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20260920 200000 UTC
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[00:00:00] b but he has plans b and it's every week on France
[00:00:03] 24.
[00:00:07] 10 p.m. in Paris, you're watching the essential news on France 24, good evening everyone,
[00:00:10] the far right again at the head of a regional election in Germany, the AFD
[00:00:14] is given as the winner in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, German Chancellor
[00:00:17] Friedrich Schmerz acknowledges a disaster for his party
[00:00:21] the CDU which only comes in 3rd position, we will talk about it with
[00:00:25] our guest Elisa Gouden Steinman, professors of Germanic
[00:00:28] studies and... Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister
[00:00:31] Mark Carney in a one-on-one meeting in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, the two leaders
[00:00:36] several floors of a residential building in say they want to strengthen ties between their two countries, two independent
[00:00:38] nations that want to remain so they specified, a clear message
[00:00:42] addressed to Donald Trump. Finally,
[00:00:45] Vladimir Putin's party, United Russia wins the legislative elections
[00:00:49] without surprise, an election disrupted by numerous drone
[00:00:52] attacks from Ukraine, Moscow promises in response
[00:00:55] to intensify its strikes against
[00:00:57] Kyiv.
[00:01:12] So we start with the results of two regional elections in Germany, 2
[00:01:16] weeks after the victory of the far right in Saxony-Anhalt, the AFD is
[00:01:20] again given as the leader in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is
[00:01:24] also making strong progress in Berlin, a crushing defeat
[00:01:27] for the CDU of Chancellor Fredrik Schmer. who speaks of a
[00:01:31] catastrophe, Jules
[00:01:32] Boêteau.
[00:01:35] Surrounded by his supporters, Leif Éric Holm here in the center of
[00:01:39] the image in a blue suit, can finally
[00:01:41] exult.
[00:01:45] than 4 and a half years after the start of The candidate of the far-right AFD party wins the regional elections
[00:01:47] in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
[00:01:49] occidentale.
[00:01:52] It's a great evening for the AFD. We gained
[00:01:56] 20 points compared to the last elections.
[00:02:00] mandate to govern here
[00:02:02] energy source, all of that created in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
[00:02:05] govern this region of northeast Germany, if the AFD finds
[00:02:09] of Japanese pilots were ordered to allies to reach
[00:02:10] these Länder, these three Länder, a majority, because just behind are the Social Democrats of the
[00:02:14] SPD,
[00:02:16] against the West which far, very far from the CDU of Fredric Schmerz. At the announcement of the
[00:02:20] first results this Sunday evening, all eyes turned
[00:02:23] to the chancellery while a departure of the German leader in case of
[00:02:26] a debacle had been considered, but exceptionally.
[00:02:51] I personally take this responsibility because I want to move our
[00:02:54] country forward, a chancellor more weakened than ever but
[00:02:58] who remains in power. while in the other election of the day in
[00:03:01] Berlin, the CDU was also defeated by the radical left of
[00:03:05] Dilinke which could take the mayor's office from it in case of an alliance with other
[00:03:09] left-wing parties. An election also marked by
[00:03:13] the good score of the AFD which signs a good advance and
[00:03:16] its best historical result in the
[00:03:18] capital.
[00:03:21] And we are with Elisin Goudin, Steinman, good evening, you are
[00:03:25] professor of Germanic studies at Sorbonne Nouvelle University.
[00:03:28] To what extent is this... progression of the AFD at a regional
[00:03:32] level
[00:03:33] worrying?
[00:03:37] Well, it's worrying because it effectively weakens the government in Berlin, it's
[00:03:41] rare for regional elections to be so commented on even at an international
[00:03:44] level, but here, obviously, this progression
[00:03:48] of the far right has as a consequence
[00:03:51] that the Länder become difficult to govern
[00:03:55] and then and then well it's a party that's progressing but it's also
[00:03:59] the parties that are regressing and especially the CDU, the
[00:04:03] fact that the chancellor uses the word disaster and so on, that he
[00:04:06] tries to cut short rumors of replacement, that
[00:04:09] shows the national dimension
[00:04:12] of these two elections that took place today.
[00:04:16] To understand clearly at this stage, whether in
[00:04:20] Saxony-Anhalt or in Mecklenburg, the AfD certainly came out on top,
[00:04:24] but for now, it is by no means certain that it will take the
[00:04:27] reins of these Länder, is it? Exactly, the only place where she really has a chance to govern is in Saxanright,
[00:04:31] exactement, le seul endroit où elle a vraiment une chance de gouverner, c'est en
[00:04:35] in fact because there she was still quite close to
[00:04:38] the, she was not at an absolute majority but she was not very far, she
[00:04:44] from the problems and is only missing three seats and it may be, as it is a secret vote hein, that some
[00:04:47] elected officials from other parties from the CDU or the
[00:04:51] Arawagen Knight alliance vote in secret
[00:04:54] for the FD so she
[00:04:57] speech. He told could eventually govern, but even there it's not sure and in the other two...
[00:05:00] lender it's almost excluded, she's the first
[00:05:02] party,
[00:05:05] but she won't govern, how do you explain the huge surprise,
[00:05:08] how do you explain the reaction of German Chancellor Fredric
[00:05:12] Schmerz? who acknowledges a disaster, a
[00:05:15] catastrophe for his party the CDU, but who
[00:05:18] remains in
[00:05:19] power.
[00:05:22] And Fredrich Mertz, he waited a very long time before becoming chancellor,
[00:05:26] it was his dream for several decades, he is very keen on power,
[00:05:29] I think he also has in mind the reforms he wants to carry out,
[00:05:33] so he will do everything to stay in power in my opinion, will
[00:05:37] he succeed, that's another question because
[00:05:40] he has an internal cohesion problem within the CDU
[00:05:44] uh and it's going to become more and more difficult, he has parties on the right wing of the
[00:05:48] des des des des people on the right wing of the CDU who would like to ally with
[00:05:51] the AFD, so break the cordon sanitaire with the AFD,
[00:05:55] others for whom it's absolutely excluded and that's the official party line today,
[00:05:59] so the internal cohesion of the Christian Democrats is really
[00:06:03] undermined and he's going to have a lot of trouble in the coming
[00:06:06] weeks to maintain all that and also his
[00:06:09] legitimacy is a bit hampered. because the CDU has a
[00:06:13] catastrophic score, so even if it's just one region, it's not all
[00:06:17] of Germany, it has a catastrophic score in
[00:06:20] Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, so there you go, that's still
[00:06:24] it, obviously that also affects his legitimacy, it's his
[00:06:27] party, there's also an anti-merz vote in there, you say
[00:06:31] that he wants to continue his reforms, but has he heard the
[00:06:35] message addressed by the voters who voted for
[00:06:38] the AFD, by the way, what is that message?
[00:06:43] Well, I don't know if we can call it a message, there are several messages for
[00:06:47] me, which are first of all, it has effectively a
[00:06:50] message against the government, therefore an
[00:06:53] dissatisfaction with the fact that life is becoming more expensive, salaries
[00:06:57] are not keeping up, uh it's really becoming, well,
[00:07:01] that's one of the consequences of the inflation
[00:07:04] that was very high in Germany following the rupture
[00:07:07] of, well, the fact that we refused Russian gas
[00:07:11] which was a cheap
[00:07:14] inflation, created economic difficulties, so there's an economic
[00:07:17] dissatisfaction, there's also in
[00:07:22] historical factors,
[00:07:25] I think there's a bit of a revenge
[00:07:28] created collective injustices at the time of German
[00:07:32] reunification, and so there's also this message of "we want to count, we want to
[00:07:36] take back control, take back the narrative about our history and we want, we don't
[00:07:40] want to blindly follow what we're told to do", I think there's also
[00:07:44] that dimension, uh, there you go, that's
[00:07:48] that's the messages that are, there's a lack of social recognition, there are injustices that
[00:07:51] continue to this day, and
[00:07:54] the AFD benefits from that, instrumentalizes that, I
[00:07:57] would also like to ask you to react to another victory, that of the left,
[00:08:00] called radical in Berlin, that too, is
[00:08:04] the victory of a populism,
[00:08:07] Well, that's
[00:08:10] nothing like it in my opinion, it's
[00:08:14] uh it's not a victory, well, the Dilink party has
[00:08:18] always been quite strong in
[00:08:21] Berlin and conversely the AFD is one of the places where it has difficulty
[00:08:25] establishing itself because Berlin is a very
[00:08:28] open, very cosmopolitan city,
[00:08:31] well, the sociology of Berlin also makes it more difficult for the
[00:08:34] AFD. Linke is a party
[00:08:38] well it's a party that has experienced turbulence recently
[00:08:41] uh notably a part of well it
[00:08:45] has a part detached from Linke to
[00:08:49] form the Arawagen alliance which itself is a populist party yes
[00:08:53] with also an anti-immigrant nationalist pro-Russian rhetoric but Linke we
[00:08:56] can't really say that about Linke, I
[00:09:00] wouldn't talk about left populism for Linke, it's a party to the
[00:09:04] left of the social democrats
[00:09:06] so a party well that wants to govern to the
[00:09:10] left. and that has just done very well, so
[00:09:14] the challenge now will be to see if they manage to ally with the
[00:09:17] social democrats and the greens to govern, that would
[00:09:20] mean that they would have a minister president from this
[00:09:24] left-wing Linke in Berlin. Thank you, thank
[00:09:28] you very much Elisa Goudin Steinm for this
[00:09:31] clarification, this image now of Emmanuel Macron in
[00:09:35] the company of Canadian Prime Minister Marc Carney, it's happening on
[00:09:38] the French archipelago of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Located off the coast of Canada, the two
[00:09:42] men say they want to strengthen ties between their two countries, especially on security and energy
[00:09:46] issues, let's listen to Emmanuel Macron.
[00:09:50] several approaches, but what we have mainly decided is
[00:09:54] that together we will, in close
[00:09:57] liaison with the community and
[00:10:00] its elected officials, ask our two
[00:10:02] governments to
[00:10:05] work
[00:10:07] towards a deep rapprochement between our two countries in terms of
[00:10:10] fishing, in terms of... security and common
[00:10:13] missions in terms of energy, in all
[00:10:16] areas where we can find an agenda that
[00:10:19] is positive for Canada
[00:10:22] and for France, that is relevant
[00:10:25] for Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and for your country.
[00:10:29] In Russia, Vladimir Putin's party, United Russia, was unsurprisingly declared the winner
[00:10:33] of the legislative elections held this weekend, an election marked by
[00:10:36] numerous Ukrainian drone attacks and cyberattacks.
[00:10:39] Axel Simon and Jules Boiteau.
[00:10:43] According to the mayor of Moscow, it is an unprecedented Ukrainian
[00:10:46] offensive. The Russian capital and its region have been targeted by
[00:10:50] several hundred Ukrainian drones, and if most have been
[00:10:53] intercepted. several escaped Russian anti-aircraft
[00:10:57] defenses and notably struck
[00:11:01] the capital or this oil refinery,
[00:11:04] other devices fell in this residential district of Sofino in the
[00:11:08] Moscow region, causing casualties and significant
[00:11:10] damage.
[00:11:14] I was coming out of my building, I had walked about twenty steps from the entrance when
[00:11:17] the explosion went off, the windows shattered, people started screaming,
[00:11:21] I turned around, the entrance doors had been blown away.
[00:11:55] aimed at disrupting the conduct of the election in the
[00:11:58] Kherson region in southern Ukraine controlled by
[00:12:01] Russia, a drone notably killed several people including an
[00:12:05] employee of the electoral commission. More
[00:12:10] the large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, in a
[00:12:13] context of repression of all forms of opposition, Vladimir
[00:12:17] Putin's party was unsurprisingly announced as the winner of the election
[00:12:21] on Sunday evening.
[00:12:25] It's now time for your flashback, back to
[00:12:28] 1945 when the Second World War was drawing to a close, thousands
[00:12:34] launch their planes at enemy warships, notably American ones,
[00:12:38] resulting in more than 10,000 people killed, pilots or
[00:12:41] sailors, our reporter Melody Sforza went to
[00:12:45] meet one of the last Japanese Kamikaze pilots still alive.
[00:12:48] At full speed, a Japanese
[00:13:09] plane rushes towards an American
[00:13:12] warship.
[00:13:15] Kamikaze, in Japanese, means divine
[00:13:19] wind, but for 80 years and for the whole world, the word
[00:13:22] remains associated with Japanese pilots. who crashed their
[00:13:26] planes into American ships, it was at
[00:13:29] the very end of the Second World War, a desperate
[00:13:32] strategy as American troops advanced and Japanese
[00:13:36] forces were exhausted, thousands of young pilots, averaging
[00:13:39] 21 years old, received the order to voluntarily launch
[00:13:43] their planes loaded with explosives onto warships and at
[00:13:47] sea the water is fortunately inexhaustible, the damaged
[00:13:50] but not destroyed ship will be able to return to a port where it will heal
[00:13:54] its burns. It is estimated that about 3800
[00:13:57] pilots thus gave their lives and that they managed to kill more than
[00:14:01] 7000 Allied sailors as well as sinking several dozen warships.
[00:14:05] The pilots were at the time elevated by Japanese
[00:14:08] propaganda to the rank of gods of war. More
[00:14:12] than 80 years later, the memory of the Kamikaze divides Japanese
[00:14:15] society. For some they remain heroes
[00:14:19] who died for their country. For others, they are above all the symbol of Japan's
[00:14:23] militaristic past. a return ticket to the memory of the
[00:14:27] kamikazes, this is a report by Alexie Bréger, Hayana
[00:14:30] Nishikawa and Melody
[00:14:32] Sforza.
[00:14:39] This path Kunitake Toriya knows by heart.
[00:14:42] On the eve of his 100th birthday,
[00:14:45] he walks it every morning to keep
[00:14:48] fit.
[00:14:49] He is. The old man is a
[00:14:54] former Kamikaze
[00:14:56] pilot.
[00:15:05] His life played out in a plane, a plane
[00:15:08] that by chance he never
[00:15:10] took.
[00:15:18] One day, the director of our training school gave a
[00:15:22] us: among the 500 students present. Only 10 to
[00:15:26] 20% would be truly useful, he repeated incessantly
[00:15:29] that we were material that is used and
[00:15:32] replaced. We were prepared for
[00:15:34] death.
[00:15:39] With his pilot's diploma in hand, Kinitake was sent to
[00:15:42] Manchuria, a territory in northeastern China
[00:15:45] occupied by the Japanese
[00:15:47] army. In the autumn of
[00:15:50] 1944, the imperial army was at its
[00:15:53] wits' end, nothing seemed to stop the advance of the
[00:15:57] allies. The archipelago then ordered suicide
[00:16:00] attacks against American ships,
[00:16:04] a show of honor to terrorize the enemy.
[00:16:10] an officer stood on a platform and
[00:16:12] said: those whose names will be
[00:16:14] called,
[00:16:21] my eyes, I saw that the legs of my comrades
[00:16:24] trembled,
[00:16:29] me too, for us, it was like the announcement of a
[00:16:32] condemnation.
[00:16:38] Kunitake watches his brothers in arms leave one after another,
[00:16:41] he waits with fear in his
[00:16:44] stomach, in the spring of
[00:16:47] 1945, he in turn receives his mission
[00:16:51] order and trains for months, diving
[00:16:54] at 1500 m with sometimes 100 kg
[00:16:58] of explosives on board his plane,
[00:17:01] but as his deployment approaches, Japan
[00:17:05] capitulates.
[00:17:11] We shouted banzai but not too loudly, out of respect for
[00:17:14] those who had left before us, no one
[00:17:17] wanted to die, 99% left by
[00:17:21] plane because it was an order, they had no
[00:17:24] other choice, we could not say
[00:17:27] no.
[00:17:28] at the end of the
[00:17:33] war,
[00:17:37] taken prisoner by the Soviets, he spends almost 2 years in
[00:17:40] captivity, on his return to Japan, he
[00:17:44] marries and starts a family, two children including his youngest
[00:17:47] son, with whom he lives
[00:17:49] today.
[00:17:55] In the Japanese archipelago, Kunitaki is one of the last Kamikaze
[00:17:59] pilots still alive, but he doesn't forget his comrades
[00:18:02] who fell in battle.
[00:18:04] Regularly, he comes to pay tribute to them in this museum.
[00:18:40] "If I could talk to them, I would tell them: "don't move,
[00:18:44] I'll join you soon", and they would undoubtedly
[00:18:48] reply: "Look how old
[00:18:50] you've gotten, you've become an old
[00:18:52] man",
[00:18:56] yes, because they died very
[00:18:58] young".
[00:19:07] Japanese lives were lost in these suicide attacks, killing
[00:19:11] 7,000 Allied sailors and destroying 50 American
[00:19:14] ships.
[00:19:18] before leaving, Kunitake greets an old friend, it was
[00:19:22] aboard this plane that he trained more than 80
[00:19:25] years ago, for a flight from which he should not have
[00:19:28] returned.
[00:19:35] I composed a poem.
[00:19:38] I came back to see you my love,
[00:19:41] even if you, the Type 97 fighter plane
[00:19:44] are nothing but a carcass.
[00:19:47] Every time I stand before you, my dear fighter
[00:19:50] plane, I instantly become a 20-year-old
[00:19:53] young
[00:19:54] man.
[00:20:01] museums dedicated to the history of the Kamikaze, there are
[00:20:05] 15 throughout the archipelago.
[00:20:09] Most are located in Kyushu, in southern Japan,
[00:20:13] the starting point for thousands of young soldiers for their last
[00:20:16] flight.
[00:20:20] Takeshi Kawatoko is a tour guide at the most important
[00:20:23] museum in the country built
[00:20:26] on the site of a former training center for Kamikaze
[00:20:28] pilots.
[00:20:40] Here, some rooms have been recreated identically,
[00:20:42] like this room where the young aviators
[00:20:46] slept.
[00:20:56] 17 years to my grandfather to my grandmother,
[00:21:00] I was very capricious, I caused you a lot of trouble,
[00:21:04] forgive me,
[00:21:06] this time, your grandson is sent to defeat the
[00:21:09] demons, if I come back, it will surely
[00:21:13] be with Roosevelt's head, I
[00:21:16] must go, please, good health.
[00:21:42] As a guide, it is my duty to best convey
[00:21:46] the facts concerning the soldiers, but also what they had in their hearts.
[00:21:51] the feelings that animated them,
[00:21:54] according to the letters, their priority was to perfectly accomplish their
[00:21:57] mission, to hit an enemy American
[00:22:00] ship and sink it, they had a strong determination to
[00:22:04] accomplish this
[00:22:05] duty,
[00:22:08] yet these letters only tell a part of the story, none
[00:22:12] mention the fear of death or the refusal to leave, the
[00:22:16] pilots knew they would be re-read because from 1944.
[00:22:20] the imperial army censored their writings, propaganda was
[00:22:24] omnipresent, the kamikazes were elevated to war
[00:22:27] heroes, the supreme symbol of the warrior ready to die for
[00:22:30] the emperor.
[00:22:34] so that this episode of Japanese history is never forgotten, the museum
[00:22:38] regularly hosts middle school classes, like
[00:22:41] today.
[00:22:58] the fact that the Kamikaze pilots lost their lives when they were almost the
[00:23:02] same age as us moved me deeply.
[00:23:05] We have deeply engraved in our hearts how precious peace
[00:23:08] is. We commit ourselves not to keep this
[00:23:12] teaching to ourselves and to transmit it to future
[00:23:15] generations.
[00:23:51] the idea of giving one's life for others, for society or for the country was
[00:23:55] much stronger.
[00:23:55] I understood with what
[00:23:59] ready to risk their lives to the end, that determination,
[00:24:04] made me realize once again the horror of
[00:24:08] war.
[00:24:09] I never want to find myself in the same
[00:24:13] situation,
[00:24:14] so that never happens, I want
[00:24:17] to participate in the creation of peace in the
[00:24:21] world.
[00:24:28] after the war, the United States imposed a pacifist
[00:24:32] constitution on Japan. Little
[00:24:34] by little, military commemorations were neglected in a country
[00:24:38] that struggled to confront the violence committed by its army in
[00:24:42] Asia.
[00:24:48] But today.
[00:24:58] Hello, I'm glad to
[00:25:01] see
[00:25:06] you, number 1, it must be placed here at the
[00:25:09] temple,
[00:25:13] I think,
[00:25:17] prepares the 75th ceremony of tribute to the kamikaze. which will take place in a few
[00:25:21] days, she is the granddaughter of a
[00:25:24] vice-admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy, one of
[00:25:28] the officers who sent these young men on suicide
[00:25:31] missions.
[00:25:35] Sonoi dedicated her life to honoring their memory as if to
[00:25:39] atone for her grandfather's mistakes.
[00:25:42] She remembers the first time she discovered the story of the Kamikaze
[00:25:45] pilots. It was in a sanctuary in Tokyo, there
[00:25:49] are photos and dolls dressed as
[00:25:52] brides,
[00:25:56] I remember, I was very impressed by
[00:25:58] her,
[00:26:01] my father told me, These are the mothers of the Kamikaze
[00:26:04] pilots who created these dolls dressed as brides for their
[00:26:07] sons who were going to die,
[00:26:11] all the feelings of these mothers are
[00:26:13] inside,
[00:26:16] hearing that, even as a child,
[00:26:19] I started to
[00:26:20] cry.
[00:26:30] The following week, we meet again.
[00:27:03] and left with the goal of sacrificing their lives,
[00:27:06] that's why it's very important for me to honor
[00:27:09] them.
[00:27:15] 81 years later, tensions are reviving in
[00:27:18] Asia and to defend peace, Sonoi believes that
[00:27:22] the remilitarization of Japan is
[00:27:24] inevitable.
[00:27:27] If society is divided on the question, Kunitaki, our
[00:27:31] former Kamikaze, does not understand this
[00:27:34] rearmament,
[00:27:39] with his son, they like to discuss sports and politics, the topic of the
[00:27:43] day, the increase in Japan's military
[00:27:45] budget,
[00:27:53] with my father, we often wonder if it's worth spending so much
[00:27:56] money on the armed forces,
[00:27:59] increasing the defense budget essentially assumes
[00:28:03] that a war is conceivable, even if it's not about directly
[00:28:07] attacking a country, but simply strengthening our military
[00:28:10] capabilities to protect ourselves, it is still
[00:28:13] linked to
[00:28:15] war.
[00:28:21] the former Kamikaze is worried to see history repeat itself: more
[00:28:24] than 80 years after the war, Japan
[00:28:27] increased its military budget by 65% in just
[00:28:31] 5 years. a record since
[00:28:33] 1945,
[00:28:36] the country that had made pacifism the cornerstone of its
[00:28:39] reconstruction seems today to turn its back on this heritage.
[00:30:07] 10:30 p.m. in Paris, back to the essentials, we continue with
[00:30:10] the news of this Sunday: in Yemen, the tools report
[00:30:13] 28 Saudi strikes carried out against areas they control, they
[00:30:17] come the day after the attack they themselves carried out against
[00:30:20] Riyadh, civilians are caught in the fighting,
[00:30:23] listen to these testimonies from displaced people in Yemen, they are
[00:30:26] among the 11,000 people who have been forced to flee the
[00:30:30] war.
[00:30:38] We hope that God will put the country back on the right path, that normal life will return to us and
[00:30:42] that we will be able to return home safely and reassured, away
[00:30:46] aggression, far from the difficulties we are currently
[00:30:49] experiencing.
[00:30:53] We are exhausted by the planes bombing us day and night,
[00:30:57] and we have not had a moment of respite but that...