Acclaimed
Serbian actor, director, and musician Emir Kusturica told RT that
France’s Yellow Vest movement is a “consequence of the
corporate world taking over,” and a natural “reaction from
the people.”
France’s
Yellow Vest protests, which began as a reaction to a fuel tax hike
and evolved into a broad national rejection of the centrist,
pro-corporate policies of President Emmanuel Macron, have rocked the
country for nine weeks, as over a thousand protesters have been
detained and Macron’s popularity plummets.
Kusturica,
whose work has tackled themes of political corruption and conflict,
told RT: “Yellow Vests is the consequence of the corporate world
taking over and leaving France with the capital.”
“French
people are the most comfortable people in the world and they are
starting to lose their privileges,” he added, and the loss of
that privilege has driven them to cynicism and riots.
“It’s
a consequence of the 90s,” Kusturica continued, “when the
corporate world exporting factories to the cheap labor countries,
which now is getting the reaction from the people.”
The
veteran filmmaker and musician also turned his attention to his home
country, and its relationship with Russia.
“I
share with President Putin the idea of an independent, neutral Serbia
that has to stay however neutral as possible,” he said. Still,
Kusturica pointed out that the right of Serbs in Republika Srpska –
one of the two entities that makes up Bosnia and Herzegovina – to
forge closer ties with Russia must be respected.
Putin’s
visit to Belgrade was a short one, but during the one-day trip, the
Russian leader was met with an honor guard by the Serbian military,
paid respects to Soviet soldiers who died liberating Belgrade from
Nazi occupation in 1944, met Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic for
official talks, and visited the Orthodox Church of St. Sava.
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