No Way Out: France Erupts Again Over Hard Choices
NEED TO KNOW
No Way Out: France Erupts Again Over Hard Choices
FRANCE
Early last Wednesday morning, before most commuters hit the buses and trains, a crowd of protesters just north of Gare du Nord train station in central Paris cheered as they made their way downtown to “block everything.”
By the end of the day, demonstrators in Paris, Marseille, and other cities had blocked roads, lit fires, and halted some trains and buses, and were met with volleys of tear gas by more than 80,000 police officers deployed across France. Almost 500 people were arrested.
The unrest that erupted was just the latest action by the “Bloquons Tout” (Block Everything) movement that started online in the summer after the government proposed slashing $51 billion in government spending and eliminating two public holidays to lower the deficit and trillions in debt. In protests during the summer, demonstrators called for the government and also President Emmanuel Macron to resign.
Last week, the government of Prime Minister François Bayrou fell after losing a no-confidence vote.
This latest round of protests, meanwhile, was triggered by the appointment of Sébastien Lecornu as premier immediately after.
The protests, while smaller and less organized than those against Macron’s pension reforms in 2023 or the Yellow Vest demonstrations protesting fuel price hikes and economic injustice seven years ago, are now adding to a sense of crisis that has gripped France over the past year, analysts say: The country will now have its third prime minister since Macron dramatically dissolved the National Assembly last year, triggering an unscheduled legislative election that resulted in the lower house of parliament mainly consisting of his opponents.
Now, the fall of the government plunges the country into a new period of “triple trouble”: political crisis, market jitters, and popular unrest, say commentators.
“Macron is caught in a political vise, with the far left calling for his resignation, the far right demanding a snap election, and the mainstream left and right remain unable to reach consensus,” wrote CNN.
France has seen widespread discontent for the past six years due to cost-of-living complaints and policies implemented by Macron to make the country more business-friendly and shore up the economy, which has meant cutting elements of the country’s generous social safety net. But those attempts have caused fury to spill into the streets.
“We’re governed by robbers,” Paris protester Aglawen Vega, a nurse, told the Associated Press, saying she worries about public services being privatized, while adding that the anger that fueled the Yellow Vest protests has never dissipated. “People are suffering, are finding it harder and harder to last out the month, to feed themselves. We’re becoming an impoverished nation.”
Meanwhile, the turmoil is rattling the bond market of the eurozone’s second-largest economy. The yield on its 10-year government bonds has climbed steeply, nearing that of Italy’s. On Friday, credit rating agency Fitch downgraded France’s sovereign credit score to the country’s lowest level on record, stripping the country’s economy of its AA- status.
It is also coming as France aims to double its defense spending from 2.1 percent of its GDP to $75 billion by 2027. But with a deficit of about 6 percent of GDP and public debt at 114 percent of GDP – the third-highest in Europe behind Greece and Italy – the question is how to pay for it.
For decades, France, like other European countries, has spent extravagantly on social services such as health care, education, and public-sector pensions. But the war in Ukraine , along with President Donald Trump’s threat to eschew coming to Europe’s defense, has changed the thinking in Europe to force countries to reach what Macron calls “strategic autonomy.”
To pay for this, France’s leftist parties want to raise taxes on corporations, while the right wants to cut back on contributions to the European Union. The center, represented by Macron, wants to trim social spending and grow the economy with pro-business policies. But because of the hung parliament, no one is getting anywhere.
Now, commentators say, this may become a typical scenario in Europe.
“The turmoil echoes deep divisions across Europe as countries struggle to make good on their promises to spend more on defense while preserving bloated social-welfare benefits,” the Washington Post wrote. “The vote to oust Bayrou could be a harbinger of what’s coming for other social democracies.”
Meanwhile, in France, there is seemingly no end in sight, say analysts.
Lecornu, who had previously served as minister of defense, and who said last week that he wants to “break” with the past, now faces the same budget conundrum, political gridlock, and popular hostility that brought down the past prime minister.
Already, general strikes and more protests are expected Thursday.
And more turmoil is likely in the future.
“In France, the potential for an amorphous movement to harden into something more dangerous can never be ruled out,” wrote the Economist. “(Lecornu) is set to inherit an even more unstable country than the one Bayrou has left behind.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Large Far-Right Protest in London Marked By Scuffles, Arrests, and Counterprotests
UNITED KINGDOM
One of the largest far-right demonstrations in the United Kingdom in decades descended into violent clashes in London over the weekend, leaving 26 police officers injured and prompting warnings from analysts and officials that the unrest reflected a surge of nationalist anger reshaping the country’s political landscape, the BBC reported.
The “Unite the Kingdom” rally, led by activist Tommy Robinson, drew an estimated 110,000 to 150,000 people to central London on Saturday, far exceeding expectations.
Police deployed 1,600 officers, including reinforcements from other forces, to separate Robinson’s supporters from about 5,000 counter-demonstrators at a nearby Stand Up to Racism event. Officers reported being attacked, also with bottles and flares, with four sustaining serious injuries.
The Metropolitan Police arrested 24 demonstrators and said there would be more in the coming days.
On Sunday, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer condemned the violence, saying the UK would “never surrender” to far-right extremism. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood warned that “anyone taking part in criminal activity will face the full force of the law.”
Liberal Democrat party leader Ed Davey accused Robinson and his allies of spreading hate and criticized billionaire Elon Musk, who addressed the rally via a video link, for “dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric,” Al Jazeera added.
Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – told crowds that migrants had been given more rights in court than “the people that built this nation.” He framed the protest as the start of a “cultural revolution.”
Musk echoed Robinson’s themes, warning against “massive uncontrolled migration” and calling for a change of government in the UK.
The rally also included tributes to US conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot in Utah last week, NBC News noted.
Observers said the size of the far-right turnout was unprecedented in modern-day England: Joe Mulhall of the group, Hope Not Hate, called it “probably the largest far-right demonstration ever in Britain.”
Saturday’s unrest follows a series of anti-immigrant demonstrations outside hotels housing asylum seekers in England during the summer: These were sparked by the arrest of an Ethiopian man who was later convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in a London suburb.
The anger over immigration is translating into a surge of support for the far-right, anti-immigration party, Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage: Recent polls put the anti-immigration party at the top nationally.
Israeli Ministers Call For Annexation Following UN Vote on Palestinian Statehood
ISRAEL / WEST BANK & GAZA
Israel’s far-right ministers intensified calls for annexing the West Bank on Saturday, a day after the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution endorsing a two-state solution, underscoring growing divisions between Israel and much of the international community as the war in Gaza continues, the Times of Israel reported.
On Friday, the General Assembly adopted the nonbinding resolution in a vote of 142-10 with 12 abstentions, which calls for “tangible, time-bound and irreversible steps” toward establishing a Palestinian state, without Hamas’ involvement.
France and Saudi Arabia sponsored the text, which also urged countries to recognize Palestine as an “essential and indispensable component” of a future settlement. The United States joined Israel among the small group voting against the measure.
Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said the majority vote reflected “the yearning of almost everyone… to open the door for the option of peace.” However, Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon dismissed it as “theater,” claiming the only beneficiary was Hamas, according to CBS News.
On Saturday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the UN declaration “a diplomatic attack on Israel” and urged the annexation of the West Bank as “a preventive measure against the reckless attempt to establish a terror state.”
Smotrich and other far-right leaders in Israel’s cabinet have been pressing for unilateral annexation, particularly after the United Kingdom, France, and other Western states signaled plans to recognize Palestine later this month.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has considered that idea and scheduled a government meeting to discuss it earlier this month. But the meeting was later canceled after the United Arab Emirates warned that annexing parts of the West Bank would threaten normalization agreements and block future ties.
Even so, Netanyahu on Thursday reiterated his pledge that “there will be no Palestinian state,” as he signed off on a controversial settlement expansion in the E1 corridor east of Jerusalem.
The plan calls for the construction of more than 3,400 new housing units that critics say would divide the West Bank and cripple the viability of a Palestinian state.
Questions remain about whether Netanyahu will receive support from the Trump administration over annexation plans: Two Israeli officials told Axios that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has privately indicated he would not oppose annexation, though US officials remain concerned such a move could unravel the Abraham Accords and damage Trump’s legacy.
South African Men Win Right To Take Wives’ Last Names
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruled that husbands are allowed to take the last names of their wives, overturning a law that prohibited them from doing so, which the court deemed to be gender-based discrimination, the BBC reported.
According to South African law, women, but not men, have had the automatic right to change their last names after marriage, divorce or widowhood. Men, however, had to apply to the Director-General of Home Affairs for such a change. The court said this rule was unconstitutional, SABC News wrote.
The case arose after plaintiff, Henry van der Merwe, was forbidden from taking the last name of his wife, Jana Jordaan, while another party to the case, Andreas Nicolas Bornman, was forbidden from hyphenating his surname to include Donnelly, the surname of his wife, Jess Donnelly-Bornman.
The two couples filed legal action and won in the lower court but the decision needed confirmation by the country’s high court for the change to be able to take effect.
The two couples argued that the law was outdated and patriarchal, saying it violated the equality clause enshrined in the constitution by generating unnecessary gender distinctions. They added that while the provision might originally have been designed to ease administrative procedures for women, it now served “to entrench stereotypical assumptions about the roles of men and women within a family structure.”
Parliament will now need to amend the law for the change to become final.
DISCOVERIES
Prehistoric Commutes
Humanity’s ancestors were forced to make long commutes long before the modern-day rush hour, according to a new study.
A research team recently found that ancient toolmakers in East Africa were trekking miles to collect the right rocks for their gear, a finding that pushes back evidence of long-distance resource transport by some 600,000 years.
The discovery comes from Nyayanga, a site along Kenya’s Lake Victoria, where archeologists have uncovered thousands of Oldowan tools dating back at least 2.6 million years. These tools consisted of sharp flakes and pounding stones used for processing plants, butchering animals, and even smashing open hippo bones.
But the real surprise came when researchers traced their origins.
Local rock around Nyayanga is relatively soft and not suitable for making durable tools. However, many of the collected artifacts were made from sturdy volcanic rhyolite and quartzite rock carried in from deposits up to eight miles away.
“People often focus on the tools themselves, but the real innovation of the Oldowan may actually be the transport of resources from one place to another,” senior author Rick Potts explained in a press release. “The knowledge and intent to bring stone material to rich food sources was apparently an integral part of toolmaking behavior at the outset of the Oldowan.”
Potts added that this behavior suggests early humans had the ability to plan ahead, map their surroundings, and remember where high-quality rocks could be found – which the authors described as a major cognitive leap.
The discovery also raises questions about who exactly was doing the heavy lifting.
Excavations at Nyayanga turned up two teeth from Paranthropus, a close evolutionary relative in the Homo genus – which includes modern humans – known for its massive jaws and teeth for chewing tough plants, according to Science News.
Whether Paranthropus or early members of Homo carried the stones remains unclear, however.
“Unless you find a hominin fossil actually holding a tool, you won’t be able to say definitively which species are making which stone tool assemblages,” noted lead author Emma Finestone.
Still, she noted that the findings suggest “that there is a greater diversity of hominins making early stone tools than previously thought.”
Other researchers praised the study, with archaeologist Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo telling Science News that the Nyayanga discovery is “the oldest documented case of long-distance transportation of raw materials.”