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00:18Hello and welcome to Global Eye, a programme that brings you unmissable investigations and
00:24reporting from around the world, made by teams from across the BBC's World Service.
00:29I'm Andrew Harding, the BBC's Paris correspondent.
00:33France is one of Europe's most powerful democracies, but it's now wrestling with chronic instability,
00:39a cycle of protests, collapsing governments and political deadlock.
00:43I'll be tracing the path to this crisis and assessing whether the French Republic,
00:48created to bring stability after years of upheaval, can still hold together today.
00:56Also on this week's programme, we'll take a look at how Greenlandic parents across Denmark
01:01are fighting to be reunited with children forcibly taken into care.
01:17And it's one of the world's hottest commodities, yet most of us walk past it without ever realising
01:24its true worth.
01:25We'll uncover the remarkable story behind the surprising material at the centre of a global
01:31smuggling trade.
01:38To me, the French tend to convey an impressive sense of certainty about life, the right way
01:44to order your stake, the right way to behave in public, acquire confidence in the power
01:49of the state.
01:50But that seems to be changing.
01:54Politics has always been a noisy business here, but the rise of the hard right and the collapse
02:00of the centre-ground of French politics has left this country reeling, uncertain, even alarmed.
02:06Je dissous donc, ce soir, l'Assemblée nationale.
02:09It was a seismic moment.
02:12In June 2024, President Macron abruptly dissolved the National Assembly, France's parliament,
02:19mid-term, and called a snap election.
02:22Macron framed it as a necessary response to the surge of the far right, after a spectacular
02:27showing by Marine Le Pen's national rally in European parliamentary elections.
02:33What followed was uncomfortable and unexpected, a three-way split between, on the left, the
02:39new popular front alliance, the centre-ground dominated by Macron's Ensemble party, and the
02:45far-right national rally.
02:47The result, a hung parliament and a deadlock.
02:51A deadlock now testing France's 70-year-old constitutional system to the limit.
02:57This is France's fifth political regime.
03:00The chaotic Fourth Republic ran from 1946 to 1958, with 16 prime ministers and 21 governments,
03:08none of which lasted much longer than a year.
03:10When President Charles de Gaulle established the Fifth Republic, he significantly strengthened
03:16presidential powers, while reducing the influence of the prime minister and parliament.
03:21At the time, strong parties on the left and right usually took turns, holding a parliamentary
03:26majority, so the system largely worked.
03:29But what if that gentle pendulum swing between two mainstream parties suddenly goes haywire?
03:36The answer is gridlock.
03:40Which is what's happening now.
03:43Since President Macron called those elections in 2024, France has cycled through an astonishing
03:49clutch of prime ministers, all with one difficulty in common, getting agreement for their tax and
03:55spending plans.
03:56One after the other, they attempted to strike a budget deal, but failed and quit.
04:01In one case, after just a month in power.
04:16Sebastian Lecornu was then reappointed as prime minister just four days after that resignation speech.
04:24So what does this mean for the citizens of the EU's second largest economy?
04:30Since Macron first became president in 2017, promising to cut taxes, increase growth and reduce the role
04:38of the state, both public spending and debt have increased.
04:43France's crippling national debt is now far bigger than what European Union rules allow.
04:49The bloc's second biggest economy now rivals Greece and Italy in terms of the cash it needs to borrow
04:56every year.
04:57The inability to pass budgets or financial reforms has triggered mass demonstrations, strikes
05:03and a surge in protests.
05:06There is a pervasive sense of economic anxiety on the streets of Paris.
05:14One of the most vocal forces has been the bloc en tout or let's block everything movement, which started on
05:21social media and has spread across France. Striking workers have also closed pharmacies and shuttered schools,
05:27angered by plans to raise the retirement age to 64.
05:31After eight years in office, Emmanuel Macron's position as president is coming under increasing
05:38pressure with his political rivals calling for him to go.
05:42Opinion polls suggest almost three-quarters of voters think the president should step down too.
05:47Macron himself has remained typically bullish.
05:50There, can you see how this country could look for him.
06:07But his time is running out and with it-his power, his ability to influence France's future.
06:15Now, from Paris, we're taking you over 600 miles northeast to Denmark, where, following
06:21a public outcry, the government last year banned the use of parental competency tests,
06:27which contributed to hundreds of Greenlandic being taken from their families after evidence
06:32showed the tests were inappropriate for their culture.
06:35Many of these families are now fighting to get their children returned to them.
06:39Greenland is a former Danish colony, and roughly a third of Greenland's population lives on
06:45the Danish mainland. Despite an apology and a pledge by the government to review around
06:49300 child removals, some families have been told that for them it's too late.
06:54For BBC Global Women, Sofia Betica has been to meet some of the families who are still
07:00fighting to get their children returned.
07:15Hong Kong and Sofia Betica has been to meet young relatives in the UK.
07:21Like this, you were up for three people, and there was only six months of their children.
07:34They paid lot to go to sleep but they paid much for their children with their children.
07:38Their children paid more for their children's lives on their behalf of the refugees.
07:40Kira's case is one of nearly 300 that the Danish government has said it wants to review.
07:47Her story sparked widespread outrage, but Zami's the third of Kira's children to be taken against
07:54her will. Tests on her parenting ability began more than a decade earlier after social services
08:00became concerned about her eldest daughter's language development. What were these parenting
08:07competency tests like? What kind of questions did they ask you? They asked the question like,
08:13who is Mother Teresa? Some of the tests I had to play with a doll and they were criticising me
08:22for
08:22not having eyes contact. These kinds of questions are part of a far-reaching assessment designed to
08:30evaluate intellectual and personal capability to meet a child's needs. They can cover general
08:37knowledge, logic, memory and emotional understanding. Parents would normally be required to take these
08:44tests after extensive contact with social services.
09:09Kira's assessment concluded that trauma during her upbringing affects her parenting, preventing her from
09:16meeting her children's needs. She says that, on multiple occasions, she was pressured by psychologists
09:24and social workers to have abortions.
09:28When I was on the test. When I was on the test, FQO test, psychologist asked me a question. Why
09:37do you keep
09:37this baby? And my test is that, I'm not responsible enough. I didn't take my responsibility for getting
09:51abortion. The relationship between Greenland and Denmark is steeped in centuries of colonial rule. Greenland's
10:10population is about 90% indigenous Inuit. After World War II, Denmark launched a campaign to modernise its colony, aiming
10:20to bring
10:21it more in line with Danish cultural norms. They were aiming to renew housing, they were aiming to provide better
10:30health services, improve the school system and education.
10:34Many Greenlanders felt kind of overwhelmed by these policies and felt that the Danish cultural norms were dominating and that
10:43their lives were changing significantly
10:46only without them participating fully in this development.
10:51When you intervene into a family and remove a child, this is always based on some ideas about cultural norms.
11:04For years, campaigners have raised concerns about the way children are taken from Inuit, Greenlandic parents in Denmark.
11:12They say this is the latest in a long line of Danish government policies that reflect colonial racism towards the
11:21indigenous population.
11:23In 1951, Denmark removed 22 Inuit children from Greenland in the Little Danes experiment, aiming to raise them as Danish
11:33citizens.
11:35And in 2025, the Danish government apologised for a forced contraception scandal that spanned decades.
11:43And that's why the forgiveness I give today is not only about the early days. It's also about our current
11:51and our future.
11:54Tina co-founded CELA 360, an NGO challenging the system.
11:59The way these tests are used is a scandal. And it's shocking and it's dehumanising.
12:08The Danish authorities think that the Greenlandic people are uncivilised, they are less smart and actually that they are just
12:18less privileged.
12:20Tina co-founded CELA 360, an NGO, an NGO, an NGO, an NGO, an NGO, an NGO.
12:31It's the same.
12:33Tina co-founded CELA 360, an NGO, an NGO, an NGO, an NGO, an NGO, an NGO, an NGO.
12:54Now, from the local people became part of the National Institut of Gracias for the people that werestered,
12:55the Chinese partners was kind of now.
12:56You know that, they are not a заб Elsena Centre.
13:03closed. Back in 2010, Johanne was assessed in a parenting competency test. She did not
13:10have an interpreter, even though Danish is her second language. The assessment found
13:16her to have mental retardation. But the local council told us she did not need an interpreter
13:23and that her children faced physical and psychological neglect because of Johanne's alleged mental
13:30health issues, including periods of depression and anxiety. Her two children were taken from
13:37her. Then, nine years later, Johanne became pregnant again.
13:43We have another picture. He was one day old. Is that you?
13:49Yep. That is me.
13:52That is the father.
13:53And son.
13:54And son.
14:07That happiness was short-lived. Eight months into her pregnancy, Johanne learned that she
14:14and her husband would face the parenting competency tests once again. The assessment described Johanne
14:21as childish and narcissistic. Ulrich, it said, was self-centred and lacking empathy. The conclusion,
14:30they could not meet the needs of their child. They felt the outcome was predetermined.
14:47One of the tests Johanne and Ulrich and many of the pharmacists we spoke to had to take is
14:53the Rorschach test. Developed in the 1920s, it analyzes personality traits based on how people
15:00interpret abstract ink blots.
15:24In traditional Greenlandic culture, where many people hunt for their livelihood, seeing blood,
15:30blood from a young age, is normal. But in Denmark, the same response in a psychological test could
15:37be seen as a cause for concern. But child removals don't just happen because of these tests.
15:44In Denmark, they are part of a much wider process, one that disproportionately affects Greenlandic
15:51people. There are an estimated 460 Greenlandic children living outside parental care in Denmark.
15:59Proportionally, Greenlandic parents are thought to be almost six times more likely to have their
16:05children taken into care than the general population.
16:08I think the whole assessment is problematic. We have gone through so many cases, it's the
16:14same. Same assumptions about alcoholism, about them being neglected as children. They have too many
16:23prejudices against the Greenlandic people. They would rather see that the children are brought
16:29up in another Danish home.
16:32Johanne and Ulrich were told that their child would be removed from their care and permanently
16:38adopted.
16:38That's it.
17:08I don't want to see him.
17:21In 2020, their son was adopted.
17:25Because of that, their case was closed
17:27and will not be reviewed by the government.
17:30They haven't seen him since.
17:33But we've found that more than six months into the government review,
17:37the pace is slow.
17:39It's been six months since a government review began.
17:43And so far, only 10 cases where a parenting competency test was used
17:49have been reviewed.
17:51Why is progress so slow?
17:54Well, I know that it sounds slow, but I think that it is also,
17:59we are getting started.
18:00And I suspect that in the next coming months,
18:04they will review even more cases.
18:05Out of those 10 cases, only one was found to contain mistakes.
18:11As of today, the government review has not led
18:14to a single Greenlandic child being returned to their family.
18:17I can't recognise those numbers, I must say.
18:22Those numbers come from the units that you've set up to review the cases.
18:27So they come from a government agency that you're in charge of.
18:30We want to make sure that we look into every placement where this test was used
18:37to place a child with Greenlandic background.
18:40It is a work in progress, yes.
18:44The local council involved in Johanna and Ulrich's case told us that the child welfare assessment
18:51indicated significant concern regarding the parents' overall parenting abilities,
18:58lifestyle and functional level in daily life.
19:01In Kira's case, the local council told us they can't comment on individual families,
19:08but said generally employees would never pressure parents to have an abortion,
19:14but only offer advice and guidance.
19:17They added that a decision to place a child in care happens when there is serious concern
19:23about the child's health, development and well-being.
19:28In November, just after Zami's first birthday, Kira was told by the authorities that,
19:35at least for now, her daughter will remain in foster care.
19:39There's no way to win. I was never dangerous enough. I was never good enough.
19:48Johanna and Ulrich's future is also unclear.
19:51Their lawyer wants to bring their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
19:57We have been treated as if we are not many people.
20:00We have no right to be married.
20:02We have been removed from the system.
20:06When their son was just a few days old,
20:09they baptized him, hoping that one day he would find them.
20:13We did it on purpose. We needed to make a paper trail,
20:17so he could find back to us.
20:44Here's some more great content from the BBC World Service this week.
20:47We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.
20:55And it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about.
21:01After US special forces captured the president of Venezuela during airstrikes on its capital Caracas,
21:07AmeriCast has done a deep dive into how the US military were able to storm President Maduro's home
21:13and what kind of intelligence the CIA had.
21:16And as the people of Venezuela react to the capture of their president,
21:20the Global Story podcast asked what's next for the country.
21:25You can listen to AmeriCast and the Global Story on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
21:34Now to a commodity that's being smuggled into nearly every country in the world.
21:40Gangs have become involved in the illicit trade, while its illegal mining and extraction
21:46is having a devastating impact on the environment and local communities.
21:50It's now in short supply and it's something that may really surprise you.
21:56Here's more from the World Service's global journalism team.
22:05There are many billions of dollars worth of sand being dug up and sold illegally every year.
22:12It's cheap and easy to extract.
22:14It is a low-risk, high-reward business.
22:19So why is sand in such high demand?
22:24The modern world is made of it.
22:27Sand is in concrete, asphalt, glass and silicon.
22:31It even turns up in places you wouldn't expect.
22:35We use sand in cosmetics, in certain kinds of wine.
22:40We use sand in paint.
22:42We use sand to make elastics.
22:45Around 50 billion tons of sand and gravel are used every year.
22:49That's enough to cover the whole of Argentina in a layer one centimetre thick.
22:5590% of all the sand mined goes into the construction industry.
23:02China and India are the biggest consumers.
23:05All over the developing world, hundreds of millions of people
23:09are moving from the countryside into cities every year.
23:14So worldwide, we are building the equivalent of nine New York cities every single year.
23:23And not all of the world's sand can be used for construction.
23:30Desert sands eroded by wind are round.
23:33The best sand for concrete has jagged edges and comes from rivers.
23:39This shape helps it bind together, making it strong and durable.
23:45Sand is taken from riverbeds by hand or by dredgers.
23:48And more is being extracted than can naturally be replenished.
23:52Globally, the sand market is worth around $165 billion.
23:57But it's nearly impossible to know how much of that has been sourced illegally.
24:01The estimates range anywhere, you know, up into the tens of billions of dollars.
24:07We know for sure that there's illegal sand mining in dozens and dozens of countries.
24:11It happens in Western Europe and North America on a relatively small scale.
24:16And it happens in the developing world on like a millions of tonnes scale.
24:21Researchers estimate that in these countries, more than 50% of sand mining is illegal.
24:26But no organisation tracks sand, so there isn't international data.
24:31In the Gambia, a one-off Interpol operation targeting illegal activity found unprecedented levels of illicit sand mining.
24:39This is all dredged sand from the seaside, from mountains of sand.
24:46Illegal mining means sand is removed without proper authorisation or from prohibited areas.
24:52And once it's mixed with legal sand, it's almost impossible to tell the difference.
24:58It can be transported to a construction site and no one knows where it came from and nobody asks questions.
25:03It can be moved on a container ship and nobody knows where the source of it is.
25:10Ease of extraction, high demand for concrete and the fact that sand is legal to buy and sell mean that
25:17illegal mining continues with little opposition.
25:20And it's often at the local level where exploitation starts and where so-called sand mafias operate.
25:26It can be either a small villager who's taking sand from the beach to build his own house,
25:31right up to the point where people who have taken sand and realised how lucrative it is have risen and
25:38bombed networks and gangs.
25:41This is usually possible through bribery or intimidation.
25:45There is just major corruption of local and regional governments in sand mining
25:52because there's very little capacity to enforce prohibitions.
25:59Criminal activity, including sand mafias, are making headlines as illegal mining turns violent.
26:08Hundreds of people have been murdered over sand just in the last few years.
26:14And that's been, I mean, there's documented cases of this happening in Mexico, in Ghana, in Indonesia,
26:21in many, many countries around the world and especially in India.
26:25I was attacked in 2004 by sand miners and that's when it became more serious and more intense for me.
26:33Since then, Sumaira has been campaigning against illegal sand mining
26:37and highlighting the effect it's having in India and around the world.
26:41Well, if your houses are washed away, it impacts you immediately.
26:45Even without a catastrophe like a flood, you can see the effects because you can see the erosion on a
26:51daily basis.
26:54Over mining of rivers and beaches means there's a greater risk of landslides and flooding,
26:59while dredging has significant consequences for fragile ecosystems.
27:04When you do that, when you suck up the bottom of a river, obviously, whatever was living down there,
27:10whatever kind of fish and plant life were living on that riverbed, you've just annihilated their habitat, wiped it out.
27:17New technologies could help.
27:19More concrete than ever is being recycled and sand can be created artificially by crushing rocks.
27:25But manufacturing is expensive and both are energy intensive.
27:30And as long as extracting sand remains cheap and plentiful, cracking down on sand smuggling won't be easy.
27:38You need to have communities much more involved in monitoring illegal sand mining.
27:45You've got to be addressing the corruption.
27:47You need to raise awareness.
27:49And because nobody is paying adequate attention to it, it goes on and the devastation continues.
28:01Thank you for joining me here in Paris.
28:04We want your feedback on Global Eye, so let us know what you think on social media using the hashtag
28:09BBC Global Eye.
28:11We'll be back next week.
28:13Goodbye.
28:14Goodbye.
28:20Goodbye.
28:29Goodbye.
28:31Goodbye.
28:40Bye.
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