this is d.w. news live from them and it's not the elections after the bell but revolution kamini and head to the polls today their prime minister and a call to action swept to power on sat in the back of a popular protest earlier this year now he wants a parliamentary majority to push through his reforms genda also coming out. assessing the damage in paris to move violent protests killer vest demonstrators demanding further reforms for the french government promising to keep donald.

i'm rebecca races it's good to have you with us i mean ian's are going to the polls today in snap parliamentary elections triggered by reformist prime minister nicole passion after he took office earlier this year president has done cost his ballot early and urged fellow citizens to participate in the election earlier this year the country went through what's being called its velvet revolution it was the most sweeping transformation in the landlocked caucasus country since its independence from the soviet union you know thirty years ago. parliamentary elections would shed jewel to be held until twenty twenty two that's not paul's being sane is an attempt by passion to cement political foresty ahead of a planned planned reform drive. to his supporters he's

a true man of the people a former journalist turned politician nicole has a way with words and an unassuming style that has won the hearts and minds of many armenians. pushing young was elected prime minister by parliament in may after galvanizing a civil disobedience movement to protest a power grab by the country's prime minister sergey sarkozy on donning his trademark backpack and baseball cap pushing and led weeks of mass protests that ultimately forced sarkozy answer resignation. but the long ling republican party retained its majority in parliament in october pushing on step down as prime minister to trigger early elections during his campaign he blasted the old elite as corrupt and pledged to revive the economy in a country where a third of the population lives in poverty principally some the economic agenda is our priority you have a very important and ambitious plan and for me i mean you're going agrarian into an industrial country. into a technological and industrial state is

a city void of strongly. pushing on remains popular if you doubt that his my stuff alliance will come out on top of the race among eleven parties and political blocs . isn't doing the nuclear power vote for nico passion on his virtue as an honest during his seven months in office his hands were tied because the former ruling party still dominated parliament. until he gets rid of all the corrupt thieving politicians from the previous government he won't be able to do any good news. the capitol yerevan may look gloomy shrouded in december fog but on the streets there is real hope among armenians that this election could mark the advent of real democratic change for more i'm joined by journalist joshua good chere who is in the capital joshua what's the turnout pay mike so far. well as of two pm which is a local time which is the last results that were announced it was

a little more than twenty four percent of eligible voters to cast their ballots interesting is quite a bit down from the last parliamentary elections last year when when the corresponding figure was thirty three percent. the opposition is claiming the polls will cold too soon giving them no time prepared to prepare so they have a point. not really it's a it's a fairly disingenuous argument on their art that the main opposition has been making this claim is the republican party which is the former ruling party and it was the biggest political machine in armenia and and if anybody would would be ready for reelection this should be them it was kind of a pretext for them to argue against these elections which they knew they would lose badly in an opinion polls are showing them losing badly right and what are some of the challenges passion young faces if he does indeed gang that parliamentary majority. well our media has been in

a long crisis really since the fall of the soviet union it has a terrible economy. delicate foreign policy problems with with both russia and the west and as an ongoing conflict because rajon. and women are actually on this raised expectations quite a bit and now that he's slated to have the parliamentary majority you know have all the levers of government in his hands and so there really will be no more excuses for him and people expect him to start labor. does passion and have the necessary political experience to be able to follow through on his reform agenda. i think that the political experience isn't really the issue you know he was in our lives for a long time he's a serious political figure i think the problem is just that that are making those problems are deep and systemic and just aren't going to be that easy to fix and he's kind of presented. things as as soon as you rip get rid of the old government that everything's going to be better. so far nothing has really happened to make

things better and i mean you know this excuses down or explanation is very well the ruling party the republicans are still control of parliament now that will be the case anymore so we'll see we'll see if he manages to to make a dent in our biggest problems joshua concerta in year of them thank you very much that's right. now though some of the other stories making news around the world leading russian human rights activists that mira alexa haven has died she was ninety one and among the last soviet era dissidents still active in russia alexi a that was expelled from the communist party in nine hundred sixty eight for highlighting soviet human rights abuses she continued to hold the kremlin to its human rights obligations until the end. china has demanded canada release a rested huawei executive among one joe or face consequences among being held in vancouver and faces extradition to the united states where she's being accused of

violating sanctions on iran on friday she appeared before a court which adjoined adjourned at the sit in on whether or not to allow bail. france is reeling after another saturday of violent protests by the so-called yellow vests movement police detained almost two thousand demonstrators and some one hundred thirty five people were injured in clashes france's prime minister has called for dialogue and the government is signaling it will make further concessions to protesters in the coming days it has already scrapped a planned increase in fuel taxes that triggered the demonstrations. another night of unrest on the streets of paris. shops. cars banks nothing was immune as anger fled across the city sounds of extra police were out paris practically on lockdown it wasn't quite the chaos of last

weekend still officials are dismayed at what played out this saturday. there's a relation of violence has been stopped it has been certainly contained but it is totally unacceptable. in except. with a cleanup operation in full swing on sunday parisians paused to take stock. it's very hard but it's normal reaction of the people. french people are writing for. president. it is difficult for many people in the country but. it's not the government says it's listening to demonstrate his scrapping its plan to hike fuel taxes but president emanuel mccrone hasn't yet met with them that has ignited death fury. the yellow

vests movement is less than a month old but it has already brought hundreds of thousands to demonstrations across the country like here in the southwestern city of bordeaux clashes between rioters and police and then barricades set on fire outside an apple store. they w. correspondent lisa lewis is covering the protests for us lisa you've been reporting from a neighborhood which saw clashes yesterday was the same than now. well absolutely i mean the eighth only small that's not far away from the shows in his day and a lot of the damage has already been cleared up but they still some left as you can see just behind me there's a french bank the windows of which have been smashed it'll take a bit longer until we wait and see the damages of lot of yesterday's protests really has been talking to people here you've been telling me you know we have it

shocked by what happened over we kind of are getting used to that because that's what french precious are like many here understands why the demonstrations. have gone to the barricades and they also understand that they're having difficulties making ends meet but there are some who are now criticizing strides in the movement and say you know actually we're quite well off in france why what is will this about really however the large majority of the french three quarters of the french still support the movement and this is the fourth consecutive weekend of unrest in france put this into perspective for us how serious is this violence. well it is quite serious but we can say that yesterday was not as bad as the week before last you know saturday one week earlier the saturday before that there were real scenes of urban guerrilla yesterday it was different the police can change strategy

instead of keeping a distance to the protesters they pull a little sports that we're actually going at the protesters and arrested instigators at very early states also from the morning on the very controlling costs that were coming to paris taking way possible possible a weapons arresting lots of people more than one thousand seven hundred people got arrested in one day that's a record here in france and that actually apparently helped to prevent the worst from happening because there was a lot of talk about very very serious violence that could happen yesterday now listen just briefly if you can a man who mike holmes sports person says he'll announce new measures in response to these protests what's being discussed. in my macaw are set to talk earlier next week so tomorrow on tuesday really and he might announce that people will get have more money in their pocket this talk about they missed employees the tax free

bonus there's also talk about implementing a tax on housing foster really so that could happen we don't know exactly what he's going to announce a base in the u.s. in paris thank you for that analysis. as the new say the year later karen bow is now in pole position to also become her party's candidate for chancellor when uncle merkel eventually steps down as the german leader they wus head of politics catarina croll spoke to carabao about some of her foreign policy positions among other issues the new cd you latest signal that she'll be taking a harder line on migration than her predecessor i believe the state needs to be able to enforce the rule of law i learned that during my time as state interior minister and it's something we want to get started on in discussions on migration and domestic security next spring we'll be excited by this creates a burning in france of people there demonstrating fighting against social injustice

can germany learn something from this. as we cover the story and i think germany is in a different situation because through the social market economy and our system of social partnership we have a system where many issues and conflicts are always discussed and settled in orderly structures. and i very much hope that we in germany can preserve the peace social peace that we have because of this. in recent months we've also positioned yourself in foreign policy for example with russia where you're calling for a stronger more far reaching sanctions why. so i mons for over a few you know because we have to remember especially with recent events in the coach straight that the unlawful onix ation of crimea that the interference in eastern ukraine was the beginning of the discussion and the conflict goes. we have to make very clear through existing sanctions and through our response to

recent events that we do not and we cannot tolerate this kind of land seizure in europe. for the student of the student couldn't it's clear that the sea of as of is not a russian sea and it's also in the european and in the international interest to make that evident that. you have said that you believe yourself capable of taking on the role of chancellor do you still think that chancellor merkel will see out the current term and continue as chancellor for another three years. well we have a federal government that's been elected for this legislative period angler machall has said she is available to see it out on the party conference yesterday showed very clearly that's what members wish it's also my personal wish and i see it as my task as the leader of the ruling party to ensure this government has the stability it needs to fulfil its electoral mandate and i can can make it come carbon power thank you very much for the interview. you know watching datable you news live from

berlin well coming at the top of the hour and don't forget you can get all the latest news and information around the clock on our website at www dot com i'm rebecca because joining me. out of a little succeed in dividing us out i'll not succeed in taking the people off the streets because we're tired of this dictatorship. taking the stand global news that matters. made minds. time for an upgrade. our furniture that grows on buying. cars.