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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 26, 2019 13:09:20 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 26, 2019 14:16:54 GMT
Bolsonaro is a pig, so his antics are not surprising. The other articles in that link are most interesting, though. It appears that Macron is assuming the many important roles the US has so completely abandoned since installing its own pig in office, i.e., advocating for climate change control, etc.
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Post by htmb on Sept 26, 2019 17:50:18 GMT
Since this thread is about French politics, I thought I’d ask this question here: Monday is going to be a national day of mourning in France to honor Chirac. What exactly does that mean? More than lowered flags?
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 26, 2019 18:06:08 GMT
Not really much. Festive events will be cancelled but otherwise it is business as usual.
Without waiting for the next Heritage Days, you can go to the Elysée Palace tonight starting at 21:00 to sign the condolence register if you want.
Meanwhile the Techno Parade can go on as scheduled on Saturday.
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Post by htmb on Sept 26, 2019 19:26:06 GMT
Somehow, that had been left off my calendar.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 26, 2019 20:42:21 GMT
The Eiffel Tower will remain dark on Monday. That should leave a lot of tourists wondering what went wrong.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 28, 2019 15:29:58 GMT
It is always interesting to see who will attend a memorial event and the geopolitics in the background are often ambiguous.
Vladimir Putin was one of the first people to say that he would attend, as well as Charles Michel of Belgium, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Claude Juncker of the European Commission. Italian president Sergio Mattarella will also attend, as well as Congolese president Denis Sassou Nguesso and Georgian president Salomé Zourabichvili who is also a French citizen. Among prime ministers, there will be Viktor Orbàn of Hungary, Peter Pellegrini of Slovakia and Andrej Plenkovic of Croatia.
Former prime ministers Gerhard Schroeder of Germany and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain will also be there, as well as former president Abdou Diouf of Senegal.
Now is when it will get interesting. Other countries will decide whom to send in function of how important the other attendees are and whether or not some unofficial diplomatic business is on the agenda.
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Post by lagatta on Sept 28, 2019 21:34:50 GMT
Chirac's death was front-page news here, and more than a few of the young people quoted his climate speech on their handmade placards. But since it is a federal electoral campaign, Trudeau (fils) probably won't show up, and I suppose elder statespersons might be delegated, such as Jean Chrétien. Former Québec government leader Jean Charest might show up, for one thing because Chirac loved staying at a historic inn located in Charest's region of origin: L'Estrie, or the Eastern Townships in English. It bears a great resemblance to where Bernie Sanders lives in Vermont.
Bolsonaro's insults directed against Mme Macron are blatant and classic misogyny. Naturally there is about the same age difference between the Brazilian firebug and Sra. Bolsonaro, but obviously in the other direction.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 28, 2019 21:40:25 GMT
The "angry" countries will almost certainly be represented by just the local ambassador.
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Post by lugg on Sept 29, 2019 10:20:55 GMT
I have just done a quick search to see who is representing the UK and come up with nothing.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 29, 2019 11:46:06 GMT
Me neither. The only other name I have unearthed is Saad Hariri, prime minister of Lebanon.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 30, 2019 18:49:51 GMT
I finally read that Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex represented the United Kingdom. 11th in line of succession to the throne.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 30, 2019 22:19:22 GMT
Well, only 11th in line, but he is the Queen's son, and a dignified one with a nice wife -- not the embarrassing Andrew. Surely that implies respect, doesn't it?
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 1, 2019 2:57:38 GMT
I still don't know who the United States sent, but Bill Clinton attended as a private gesture.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 1, 2019 4:13:20 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 1, 2019 5:00:12 GMT
That's what I had imagined earlier -- the "angry" countries just using their ambassador. I doubt that the US government ever forgave France for not following them into the second war.
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Post by bjd on Oct 1, 2019 5:24:22 GMT
The French news commentators also emphasized the fact that the US didn't send any condolences for 48 hours. Especially after Chirac was the first foreign leader to go to New York in September 2001 as a sign of solidarity with the US. Much was made however of Putin being here.
There was mention too of Morocco not sending anyone important, despite their close ties with France. But one political scientist I heard mentioned that many of those now in power had no dealings with Chirac since he stopped being president in 2007.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 1, 2019 5:53:02 GMT
Here is a list of the major foreign personalities who attended:
Les chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement :
- Vladimir Poutine, président russe - Sergio Matarella, président italien - Denis Sassou-Nguesso, président du Congo - Frank-Walter Steinmeier, président d’Allemagne - Salomé Zourabichvili, présidente de Géorgie - Viktor Orban, Premier ministre hongrois - Peter Pellegrini, Premier ministre slovaque - Andrej Plenkovic, Premier ministre croate - Charles Michel, Premier ministre belge - Jean-Claude Juncker, président de la commission européenne - Le prince Albert II de Monaco - Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, émir du Qatar - Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, président de la Guinée équatoriale - Le roi Abdallah II de Jordanie - Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, président de la République de Djibouti - Azali Assoumani, président des Comores - Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, président du Togo - Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory, président de la République de Maurice - Le grand-duc Henri de Luxembourg - Joan-Enric Vives i Sicilia d’Andorre - Borut Pahor, président de la Slovénie - Hashim Thaçi, président de la République du Kosovo - Sefik Dzaferovic, président de la Bosnie-Herzégovine - Julie Payette, gouverneure générale du Canada - Saad Hariri, Premier ministre du Liban, grand ami de la famille Chirac
Les ex-chefs d’Etat et de gouvernement qui ont connu Jacques Chirac en exercice :
- Abdou Diouf, ancien président sénégalais - Bill Clinton, ancien président des Etats-Unis - Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, ex-Premier ministre espagnol - Hamid Karzai, ex-président de l’Afghanistan - Guy Verhofstadt, ancien Premier ministre du Royaume de Belgique
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 1, 2019 6:13:10 GMT
the US didn't send any condolences for 48 hours Oh, give him a break, Bjd -- Turdzo probably wanted to tweet something, but didn't know how to spell that big word.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 1, 2019 6:15:17 GMT
Putin in French is a Canadian treat food?! Joking aside, that's a pretty glittering array. And good for Bill Clinton.
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Post by bjd on Oct 1, 2019 8:41:23 GMT
As cynical as I am, I figure a lot of those heads of state of poor African countries thought it might be a good opportunity to spend a few days in Paris at taxpayers' expense.
The president of Equitorial Guinea probably popped into Switzerland to watch the auctioning of his son's confiscated cars. They got $27 million!
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Post by patricklondon on Oct 1, 2019 13:32:29 GMT
If the standard English transliteration were pronounced in French, it would be a very rude word indeed. So they do indeed pronounce and spell it like the Canadian - erm - delicacy. My blog | My photos | My video clips | My Librivox recordings"too literate to be spam"
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 11, 2019 11:11:28 GMT
The French Constitutional Council rendered its verdict today about the government plan to charge tuition to non-EU university students. University education will remain free to all, no matter what the nationality. The government wanted to charge 2770 euros in fees for an undergraduate degree and 3770 euros for a masters degree.
It wasn't too hard for them to reach their verdict, because it is all written in the French constitution: "The Nation guarantees equal access to children and adults to education. The organisation of free and secular public education at every level of learning is a duty of the State."
Good news!
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 11, 2019 17:09:55 GMT
Indeed!
There are so many US citizens who absolutely worship France, who will visit (especially) Paris multiple times, who see Frenchness as the pinnacle of human civility and refinement but who will then turn around and vote in their own country against some of the things France holds most dear -- universal healthcare and education being the most obvious examples.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 11, 2019 17:36:57 GMT
And you probably haven't seen all of the thread about whether to tip or not in France/Europe "to get better service."
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 7, 2019 23:32:47 GMT
I am putting these two articles from The Economist here, although they may belong somewhere else since they don't address politics so much as France's and Europe's roles on the world stage. Click on the highlighted portions of texts below to access the articles ~ Emmanuel Macron on Europe’s fragile place in a hostile worldIn a blunt interview the French president laid out his thoughts on NATO, America and the future of the EU Assessing Emmanuel Macron’s apocalyptic visionEurope is “on the edge of a precipice”, says France’s president. Is he right?
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 8, 2019 4:24:44 GMT
He has been getting quite a bit of flak for what he said about NATO.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 8, 2019 4:44:31 GMT
Well, didn't it have to be said? What I take away from the first article is that Macron wants to air and discuss today's reality, and to take umbrage at that is simply a way of continuing to coast along as though everything is as it was ten or twenty years ago. From what I read, he is not so much trying "to build a French-focused Europe" as he is making it clear that the status quo is problematic and that all the European countries must work together &/or cede leadership to whichever of those countries is prepared to assume leadership.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 8, 2019 5:11:51 GMT
What is throwing a lot of Europe off balance is that everybody has been walking on eggs for so long they are totally shocked when one of the leaders speaks frankly. The French pretty much invented diplomacy (with a bit of help from Machiavelli) -- as the terms used in English for diplomatic matters would appear to attest -- so it is even more destablizing when gloves are removed.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 9, 2019 20:13:42 GMT
I really wonder how President Macron manages to set up so many unexpected (and useless?) meetings. Today we had a meeting in Paris with Macron, Merkel, Putin and Ukrainian president Zelenskiy to try to work out things between Russian and Ukraine. This is the first time the leaders of the four countries have met since 2016 and the first time that Zelenskiy has met Putin in person. Most of Europe has accused Macron of kissing up to Putin too much in the last year or so. But one wonders about the chances of any alternative strategies. If Macron were to threaten (?) Russia and stamp his feet, he would have even less support from the rest of Europe.
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