France General Discussion

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"République solidaire" or Pour une République solidaire (PRS).

What the hell does that mean?

Solidaire is an old political catch-word for the left and Gaullists. It entails something about solidarity, some sort of wishy-washy let's-all-hold-hands-and-dance crap, and likely some sort of social protection. Could likely be a veiled attack at Sarkozy's policies of the sort of the bouclier fiscal etc. Villepin and his cronies seem to be taking the 'Gaulliste social' way, though of course he's a fake.

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It seems like a lefty name, which is why I was  surprised to see who was in it.

They joined for the real (hidden) message, not the public message.

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A failed and botched attempt at shifting public attention. Hmm, I'm sure all this crappola happening during a scandal in government is only a pure coincidence.

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The last few weeks-days of the Sarkozy presidency:



That said, the PS is far from being a victoryboat.

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I hope French people abroad can vote in their primary because I would do so. I have 5 euros lying around in my room which I could waste on that.

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It is time for Breton secession!







sorry. Couldn't resist.


and ftr, first I heard about the Béttencourt affair I thought it was about the stupid annoying Ingrid Bétancourt who ought to have stayed in the jungle, where she annoyed us less often. Though I say kudos to the FARC for putting up for, what, 6 years, with such a stupid and annoying person. Maybe we really should've paid them, cause they deserve salary for putting up with her.

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No serious news, apparently.

Summer is dreadful for politics. Time to make maps.

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scratch that; Yannick Favennec, UMP deputy for Mayenne has announced on ze twitter a cabinet shuffle in October: http://twitter.com/yfavennec

Le President annonce la réorganisation du Gouvernement pour octobre et tirera sévèrement les conséquences du comportement de ministres.

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Similar, in parts, to the epic 1977 song of the PS, Changer la vie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDEgNp62jGk

Changer la vie, of course, was much better.

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Wait. This should be the PS' new anthem. It's better than the failed attempt they just shat out. "La gauche solidaire, unie et populaire?"

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And still about far-right, I saw a line on TV about 3 far-right parties planning to ally against FN for 2012, didn't find much articles so far, if someone knows.

It's a pathetic and shameful little attempt by the 3 largest fringe crazies to unite into one thing. It's called something shameful like 'comité de la résistance nationale' and includes the remnants of the MNR (which is losing lots of members, back to the FN), Carl Lang's PDF which has taken a Christian right traditionalist route which makes no sense and a fringe neo-Nazi think called 'la nouvelle droite populaire' which is a semi-old neo-fascist racist and xenophobic 'identitaire' outfit. They shouldn't even get 500 signatures together and if they do they'll win as much as Schivardi got in 2007.

The PDF and the remnants of the MNR all support Gollnisch for 2011 and they said that they would be open to an alliance with a Gollnisch-led FN. Members of these three parties are basically egomaniacs who are pissed that Marine sidelined them in the FN, and their parties are the best examples of the 'groupuscules d'extrême-droite They really should go and get laid.

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The Bloc Identitaire is even more looney-tunes, they're outright Nazis. The MNR-NDP-PDF is 'moderate' compared to them. All are real fascists, but Bloc Identitaire is hardcore old racist stuff. Le Pen-type FN isn't really fascist, but more old style populism and Algérie française rhetoric, Megret was a real European technocratic Falangist-fascist type with less Algérie française rhetoric. The far-right is a fascinating world, really.

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Oh LOL, that's so ridiculous...

Actually, your first comment wasn't so bad. I know that a lot of the 300 parties are local shells, clubs which get party status: like MAM's club maybe, Rachid Kaci's "la droite libre", a lot of municipal parties and even I think real parties which get mysteriously "associated" with the PS/UMP. I know the NC associated with a Polynesian party to get money.

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The UMP seems to have something with proposing ridiculous junk during the summer, something reinforced now with the absolute need to find any kind of junk to cover up the government's crookedness.

As for the latest in Sarkozyst rhetoric, the wish to revoke citizenship is in flagrant violation of article 1 of the 1958 Constitution: "Elle assure l'égalité devant la loi de tous les citoyens sans distinction d'origine, de race ou de religion." Personally, as much as I'm right-leaning on immigration and in clear favour of tough action on immigration-issues, I'm the first to find this latest junk as a sham because it creates a dangerous double-standard and a slippery slope about criminality, immigration and the French nationality. Of course, it's also shameful that the government's justification for this is defending the 'values of the Republic'. If there is a phrase which I hate more than anything else, it's that four-word sham.

However, as much as this is designed to win back FN votes lost in March, I'm not sure this seals the deal - far from it. I know the UMP is often impulsive in its responses to electoral setbacks and erratically experiments with a bunch of ideas (fptp, top-two runoffs, 1998-style pr, blame-the-centrists, security-rhetoric, visit-a-factory, visit-random-farmers) in an attempt to prevent any further setback but it's actually rather clear looking at the March results that the FN voters this time around didn't vote on security-immigration stuff as much as in 2002. The 2010 FN electorate has become on one hand dangerously bourgeois, meaning that traditionally UMP-solid not-so-poor folks have abandoned the Sarkozyst machine in response to the government's scandals and the government's more erratic big-spending economic response. I mean, yeah, sure, those folks are kind of scared about immigration and stuff, but then again, all bourgeois are racist deep down. On the other hand, the more right-leaning 'light' working-class electorate (see; Moselle) has also abandoned the UMP in spectacular numbers and it will take more than traditional heavy-handed 'BROWN PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALSZ' rhetoric to bring them back. It would take, like, strong economic recovery, clean government, and a less pro-rich economic policy to win them back. Meanwhile, in rural Alsace, where the FN's vote has been traditionally well-off rural white people living in isolated niches who are scared of the big bad urban brown guy, the FN lost a good number of votes. Then again, given that Fredo the Wacko and Dodo the Emo seem to be the UMP's top psephologists, maybe I shouldn't be surprised that they're unable to construct an intellectually honest analysis of the FN's re-rise.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i4s881CMgfJFBjnV8-_Qc-qsLZBg

Spare us, please.

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Benjamin Lancar widely reelected at the head of Youngs UMP.

Surrealism in action.

Maybe he can please us with a new lipdub, this time featuring Fillon and Sarkozy?

(is it wrong to call him 'the cripple'?)

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I wouldn't take a party's youth wing to speak for a generation. Those involved in party youth thingees (i.e., me, for the LPC) are often awful hacks since they seem to be the vast majority of young people interested in politics nowadays. Look at the jeunes PS, they're crazy hacks. The jeunes pops likewise.

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Hey Hey, the King of Vendée did abdicate.

Surprising indeed, just saw that.

There's been a big internal conflict between the Marquis and his ex-right hand man, Bruno Retailleau (who is Senator and VP of the CG) after the Marquis threw a hissy fit in spring 2009 when Retailleau was supposed to join the cabinet. Retailleau never forgave him, and the Marquis ended up looking like an idiot when one sees that he practically joined the UMP a few months later.

Apparently, Retailleau was on the verge of staging a coup against the Marquis, so the Marquis decided to abdicate. It's kind of similar to the Rudd-Gillard coup in July, actually, where the incumbent lacked the numbers to stay on and finally gave up. Also, his brother resigned this morning as well.

The MPF, of course, is clearly on its way out. Its control of the department is eroding and should be reduced much in 2011. The Marquis' attempt to find a winning strategy for the party since 2005 have failed epically, all of them, and the party's base is growingly uneasy with his autocratic rule. Of course, the right's stranglehold on the CG is not at all at risk: it's 27-4 for the right...

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Georges Frêche is dead

I'm sorry, but I can't help but feel happy that we are rid of such a disgusting and vile racist sack of crap.

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What, really?

Yes. I saw it on a forum, which had presumably gotten it off the AFP or something.

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rumours:

Juppé back in, defense.
Mercier shuffled to Justice
Borloo likely out
Patrick Ollier in, parl relations
Bachelot stays, takes super-ministry of "dependence, handicapped, family, seniors and women"

Jean-François Copé takes UMP leadership, dunno about Bertrand

More at 20:15, which is 14:15 EST.

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more rumours: http://elysee.blog.lemonde.fr/2010/11/13/sarkozy-met-fin-aux-fonctions-de-fillon/

Main things to me are that Besson is shuffled to industry, and the Racism Ministry becomes a state secretariat. Xavier Bertrand would get Woerth's old job + health, MAM would get Kouchner's job. Sadly, Frédéric Lefevre would join cabinet.

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No particular order:

Alain Juppé; minister of state for defense and veterans
MAM; foreign affairs
NKM; ecology, transportation and housing (big promotion)
Michel Mercier; justice (centrist)
Xavier Bertrand; work, employment (lol!) and health
Brice Hortefeux; interior, overseas, territorial collectivities and immigration
Christine Lagarde; economie, commerce and industry
Luc Chatel; education, youth and associative life
François Baroin; budget and the public function (and spokesperson)
Valérie Pécresse; higher education
Frédéric Mitterrand; culture
Roselyne Bachelot; solidarity and social cohesion
Maurice Leroy; city/urban development (centrist)
Bruno Le Maire; agriculture
Chantal Jouanno; sports

sub-ministers
Patrick Ollier; parl relations (MAM's husband)
Pierre Laval Eric Besson; industry, energy and the digital economy
Henri de Raincourt; cooperation (and minister for chair-warming)
Laurent Wauquiez; european affairs
Nadine Morano; learning and professional formation
Marie-Luce Penchard; overseas (unbelievably incompetent and stupid, yet they keep her. Is there a better way of telling the overseas 'we don't give a sh**t about you'?)
Pierre Lellouche; external commerce (at least he doesn't keep European affairs)
Philippe Richert; territorial collectivities (Alsace will thus get a new regional president; again)

sec of states
Nora Berra; health
Benoist Apparu; housing
Georges Tron; public function
Marianne Montchamp; social cohesion (she was a loyal villepiniste, seems like they've bought her)
Thierry Mariani; transportation (rather distasteful right-winger)
Frédéric Lefebvre; commerce, artisans, PME and tourism (pathological cheat and liar)
Jeannette Boughrab; youth and associative life

No more national identity, racism and imitating the Vichy government

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And 'lol'. Energy isn't tied to the big ministry of Ecology but to Industry.

And the Villepinist groupie Montchamp is in!

Energy is one of those useless things nobody cares about, I think?

I find it interesting that Besson has been demoted that badly. Good news of the day, I suppose. The Vichyist can be kept quiet with a useless position like industry, even though the other Vichyist keeps his post.

Also, good to see Marleix out given that I hate him. I recommend that the Republicans hire him to work on gerrymandering in Pennsylvania or something.

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So is Sarkozy likely to seek re-election?

Yes. Rumours of him retiring are bullsh**t. Sarkozy, like all French politicians, are egomaniacs who only fully retire once they die.