oh, the only way i can be on top is to create my own empire, discover stories with just to click away the journey the destination right. finds out this documentary with the full subscribe. now, you w. okay, ma'am tree it has been a week since french president emanuel macaroni hiked the country's retirement age from 62 to 64 micron, saying this is the only way to keep social security solvent. but many french are not buying macros. math violet protests have erupted across the country. hundreds of been arrested in paris alone in next week's visit by king charles the 3rd. it's

been postponed to night. protestors in france angry at a president who they say is acting more like a king. i'm burnt off in berlin. this is the day ah, the news to you, but we would not be serious and we'd lack some common sense to propose to his majesty the king and the queen consort to make a state visit in the midst of the demonstrations. oh don't, we might as well not let foreigners see what's going on in france at the moment. i don't think that a political visits should be as phone just because people are in dispute to from the this pension reform symbolizes the populations. general bitterness, a denial of democracy, of which we are old victims with we're continuing to move forward. the country can't be at a standstill. ah,

also coming up more banks in crisis. what started in the united states than moved to switzerland has now apparently arrived here in germany. as a saw and deal was to ones as a virus of insecurity is planted relatively quickly on. and then last for a very long time, ah, when to our viewers watching on p b. s in the united states into all of you around the world. welcome. we begin the day in france and the unpopular decision of an even more unpopular president. last week, french president emanuel macaroni announced what he called overdue, and painful reforms to the countries pension system. and he did it by bypassing parliament, which has put him on a collision course with public anger. the official retirement age in france is going up from 62 to 64. france, like many countries, is facing a future with more and more retired people, drawing pensions that are financed by fewer and fewer workers paying in. micron

says the change is necessary to keep the system solvent, but trade unions insist that the reforms will be carried out on the bad backs of those who are paid the least and work. the hardest for gestures are hitting the streets with 2 demands, a reversal of the reforms, and now they want the resignation of a president who they say has no idea who they are. this will be the only chance to meet britons, king charles in the french capital. in the coming weeks, his figure has been unveiled in a wax museum ahead of the monarchs, now cancelled visit to paris with tensions over a pension reform on the vice. many in the streets. welcome to move a school new or do we now have to block off half of paris at the moment because charles was visiting and i don't think so. so they both go on. if it doesn't work, i don't. ready think it's the right time for the king of england to come to paris that you need to do that today. we're protesting against the pension reform and

mccomb wouldn't be available for meetings with him because police arrested 100 protesters across the country. uncertainty, flight and rail traffic where disrupted as many employees went and strike in both do the door of the city hall was set on fire. pulse show that the majority of the french people opposed microns reform, which will extend the retirement age by 2 years. but the president insists it's the only way to keep the pension system afloat at o e u summit in brussels, the french leader said he was open to finding a way out of the crisis and said, we will not give into this violence democrat. one does not have the right to violence in a democracy. if i am ready to talk to the unions to make progress on all these matters with history, union for and of

a major social conflict. if the government does not back down. while francis tuck court still needs to give its final word on the bill, the country is bracing for more protests. and i'm joined now by corresponded on elizabeth mateo. she is in parish, it's good to have you on the program, you are sitting in the middle of a country that is not, i'm at peace with itself of this evening. talk to me 1st about the security situation in paris. apparently, it's vital to enough that they have decided to postpone the visit of king charles the 3rd is it, is it that bad right now? it's not good. and the mall of visuals became worrisome. you know, a 189 different fires were lit in paris yesterday. i, as your correspondent, has said that have been a police stations and various public buildings. a told perhaps not completely,

but still in the rest of the country. and, and those a kind of anger that has completely focused on the president and it, the optics of the, of, of king charles visit would be disastrous because americans do those things that are planned is a grounds, a dinner and bed size. and if there's anything that you can say manual, it's, you know, it's, it's sort of having something with gold late in the castle were in the palace was yet he lived ab, it's combination of things i suspect. and i don't suspect i've been told that there were, there was a lot of back and forth between the kings entourage and, and the, the home office in france. and the upshot of that is that the richard didn't feel that the security, the king would be adequately protected at all times. they didn't really believe that there was a kind of danger of fascination, but he certainly believed there would be you, demonstrations, people shouting stuff being thrown more flu like bombs and eggs, then more like tomatoes and eggs than bombs. but still in elizabeth,

what about the police? i mean we've seen our video today about police with the tongs going after of protesters, i mean brutality is obviously they are. how do you explain this? i think it's a complicated thing because that has been over the past 45 years. if you remember the yellow, vast movement, a great deal of ality it's and there's a kind of acceptance for the past 2 decades of violence after demonstrations running violence. i mean, you looting, we haven't seen looting in this instance, but there's something very much in the memory of people. we have this, this, quote unquote tradition, for instance, in which if you have a 1000 cars talk on the new year on new year's eve and in the night that supposed to be a quiet new year's eve and the fees themselves. if you follow some twitter account of the police, they are actually scan as well. it's not really

a good way to motivate. and so they all held back until. 2 then the, the all accesses that are perfectly abuse and, and which off a failure to be almost of policy in france, especially in the mouth to indicate do you think they're the president make, or do you think he under estimated that the sheer level of public anger that his decision would unleash i think he has totally underestimated it. i know for his, for a fact that, you know, yesterday was this quote, day of action. and that was after he had spoken to the press on monday any expected at confidently to be less successful. with fewer people in the streets than, than, than in the previous ones. and instead of which we had record numbers and those records numbers were matching the numbers of people demonstrating at the time of

the shot pension reform oldest 30 years ago. and there's really a lack of understanding and from also what you hear and mccoy, somebody who has people working under him not with him with that people say, oh no, no to several. yes. say there's no way you can tell him anything that's not positive the any person do that is his wife. interesting, i'm sure there are a lot of married men who would, you could say the same thing about them. and we've heard from our trained union specialist if the people on the street they've, they've say that micron is aloof, that he's out of touch and that he's a man who comes from the board of banking. that he has no clue to what it's like to be a poor or a low paid worker in france, who's facing having to work 40 something years to get full retirement. is there some credibility to that argument? yes, this goal sir is and to, to be almost, i mean he was

a banker at roster for 2 years. what he really is is a manager in that top civil servant in france and they can be very arrogant. and he went to the eye of the specials and saw a civil service school that they will come from when he closed down often. but there is a complete lack of understanding. he is used to talking to adam endurance and as a complete disconnect between him and the people, i suspect he wants to understand that i don't think he gets it has the idea of understanding as if, as after the yellow best revolt was to have those big raney's meetings in winnable, you know, talk, it was a several hours and he thought he had convinced them. but that's something very much like the king coming out at night among his people. not it's not a sort of healthy relationship between the, the president and the citizens. what, what about turning it around and say that he's just giving them a dose of, of tough love. i mean,

he says that the keep the system solve it. we have to increase the retirement age. this is about numbers economics, it's nothing that he's created. he's doing this because it's his job. is there validity to, to that point of view, fair is validity. true that he actually presented a much better reform in 2019 and that was more or less interrupted by covert. 2 and this one is a reform that, believe it or not would make the system with balanced the system early until 23rd. you know, it's not us for something that does not that long. and the other thing is that none of the demonstrators are going to tell you that, but there's been a great deal of sprinkling of many of exemptions of privileges, so to speak, for various categories, who are always the one that was shouting loudest. the negotiations have been very not mad hall with news to me, the union leaders. and there's also a lack of trust between the people and,

and the fact that this president is your typical french technocrat and the french at a kind of trade off. we, we don't especially like them, but we trust that they're competent and they're not questioning his competence. they don't think it's a good bill. corresponded on elizabeth mutari. we appreciate your time and your insights and wish you all the best in paris the next few days. thank you. ah, well, what started in the u. s. then moved here, europe, switzerland and now here in germany, talking about the banking crisis banks, year prices, they felt sharply today. here in europe with georgia bank, see the steepest declines it to find that investors have not completely shaken off fears that some banks may be approaching insolvency. the jitters began a few weeks ago with the collapse of silicon valley bank in california. stock market analysts say that confidence in the banking system is in short supply. the thought in view was that one's a job virus insecurity is planted relatively quickly. and then the last for

a very long time, the uncertainties about the banking system and the loan defaults. the risks in the banks can be felt everywhere in the marginally market, but that doesn't really change the fact that there are special cases that have ultimately caused the entire banking system to be thrown into disrepute banking and uncertainty. this could it was a hide just yet robot to be doing business with me sir. is georgia big about to become the next credit suisse? that's the question, isn't it? because that is the question that is being asked to people like off shots, the chancellor here in germany who is asked that very question and he insisted that 2nd quote was he said, he said to go to a bank is thoroughly reorganized and modernized. it's business model is strong and it's a very profitable bank, and all of these things are actually true. and that the things that the key point is separated from credit suisse. so both of these banks, yes, they're in the top 30 important banks in the world. they have to meet certain level of liquidity, for example, to make sure that they stay secure. yes,

they've both had their problems in recent years with regulators and they're both been going through restructuring. but the key thing is the toich bank has restructured to some extent and is already back to making profit. credit suisse was not. there's a lot of concern around credit. we say the past few years, it's making losses. it look like it's going to continue making losses. so it needed to be rescued. deutsche bank is not in the same boat is in a much more robust business. so if you're giving it a fairly good healthy bill of health, what's going on? it's strange, isn't it? but all of this is ultimately a knock on effect from somebody. it is sort of hint at earlier this contagion that we've had from the united states and from switzerland. now it's, it's, it's hard to call it contagion, you know, in reading, tooth and claw in so far as it's not as though what happened in the u. s. is directly causing what is and what happened at silicon valley bank. what happened at credit suisse is not, it's not a disease that they have passed the perception that they're connected, right?

because it's all happening in the same environment. that's the point, right? the problem, silicon valley bank did create an environment that led to what happened at credit suisse, and it was all down to this low confidence because confidence is extremely important in the banking sector. it's what keeps banks afloat because there is no bank in the world that would survive all of its customers losing confidence and wanting to take all that money out of it. so should be, should we be worried about the future of europe's banks? well, leaders across the continent have been saying we should not be worried about them. this is not 2008. i spoke to pasco donna, who is the head of the euro group, which is the group of finance ministers earlier this week. and he said that he was highly confident in the european banking system. so do analysts in general, seem to be and i put that question to him whether there is, you know, a credit suisse lurking somewhere within your continental europe. is a silicon valley bank hidden away or hear that it is in the us, right. well,

absolutely it is. it is, it is different why and different in ways that appear to make it resilient. the current climate that we're in right now and those safeguards haven't been softened . deutscher bank is obviously where the focus is at the moment. the deutscher bank has far more liquidity than the liquidity. this is required for a bank of its size. so people are very confident. yeah, but the problem is, this is not a rational game necessarily. and it seems that competence drops far enough. then we will see problems, perceptions matter. that's for sure. rob, as always, thank you. ah, japanese foreign minister elena beer book has urged georgia to push through democratic reforms to increase its chances for joining the european union a following the invasion of ukraine by russia, the in you awarded candidate status to ukraine and it's western neighbor, moldova, as you see on this map right here that happened in june of last year,

georges government and the vast majority of its people say that they are in favor of joining the e u as well. a few weeks ago, the country was rocked by anti government protests that a proposed law that the, the demonstrators said would undermine civil society. our reporter maria cather, mazda has just returned from the georgia capital tbilisi to hear what people there are saying about joining the european union. young george and spent nights and days fighting to stop their government adopting what they see is anti democratic ideas. they want to turn decisively away from russia and putin. that's what makes gilkey and his fellow students take to the streets. we are natural historic members of the european society, and we wish to integrate into the room in union. it's written in our constitution ends. it's agreed in our society. the most recent fight was ever proposed bail

which protest to say was similar to russia's repressive foreign agent slow to build would have let the government severely limit critical media and civil society groups. we also consider the example of russia because in 2012 that's the same law they took, and it was utilized to just her attack the, the local civil society. and, ah, of course, the result of the or russian society silence today about the war in ukraine. the prime minister claims the law was to protect your g s national interests from outside influences to any group with molly, the future of our country that doesn't belong to foreign agents, and people who serve them again, tips. so good in the future of this country belongs to patriot. what

part of the government's argument critics say falls within the russian narrative? something wildly unpopular among georgia people and he kremlin sentiment has been very strong since 2008 when putin's forces a tax, georgia over control of regions in the north and east. russia still occupies 20 percent of the whole country. this was after a pro european government started talking about joining nato. today, the parallels with ukraine's dr. fears georgia could be next. but despite that, georgia in support for you and nato is high with independent polls pointing at 80 percent and rising. even if the current government seems to flirt with moscow, it pitch the russian style law under immense pressure from the streets. this is our joint. we carry as a society because we stood together families,

friends, colleagues, and we actually together. and yet, there is an anti movement in georgia. some of their leaders have close links to moscow. yogi says he'll stay on his toes. well, let's cross over now to the georgian capital tbilisi. i'm joined by journalist joshua co chair a. he's an editor at the news organization, eurasia. net, joshua, it's going to have you on the program. it has been a few weeks since the protest over the proposed for an agent spill began. what's the situation right now in georgia? has the government shelved those plans permanently? ah yes, so after those protests i was 2 weeks ago today, i believe the government, the moving party back down and down whether this is what you don't know

the chairman of the party tried to claim victory anyway, saying that this, the whole exercise achieved the purpose of making people aware of where these controversial n g o is we're getting their money from. so i think it's safe to say that the battle between the ruling party and these n g o is, is not over. but for now, at least in legislative terms. yes, the building and taken out and it's certainly getting the attention across europe. the german foreign minister, she visited tbilisi today, assuring the government of berlin support in seeking you candidate status. how strong is the will in georgia in the georgia government to become a member of the european union? well, among the georgia government, i think it's still strong. i'm, and i think that there's different interpretations of what the government's actions mean. i think this for an aged law exercise kind of confused everyone and made everyone wonder exactly what their agenda was. it's safe to say that they do want

you membership, but they want it on their terms and they want to maybe get it on to on the chief a little bit by not implementing some of the reforms that the use demanding. because those reforms were loose and the ruling parties grip on power. so i think they're trying to do, maybe maybe it's fair to say the minimum that they can in terms of limiting their power while still doing enough to, to get into the, you know, why, why do they think that they have that kind of leverage that they could still pursue membership and just barely meet the standards. i mean this is, it's a good question is what a lot of people are asking. i think there is one school of thought that the, because of the ukraine war, georgia and everything in the neighborhood is more geopolitically important to europe. and so georgia is important to europe, not only because it has a democracy,

but because of where it is and it's, it's geopolitical orientation and so on. and so that they can kind of get away with . they see that there's a lot of other allies of europe in the united states that, that aren't so democratic and they think, well, you know, why, why do we have to jump through all these hoops and threaten our power? maybe we can get away with this as well. yeah. and it makes you wonder what the words of the german foreign minister, how much weight they have it right now. i mean, she said today that tbilisi has to implement reforms and has to comply with democratic standards or, or else look into your christabel or be going to see them do what is expected. i mean, it's very difficult to say no, they are passing legislation. they are, you know, that there, there's 12 areas in which the u. s. demanded reforms, and the got, the ruling party says it has legislation in the works for all of these 12 issues.

ah, there's, you know, this debate on whether it's good enough ultimately the decision is going to be made by the u member states. and this is going to be a kind of political decision. i think a lot of the member states, you know, they have their own takes on this. i think it's very difficult to to predicts. i think the u officials that you talk to say they wish that the ruling party would you know, give a little more evidence that they're really engaged in this and really wanted ah, but i also think that the risk of not giving them you membership, which could really kind of strengthen anti e u forces and e you skepticism here. i think you officials also recognize that and so are, are nervous. what about wednesday of saying no. what about this ain't i. e u feeling on last week pro russian protestors pulled down and set fire to an e flag outside of parliament into blue sea. and i'm wondering what's driving that

sentiment and how many georgians really feel that way. yeah, i think that that kind of sentiment is fairly small and marginal, but they are good at getting attention. i also think it's, you know, not all of these russia necessarily are different strains of the far right here in georgia. and some of them are anti russia, and some of them are pro russia. they're all anti e. u. of course, they do, you know, they managed to hold some high profile events. there were, as a notorious, a really pogroms. you could call it last year during the pride and attempts to hold some pride events when dozens of journalists were wounded by these groups. but in general they, they get a lot of attention and they can cause some, some big problems, but that the societal support is very, very low, gentle. we appreciate your time in your analysis tonight, especially in the friday evening. thank you. well, the day's almost done. the conversation it continues align. your flight is on

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ah ah, this is the w news. why? but from berlin denied violet. protest and drawing spring parts of france to a standstill, regions are cleaning up after another night of mass protest against president microns and popular pension reform. more approaches are planned at a visit by britain skiing. charles has been postponed, also coming up the german chancellor.