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Two months after French President Emmanuel Macron won reelection, his second term is now threatened with gridlock and a possible political crisis after his centrist party lost its ruling majority in the lower house of the National Assembly Sunday. Legislative vote saw a surging far left and far right — and near-record abstention.

France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne acknowledged the message from Sunday’s vote that gave the centrist Ensemble or Together coalition the largest number of seats in the lower house—but stripped it of a ruling majority. She called the situation unprecedented and vowed to cobble a working majority.

Meanwhile, the far left and far right were celebrating. Leader Jean-Luc Melenchon of the new left-wing NUPES coalition, which placed second in the voting, called the results an electoral defeat for President Emmanuel Macron.

However, his alliance didn’t do as well as he’d hoped — earning only 131 of the 577 legislative seats, compared to 245 for Macron’s centrists.

In many ways, the biggest win went to the far-right National Rally party, which scooped up 89 seats, an historic high. Leader Marine Le Pen noted that effectively makes hers the biggest opposition party, as Melenchon’s NUPES is an alliance of four different leftist parties.

What’s clear is the results present a major challenge to Macron’s second-term ambitions, which include passing major fiscal and retirement reforms. In the near term, it may also force him to concentrate less on foreign policy goals — including helping to end the war in Ukraine — as he looks for a way to govern effectively at home.

Political analyst Jean Petaux outlines several political scenarios for Macron moving forward — from hoping the NUPES coalition will divide and weaken, to seeking alliances with the center-right Les Republicains and other parties on a case-by-case basis. And possibly even orchestrating a political crisis that would allow the President to call for new legislative elections next year, hoping they might produce more favorable results. All suggest a complicated political path ahead.

Petaux believes Prime Minister Borne will likely keep her job.

But the NUPES vow to bring a no-confidence motion against her up for vote in early July. More immediately, three of Macron’s ministers lost their legislative bids. Under his rules, that means they must resign.
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The tooth of assassinated Patrice Lumumba, Congo’s first democratically elected leader, is scheduled to be handed over to his family Monday.

The Belgium government will hand over the tooth to Lumumba’s family in an official ceremony in Brussels.

Lumumba elected as Congo’s first democratically elected prime minister in 1960 and was hugely popular with his countrymen and largely unpopular with European and American powers.

The Congo had been a Belgium colony.

At his inauguration ceremony in 1960, Lumumba spoke in graphic detail about the atrocities the Congolese people had suffered under their Belgium colonizer, angering Belgian King Baudouin who was present.

Lumumba was in office for less than a year when Col Joseph Mobutu seized power in a coup.  

Shortly after the coup, the young prime minister faced a firing squad. Belgian police officer Gerard Soete and his brother took charge of the grizzly details of dismembering and dissolving Lumumba’s body, according to Belgian writer Ludo De Witte, the author of the book “The Assassination of Lumumba.”

Decades later, in 1999, Soete came forward and acknowledged that he had Lumumba’s gold crowned tooth.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “we should expect greater hostile activity from Russia” this week as European Union leaders consider whether to support candidate status for Ukraine in the EU.

“And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We are warning partners,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday.

The European Commission recommended last week that Ukraine receive candidate status. The 27 member states will discuss the issue and give their votes during a summit Thursday and Friday. If Ukraine does advance to candidate status, the process for joining the EU in full could take several years.

Zelenskyy said, “fierce fighting continues in Donbas,” the eastern region of Ukraine that has been the focus of Russian efforts in recent months.

Leaders implore West for support

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Sunday that Russia’s war in Ukraine could be long-lasting, but said Western allies should not curb their support for Kyiv’s forces.

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” Stoltenberg told the German weekly Bild am Sonntag. “We must not let up in supporting Ukraine, even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday with an offer of training for Ukrainian forces, also warned against the risk of “Ukraine fatigue” as the war grinds on toward the four-month mark in the coming days.

In an opinion piece in London’s Sunday Times, Johnson said this meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader.”

Zelenskyy said he had visited forces in the southern Mykolaiv region, about 550 kilometers south of Kyiv.

“Their mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,” he said in a video Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train. “We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back” from the Russians.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces had destroyed parts of the Mykolaiv and Odesa regions.

“The losses are significant,” he said. “Many houses have been destroyed; civilian logistics have been disrupted.”

Battles continue in east

While Russia failed early in the war to topple Zelenskyy’s government and capture the capital, Kyiv, intense fighting rages in the eastern part of the country, centering on the embattled industrial city of Sievierodonetsk in Luhansk province, which is part of the broader Donbas region that Russia is trying to control.

Shelling continues, but Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai told Ukraine television, “All Russian claims that they control the town are a lie. They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town.” But he said the battles made evacuations from the city impossible.

Haidai said that in Sievierodonetsk’s twin city of Lysychansk, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed. “People are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters,” he said.

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces have taken control of Metolkine, just southeast of Sievierodonetsk, with Russian state news agency TASS claiming that many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered there. Ukraine’s military acknowledged that Russia had “partial success” in the area.

Analysts at a Washington-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said in a note that “Russian forces will likely be able to seize Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area.”

Some information from this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to lose parliamentary majority, according to the first estimates of returns from Sunday’s legislative elections.

The returns showed Macron’s centrists appeared set to remain the biggest party in the National Assembly, or lower house, but with the far-left NUPES coalition scoring strongly as the biggest opposition bloc. Initial results also found the far right scoring historically high.

Earlier in the day, voters in the tossup Paris suburb of Neuilly Plaisance trickled out of city hall, shopping carts in tow. After casting their ballots, their next stops were the bakery and Sunday market to finish their errands.

Gregory, an electrician, had voted for the NUPES coalition. He said Macron was breaking everything the country had worked for regarding social and environmental issues.

NUPES was hoping for an upset victory that would force Macron to pick its leader, far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon, as prime minister.

Michelle, another Neuilly Plaisance voter, said she believed that scenario would be a disaster. Certainly not the NUPES, she said. If they win, France will be in a mess.

Retiree Raymond offered a similar reaction. He said he doubted the feasibility of programs pushed by the leftist coalition. “Where’s the money to pay for them?” he asked.

Macron won a second term against his far-right rival Marine Le Pen just two months ago. But the abstention rate was high, and many French are underwhelmed by their president. Some criticized Macron for not campaigning enough for this crucial parliamentary vote, where this time his main rival was the far left.

These elections for the powerful National Assembly will be critical in determining whether Macron can push through fiscal and retirement reforms that mark his second-term agenda. The NUPES coalition has vowed to block them and enact tougher environmental policies.

Like the April presidential elections, these legislative elections have also been marked by high voter abstention.
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Firefighters in Spain and Germany struggled to contain wildfires on Sunday amid an unusual heat wave in Western Europe for this time of year.

The worst damage in Spain has been in the northwest province of Zamora where over 25,000 hectares (61,000 acres) have been consumed, regional authorities said, while German officials said that residents of three villages near Berlin were ordered to leave their homes because of an approaching wildfire Sunday.

Spanish authorities said that after three days of high temperatures, high winds and low humidity, some respite came with dropping temperatures Sunday morning. That allowed for about 650 firefighters supported by water-dumping aircraft to establish a perimeter around the fire that started in Zamora’s Sierra de la Culebra. Authorities warned there was still danger that an unfavorable shift in weather could revive the blaze that caused the evacuation of 18 villages.

Spain has been on alert for an outbreak of intense wildfires as the country swelters under record temperatures at many points in the country for June. Experts link the abnormally hot period for Europe to climate change. Thermometers have risen above 40 C (104 F) in many Spanish cities throughout the week — temperatures usually expected in August.

A lack of rainfall this year combined with gusting winds have produced the conditions for the fires.

Authorities said that gusting winds of up 70 kph (43 mph) that changed course erratically, combined with temperatures near 40 C, made it very tough for crews.

“The fire was able to cross a reservoir some 500 meters wide and reach the other side, to give you an idea of the difficulties we faced,” Juan Suárez-Quiñones, an official for Castilla y León region, told Spanish state television TVE.

The fire in Zamora was started by a strike from an electrical storm on Wednesday, authorities said. The spreading fire caused the high-speed train service from Madrid to Spain’s northwest to be cut on Saturday. It was reestablished on Sunday morning.

Military firefighting units have been deployed in Zamora, Navarra and Lleida.

There have been no reports of lives lost, but the flames reached the outskirts of some villages both in Zamora and in Navarra. Videos shot by passengers in cars showed flames licking the sides of roads. In other villages, residents looked on in despair as black plumes rose from nearby hills.

In central-north Navarra, authorities have evacuated some 15 small villages as a precaution, as the high temperatures in the area are not expected to drop until Wednesday.

They also asked farmers to stop using heavy machinery that could unintentionally spark a fire.

“The situation remains delicate. We have various active fires due to the extremely high temperatures and high winds,” Navarra regional vice-president Javier Remírez told TVE.

Remírez said that some villages had seen some buildings damaged on their outskirts.

Some wild animals had to be evacuated from an animal park in Navarra and taken to a bull ring for safe keeping, authorities said.

Wildfires were also active in three parts of northeast Catalonia: in Lleida, in Tarragona and in a nature park in Garaf, just south of Barcelona.

Firefighters said that 2,700 hectares (6,600 acres) were scorched in Lleida. They added that they have responded to over 200 different wildfires just in Catalonia over the past week.

In Germany, strong winds have been fanning the blaze about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Berlin, prompting officials to declare an emergency Saturday.

Villagers in Frohnsdorf, Tiefenbrunnen and Klausdorf were told to immediately seek shelter at a community center in the nearby town of Treuenbrietzen.

“This is not a drill,” town officials tweeted.

Germany has seen numerous wildfires in recent days following a period of intense heat and little rain.

The country’s national weather agency said the mercury topped 38 C (100.4 F) at some measuring station in the east Sunday.

Thunderstorms were forecast to bring cooler weather in from the west from the evening onward.
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Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Sunday a new British law to change part of a Brexit deal to try to ease trade with Northern Ireland was “unilateralism of the worst kind” and urged the government to resume talks.

The European Commission launched two new legal proceedings against Britain this month after London published plans to override some post-Brexit rules in the so-called Northern Ireland protocol which governs trade with the British province.

London has proposed scrapping some checks on goods from the rest of the United Kingdom arriving in Northern Ireland and challenged the role of the European Court of Justice to decide on parts of the post-Brexit deal agreed by the EU and Britain.

The new legislation has yet to be passed by parliament, a process which could take some time.

“It’s not acceptable, it represents unilateralism of the worst kind,” Martin told the BBC.

“We accept fully there are legitimate issues around the operation of the protocol and we believe with serious sustained negotiations between the European Union and United Kingdom government, those issues could be resolved.”

He said the legislation, which London says is needed to restore a power-sharing administration in Northern Ireland, would damage the province’s economy by introducing a dual regulatory regime that could increase costs to business.

“If this bill is enacted, I think we’re in a very serious situation,” he said. “What now needs to happen is really substantive negotiations between the British government and the European Union.”
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More than 100 migrants were rescued early Sunday off the island of Mykonos in the Aegean Sea and four are missing, the Greek coastguard said.

Port police responded to a distress call sending three boats and a tug boat to help the stricken vessel which had come from Turkey, the coastguard told AFP.

It said 108 people were saved and four were missing.

The total number on board is unconfirmed due to contradictory information from those rescued, it added.

Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi had earlier tweeted that eight migrants were missing and 104 had been rescued.

He also called for Turkey to do a better job in order to protect human lives and eradicate smuggling networks.

In May, Greek authorities said they had prevented around 600 migrants from crossing the Aegean Sea into its territorial waters from neighboring Turkey in one day, in the largest attempted entry this year.

A migration ministry source had said migration flows to the Greek islands in the first four months of 2022 were nearly 30 percent higher than in the same period last year.
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Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, couples there continue to get married. For many, the war itself prompted them to officially tie the knot – especially military couples. At least one jewelry store provides military couples with free wedding bands; wedding ceremonies are often held online, at times, literally from the front lines. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story.
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Fine Italian knitwear packed in boxes addressed to retailers in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kursk sit stacked in a Lombardy warehouse awaiting dispatch. Although not subject to sanctions to punish Russia for invading Ukraine, the garments are not likely to ship any time soon.

Missing payments from the Russian retailers who ordered the garments are piling up due to restrictions tied to the banking sector, putting pressure on small fashion producers like D. Exterior, a high-end knitwear company with 50 workers in the northern city of Brescia.

“This is very painful. I have 2 million euros worth of merchandise in the warehouse, and if they cannot pay for it, I will be on my knees,” said D. Exterior owner Nadia Zanola, surveying the warehouse for the brand she founded in 1997 from the knitwear company created by her parents in 1952.

Italy is the largest producer of global luxury goods in the world, making 40% of high-end apparel, footwear and accessories. While Russia generates just about 3% of Italian luxury’s 97 billion euros ($101 billion) in annual revenue, it is a significant slice of business for some of the 80,000 small and medium companies that make up the backbone of Italian fashion, according to industry officials.

“We are talking about eliminating 80% to 100% of revenues for these companies,’’ said Fabio Pietrella, president of the Confartigianato fashion craftsman federation.

Districts producing footwear in the Marche and Veneto regions, and knitwear makers in Umbria and Emilia-Romagna have grown particularly reliant on Russia.

“These are districts that connect the supply chain, and if it is interrupted, not only is the company that closes harmed, but an entire system that help make this country an economic powerhouse,’’ Pietrella said.

The Italian fashion world is best known for luxury houses like Gucci, Versace and Armani, which unveil their menswear collections in Milan this week. And some of the biggest names appear on a list compiled by Yale University professor Jeffrey Sonnenberg of major companies doing business in Russia since the war in Ukraine began.

“There are companies that kept selling to Nazi Germany after the outbreak of World War II — we don’t celebrate them for that,” Sonnenberg said, labeling as “greedy” any enterprise that continues to do business in Russia today.

He also underlined that fashion companies don’t have the grounds to make humanitarian appeals to bypass sanctions, voluntary or otherwise, as has been the case with agricultural firms and pharmaceutical companies.

Among those receiving a failing grade from Sonnenberg is Italy’s Benetton, which in a statement condemned the war but said it would continue its commercial activities in Russia, including longstanding commercial and logistic partnerships and a network of stores that sustain 600 families.

French conglomerate LVMH, meanwhile, has temporarily closed 124 stores in Russia, while continuing to pay its 3,500 employees in Russia. The Spanish group Inditex, which owns the fast-fashion chain Zara, also temporarily closed 502 stores in Russia as well as its online sales, accounting for 8.5% of group pre-tax earnings.

Pietrella fears a sort of Russia-phobia is taking hold that is demonizing business owners for trying to keep up ties with a longer-term vision.

He characterized as a “witch-hunt” criticism of some 40 shoe producers from the Marche region on Italy’s Adriatic coast for traveling to Russia for a trade fair during the war.

European Union sanctions against Russia sharpened after the Ukraine invasion, setting a 300-euro wholesale maximum for each item shipped, taking super-luxury items out of circulation but still targeting the upper-middle class or wealthy Russians.

“Without a doubt, we as the fashion federation have expressed our extreme concern over the aggression in Ukraine,’’ Pietrella said. “From an ethical point of view, it is out of discussion. But we have to think of our companies. Ethics are one thing. The market is another. Workers in a company are paid by the market, not by ethics.”

He said the 300-euro limit on sales was a gambit by European politicians that on paper allows trade with Russia despite accompanying bureaucratic and financial hurdles, while also shielding governments from having to provide bailout funds to the industry. He also dismissed as overly facile government suggestions to find alternative markets to Russia.

“If there was another market, we would be there already,’’ Pietrella said.

At D. Exterior, exposure to Russia grew gradually over the years to now represent 35% to 40% of revenue that hit 22 million euros before the pandemic, a stream that is also under new pressure from higher energy and raw material costs.

The company was already delivering its summer collection and taking orders for winter when Russia invaded on Feb. 24. By March, Russian retailers were having trouble making payments.

Not only is Zanola stuck with some 4,000 spring and summer garments that she has little hope of shipping to Russian clients, she said she was contractually required to keep producing the winter orders, risking 100,000 euros in labor and materials costs if those are unable to ship.

Over the years, her Russian clients have proven to be ideal customers, Zanola said. Not only do they pay on time, but they are appreciative of the workmanship in D. Exterior’s knitwear creations.

After working so hard to build up her Russian customer base, she is loathe to give it up and doesn’t see a quick long-term replacement.

“If Russia were Putin, I wouldn’t go there. But since Russia is not only Putin, one hopes that the poor Russians manage to raise themselves up,” she said.
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Czech Senate Leader Milos Vystrcil was little known to the world until he led a Czech parliamentary and business delegation to Taiwan in autumn 2020, defying threats of severe retaliation from Beijing. And that is just how his late father would have preferred it.

“He would always insist that we live a normal, average life, not too visible,” Vystrcil told VOA during a visit to Washington last week.

Vystrcil was born in the town of Telc in 1960, 12 years after the Soviet-backed local communist party took control of what was then the Czechoslovak Republic. In order for him and his sister to lead as normal a life as possible, “my father created this sort of bubble,” Vystrcil recalled. “To me, it wasn’t right.”

Not until he was about 15 did his father tell him their family was on the wrong side of the communist revolution because Vystrcil’s grandfather had established a factory that produced agricultural machinery and fire extinguishers. Consequently, theirs was a family of “exploiters” and was closely watched by the nation’s new guardians of supposed equality and egalitarianism.

“My father was afraid all his life that somebody would come and ban us from doing things or they would actually force us to relocate to somewhere else,” he said.

Vystrcil’s father became so pessimistic about life that “he didn’t even want to get married at one point because he knew that his children would have a very difficult life,” he recounted through an interpreter. “My father was afraid that his children would suffer just by being his children.”

On Nov. 17, 1989, everything changed. Or almost everything.

That day marked the beginning of a series of mostly peaceful demonstrations known as the “Velvet Revolution,” culminating 11 days later when the Communist Party announced it was ceding power.

A father’s fear

The 29-year-old Vystrcil started out on a new path — a path his father watched with considerable unease.

“I remember writing an article after 1989. My father read it and he came to me and said: ‘Why are you doing this? What will they say now?’”

The younger Vystrcil forged on and rose from a high school teacher to principal to mayor of the city of Telc, where the family had resided for generations. He went on to become governor of the region.

By the time his father died at age 92 in 2017, Vystrcil had been elected as a federal senator; three years later, he became leader of the Senate.

It was in that capacity that he led a delegation to Taipei in 2020, showing his nation’s support for another victim of communist intimidation, and later invited Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu to Prague, prompting fierce Chinese threats of retaliation.

But, Vystrcil said in an interview with The Diplomat during his Washington visit, he personally did not feel added pressure from Beijing upon conclusion of the trip, partly because “the entire democratic world had actually stood up for us and stood up behind our mission to Taiwan once we were threatened by the People’s Republic of China.”

“On the other hand, this certainly does not mean that the Chinese have forgotten or will not do anything,” he added.

In the same interview, he stated that being able to “keep our backs straight” and not yield to pressure is a politician’s inherent duty to help build a “strong and proud nation” capable of withstanding challenges.

Asked by VOA whether his father ever overcame his anxiety as he watched his son’s political ascent, Vystrcil shook his head. “To answer your question, I’m afraid he did not manage to let go of his fear, even to the end of his life, he was not able to do it.”

Vystrcil said his father “was always afraid, because [he would say] ‘the more you go up the ladder, the stronger your enemies are, you’re more visible.’ He would always warn me: ‘Be careful.’” Vystrcil’s eyes grew wet as he recalled his father’s warning, and love. But he did not allow himself to dwell on it.

“Now that we have discussed this here together, that’s probably one of the reasons that convinced me that ‘never again’ — we mustn’t ever let it happen again,” he said of his nation’s period of one-party rule.
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Lithuanian authorities said a ban on the transit through their territory to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad of goods that are subject to EU sanctions was to take effect Saturday.

News of the ban came Friday, through a video posted by the region’s governor Anton Alikhanov.

The EU sanctions list notably includes coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology, and Alikhanov said the ban would cover around 50% of the items that Kaliningrad imports.

Its immediate start was confirmed by the cargo arm of Lithuania’s state railways service in a letter to clients following “clarification” from the European Commission on the mechanism for applying the sanctions.

Urging citizens not to resort to panic buying, Alikhanov said two vessels were already ferrying goods between Kaliningrad and Saint Petersburg, and seven more would be in service by the end of the year.

“Our ferries will handle all the cargo,” he said Saturday.

A spokesperson for Lithuania’s rail service confirmed the contents of the letter but declined to comment further. The foreign ministry did not reply to a request from Reuters for comment.

Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomenas told public broadcaster his institution was waiting for “clarification from the European Commission on applying European sanctions to Kaliningrad cargo transit.”

Sandwiched between EU and NATO members Poland and Lithuania, Kaliningrad receives supplies from Russia via rail and gas pipelines through Lithuania.

Home to the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Sea fleet, it was captured from Nazi Germany by the Red Army in April 1945 and ceded to the Soviet Union after World War II.
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Thousands of supporters of North Macedonia’s main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE gathered Saturday evening in the center of the capital Skopje to pressure the leftist government to call an election two years before the end of its term. 

Center-right VMRO-DPMNE accused the ruling Social Democrat-led government of miring North Macedonia in corruption, devastating the economy and letting public health and education systems deteriorate. It organized Saturday’s protest rally under the slogan “It is too much! Protest for change.” 

“The government is the reason for all our misfortunes and national disappointments. This is a voice against injustice and poor living conditions. There must be a change,” opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski told the gathering. 

Annual inflation in the small Balkan country of about 1.8 million increased for the ninth straight month in May to reach a 14-year high of 11.9%, up from 10.5% in April. With average monthly wages around 480 euros, trade unions are pressing the government for at least a 10% raise, arguing that current earnings cannot cover basic needs. Food and energy prices have risen 30% to 50% since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in February. 

The ruling Social Democrats responded that they oppose early polls and accused VMRO-DPMNE and its leader of protesting solely for “personal and party interests.” 

“Instead of being constructive and cooperative, Mickoski abuses every important process in an attempt to gain a small political profit,” the ruling party said in a statement. 

Mickoski said the government is incapable of stopping the daily rise of the cost of living and dealing with deep corruption. 

The opposition leader also warned the government that his party “will not accept any humiliating agreement that is detrimental to our national interests.” He was referring to a possible deal with Bulgaria that could unblock North Macedonia’s bid to join the European Union. 

Bulgaria has vetoed consideration of North Macedonia’s EU membership bid, asking for a reference to a Bulgarian minority to be included in its constitution, a formal acknowledgment that the Macedonian language has Bulgarian roots and to stamp out allegedly anti-Bulgarian rhetoric. North Macedonia says its identity and language are not open to discussion and that the solution must be based on European values. 

The protest ended peacefully. 
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Thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday in a protest over the soaring cost of living in Britain.

Huge crowds flooded into the British capital for the rally to demand that the government do more to help people faced with bills and other expenses that are rising more quickly than their wages. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticized for being slow to respond to the cost-of-living crisis. Inflation in Britain and across Europe has been surging, as Russia’s war in Ukraine crimped supplies of energy and food staples like wheat. Prices were already rising before the war, as the global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in strong consumer demand. 

Demonstrators carried banners with messages such as “Cut war not welfare.” They booed when they passed by 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s residence, according to videos posted on social media. 

Ben Robinson, who works for a housing charity in south London’s Brixton neighborhood, said the government doesn’t realize how bad things are going to be for the poor. 

“We’ve got residents who are coming into our offices who are choosing between feeding their own kids, not themselves, their own kids, and paying rent and heating,” he said. “That is just not a choice that anyone should have to face, you know, in the fourth biggest economy in the world.” 

The TUC, an umbrella organization for labor unions that organized the protest, said its research suggests workers have effectively lost a total of almost 20,000 pounds ($24,450) since 2008 because pay hasn’t kept pace with inflation. 

Johnson’s government is facing heavy pressure to do more to help Britons struggling with soaring fuel and food prices and domestic energy bills. In one example of the crunch for household finances, a data firm said the average cost of filling up a typical family car exceeds 100 pounds ($125). 
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