Pak Sahafat – The spillover of French protests to two countries, Belgium and Switzerland, has scared German leaders and other European officials; A continent that is more vulnerable and prone to crisis than ever in the post-crisis environment of Ukraine.
Pak Sahafat News Agency, International Group: The protests that became widespread in France following a racist incident and the killing of a 17-year-old immigrant teenager were a discriminatory and at the same time violent incident by the police, which used various groups, including ethnic-racial and religious minorities, to confront injustice. Therefore, the people who have been protesting against this institutional discrimination for years, despite the strict security measures resulting from the dispatch of 45,000 police forces and the arrest of more than 4 of them, did not leave the streets for nearly a week.
Published statistics indicate that in one week of urban violence in France, 5,600 cars were burned, 1,000 buildings were damaged, 11,000 trash cans were set on fire, 18,000 cases of vandalism were recorded on public roads and stores, and in total one billion euros of loss remains. Meanwhile, more than 250 police and gendarmerie headquarters were attacked and 700 policemen were injured.
According to the news published in this field, it seems that the security officers and French police, in addition to using tools that are considered as weapons of war, in case of intensification of protests, they will take actions such as cutting off the internet and blocking social networks. Previously, there were reports of martial law in 20 French cities.
The French government was not satisfied with even these cases and considered a punishment for the parents. In an interview with BFM TV, French Minister of Justice Eric Dupont Morty said about parents: There is also a law that those who violate their duties may face two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros. It is not at all common for a 13-year-old child to attack shops and government buildings on the street and cause damage. This issue must be stopped.
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The damages caused by the French protests are estimated at one billion Euros
Germany’s fear of the spread of the French crisis
Although Macron has recently claimed that France has passed the peak of unrest, many European officials are worried about the spread of this crisis to their countries, which is indicated by the statements of German Chancellor Olaf Schultz. While the massive protests in France continue and have spread to Belgium and Switzerland, the German Chancellor said that he is monitoring the situation in France with concern.
Schultz announced after Macron postponed his trip to Berlin – the first visit by a French president to Germany since Jacques Chirac in 2000 – due to protests: France is a friendly neighbor and together Berlin and Paris ensure that the European Union, which is so important to our shared future, works well.
This concern has increased on the part of the German authorities, as news has recently been published about the arrest of 7 people on the suspicion of establishing a terrorist organization with the aim of carrying out attacks similar to ISIS. According to Reuters, Turkmen, Tajik and Kyrgyz citizens were among those arrested.
One of the main reasons for Germany’s concern is the widespread protests and strikes in this country in the post-crisis environment of Ukraine. The inflammatory atmosphere that intensified at the end of October last year due to the country’s 55% dependence on Russian gas and its consequences, plunged the most industrial player of the European Union into a crisis.
As an example, German metallurgical and electrical sector workers started their strike on Saturday at the invitation of the powerful “IG Metal” union. According to the regional statements of this union, only on the first day of the strike, 2 thousand people joined it. In the state of Bavaria, located in the south of Germany, 1,300 employees of the industrial sector, which includes 26,000 automobile, electronic equipment and machine tool companies, participated in this movement.
Also, 300 employees of the huge Thyssen krupp factory in western Germany joined the strike that night. The number of striking workers in Lower Saxony in northern Germany was also announced at 500. In addition, the pilots of the airline “Eurowings” began a three-day strike, which led to the cancellation of more than half of the flights of this subsidiary of Lufthansa. According to the weekly “Spiegel”, about 170 flights out of 400 flights scheduled on Monday were canceled due to these strikes. This was the second time in less than 14 days that the pilots of this airline stopped their work. By the first strike on October 6, about half of all flights had been cancelled. As a result, tens of thousands of passengers had to take other flights or train or postpone their journey.
With Germany passing through such an inflamed atmosphere, it is natural that the leaders of Berlin are afraid of the crisis spreading to their country again, while they have seen the overflow of protests to Belgium and Switzerland in recent days.
The overflow of French protests to Belgium and Switzerland
Protests from France first spilled over to Belgium on June 30, and Belgians came to the streets of the capital after calling on social networks to take a similar approach to France. Of course, the protests in this country were relatively peaceful because some people were arrested by the police. According to media reports, the number of people arrested in Brussels has reached 63.
After that, rallies were also formed in Lausanne, Switzerland, which were more violent than in Belgium. The Swiss police arrested 7 people, including 6 teenagers, during the night gatherings in this city, which were attended by more than 100 people.
According to the Swiss police, the arrest of these people was made after they attacked the stores and the police force, and the protesters had thrown at least one molotov cocktail and stones at the security forces. Also, a local newspaper, which announced the age of the arrested people between 15 and 17 years old, reported that their origins are Portuguese, Serbian, Bosnian, Georgian and Somali. A 24-year-old Swiss citizen is among those arrested.
Benefit of speech
Although in France the number of protests and the severity of the police action are more than in other European countries, but in a general view, there is not much difference between this country and other actors of this continent in terms of economic and social conditions; A continent where most of its capitals, from London and Paris to Berlin, Madrid and Rome, were the scene of demonstrations last year. Even Germany, as the leader and the most industrial actor of the Union, was not spared from it.
With Macron’s government overpowering the protesters and silencing the protesting voices of the people, especially the young and demanding generations, this spontaneous popular movement will turn into a fire under the ashes, which will rekindle and take over other players on the continent.