Refractory Gauls, or the French politics thread

[Barrister]

Obviously you might get the Montreal experience (I hope not) but I don't think the mood a month or two before means anything.

Montreal is having to spend a billion dollars to repair the roof to Olympic Stadium - because supposedly tearing it down would cost even more.

And that's for a building with no permanent tenant - and they're not renovating the entire building - just the roof.

[Sheilbh]

Asbestos?

[Barrister]

Asbestos?

Something about it using pre-stressed concrete, plus a metro-line (and hotel) built alongside.

Asbestos wouldn't surprise me either.

[Josquius]

Obviously you might get the Montreal experience (I hope not) but I don't think the mood a month or two before means anything.

Montreal is having to spend a billion dollars to repair the roof to Olympic Stadium - because supposedly tearing it down would cost even more.

And that's for a building with no permanent tenant - and they're not renovating the entire building - just the roof.

Further reasons to support the Paris Olympics really.
Really appreciate the way they're building stuff they actually need. Contrast to say the Qatar world Cup or Beijing winter Olympics.
Sadly it doesn't look like Paris has started a trend.

[Sheilbh]

How do we know if it's started a trend if it hasn't even happened yet?

[Josquius]

How do we know if it's started a trend if it hasn't even happened yet?

We know the hosts of most of the big sporting events for the next decade.
They are :not sensible.

Edit -actually checking up the Olympics seem OKish. It's just the world cup failing.

[Sheilbh]

Not sure the World Cup is even really failing there either - the main issue with weird multi-country/federation/continent hosts. But US, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and Morocco all seem relatively sensible to me (and probably the only way, say, Canada, Portugal or Morocco will host a World Cup - so I sympathise on that level with the multi-country just not sure it needs to apply two in a row).

Fair on Saudi - I think it should be in a bigger country.

[Barrister]

How do we know if it's started a trend if it hasn't even happened yet?

We know the hosts of most of the big sporting events for the next decade.
They are :not sensible.

Edit -actually checking up the Olympics seem OKish. It's just the world cup failing.

USA/Mexico/Canada and Spain/Portugal/Morocco all seem sensible.

Ah - 2034 - Saudi Arabia.

[Josquius]

How do we know if it's started a trend if it hasn't even happened yet?

We know the hosts of most of the big sporting events for the next decade.
They are :not sensible.

Edit -actually checking up the Olympics seem OKish. It's just the world cup failing.

USA/Mexico/Canada and Spain/Portugal/Morocco all seem sensible.

Ah - 2034 - Saudi Arabia.

Spain/portugal/morocco/Uruguay/Argrntina*

[Sheilbh]

Don't have an issue with any of them hosting games. It's the multi-continent angle that I object to, not the countries.

[Sheilbh]

Looks like the left are possibly going to form a popular front - and the forces of the right are also in talks to form a coalition. Feels like there's fewer options for Macron's party, as I'm not sure the LR would want to row in behind him.

Wonder if this could end up being a foretaste of Europe's nightmare: Le Pen v someone like Melenchon.

[Duque de Bragança]

Fair - if you get the bug, you can always go along the route to the marathon or any of the other road races - I did that a couple of times in 2012.

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't thought about it, not being really interested in marathon and other road races. Might make an exception though having swimmers in the Seine intrigues me.  Was there any race on the Thames? 

Didn't realise they were popularly loathed and regretted

Loathed may be too much of a word, but some regrets about costly and wasteful infrastructure still linger on.

[Grey Fox]

Asbestos?

Something about it using pre-stressed concrete, plus a metro-line (and hotel) built alongside.

Asbestos wouldn't surprise me either.

Concrete really. The big O is made almost entirely of concrete, even HVAC tunnels are made out of it and it's dieing. Everything holding the roof needs to be replaced.

[Sheilbh]

Leader of LR, Eric Ciotti, calling for an alliance with RN. Obviously this is being roundly condemned by Macron's party but I imagine will also be contentious within the LR.

If it goes ahead though it looks like it'll be a popular front alliance including the PS and the hard-left, a right wing alliance including the far-right and the traditionally mainstream right - which are both likely to squeeze out Macron's party.

That left alliance also fought the last legislatives so it's less new, but if the LR ally with the RN that's quite a taboo they're breaking. It may not be these people but I think it is very possible that 2027 ends up with something like Le Pen v Melenchon in the second round.

Edit: I suppose the big point is that the cordon sanitaire or the concept of a republican front (v Le Pen) is over. Can't help but feel the snap election was a mistake because it was possibly easier to breach those taboos in the context of parliamentary elections than presidential? As I say I think this is a trend across Europe of the firewall on the right starting to fall away.

But the possibility of, in 2027, having Presidents Trump and Le Pen feels a bit more likely

[Duque de Bragança]

L'Union des Droites !  Le retour du serpent de mer. 
Pasqua's dream at last! 

Well, Les Républicains (LR), Ciotti's party, seems sharply divided with barons demanding his resignation. Interestingly, the youth wing agrees with Ciotti.

As for the front républicain, given the PS has no qualms allying with islamo-leftists at worst, catch-all leftists at best, alongside with less problematic Greens and communists (remnants really), it has been dead for a while.

PS: Ciotti still thinking of Montenegro (PSD centre-right) in Portugal, refusing to ally with a "light" populist party, compared to the RN, so no majority and – barely – losing the Europeans elections to a corrupt PS but then

It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning.

as Dom would say (reference for Viper  ).