France votes Sunday in the second round of snap legislative polls Macron called seeking a “clarification” in politics after his camp was trounced in European elections last month.

National Rally block?

His gamble backfired, with the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen winning the 30 June first round. But the key suspense now is whether the RN can get enough seats to form a government.

With the clock ticking to a deadline later Tuesday to register, over 210 pro-Macron or left-wing candidates had pulled out of contests to prevent the RN winning seats.

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Le Pen appeared to row back on previous comments that the RN would only form a government with an absolute majority of 289 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, saying it would still try if slightly below this figure.

She said her party would seek to form a government and make the 28-year-old Jordan Bardella prime minister from a minimum of “for example, 270 deputies” and then find support from 19 more MPs.

“If we then have a majority, then yes, of course, we’ll go and do what the voters elected us to do”, she told broadcaster France Inter.

If Bardella becomes prime minister, this would create a tense period of “cohabitation” with Macron, who has vowed to serve out his term until 2027.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, 35, said late Monday it “would be catastrophic for the French” to give the far right an absolute majority.

Just 76 lawmakers, almost all from the far right and left were elected outright in the first round of voting at the weekend.

The fate of the remaining 501 seats will be determined in the second round in run-offs between two or three remaining candidates.

Candidates quit

Of the candidates who have decided to quit the race more than 120 are members of the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP – Nouveau Front Populaire) coalition, which came second in the first round, and more than 70 represent Macron’s camp.

A RN candidate on Tuesday also dropped out of the race over a social media post showing her in a cap from the Luftwaffe air force of Nazi Germany, a party official said.

But there has been discord within the presidential camp over backing those NFP candidates who hark from the France Unbowed (LFI) hard-left party.

Several heavyweights in the Macron camp, including economy minister Bruno Le Maire and former prime minister Edouard Philippe, have argued they should not help candidates from the LFI which is accused by its critics of extremism and failing to back Israel after the 7 October attack by Hamas.

‘Administrative coup’

As tensions rise five days ahead of the ballot, Le Pen accused Macron of rushing to appoint officials to key jobs in the police and other institutions before any cohabitation in what she described as “a form of administrative coup d’etat”

Macron’s office urged her to show “restraint”, saying appointments have been part of an established routine.

Most projections in the immediate aftermath of the first round showed the RN falling short of an absolute majority.

Analysts say the most likely outcome is a hung parliament that could lead to months of political paralysis, at a time when France is hosting the Olympics.

The chaos also risks damaging the international credibility of Macron who is set to attend a NATO summit in Washington immediately after the vote.

(with AFP)

It’s normally straightforward: multiple candidates stand in the first round of French legislative elections, then the top two go through to a deciding round the week after.

But little about these elections is normal.

They are taking place three years ahead of schedule and were organised in less than three weeks, after President Emmanuel Macron took the shock decision to dissolve parliament when his party took a drubbing in EU elections last month.

The lightning lead-up, shifting political alliances and high turnout have all combined to shake up the usual patterns. 

After Sunday’s first round of voting, as many as 306 of the 577 seats in France’s National Assembly could be decided in three-way races.

In the last parliamentary elections two years ago, it was just eight.

Turnout crucial

While it’s always been possible for more than two candidates to qualify for the second round, falling voter turnout has made that outcome less and less likely.

Under France’s election rules, unless one candidate wins the first round by a landslide – by getting more than 50 percent of ballots cast, which have to add up to at least 25 percent of the total number of voters – the two highest-placing candidates go through to a runoff.

But candidates who come third or lower also qualify if they win the votes of at least 12.5 percent of the electorate. 

That’s hard to do if not many voters take part. The last three parliamentary elections have seen turnout of roughly 48 percent (2022), 49 percent (2017) and 57 percent (2012) in the first round, which effectively meant parties had to win a higher share of ballots cast to get across the threshold.

On Sunday, turnout reached almost 67 percent – its highest since 1997.

That year’s elections were also called early, and likewise resulted in an unusually high number of three-way races in the second round: 79. 

• From power play to gamble, the history of snap elections in France

Conglomeration effect

Snap elections also mean a last-minute dash to field candidates, which in many cases leaves voters with fewer choices.

A total of 4,010 candidates stood in Sunday’s first round, compared to 6,290 in 2022 and 7,877 in 2017.

With smaller parties less likely to have found strong contestants in time, votes ended up concentrated in France’s biggest political blocs.

There are three: the far-right National Rally (RN) and its allies, Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance, and the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) – a broad coalition freshly  formed to take on the far right.

By sweeping several parties into the same tent, its emergence further reduced the number of candidates competing.

All that narrowed the field from the first round and made it more likely three frontrunners would each take a larger share of the vote.

To run or not to run

That’s what happened in 306 of the 501 constituencies now going into a second round, Ipsos pollsters calculate based on official results. 

A further five constituencies are headed for four-way races, something virtually unheard of in recent elections.

With the RN qualifying for almost every runoff, the question now is whether third- or fourth-place candidates will step down. 

The NFP, which features in at least 272 of the three-way contests and all of the four-ways, has already promised to withdraw from races where another bloc stands a better chance of beating the RN. 

Macron has indicated his centrists will do likewise, though with the caveat that they’ll only give way to parties that share the “values of the Republic”. Candidates from his alliance qualified for at least 239 three-way runoffs and five four-ways.

Meanwhile the smaller right-wing Republicans, eligible for two four-way contests and 33 three-ways, have signalled they plan to stay in every race.

• Horse-trading begins after France’s far right wins first round of snap elections

Tactical votes

Those decisions have to be made by Tuesday evening, the deadline for candidates to confirm whether or not their name will be on the ballot for the second round.

They could prove crucial when France votes again on Sunday. 

So-called “triangular” runoffs typically result in a win for whichever party came top in the first round, since the opposition is split. But two-way contests are more closely fought, especially when voters are galvanised. 

Polling conducted before the first-round vote suggests that a large majority of left-wing voters would be willing to back another bloc to keep the RN out of government, as would a smaller majority of centrists.

But after a polarising election campaign, there’s no guarantee French voters are prepared to cross party lines.

The party of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella topped the poll with 33.15 percent of the votes cast, ahead of the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance on 28.14 percent, and President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble coalition on 20.76 percent.

RN and its allies obtained around 9.3 million votes – more than double that of the previous legislative elections in 2022.

It qualified for the second round in 455 of France’s 577 constituencies and came out on top in 297 of them.

Compared to 2022, the RN increased its share of the vote in all constituencies with the exception of the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, where it won just 4.6 percent of the vote.

Campaigning on a promise to boost purchasing power by cutting VAT on fuel and some essential items, RN performed strongest in the northern Haut-de-France region – a depressed former industrial region that used to vote Communist or Socialist but has swung to the far right over the past decade.

Thirty-nine RN candidates won enough votes (more than 50 percent) in the first round to secure their seat directly, and 17 of those were in that northern rust belt.

They included Marine le Pen, re-elected with 58.04 percent in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont in a former coal-mining region, and RN vice-president Sebastien Chenu.

Communist Party leader, Fabien Roussel, running with the NFP list, lost his seat to an RN candidate in a constituency that had been a Communist stronghold for over 60 years.

• French far-right party to fund policies by cutting aid to foreigners

Biggest gains in southeast

RN made its biggest strides in the southeastern Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur region, which includes the cities of Marseille and Nice, as well as seaside resorts of Cannes and Saint-Tropez.

The region has historically been a bastion for the National Front – as the RN was called until 2018.

Founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972 to build on nostalgia for France’s colonial past, the National Front found support among some so-called pieds noirs – former French settlers in Algeria who’d been forced to leave following independence from France in 1962. Many of them settled in cities like Marseille and Nice. 

Eric Ciotti, an MP from the conservative Republicans party, who backed a controversial pact with the RN that split his party, won election in the city of Nice in a constituency where the RN increased its score by 24 points compared to 2022.

In the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, the vote was split three ways in most constituencies between the RN, the left and the centre, with the RN leading in half of them.

• Macron urges democratic alliance against far right after National Rally’s election success

NFP strong in Paris region

However the centre of Marseille went to the hard-left France Unbowed – the largest party in the NFP alliance – with party coordinator Manuel Bompard on 67.49 percent.

NFP candidates qualified in 446 of the 577 constituencies, performing best in and around Paris. They came out on top in 13 of Paris’s 18 constituencies.

The multi-cultural French capital is traditionally left-leaning and all the RN candidates were eliminated in the first round.

Nine NFP candidates were elected directly, including six women, three of whom were from the Greens.

In two constituencies in the working class Parisien suburb of Seine Saint Denis, which has a large population of immigrant descent, NFP candidates obtained more than 70 percent of the vote.

The left-wing alliance also performed well in the cities of Nantes, Toulouse and Strasbourg.

But it fell down in the formerly industrial north east, as well as the Meuse and Aube where its candidates failed to get through to the runoff.

• France’s Muslim voters fear far-right election win

Presidential alliance shaken but not out

Macron’s centrist Ensemble (Together) alliance made it through to the second round in 319 constituencies, down from 417 in 2022.

Ensemble candidates came out on top in 69 constituencies, five of which are in Paris.

It remains influential in the west part of the capital, parts of western France such as Maine-et-Loire, and in the southern rural area of Aveyron.

But it lost ground countrywide, scoring badly in areas where the RN and LFP did well – notably in Seine-Saint-Denis and Pas-de-Calais. Its candidates won less than 10 percent of Sunday’s vote in several constituencies in those areas.

Only two Ensemble candidates – one in the Hauts-de-Seine west of Paris, and another on the Wallis and Futuna islands – were elected directly.

France’s anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party led the first round of snap elections on Sunday and is now aiming for an absolute majority in the upcoming runoff.

Other political parties are striving to prevent the far-right from gaining power in France for the first time since the Nazi occupation during World War II.

National Rally candidate

In the northwestern region of Calvados, RN candidate Ludivine Daoudi placed third in her district. However, controversy erupted online after a photo surfaced allegedly showing her wearing a Luftwaffe cap from Nazi Germany.

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On Tuesday, local RN party official Philippe Chapron announced on France Bleu radio that Daoudi’s candidacy would be withdrawn. “She has not denied anything. She took the photo several years ago,” he said, labeling the act as “in bad taste.”

Chapron did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment, and efforts to reach Daoudi were unsuccessful.

Emma Fourreau, a left-wing candidate who came second in the district and will compete against a right-wing contender for the parliamentary seat, declared Daoudi’s withdrawal a “victory.” She mentioned that several sources, including an old friend, had provided the controversial Facebook screenshot, which has since been removed from Daoudi’s social media.

Marine Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate, has attempted to rehabilitate the RN’s image. The party, co-founded by a former Waffen-SS member and her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was convicted of Holocaust denial, still faces accusations of racism. “Despite their ties in the National Assembly, it’s still a racist party that references Nazi Germany,” Fourreau remarked.

(With newswires)

Preliminary results released overnight by the Interior Ministry put the National Rally (RN) and its allies on just over 33 percent, followed by the New Popular Front (NFP) left-wing coalition on around 28 percent.

President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance, Ensemble, was third with just over 20 percent.

Nearly 67 percent of French voters turned out for the early election, almost 30 percent more than took part in the first round of the last parliamentary elections in 2022. 

The RN’s leader in parliament, Marine Le Pen, said the party’s victory was “without ambiguity”, while its candidate for prime minister, Jordan Bardella, was already looking forward to his time in office.

But who heads the next French government is still to play for, as the country heads into a crucial week before the second and decisive round of voting on 7 July.

• Horse-trading begins after France’s far right wins first round of snap elections

Calls to unite

Le Pen was one of 76 candidates who won enough votes in the first round to secure their seat directly.

The remaining 501 seats will only be decided on Sunday. At least two candidates, and in many cases three or even four, are still in the running for each.

The next stage will largely depend whether other parties unite against the far right, as they have done successfully in previous elections.

The leaders of the NFP have already promised to pull out their third-place candidates from contests where another camp stands a better chance of beating the RN. 

Macron too has called for a broad “democratic and republican alliance” to keep the far right out of power, though other members of his camp expressed reservations about giving way to candidates from hard-left France Unbowed, the largest party in the NFP.

• Macron urges democratic alliance against far right after National Rally’s election success

An official statement from the Ensemble list said its members would only stand down for rivals “with whom we share the essential: the values of the Republic”.

Macron’s outgoing prime minister, Gabriel Attal, said that Ensemble could withdraw third-place candidates in “more than 60” constituencies.

Meanwhile the right-wing Republicans, who placed fourth with just over 10 percent of ballots, declined to join the calls to vote strategically.

Their president Eric Ciotti, who has been shunned by the rest of the party leadership since throwing his hat in with the RN, called on other Republicans to follow his suit and help “the entire right wing” to victory.

Deadline to declare

All those who placed first or second in the first round, as well as any others who got the votes of at least 12.5 percent of the total electorate, are eligible to stand in the second round.

The race will take shape by Tuesday evening, which is the deadline for candidates to confirm whether or not they’re running.

A blitz of campaigning then runs until Friday night, followed by a media blackout throughout most of the weekend. 

Polls open Sunday morning, with the first predictions expected shortly after 8pm.

A faction needs at least 289 seats for an outright majority in parliament, which would allow it to choose a prime minister and form the next government.

While France’s two-round system makes forecasting unreliable, three polling institutes have predicted RN and its allies could win between 240 and 310 seats.

Christophe Tein, 56, is leader of the CCAT pro-independence group, accused by Paris of orchestrating the weeks of unrest. The group’s members deny the accusation.

Tein spoke to two French Green party senators who visited him in isolation in jail in Mulhouse, in the north-east of France. 

According to an exchange witnessed by the French news agency AFP, he said that “I am a political prisoner and the first one to have been extradited in this way along with my comrades.”

“I have been able to speak on the phone with my lawyer in Noumea but it is difficult because of the time difference. I have to make contact with a lawyer here,” he added.

Tein was one of seven pro-independence activists transferred to mainland France on July 23 from the territory, nearly 17,000 kilometres from Paris.

The move sparked a resurgence of rioting in New Caledonia.

• More unrest in New Caledonia after protest leaders extradited

Authorities have placed Tein under judicial investigation on suspicion of colluding in attempted murder and other charges.

The wave of rioting and looting erupted in New Caledonia in mid-May over a proposed electoral reform.

Kanak people fear the plan would leave them in a permanent minority compared with French from the mainland, putting independence hopes out of reach.

The violence has left nine dead and more than 1,500 people have been arrested, according to the High Commission that represents the French state in the territory.

Monday’s visit was supervised by authorities and Tein was not permitted to discuss his role in the unrest.

But he said that “At some point we will have to sit down to resume discussions. The survival of New Caledonia depends on it.”

The CCAT on Monday demanded the “immediate release and return” of the detained activists so they can be tried in New Caledonia, accusing French authorities of “colonial tactics”.

Nathalie Tehio, President of France’s Human Rights League, said in a message on social media that the CCAT activists, detained far away from home, “have the right to their private- and family life” and “rights of defence.”

(With newswires)

Mauritanians went to the polls on Saturday to choose between seven candidates vying to lead the sprawling nation, which has largely withstood the tide of jihadism in the region and is set to become a gas producer.

Overall turnout was estimated at 55 percent.

After all votes were counted, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) had said that former general Ghazouani would win the election with more than 56 percent of the vote.

That puts him well ahead of the country’s main opposition leader, human rights campaigner Biram Dah Abeid, the CENI predicting 22 percent of the vote in his favour.

Abeid said on Sunday that he would not recognise the results of “Ghazouani’s CENI”.

“We will only recognise our own results, and therefore we will take to the streets” to refuse the electoral commission count, he said.

But he insisted their response would be “peaceful”, calling on the army and the security forces “not to follow the orders of the regime”.

Some of his supporters demonstrated in the capital Nouakchott, burning tires and disrupting traffic.   

Contestation

The opposition had however contested the legislative elections a year ago, which were won by Ghazouani’s party.

They say the Mauritanian government has set up the national election monitoring body (CENI), which the opposition has denounced as a tool for manipulating the ballot.

In second place, the opponent and human rights activist Biram Dah Abeid had already in the last presidential election, and according to him, the result could be “false and manipulated” by the Electoral Commission, which he accuses of being used by those in power and of having committed fraud, as our correspondent in Nouackchott reported.

Ghazouani’s other main rival, Hamadi Ould Sid’ El Moctar, who heads the Islamist Tewassoul party, came third with 12.76 percent of the vote, according to CENI.

He said he would “remain attentive” to any breach of voting regulations.

At the end of Sunday’s afternoon, Abeid’s campaign headquarters were surrounded by security forces, according to an AFP journalist. His campaign manager was arrested, a spokesman said.

The police presence in the capital increased significantly later in the evening.

Business as usual

“The situation in the country is under control and citizens can go about their business in peace,” Interior Minister Mohamed Ahmed Ould Mohamed Lemine told reporters however.

The ministry “hereby reaffirms that it will not tolerate any action likely to disturb the peace and tranquillity of citizens and residents living in our country”, he added.

A 2019 election brought Ghazouani to power, marking the first transition between two elected presidents since independence from France in 1960 and a series of coups from 1978 to 2008.

While the Sahel has in recent years seen a string of military coups and escalating jihadism, particularly in Mali, Mauritania has not seen an attack since 2011.

Ghazouani has made helping the young a key priority in a country of 4.9 million people, where almost three quarters are aged under 35.

The African Union sent a team of 27 short-term observers, while the European Union has sent three election experts.

 (with AFP) 

Two hundred and twenty-three days after far-right leader Geert Wilders swept to an election victory that stunned Europe and the world, Schoof takes over from Mark Rutte after 14 years in power.

Wilders was forced to shelve his own ambitions to be prime minister to keep rocky coalition talks on track, some negotiation partners considered his anti-Muslim and eurosceptic statements too extreme to lead the nation.

• What next for the Netherlands after far-right Wilders storms elections?

Instead, the four coalition partners agreed their leaders would not serve in government, compromising on Schoof, 67, who was previously running the Dutch Secret Service AIVD.

He has vowed to implement “decisively” the coalition plans for the “strictest-ever admission policy for asylum and the most comprehensive package for getting a grip on migration”.

The 26-page coalition agreement, titled “Hope, courage and pride“, also called to examine the idea of moving the Dutch embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“Without a party”

Schoof, an avid marathon runner, has said he aims to be “a prime minister for all Dutch citizens”, adding: “I am without a party. I don’t see myself kowtowing to Mr Wilders”.

He “will have a lot of work keeping ideological and personal conflicts under control”, Sarah de Lange, professor of political pluralism at the University of Amsterdam, told French press agency AFP.

She said Wilders will have plenty of work keeping his own PVV (Freedom Party) in check and Schoof would be given space.

“Given his extensive experience leading government agencies, he will surely know how to defend his position,” she said.

“It is still an open question though, how he will respond if Wilders tries to put him under pressure by voicing public criticism of his functioning” on social media.

Dutch daily De Volkskrant said in an opinion piece that the “Schoof coalition” was the “biggest political gamble” since WW2.

“Even after seven months, there is no trust between the coalition parties. The Schoof cabinet becomes a team in which the protagonists watch each other with one eye, looking at they way out with the other.”

(With newswires)

Hungary has begun its six-month rotating chairmanship of the European Union. The presidency’s role is to chair council meetings, set the agenda, establish a work program, and facilitate dialogue within the Council and with other EU institutions. However, Hungary, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban—the EU’s longest-serving head of government—is often seen as the EU’s enfant terrible.

Orban is the only EU leader who has maintained close ties with Moscow despite its invasion of Ukraine. As such, he is against aid for Kyiv. 

Orban refused to send arms to Kyiv and has called for a ceasefire and peace negotiations, saying he alone in the EU is looking for peace. He also criticised sanctions against Russia and is opposed to Ukraine’s EU ambitions, though he has stopped short of blocking accession talks.

Under a policy of “eastern opening”, Orban has also sought close ties with China.

• China’s Xi feted in Hungary, the last stop of his European tour

Indeed Budapest seems to revel in taking controversial stances in the EU, opening its presidency under the slogan “Make Europe Great Again”, a nod to Orban’s “good friend” former US president Donald Trump.

‘Christian Europe’

A proponent of the “great replacement” narrative, which claims that there is a plot to supplant white Europeans with non-white immigrants, Orban rails against immigration and has heavily restricted the right to asylum, saying he wants to defend a “Christian Europe”.

In 2015, after Orban had won a record fourth term in office, he was quick to put in place harsh restrictions on immigrants flooding into the EU as a result of the war in Syria, refusing onward travel, closing off the border with high fences of barbed wire, and running patrols of some 3,000 “border hunters” to join 10,000 police tasked with keeping refugees out of the country.

He then introduced a series of anti-immigration “pushback laws”, and refused an EU request to find homes for 1,294 refugees.

Today, he is still fighting against the EU’s recent overhaul of its laws on handling asylum-seekers and migrants. In June, the EU’s top court fined Hungary €200 million and imposed a daily €1 million penalty for failing to follow the bloc’s asylum laws and illegally deporting migrants, a decision Budapest slammed as “unacceptable”.

‘Illiberal Democracy’

Since coming back to power, Orban has moved to transform his country into what he calls an “illiberal democracy,” involving wide-ranging changes he has made include curbs on press freedom and judicial independence.

He has also clamped down on LGBTQ rights, with a law banning the promotion of homosexuality to minors drawing EU infringement proceedings.

Billions of euros in EU funds remain frozen over issues including LGBTQ rights, the treatment of asylum seekers, alleged corruption in public procurement and the independence of academics.

Most recently, Brussels also launched infringement proceedings against Hungary over the creation of what critics say is a Russian-style agency with investigative powers to curb foreign influence.

In 2018, the European Parliament voted to trigger an “Article 7” disciplinary procedure against Hungary, the “suspension clause,” which could, in theory, result in Budapest being stripped of its right to vote in EU proceedings, while it tried to determine whether Budapest is undermining European legal standards and democratic values.

In 2022, the European Parliament declared that Hungary was no longer a “full democracy”, but a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy” in “serious breach” of EU democratic norms.

• Hungary’s Orban forms new EU parliament group ahead of rotating presidency

• What can Europe learn from Orban’s victory in Hungary’s elections?

Rampant corruption

On top of that, according to Transparency International, Hungary is themost corrupt country within the EU, and ranks number 76 on a worldwide list of 180 states. 

Hungary has also not joined the EU’s independent European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), whose job it is to investigate and prosecute EU budget fraud.

Critics often cite corruption to illustrate Hungary’s authoritarian drift, accusing Orban’s family and allies of benefiting from EU funds.

Oligarchs Lorinc Meszaros, Orban’s childhood friend, and Istvan Tiborcz, Orban’s son-in-law, today control large sections of the economy.

(With newswires)

Cyril Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) was forced to join forces with rival parties to stay in power after losing its majority for the first time in three decades in the 29 May election.

The announcement of the new cabinet of the government of national unity followed weeks of protracted and at times acrimonious negotiations.

Ramaphosa retained the ANC’s Enoch Godongwana as finance minister while Ronald Lamola was appointed minister of international relations and cooperation, replacing Naledi Pandor.

Gwede Mantashe stayed on as mineral and petroleum resources minister but the president removed energy from his portfolio. The combination of mineral resources had been seen by many as creating a prejudice in favour of coal as a source of power generation.

Energy will now fall within the portfolio of Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa.

“These men and women we have appointed to the executive reflect the diversity of our nation,” Ramaphosa said. “In the spirit of partnership and collaboration, the incoming government will work together.”

• Ramaphosa re-elected as South African leader after historic coalition deal

Moving on from history

Wrangling over who gets what cabinet seat was the last hurdle to setting up a government, which now faces the task of reviving a moribund economy, fixing crumbling roads and power stations and creating jobs for the third of South Africans out of work.

“We look forward to being part of a new era in South Africa’s democratic journey, and to bringing real and tangible change to the millions of citizens who voted for it,” Steenhuisen said in a statement following the announcement.

Some minor parties also saw their leaders receive cabinet posts.

For decades, the ANC had traded on its legacy of ending apartheid 30 years ago, when Nelson Mandela came to power and successfully reconciled a country deeply divided along racial, ethnic and class lines.

But voters became angered by the ANC’s poor record on delivering on basic services including water, schools and electricity.

“It is a major shake-up with very few of the old faces still in there, which is a good thing,” said Melanie Verwoerd, political analyst and former South African diplomat. “I think in general it’s a very positive step and of course very positive that they could actually get this done.”

• Watch: The legacy of Nelson Mandela 30 years after his election as president

New territories

Whether the current loose coalition of former enemies can improve on the ANC’s record may depend on the extent to which they can put aside their ideological differences, analysts have said.

There are several potential hurdles to policymaking.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants to scrap some of the ANC’s Black empowerment programmes, saying that they have mostly made a politically connected business elite fabulously wealthy while much of the Black majority stays poor.

It opposes the ANC’s desire to expropriate land – most of which is in white hands as a legacy of conquest by colonists and subsequent entrenched white minority rule – without compensation and give it to Black farmers.

The DA also seeks to phrase out South Africa‘s minimum wage, currently sitting at 27.58 rand ($1.52) a hour, arguing it makes the workforce uncompetitive.

 (with Reuters)

Thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday to sound the alarm over what they call a danger to reproductive rights in particular.

Around 34,000 protesters joined more than 50 rallies across France, according to police, though organisers put the figure at over 100,000. 

It came a week before the country was due to vote in the first round of snap parliamentary elections, for which polls put the National Rally (RN) and its allies in the lead. 

“Every time the far right comes to power somewhere, it attacks the right to abortion – I don’t see why France would be any exception,” Sarah Durocher, head of reproductive rights organisation Planning Familial, told reporters.

Abortion rights are better protected in France than many other countries, having been written into the constitution earlier this year – with the support of 46 of the RN’s 88 members of parliament. 

But as legal experts have warned, that wouldn’t stop a future government erecting logistical roadblocks to make terminating a pregnancy harder, such as reducing the legal time limit or restricting abortion drugs.

• Why changing the constitution doesn’t guarantee access to abortion in France

Wooing women’s votes

Jordan Bardella, leader of the RN and the party’s candidate for prime minister, has promised that as premier he would “unswervingly guarantee every girl and woman in France her rights and freedoms”. 

“In France, women are free and so they will remain,” he declared in a video posted on social media last week addressed to female voters. 

Since Marine Le Pen took over the party in 2011 from her father – co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen – and undertook to make it more palatable to mainstream voters, the rebranded RN has been at pains to portray itself as sympathetic to women’s struggles.

The strategy has borne fruit, as Marine Le Pen steadily narrowed the traditional gender gap in the party’s support base in presidential polls in 2012 and 2017.

In European elections earlier this month, polls showed almost as many women as men voted for the RN.

• How France’s far-right National Rally finally hooked the women’s vote

Immigration fixation

But despite the current leadership’s assurances, feminists remain suspicious of a movement that has historically campaigned against abortion, resisted legislation on equal pay and proposed paying a “maternal wage” to women who choose to raise children full time.

The far right “has always been the driving force behind the dissolution of our rights”, said Nina, 24, one of at least 13,000 protesters to join the march in Paris on Sunday. (That was the police estimate; according to organisers, 75,000 people turned out.) 

“Their vision of society is that women are there to procreate,” she told RFI. “And procreation, for them, means going back into the home.”

The anti-immigration RN has long argued that France needs to boost its birth rate to avoid relying on foreign workers. 

“If we don’t create the conditions that encourage births in our country, other civilisations will do it for us,” Bardella declared last year, as he called for child benefits to be reserved for French families only.

Feminist groups warn that the RN’s preoccupation with “keeping France French” trumps all other concerns, including women’s rights.

The party has repeatedly linked sexual violence to immigrants as grounds for deportation and wants to ban Muslim women from wearing headscarves anywhere in public – supposedly to discourage discrimination, though the party has a history of hostility to Islam in France.

• France’s Muslim voters fear far-right election win

‘Good’ and ‘bad’ victims

“The National Rally analyses everything through the prism of immigration,” said Anne-Cécile Mailfert, founder of the Fondation des Femmes, a foundation that channels funding to grassroots women’s groups and one of the organisers of Sunday’s march.

Speaking to FranceInfo, she pointed out that gender-based violence is usually committed by someone the victim knows, not a stranger, and that France’s foreign residents are also at risk from it.

“Tomorrow, the National Rally will separate out the ‘good’ victims – proper French women – from the ‘bad’ victims, who will no longer have access to emergency shelters,” Mailfert warned.

Even without going that far, an RN government could also harm women’s rights by doing nothing to advance them.

The party’s record in both the French and European parliaments shows it opposing or abstaining from votes on increasing women’s access to high-level positions in the civil service; toughening penalties for sexual harassment and violence; setting an EU directive on pay transparency to fight the gender wage gap; introducing anti-harassment training within European institutions; and adding the right to abortion in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.

But activists who joined the protests on Sunday told RFI they feared voters would be swayed by the RN’s words, not its actions.

“There’s no debate of ideas,” said Camille, 28. “They’re stirring up fears and playing on emotions. It feels to me like we’re falling headfirst.”

Trained at the International Fashion Academy in Paris, Ajose launched his brand Cute-Saint in Lagos.

“I wanted to create a brand that would have an impact,” he told RFI. “But I didn’t want my brand to have a negative impact on the environment.”

Created in 2019, the company takes pride in its locally produced organic fabrics made by local artisans.

“We try as much as possible to source the fabrics and materials we use locally in Nigeria and Africa,” Ajose said.

The designer was back in Paris this week for Africa Fashion Up, a week-long showcase dedicated to contemporary African fashion. This year’s edition took place at the Quai Branly Museum from 25 June to 1 July.

The event aims to highlight the work of young African talents who draw inspiration from their history and traditions.

It’s also an opportunity to spotlight the overlap between African fashion and other creative fields such as cinema and music.

Judith Godreche, a 52-year-old actor and director, has formally accused Jacquot of rape and Doillon of sexual assault when she was a minor, accusations both men deny.

She has described Jacquot of having an unhealthy “hold” over her during a relationship with him that started when she was 14, from in 1986 to 1992.

She has accused Doillon of abuse on set when she acted in one of his films.

• French film directors probed over alleged sexual abuse and rape

• French actress dominates Césars with calls for reckoning on sexual violence

Fellow actor Isild Le Besco, 41, has also formally accused Jacquot of raping her between 1998 and 2007 during a toxic relationship that started when she was 16 and he was 52.

Actor Julia Roy, 34, has also filed a complaint against him for sexual assault, during “a context of violence and moral constraint which lasted several years”, a source close to the case said.

Confrontation with the person accusing them

The director’s lawyers said there had been no need to detain them in order to question them, and stressed they should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Jacquot’s lawyer, Julia Minkowski, said her client would “finally be able to express himself before the law”.

Doillon’s attorney, Marie Dose, said no legal criteria could justify his being detained for questioning “36 years” after the incident alleged by Godreche.

The sources close to the case said their interrogation could include a confrontation with the person or persons accusing them.

Godreche on Instagram wrote she was deeply moved that police had finally summoned the two directors.

“I’m crying… From all this… I don’t know if I have the strength but I will have it. I will have it… For her,” she wrote, posting a picture of her teenage self next to Jacquot, 25 years her senior.

French film industry

The French film industry is reeling from accusations it has too long provided cover for abuse, including after a series of allegations against 75-year-old screen legend Gerard Depardieu, all of which he denies.

Since breaking her silence, Godreche has become a leading voice in France’s #MeToo movement.

• French parliament to investigate sexual abuse in cinema

After she appealed for a cinema oversight body, parliament in May voted to create a commission to investigate sexual and gender-based violence in the film industry and other cultural sectors.

(with AFP)

Orban has long railed against the “Brussels elites”, most recently accusing Brussels of fuelling the war in Ukraine.

Hungary has vowed to use its EU presidency – which begins on Monday – to push for its “vision of Europe” under the motto “Make Europe Great Again” – echoing the rallying cry of Orban ally former US president Donald Trump.

“A new era begins here, and the first, perhaps decisive moment of this new era is the creation of a new European political faction that will change European politics,” Orban told reporters in Vienna at a joint press conference with Austria’s Freedom Party (FPOe) leader Herbert Kickl and Czech ANO party leader Babis.

Vowing to bring a “new era”, the three men signed what they termed a patriotic manifesto, promising “peace, security and development” instead of “war, migration and stagnation”.

The new alliance, “Patriots for Europe”, will need support from parties from at least four other countries to be recognised as a group in the EU parliament.

It is not yet clear who would join them.

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) announced at its party conference on Sunday that it was officially withdrawing from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, to which the FPOe also belongs, along with France’s National Rally and Italy’s League.

• EU launches punative measures against Hungary over ‘anti-democratic’ laws

The party’s MEPs had already been excluded from the ID group in the run up to EU elections in early June after its lead candidate Maximilian Krah was embroiled in a series of scandals, including suspicious links to Russia and China.

Orban’s Fidesz party left the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) – the European Parliament’s biggest group – in 2021 amid accusations of Hungary‘s democratic backsliding.

New opportunities

“Even if the AfD cannot yet form a joint parliamentary group with Fidesz at this point, this opens up new opportunities for the AfD to work with other parties, as the party landscape of ECR and ID as a whole is in flux,” a spokesman for AfD leader Alice Weidel told French news agency AFP.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni‘s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) is set to be the EU parliament’s third-largest force, following far-right gains at the European elections.

Fidesz, with its partner KDNP, now has 11 MEPs, ANO seven and the FPOe six.

In a first, the FPOe topped the European election in Austria and also looks set to win national elections later this year.

Babis’ ANO announced last week it was leaving Renew Europe, which includes French President Emmanuel Macron’s party.

(with AFP)

France’s far-right National Rally (RN) could well win a majority in the upcoming snap legislative elections, which would mean the party’s leader, Jordan Bardella, would become prime minister. How would a far-right government rule France? Economic journalist Romaric Godin lays out the RN’s economic policy based on national preference, while political scientist Nicolas Tenzer worries about shifts in France’s foreign policy and its relationship with the outside world. And Arnaud Schwartz of the France Nature environment NGO questions the party’s commitment to withdraw from solar and wind power in favour of nuclear. (Listen @0′)

Jenny Sacerdote built up a huge fashion empire in the early part of the 20th century, clothing the likes of the Empress of Japan and silent movie star Mary Pickford with her elegant but comfortable silk garments. “Jenny’s grey suit” was as famous in the US as Chanel’s “little black dress”. She was also a pioneer in her approach to entrepreneurship and defending workers’ rights. And yet she fell into oblivion after World War II. Designer Anne Vogt, author of a biography of Sacerdote, talks about breathing new life into this forgotten icon through her label La Suite Jenny Sacerdote. (Listen @20’10”)

France’s snap elections are the sixth in the country’s post-war history. The most recent examples suggest that President Emmanuel Macron may not get the outcome he wants. (Listen @14’24”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompéani. 

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

Three people in their 70s and 80s died in France’s northeastern Aube region on Saturday when a tree crushed the car they were travelling in during fierce winds, the local authority told AFP.

A fourth passenger was in critical care, it added.

In neighbouring Switzerland, four people have died and a third is missing after torrential rains triggered a landslide in the southeast, police in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino said.

According to local daily La Regione, the dead were two women who were on holiday in the Alpine region.

Emergency services were assessing the best way to evacuate 300 people who had arrived for a football tournament in Peccia, while almost 70 more were being evacuated from a holiday camp in the village of Mogno.

The poor weather was making rescue work particularly difficult, police had said earlier, with several valleys inaccessible and cut off from the electricity network.

Evacuations

The federal alert system also said part of the canton was without drinking water.

In the western canton of Valais, the civil security services said “several hundred” people were evacuated and roads closed after the Rhone and its tributaries overflowed in different locations.

• Climate disasters cost French insurers €6.5bn in ‘worrying uptick’

Extreme rainfall also struck southeastern Switzerland last weekend, leaving one dead and causing major damage.

In northern Italy’s Aosta Valley, internet users shared images of spectacular floods and swollen rivers rushing down mountain slopes.

Scientists say climate change driven by human activity is increasing the severity, frequency and length of extreme weather events such as floods and storms.

(with AFP)

“At this conference, European companies are signing over 20 new deals … which are worth over 40 billion euros,” von der Leyen said at the meeting in the Egyptian capital.

The conference comes after a 7.4 billion-euro ($7.9 billion) EU funding package was signed in March to support the indebted North African country.

The strategic partnership deal provides the financial support in exchange for boosting energy sales to Europe and stemming migration.

“Today, we sign the first one billion euros in macrofinancial assistance,” the EU chief said, referring to the initial tranche of the funding package.

Macrofinancial aid, a series of medium and long term loans, “constitutes the large majority of the €7.4 billion in EU financial support under the partnership,” von der Leyen said.

Clean energy ambitions

Another €1.8 billion in European investments are hoped for as part of the deal, she added.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation, is in dire need of financial help as it weathers a severe economic crisis marked by rapid inflation.

In his opening remarks, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said the conference aimed to “enable European companies to benefit from investment opportunities in Egypt”.

• EU and Egypt agree €7.4bn deal focused on energy, migration

The event’s agenda would focus on “employment, economic growth, green and renewable energies”, he said.

Through March’s aid deal, Egypt is betting on its natural gas reserves to gain access to foreign currency, while the EU has sought alternatives to Russian gas since the war in Ukraine.

Human rights reforms

The EU chief said “Egypt has the ambitious goal of becoming a clean energy hub and this is in Europe’s interest too”.

Human rights groups have criticised the migration conditions of the EU-Egypt partnership, which follows several controversial deals with Libya, Tunisia and Mauritania to stem the flow of irregular migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.

• EU president and EU leaders to travel to Egypt for Tunisia-style migration deal

US-based Human Rights Watch labelled the agreement part of “the EU’s cash-for-migration-control approach”, saying it “strengthens authoritarian rulers while betraying human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers and activists whose work involves great personal risk”.

Amnesty International on Wednesday said the EU deal “must depend on human rights reforms”.

Egypt’s stability and prosperity are “essential for an entire region”, added von der Leyen, as war embroils neighbouring Gaza and Sudan.

(with AFP)

A total of 656,600 doses have been received, which will “initially vaccinate 250,000 children aged between 0 and 23 months” in 16 regions, the government said.

Although the number of malaria-related deaths has fallen from 3,222 in 2017 to 1,316 in 2020 in Côte d’Ivoire, the mosquito-borne disease “remains the leading cause of medical consultations”, according to the Ministry of Health.

The R21/Matrix-M vaccine has been authorised by Ghana, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.

An earlier approved malaria vaccine known as Mosquirix (RTS,S) is being used in Cameroon.

The Ivorian government is also distributing mosquito nets and is spraying insecticide in endemic areas.

• World leaders announce $1.2bn to create ‘African vaccine market’

• Why is malaria so difficult to combat?

Malaria causes fever, headaches and chills, and can become serious or even fatal if left untreated.

In 2022, it caused more than 600,000 deaths worldwide, 95 percent of them in Africa, and 80 percent of them in children under the age of 5, according to the WHO.

The vaccine is the second malaria vaccine that the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended for children and is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

(with AFP)

Fisherman Amadou Gueye returns to Dakar’s small port of Ouakam with only five octopuses after a long day spent at sea.  

“It’s not good. There’s the current and no fish,” he laments. “The big boats make it hard, leaving us with nowhere to fish.” 

Finding sardinella, a staple food and crucial economic resource in Senegal, has become a major challenge, confirms Ibrahima Ndiaye, vice-president of Ouakam’s local fishermen’s committee. 

“The pirogues now spend seven days at sea going to Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry – whereas in the past there was daily fishing,” he tells RFI. 

“We used to go out in the morning and come back in the evening.” 

• Congolese rumba and Senegalese fish dish join Unesco heritage list

Ecosystems changing

A study this month in the British journal Scientific Reports found that sardinella were migrating up the coast of west Africa from Senegal and Mauritania to Morocco, where large catches are now being recorded.  

The so-called “tropicalisation of ecosystems” – or warmer sea temperatures altering north-west African coastal waters – is driving the redistribution of sardinella and other small pelagic fish. 

The warming has caused sardinella to migrate northward at a rate of 181 kilometres per decade. 

Led by scientists in Senegal, France, Norway, Morocco, Mauritania and the Gambia, the study analyses data from 2,363 trawlers and 170,000 kilometres of acoustic sea surveys done between 1995 and 2015. 

It found that more than three decades of warming had impacted the cold ocean Canary Current that flows along the coast, regulating the marine ecosystem and influencing climate patterns. 

• Foreign-owned fishmeal factories in Senegal threaten local livelihoods

Climate stressors

Already over-exploited fish stocks were being forced out of their usual habitats by a “complex interplay of climatic-related stressors”, the report warned.  

These included changes to wind patterns and “upwelling” – when nutrient-rich, colder waters from the bottom of the ocean rise to the surface to support marine life. 

“While overfishing is obviously a direct human activity, the powerful environmental impacts are an indirect human activity,” Vincent Rossi, an oceanographer with the French research centre CNRS, told RFI. 

The loss of sardinella, a vital resource, risked further threatening food security in West African countries that depend on the fish, the study found.

It warned that shared stocks would become increasingly difficult to manage sustainably. 

The researchers said better monitoring was needed to properly understand the ways in which the marine ecosystem off north-west Africa was responding to climate change.  

This story is partly adapted from a report by RFI’s Dakar correspondent Léa-Lisa Westerhoff.

“Descent into Paradise” is Attia’s first exhibition in over five years in France. He describes it as “a journey through my life story, the starting point of a dialogue, and a reflection on our times, a challenging path”.

The title is a deconstruction of Dante’s Divine Comedy, from purgatory to hell, underneath which is hidden the ambivalent beauty of paradise, he adds.

Curated by Numa Hambursin, the show draws inspiration from the spatial organisation of the MoCo museum of modern art in Montpellier.

Visitors go from the top floor down to the basement as a metaphor for a voyage from the sky to the earth and its depths.

It’s a reflection on repair, reparations and transcendence that “questions the notion of verticality as a vital and spiritual movement”, according to the curator.

Algerian inspirations

“Algeria is definitely very important in my work, especially the traces of my family,” Attia told RFI on the opening day of the exhibition, which is being shown in conjunction with “Being Mediterranean”, a show of contemporary art from around the Mediterranean.

“My grandmother and my father fought against colonialism. But I also really care about the idea that we can have several identities.”

Keen to share his identities with the world, Attia says his art is a way to honour the legacy of our ancestors.

“I grew up in a family in poverty in the east of Algeria, in the Aurès mountains – a landscape that has been significant in my life.”

A multimedia artist, he uses drawing, photography, video, sculpture and installations.

The first works on display are a series of photographs of geometrical rocks from the Bab El Oued area of Algiers, where the artist would visit family.

In some photographs, young men look out towards the sea and towards Europe – except one, who sits reading a newspaper. He represents the people who decide to stay, perhaps to make a difference in their country, instead of dreaming of immigration.

Attia also explores Algeria through food with an installation that uses ingredients such as bread from where he grew up, and melted sugar cubes.

“They go with Algerian plates that have been broken – plates we used to prepare the bread, with special patterns in them, created with the peaks of forks,” he explains.

Attia says this is a way of addressing his main theme, the desire for repair from past wounds, which irrigate the fractures of our present.

“I juxtapose eras and places in a back-and-forth movement,” he explains. “I feel that spirituality enables us to escape the grip of history.

“Like the rain that ravages and transforms in two of the final pieces, it creates an ascension in a downward flow. This is how I see the ‘Descent into Paradise’.”

Travels back and forth

Born in 1970 in Seine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, Attia grew up in his parents’ native Algeria, and lived between the two countries for most of his youth. 

He studied art in Paris at the prestigious École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs before travelling extensively in Algeria, Congo, Latin America and Asia, which informed his art deeply.

“We, as artists, can change by absorbing different cultures, dynamics, conversations,” he says.

Attia is drawn to emotional responses to historical events, particularly those that involve exile and uprootedness, and he has a deep interest in the “repair” of trauma – especially colonial wounds.

The idea of repair is explicit in his sculptures invoking the gueules cassées (“broken faces”) – soldiers who were disfigured during WWI.

Between poetry and politics

Attia, who was awarded the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2016, has forged a body of work that travels between the political and the poetic. 

“The most important is to go back and forth between these two,” he says.

“I’m addressing political questions sometimes, that is very clear. And I’m addressing them through the lens of a metaphysical and philosophical purpose.”

Attia points to “Intifada: the Endless Rhizomes of Revolution“, a 2016 installation of tree-like sculptures made of metal rebar. They form Ys to support slingshots, which were used by Palestinians against Israelis during the First Intifada of 1987 to 1993.

By intertwining the political with the poetic, Attia says he can “elaborate more subtle meanings, to echo the complexity of the society rather than very limited views and cliche”.

“Descent into Paradise” is at Montpellier’s museum of modern art, Moco, until 22 September 2024.

“Kanyabayonga has been in the hands of the M23 since Friday evening,” the administrative official said under condition of anonymity.

Kanyabayonga lies on the northern front of the conflict in North Kivu province, which has been rocked by violence since 2021 when the M23 (March 23 Movement) resumed its armed campaign in the region.

The town is considered a pathway to the major commercial centres of Butembo and Beni in the north.

Kanyabayonga is home to more than 60,000 people as well as tens of thousands of people who have fled there in recent months, driven from their homes by the advance of the rebels.

The town is in the Lubero territory, the fourth territory in the North Kivu province that the group has entered after Rutshuru, Nyiragongo and Masisi.

Influx of displaced people

“The population is there (in Kanyabayonga), especially those who had moved from the territory of Rutshuru to Lubero,” the administrative official said.

“They no longer have anywhere to go, it is total desolation, the population is tired,” he added.

One resident told AFP that the M23 asked residents to stay in Kanyabayonga during a meeting in the centre of the town held by M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma on Saturday.

• France says Rwanda must end support for M23 rebels in DR Congo

“They are going to reach Kinshasa, how far will we continue to flee?” the resident said, adding that the rebels are “promising us peace”.

“We are seeing an influx of displaced people from Miriki, Kirumba and Luofu towards the North,” military administrator of the Lubero territory Colonel Alain Kiwewa said.

“It is a situation that worries us,” he added.

Local sources told AFP on Friday that fighting between Congolese forces and the rebels was intensifying around the town.

State of panic

Those in towns outside of Kanyabayonga also witnessed fighting.

“All night bullets rang out,” a youth leader in Kayna which lies some 17 kilometres north of Kanyabayonga said.

The youth leader, who did not wish to give his name, said those who had come to the town from the Kanyabayonga area “spent the night under the stars” and were fearful.

• DRC’s new PM and parliament sworn in after months of delay

In Kirumba, some 25 kilometres from Kanyabayonga, the population is in a “state of panic”, one civil society leader said on condition of anonymity.

“We can’t move anymore, where will we go? We don’t know where to go,” he said.

Clashes “are causing displacement of civilians,” the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office said in its monthly report on Friday.

“Humanitarian organisations providing support to the displaced have suspended their operations for security reasons,” it said.

(with AFP)

In the heart of Istanbul, onlookers gather around taking selfies of the police’s latest addition to its carpool: a Ferrari. City police now boast some of the world’s flashiest supercars, not only Ferraris but also Bentleys and Lexuses.

They’re the pickings of a nationwide crackdown on international organised crime involving narcotics smuggling and money laundering.

Turkey‘s unique geography straddling Europe and Asia makes it an ideal centre for international crime.

“Turkey is in between the continents. So once you want to transfer a commodity which is illegal, it may be drugs, etc, you must have a step here,” says Murat Aslan of the Foundation for Political, Economic, and Social Research, a think tank in Ankara.

Gang links

“Most criminal gangs in Europe or the United States or South America have links to the ones here in Turkey – and that is why police have started operations, especially focusing on the ones who have warrants or arrest warrants by Interpol.

“It’s a process, and Turkey is currently in the middle of it.”

Interior Ministry videos show heavily armed police breaking down doors in the middle of the night at luxury addresses usually associated with Istanbul’s high society.

Vast quantities of cash and guns are invariably recovered. Among those arrested are some of the world’s most wanted criminals from Europe, Asia, and the United States, most connected to the illicit drugs trade, underlining Turkey’s status as a hub for the European narcotics trade.

Last week, Turkish police, with their Spanish and French counterparts, broke up a European Central American drug cartel, resulting in dozens of arrests.

“According to Interpol and the Turkish police’s narcotics department, Turkey has become a transshipment hub for Europe and the Middle East,” says Atilla Yesilada, a Turkey analyst for Global Source Partners, another think tank.

“There are huge amounts of money floating around here.”

• Turkey set on rebuilding bridges with China to improve trade

Crime hub

Yesilada says Turkey became a hub for international crime not only because of its geography but also because of the government’s recent efforts to attract foreign currency to prop up the Turkish lira with a wealth amnesty.

“Look at our wealth amnesty, bring cash, bring diamonds, we don’t really care. Just check it at the border or deposit it in a bank, and we’ll never ask questions. This never-ask-questions part is, of course, completely in violation of the spirit of the global anti-money laundering legislation,” Yesilada says.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, at a recent press conference on the crackdown, announced that over 1,000 arrests – including 50 people wanted by Interpol – had been made this year, along with over 3 billion dollars in seized assets.

Yerlikaya says he’s committed to ending Turkey’s reputation as a haven for drug kingpins.

“Thirty-eight mafia-type organised crime gangs, seven of which were international and 31 of which were local, were broken up,” Yerlikaya says.

“We consider drugs a global disaster in the Turkish century. Our main goal in the fight against drugs is to ensure that Turkey becomes an inaccessible and Prohibited Zone for drugs. We consider drug crime equivalent to terrorism.”

• Turkey cuts trade with Israel but seeks role in resolving Gaza conflict

Turkey grey-listed

The crackdown follows the international anti-money laundering organisation the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) putting Turkey on its grey list of countries failing to combat global money laundering.

“Commercial banks and global funds are reluctant to do business with a country that’s still on the grey list because, you know, too many sanctions,” warns Yesilada.

Turkey‘s crackdown on organised crime and tightening of its financial controls are part of efforts to remove itself from the grey list and escape its damaging economic impact.

• Interpol fights crime and controversial image, 100 years on

“If we remain on the FATF grey list again, from the top of my head, 20 percent of the institutions that would otherwise be interested in investing in Turkey probably won’t be able to do so because of compliance fears,” Yesilada says.

“It is going to be a significant concern when this extensive due diligence work is undertaken, whether to make a particular investment in Turkey.”

The Turkish government sees increasing international investment as key to solving the country’s economic woes, which means the raids on wanted international crime figures seem set to continue, along with confiscating their valuable assets.

For the Istanbul police, the supply of fancy cars looks set to continue.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr – tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

The ePOP video competition is open!

The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment, and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people. You are to create a three-minute video about climate change, the environment, pollution – told by the people it affects.

You do not need expensive video equipment to enter the competition. Your phone is fine. And you do not need to be a member of the RFI Clubs to enter – everyone is welcome. And by the way – the prizes are incredibly generous!

Go to the ePOP page to read about past competitions, watch past videos, and read the regulations for your entry.  You can also write to us at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr, and we’ll forward your mail to Planète Radio.

The competition closes on 12 September, but you know how “time flies”, so get to work now! We expect to be bombarded with entries from the English speakers!

Facebook: Be sure to send your photos for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos.

Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec RFI”  has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bi-lingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”. According to your score, you’ll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it.” She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that’s how I worked on my French, reading books that were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here.

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

We have a new RFI Listeners Club member to welcome: Tahmidul Alam Orin from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Welcome,Tahmidul! So glad you have joined us!

You too can be a member of the RFI Listeners Club – just write to me at english.service@rfi.fr and tell me you want to join, and I’ll send you a membership number. It’s that easy. When you win a Sound Kitchen quiz as an RFI Listeners Club member, you’ll receive a premium prize.

This week’s quiz: On 1 June, the Roland Garros French Open International Tennis Tournament was in full swing, and our very own Paul Myers was there to keep you in the know.

Earlier that week, there was a nail-biting match between Alexander Zverev and Rafael Nadal, the 14-time winner of the Roland Garros French Open tennis tournament. You were to re-read Paul’s article “Zverev sees off Nadal to advance to second round at French Open”, and send in the answer to this question: What was the final score in the match between Zverev and Nadal?

The answer is: 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “How do you stay cool?”

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us!

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Sahadot Hossain from Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, who is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Sahadot!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ras Franz Manko Ngogo, the president of the Kemogemba RFI Club in Tarime, Mara, Tanzania, and RFI Listeners Club members Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State, India, as well as Ajharul Islam Tamim from Kishorganj, Bangladesh.  

Last but not least, there’s RFI English listener Sadman Al Shihab from Naogaon, also in Bangladesh.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Liber Tango” by Astor Piazzolla, performed by Layers; the scherzo from Midsummer Night’s Dream by Felix Mendelssohn, performed by Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Southern Freez” by Andy Stennett, John Rocca, and Peter Maas, performed by Freez.

Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, listen to Sarah Elzas’ report on the latest Spotlight on France podcast, and consult her article “French far-right party to fund policies by cutting aid to foreigners”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 12 August to enter this week’s quiz. The winners will be announced on the 17 August podcast. When you enter be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

According to the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, more than 120 million people are forcibly displaced today by war, violence and persecution.

It is an unprecedented number, one the organisation calls a “terrible indictment on the state of the world”.

Sudan alone has 9.9 million internally displaced people, as well as South Sudanese refugees who escaped civil war and now find themselves caught up in conflict once again. Aaron Adkins of the International Organisation for Migration discusses the complex needs of people repeatedly forced to flee.

Meanwhile Maribeth Black from the UN’s World Food Programme describes how Mauritania has successfully managed to integrate refugees, providing an example for other countries in Africa and beyond.

Finally, we head to the Mo.Co museum of modern art in Montpellier, in the south of France, to meet the French-Algerian artist Kader Attia at his new exhibition, “Descent into Paradise”.

He is inspired by his own story of migration, multiple identities, and his main theme: how to repair past traumas through art.

Episode mixed by Nicolas Doreau.

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale. 

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

The ePOP video competition is open!

The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment, and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people. You are to create a three-minute video about climate change, the environment, pollution – told by the people it affects.

You do not need expensive video equipment to enter the competition. Your phone is fine.  And you do not need to be a member of the RFI Clubs to enter – everyone is welcome. And by the way – the prizes are incredibly generous!

Go to the ePOP page to read about past competitions, watch past videos, and read the regulations for your entry.  You can also write to us at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr, and we’ll forward your mail to Planète Radio.

The competition closes on 12 September, but you know how “time flies”, so get to work now! We expect to be bombarded with entries from the English speakers!

Facebook: Be sure to send your photos for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos.

Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec RFI”  has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bi-lingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”. According to your score, you’ll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it.” She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that’s how I worked on my French, reading books that were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here.

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 18 May, I asked you a question about the South African legislative elections that were, at the time, on the horizon (they took place on 29 May). RFI English journalist Melissa Chemam was there; one of the articles she sent us was about the possible alliances if the African National Congress – Nelson Mandela’s party – did not win a majority. As she wrote: “Polls are predicting the party will lose its majority with many voters disgruntled by its failure to address inequality.”

The question was: If the ANC no longer has the majority, what are the names of the two parties that the ruling ANC could pick as coalition partners?

The answer is: The centre-right, business-friendly Democratic Alliance (DA), or the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

Here’s what happened, as Melissa noted in her recent article “Ramaphosa re-elected as South African leader after historic coalition deal”.

That “historic coalition deal” was made between the governing ANC and the centre-right DA party.

The ANC has been in power since the end of apartheid in 1994 but lost its majority for the first time in the 29 May vote. It keeps 159 seats in the 400-seat National Assembly, and the DA now has 87 seats. The EFF has 39 seats.

The new coalition voted to keep ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa as president – this will be his second term – by a 283 vote.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “What is your idea of a great weekend?” It was suggested by Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State in India.

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us!

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Helmut Matt from Herbolzheim, Germany. Helmut is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Helmut.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are RFI Listeners Club members Mohammad Mustansar Billah from Sunamganj, Bangladesh; also hailing from Bangladesh, this time from Rangpur, is Ataur Rahman Ranju, who’s the president of the Alokito Manush Cai International Radio Listeners Club. From West Bengal, India, there’s the faithful listener and correspondent Bidhan Chandra Sanyal – who extended his sincere love and greetings to all Muslims for Eid al-Hada last weekend  … and added, “No, I am not a Muslim.  I am a Hindu.  But I respect all religions of the world.” 

Last but not least, there’s RFI English listener Tara Regmi from Biratnagar, Nepal.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: The prelude to Bach’s Cello Suite no 1 in G major, performed by Yo-Yo Ma; the South African National Anthem; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Pay Me” by Christian Gates, performed by Gates and The Philharmonik.

Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Jan van der Made’s article “Israel and Russia barred as world’s largest arms show opens in Paris”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 15 July to enter this week’s quiz. The winners will be announced on the 20 July podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

France’s far-right National Rally (RN) could well win a majority in the upcoming snap legislative elections, which would mean the party’s leader, Jordan Bardella, would become prime minister. How would a far-right government rule France? Economic journalist Romaric Godin lays out the RN’s economic policy based on national preference, while political scientist Nicolas Tenzer worries about shifts in France’s foreign policy and its relationship with the outside world. And Arnaud Schwartz of the France Nature environment NGO questions the party’s commitment to withdraw from solar and wind power in favour of nuclear. (Listen @0′)

Jenny Sacerdote built up a huge fashion empire in the early part of the 20th century, clothing the likes of the Empress of Japan and silent movie star Mary Pickford with her elegant but comfortable silk garments. “Jenny’s grey suit” was as famous in the US as Chanel’s “little black dress”. She was also a pioneer in her approach to entrepreneurship and defending workers’ rights. And yet she fell into oblivion after World War II. Designer Anne Vogt, author of a biography of Sacerdote, talks about breathing new life into this forgotten icon through her label La Suite Jenny Sacerdote. (Listen @20’10”)

France’s snap elections are the sixth in the country’s post-war history. The most recent examples suggest that President Emmanuel Macron may not get the outcome he wants. (Listen @14’24”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompéani. 

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

Bilateral trade and developing new trade routes were at the top of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s agenda for his recent China visit.

According to Cagdas Ungor, an expert on China and professor of political science at Istanbul’s Marmara University, Turkey wants to be a part of the shift in global trading towards the Asia Pacific region.

“Turkey needs to rebuild all these connections in order to remain at the center of things, maintaining its bridge status between East and West,” he explained to RFI.

Ankara is seeking backing from Beijing of its “Middle Corridor” trade route, which would link China with Europe via Turkey.

Until now, such efforts have made little progress, but Ungor says this could change due to the world economy resetting to circumvent sanction-hit Russia. 

Middle Corridor has been on the table between China and Turkey for a long time, Ungor says.

Window of opportunity

“The idea of it has become more popular now because of the Russian sanctions, and Europeans are now also interested in alternative channels. There’s a window of opportunity,” he says.

But Beijing is critical of Ankara offering refuge to China’s predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority.

The Chinese have not forgotten that in 2009, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was Prime Minister, he described China’s crackdown on Uyghurs as “near genocide”.

• Beijing furious over damning UN rights report on Uyghurs in Xinjiang

The international community, including the United States and the European Union, have also accused China of incarcerating tens of thousands of its largest Muslim minority in camps in an effort to strip them of their Muslim identity. Beijing has denied these accusations, saying the camps are designed to combat separatism and weed out Islamist extremists.

Since then, the issue seems to have become water under the bridge, judging by the warm reception Turkey’s diplomat was given on his China visit at the beginning of June.

Analysts say Fidan used more conciliatory language on the issue during his trip which included a stop in Xinjiang, home to many Uyghurs.

Respect for one-China policy

Ungor says the the Chinese were “happy” with Fidan’s visit, as it further underlined Turkey’s support for China’s one-China policy.

“The official Chinese media focused on the fact that Turkey respects China’s territorial integrity,” Ungor says.

“And Fidan’s remarks on Xinjiang’s economic development, social harmony, respect for cultural rights” made a good impression, adds Ungor.

Turkey’s pro-government media even praised Fidan for wearing a turquoise blue tie, the color of the Uyghur community and referring to the region’s Turkic Muslim roots. 

• Erdogan hopes a U-turn can salvage Turkey’s floundering economy

However, some members of the Uyghur diaspora were alarmed by Fidan’s visit. 

Uyghur leader Seyit Tumturk, the head of East Turkistan National Assembly accused the Chinese administration of “trying to legitimise its own genocide” by with Fidan’s visit to the Uyghur region.

Tumturk maintains that “Hakan Fidan saw what China wanted him to see, but no more,” suggesting that if China had nothing to hide, then it should allow international independent observers to have the opportunity to go there “and visit not only places China says to see but also the back streets, to visit the households, and to determine the agony, pain, and torture there,” he concludes.

Wildcard

Adding to Uyghur dissidents’ unease over Fidan’s China visit are growing rumors that Ankara is ready to acquiesce to Beijing’s lobbying to ratify an extradition agreement held up in the Turkish parliament in the face of strong opposition. 

“The ultranationalist opposition claims that China got a promise from Fidan that the Turkish parliament will finally ratify an extradition treaty, which will allow Uyghurs to be sent back to China,” explains China specialist Ceren Ergenc, a visiting fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies.

“There’s no way that we can know if it’s true or not, we need to wait and see. If it’s correct, then it’s a huge compromise from Turkey’s side,” adds Ergenc.

Such a compromise could help overcome Beijing’s current reluctance to collaborate with Ankara. But any move by Ankara against the Uyghurs will be risky given the strong Turkish public support for the Chinese minority.

“China informally bypasses Turkey in its regional plans. Turkey is a wild card for China,” claims Ergenc, adding that Turkey is also officially classified as a high-risk country for investment for Chinese companies.

“The Uyghur diaspora is very strong in Turkey in terms of the voter base of the conservative parties. So you never know how a statement like Erdogan’s ten years ago could come and create a crisis between the two countries.

Madhya Pradesh is often referred to as the Heart of India. Located right in the middle of the country, the Indian region shows everything India has to offer through its abundant diversity. The IFTM trade show, which took place in Paris at the end of September, presented the perfect opportunity for travel enthusiasts to discover the region.

Sheo Shekhar Shukla, Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board, sat down to explain his approach to sustainable tourism.

“Post-covid the whole world has known a shift in their approach when it comes to tourism. And all those discerning travelers want to have different kinds of experiences: something offbeat, something new, something which has not been explored before.”

Through its UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Shukla wants to showcase the deep history Madhya Pradesh has to offer.

“UNESCO is very actively supporting us and three of our sites are already World Heritage Sites. Sanchi is a very famous buddhist spiritual destination, Bhimbetka is a place where prehistoric rock shelters are still preserved, and Khajuraho is home to thousand year old temples with magnificent architecture.”

All in all, Shukla believes that there’s only one way forward for the industry: “Travelers must take sustainable tourism as a paradigm in order to take tourism to the next level.”

In partnership with Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board.

Also known as the Land of the Beautiful Islands, Malaysia’s landscape and cultural diversity is almost unmatched on the planet. Those qualities were all put on display at the Malaysian stand during the IFTM trade show.

Libra Hanif, director of Tourism Malaysia, explained the appeal of the country as well as the importance of promoting sustainable tourism today: “Sustainable travel is a major trend now, with the changes that are happening post-covid. People want to get close to nature, to get close to people. So Malaysia being a multicultural and diverse [country] with a lot of natural environments, we felt that it’s a good thing for us to promote Malaysia.”

Malaysia has also gained fame in recent years, through its numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which include Kinabalu Park and the Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley.

Green mobility has also become an integral part of tourism in Malaysia, with an increasing number of people using bikes to discover the country: “If you are a little more adventurous, we have the mountain back trails where you can cut across gazetted trails to see the natural attractions and the wildlife that we have in Malaysia,” says Hanif. “If you are not that adventurous, you’ll be looking for relaxing cycling. We also have countryside spots, where you can see all the scenery in a relaxing session.”

With more than 25,000 visitors at this IFTM trade show this year, Malaysia’s tourism board got to showcase the best the country and its people have to offer.

In partnership with Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board. For more information about Malaysia, click here.