Global News Podcast - French government collapses in no-confidence vote

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

The French government has collapsed after PM, Michel Barnier, was ousted in a no-confidence vote, after forcing through his budget. Also: Mexican police make their biggest ever seizure of the synthetic drug fentanyl.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. If Hitler isn't defeated, it's the end of the free world. Purple Heart Warriors, listen now by searching for dramas wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in the early hours of Thursday the 5th of December these are our main stories. The French government has collapsed after the Prime Minister Michel Barnier lost a vote of no confidence in Parliament. Police in Mexico say they've made their biggest ever seizure of the synthetic opioid fentanyl responsible for thousands of deaths in the United States and around the world. Many people, including children, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike at Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Also in this podcast, how progressive Sweden is changing. I just want to cook and clean and I want to be a housewife. I'm not making money, I'm not pursuing a career right now, I'm just, my life is softer, I am not struggling, I'm not very stressed. We begin in Paris. French politicians have ousted the government in a no confidence vote, leaving the prospect of months of turmoil in France. Michel Barnier is the first French Prime Minister to be dismissed in this way since 1962. Opposition parties called the vote after Ms de Barnier used special powers to force through controversial social security reforms. In the no confidence debate, the far right leader Marine Le Pen said the minority government had refused to make sufficient budget concessions to avoid a crisis. She said Mr. Barnier's budget would impose suffering on the French people.

This budget takes French people hostage, and most especially the most vulnerable. The poorer pensioners, people with illness, impoverished workers, French people considered too rich to receive aid but not poor enough to escape a hammering from the taxman. The French Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin challenged those MPs who would oppose the budget. Do you want to deprive New Caledonia of a billion euros of credit? Do you want to prevent the financing of OPEC? Do you want to prevent support for Ukraine?

Do you really want to prevent the payment of the disabled adult allowance? Say it frankly and thank you to all the people who are here who take their responsibilities seriously. The French president Emmanuel Macron is likely to keep Mr Barnier as a caretaker Prime Minister while he seeks a replacement acceptable to a deeply divided parliament. So, is France stumbling from one crisis to another? A question I put to our Paris correspondent, Andrew Harding. Yes, stage two or three or four in a kind of slow-moving crisis that looks like it will rumble on for months, if not longer, frankly.

This has got rid of one government, one prime minister, but it hasn't come close to resolving the deadlock within Parliament itself. That can't be resolved until next summer at the earliest, which is when the first new parliamentary elections could take place. There's also talk now, increasingly talk of maybe changing the Constitution or maybe pushing out President Emmanuel Macron. But neither of those options seem likely to happen very quickly of at all.

So in the short term, perhaps you can talk us through what is going to happen now. Well, President Macron last time, you remember, after those summer elections that surprised everyone and resulted in a deadlock, he dithered for a long time trying to find the right Prime Minister who could perhaps form some sort of working majority in Parliament. He ended up finally with Michel Barnier. That hasn't worked out. The assumption is that he will try and move much more quickly this time to find somebody else to appoint either as a new Prime Minister or at least in a caretaker role, that person may come still from the right of the political spectrum or the right of the centre ground, or possibly the Prime Minister could come towards the left. But because Parliament is so divided, it really needs to be somebody centrist fundamentally, but with enough reach to kind of pull in people from both extremes, the left and the right.

And it's not clear even how that's going to happen or quite how quickly that will take place. And in the meantime, Andrew, there must be a real concern there that all this instability is going to be felt in people's pockets. Exactly. I mean, that's what Michel Barnier has been warning about for some days now, warning that because there cannot be a new budget, there will have to be a sort of extension rolling over of the current budget, that that will mean that measures that were supposed to be brought

in in the new budget won't be implemented. People may well end up paying more tax, interest rates could rise, and at a sort of more macro level you might start to see issues like French debt price going up. So the cost to the government of borrowing could well go higher as markets and lenders start to worry about the long-term economic and financial implications of this instability and that could push interest rates up as well. implications of this instability and that could push interest rates up as well. Andrew Harding in Paris. Next to Mexico police say they've made their biggest ever seizure of fentanyl. That's the powerful synthetic opioid responsible for thousands of deaths in the US and other countries. About 1,500 kilos of

fentanyl pills were found by police in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. Donald Trump has said he'll impose tariffs on goods from Mexico until it controls illegal immigration and stop drugs, including fentanyl, crossing the border. Our America's regional editor, Leonardo Ruscha, told me more about this latest drug seizure. It's the biggest ever ever according to Mexican police. It was raids using soldiers, using all the security forces and police in four towns of Sinaloa, the northwestern state of Sinaloa, which is the heart of the Sinaloa Cartel where much of the drug trafficking and the criminal activities is based in Mexico. They seized up to 1.5 tonnes of fentanyl, which

is worth $400 million and basically worth for 20 million doses of fentanyl, which is a deadly drug and responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in the United States every year. Now clearly Mexico was engaged in fighting fentanyl production before those threats that I mentioned from Donald Trump. But one imagines those threats focused minds in Mexico. Yes, it is a very difficult time for it's a new government for Mexico. It's a new government.

President Claudia Shane Bounds has been in power for one, two months only. And then she gets Donald Trump coming across the way they haven't met yet. And what the US and President Trump, the future president is saying is you have to address migration, the border and drug trafficking. It's very interesting because Claudia Sheinbaum, she basically follows the same ideas as her predecessor, Lopez Obrador. And he denied for most of his government that Mexico produced any fentanyl, said it comes from China. The ingredients or the chemicals used to make fentanyl come from China,

but it's clear for everyone, anyone in this area, that it's produced in Mexico. So what they said is the government in Mexico is in denial, is defensive, and they're going to face a very aggressive president now in the United States. And a raid like this is a way for Mexico to say, look, we are not in denial, if we ever were, but it's incredibly difficult to crack down on the fentanyl production. As soon as you go after one gang, another will pop up. Yes, that's right. And I mean, I think it's interesting that all this comes up,

I mean, the seizure of more than a tonne of fentanyl at this very difficult political times now. But there is another element as well, because the state of Sinaloa has been involved in awful violence, a surge in murders. So in a way, this operation was aimed at curbing the violence, controlling the situation in Sinaloa, where you have rival gangs trying to get into the areas controlled by the Sinaloa where you have rival gangs trying to get into the areas controlled by the Sinaloa cartel but I think the overall message from Mexico is saying we're trying to do we're doing our best we need to work together to try to stop this. Leonardo Rocha, at least 20 people including

children have been killed and many others wounded in an Israeli airstrike at Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said that it conducted what it called a precise strike on senior Hamas fighters after taking steps to mitigate the risk to civilians. From Jerusalem, here's our correspondent, John Donelson. Health officials in Gaza say the bombing happened in a camp in Al Mawasi, an area supposedly designated a safe zone by Israel. Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering there in tents.

A number of children are reported to be amongst the dead. Video posted on social media shows a large fire and smoke rising from the scene. The Israeli military has yet to comment. But in previous strikes on such camps, it said it has been targeting Hamas operatives hiding amongst civilians. John Donerson, the former chief of staff of the Israeli military, has accused the army of carrying out ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza. Moshe Yalon, who's also a former defense minister, said the military was cleaning the area of Arabs, a claim rejected by the Israel Defense Forces. His remarks highlight unease among some in Israel about the aims of

the war and how it is being fought. More than 160 reservists have signed a letter refusing to serve in Gaza or threatening refusal unless there's a deal to end the war and bring the remaining Israeli hostages home from Gaza. From Jerusalem, this report from Fergal Keen. I know at least three people that were brutally murdered in the 7th of October. Israel is a small country. Everyone knows each other. I knew that the military action was inevitable

and was due and was justified in a way, but I was very worried about the shape of my take. The voices, first of Yuval Green and then Michael Ofer Ziv, who were among more than 160 Israeli reservists who signed a letter refusing or threatening to refuse service in Gaza. Both felt it was their duty to serve after the Hamas attack on October 7th last year. But over a year into the war, both now want to ceasefire, along with the return of the hostages held by Hamas. Yuval Green was a combat medic in the

paratroops, language he heard at the outset of the war worried him deeply. People were speaking about killing the entire population of Gaza, speaking about as if it was some type of an academic idea that makes sense. And with this atmosphere, soldiers are entering Gaza, you know, just a month after their friends were butchered. Michael Ofer Ziv was working in a brigade operations room when he says he heard disturbing words. I think the most horrible sentence that I heard was someone said to me that the kids that we spared on 2014, the last war in Gaza, became the terrorists of October 7th, which I bet is true for some cases because you know some kids grew up to be terrorists but definitely not all of them.

For Yuval Green the scale of destruction he was witnessing in Gaza accelerated his questioning of how and why the war was being fought, leading him to a decisive moment. The turning point was when they told us to burn down house, and I went to my commander and asked him, why are we doing that? And the answers he gave me were just not good enough and that was my last day in Gaza. Like the crowd at this rally in Jerusalem, the refusers who signed the letter are deeply mistrustful of the current government.

You can hear there the voice of Prime Minister Netanyahu. It's coming from a large screen and the crowd are responding with whistles, with claxons. This is a mandate, definitely, definitely want to see leaving power. I definitely, definitely want to see leaving power. I've come into a tent near the Knesset and on the walls all around me are the faces of soldiers who've been killed in this war. This memorial here is run by a group which wants the war to go on until what they call a final victory over Hamas. Those refusing service for reasons of conscience are a small minority, just scores out of hundreds of thousands of IDF reservists.

Many more, as many as 25%, are reported to be not turning up for duty because of physical and emotional burnout. About an hour south of here, I met a reservist who's sharply critical of the refusers, accusing them of playing politics with the army. Major Sam Lipsky defends the IDF against accusations of using disproportionate force. There's no way to fight a war and to prosecute

a military campaign without these images happening. It's, you know, you can't mow military campaign without these images happening. It's, you know, you can't mow the lawn without grass flying up. It's very tragic. And that can be true while also saying that it is completely the fault of the terrorist regime that rules the Hatikva. People here share the demands for a peace deal to bring the hostages home. For the refusers like Yuval Green and Michael Ofer Ziv, there's a worry for Israel's future,

as well as hope that in the long run, Palestinians and Israelis might find a way to make peace. Yuval Green. I think in this conflict, there are only two sides, not the Israeli side and the Palestinian side. There is the side that supports violence and the side that supports finding better solutions. It's scarier and scarier every day.

It just looks less and less likely that I will be able, holding the values that I hold, wanting the future that I want for my kids to live here. That report by Fergal Keane in Jerusalem. Still to come. Police in Georgia violently seize and detain an opposition leader in the Cook Islands, where we're taking a deep dive into the Pacific. This small island nation has grand ambitions to mine its seabed for metals used in green technology.

But a community that's defined by its ocean has found itself at the centre of a global debate. Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts. The chief executive of America's largest health endurance company, United Healthcare, has been killed in a shooting in New York. Brian Thompson was pronounced dead in hospital after the attack in central Manhattan. Police believe he was deliberately targeted. A search is underway for the suspect who was seen fleeing the scene on an electric bike.

From New York, here's our correspondent, John Sudworth. Brian Thompson was shot dead as he arrived on foot for an investors meeting at the Hilton Hotel on Manhattan's Sixth Avenue at around quarter to seven in the morning. After a 20-year career with United Healthcare, a provider of health insurance coverage for almost 30 million Americans and one of the country's biggest companies, he was made Chief Executive in 2021. Eye witnesses say the gunman, wearing a hoodie and a backpack, appeared to be waiting for him outside the building. He fired a number of shots and then escaped the scene by bicycle. The police, although they do not yet have a motive, say they're treating the shooting

as a pre-planned targeted attack. Video from the scene, they say, shows many other pedestrians passing the gunman before he singles out Mr Thompson. A major search effort is now underway with a $10,000 reward on offer. John Sudworth. Staying in the United States there's been more controversy in Washington over Donald Trump's cabinet appointments. Last month Mr Trump chose Pete Hegseth, a firebrand conservative to be his defense secretary but a few days later it emerged that the former Fox News host had been accused of sexual assault in 2017. Now rumors are swirling

that he might be ditched. I spoke to our North America correspondent Jessica Parker who was on Capitol Hill. She told me more about Pete Hegseth and the post he's been appointed to. This would be more about Pete Hegseth and the post he's been appointed to. This would be the person who is in charge of the world's most powerful military. So I think it's an understatement to say it's a big job. And various reports have been circulating around Mr Hegseth, who is a combat veteran, so formerly in the military. One of the main ones you mentioned that emerged soon after he was picked to be defence secretary

was this police report detailing accusations of an alleged sexual assault in 2017. He's denied wrongdoing and he was never arrested or charged. But then another development was an email from his mother was leaked from 2018 where she voices concerns to her son about what she suggests is his mistreatment of women and she says he should get some help. She's now been out on the airwaves on Fox News defending him saying that that email was written in haste. She almost immediately regretted it. They were going through a difficult period. He was going through a divorce. And she actually directly appealed to senators, particularly female senators, as she was doing this interview

and criticized the media behaviour around her son. So she's now trying to help her son get confirmed. Now it is notoriously difficult to predict what Mr Trump might do next. But let's take your neck out. How likely is it that he's going to be ditched? And who are the contenders to replace Mr Heskett? Reports are absolutely circulating he could be ditched. And I've seen him here today, by the way, in Capitol Hill. Wherever he goes, reporters sort of swarm around him,

asking him questions about whether he thinks he's going to be ditched by President-elect Trump. Mr. Hegseth said today, though, that he'd spoken to Mr. Trump, that he'd been told to keep fighting, that Mr. Trump was behind him all the way. And he was asked, are you withdrawing your name for consideration? He said,

Mr Hegseth, we're meeting all day with senators. And he is indeed having a lot of meetings. Of course, it's a matter of mass numbers in the Senate to get confirmed, but the person who's being rumored as potentially considered to replace him, this hasn't been confirmed at all by the Trump camp, but is Ron DeSantis,

who is probably a familiar name for a lot of people. He's the guy of course that wanted to run for the Republican nomination instead of Donald Trump but failed to do so. Now he's apparently being considered potentially for this role although these are just US media reports at the moment but quite a frenetic mood I would say around the Hegseth nomination. Jessica Parker in Washington. Next to Georgia and an opposition party in the country says one of its leaders has been detained after being beaten unconscious during a police raid in the capital Tbilisi. Footage on social media shows Nikolay Gvaramia who was a member of the Ahali party and part of the pro-European coalition for change,

being dragged along the street by what appear to be security personnel in Balaclavas. Protesters have been clashing with police in Tbilisi since talks about joining the European Union were halted last week. Our caucuses correspondent Rehan Demetri sent this report from the Georgian capital. And Dmitri sent this report from the Georgian capital. Masked police detained Nika Gvaramye, one of the leaders of the opposition outside the Drawa party headquarters. Mr Gvaramye reportedly demanded entry to the offices to witness an ongoing police raid. After a confrontation, he was violently seized by his arms and legs and forcibly carried by policemen

to a nearby car with tinted windows and driven off. On Wednesday, the Georgian authorities raided offices of all the opposition parties which participated in October parliamentary elections. Homes and offices of activists who have been participating in the ongoing anti-government protests in the capital, Belize, have also been searched. Mass country-wide protests have been sparked by the ruling Georgian Dream Party's decision to hold EU accession talks. The opposition and the country's pro-Western president have accused the ruling party of stealing the elections and the party's billionaire founder of buying influence over decision-making.

Rayhan Demetri in Georgia. And now to South Korea, where opposition legislators have formally introduced a motion to impeach the president, Yoon Suk-yul, for ordering martial law. They've accused Mr. Yoon of violating the constitution. There could be a vote on the issue as early as Friday. It's thought the president's own party will oppose the measure. But to carry the motion, the opposition needs the support of just eight legislators affiliated to him. Mr Yoon has not spoken publicly since rescinding martial law.

Protests have continued in the capital Seoul. Laura Bicker sent this report from there. soul. Laura Bickert sent this report from there. This candlelit camp followed a night of chaos. They gathered on the steps of the parliament with one aim, to call for the impeachment of a president who declared martial law. Because we have a history of defending democracy a few times, the people will strongly defend democracy once more. I'm out here as a citizen who could not sit by and watch the democracy breaking down. Resign, the group chanted, before their Mexican wave.

Such a different scene from last night's turmoil. President Yoon plunged his country into martial law. Soldiers broke through the windows of parliament to prevent elected members from overturning his decree. They were unsuccessful. And after six hours, Seoul's parliament, not just its president, were back in control. Today, the building bore the scars of that struggle. Repairs have already begun, as has a motion to impeach the president.

If they're willing to violate human rights under martial law, it's obvious that they're also ready to sacrifice people's lives. Stay alert and fight with us. Protests sprung up in other parts of the city as South Koreans took a moment to reflect. The prospect of martial law brought back chilling memories of authoritarian rule. South Koreans value their democracy. They fought for it, some died for it. And although they may be questioning just how robust it may be, they've turned out

in their thousands to protect it. But President Yun remains in power. Some tried to march to his office, but they were blocked by police. It's unclear whether Mr Yun hears their calls to resign. But until he does, these demonstrations, however peaceful, will only grow. Laura Bicker. The world of social media tends to be a place that leads us into modern trends. But what about when it takes us back in time? That's what seems to be happening in Sweden, where popularity is growing for online communities that tell young women to stop earning money and become stay at home wives or girlfriends instead. Maddie Savage has been investigating.

This is Vilma Larsson, she's 25 and a Swedish TikToker who shares tips about beauty, relationships and giving up work. It actually started as a joke. I was cooking and I was like, oh, I just wish I could do this all the time. I just want to cook and clean and I want to be a housewife. And my boyfriend said like, yeah, you could do that sometime if you want. So how do you handle the financial side of things? Every month he gives me like a salary. If I need more I'll ask him or if I need less I just save the rest.

Vilma is part of a global social media trend that champions traditional gender norms with hashtags like tradwife or softgirl, encouraging women to focus on their home lives and self-care instead of a career. I'm not making money, I'm not pursuing a career right now. I'm just... my life is softer. I'm not struggling. I'm not very stressed. Sweden's biggest annual survey of 15- to 24-year-olds called Ungdomsbarometer suggests the soft girls trend

started becoming popular here about a year ago, in parallel with less than half of young women identifying as feminists, down from 64% in 2021. And this has triggered big debates because gender equality has been championed in mainstream politics in Sweden since the 1950s. When you choose to have this role of being a housewife, you choose to be totally economic dependent on the man, which means that you can't leave. That's Gudrun Hjyman, a former leader of Sweden's Feminist Party.

But I got a very different view at the Swedish Parliament when I met Denise Västerberg, a spokesperson for the youth section of the right-wing Sweden Democrat Party. We still live in a country with all the opportunities to have a career, we still have all the rights, but we have the right to also choose to live more traditionally. I don't think that politicians as myself should go in and micromanage people's lives. There have also been big cultural discussions

about the context to all this. In Sweden Sweden more than 80% of mothers have a job that's higher than most other EU countries and the US where the figure is just under 70% according to data from the OECD. Yet Swedish women still do a larger share of housework and childcare than men and are more likely to take sick leave for burnouts and younger women have watched this unfold while also being influenced by idealistic lifestyles

on social media. Peter Wichstram works for Sweden's state-funded gender equality agency. This social trend could be seen as a kind of rational reaction to the many types of demands and things that young women experience that they must fulfill, trying to be perfect in every aspect of life. Peter Vikström ending that report by Maddie Savage. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Lee Wilson. The producer was Liam McShepard. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and the Cook Islands, where we're taking a deep dive into the Pacific. This small island nation has grand ambitions to mine its seabed for metals used in green

technology. But a community that's defined by its ocean has found itself at the center of a global debate. Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.