Yesterday’s edition of ‘Highlights’ on Press TV, Iran focused on the ongoing political and street fighting in France over President Emmanuel Macron’s use of article 49.3 in the French constitution to pass a highly contested law reforming the pension age without putting it to a vote in the lower house of the legislature.

My fellow panelist, Moustafa Praori, an academic and political commentator in Paris, provided a succinct explanation of how the presidential system functions in France and why, at the end of the day, most likely everyone will go back to their jobs without there being any big changes in political life. He went on to opine what a pity it was that French voters ignored alternative candidates to Macron on the Left in the last election. Had they chosen candidate Jean-Luc Mélanchon instead of Macron, they would have been spared the present conflict.

I am delighted that our…