Tehran Toughens Stance against Protesters, Judiciary Threatens Capital Punishment

 Students of the Faculty of Art at the University of Tehran raise papers demanding the release of detainees (Coordinating Committee of Student Unions)
Students of the Faculty of Art at the University of Tehran raise papers demanding the release of detainees (Coordinating Committee of Student Unions)
TT

Tehran Toughens Stance against Protesters, Judiciary Threatens Capital Punishment

 Students of the Faculty of Art at the University of Tehran raise papers demanding the release of detainees (Coordinating Committee of Student Unions)
Students of the Faculty of Art at the University of Tehran raise papers demanding the release of detainees (Coordinating Committee of Student Unions)

Iranian officials have sharpened their threats against anti-regime protesters with the country's hardliner Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Ejei announcing on Monday his support for delivering the death penalty against demonstrators.

“The deputy head of the judiciary and the public prosecutor are following up on a daily basis the files of key figures in the recent unrest,” Ejei said on the third day of the eighth week of civil disobedience following the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Ejei also vowed to intensify the punishment of those arrested during the protests following a call by the parliament members who have urged the judiciary to issue death sentences for the protesters.

“Whoever carries a firearm or a cold weapon and uses it as an agent of the enemy, threatens the security of the country and raises terror in any region, and at the same time kills a person, retribution (execution) may be carried out against them, and other charges may apply,” said Ejei.

Despite backing calls for serving capital punishment to some protesters, Ejei said that the judiciary will differentiate between demonstrators those who were moved emotionally to participate in the unrest and those who committed crimes and acted on foreign orders.

“The enemies have received a resounding defeat and are trying to carry out harmful actions,” state-run ISNA news agency quoted Ejei as saying.

Later, a court in Tehran convicted three protesters of “war against god.”

The official IRNA news agency stated that the three detainees were brought before the judiciary on charges of sabotaging public funds by setting fire, disrupting public order, assembling, collusion, and carrying out attacks against the regime.

A lawyer for one of the defendants said that his client had burned tires on a highway, which are not considered public money.

Hassan Hassanzadeh, commander of Revolutionary Guards forces in Tehran, threatened to deal with protesters “strictly” on Monday.

He said that the Revolutionary Guards and the police had arrested 14 people they believe are involved in the killing of a prominent member of the Basij forces, west of Tehran.

“The judiciary will deal seriously with those who committed crimes and caused the death of security personnel,” said Hassanzadeh.

“Our security ability to identify and arrest those who stir unrest remains high,” the commander added in an interview with the Revolutionary Guard's affiliated Fars News Agency.



France Has a New Government, Again. Politics and Crushing Debt Complicate Next Steps

France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou makes an address after observing a minute of silence as part of an official day of mourning for the victims of Cyclone Chido which hit the archipelago on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte a week ago, at The Hotel Matignon in Paris on December 23, 2024. (AFP)
France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou makes an address after observing a minute of silence as part of an official day of mourning for the victims of Cyclone Chido which hit the archipelago on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte a week ago, at The Hotel Matignon in Paris on December 23, 2024. (AFP)
TT

France Has a New Government, Again. Politics and Crushing Debt Complicate Next Steps

France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou makes an address after observing a minute of silence as part of an official day of mourning for the victims of Cyclone Chido which hit the archipelago on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte a week ago, at The Hotel Matignon in Paris on December 23, 2024. (AFP)
France's Prime Minister Francois Bayrou makes an address after observing a minute of silence as part of an official day of mourning for the victims of Cyclone Chido which hit the archipelago on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte a week ago, at The Hotel Matignon in Paris on December 23, 2024. (AFP)

France’s president and prime minister managed to form a new government just in time for the holidays. Now comes the hard part.

Crushing debt, intensifying pressure from the nationalist far right, wars in Europe and the Middle East: Challenges abound for President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Francois Bayrou after an already tumultuous 2024.

What's wrong with French finances? The most urgent order of business is passing a 2025 budget. Financial markets, ratings agencies and the European Commission are pushing France to bring down its deficit, to comply with EU rules limiting debt and keep France’s borrowing costs from spiraling. That would threaten the stability and prosperity of all countries that share the euro currency.

France’s debt is currently estimated at a staggering 112% of gross domestic product. It grew further after the government gave aid payments to businesses and workers during COVID-19 lockdowns even as the pandemic depressed growth, and capped household energy prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. The bill is now coming due.

But France’s previous government collapsed this month because Marine Le Pen’s far-right party and left-wing lawmakers opposed 60 billion euros in spending cuts and tax hikes in the original 2025 budget plan. Bayrou and new Finance Minister Eric Lombard are expected to scale back some of those promises, but the calculations are tough.

“The political situation is difficult. The international situation is dangerous, and the economic context is fragile,” Lombard, a low-profile banker who advised a Socialist government in the 1990s, said upon taking office.

“The environmental emergency, the social emergency, developing our businesses — these innumerable challenges require us to treat our endemic illness: the deficit,” he said. “The more we are indebted, the more the debt costs, and the more it suffocates the country.”

How long will this government last? This is France’s fourth government in the past year. No party has a parliamentary majority and the new Cabinet can only survive with the support of lawmakers on the center-right and center-left.

Le Pen — Macron’s fiercest rival — was instrumental in ousting the previous government by joining left-wing forces in a no-confidence vote. Bayrou consulted her when forming the new government and Le Pen remains a powerful force.

That angers left-wing groups, who had expected more influence in the new Cabinet, and who say promised spending cuts will hurt working-class families and small businesses hardest. Left-wing voters, meanwhile, feel betrayed ever since a coalition from the left won the most seats in the summer's snap legislative elections but failed to secure a government.

The possibility of a new no-confidence vote looms, though it's not clear how many parties would support it.

What about Macron? Macron has repeatedly said he will remain president until his term expires in 2027.

But France's constitution and current structure, dating from 1958 and called the Fifth Republic, were designed to ensure stability after a period of turmoil. If this new government collapses within months and the country remains in political paralysis, pressure will mount for Macron to step down and call early elections.

Le Pen's ascendant National Rally is intent on bringing Macron down. But Le Pen faces her own headaches: A March court ruling over alleged illegal party financing could see her barred from running for office.

What else is on the agenda? The National Rally and hard-right Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau want tougher immigration rules. But Bayrou wants to focus on making existing rules work. “There are plenty of (immigration) laws that exist. None is being applied,” he said Monday on broadcaster BFM-TV, to criticism from conservatives.

Military spending is a key issue amid fears about European security and pressure from US President-elect Donald Trump for Europe to spend more on its own defense. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who champions military aid for Ukraine and ramping up weapons production, kept his job and stressed in a statement Tuesday the need to face down “accumulating threats” against France.

More immediately, Macron wants an emergency law in early January to allow sped-up reconstruction of the cyclone-ravaged French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean off Africa. Thousands of people are in emergency shelters and authorities are still counting the dead more than a week after the devastation.

Meanwhile the government in the restive French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia collapsed Tuesday in a wave of resignations by pro-independence figures — another challenge for the new overseas affairs minister, Manuel Valls, and the incoming Cabinet.