07/08/24 07/08/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! amy: in france, victory for the left's new popular front keeps

the far right from getting power in the final round of snap elections. we will go to paris and get response from the french-iranian writer marjane satrapi, author of "persepolis" and "woman, life, freedom." we will also talk to her about tehran for an update on the iranian elections where voters chose to reformist candidate who has criticized mandatory hijab law for women and has promised to disband iran's morality police. >> i consider the road as a heavy responsibility on my shoulders. a voice to the voiceless. amy: but first to britain where the labour party has one power for the first time in 14 years as labour party leader keir starmer becomes prime minister, tens of thousands marched in london for an immediate gaza ceasefire, including the former labour leader jeremy corbyn.

he kept his long-standing seat after running as an independent against labour. >> [indiscernible] ceasefire now. amy: jeremy corbyn will join us from london. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in france, the recently formed leftist coalition the new popular front pulled off a surprise victory in the second round of parliamentary elections sunday. the left-green alliance came together in a bid to stave off the far-right after marine le pen's national rally party made major advances in the first round and in recent eu elections. but the new popular front, which won 182 seats in the national

assembly, still fell short of the 289 seats required for an absolute majority. sunday's results come as a major blow to not only the far-right which came in third, but to french president emmanuel macron, who called the snap election in the hopes french voters would keep his centrist coalition in place. macron's prime minister gabriel attal offered his resignation today but macron asked him to stay on temporarily. the head of the progressive france unbowed party jean-luc melenchon spoke sunday. >> the president has the power. he has the duty to call on the new popular front to govern. it is ready. the new popular front will respect the mandate according to the vote cast for its candidates.

our given word will be respected. the new popular front will apply its manifesto, all its manifesto, and nothing but its manifesto. amy: the new popular front has vowed to raise the minimum wage, cap the price of essential foods and utilities, and to throw out macron's hugely unpopular pension reform which raised the retirement age. the group says it will raise -- it will reimpose taxes on the wealthiest and corporations. the new popular front also says it will recognize palestinian statehood after macron's government earlier this year refused to do so. we'll have more on the french elections later in the broadcast. meanwhile, in the united kingdom, keir starmer has become britain's new prime minister after his labour party trounced the conservatives in a general election on thursday. it's the first time labour has been in power in 14 years. but the election lacked much of the energy and hope for change that marked france's vote, with the lowest turnout in more than 20 years. starmer, a centrist politician, vowed to lead a government of

"stability and moderation." he made his first official address as leader on friday. >> for too long now, we have turned a blind eye as millions slid into greater insecurity. nurses, builders, drivers, people doing the right thing working harder every day, recognize that moment like this before yet as soon as the cameras stop rolling, their lives are ignored. i want to say very clearly to those people, "not this time." amy: former conservative prime minister liz truss lost her seat in parliament, far right figurehead nigel farage won his election in his eighth attempt to gain a seat. sinn fein became northern ireland's largest party in the

british parliament the first time. the former labour leader jeremy corbyn easily retained his longtime seat after running as an independent in his london district against labour. in one of his first moves, starmer declared the u.k. rwanda deportation plan dead and buried. we will go to the u.k. for more after headlines and speak with mp jeremy corbyn. voters in iran have elected masoud pezeshkian as its new president. the reformist candidate defeated hard-liner saeed jalili on saturday. pezeshkian is a heart surgeon who had served as health minister under reformist president mohammad khatami. pezeshkian has criticized iran's mandatory hijab law for women and has promised to disband iran's morality police. he spoke in tehran on saturday. >> i pledge to continue to be a listening ear for your words and a voice for the voiceless and rejected. amy: saturday's election was

held six weeks after iranian president ebrahim raisi died in a helicopter crash. we will have more on the election later in the show. israel's war on gaza has entered its 10th month as the official palestinian death toll has reached nearly 38,200, but a new report in the british medical journal lancet estimates the actual death toll could be 186,000 or even higher. that is roughly 8% of gaza's population. the report looks at how war leads to indirect deaths due to shortages of medical care, food, shelter, and water. earlier today, israel attacked the gaza city headquartersf unrwa, the u.n. palestinian refugee agency. on saturday, an israeli airstrike on an unrwa school killed at least 16 palestinians and injured 50 others. eyewitnesses said the dead included many children. >> we came here writing to see

the targeted area. we saw bodies of children, pieces. there was a trampoline here. there were swing sets. civilians were killed. it is a civilian school. these are united nation schools for the unrwa and are supposed to be safer people and should not be targeted at any time. amy: on the diplomatic front, hamas officials have reportedly agreed to a u.s. proposal to begin talks on a new ceasefire and hostage deal. multiple news outlets report hamas has dropped its demand that israel first agree to a permanent ceasefire before any agreement is signed. meanwhile, the israeli defense minister yoav gallant has warned israel's attacks on hezbollah in lebanon will continue even if a truce agreement is reached in gaza. in news from the occupied west bank, israel's supreme planning council has approved nearly 5300 new homes for settlers in the west bank. the group peace now says this will result in the largest single israeli land grab since

the oslo accords. on sunday, israeli protesters blocked highways across the country as part of nationwide demonstrations calling for a ceasefire and hostage deal as well as for the resignation of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. meanwhile, the israeli newspaper haaretz has revealed new details about how israeli military officials ordered repeated attacks inside israel on october 7 in an effort to prevent hamas from taking hostages into gaza. it remains unknown how many israelis killed on that day were actually killed by israeli forces implementing what is known as the hannibal directive. one military source told haaretz, "the instruction was to turn the area of the fence into an extermination zone, to close the line of contact towards the west." president biden is facing more calls from democratic lawmakers to drop out of the presidential race as questions continue to mount over his mental fitness. five members of congress have publicly called for him to step

aside and four more senior democratic lawmakers said so in a private call. biden has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race. he sat down for an interview on friday with abc's george stephanopoulos who asked if he could beat donald trump. >> if you convince yourself only you can defeat him? pres. biden: i am the most qualified person to beat him and i know how to get things done. >> if you can be convinced you cannot beat donald trump, will you stand down? pres. biden: it depends on the lord almighty -- amy: that was from biden's first televised interview since his disastrous debate with donald trump. biden also spoke to two radio stations where he was interviewed by hosts who asked him questions that were scripted by biden's own campaign. biden still stumbled during the interviews, saying at one point that he was proud to be "the first black woman to serve with a black president."

pres. biden: proud to become as i said, the first vice president -- first black woman served with a black president. amy: boeing has agreed to a plea deal with the justice department that will allow it to avoid facing a criminal trial over a pair of deadly 737 max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. under the deal, boeing will plead guilty to a conspiracy fraud charge and pay $243 million in additional fines. a lawyer representing families of passengers killed in the crashes has already filed an objection to the agreement. the attorney paul cassell said, "through crafty lawyering between boeing and doj, the deadly consequences of boeing's crime are being hidden." nato nations have agreed to provide ukraine $43 billion in new military aid next year. nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg confirmed the deal

ahead of nato's three-day summit in washington that begins tuesday. this comes as russia continues to attack ukraine's energy infrastructure, leaving more than 100,000 people without power. on friday, the hungarian prime minister viktor orbán met with russian president vladimir putin in a trip condemned by eu leaders. indian prime minister narendra modi is meeting putin today. more than 130 million people in the u.s. were under high heat alerts this weekend as a heatwave intensified in california and other areas. temperatures could reach 128 degrees fahrenheit in death valley today. meanwhile, in northern california, wildfires have forced around 30,000 people from their homes. hurricane beryl has made landfall on the texas coast near matagorda as a category 1 storm. about 200,000 people in houston have already lost power.

the storm killed at least 11 people as it battered mexico's yucatan peninsula and several caribbean islands. the storm has been fueled by record temperatures in the atlantic. a funeral was held saturday in utica, new york, for nyah mway, a 13-year-old boy who was shot to death by police shortly a day -- two days after he graduated from middle school. nyah mway was a refugee who was born in burma. his death has shattered the close-knit community of karen refugees in utica. his brother wrote online -- "our family moved to america nine years ago as refugees from myanmar to find a better life safe from law enforcement killings and ethnic cleansing." three officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave. and the long-time labor organizer and scholar jane mcalevey has died at the age of 59 of multiple myeloma.

jane mcalevey dedicated her life's work to empowering rank and file workers, training tens of thousands around the world to effectively strengthen their unions. she was also a prolific writer , authoring many books and articles, including as the strikes correspondent for "the nation magazine." in april, she sat down here in the democracy now! studios for one of her last interviews. >> the work is going to go on and that is what makes me happy. the work is going to go. if workers keep winning, one person falls, one soldier goes down, -- i've always thought of myself as a soldier. one soldier is going to go down in a fight and there is a ton more soldiers being produced every day and all of these campaigns and all of the training programs and i do think they are going to win, ultimately. people have had it with capitalism in 2024. amy: that was noted labor

organizer and scholar jane mcalevey speaking in april. to see our interview and the web exclusive we did afterwards, go to democracynow.org. she died sunday at the age of 59. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show in britain where the labor log -- where the labour party won thursday's election, and party leader keir starmer will become britain's new prime minister, putting labour in power for the first time in 14 years. starmer is a centrist politician who vowed to lead a government of "stability and moderation" in his first official address friday. >> we changed the party. return it to service. that is how we will govern. country first, party second. yet if i am honest, service is

merely a precondition of hope, and it is surely clear to everyone that our country needs a bigger reset. a rediscovery of who we are. amy: starmer's new foreign minister david lammy promised the now-ruling labour party will take a more balanced position on israel and palestine. in a phone call sunday with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, prime minister starmer reportedly said there is an urgent need for a gaza ceasefire but also vowed the u.k. would continue its "vital cooperation" with israel. meanwhile, more than 10,000 pro-palestinian demonstrators marched through london saturday calling for an immediate ceasefire, including former labour leader jeremy corbyn, who easily retained his long-standing seat after running as an independent in his london district against the labour

party. >> [indiscernible] ceasefire now. amy: among the other notable results in thursday's election -- conservative liz truss, the shortest serving british prime minister at just 49 days, lost her seat in parliament. far-right figurehead nigel farage, best known for pushing brexit, won his election in his eighth attempt to gain a seat. and irish nationalists sinn fein became northern ireland's largest party in the british parliament for the first time. for more, we are joined by nesrine malik, author and columnist for "the guardian," where her latest piece is headlined "pro-palestine votes aren't 'sectarian'. dismissing them would be a dangerous mistake for labour." and we are joined in london by british parliament member jeremy

corbyn, who served as labour leader from 2015-2020. we welcome you both asked to democracy now! let's begin the jeremy corbyn. if you can talk about the significance of labour's victory and then your own -- though you are the former labor leader, you are now -- you now ran against labour to retain your seat. >> there has clearly got a large parliamentary mandate from this election. there's no question about that. however, if you dig into the results you find some quite interesting differences in this. the actual labour boat nationally was less this election and it was in 2019 and much less than it was in 2017. what is happened in this election is the conservative vote has collapsed and much of that has gone to nigel farage

and is far right reform party. they got over 4 million votes even though i'm not sure they contested every single constituency. and so while labour has this huge parliamentary majority, the national share of the vote was only around one third of all votes cast. it is very low mandate for the government to govern. in fact, i think it is the lowest mandate any government has ever had in britain. they need to be cautious about that. the labour vote went down, constituencies, particularly urban areas. palestine gaza and also because they don't think the economic offer really meets the needs at the time. there are some huge issues going on. in my own case, as you know, i was leader of the labour party until 2020. i was denied entry to the parliamentary after an inquiry

later that year. so i have been an independent mp but a member of the labour party ever since that time. the party then announced i was not eligible to even apply to be deliver bank candidate. -- riverbank candidate. many of my constituents were angry about this and lobbied me to put my name forward as an independent and say you cannot take this -- we cannot take this, please stand as an independent. so i did. from nothing five weeks ago, we built a norm's campaign and won with 49.4% of the vote, not quite 2% but almost there. -- not quite 50% of the vote but i was there. we won the election on the principal positions of a ceasefire in gaza and recognition of palestine on an economic strategy by reducing

taxation's to the poorest, increasing taxation for the richest, and commitment to a green new deal and environment of policies. particularly, housing and stress issues in my constituency. we are proud of our constituency voted differently and gave me that mandate. i am joined now in parliament by four other independents who are elected in different parts of the country. we will be holding the government to account. i will be speaking about local issues but crucially we will be establishing local forum in which i will report every month. also the local community campaign organizations will also be taking part. it is a different form of politics. i have now been elected 11 times from my constituency and we are proud of the result we have achieved. amy: in one of your first ask after reelection, you are out in

the streets with tens of thousands of others. i am wondering your response to the conversation that apparently the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu had with prime minister starmer who reportedly said an urgent need for a gaza ceasefire but also vowed the u.k. would continue its "vital cooperation with israel." >> it sounds to me like there's a contradiction in that conversation. i think either you have a ceasefire or you don't. if you have a ceasefire, that means an end to the supply of arms to israel. because we are complicit, as is the usa, for weapons supplied to israel that have bombed gaza. half of those who have been killed in guys are children. bombing restarted again this morning. many people are dying from hunger, malnutrition, dying from

preventable conditions i diarrhea and dehydration. it is in urgent need. if the new government and the new foreign secretary david lammy and the prime minister keir starmer really wanted to bring about a ceasefire, they have to say to israel, we will no longer occasion and supply you with weapons to bomb gaza and this ceasefire must be accompanied by withdrawal of israeli forces from gaza and the west bank will stop otherwise, what is going to happen? troops will start bombing again a moving tanks around in gaza again? this is a desperate humanitarian crisis brought about by the bombardment by israel. i'm not alone in saying this. i have had calls from people in israel, members from the knesset saying they agree with everything that we said at our rally outside parliament. the issue of gaza has had a

massive effect on the general election in britain, and it is not going to go away. amy: let me ask you about starmer saying that the rwanda deportation policy is buried and dead? >> i am very pleased the rwanda policy is finished. it was always horrible of essentially outsourcing human rights responsibilities to refugees by deporting -- not all, but some of them -- to rwanda. very expensive deal in which the rwanda government was given money to facilitate this. i am pleased that is over. but the language used by some of the labor leaders in the election about desperate people crossing the channel to try to find a place of safety in britain and about the issue of refugees in general was very,

very unfortunate, very bad. we are in the midst of a global refugee crisis. surely, the responsibility of the wealthiest countries in the world is to do their things. look at the causes of why people seek refuge and secondly treat them as human beings, not as enemies or unwelcome arrivals. the language used by far right in france and other places and in this country is horrible, divisive, and dangerous. i am pleased the elections at least rejected the le pen far right. it doesn't mean all of that aggression policies and france will change overnight but i think it is important sign when the left comes together, as it did to the alliance that was formed rapidly, they can both offer hope to working-class community's that have seen their

living standards fall -- in this country by 20% in the past decade or so -- and also stand up for human rights and the needs and rights of refugees. the refugees come from countries where there has been war. they come from afghanistan, iraq, syria, they come from places that have been subject to war and bombardment. so we need to wake up. are we going to allow this decade to go on with wars in ukraine and sudan and congo and gaza or are we going to be serious about bringing peace? i would hope there would be pressure on the nato summit next week to bring peace rather than more weapons and more war. amy: jeremy corbyn, jean-luc mélenchon of france has been described as a jeremy corbyn of friends. your assessment of this leader of the left? >> he is a good friend and we

have worked together and we had a very good time discussing lots of issues when we both attended with the south africans the international court of justice hearing on the allegations of genocide against israel brought by south africa. he has brought together a coherent left coalition with a very clear economic strategy in which he is able to unite those that have been economically marginalized in france as well as standing up against the rise of the far right and racism. i thank him for that, admire him for that. i'm looking forward to meeting him again soon and working with him. the unity of progressive left and pro-human rights forces is a very important thing in our society. are we to allow the economic inequality to dominate our lives or are we going to do something about redistribution of wealth and power? that is what i pledged in my

election address and that is the mandate i will carry into this parliament. amy: jeremy corbyn, thank you for being with us, independent british member of parliament, ran against labor to retain his seat. he was a labor leader from 2015-2020, speaking to us from london. also with us to discuss thursday's election in britain is nesrine malik, where her latest piece is headlined "pro-palestine votes aren't 'sectarian'. dismissing them would be a dangerous mistake for labour." her new book is -- not your assessment of what happened as you speak to us from kenya? >> it was definitely a striking landslide victory that is nothing to be defeated.

one of the biggest landslides in history. there is an interesting story underneath that landslide narrative. there is a reduced voter share. previously held by the tories which were then one by labour. the story of the election is the tories collapsed, labor landslide, bwide but thin win. amy: if you can talk about the new prime minister for starmer's positions like the definition of unemployment and as well as

gaza? starmer is a politician that has pivoted clearly from a left-wing policy base to acentric one. specifically on the economy he has embraced growth as a leader of austerity, very much embracing trickle down or as they would call it float up. he has embraced sort of austerity that implies there will be cuts or reductions in public services. resignedly rejected [indiscernible] and that since he's a politician that has embraced the conventional, mainstream, centric path on the economy,

which is problematic in a country that is now suffering the consequences of 14 years austerity, schooling, housing, national health service, public services have all been decimated. it is a curious position on which to stand in a position of power where the problems presented are the problems you're going to inherit -- in terms of foreign policy, they have embraced something called progressive realism. the foreign secretary david lammy has been repeating the concept of progressive realism, which she explains as treating the world or finding the world

as it is, therefore being realistic about what can be achieved. this is something that is also going to be [indiscernible] if your approach is "it is what it is" and there are a lot of domestic pressures, vis-à-vis gaza, that have already -- they're going to have to negotiate or navigate carefully in the next few months. amy: you wrote about rishi sunak, the previous prime minister, who called for the snap election, write -- sunak cannot clean up the wreckage because he was the wreckage." why do you think this election even took place? >> i think rishi sunak was trying to reduce the damage. it was clear the tory party was finished and the question was, how bad? how many seats were they going to lose? rishi sunak received --

-- received some good news due to inflation. [indiscernible] it was a bad time. there would not have been a good time, anyway post of amy: as you speak to us from nairobi, kenya, from your perch there, though you have been writing extensively for "the guardian" about the u.k., any final thoughts on what has taken place in kenya with more than 40 people killed in these protests calling for the president to resign after he tried to push through this very unpopular tax bill, a real youth uprising? >> it has been a really remarkable time in kenya. it has taken everyone by surprise.

protests against government had a very different profile in the past. there was a lot of -- protesters based on the agendas of politicians who wanted to gain power. this was very much organic, spontaneous movement. cross demographic. something that really rose up from the belly of the kenyan people. the government reacted unwisely and did not quite assess correctly the scale of the anger and responded with violence, which only triggered people further. and something remarkable happened which rarely happens in this scenario, which is the president conceded and said the words "i concede" and withdrew

the tax bill the people were protesting against. that was not enough to clear the anger. too many people had been killed and too much violence and provocation on the part of the authority had taken place. there is still a lot of anger. there are still protests. there is still sort of undergoing operation happening against members of the protest movement and their leaders. it is a confrontation that has broken or cracked open something quite new in kenya and it is not over yet. amy: nesrine malik, thank you for being with us, author and columnist for "the guardian." we will link to your articles all stop next up, france, the upset victory over there right by the left. we will go to paris and then we will look at the election in

iran. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to france, where a newly formed leftist coalition dealt a surprising blow to the far-right and french president emmanuel macron's centrist party in sunday's second round of a heated snap parliamentary election. the leftist coalition, the new popular front, has won the most seats in the french parliament as a political alliance between center-left and more progressive parties came together to defeat marine le pen's national rally party after the far-right held a significant lead in the election's first round and scored major advances in recent european parliament elections. supporters of the leftist new popular front took to the streets to celebrate as results were announced sunday. [cheers] amy: no party has secured an absolute majority in france's

national assembly, with the new popular front winning 182 seats -- short of the 289 seats required for an absolute majority. prime minister macron stunned france calling for the snap elections in the hopes french voters would keep his centrist coalition in power. following their defeat, macron's prime minister gabriel attal offered to resign but macron asked him to stay on temporarily to "ensure the stability of the country." the pair met at the presidential palace. the new popular front has vowed to raise the minimum wage, cap the price of essential foods and utilities come and throw out macron's hugely unpopular pension reform which raised the retirement age. the group says it will raise -- reimpose taxes on the wealthiest and corporations. the new popular front also says it will recognize palestinian statehood after macron's government earlier this year refused to do so. the head of the progressive france party jean-luc mélenchon

spoke sunday. >> the president has the power. the president has the duty to call on the new popular front to govern. it is ready. the new popular front will respect the mandate. according to the vote cast for its candidates. our given word will be respected. the new popular front will apply its manifesto. always manifesto and nothing but its manifesto. amy: far right leader marine le pen slammed results of the election. >> we're losing one more year. one more year of unregulated immigration. one more year of losing purchasing power. one more year of a blowing up of

insecurity in our country. amy: it comes just a few weeks before paris hosts the olympics. for more, we go to paris where we are joined by two guests. marjane satrapi is a french-iranian filmmaker and author of the graphic novel "persepolis" and her recent book is "woman, life, freedom." she designed a 30-foot-long tapestry commissioned to mark the 2024 summer olympics in paris. we are also joined by rokhaya diallo, a french journalist, writer, filmmaker. we welcome you both to democracy now! your assessment of what took place, this upset victory where the left came in first, the centrist macron came in second, and the far right third? >> collective effort of people from civil society who managed to put the far right away from power because the threat was

very concrete and many people realized how dangerous the far right could be in of a position of power could france -- not only for people in minority, immigrants, lgbtqia, but also the institution is the far right program intended to challenge the constitution and allow the power of the supreme court's. amy: and talk more about why macron did this. he and the significance of him not accepting the resignation of the prime minister today -- will he remain president of france? >> i think it was a gamble because -- european election. it was a way for him to shuffle the power. and people struggle to

understand why he made that choice because it was very dangerous. it was at a moment when the far right, national rally was gaining more and more power. it is still a mystery to me because it was such an insensible move. we know nobody really wants election. parliament is kind of in between several different forces and none of them has an absolute majority. i think he hopes there will be a coalition around the center-right and centerleft so that would make him able to keep gabriel attal in power and not to lose the capacity of the one forming the government. amy: i want to bring marjane

satrapi and to this conversation. can you talk about what is going on in the streets right now where people themselves i surprised as the media was around what took place. what does this mean? does this mean a hung parliament? what power will marine le pen's party have in this? you came to paris, what, some 30 years ago and were taking on her father. >> yes. i think this election -- the whole country of france has won. the value of the human rights or the value of, you know, accepting people, giving them shelter. it is very contradictory with the france of marine le pen.

about 30% of the french population that would go to the extreme right. they made a big deal in the european election which is bizarre because the people of the extreme right european parliament, they don't do nothing. most of the time they are absent. people voted for them but we always have this idea we have to defend the republic. and the extreme right is against the republic. our people say, "oh, we never tried, so let's see." actually, they have tried the extreme right. it is what happened with the second world war. the execution of the jews and common is. they collaborated. yes, we have had that. i think the danger of the extreme right -- today is equal.

today people don't have the excuse of not knowing what the extreme right is. nobody has the excuse of the lack of knowledge. we all know what happened in the second world war. we know that was the extreme right. we know what is the result of the extreme right. anywhere in the world, democratic world, that would vote for that is a vote for dictatorship. now the situation is somehow complex. you talk a lot of it about jean-luc mélenchon. he is a representative -- he is a radical leftist. i think he's anti-semite. his relationship with hamas is

quiet. we don't know what it is. his relationship with putin is uncertain. he was in love with chavez. he loves all these dictators. i think this coalition, of four parties. one of them is -- the big heads have left it because they could not stand him anymore. yet the communists and the socialists. you have this coalition but the most important -- slap in the face of the extreme right. i think people in the television and in the interviews, they saw the candidate of the extreme right. it is a joke as a candidate. it is those easy to be in a

position. but when it comes to governing the country, you have to have -- just saying, oh, the immigrant people to this and that. the immigrant people also work. i work in france. we pay our taxes. french people -- they celebrated that. amy: i want to ask rokhaya diallo if you share the assessment of jean-luc mélenchon . jeremy corbyn won back his seat as a member of parliament. his friend jean-luc mélenchon did not feel that way. your assessment and where this all goes? >> percival, an is not about jean-luc mélenchon, it is about the left which managed to build a coalition. i don't agree with the fact --

gratifying as a radical left party -- the only party classified as being extreme is the far right. the left parties labeled from the left. the other thing which is important is -- i think it is important for the fact the national rally, the far right, did not win. the opened the floodgates -- so many people being assaulted, insulted because they were lgbtqia, because they were a minority. they have been physically and verbally insulted even assaulted. even people who were very famous and visible. i think we need to address the

hurt of the campaign of the far right. of course there is any issue of anti-semitism that needs to be addressed on the left. i think this is an issue but i think they have been demonized because of their pro-palestinian stands and because they're the only party to address islamophobia. i think the left in france to address islamophobia because the sentiment is very widespread. it is the reason why the national rally has been able -- has been normalized. islamophobia is normalized to the sense that it is easy for the national rally to appear to be respectable. so i think the next step for the left will be to be explicit on how they want to address system

and make systemic racism -- not only france -- has been demonized but many antiracism activists, especially those who are muslim, seen as the so-called ideology that is -- that is supposed to be the preventing -- jean-luc mélenchon is an issue to the left because he is still very authoritarian. when there was a candidate that was convicted for assaulting his wife, jean-luc mélenchon supported him and that was in issue to me as a feminist. i think it needs to be clearer when seven is problematic in the running that the person should be elected for good.

i think anti-semitism is a call to the far right. that is the program of the far right. it was the national rally was founded by former -- by people who were holocaust deniers and also involved in the french colonization of nigeria. hearing only about anti-semitism on the left to me is problematic since we are still today facing danger of the far right about to take over the power. that is the issue for me. amy: rokhaya diallo, thank you for joining us french , journalist, writer, filmmaker. marjane satrapi, i would like you to stay with us as we talked about an update on the iranian elections. stay with us.

♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman. voters in iran have elected masoud pezeshkian as its new president saturday, defeating hardliner saeed jalili. pezeshkian is a heart surgeon who had served as health minister under reformist president mohammad khatami. he ran as a reformist candidate

criticized the mandatory hijab law for women and has promised to disband iran's morality police. saturday's election was held six weeks after iranian president ebrahim raisi and foreign minister hossein amir-abdollahian died in a helicopter crash in may, along with several other officials and crew. raisi was elected in 2021 in a vote that saw the lowest percentage turnout in the islamic republic's history after major opposition candidates were disqualified from taking part. for more we continue with marjane satrapi, french-iranian filmmaker and author. and we are joined by reza sayah freelance journalist based in , tehran. talk about who the pro resident -- new president is. >> first and foremost, he tried to shake off the reformist label in his campaign. he is clearly supported by iran

's factions and leaders, the former president, foreign minister. they played a key role in his campaign. this is a faction that was better relations with the west. that is more moderate. takes a more moderate tone with washington. they prefer not to chance the -- chance the "death to america," and "death to israel." was a relatively low-profile candidate, dr., -- doctor. his from the western -- likely got a lot of support from the kurdish minority and other minority groups. in his campaign, promised more liberties and social freedoms, something many iranians want. although he made these promises in very vague terms. he also made statements about iran's mandatory hijab law.

he spoke directly to the iranian women because they have been treated unfairly in the streets, referring to the crackdown after mahsa amini's death saying they had been unfairly treated. he suggested the enforcement of the hijab law may be eased, but again, he focused in very vague terms. he pledged to get western sanctions remove. all of these are reformist talking points that drug criticisms -- that drug criticisms. in his campaign, to ease those criticisms. he repeatedly said he is loyal to the supreme leader, to the revolution, and that he is not going to be disruptive force to the establishment. amy: marjane satrapi amy:, you wrote "woman life, freedom."

,your assessment of what has taken place? candidate who is a possibility -- with your past the exam, basically you're one of them. the power is in the hands of the guardian of the revolution. so the president -- it uses the reformist -- the reformer is a safety belt. lots of people have been killed. lots of them have gone to jail. the official figure they say is

40% of the iranians voted. when you look at it, images that come from iran, you see all of the polling stations are completely empty. so 40% is low but at my guess it is much lower. for me, all of that is done as usual to buy time. the elected representatives of this country have their hand in the blood of the iranian people. more or less. young people, women from all walks of life, they expressed a desire for true secular democracy. this regime will never change. they will cut off heads no matter. the most important thing for me now is the democracies don't resume the discussion with this regime, which tortures and rapes annual who expresses disagreement.

this is a fact. today, the political prisoners -- ok, let's talk about the reformist. until then, they're just dogs of this regime. amy: let reza sayah me ask reza sayah a final question. do you expect iran's relations with the u.s. might change under masoud pezeshkian, particularly the issue of nuclear weapons? >> that is the big question, how will things change? it is hard to say. the likelihood things will change immediately. masoud pezeshkian faces a conservative, dominant government step that is a challenge. foreign policy, including the supreme leader, power structures

call the shots. the nuclear issue is backing regional militias. i think certainly it is likely the tone of the government is going to change. amy: we have to leave it there. thank you for being with