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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 28, 2021 18:02:07 GMT
France can no longer be considered a haven for left wing radicals. It permitted 7 Italians from the Red Brigades to be arrested for terrorist acts committed in the 1970s and 1980s even though some of them had officially received political asylum.
It is not yet certain whether all of them will be extradited to Italy, and also some of their "crimes" have already expired in terms of possibile prosecution.
Frankly, I do not understand why this is happening, especially now and concerning a situation which is no longer considered to be a security risk.
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Post by bjd on Apr 28, 2021 18:28:15 GMT
I just listened to an interview with an Italian history professor. He said that most of their crimes (assassination, kidnapping) were not the kind that expire. He also said that the Italian government would be very pleased if they were extradited because the combined far left and far right terrorism of those years, plus the crimes of the Mafia, had made life so very difficult in Italy at the time and still had consequences.
I was also amused by their French lawyer who went on about them being parents and grandparents living in France for over 30 years so they should not be judged on what they did in the 1970s and 80s. I did wonder how she reacts to former Nazi camp guards who are extradited to Germany when they are in their 90s and have lived abroad for 70 years.
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Post by fumobici on Apr 28, 2021 18:40:51 GMT
It's the second story on RAI TG right now, after Covid. To many Italians it's still very important.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 30, 2021 15:40:56 GMT
President Macron and his minister of foreign affairs have just returned from a trip to Rwanda and South Africa. Good words were spoken in both places, which is the purpose of such trips.
On a side note, Macron was allowed to try on a boxing glove given by Mohammed Ali to Nelson Mandela and his expression was like a kid in a candy shop.
More important was the return to France. Macron and the minister of foreign affairs were exempted from the quarantine imposed on people arriving from South Africa. The other members of the party were not. Macron already had covid. I don't know about the other guy.
Raison d'état is such a strange thing.
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Post by mossie on May 31, 2021 7:15:26 GMT
The latest Napoleon
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Post by whatagain on May 31, 2021 7:23:48 GMT
What do you mean ? What do you compare from Napoleon to Macron ?
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 9, 2021 17:09:06 GMT
I received my election envelope today for the upcoming regional elections (first round June 20, runoff June 27). We have seven lists this time.
1. Lutte Ouvrière (Workers' Struggle) - the Trotskyist party."Listening to the needs of the working class." 2. Rassemblement National (Le Pen) - "the choice of security." 3. Ile de France en Commun (Socialists and 5 little parties) - "Free public transportation for all." 4. Pouvoir Vivre en Ile de France (La France Insoumise - unbowed France - the Communist Party and 3 little parties) - social justice and equality 5. For You with all my Strength - the main right wing opposition to Macron, currently in power in the region and likely to win but with absolutely no mention of a political party on their tract 6. Envie d'Ile de France - the presidential party and 4 little parties. "Ile de France should be an opportunity for everyone." 7. L'écologie évidemment - 6 Green parties of variable importance
In this election, whichever list comes out on top gets half of the seats in the regional assembly and the other lists get proportional shares of the rest. This assures that there will always be a majority rather than a weird coalition like in Israel.
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Post by bjd on Jun 9, 2021 18:22:28 GMT
We have been getting political advertising in the mailbox these days too. They too tend not to mention political parties. Interestingly, Nouvelle Aquitaine is one of the rare regions that stayed on the left, but the centre right campaign has been complaining that they are building too much without thinking about affordable housing, that they are investing in stupid stuff like a giant golf course (I agree with them on this). The world is upside down. Of course, the National Rally/Front is going on about security, as usual.
Similar stuff on a departmental level.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 20, 2021 14:41:52 GMT
Well, I voted in the first round. Probably not for the winner.
It is predicted that voter participation will break new records of abstention.
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Post by bjd on Jun 20, 2021 19:03:45 GMT
I don't vote for the first time in ages. We went for a family celebration in Bayonne instead. If there is an unlikely second round here next week, I'll probably go.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 20, 2021 19:07:09 GMT
The Rassemblement National (former Front National) has totally run out of steam almost everywhere. That is very good news.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 22, 2021 14:16:48 GMT
Yes, that is true.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jun 22, 2021 14:34:41 GMT
Macron's party also did very poorly in the election, but that is not really a surprise. It did not exist during the last regional election, so there is no basis for comparison, but also Macron's party was a creation to disintegrate the two biggest parties (LR and PS), which it did quite effectively for the presidential and legislative elections. Regional elections are quite different because people are voting for hometown people and it is safer for them to stay with their original group. But the politicians in these camps are still a bit confused about their loyalties...
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Post by bjd on Jun 22, 2021 14:39:02 GMT
Don't speak too soon. I had a look at "local" election results for Nouvelle Aquitaine. Since they enlarged the regions, they cover a lot more ground and opinion than they used to. So Pyrénées Atlantiques (Basque area), Landes and the other coastal areas voted for the left, as they do traditionally, but the further inland and north, the difference between the leading socialist contender and the far right candidate got smaller. There is also the Mediterranean coast, where there were lots of votes for the far right.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 26, 2021 17:53:59 GMT
Ever since Macron recovered from Covid, he has been hopping around like a Duracell bunny. He attended the opening ceremony of the Olympics, the only G-7 head of state to do so, purportedly because France is the host of the 2024 games. The next day he watched the French lose a few competitions and then flew off to his real destination -- French Polynesia. All French presidents try to get there during their time in office, but he added a trip to the Marquesas Islands as the first head of state to ever go there. It is the farthest French place you can get to from metropolitan France. He is promoting classification of the Marquesas as a Unesco World Heritage site, but at the ceremony he was the only person wearing a suit while everybody else was wearing leaves.
The hidden agenda is of course to show China that France and the United States are in charge of the Pacific (being the two countries with the largest maritime domains in the world) and that China should back off.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 29, 2021 18:27:51 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Aug 29, 2021 21:43:36 GMT
Is Manu a bit off these days? I doubt Frenchpeople of any political hue want French troops to die for Afghanistan.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 30, 2021 4:25:32 GMT
The French troops pulled out of Afghanistan more than 5 years ago. Iraq is different.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 12, 2021 16:34:57 GMT
Here in Québec we've been reading and hearing about Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo's candidacy for the presidency of the Republic.
what do people have to say in France. Obviously Hidalgo has also made enemies, as anyone in her position would. Please move this to "France" if you think it is more appropriate now,
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 12, 2021 16:59:19 GMT
Her biggest problem is being considered Parisian, which is not at all a popular attribute for most voters outside of Paris (or even in the suburbs).
The latest polls have her at 9% nationally, which is really quite meaningless right now. There are far too many candidates at the moment, something like 17.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 12, 2021 18:17:34 GMT
Yes, being the mayor certainly makes her Parisian, though she was born in the very south of Spain, across the Strait from Morocco, and grew up in Lyon...
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Post by bjd on Sept 12, 2021 18:22:00 GMT
I don't think emphasizing her foreign birth is a good voting strategy! Indeed, she is seen as a Parisian although I suppose most people running for president live in Paris.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 12, 2021 18:42:46 GMT
That's true; I was just reading her bio, not any political campaign propaganda.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 13, 2021 9:55:34 GMT
I don't think emphasizing her foreign birth is a good voting strategy! Actually, foreign birth is pretty meaningless here -- the handicap is more being born of foreign parents. After all, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Ségolène Royal and Edouard Balladur were all born in foreign countries. But France is considerably more accepting of foreigners than in the old days. Nicolas Sarközy (de Nagy-Bocsa) managed to be elected president, but at least one of his parents was French. "Fully foreign" Anne Hidalgo is a slightly greater challenge. As a child she was naturalised with her parents in 1973 but regained her Spanish nationality in 2003.
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Post by bjd on Sept 13, 2021 11:45:50 GMT
True, but again, Manuel Valls managed to be Prime Minister and then went to be a politician in Spain after losing the Socialist primary last time around. I think he quit that and came back to France recently but am not certain.
Of course, Hidalgo could have used her husband's name, but it's a bit late now. Anyway, I'm sure she is proud of her Spanish background.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 13, 2021 13:40:23 GMT
This all appears to have been major news in Spain.
La alcaldesa de París, Anne Hidalgo, se lanza a la conquista de la presidencia de Francia
(from El Pais)
If she won, Hidalgo would be the first female president of France and the first born abroad. The mayor holds dual French and Spanish nationality, explains journalist Serge Raffy in the biography Anne Hidalgo. Une ambition qui vient de loin (Anne Hidalgo. An ambition that comes from afar), recently published.
Raffy followed geography of Hidalgo. First, Andalusia where she was born, where her grandfather had suffered cruel persecution during the war and after the war, and where her father lived a Dickensian childhood. "All of Hidalgo's childhood is covered by this family legend: never forget the Civil War and the Franco regime," says Raffy. Second scenario, the working-class suburbs of Lyon, the French city where the Hidalgo family settled in search of economic opportunities. The candidate has not gone through the elite educational institutions of her country; she has faith in France — in the values of the Republic and secularism — of those who are French by will.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 14, 2021 17:50:59 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 16, 2021 15:48:03 GMT
End of an era: tonight Emmanuel Macron is having dinner with Angela Merkel at the Elysée Palace for the last time. Afghanistan is on the menu, but not as something to be eaten. However, they will see each other again on October 6 in Ljubljana for a summit between the EU and the western Balkan region.
In the past week or two, Macron has already received two possible successors of Merkel after the German elections: Scholz (SPD) and Laschet (CDU).
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 27, 2021 17:10:42 GMT
One of the most interesting things in French politics at the moment is the emergence of Eric Zemmour, a well known writer and media figure who has not yet quite declared himself as a presidential candidate. He used to be almost sort of normal, but he has now decided that he is to the right of Marine Le Pen. For example, one of the things that he has announced (besides deporting all foreign convicts) is his plan to ban all Muslim names for children. You would think that this is laughable, but opinion polls are showing support of around 10-11%. This is good in a way, because it is draining support from Le Pen, but of course it jumbles the political landscape even more. If the next second round of the presidential election is not Macron vs Le Pen, there are quite a few possibilities. Naturally this delights the traditional right, the ecologists and even the socialists who think they now have a chance to creep a bit above Le Pen. Meanwhile, I think that Eric Zemmour looks quite a bit like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.
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Post by mich64 on Sept 27, 2021 17:59:41 GMT
You would think that this is laughable, but opinion polls are showing support of around 10-11%. This is good in a way, because it is draining support from Le Pen, but of course it jumbles the political landscape even more. Watching and then reviewing the results of our recent Federal election, you can see how many races were affected by the PPC candidates (a far right party). Not one candidate won a riding, but they took votes away from 3 of the other parties in different regions of the country. In my district, the Liberal candidate won, I think the PPC party got their support from Conservative voters who thought their party leader was centre right and traditional Conservatives do not want to be anywhere near the centre, so they went far right. I think traditional Liberal voters who were unhappy about the election call during the pandemic that changed their votes would have done so in the NDP party direction. Kerouac, I agree, he may jumble the landscape but also will bring out the worst in people. I know those people will always exist, but the more they are normalized, it will make it easier for people to follow and be lead by shock/populism instead of taking the energy to look at the thoughtful, mindful leaders who may differ on how to govern but are conscience of all people.
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