite his youth, Sebastião Bugalho likes to describe himself as an old soul. "My best friend says that I came out of my mother's womb reading The Economist – he might be right," he told the Jornal Económico in 2018.

In 2019, at the age of 23, he unsuccessfully ran as a candidate in the legislative elections but two years later when he was offered the place of a resigning deputy to sit for the People's Party, he declined. Instead, he refocused on his area of expertise: political commentary, featuring on major Portuguese media and helping to build CNN Portugal. Alongside former European deputy and current socialist member of the Portuguese parliament, Sérgio Sousa Pinto, he participated in the popular show Contrapoder (Counterpower in English) on the new channel debating hot current topics with a polemic twist.

Before the 2023 legislative elections, he left CNN to join SIC Notícias television and the weekly newspaper Expresso. For these media outlets, he covered campaign news and interviewed various candidates before himself offering his candidacy, accepting an offer from the governing party and launching his own campaign for the European elections.

Since then, he has been mingling with crowds - addressing youth during a visit last week to students in Bragança, promising to "strengthen territorial cohesion, creating jobs and competitiveness in the interior municipalities and districts," but mostly aiming his message at the elderly with his 65+ advantage card project or the fight against desertification. A source close to the candidate told us that he does not want to revolutionize the current system, he wants to appeal to all generations.

Priorities: Pro-European and Atlanticist, housing access and economic growth.

Where to find him: only on X @reis_bugalho 

Nina Skočak: The Influencer

Country: Croatia Party: Gen Z list (Independant Party) Age: 26  


Nina SkočakNina Skočak

Nina Skočak is a Croatian influencer, passionate about make-up and vintage clothing. She shares "lifestyle" vlogs with her more than 200,000 followers on TikTok, where they can see her at restaurants, flea markets, decorating her apartment, and giving travel tips. But that's just one aspect of the young woman who is also an expert in European politics and communication.

After completing a master's degree in European politics, she started her career in the EU Bubble in 2022 with a traineeship at the European Parliament, followed by a position at the European Commission Scientific Advice Mechanism. Naturally, she began discussing topics that interested her, giving her social media followers insights on the functioning of European institutions. It gained attraction– her videos have accumulated 12.6 million likes.

In Brussels, she noticed that despite speeches and conferences on youth policy, young people were not adequately represented. "The same goes for national elections; we had three elections this year and saw that the biggest political parties didn't include any young candidates," Skočak told Euronews. "We look at the private sector, there are young CEOs, but in politics, there is huge discrimination towards the youth." So she decided to take matters into her own hands.

She formed an independent list composed of young people passionate about politics, all Gen Z, with an average age of 26 - the youngest candidate being 19. Not being part of any established political party or structure makes it more challenging to reach out to people, yet the young influencer remains optimistic, "when you don't have money, you become creative." So, she ventures off the beaten path and engages with her electorate by organizing pop quizzes, flea markets, or simply communicating in bars frequented by Croatian youth.

Despite holding a master's degree in European politics and having solid professional experience, she is portrayed by Croatian media primarily as an influencer. A situation she describes as "frustrating" for a young woman who wishes to seriously defend her ideas of youth - and gender - inclusion in politics, but also more broadly to improve the living conditions of young people.

Priorities: Youth inclusion in politics, sustainable and green economy and women's rights.

Where to find her: on TikTok @ninaskocak 

Jordan Bardella: The Mastermind

Country: France Party: National Rally (ID) Age: 28


Jordan Bardella at the European ParliamentRaphael ATTAL @BootEXE

Born in 1995 in a Parisian suburb, this son of Italian immigrants has had a meteoric political career. Influenced by the violent riots in the French suburbs in 2005, he entered politics at the age of 17, joining Marine Le Pen's far-right party, the National Rally. Two years later, he dropped out of his Geography studies to devote himself to politics. He served consecutively as a regional councilor, spokesperson, vice-president of the party, before leading the National Rally's list in the 2019 European elections at just 23 years old. In November 2022, he was elected successor of Marine Le Pen as the president of the far-right party. The following year he was appointed, for the second consecutive time, as the National Rally's lead candidate - he is expected to sit for another five years in the hemicycle.

He is not particularly proactive in the European Parliament, since he has not initiated any parliamentary reports and is absent from 75% of the meetings of his parliamentary committee. He shines on TV shows, however, with striking punchlines, and even more so on social media platforms. There he masters the tropes: whether its trending music, funny sound effects, compilations of his best comebacks, casual moments captured on the spot (such as enjoying a sausage roll among factory workers). He boasts 1.2 million followers on TikTok, the social network beloved of 18-25 year olds, a demographic for which the National Rally's list is credited with 32% of voting intentions.

He uses TikTok, he says, as a means "to reach out to young people who are depoliticised and become politicised through social media".

Priorities: security, the primacy of French law, end to illegal immigration.

Where to find him: on TikTok @jordanbardella 

Kira Marie Peter-Hansen: The Youngest of the Youngest

Country: Denmark Party: Green Left (Greens/EFA) Age: 26  

Kira Marie Peter-Hansen - Member of the European Parliament for SF in DenmarkWilliam Vest-Lillesøe

As a 21 year-old Dane, Peter-Hansen just scraped in as the youngest Member of the European Parliament ever elected in 2019. The Socialist People's Party's second and last place was supposed to go to Karsten Hønge, but he ultimately chose to withdraw to pursue a national mandate. She then agreed to head to Brussels though it meant quitting her economics studies at the University of Copenhagen.

In January, the Dane told Euronews that she faced criticism for her lack of experience at the beginning of her mandate. Yet, she entrenched herself in her favourite topic - economics, becoming vice-chair of the taxation and member of the economic affairs and employment committees. Euronews ranked her fourth in its top MEPs dominating economic and finance policy after the elections. She stood out by working on key anti-money laundering reforms and leading negotiations on the pay transparency directive, legislation that will require EU companies to share information on salaries and take action if their gender pay gap exceeds 5%.

To complete her CV, she became vice-president of the political group Greens/EFA in 2021 and was nominated in 2024 as a “rising star” by EP magazine. Nevertheless, five years in, the criticisms still persist: "I often hear that I don't have enough experience. But I'm 25 now, and you have a number of MEPs who have been here longer than I have been born. I think to me that's totally crazy."

In parallel to her work as an MEP, she is pursuing a part time bachelor's in international relations at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). In 2024, she was nominated to lead the Socialist People's Party list for the European elections and has a high chance of being re-elected.

Priorities: Climate, feminism and solidarity.

Where to find her: on Instagram @kiraphansen 

Youth representation

In all EU countries, the average age of the lawmakers (blue line) is well above the average age of the population (blue columns). In Lithuania, there is a 20 year gap in the representation: the average age of the population is 45 years old when the average age of the 11 MEPs is 65.

When looking at the younger members of the EP, only three are under 30: Kira Marie Peter-Hansen (26), Jordan Bardella (28) and Martine Kemp (29). Clara Massé, the campaign manager for the French Young Europeans deplored this representation gap: “Young people under 30 are underrepresented, they constitute only 0.43% of the European Parliament.” For the 2024 elections she admits that "efforts are made with quite a few top candidates under 35 years old, but still, there are rarely more than three candidates out of the top 10 on each list who are below this threshold. However, no public policy can be built without the contribution of those who will be affected by it."

An EP Think Tank report claimed that the low turnout of young voters in past European Elections is partly due to that representation gap. To break this barrier, the study recommended lowering the candidacy age to 18 or voting to 16. For now, 16 years olds can only vote in Austria, Germany, Belgium, and Malta and 17 years olds in Greece. 

The president of the European Youth Forum, a youth advocacy association, Rareș Voicu, told Euronews that young candidates are essentials to bring fresh ideas: “We need politicians who understand what it means to be young today, to take seriously challenges such as climate change, affordable accommodation and mental health."

 

Why did Serbia react so harshly to the UN resolution on Srebrenica?

WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS
Copyright Darko Bandic/Copyright 2021 The AP. All rights reserved

By Sergio Cantone

Serbian government and public opinion have continued to harshly criticise the UN General Assembly's decision on Thursday to pass the resolution commemorating the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica. Why is this the case?

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution decision on Thursday to declare 11 July the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica has a highly political role, according to the regional actors. 

The Serbian government and public opinion have been staunchly criticising it since its preliminary phases.

Belgrade sees the declaration as a part of a comprehensive Western political and diplomatic offensive against Serbia and the Serbs on issues covering a spectrum from Kosovo to the Bosnian question, two main key talking points for the government in Belgrade, which regards them as unresolved issues stemming from the wars of Yugoslavia in the 1990s



Bosnian Serb leader threatens secession ahead of UN genocide vote

UN approves annual commemoration of 1995 Srebrenica genocide

Meanwhile, its proponents highlight that the resolution is solely meant to commemorate the victims of the July 1995 events in the eastern Bosnian town.

The document is comparable to the UN resolution designating 7 April as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Germany and Rwanda, the two countries that proposed and drafted the settlement on the Tutsi massacre approved by the UNGA in 2018, were the main co-sponsors of the Srebrenica resolution.

Serbian political context

As Serbia prepares to hold key local elections on 2 June — including who will rule over Belgrade — Bosnia and Kosovo are still crucial factors in the public political debate of the Western Balkans country. 

Serbian conservative President Aleksandar Vučić's reluctance to join the EU sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine has also contributed to strained relations between his country on the one side and the EU, the US and some of its neighbours on the other.



Serbian President Aleksandar VucicDarko Vojinovic/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserv

Serbia's potential EU membership could be put on hold, while according to various opinion polls, Euroscepticism in the Balkan country has prevailed over the blossoming Europhilia of the early 2000s. 

Whether this is a reaction to the enlargement blues outspokenly displayed by some in the EU or a genuine national sentiment, in the eyes of some in Serbia, hesitance toward the West is a part of pushback against its many demands.

Former Yugoslavia and international justice

The verdicts from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) clearly established the personal responsibility of individuals and concrete military units and made a distinction between those and any collective actors, such as Serbia and the Republika Srpska — the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia — and the genocide in Srebrenica. 

Serbia initially started to take steps and recognise the rulings at home. In 2010, the country's National Assembly adopted its own Resolution on Srebrenica based on the ICJ's verdict, but without explicitly mentioning genocide. Then, in 2015, President Vučić went to Srebrenica to pay tribute to the victims.

Meanwhile, the text of the UN resolution commemorating the Srebrenica genocide excludes the Serbian collective responsibility for the "Bosnian Genocide" thanks to a Montenegrin amendment.


Supporters of Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad DodikRadivoje Pavicic/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved

"Serbia is afraid that the resolution could be misused at the international fora, and it could become 'evidence' that the Serbian nation, the Serb people and the Republika Srpska bear the responsibility for the genocide, Serbian legal expert Milan Antonijević said. 

"When one reads the text of the resolution, one realises that without any doubt, it is condemning the genocide in Srebrenica and not linking it to any of the nations involved (in the conflict). But the legal level and its wording are one thing, and the political PR is another."

During the Bosnian war, over the course of three days around 11 July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army of the Republika Srpska killed 8,000 Bosniak men and boys despite the area having been officially designated by the UN as a “safe area” for civilians. 

Those units were under the military orders of General Ratko Mladić and the political leader of the former president of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić.



banners of the former Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko MladicAndrej Cukic/AP

A considerable number of Bosnian Serb officials, both army officers and politicians, were condemned by the ICTY for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Both Mladić and Karadžić were sentenced to life for genocide, among other counts.

It was the first time in Europe since World War II and the Nuremberg trials against Nazi German top officials that an international tribunal issued a verdict on genocide.

"When the Serb (political actors) accepted, reluctantly, their responsibility for the Srebrenica genocide, they believed that they were forced to do that. And if you look at their actions and their rhetoric, you do realise this reluctant acceptance of responsibility happened under a lot of pressure in a different geopolitical situation," Bosnian historian Adnan Huskić, from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, told Euronews. 

"And ever since, what they have been doing was to permanently deny that the genocide took place and used any available opportunity to rehabilitate the persons who were found guilty in front of the ICTY," Huskić said.

'Missing an opportunity to use an opportunity'

After the military and political setbacks of the 1990s and the fall of the Slobodan Milošević regime, Serbia started a process of rapprochement with the EU and the US. 

At that time, Russia and China were much less assertive than they are today — the "different geopolitical context" Huskić mentions.

According to opposition politician, writer, and former Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Drašković, Serbia should have joined the initiative and backed the resolution.

"Unfortunately, the Serbian government missed an opportunity to use an opportunity to support this resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica, explaining that the Serbian nation further condemned crimes because Serbs, as a people, were the victims of a genocide during World War II," Drašković told Euronews. 

"By paying tribute to the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica, we would have paid tribute to the Serb victims in World War II," he explained.




Overview of the courtroom at the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, in The Hague, the NetherlandsBAS CZERWINSKI/AP2007

In the early 1990s, Vuk Drašković proposed a general reconciliation among the peoples of former Yugoslavia to rebuild inter-communitarian confidence in the region through a collective recognition of the mutual and respective historical guilts for the massacres of the past. This was the central focus of his foreign and security policy, along with the full integration of Serbia into the West.

After the wars, Drašković opposed the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia and the role played by Milošević's Serbia as he participated in the democratic governments in Belgrade. As the head of Serbian diplomacy, he established the basis for his country's EU membership application and a clear path to softening relations with NATO. 

Unresolved Bosnian question

Nevertheless, more than thirty years have passed since the end of the war, and the question of the future of Bosnia and the delicate balance between the three main ethnic communities is still a source of concern in the region. 

The key to the complex and complicated political system can be traced back to the 1995 US-brokered Dayton Agreement, which put an end to the bloodshed between Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks, turning Bosnia into a de facto protectorate of the international community.

Last month, Vučić criticised the draft resolution, saying it should have been presented at the UN Security Council rather than in front of the UN General Assembly because the "region is not stabilised yet".  

A constitutional reform could have revised the strict political separation among the Bosnian communities established by the Dayton Peace Accords and eliminated mechanisms that blocked almost all decision-making processes along ethnic lines — the root cause of all divisive politics in the country.

Nevertheless, after decades of attempts, the process collided with the new political instability generated by the Russian war in Ukraine.  



from left, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and U.S. Secretary of State Warren ChristopherJoe Marquette/AP

"I don't think that there is an overwhelming will to replace the current communitarian power-sharing system. I don't see the actors that could push the process forward," commented Huskić.  

I don't think that there is either a regional or a global environment favourable to that move. The process is going in another direction, and I think Bosnia is becoming more communitarian than before. The constitutional reform has stalled," he concluded. 

Serbia, Bosnia and the war in Ukraine

The Ukrainian war and its spillover have deeply influenced the situation in Central and Eastern Europe and reignited the unresolved conflicts between old adversaries.

"I cannot forget the very wrong message conveyed by the Serbian Orthodox Church that Russians, whatever they are doing, must be supported by the Serbs because they are our Orthodox brothers. This is why the (Serb Orthodox) Church did not condemn the Russian aggression on Ukraine," Drašković said. 

The Serbian government believes that German diplomacy, led by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, seems to be putting more pressure on Belgrade than other countries on many issues, from Kosovo to Russia and Bosnia. Germany was the co-sponsor of the UN resolution on the Srebrenica genocide, after all.


Vuk Draskovic, center, the veteran charismatic Serbian opposition leader,Joe Marquette/AP

"I think that the German foreign policy since Angela Merkel stepped down is much harsher towards Serbia," Antonijević said. 

"It is true that Germany is still supporting the accession of Belgrade to the EU and investing huge (amounts of) money in Serbia. Yet, Berlin should coordinate more with Belgrade, especially because next year, 2025, will mark the 30th anniversary of Srebrenica," argues Milan Antonijević.

The international community's high representative — the peace watchdog in Bosnia — is a top German official, Christian Schmidt.

Early this year, he drafted the so-called "integrity package" for  Bosnia and Hercegovina, a set of reforms concerning electoral transparency and anti-fraud systems with rules supposed to introduce ineligibility for the war criminals to honour the EU Enlargement requests. 

The head of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, opposed the "integrity package" and threatened the secession of the Serbian entity from the rest of the country if it were forced to implement it. He has also repeatedly rejected Schmidt's authority — granted to him by the UN — labelling him as a "German occupier".

Dodik is the only top official from a European country who has repeatedly visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow since February 2022.

Russia's meddling to be addressed?

As a long-time opposition stalwart, Drašković thinks that the current Serbian establishment is not fit to rule the country in the years to come and that there are still many unresolved questions in Belgrade.

"Russia is doing everything to open a Balkan front. It wants a Balkan front. It can do it because it controls the security structures of the Serbian state," denounced Drašković.

"The EU missed the opportunity to make the rulers of Serbia open the files about the activities of the Russian security services in Serbia. The European Commission's obligation is to impose on Serbia to open those secret files. It should be a priority," he insisted.

In the end, the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica won't make any difference, according to Drašković. "Milorad Dodik recognised that genocide fifteen years ago. He simply changed his mind", he concluded.


SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=KOSOVO

Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Thesis on The Kosovo Crisis and the Crisis of Global Capitalism

(originally written May 1999, Bill Clinton set the stage for George W. to invade Afghanistan and Iraq for humanitarian purposes.)
http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/01/war-whats-it-good-for-profit.html


Algeria, France sign agreement on memory, retrieval of colonial archives

Agreement aims to ‘retrieve the Algerian archives from the colonial era and possessions of immeasurable historical value to the hearts of the Algerian people,’ Algeria International Radio reports

Abbas Maymouni |25.05.2024 - AA

AA Archive


ALGIERS, Algeria

Algeria and France signed an agreement concerning the memory and retrieval of Algerian archives from the period of French colonization (1830 - 1962), according to media reports

The Algerian History and Memory Committee, represented by its chairman, historian Lahcen Zeghidi, signed the agreement and joint memorandum with the French Truth and Memory Commission, represented by historian Benjamin Stora, Algeria International Radio reported.

"The signing ceremony, which took place in the capital, Algiers, followed the conclusion of the fifth meeting of the Algeria-France Joint Commission on History and Memory," it said.​​​​​​​

The agreement aims to "retrieve the Algerian archives from the colonial era and possessions of immeasurable historical value to the hearts of the Algerian people."

The fifth meeting of the joint Commission began last Monday in Algiers, which Zeghidi previously described as "procedural and practical" without revealing details.

No additional information was provided about the content of the agreement.

Algeria insists on addressing four main issues with France: complete retrieval of the archives, return of the skulls and remains of resistance fighters, compensation for victims of nuclear tests and the cleanup of lands contaminated by nuclear radiation, and the disclosure of the fate of the missing.

The formation of the joint Commission, composed exclusively of historians, came during French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Algeria in August 2022, aiming for a "fair treatment" of the memory issue.

Algeria links the improvement of relations with France to progress on the memory file.

The visit of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to Paris has been postponed several times because of the issue, specifically the French authorities' refusal to hand over Emir Abdelkader's sword, his burnous (traditional cloak), and some of his belongings, which have been held at the Château d'Amboise where he was imprisoned from 1848 to 1852.

Abdelkader was an Algerian political leader and military commander who opposed French colonization in the 1840s. More than 140 years after his death, he remains at the center of the memory and history debate between France and Algeria.

In November, the two countries agreed to the return of 2 million digitized documents related to the colonial period and looted possessions, as well as 29 rolls and 13 registers from the remaining Ottoman-era archives, according to Algerian Radio.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala

LAST COLONY VIVA INDEPENDENCE
First French tourists evacuated from New Caledonia as unrest continues

The first evacuation flights for French tourists stranded in New Caledonia due to riots in the Pacific territory took off Saturday, the high commission in the archipelago said.



Issued on: 25/05/2024 - 
Roadblocks are still in place in some areas of the capital Noumea. © AP/Ludovic Marin
By:RFIFollow
ADVERTISING


The international airport in the capital Noumea has remained closed for more than a week and all commercial flights have been cancelled due to the unrest.

"Measures to send foreigners and French tourists home continue," the high commission, which represents the French state, said in a statement.

The tourists departed Saturday from Magenta airfield in Noumea aboard military aircraft headed for Australia and New Zealand, according to an AFP journalist.

They will then have to take commercial flights to mainland France.

"I came on vacation to visit my best friend (...) The conflict broke out and I got stuck," in Noumea, Audrey, who did not give her last name, told AFP.

Australia and New Zealand had already begun repatriating their nationals on Tuesday.

The situation has been gradually easing for the many people trapped in the territory which has been shaken since May 13 by riots over planned voting reforms.

Seven people have been killed in the violence, the latest a man shot dead on Friday by a policeman who was attacked by protesters.

President Emmanuel Macron flew to the archipelago on Thursday in an urgent bid to defuse the political crisis.

He pledged during his lightning trip that the planned voting reforms "will not be forced through".

Deadly unrest in New Caledonia tied to old colonial wounds


Contested voting reform


Indigenous Kanaks had objected that the planned reform would dilute their influence by extending voting rights to newcomers to the Pacific archipelago, located about 17,000 kilometres from mainland France.

"Violence should never be allowed to take root," Macron said during a televised interview with local journalists at the end of his visit Friday.

"What I want is a message of order and return to calm as this is not the Wild West," he said.

"A path must be opened for the calming of tensions and this will allow us to build what happens next."

The pro-independence FLNKS party on Saturday reiterated its demand for the withdrawal of the voting reforms after meeting with Macron.

"The FLNKS asked the President of the French Republic that a strong announcement be made from him indicating the withdrawal of the draft constitutional law," it said in a statement, saying it was a "prerequisite to ending the crisis".

In Paris, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said "the situation in New Caledonia today remains extremely fragile".

France has enforced a state of emergency, flying in hundreds of police and military reinforcements to restore order.

New Caledonia has been ruled from Paris since the 1800s, but many Indigenous Kanaks still resent France's power over their islands and want fuller autonomy or independence.Key dates in New Caledonia’s history

(AFP)

Friday, May 24, 2024

 A collage picture of Jeremy Corbyn and Grace Blakeley with Blakeley's book, Vulture Capitalism, between them.

‘Let’s challenge the false economic narratives’ – Grace Blakeley & Jeremy Corbyn

You have a very powerful collective organisation at the top of society and then an isolated, atomised mass of people everywhere else… The alternative is to say lets get together and do this ourselves – let’s join in and participate in political movements.
Grace Blakeley

Ben Hayes reports from the latest Arise Festival event ‘Jeremy Corbyn and Grace Blakeley in Conversation’ held to celebrate the launch of Grace’s new book: Vulture Capitalism – Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom.

Over 2,500 people joined an online forum hosted by Arise: A Festival of Left Ideas between economist Grace Blakeley and MP for Islington North Jeremy Corbyn to discuss her book Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom. Introduced by Arise’s Matt Willgress, attendees to the event reported tuning in from 57 different constituencies and 9 countries across the world.

Blakeley outlined how she sought to ‘challenge some of the biggest false narratives around economics’ with the book, including that socialism is purely defined by large state involvement in the economy and that capitalism can fundamentally be relied upon to deliver freedom. Emphasising the importance of analysing whose interests the state serves to understanding an economy, she pointed to an example of multinational corporation in aerospace manufacturer Boeing, arguing that its ties to the US government and military illustrated how many of those who profit the most from the American economy receive significant help along the way. Blakeley also reflected on the role of culture in maintaining the existing system- pointing out that whilst those in power keep it “through cooperation and class solidarity”, whilst promoting “individualism and division” to the majority- and called for an alternative base of pressure to be built up representing their interests.

Corbyn echoed this critique of the US economy’s relationship to the concept of freedom, and pointed to a domestic example of the post-privatisation water industry as an example of a “toxic” link between the government and large private firms. Praising Vulture Capitalism for “calling into question many of the common economic assumptions”, he called for socialists to build greater clarity on the model that they are seeking to develop. Corbyn also shared the emphasis on the role of culture in both maintaining and changing existing orders, highlighting the potential role of the trade union movement and its profile in wider society to “help build a world of solidarity” instead of “worshipping individual wealth and sharp elbows”.

Questions raised by those watching online covered topics including the government’s promotion of Freeports and Special Economic Zones, the economic policy of a likely Labour government, how the left can get its arguments out in the media, building participation in mass organisations, the 1976 Lucas Plan, international co-operation, democratic reforms, and building a culture of unity.

Blakeley argued that the creation of Freeports and Special Economic Zones illustrated how freedom for capital is prioritised above all else, and also emphasised the importance of understanding imperialism to any serious economic analysis. Calling for the left to throw itself into institutions based on collective interests, she warned that without a movement for positive change rooted in communities the growth of reactionary politics was likely.

Corbyn slammed Freeports as “being based on the illusion of development when in reality they represent an abdication of responsibility”, and called for “a message based on hope”- reflecting on how during his time as Leader of the Labour Party he aimed to make it a “community-based force”. Noting the successes of the social movement model of Brazilian trade unionism in defeating the Bolsonaro government, he raised the possibility of calling ‘People’s Forums’ in developing a sense of shared interest and participation. After commending Blakeley’s book for “giving us a greater understanding of the situation”, he concluded by stating that it was “our job to turn it around”. You can watch the full event below.




  • You can watch the full event on YouTube here or listen back on the Arise Festival podcast here.
  • You can buy Grace Blakeley’s book, Vulture Capitalism, here.