Le programme d’austérité de la France – et les manifestations étudiantes
https://www.globalresearch.ca/french-austerity-program-student-protests/5942390
Background
French police have clashed with demonstrators protesting against the country’s education system.
The rallies were held in several cities, including Toulouse and Paris. Protesters blocked roads and threw projectiles at police.
Officers responded with tear gas. The protesters are demanding better conditions in schools.
They cite overcrowded classes, heavy workloads and poor-quality learning materials. They also point to teacher shortages.
The protests began in Paris last week. They have since spread to Dijon, Lyon, Strasbourg, Lille and Marseille. Teenagers have blockaded their schools for several days. On Wednesday, security forces detained more than 600 people as protests at high schools intensified.
The protests began around Paris and spread nationally. Students have blockaded school entrances, and roughly 330–400 schools were reportedly affected—nearly one in ten schools in some official estimates.
Although students are protesting immediate school problems, they see these problems as consequences of years of underinvestment and austerity. Their basic argument is: the state is asking schools to do more with fewer teachers, less purchasing power and inadequate infrastructure.
France is facing a confrontation over a proposed €54 billion program of spending cuts and savings for the 2027 budget.
The government of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu says austerity is needed to reduce the deficit and contain France’s rapidly rising public debt, but unions and students argue that cuts would further weaken already overstretched public services.
PressTV: What is it about French austerity measures and student protests? Are they connected?
Peter Koenig (PK): Yes, they are. Let’s start with France’s proposed program of Euros 54 billion budget cuts, all on social programs, mostly on education. Health and public infrastructure will no doubt follow.
Of course, PM Sébastien Lecornu is not telling the full truth, when he says the cuts, or austerity as he calls it, are needed because of rapidly raising public debt. He is not saying why France’s public debt is rapidly rising.
The answer is simple: There are mainly two reasons; and in one way or another they apply similarly to Germany and the UK, which, together with France, are the European Union’s (EU) three most warmongering nations.
First, because of France’s continuous support of the Ukraine war, a war that Macron, Madame von der Leyen, Chancellor Merz and all of the EU so-called leaders know can never be won, and if anybody understands the history and background for this nonsensical and cruel war, this NATO proxy war should never be won against Russia.
As former NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, has repeatedly said over the past three years, the war has started already at the latest in February 2014, with the Kiev Maidan Coup; which, as we know, was instigated by the EU and the US.
Tens if not hundreds of billions of Euros have been sent to Kiev since February 2022 and billions are still being sent to Ukraine; no end in sight.
And Second, a related reason for the rapidly rising French deficit, is France’s heavy armament in preparation for a hot war with Russia. Madame Von der Leyen has repeatedly said that by 2030 Europe will be ready to face Russia with a one-trillion-Euro army.
France is ideal as one of the lead countries for arming Europe. Remember, before becoming France’s President, Emmanuel Macron worked for Rothschild & Cie, the French investment-banking branch of the Rothschild financial group, from 2008 to 2012. He became an associate managing partner (associé-gérant) in 2010 and worked on major mergers and acquisitions, including Nestlé’s purchase of Pfizer’s infant nutrition business.
Remember also, President Trump said clearly every NATO country by 2025 MUST spend 5% of its GDP on its army — meaning armament on behalf of NATO. And mind you, Donald Trump made also clear that the US is no longer coming to the rescue of Europe. It’s now up to Europe to fend for themselves.
And Europe, the European NATO members oblige naturally.
Arming Europe to the teeth – for fear or for real — is part of the elite’s agenda, taken over by the UN Agenda 2030, which fully obeys the world’s financial elite. Two of them are BlackRock and the Rothschild clan. The most important one, is the City of London. As the saying goes:
Every war is a banker’s war.
The same may be said for Germany, where Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a former German Executive of BlackRock, key shareholder of the Western military industrial complex, is still working for BlackRock, rather than for the German people, merely by doing what France is doing, deviating tax-payers’ money, originally attributed for social sectors, to the war budget.
As usual, the first programs that are being cut in favor of war and against Peace are social and public infrastructure programs.
Education is just one of them; health care costs will eventually also be reduced, in favor of war, against Peace and public well-being.
It is clear that the students understand very well what is at stake and they take to the streets. Not only because of overcrowded and under-funded schools (lycées), but also because they know, when war comes, they may be sent to the front as cannon fodder – to fight a war that has been lost before it even starts.
Students may take to the streets in Germany too, and in some cities, they do – take Berlin – but overall, Germany is more obedient than France.
In this case it would be appropriate to say: You MUST disobey orders to kill, meaning for students and young people in general, letting yourself being enlisted into the army.
Or as Hannah Arendt, the German-American political theorist, said: “No one has the right to obey.”
End of story.
Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst, regular author for Global Research, and a former Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).
Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.
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