France General Discussion IV: Yellow Fever

[Geoffrey Howe]

Wasn’t she just easily re-elected at the RN Congress?

[NewYorkExpress]

Wasn’t she just easily re-elected at the RN Congress?

She was. The situation's similar to how the Republican Party in the United States keeps lurching to the right. Any attempt to bring it back towards the center gets someone attacked as a traitor.

[NewYorkExpress]

The French Senate blocks efforts to place the fight against Climate Change in the French Constitution.

French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Tuesday an initiative to enshrine the fight against climate change in the constitution was at an end, after parliament's upper house voted to block a constitutional referendumon the issue.

[Geoffrey Howe]

I don't know all the details, but I can't say I'm too displeased. I strongly dislike enshrining this sort of thing constitutionally, and I dislike referendums too. Why can't you do your climate policy by normal legislation? All I can think of is collisions with the courts (and subsequent denigrarion of the judiciary disgruntled politicians probably). Not particularly surprising the Sénat was against; the right dominantes and the Senators are chosen by mayors etc. so it has a rural bias.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

https://www.economist.com/europe/2021/07/10/emmanuel-macron-surreptitious-socialist
An economist article that makes the case that despite Macron's Right-wing cultural shift in pracitical policy he has governed from the left expanding the welfare state as well as making progressive legal reforms and backing international aid efforts.

Macronian handouts have proliferated: €300 ($354) for 18-year-olds to spend on “culture”; an extra €150 for those on benefits; up to €650 a month more for health workers; university meals capped at €1; free breakfasts at schools in deprived areas; free sanitary products for female students; an extra €100 a month for retired low-income farmers—a proposal, incidentally, from none other than the Communists. “We’re catapulting billions” of public money all over the place, declared Adrien Quatennens, a hard-left deputy, as if unable to decide whether to applaud or disapprove.

Less noticed is a growing corpus of progressive rights and rules Mr Macron has also introduced: a doubling of guaranteed paternity leave to four weeks as of this month, with one week compulsory; fines for firms that fail to close the gender pay gap; the right for gay women to free fertility treatment, a historic first for France.


 

[CumbrianLefty]

Economist thinks that almost anything other than simon-pure neoliberalism is "leftish" tho.

[Zinneke]

https://twitter.com/TBrochot/status/1414686470326063105?s=20

Macron has announced that you will basically be restricted to being a hermit without a vaccine pass and that has triggered a total hysteria in certain areas. Rivasi, a former candidate for the EELV ticket, even likened it to apartheid.

Honestly respect to him taking a decision that will cause him a lot more grief that he expected. There is serious, organised, anti-vaxx lobby in France for historical reasons, not least because there is a lack of trust in institutions.

[NewYorkExpress]

The French are taking to the streets against the health passes.

Residents in France are taking to the streets to protest the country’s new COVID-19 health pass, which requires that people show proof of vaccination, a recent negative test or that they are recovering from the virus before entering public facilities.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced the new health pass earlier this week, which will be required to enter restaurants, shopping malls or hospitals, and board trains or planes.

Macron also mandated that all health care workers in France must be fully vaccinated by Sept. 15 or they will be suspended without pay.


The precautions were announced as the more transmissible delta variant continues to spread around the world.

The new restrictions, according to Reuters, are more extreme than other European nations', which has sparked ire among French residents.

Some say Macron is encroaching on freedoms and discriminating against individuals who do not wish to get inoculated, according to Reuters.

Groups of protesters, who demonstrated on Bastille Day, reportedly flipped garbage cans and set a mechanical digger on fire, which led to police deploying tear gas.

[NewYorkExpress]

Starting in 2022, France will ban the killing of male chicks by crushing or gassing.

France will ban from next year the killing of male chicks by crushing or gassing, a practice denounced as barbaric by animal welfare groups, and will push for a similar measure at European level, the agriculture minister said on Sunday.

Each year, 50 million male chicks are culled in this way, Julien Denormandie said in an interview posted on the website of daily Le Parisien. Only females, future egg-laying hens, are kept alive.

[NewYorkExpress]

French Anti-Vaccine protesters are comparing themselves to Jews in Nazi Germany and Blacks in Apartheid South Africa.

French anti-coronavirus vaccine protesters who compared themselves to Jews in Nazi Germany have received widespread condemnation from across the country.

As The Associated Press reported on Monday, more than 100,000 demonstrators marched around France on Saturday, some wearing yellow stars similar to the ones Nazis forced Jews to wear. Others carried signs referring to the Auschwitz death camp and the South African apartheid regime.

[Geoffrey Howe]

I am currently in Toulouse. There is an anti vaccine march and it has turned nasty; there are riot police, tear gas (horrid) and hundreds of police vans from the neighbouring départements.

[(no subject)]

Unpopular opinion= Vichy was the legal government of France at least on paper

[Zinneke]

Unpopular opinion= Vichy was the legal government of France at least on paper

[NewYorkExpress]

Someone in Toulon put up a poster depicting Macron as Hitler in response to the health passes.

French President Emmanuel Macron has spent the past few weeks fighting back against critics of his tough coronavirus measures.

Now one of them is facing legal trouble over a billboard depicting him as Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

The poster protest was part of a broader backlash against Macron as he seeks to make rules stringent aimed at curbing infections.

His policies have helped drive a boom in sign-ups for vaccination appointments, but also stoked fierce opposition among a minority who see them as an attack on cherished national freedoms.


The poster, which appeared in the southern French port city of Toulon, depicted Macron in uniform as the Nazi leader complete with the trademark mustache. The swastika armband was altered to read LREM — La République En Marche — Macron’s governing political party.

An accompanying slogan read: “Obey. Get vaccinated

https://twitter.com/MichelFlori/status/1418954477617491974

[Zinneke]

[NewYorkExpress]

Macron is being accused of pandering to the far-right in regards to refugees from the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.

Emmanuel Macron has been accused of pandering to the far right after he said France should have a robust plan to “anticipate and protect itself from a wave of migrants” from Afghanistan.

In a televised address, the French president said Europe must help those most threatened by the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and that “dealing with those fleeing the Taliban would need an organised and fair international effort”. “Europe alone cannot assume the consequences of the current situation,” he said.

The statement, which came hours after desperate Afghans trying to flee the country were filmed clinging to the wheels of a plane and falling to the ground, led to criticism the president was pandering to far-right voters in preparation for next year’s presidential election, in which he is expected to seek a second term in office.

Needless to say responses from several different sides of the political spectrum have not been kind to Macron.

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1427338994233262081
https://twitter.com/najatvb/status/1427400128332242946

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

Macron is being accused of pandering to the far-right in regards to refugees from the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.

Emmanuel Macron has been accused of pandering to the far right after he said France should have a robust plan to “anticipate and protect itself from a wave of migrants” from Afghanistan.

In a televised address, the French president said Europe must help those most threatened by the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and that “dealing with those fleeing the Taliban would need an organised and fair international effort”. “Europe alone cannot assume the consequences of the current situation,” he said.

The statement, which came hours after desperate Afghans trying to flee the country were filmed clinging to the wheels of a plane and falling to the ground, led to criticism the president was pandering to far-right voters in preparation for next year’s presidential election, in which he is expected to seek a second term in office.

Needless to say responses from several different sides of the political spectrum have not been kind to Macron.

Then basically every European leader is "pandering to the far right".

https://www.ft.com/content/de3b86cb-3a97-4181-9304-229d3ebc5bd5
Europe sees risks in large numbers of Afghan refugees
EU officials scarred by 2015 Syrian crisis say mass intake of migrants ‘not a solution’

However, when it comes to the risk of a large wave of Afghan migrants, Europe remains scarred by the memory of the Syrian refugee crisis and the bloc’s message is different.

As Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, put it on Tuesday: “We need to ensure that the political situation created in Afghanistan by the return of the Taliban does not lead to a large scale migratory movement towards Europe.”

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said on Monday that he had spoken to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, about “an initiative to develop without delay a robust, co-ordinated and united response” in Europe to counter illegal migration.

Armin Laschet, the Christian Democrats’ candidate to become Germany’s next chancellor, was more direct. “We should not send the signal that Germany can take in everyone in need,” he said on the same day of the Afghanistan situation.

Greece is also clear it does not want to see a mass wave of migrants. Migration minister Notis Mitarach said last week, before Taliban forces took Kabul, that “the EU is not ready and does not have the capacity to handle another major migration crisis”.

Merkel has said Germany intends to fly 10,000 people out of Afghanistan, and Spain has offered to act as a temporary hub, hosting around 400 Afghans that helped EU member states. But beyond that, most pledges have been left vague.

“We have begun to outline what will be the fundamental lines of co-operation at a European level,” Mario Draghi, the Italian prime minister, said late on Tuesday.

Even the UK, which has promised to take in 20,000 Afghan refugees, has said it will only take 5,000 refugees this year — prompting critics to ask about what would happen to the other 15,000 people in the meantime.

On Wednesday, Johansson crystallised the current state of EU thinking after a meeting with interior ministers.

“We should not wait until people arrive at the external borders of the European Union. This is not a solution,” she said, adding that the EU needed to work closely with transit countries and “step up our support as the situation evolves.”

Everyone's Trump today. Even Pr.  Biden.

Two U.S. officials told Reuters that Biden was concerned about the political impact of large number of Afghan refugees flowing into the United States and preferred they be sent to third countries.

[NewYorkExpress]

Macron vows that French troops will remain in Iraq even if the U.S withdraws.

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan overshadowed a summit in Baghdad on Saturday grouping key regional leaders as well as French President Emmanuel Macron who vowed his country would stand firm in Iraq.

The meeting comes as Iraq, long a casualty of jihadist militancy, tries to establish itself as a mediator between Arab countries and Iran.

“Given the geopolitical events, this conference has taken a special turn,” Macron said at the summit.




He said his country would continue to deploy troops in Iraq to battle terrorism even if the US were to withdraw.

“No matter what choices the Americans make, we will maintain our presence in Iraq to fight against terrorism,” Macron told a news conference in Baghdad.

“We all know that we must not lower our guard, because Daesh (the Islamic State group) remains a threat, and I know that the fight against these terrorist groups is a priority of your government,” Macron said earlier after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi.

[President Johnson]

Paris implements 30 km/h speed limit in the whole city. I have mixed feelings about this.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1432301571652702214

[Former President tack50]

Spain did that nationwide shortly before Paris. I haven't seen anyone respecting them and I myself also really don't tbh.

[Lechasseur]

https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2021/09/09/covid-19-agnes-buzyn-convoquee-par-la-cjr-en-vue-d-une-mise-en-examen_6094030_3224.html

Agnes Buzyn, France's health minister at the start of the Covid crisis, and LREM candidate for Paris City Hall last year, has been summoned to the special court that prosecutes government ministers and will probably be charged with "endangering the life of others" due to her management of the Covid crisis.

[NewYorkExpress]

France will offer free contraceptives to all women under age 25.

France will start offering free contraceptives for young women next year to help with the financial costs of protecting against pregnancy, French Health Minister Olivier Véran announced on Thursday.


Véran said women under the age of 25 would not be charged for appointments, tests or other medical needs related to birth control starting January 1, 2022.

Last year, the government made contraception completely free, regardless of insurance, to girls under 15 for the first time, after previously offering it for ages 15 to 18, as part of a bid to end underage abortions. Abortions have been free for all women and girls in the country since 2012.


"It is intolerable that young women cannot protect themselves, cannot have contraception if they choose to do so because it is too expensive for them," Véran said on France 2, a public broadcaster, adding that the government noticed a decline in the use of contraceptives among some young women because of the cost.

The age of 25 was chosen as a threshold because it's an age in which more "autonomy" is assumed in terms of "social and financial" development, Véran said, and because 25 is the age people in France are no longer covered by their parents' health insurance.

[parochial boy]

Véran also slapped down the horrifying and intellectually challenged education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer over the the allocation rentrée the other week (money that parents get to spend on school funds at the start of the schoold year). As in, the traditional outrage about "ThEy'Re JuSt GoInG tO sPeNd It On FlAt-ScReEn Tv'S!" with the suggestion that the cash should be replaced by a voucher. Véran rightly pointed out the allocation fell under his remit, and not Blanquer's, and wasn't going anywhere.

Despite being a bit meme friendly I've got to admit that Véran isn't the most obnoxious member of this government. God knows what he is doing in it.

[parochial boy]

No context needed 🙂

https://twitter.com/BraudFlo/status/1437643293953830912

[parochial boy]

Released a week ago to actually barely any sort of a reaction at all was a circular from education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer stating that schools should support trans children in their identity and their transition. Including ensuring they are allowed to use the toilets/changing rooms of their choice; sleep in dormitories with their identified gender and be referred to using their desired names.

Hardly earth defying stuff, but the fact that even the likes of Le Figaro could hardly muster up the energy to worry about it does show certain things about how much less emotional the issue is than in certain other countries. And rather more eye-openingly, that there is apparently an issue where even Jean-Michel frigging Blanquer is to the left of the average atlas poster.