>> hello and a very warm welcome to "european journal" coming to you from dw studios in brussels. it's very good to have you with us. here are some of the countries we'll be taking a closer look at today. france-the red cap revolutionaries return. latvia -- the red army's forgotten legacy. and greenland -- the controversial riches under the ice.

it was like a slap in the face for francois hollande. a recent poll says he's the least popular french president in almost 60 years. the economy is in recession, one in 10 french don't have a job, and rating agencies and brussels regularly wrapped paris's knuckles. tax hikes have raised the hackles of his former supporters . click the pile of ash is already a meter high. for workers from this britney fish factory have been protesting its planned closure. they suddenly faced the bleak prospect of redundancy. >> it's a disaster for this region in the center of britney -- brittany. we've already lost food factories, and if they close this 1, 2, the whole area will collapse. >> denise is one of at least 200

workers. although it is an important regional employer, the promise of cheaper labor costs is enough to lower operations eastward to poland. t-shirts read, "we are angry." given that the company has just paid shareholders dividends, the anger is justified. they are fighting for fair compensation. >> in france, there are those at the top and those on the bottom. those at the top just ignore us, so we are protesting, especially in brittany, because people here are very attached to their region. >> the protests have spread far beyond the factory walls. a nearby town is awash with protesters in solidarity with their cause. they often depict red caps, which are a throwback to brittany's 17th-century revolt against paris and the introduction of a new tax.

the mayor is the face of the contemporary red caps. he is in great demand among the french media and is increasingly drawing the attention of other international news outlets. the stagnant political situation in paris is making brittany's protest more effective. >> it was not sarkozy but hollande who won the 2012 elections. it's not that he was promising much, but voters hope there would be some degree of change, but absolutely nothing has changed except the constant introduction of new taxes. >> a new tax on heavy goods vehicles known as the eco-tax was the straw that broke brittany's back. arguing that such a levy would disadvantage far-flung regions such as brittany, locals rebelled.

in early november, tens of thousands of people turned out to a demonstration in the regional capital, even though the government hastily postponed the introduction of the tax. such protests make the government nervous, but the next big one is planned for the end of the month. jan will be there. he and christian have fought political battles together in the past. he's a dairy farmer and cheese producer. his is a typically britain business, but like many other farmers, he is worried about the agricultural crisis in brittany and about his future. >> everyone is talking about the crisis in the agricultural industry, but at the moment, it is a crisis for manufacturers. our profits now barely even cover our costs. >> so he dons the red cap in

protest. he says european enlargement is part of the problem, as brittany simply cannot compete with cheap eastern european laborers in the german agricultural industry. that said, he believes french centralism is the greatest hurdle to brittany's progress. >> farmers, fishermen, laborers, even employers showed up at the big demonstration. this is not the same as those social movements that lead teachers to strike or farmers to demonstrate. this is a whole region saying, "stop, we want a different system in this country. give us the means to make it happen." >> he has run a deli here for decades, but he now fears for his future. >> the situation is very unsettling. if we close the factories, we will certainly have a thousand people on the streets -- we will

suddenly have 8000 people on the streets. the place will become an economic desert. >> a sense of unease is slowly spreading through france's political ranks. the economic crisis, a weak president, and rising unemployment all play to the waiting hand of the right wing extremist. >> we are fighting with people for the rights of written a dash of brittany. we do not want to abandon our region to those who capitalize on people's member -- misery to serve their own ends. >> not everyone is convinced, including some of the workers at the gates of the fish factory. >> i think they are just using what is happening here. it's really only about politics.

>> for now, it's still unclear whether the red caps' protest is anything but a smoke signal to paris. >> the baltic states were hit hard by the east-west power struggles of the 20th century, and the relationship between latvia and russia remains unrestrained to this day. during the second world war, the young nation was caught in the crossfire between not to germany and the soviet union. after the war, the red army occupation of lot via -- latvia lasted for decades. soldiers left the country decades ago. latvia quickly embraced the west and joined the eu, and today, most are not want to think about the times of soviet occupation, but some say that is a mistake. >> photographers can be pretty tenacious when it comes to uncovering their shared history. this time, the latvian and his

russian friend have set their sights on a secret military city. >> if the doors are locked, we have to find another way into the military facilities. >> the most important thing is not to destroy the history. everything has to stay as it once was. >> but everything has been looted and destroyed. this housing complex was left abandoned a long time ago. they capture the place with the children of soviet -- where the children of soviet military personnel were taught. >> none of this will be left standing 10 years from now, but when people hear about the early warning facility or destroying the military city, they can at least look at our photos. >> latvia was occupied for 50 years.

after latvian independence, the radar stations were dismantled. >> whether latvia was occupied or not, whether it was a good time or a bad time, that does not matter to me. it happened and it is part of our history. >> the occupation was bad for a lot of us, but the soviet army wanted to defend us. it really did protect us rum our enemies. >> but people in the neighboring villages do not see it that way. they became -- he became fed up with the soviet occupation under which his country suffered. after the troop withdrawal, he became an activist, pushing for the dismantling of the soviet radar station. in part because the electromagnetic waves supposedly made local residents sick. . >> why should the army of a foreign country be stationed in my homeland, my fatherland? it had to go.

and the radar station was a symbol of the cold war. >> they have explored more than 100 soviet military bases. the russian balkan fleet was stationed at the former naval port from the time of the czars. the two amateur historians have found people here who are fighting to save the old links with a macabre tourist attraction. guided by actors, visitors can find out firsthand how sailors were punished for bad behavior. >> we want to show that it's more helpful to stick together than to stand alone. during the soviet era, everyone was pitted against each other. if you made a mistake, everyone was made to suffer.

>> along with a group of lithuanian torus, they are condemned to punishment. although the whole thing seems a bit bizarre to them. they take photos to document that. at least this way, one more historical building is being saved from demolition. >> i've never experienced anything like this. my feet hurt, and i'm terribly upset, but now i understand that the communists wanted to humiliate people. >> by the end of the show, the two are happy to leave risen behind them. they used a short break to update their websites. >> we both have the goal of preserving history.

of course we argue, but above all, we have this common goal. >> the two enthusiasts go to the countryside. out here, there's a secret bunker hidden under a vegetable patch. it was intended to serve as headquarters for civil servants in the event of a nuclear war. today, the technology is obsolete, and the bunker is threatened with flooding. >> every bunker smells different. that's great. each time i enter a bunker, i take a whiff, and that smell transports me to the past. >> they rummage around. andres is happy to finally be able to welcome someone to his bunker. he is offering it for sale now and asking $10,000.

>> these guys are the first to show serious interest in the bunker. i'm very happy about that. we will see what happens. we have enough of these abandoned industrial monuments and latvia -- in lot via -- in latvia. >> i would like to set up a museum here to help bring history closer to people. but we need a lot of money for that, which we don't have, unfortunately. >> so the two continue their search for evidence of the past, though they are keeping the exact occasions to themselves. they don't want looters to destroy the last traces of the soviet army in latvia. >> with the polar ice craft -- ice cap receding, huge amounts of resources are being exposed, causing a modern day gold rush in many places. russia, for instance, is pressing on with oil production,

despite heavy protests by environmental detection groups, and greenland is facing a difficult decision. >> the world's biggest island could soon become one of the richest. greenland has huge reserves of gold, aluminum, platinum, and uranium, and of rare earth metals, which are needed to produce mobile phones, but while iron ore production has been given the go-ahead, the greenlanders are much more skeptical when it comes to digging for uranium. >> hunting seals is the great schoolteacher's favorite harvey, surrounded by icebergs alone in peaceful nature. he says the people here live by hunting and issuing and love their tranquil life. >> people avoid hard discussions. we prefer to talk about like things, everyday matters -- the

weather, plans for the weekend, simple things. we don't like to poke around >> but now, these questions must be addressed. this region is sitting on millions of tons of valuable rare earth buried in the ground along with hundreds of thousands of tons of uranium. right in the neighborhood of his hometown. an australian mining company wants to extract a buried treasure. a few kilometers away, a mind could soon be dug and with it, radioactive stone. the tranquil village of 1600 could turn into a rapidly growing city. we meet with joseph peterson, who places great hopes in the project. he says people have been moving away from here in recent years, and the mine will give the town a future. >> i want the city to grow and for people to have more work so

that they can earn money. that would also reduce crime here. if the mind does not do any damage, the project should have a chance. >> but most of the mine workers would come from abroad. she and her husband have campaigned against the mine since the trial drillings began. one of their fears is an influx of orders. >> about 1000 young workers will come to our town. competition for the local men. i think we will get a lot of venereal diseases and illegitimate cheeses -- illegitimate children from unknown fathers. >> there's also the fear of radiation from uranium. they have already resolved to leave if the mind is open. >> nowhere in the world is there a uranium mine so close to a settlement. there's plenty of potential for mining and greenland.

why should we start with the worst, most dangerous? >> of course, we need money and mining agreement, but it should not start with the most hazardous project. >> we fly with hed -- a chief geologist to where the mine would be dug. 23,000 tons could be produced a year -- 1/5 of the world's output. the government has not granted permission yet, but it wants it because these mineral resources with poor 40 million euros of tax revenue into greenland's coffers each year. >> the supply of those minerals has been controlled by china for a long time, and i think the world would like to see that change. it really is a chance for greenland to develop its own mining industry. >> but if the government approves the mind, it will mean bringing radioactive uranium to

the surface. the rare earths are found in the same ore. greenland wants to take the risk, so it's parliament has rescinded the zero tolerance level that was in place for uranium mining that was in place . a kilometer and a half long, 600 meters wide, and 200 meters deep , there would be a huge hole here. >> there are obviously consequences to mining. people want phones and electric cars and wind turbines, so it has to come from somewhere. there are always sacrifices in life. >> we travel up. people here have heard about the planned mind, but they have not heard much. today, the mining company has sent a ship together people to take them to a briefing. quite a few have come.

after all, their future is at stake. in the evening, every seat in the little assembly room is filled. the head geologist gives a slideshow and does the explaining with translation into greenland it. he says there's no cause for worry. only a little uranium will be mind, but at the end of the evening, few seem persuaded. >> they say that the mine will be no problem for the population. they cite that the issue of the chemicals that will be used. they want to cover the tailings with nothing but soil and rock fragments. the mining company thinks that solves the problems. >> peter frederiksen has no luck hunting today. he tells us he thinks about the mine, but he talks about it only within his family.

>> our village is more or less divided into -- in two. some are for the mine and some are against it. we do not talk about it openly because it may be small, and one friend may be for it and another against it. it has become a taboo topic. >> neither the australian mining company nor the government should expect angry protests, but it will soon have to choose the path greenland will take as it moves into the future. >> the biggest war crimes on european soil after the second world war happened in srebrenica and bosnia-herzegovina. serbian forces killed thousands of muslim bosniak there. the two ethnic groups still live strictly separate lives. tha is why the story of a bosniak man and serve woman

sounds like something william shakespeare might have come up with if he had written a modern equal to romeo and juliet. >> this bosnian muslim and this bosnian serb are a couple. staunch nationalists disapprove of their love. for them, it's the most beautiful thing in the world. >> it was love at first sight. i remember the butterflies i had in my stomach. he hit his feelings like a typical man. later he admitted them. >> i need to check on the sheep. >> they met in 2010. for the last year and a half, they have lived where he comes from on the outskirts of srebrenica. a simple wooden cottage, three

goats, 12 sheep, a few chickens, and their great love. that's everything they have. he often hearns a bit of money elsewhere as a lumberjack. she takes care of their little farm by herself. their dream of a life together has taken root in a landscape of ruins and rubble. they have almost no neighbors here. his extended family once lived here. when after a long siege the serbs overran srebrenica, these houses were plundered and laid to waste. the couples hope in this dreary and this dreariness is their little son. he was born in srebrenica a year and a half ago, the first child from a mixed marriage in this city since the war. they regard him as a little miracle, but he cannot dispatch the sadness clinging to this place. >> of course it is sad to live

here. my relatives used to live in all these places which are abandoned now. the buildings are deteriorating. the women fled during the war, and almost all the men are dead. >> just 15 months old, josef has no memory of the terrible slaughter, but he is sure to learn about it soon enough. after the fall of srebrenica, the bosnian serb soldiers executed more than 8000 muslim men and buried them in mass graves. then the serbs were in charge here. only recently have muslim families begun coming back. but the atmosphere is still poison. they do not dare come to the center of town together. they are afraid of people's reactions because muslims and serbs still do not live together here.

how can a muslim and a serb love each other and have a child together here? bloggers wrote that mixed marriages destroy the bosnian nation, and serbs upset that the boy is being raised as a muslim say the serbs are still being islamist sized. >> they are idiots. maybe tomorrow they will fall in love with someone from another ethnic group themselves, and then what? i don't know how these people come up with the idea of writing such commentaries about us without even knowing us. that is why for me, these are just stupid commentaries. >> to surviving relatives were not initially happy with a serb daughter-in-law, but i now, they have accepted her, despite everything the serbs did during the war. we accompanied him on a visit to the memorial cemetery. six of his uncles are buried

here. his mother and father, like he himself, escaped the mass murder by chance and left. he was 16 at the time and had to watch the murders on the grounds of the battery factory. >> the serbs detained me for two days on the factory grounds. terrible things happened there. i hardly ever speak about her, but sometimes the images returned in my head. i tried to drive them out again. i wish i could push everything that i saw far away. >> but he does not want to forget. his uncle was one of the men in his family who was killed in the massacre. his son was named in his memory. people think that is wrong, too. a forbidden love and a for bid in child? srebrenica they do not accept that the sites with because they live in -- they do not accept

that precisely because they live in srebrenica, the site of the appalling mass murder. >> that does it for "european journal."

[♪] from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> to introduce myself, i belong to a special tribe of what used to be called troubadours, sometimes called minstrels, now we are called songwriters. in our song we sort of look for the better world, a rainbow world. my generation, unfortunately, never succeeded in creating