 Niger saw a coup last week and it seems like a critical moment as anti-France and anti-imperialist movements in the country and the region have welcomed this development. But will France and its allies try to intervene? The land of the free and the home of the brave recently welcomed a descendant of Italy's fascists. What is the emerging political dynamic between the government of Joe Biden and Georgia Malone? We will be taking a look at these stories in today's episode of DDD Brief. But before we start, do hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Niger's military junta which took power in a coup last week has warned that France is seeking to militarily intervene in the country. France has apparently got authorization from the foreign minister of the deposed government. The junta claimed on Monday. Now the situation in the West African country remains in a flux as the junta, which is called the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland has consolidated its hold. Its takeover also seems quite popular. Thousands gathered in the capital on Sunday, many of whom raised slogans against France. A section even attacked the French embassy. For those following the region, this anti-French sentiment is nothing surprising. We go to Kambale Musawili for the details. Kambale, thank you so much for joining us. Quite dramatic developments over the past few days. On Sunday, we saw there are huge thousands mobilizing in the capital of Niger, raising anti-French slogans. In fact, I believe there was also an attack on the French embassy. And I think the developments in Niger seem to kind of mirror what has been happening in many other parts of the region as well. So could you take us through, first of all, what's, from the reports you have been getting, what's happening in the country right now, specifically the positions the military junta is taking and what has been the kind of response? All of us were surprised to hear. I wouldn't say all fully surprised for the region, but surprised for Niger that there was a coup on July 26. The presidential guards detained the president of Niger-Bazou. He was declared the winner of the election in 2021 and has been leading the country since. There have been tensions that we could get into it as we discussed. The coup leader who rose from that coup is General Abdul Rahman Chani. And he decided to close the border. So right after the coup was done to the country on the first day, there were a few people, support of the president, Bazoum, they came out to ask for him to be released. They were dispersed. There were really small number of people. Usually they were mostly party members of the East Party, which is a party Nigerian for democracy and the socialism. But after that, people in vast majority have vacated today daily tasks, daily routine. But on July 30th, thousands came out in the streets in support of the coup. A few things that were noticeable in this rally. People were clearly saying, France must leave. No France, they gush. There were also a few people who were carrying the Russian flag, which was quite interesting. And we've seen that across Africa in a few countries when they had Israelis. What does that actually mean? People are speaking, expressing the need of a multipolar world by seeing Russia as another pole that Africans can work with. So that's at least the expression of the sentiment of the Nigerian people. But last, there was a protest in front of the French embassy. They destroyed, I guess, glasses and the facade of the building. The second in command of the army came out, Salif Moudi. He came out to speak to the population, to tell them that they could go back. There is no need to destroy that. But clearly the sentiment of the people as they look at the coup, beyond what the leaders have said, is that it's an expression of a position where Niger is breaking ties with France. But no, they are joining this new non-alignment movement on the African continent, especially in West Africa, where countries colonized by France are breaking the ties. In the case of Mali, where now French is no longer the official language in the country and French army was kicked out. In something in Burkina Faso, the French were asked to leave the country. And as they left, surprisingly, the French soldiers ended up in Niger. And now we have over 8,500 according to the French military personnel in Niger. It's not to see what is going to happen to them, but it's predictable that they will be asked to leave and that Niger will try to take a posture that is not aligned to France. Right. Interestingly, the responses have been quite predictable. We have the Ecovas, the body of West African countries being very strong in its condemnation. The European Union has sided with the Ecovas. France and the US also have pretty much endorsed their stance. There has been even some talk of military intervention if necessary. So how do you see these responses and how credible are these, for lack of better words, threats? I think on the part of France, follow very closely the statement that came out from Emmanuel Macron. He's clearly stating that France will do everything in their power to protect the citizen and French interests. And we know what is French interest in Niger. French interest in Niger is directly a river. The French mining company that's extracting uranium. France needs the uranium of the Sahel, needs the uranium of Niger to light up the bulb, the light bulb in the country. The electricity of France is run by uranium from the region. So I'm really worried about the position of France based on the internal issues inside of Niger. The other one that's quite interesting, right, and leaving us a bit perplexed is the position of Ecovas, the regional body in West Africa. Ecoas has given the cool platter, the cool leaders, seven days to bring back Bazoum, bring back constitutional order, so-called democracy. And they say that they will not tolerate another coup. I think Ecoas leaders are not in tune with what is happening in the region. We had Mali, we had Burkina Faso, we had Guinea, and there will be more coups in the region happening. And this is an expression, particularly in the Francophone Africa, of African people saying that they refuse to be under the tutelage of Western power. They refuse to be under the tutelage of France. They do not want France to control their currency. They do not want France to control their mineral resources. And this has been ongoing for over a decade, where progressive organizations and people have mobilized the people of Africa, particularly in West Africa, around French imperialism in the region. And people today, from the young child, four or five-year-old, to the adults in the 80s, they are clear and they are all saying the same word. You go to Senegal, you hear France de Gage. You go to Mali, you hear France de Gage. You go to Burkina Faso, same thing. And then you end up in Niger. People are also saying France de Gage. That simply means France must leave the region. But more importantly, France must leave the African continent because they are exploiting our resources. They are controlling currencies of some of the Francophone African countries and Africans are not benefiting. So when ECOS leaders are saying that they're giving the cool leaders seven days, they're not in tune with the aspirations of African people. They're not in tune with the aspirations of Nigerian people. The Nigerian people in the street demonstrated what they want. They carried the Russian flag. They say France de Gage. Is ECOS saying France de Gage? Is ECOS saying France must leave the region? If they are not saying that, they are not in tune with that. The second one that they are not in tune is the level of corruption that has been unfolding in the region. People may say that there was a peaceful, the first peaceful transfer of power in 2021. That's what the Western media is saying that happened in 2021. When you speak to everyone in Niger who was following the situation in the country, they will let you know that the election was real. That opposition leaders were sidelined. That the new president, which is Mohammed Bazoum, was the former minister of foreign affairs, handpicked by the former president of Niger. So people already have seen him a lack of leadership first, but also it does not have the aspiration of the people. There have been other issues such as his Bazoum's criticism to the military where he said to the military they are not adequate to bring down the jihadists in the region. So if the president of the country does not have confidence in the military, what would you expect the military to do? So this school is an expression of that. But my worry with ECOWAS is that each ECOWAS countries should look into what is happening in their own countries. We have challenges in Togo. We have challenges in Ghana. We have challenges in Nigeria. A military intervention for ECOWAS is going to be a disaster because the people of Niger are in support of the decisions of the coup l'ordres. And some of the decisions they have made was to tackle corruption, to actually start going after the ministers and anyone who was in the government who embezzled money. So these populist actions directly from the population is something that the population is in support. ECOWAS should not follow the position of the United States of France. ECOWAS should listen to the people of Niger for a resolution to the crisis. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Kambale, for explaining that. And I think pointing out a very central fact that this is not a process in one country. This is a process across the region. And I think a lot of our analysis and coverage that we read often completely misses that point and just puts it in very simplistic terms. So thank you so much for explaining that. Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Miloni has been in the thick of controversy ever since taking power and even before. She has taken a harsh line on immigration, slashed welfare policies and her government has initiated a crackdown on journalists in civil society. And of course, she and her party have mainstreamed far-right wing and fascist ideas. But there has been one element of continuity from the previous government, her support of the war in Ukraine. Maybe that's why she was so warmly greeted during her recent trip to the U.S. President Joe Biden, who never tires of attacking Donald Trump and his right wing policies, had very warm words for the Italian Prime Minister. If you're confused, it's not surprising. And for some clarity, we go to Morigio Coppola of the Italian Left Party, Porto del Popolo. Morigio, thank you so much for joining us. Now, the U.S. establishment always, you know, very eager to talk about, you know, condemn far-right movements when it comes to their own country. But a very warm meeting between Biden and Giorgio Miloni on a few days ago when she visited the United States. So considering all the, all these discussions, why has Italy become such a valuable ally for the United States at this point? Well, thank you very much for inviting me. I think Italy is trying to, like, take the leadership inside of the European Union. The situation in Germany where the far-right is increasing, is putting under pressure the social democrats and the Green Alliance and governments. The situation in France, for example, where Macron is under pressure and there is a huge polarization in the society with very strong far-right and also a left progressive left increasing. There is like a space opening. And so Italy becomes like, wants to occupy this space that is opened by the crisis internally in Europe. And of course, there is also a geopolitical question because Italy, inside of the Mediterranean area, is a key player. And the United States know it exactly. And they know it since a long time because Italy is still the ground of over 120 military bases from NATO and the US. Right. So in context, of course, I think two or three things are important. One is that Italy has, you know, despite all this talk about the far-right being less supportive of the war, the current government has been very much in the center, you know, very much pro the Ukraine war, pro the Western position on that. So could you also maybe tell us a bit about what positions the Giorgio Malone government has taken on that issue? Well, since the very first moment of the war of the invasion of Russia, already Mario Draghi, the former Prime Minister, took a very strong position in supporting NATO and supporting the US in this war. When Giorgio Malone was elected, she made a continuation of that position. And it is clear that Italy is having a key role in delivering arms. Italy is like one of the main countries delivering arms and weapons to Ukraine. But also, as I said before, the position in the Mediterranean area where Italy has like the military bases that are used since the first days of the war for like having like some monitoring of the area, both all from Sicily of Sigonella. And third, Italy is having also a key role in the reconstruction of Ukraine. As you know, there was in the last weeks a meeting in London, the second reconstruction meeting with the Ukrainian government, corporations and European governments. And Italy wants to capture new investment possibilities inside of Ukraine. So Italy is having like this role of trying to, I mean, they find alliances of course, also with Germany and other countries, but it is like the vanguard of like this kind of trying to perpetuating the war because they know exactly war is producing a social situation for which they can also like politically then win and stabilize their rule. Right. Of course, important to note and I think we talked about this before also happening at a time when Italy is also in some senses taking leadership of Europe when it comes to the Mediterranean refugee crisis as well. And you know, very much in the forefront of this right wing agenda there. Yeah, exactly. And it is not a case that at the same time when Giorgio Malone was in the US discussing and making agreements with Joe Biden, that there was also like what happened in Niger. So already a couple of weeks before there was the agreement between the European Union and Syed, the president of Tunisia, the agreement that is foreseeing that 250 million of euros are given to the Tunisian state in a deep crisis. We know also that there is like an agreement between the Tunisian state government and the IMF. They are working on that, but they are Tunisia is in a deep crisis and Europe and the both Italy as also like the geographical situation of Italy in the Mediterranean area. They are pushing pressure to block, to have like to externalize the borders of Europe. So Tunisia is a key moment, but also Niger, why Niger? Because there was like this, what happened in the last days. It's very important, Italy rapidly expressed itself, condemning like this what happened in the military, protecting like the current president that is like a president in favor of Europe, because Italy has a key role they developed in March, April, 2033, the so-called Piano Mattei. It's a plan to how position itself again in Africa, in the African continent for Italy. And so it foresees like that Italy will be a key country for all the energy supply coming from the African continent above all from Algeria, but not only Algeria, but also Libya and so on. Italy wants to play a key role in externalizing the borders of Europe, inside of Niger of course, but also Libya, Turkey and so on. They are like the key countries from where the refugees are coming. And then there is also all the question of the fight against jihadism and the Niger situation now. It's like provoking a lot of headache inside of the European governments. When Mauritius is interested, because I believe at various points, Georgia Maloney has made speeches where she seems to be criticizing the role of France, for instance, in many of these countries, but then turns it around to say that we should make it in such a way that people from Africa don't come to Europe. So actually the criticism of French imperialism is just a way of saying that we should not have more refugees in this context. So how does Italy see itself as kind of being central to the politics of energies and also trying to sort of push out France in this process? Yeah, of course. I think there is never like we sometimes we think that the bourgeoisie has a logic if everything it's like linear, but we see this is a very concrete case which like the different bourgeois interests are also like colliding with each other. And I think Italy, already in Libya, there was this huge topic about like how France plays the game to stabilize the interest of total in Libya against the interest of any Italian oil producer. And today we have the same question with Algeria, but also with Niger. So there is like a key role that the Italian government is playing to protect the interests of the energy companies of the Italian energy companies. And for that, of course, this is also like colliding this interest. They are attacking France for what they did and what they are doing in Niger. But I think that at the end, what Italy really wants is just to stabilize the profits of the energy companies. There is no alternative point of view from Italy. There is not giving back sovereignty to these countries and so on and so on. It's really, I think in that there is a common point with France also. They want just to block migrants to keep poor the people there and to extract all the profits they came from the territories of the African continent. And I think it's because of that that we need also to in a way try to bring together the movements protesting against this. And I just want to underline that last week when the agreement between the European Union and the Tunisian government was done, a common agreement between Poteirat Popolo Power to the People and the Tunisian Workers' Party was produced and was distributed into the media because it is important that we show that there is a common struggle and the common interests of the working classes in the different continents. We have to strengthen this common unitary process against imperialism. Mariju, thank you so much for that analysis. I think a lot of this is often missed when we cover diplomatic visits, some of the internal dynamics. Thank you so much for talking to us. Thank you. And that's all we have time for in today's episode. So we've taken a look at the coup and the political situation in Niger and also thought about why the United States has no issues associating with the far-right government of Georgia-Malone. We'll be delving into many more such topics in future episodes of Daily Debrief. Keep watching and don't forget to hit that subscribe button.