By Sushil Kutty
Nepal burned and continues to simmer. Next, France is in turmoil. French citizens have invaded streets and roads blocking all that stands in their way, from roads and buildings and commercial establishments. The agitators are calling it ‘Block #verything Movement’, which is not only telling, prophetic and on the dot but is working, too.
The protestors couldn’t have asked for a more non-violent method of protesting than blocking everything in sight. In other words, bring the country to a halt. It is working. Much of France is on the road and violence very much part of the process.
Like they say, the process is the punishment and recent rulers have erred enough to keep France burning. It beats thinking that French President Emmanuel Macron still hasn’t got a grip on how to run a multi-faceted country like France which has a tendency to run in every which way but the desired.
So, the world is going crazy. The United States overnight lunged into debacle and defiance after the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, one of very few who had a direct line to the Oval Office. Kirk has been assassinated and the American flag all round the planet is on half-mast.
The ‘Star Spangled’ will remain stuck at half-mast till Sunday, a rare honour for an American who held no position of power in government or the Trump administration. But Charlie was perhaps the single most close aide and unlike the likes of Elon Musk.
Charlie spun the web for President Donald Trump and he did this with a spontaneous effort, bringing to the MAGA fold ever increasing numbers of floating Americans. Charlie and his ‘Turning Point…’ campaigned for Trump’s 2024 presidential run and Trump has got a body-blow with Kirk’s assassination.
Kirk has left behind him a huge and unfillable hiatus. If there eerie similarities between Kirk’s assassination and the failed assassination attempt on President Trump in 2024, the only link is the two shared the same conservative platform except that Kirk was born to the manor and Trump wasn’t.
Trump wound up on the Republican idea of the aisle for purely political ambitions. Kirk on the other hand was the natural-born American, somebody who reflected on conservative values and wore those values as a badge of honour.
Charlie Kirk’s assassination is part of the current rightwing-leftwing narrative. The Trump administration is considered rightwing and Europe is packed to the brim with rightwing regimes. France maybe yes, maybe not. But there definitely is a veer to the right.
Is the ‘Block Everything’ movement left-liberal? To some the “Stir is not entirely dissimilar to that in Nepal, where groups of young people with no clear leader held massive protests”. Extreme rightwing is behind the one after another unrests.
What could be other reasons? The immediate reasons differ. Analysts are speaking of a “fractured polity” as a common thread. It is a war of two worlds. The rise of the extreme right and the resultant blowback. Macron inducted his third Prime minister just last week.
The widespread protests in countries worldwide, the violence, arson and now assassination, too. President Macron’s “centrist regime” is under tremendous stress. Can newly appointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu stem the rot spilling out? There is the “combative rightwing and the raging leftists”.
This is not entirely dissimilar to what happened and is happening in Nepal, where regime change is ongoing though there is no clear leader. Nepal today is running on empty. Political stability is a far cry. The last Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is nowhere to be seen. A rapper and a former Chief Justice of Nepal are being touted his successor. Nepal, for all purposes, has to be ready for a long political uncertainty.
As for Franc e, the rightwing is driving the government from behind But there’s this grassroots movement called ‘Let’s Block Everything’ that has thrown a spoke in Macron’s wheel and there are growing cries for Macron’s resignation who is holding on to power on a diet of ‘adamant stubborn’. France today is a picture of disrupted schools, trains, airline and factories. There’s a nationwide strike called for September 18.
From Nepal to France and now assassination of a Trump loyalist in USA, it is anger all over- the issues may vary from nation to nation. The global turbulence sees no ending in sight starting with Ukraine war, the genocide in Gaza and lately Poland’s attack on Russian planes in its skies. India is still safe, but for how long? (IPA Service)