French Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand was fighting to keep his job last night, having been ensnared by a scandal of his own making. The row began with his defence of famous film director Roman Polanski, (arrested with charges of paedophilia) where he said that the affair was “absolutely horrifying” before launching an attack on the [...]
Yesterday concluded a massive public consultation across the whole of France. The French were asking themselves about the privatisation of the postal service, La Poste. When I say “asking themselves” I mean it literally; the whole project was a mock referendum. The mock referendum was designed to show support for a real referendum, which is [...]
As former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is before the courts for his implication in the Affaire Clearstream (more on that next week) the former Président de la République is suddenly nowhere to be seen. I’ve been asked about the roles of the Président and the Premier Ministre in the past, but without going [...]
Since I wrote my last article (here) explaining the situation surrounding the elections of the Conseil Régional PACA (Provence-Alpes-Cote D’Azur) we have had an important development! Hubert Falco, who was widely tipped as the man to wrangle PACA from the Socialists, has officially refused orders to lead the UMP list. The papers (including myself) were [...]
PACA is one of the 23 regions of France, it stands for Provence-Alpes-Cote D’Azur. The capital is Marseilles, which holds the regional assembly where most of the elected Regional Councillors work. I visited there once when they had some sort of big session going on ; it’s rather like any other hemicycle based parliament, and [...]
48 hours before the pupils and 24 hours before the teachers, Luc Chantal returned from his summer holidays. The Education Secretary of France then rapidly sent out his proposals of what will change this year. Despite the economic crisis and the flu epidemic, the minister claimed he was confident that everyone will be able to [...]
Yesterday was the first official day a cut in VAT (TVA) came into effect. Having criticised Gordon Brown not so long ago over his handling of the British economy, President Sarkozy decided to follow suit an implement his own temporary tax cut. Neoliberal Sarko is now nowhere to be found, but then again, it IS [...]
Yesterday, President Sarkozy gave a speech to the Congress of Versailles. This meant speaking directly to both houses of parliament, the deputés in the Assemblée Nationale* (i.e. House of Commons) and the sénateurs in the sénat (House of Lords). Evidently, it should have been quite an event. To put it in perspective, the Congress has united [...]
French critics have been complaining about how Nicolas Sarkozy has exposed his private life so openly. After just over six months, the Président has already acquired several different nicknames; “Super-Sarko” after his hyperactivity in comparison with the reclusive Jacques Chirac, “Sarko I” after his absolutism, referring to his monarchical style, and “President Bling-Bling” after [...]
I am going to make an educated guess; Gordon Brown is not your ideal Prime Minister. I would further venture in suggesting that your perfect leader was neither Blair, nor Major, nor Thatcher. If so, what kind of person should we put in charge? Think about this carefully, and then construct your own Frankenstein elected [...]
