Europe Today: Blame continues in France, Russia kills two children in Kharkiv

Good morning, it is Tuesday the 20th of October. I'm Maeve McMahon and this is Europe Today. Your morning dose of European news and analysis, live here on Euronews. Coming up, France on edge. Following a weekend of unprecedented violence, the French Prime Minister has called for local and partial curfews. Sébastien Le Corneau says he is ready to declare a state of emergency if needed. The Interior Minister also admitted he lost control of the situation and that authorities from Lyon to Paris were overwhelmed. Plus, in Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has held emergency security talks after protests over the cost of living turned into violent clashes in Milan. Truck drivers from Bari to Palermo have been blocking roads and key transport hubs to protest against rising costs of fertilisers, seeds and fuel. Meanwhile, heavy storms and torrential downpours have battered parts of eastern Spain, triggering flash floods and turning streets into rushing rivers. Multiple regions remain on high alert, especially given the painful memory of the devastating Danube floods that struck just two years ago. Four people have already lost their lives. And Europeans will have to face at least another year of elevated fuel costs and higher airfares due to the ongoing unrest in the Middle East. That's according to the Ryanair CEO, Michael O'Leary, who'll be live with us here in the studio. But first to Paris, where the political blame game continues over who is responsible for the weekend's unrest. The Prime Minister has accused the ultra-left movement of seeking to, quote, orchestrate deep unrest in the run-up to next year's presidential elections. For the latest, we can head over now to Paris and bring in our correspondent, Estelle Nelson-Julien, who's been covering the student protests since they began, as well as all the violence over the weekend. Good morning, Estelle. Great to have you with us. So after the chaos of the weekend, what is the situation like this Tuesday morning? Well, good morning. It's fair to say that the situation is much calmer on the ground this morning. Curfews were in place across the country yesterday. And in the immediate vicinity of the area, I am standing in in the centre of Paris, close to the Place de la République. In certain areas, such as in Nice, in the south of France, there was also a curfew strictly restricted to minors, to young people. So it's fair to say that things are calmer, but there is still a raw sense on the ground. As I walked here to where I'm standing, I walked through shattered glass. Many shops were still boarded up. So a lot of businesses are, of course, still quite literally picking up the pieces. And what's it been like for you covering these protests as a journalist on the ground? Just this weekend, both you and your cameraman were assaulted and attacked. Yes, so it's been difficult and violent riots to cover over the course of the weekend. So it was outside this supermarket just behind me, Intermarché, a few steps away from the Place de la République, where the major protests began on Saturday afternoon. And as we filmed rioters who were attempting to loot this supermarket and smash it open with a hammer, we were encircled by a group of teenagers, young adults, many of them who are masked and who we could not recognise. and they proceeded to try and rob our equipment. They violently assaulted my cameraman, who was very brave and thankfully was protected because he was wearing a facial protection, including a gas mask and eye mask. But it was a very tense incident, and my cameraman was very brave. And it's not an isolated incident. We've seen many other journalists from a number of outlets reporting both intimidation and violence. Yes, it's been over the course of the student movement, I have faced a lot of angry students who've told me that they don't trust the media, that they don't want journalists reporting on the protests, that they believe the media hasn't been fair in its coverage and that it's only shown instances of violence rather than also talking about student demands. And then in the case of the rioters, it was a different, whole new level of violence that we saw on the ground. And I must also remind our viewers that there were calls on social media from the Yellow Vest movement to go outside and protest and cut off the so-called, what they labelled as, propaganda media. And they called for protesters to stand outside various media outlets in Paris and demonstrate there. So there were also many calls on social media calling for journalists to be held to account, but in practice this led to violence on the ground. Okay, so this is Julianne there reporting from Paris. Thank you so much for your work. Now, six years of hard work gone in one single night. That's the reality for Odélia Sitbon, a pharmacist near Paris' Place de la République. Last Saturday, rioters smashed through her shop, looting her stocks and setting it ablaze. Left with empty shelves, shattered glass and financial concerns about how to raise her three kids, Odelia shared her story with Euronews' Valerie Torchia. The scale of the damage is immense. Everything is destroyed, everything. I have no stock left. They burned it all. I don't even understand how someone could set on fire a building when there are homes above it. Upstairs is my pharmacy's storage area. Even if they wanted to steal, the stock was right there. But instead, they burned everything. Are we really supposed to believe this is because the cost of living is so high? It's because looting is easy. It's just because they can. I've been working here for six years. When I first set up the business, I was seven months pregnant. And I came back to work just two weeks after giving birth. Two weeks! And for what? Because I wanted to provide a service. But they didn't care at all. They behaved like animals. They ripped out my water heater. They tore down my light fixtures. Is this how you protest the high cost of living? By tearing down light fixtures? By smashing up a robot? Well, a pharmacy robot costs 150,000 bucks. And in my opinion, it's ruined. I haven't even been able to check it properly yet because I can't turn the power back on. They ripped out all of my electrical wiring, which cost me 15,000 bucks to replace. And the police? No one protected us. To see your life's work destroyed like this? There's nothing worse. And since all that looting and violence, French retailers now face hundreds of millions of euros in damage. From small boutiques to luxury shops on the high streets, all types were targeted by theft and vandalism, with the Galerie Lafayette group reporting significant consequences for the vast majority of their shops all across the country. From the view now from the ground, we can bring in Patrick Molinés. He's the vice president of the French Mayors Association and also a member of the European Committee of the Regions. Good morning, sir. Thank you so much for joining us. Now, we've seen those devastating pictures from the capital there, but what's it like for smaller towns and, of course, Dijon, the capital of your region? Well, it depends on some smaller towns. I mean, the real rural areas are quite calm, actually. It's mainly in major cities that the bad things happen because it's actually coordinated action from extremists that has nothing to do with normal protesters. So, let's say, in the countryside, things are pretty quiet. But there's a real blame game going on now politically, and we know it's a tense time in France with presidential elections coming up next year. You're from the Radical Party of the Left. We've seen the prime minister blaming the so-called left for this violence. How do you react to that? Well, the Radical Left is a centre-left party, I should say, so the name doesn't tell it all. So we're a center left party. But that's not the question. The question is, there is a real difference between protesters who want just to say, well, what they complain about. And that's completely legitimate. But what happened, the destruction, the town hall attack and everything, this is most probably the fact of extremists, extreme right and extreme left. And I personally believe, and we will have evidence of that in a very short time, I'm sure, that there are also foreign interference in this matter. Definitely on social media, Russian interference is quite certain, and maybe not only Russian, and maybe also physically. physically. I mean, some of the attacks were planned. You don't come into the city and destroy, dismantle some physical equipment without training. It's not the fact of just people getting angry. That is not true. That is not possible. But these images of course of the violence, the vandalism, they've overshadowed the whole story here, which began really with young people protesting over school conditions and struggling with their day-to-day issues. What are the core structural problems facing france today and how can they be addressed well there are problems all all the time i mean we're all in an implementing situation i mean everyone wants to have a better life tomorrow one of the problem nowadays is that being looking at the future uh on a bright way is getting harder and harder so some student protests about the system that classifies them to go to university some complain about how their lycée, their schools, or their university are in good or not so good shape. But overall, it's a normal protest at the beginning. But of course, six months before the presidential election, some people have interest to make things get harder and harder. So from a normal and legitimate protestation, we're getting to something that is completely different and again i insist and the committee of the region and the president gave her support to the french mayor and the french citizen but there is something at european level we have to see this does not happen without foreign interference that is certain okay patrick molinos thank you so much for joining us this morning now beyond france people have also been taking to the streets of spain portugal and italy to protest over the cost of living crisis and rising fuel prices unions want lower prices, higher pensions and more money in their pockets. For The View from Industry here, I'm joined now by Michael O'Leary, CEO of Europe's largest and most profitable airline group, Ryanair. Good morning, Michael O'Leary. Morning, Maeve. Great pleasure to be here. Lovely to have you. Look, when you see the wave of protests and industrial strikes all across Europe, as the CEO of such a successful company, do you relate to these concerns? I do. I mean, you know, we live in Europe where, you know, we have fundamentally failed to be competitive. You know, the Draghi report is two years old. It is sat on the shelf gathering dust. Ursula von der Leyen talks about competitiveness and does absolutely nothing about it. You look at our sector in air transport, which has been one of the great successes of the European Union, the deregulation, liberalisation of air travel, brought about the growth of low-fare airlines like Ryanair. You can now fly across the continent for 50 euros. It is one of the very few industries where we out-compete the Americans. They're ahead of us in AI, they're ahead of us in IT. When it comes to air travel, we're much cheaper in Europe than they are in the US. And yet, what are we doing? We're raising environmental taxes on air travel, which results in higher fares. You have that ship of fools in the European Parliament redesigning more regulations designed to increase the cost of air travel. When consumers want lower fares, we keep growing every year because consumers want what we deliver, which is really low fare, affordable air travel. And yet our politicians and our regulators here in Europe add complexity, add regulation and add cost to consumers' lives. And these wave of protests, as you can see, consumers are feeling the pinch. They want more money in their pocket. Is this really just a taste of what is to come? Because as you say, we're not very competitive here in Europe. We're an ageing continent. That doesn't mean we can't be more competitive. You have the AI bringing about a huge, large growth in efficiency. We can be more competitive. I mean, I'm here in Brussels today. You know, unfortunately, I'm announcing Ryanair's winter schedule. This winter, we're cutting a million seats out of Belgium. We're reducing our capacity in Zaventem and Charleroi. We're going to reduce by 20 routes this winter. Why? Because the De Wever government has increased air travel from two euros per ticket to seven euros per ticket. And as the Belgians increase air taxes on air travel, the Slovakians, the Swedes, the Italians, the Hungarians have abolished air travel. We're moving aircraft to those countries who are competitive. Belgium is not competitive. France is not competitive. Germany is hopelessly uncompetitive. And yet the way forward is to reduce the tax burden on our citizens and do that by driving down the tax on air travel. So what's your message to France and Belgium? Get more efficient. Stop raising taxes. Consumers around Europe, citizens around Europe want lower taxes, particularly on things like air travel, so they can travel affordably, meet friends and family across Europe. And we have a scandal in Europe. We tax, we apply environmental taxes only to intra-EU flights. We don't tax the Americans. We don't tax the Asians. We don't tax the Chinese. Despite the fact that their flights account for more than 53% of Europe's CO2 emissions, we exempt them. Nobody would design a stupid system like this other than the European Parliament and Ursula von der Leyen. If you're serious about competitiveness, tax the Americans when they land here in Europe. We should have a fair and reasonable environmental tax on all flights landing in Europe. But they're afraid to go there, right? They don't want to go there. Of course they're afraid to go there. Ursula von der Leyen's afraid to do anything except talk. You know, she's useless. We have, Europe has a roadmap for being more competitive. It's called the Draghi Report. Two years later, not one of its recommendations has been implemented. And Ursula von der Leyen hides in the Berlin Mall, doing nothing except giving speeches. If the Draghi Report was implemented, how could Europe look? We would be a dramatically more efficient society. I mean, if you look at air travel, they said, look, we should reduce the environmental tax burden on air travel, which is absolutely sensible, and we should reform ATC in Europe. ATC in Europe accounts for more than 90% of flight delays and yet the airlines have to provide compensation and right to care expenses for passengers because of those delays but we're not allowed to recover those costs from the people who cause over 90% of the delays which is air traffic control Why has there been no reform of air traffic control for 20 years in Europe? Because we have useless politicians like von der Leyen talking about being competitive but doing nothing about it And meanwhile, the reality for consumers for those who like to catch a plane airfares are going up and the airfares keep going up. Well, I mean, they won't necessarily keep, they're going to go significantly up in the next 12 months for two reasons. One, because of the higher cost of fuel. We're hedged in fuel this year at about $67 a barrel. Next year, our oil price will double. And the second reason airfares are going up is because of increases in ETS, environmental taxation, on only intra-European flights while we exempt all the American flights, the Asian flights. But that's a reality you can't just ignore either. Of course, it's not a reality. The reality is if you want to fly to Europe, if you want to land and take-off in Europe, the Americans, the Asians, the Chinese should pay their fair share. We shouldn't be exempting them who create the greatest amount of emissions while we only tax the poor, dumb European citizens travelling around visiting friends and family. And are you planning a surcharge for the fuel? No, no. Ryanair, we guarantee no fuel surcharges. But there is no doubt that airfares are going to rise significantly in 2027 because of much higher oil prices. OK. Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair. Thank you so much for coming on to be here on EuroNews. Now moving on to Ukraine, where two children were among the victims of a Russian drone strike on a park in the Kharkiv region yesterday. It comes as Vladimir Putin has reportedly proposed a three-way summit with Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping next month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, potentially without Kiev at the table. For more on what exactly is behind this announcement, I'm joined this morning by our Ukraine correspondent, Sasha Bakalina. Good morning. So what do we know about this proposed summit and how has Ukraine been responding? Well, the Kremlin confirmed that Putin would like to have this trilateral summit with Donald Trump and China's President Xi. But there is no reaction yet from Washington, except the fact that, of course, the United States and the Trump administration has been putting more pressure on Ukraine and on Kiev over the past week or so regarding making concessions. And it also concerns the possible reported limitations when it comes to the deliveries of Patriot ballistic missiles interceptors that Ukraine really, really needs with Russia launching at times 39 ballistic missiles at Kiev just overnight and also with the reported cuts regarding the Starlink connection. Now, Ukraine's foreign minister, Andriy Sibyha, was very careful speaking about this possible trilateral summit when he said a trilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia could help end the war sooner. A trilateral meeting between the leaders of Russia, China and the U.S. would do only the opposite, encourage Putin to continue this war. And meanwhile, of course, Sasha, we've seen President Trump defending his approach to Moscow, arguing that Russia is doing very little to help Iran. But what exactly is Moscow saying? Well, Moscow did speak as well just hours, in fact, after Donald Trump's statement about the fact that Russia is not helping Iran. Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that Russia is supporting. In fact, he actually compared Russia's war against Ukraine with Iran's fight, saying both have, quote, just cause. And Lavrov also said that Russia intends to continue its support to Iran, despite the fact that Donald Trump said no, and that Russia is actually helping to normalize and to balance the diesel world market. Moscow says it's going to help Iran more. Okay, Sasha Bakalina, thank you so much for that. And of course, we can read more of your reporting on euronews.com, or you can download our apps or visit us on social media. By the way, you can also reach out to us here at Euronews Today whenever you feel. Euronews Today at euronews.com. That is our email address. We love hearing from you, but that does bring this Tuesday's edition to an end. Thank you so much for joining us. As always, stay with us here on Euronews for more news and analysis.