Refractory Gauls, or the French politics thread

[mongers]

Missed it. Alphonse Daudet's Les Lettres de mon moulin?
Could have been worse.

I don't live close to the Arc de Triomphe anymore and I had family visiting so I was busy as the local scout.

PS: local scout advice
During the high season, avoid Orlybus when going to Paris from Orly airport.

Yeah, I thought you'd have liked being part of it.

[Sheilbh]

Couple of odd/striking remarks from the French right recently.

First I saw that Sarko has said that Le Pen's RN have "proved" their republican values - i.e. they're no longer beyond the pale/far-right. Following that there'd be no need for a republican front to defeat them in the second round because they are republican now.

Secondly Gerald Darmanin, Macron's Interior Minister who likes to pose as more hard-line than Le Pen (who he has accused of being "soft on Islam"), has now said Le Pen is "pretty likely" to win the 2027 election.

My understanding is that they are allies and Darmanin is one of the possible candidates for Macron's centre bloc - so this may be just some pretty outrageous positioning from them. I think almost as a threat - if Le Pen is now a sufficiently republican candidate the right don't have to hold their nose and vote for a candidate they don't like, so you'd better nominate an authoritarian right-winger who doesn't like Muslims rather than some centrist, liberal or, God forbid, any of the surviving centre left Macron supporters and, by the way, have you met M. Darmanin.

The other side is similar but I wonder if they're laying the groundwork for the right of Macron's movement to rally to Le Pen in the event that the first round ends with a Melenchon-Le Pen run-off? I think there's been some polling recently that indicates that may be a possibility.

But the other side of this is that from what I understand Darmanin is pretty unpopular. That actually he is probably the candidate from Macron's bloc that is most likely to cause a Melenchon-Le Pen run-off because a lot of Macron's liberal, centrist and remaining centre left supporters hate him, kind of understandably given the way he's positioned himself. It feels like they're playing with fire with this sort of positioning to undermine more popular alternatives like Edouard Philippe and maybe inadvertently setting up a heads she wins, tails you lose situation....which is concerning.

Again just not convinced it was a great idea to blow up the established party system around a non-ideologically defined, personality based political project

[Duque de Bragança]

Darmanin has no chance in hell to be elected since he is really unpopular.

[Duque de Bragança]

In related news, but I'm sure one of resident Frenchman will deal with it more extensively in the French politics thread (assuming we have one): apparently Nupes just imploded be melenchon likes Hamas too much

Surprise, surprise, Mélenchon's islamo-leftists, most of LFI but for Ruffin, refuse to condemn clearly Hamas, so the communists, socialists and greens are more than tempted to found a new alliance.
Not to mention that Mélenchon has authoritarian tendencies and the frontal opposition to Jupiter does not give results.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20231018-french-left-wing-alliance-on-brink-of-collapse-over-middle-east-conflict-row

French left-wing alliance on brink of collapse over Middle East conflict
France's left-wing alliance against President Emmanuel Macron and his supporters was close to breakup Wednesday, with tensions erupting over responses to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


The Socialist Party (PS) – a heavyweight party of government just a few years ago but now a rump of its former self – voted overnight to "suspend" participation in the NUPES alliance with hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), Greens and Communists.

Its board accused LFI of "constantly stoking conflict" within the alliance, after former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon and his leadership circle refused to call Hamas's bloody October 7 assault on Israel a "terrorist" attack.

The largest left-wing party in France's 577-seat parliament, with 74 MPs, LFI's hard-charging style of total opposition to Macron and sometimes controversial stunts and remarks has often left its allies grinding their teeth.

Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure "is breaking up NUPES" over "a personal issue with me about Israel (and) Palestine," Melenchon wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday morning in a message that later appeared to have been deleted.

Faure had earlier told Socialist leaders that Melenchon "had been a unifying force, but today he has become an obstacle", calling for "radical change in the way we think about uniting" the left.

Yannick Jadot, former Greens presidential candidate, said that "we have to suspend our ties with LFI so long as they haven't strongly clarified their basic values".

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Tuesday LFI lawmaker Daniele Obono should face a criminal investigation on suspicion of justifying terrorism after she described Hamas as a "resistance" movement.


NUPES was formed last year after Macron failed to secure a majority in parliament despite being re-elected to the presidency.

But tensions quickly became apparent, including over an admission of domestic violence by a close Melenchon supporter, strategy to oppose the government's widely-resented pension reforms, the war in Ukraine and this summer's riots.

The Communist Party already had one foot out of the door, voting a resolution Sunday that said NUPES was at an "impasse" and calling for a "new type of union" on the left.

Some voices within the PS and Greens have sought to keep the alliance alive, echoing arguments from LFI that the left has little chance of success if it does not stand together.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Any news about the butchery in crépol?

[viper37]

This is from Le Monde

This is from La Dépêche

There was a bal for the local rubgy team.  Toward the end of the night, a group of youth outsiders who weren't invited came to participate.  The guard tried to stop them but he was attacked with a knife.  Then 20 people came from the dance and defended him.  There was a fight, the guard had his fingers sliced, one of the kids was stabbed and died, others were injured.

The ultra right wing medias are reporting this as a premeditated attack by North Africans to kill whites.

The suspect in the killing has been arrested, as per the articles I've read.

It's impossible to know about the motives until the police has completed their investigation.  The current suspect denies being the one who stabbed the kid to death.  Obviously, even if he did, unless it was a terrorist attack, he would be unlikely to claim responsibility for the murder.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

thanks. reading through it.
Quite mindblowing

[Duque de Bragança]

The French hinterland used to be pretty peaceful, at least compared to the big cities. I still remember when trouble about "youths" was said to be a mostly PLM thing (Paris Lyon Marseille).

For some reason, the first names of the suspects were not given ; they are given generally.
It's a dead giveaway, most of the time.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

The French hinterland used to be pretty peaceful, at least compared to the big cities. I still remember when trouble about "youths" was said to be a mostly PLM thing (Paris Lyon Marseille).

For some reason, the first names of the suspects were not given ; they are given generally.
It's a dead giveaway, most of the time.

Causeur declassified the names I heard. All Swedes apparently

[Duque de Bragança]

The French hinterland used to be pretty peaceful, at least compared to the big cities. I still remember when trouble about "youths" was said to be a mostly PLM thing (Paris Lyon Marseille).

For some reason, the first names of the suspects were not given ; they are given generally.
It's a dead giveaway, most of the time.

Causeur declassified the names I heard. All Swedes apparently

Why am I not surprised? Main suspect is Chaïd A. and showed up on other media already. Showing full names of minors is not permitted but first names and initials for the last name is.

Did not know the "All Swedes apparently" thing was used in Belgium as well, or is it just the Walloons? 

PS: So Darmanin, the interior minister, vetoed giving the names of the suspects or is the Parquet of Valence? RN is high enough now, no need to describe Marine as getting soft anymore.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

The Flemish use it too.
It's what you get if the press and politicians assume the populace at large is made up of 'deplorables', and have stopped living in the real world.
It's been 30 years but our left-leaning intelligentsia is stil trying to figure out why the traditional voters of the left left the left and now vote right.

[Josquius]

Hilarious to see the way this story is being framed here vs. elsewhere.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20231128-the-far-right-drummed-up-a-militia-french-extremists-seize-on-teen-s-murder-to-stoke-violence

[Duque de Bragança]

"here vs elsewhere"?

Franced 24 is an official French news channel.

[Josquius]

"here vs elsewhere"?

Franced 24 is an official French news channel.

That's an example. It echoes the usual reporting elsewhere.

[Duque de Bragança]

"here vs elsewhere"?

Franced 24 is an official French news channel.

That's an example. It echoes the usual reporting elsewhere.

Depends where elsewhere...