The walking TED talk as president: Macron

[DotCommunist]

Just having the offices of my political adversaries raided like is perfectly normal...

Centrisms hardman

 

[NoXion]

Bit of a stretch to call Nuclear carbon-free. Rather a lot of carbon needed to produce concrete for those reactors, and mining/processing isn’t exactly carbon-free. As much as anything else really (steel for turbines etc.).

The important thing being that one needs a lot more windmills/solar panels to provide the same amount of energy as a single nuclear reactor. Also they need replacing more quickly than reactors, especially windmills since they have moving parts in addition to being exposed to the elements.

In the real world, Germany has ended up burning more fossil fuels since pursuing their strategy of renewables over nuclear. It would be the height of stupidity for France to follow that lead.

 

[stavros]

The important thing being that one needs a lot more windmills/solar panels to provide the same amount of energy as a single nuclear reactor. Also they need replacing more quickly than reactors, especially windmills since they have moving parts in addition to being exposed to the elements.

Do the elements of the steam turbines in nuclear plants not need similarly replacing? I confess to being naive on this.

 

[Wolveryeti]

Some calculations have nuclear as being worse than natural gas, and that's just in terms of carbon emissions. Long term energy costs and environmental impacts of decommissioning and waste disposal are still unknowns.

It's much cleaner, much safer than fossil fuels and the decommissioning costs are a fraction of the UK wind subsidy.

I recommend the nuclear chapter of this:

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&s...FjAQegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw2i0N_-Uc_iwuSLDlLq7hap

 

[DotCommunist]

oh look, hes now praising petains ww1 service and looking to honour it

So glad he beat that fascist

a-fucking-men, france eh, she dodged a bullet there.

 

[Balbi]

Centrists laying the ground for the full fash takeover is it

 

[yield]

Woman's death casts shadow over France's 'yellow vest' protests
17/11/18

A protester was accidently killed on Saturday as tens of thousands of people blocked roads across France in a "yellow vest" movement against high fuel prices, which has channelled widespread anger over stagnant spending power under President Emmanuel Macron.

Nearly 283,000 people were estimated to have taken part in more than 2,000 protests at roundabouts and on major highways and thoroughfares across the country, with 227 people injured -- seven seriously -- and 52 detained, the Interior Ministry said.

The "yellow vests" movement, named for the high-visibility jackets worn by supporters, erupted on social media last month with calls for blockades of roads and highways.

The protesters say they are being squeezed by years of fuel tax increases that have driven prices to levels not seen since the early 2000s.

But analysts say the movement now represents more widespread frustration against Macron, a former investment banker who has pushed through a series of reforms aimed at bolstering economic growth.

The movement enjoys much more public support than others against Macron since he swept to the presidency last year.

An Elabe poll last week found that 73 percent of respondents backed the movement.

Protesters say he is neglecting the lower and middle classes, pointing to tax cuts he has pushed through for high earners and companies.

"Macron is the president of the rich and not the poor. He needs to think about the poor as well," said Andre, a 38-year-old with no driver's license who nonetheless joined a blockade in Dole, eastern France.

 

[DotCommunist]

Woman's death casts shadow over France's 'yellow vest' protests
17/11/18

and heres the obo, singing his praises again:

At home and abroad, Emmanuel Macron ploughs lonely furrow

 

[yield]

What’s driving this French revolution?
Forgotten France is sick of being exploited by the political class and left behind by the cities
19 November 2018

Corentin and Sylvie looked as if they had come into Paris from the suburbs for a day’s shopping. They stared, amused but perplexed, at the honking chaos in the Place de la Concorde.

Hundreds of people in yellow, high-visibility jackets blocked the traffic. The police had fled. Six open-top, tourist-buses were trapped. Chinese passengers took photographs with their mobile phones, as if convinced that this was a French cultural event staged just for them.

 

[rekil]

Lots of filth stirring the pot for their own ends unfortunately.

The Politics of the Gilets Jaunes in France, is the Far-Right only at the Fringes?

 

[yield]

Macron terms yellow vest leaders 'hateful mob' in combative New Year's address
December 31, 2018

Emmanuel Macron last night delivered a combative New Year's address, vowing to push forward with economic reforms despite two-month long protests from what he termed a "hateful mob".

The French President, whose televised address was broadcast form the Elysee Palace, acknowledged that "anger over injustices" lay behind the yellow vest movement that has scarred his second-year in office.

He said: "Ultraliberal and financial capitalism, too often guided by short term interests, is heading towards its demise.”

But the 41-year-old also strongly condemned protest-leaders. “Those who claim to speak for the people, but in fact speak for a hateful mob - attacking elected representatives, security forces, journalists, Jews, foreigners, homosexuals - are quite simply the negation of France,” he said.

The President, who for the first time stood to give the address, promised that his economic reforms would continue despite prolonged clashes between protesters and security forces that turned French cities into battlegrounds.

Looking defiant, Mr Macron rejected protesters’ demands for referendums on major policy decisions and for the possibility of ousting elected representatives, including the president himself. “The people is sovereign and it expresses itself at elections,” he said. “We are a state under the rule of law.”

 

[yield]

In Versailles, Macron vows to reform to avoid king's fate
January 21, 2019

President Emmanuel Macron told dozens of the world’s most powerful executives on Monday that he would not follow the path of guillotined French royals and would continue to reform the French economy despite a sometimes violent popular revolt.

For the second year running, Macron hosted corporate A-listers like Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella, Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel and JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon at a pre-Davos dinner at Versailles.

Exactly 226 years after the decapitation of Louis XVI, who failed to plug the crown’s dismal finances and quell popular discontent over a sclerotic feudal society, Macron started his speech by invoking the king and his wife Marie-Antoinette.

“If they met such an end, it is because they had given up on reforming,” Macron told the guests, according to his office.

 

[NoXion]

In Versailles, Macron vows to reform to avoid king's fate
January 21, 2019

The arrogant fucking piece of shit. I hope the people of France fuck his shit up.

 

[redsquirrel]

Let's see how En Marche do in the EU elections.

Are those who backed a vote for Macron 2 years ago going to make the same argument again?

 

[gentlegreen]

Macron considering a referendum on a whole load of topics ...

 

[redsquirrel]

And? Assuming for the minute there's some substance to this (which you'd be hard pressed to find in that report), would these referenda (supposing they are actually going to happen) be a good idea?

 

[gentlegreen]

And? Assuming for the minute there's some substance to this (which you'd be hard pressed to find in that report), would these referenda (supposing they are actually going to happen) be a good idea?

My first thought was - oh shit' he's caving into demands for Frexit, then it was just "referendum - what could possibly go wrong ?" ...

 

[gentlegreen]

EXCLUSIF. Comment Emmanuel Macron prépare un référendum en secret

To get out of the crisis of yellow vests, Emmanuel Macron converts to the hypothesis of a referendum. According to the confidences of high-ranking sources collected by the JDD, he is even more and more serious about organizing this consultation on the same day as the European elections on Sunday 26 May. Tangible proof that this scenario takes shape: the elections office at the Ministry of the Interior, in charge of the organization of the polls, took language got together this weekend with printers and paper manufacturers to be ready for the day, if the head of state confirms this calendar.

 

[gentlegreen]

The new National service experiment is having a bumpy start.
During the initial, over-subscribed one week trial, 25 or so 16 year old volunteers (-ed ?) fainted after standing around in the in the 30 degree heat at Évreux.

It seems they have to get up at 7AM, raise flags and sing La Marseillaise - as well as be separated from their mobile phones. Apparently there's also one hour of "debate" per day ...

"Ils tombaient comme des mouches", un témoin raconte les malaises des jeunes du SNU à Evreux



Évreux SNU - Google Search

 

[redsquirrel]

Could have gone on a number of different threads - French parties unite in call for referendum on Macron's airports sell-off

The centrist French president wants to sell the state’s controlling stake in Aéroports de Paris, the profitable operator of Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, which are used by more than 100 million passengers each year. It would be among the biggest privatisation operations in French history, alongside Macron’s plans to sell other stakes in the national lottery as well as the gas and power group ENGIE.

“The public interest comes first,” said Eric Coquerel of the hard-left party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), arguing that it was not an anti-Macron political game, but a drive to protect state infrastructure. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally was not invited to join the group, but she has urged her supporters to sign up to reach the 4.7m target.

RN can/will make hay here. A great example of how class based anti-fascism has to be not only opposed to the hard-right but also to liberalism.

 

[agricola]

bumped because BFM have had cameras following him around for part of this crisis (quite a bit of it looking at the TV programme they've put out today)

the main takeaway so far is that he rubs hand sanitzer onto his phone

 

[redsquirrel]

Second round of local elections to be held on June 28th.

Cracks begin to widen in Emmanuel Macron’s divided party

With a month to go before the delayed second round of France’s local elections on June 28, and two years before the next presidential and parliamentary polls, Mr Macron’s party is fraying at the edges, weakened by the president’s declining popularity. Agnès Buzyn, the former health minister who is Mr Macron’s candidate for Paris mayor, has virtually no chance of winning the city after falling behind the Socialist incumbent Anne Hidalgo and centre-right candidate Rachida Dati in the first round in March.

In Lyon, the incumbent mayor and LREM candidate Gérard Collomb, a former Socialist who was one of Mr Macron’s earliest converts, has abandoned the race and thrown in his lot with the centre-right to keep the greens from power. In Marseille, the LREM candidate performed poorly in the first round. At the same time, disgruntled LREM deputies in the National Assembly have formed two new parliamentary groups, one that is promoting green and leftwing policies and another that leans towards economic liberalism. The splits technically deprive the governing party of its majority, although the defectors insist they are not joining the opposition.

The political danger for LREM now is that Mr Macron — having already alienated many of his erstwhile supporters on the left with his economic reforms — may antagonise the greens and the liberal right with insufficiently radical environmental or economic solutions to deal with the impact of the pandemic.

Not really looking good for Macron but with the 1st round so disrupted and the Covid-19 situation hard to judge how this is going to play out longer term, whether a swing back to older parties or continuing fracturing of the vote and growth of RN.

Emmanuel Macron’s party loses parliamentary majority

French president Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party lost its parliamentary majority on Tuesday when 17 left-leaning, environmentalist and feminist dissidents set up a new political group in the National Assembly.
Paula Forteza, co-chair of Ecologie Démocratie Solidarité (EDS), said the new group’s proposals included a temporary wealth tax to help the country through the coronavirus crisis and universal income payments to everybody over 18 years old. “We are at a historic turning point,” she told a news conference by video. “We want this exit from the crisis to be marked by environmental and social justice, not by a purely economic or short-termist plan.”
The split leaves Mr Macron’s liberal La République en Marche (LREM) with 288 seats in the National Assembly, one short of an absolute majority. But it does not so far threaten the government’s ability to legislate, because the ruling party can still rely on the support of 46 members of parliament from François Bayrou’s centrist Modem party.
Nor are the dissidents establishing a formal political party or a group that sees itself as part of any official opposition. “It’s a group of proposition, not of opposition,” said Matthieu Orphelin, who co-chairs it with Ms Forteza. Emilie Cariou, one of the 17, said she was “for the moment” still a member of LREM.

 

[redsquirrel]

Where next for the prick
Subscribe to read | Financial Times

When French president Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday that he was embarking on a “new path” to rescue the economy from the coronavirus crisis, the millions watching his televised speech to the nation were left wondering whether he also planned to install a new prime minister

“We’re now moving from dealing with the medical crisis to dealing with the economic crisis,” said one official who works with Mr Macron and asked to remain anonymous. “On the one hand the president is taking what he calls a new path, but on the other hand he wants continuity and is not going to abandon his reforms.”
....
“I’m not certain there is really a ‘new path’,” said Nicolas Bouzou, economist at Asterès, a consultancy. “He may just be doing marketing. What he’s saying is not out of line with what he’s done since the start of his five-year mandate . . . In the end, it’s not clear that we are looking at a major turning point.”

 

[Dogsauce]

‘Dealing with the economic consequences’ is the new road to ‘tough choices’. It’ll appear here soon enough. Won’t be tough for everyone obviously.

 

[stavros]

LREM got a bit battered in a few of the bigger city elections at the weekend, mainly by the Greens. As such Edouard Philippe has resigned as PM, and Macron has appointed Jean Castex in his place. The latter sounds like he might've lived in ancient Gaul during the Roman occupation.

 

[agricola]

LREM got a bit battered in a few of the bigger city elections at the weekend, mainly by the Greens. As such Edouard Philippe has resigned as PM, and Macron has appointed Jean Castex in his place. The latter sounds like he might've lived in ancient Gaul during the Roman occupation.

this reassessment of history has gone too far!

 

[redsquirrel]

Couple of accounts here 1, 2, 3, 4

RN win in Perpignan shows that they have gone nowhere. Record low in turnout as well

 

[stavros]

RN win in Perpignan shows that they have gone nowhere. Record low in turnout as well

I suppose RN don't pretend to be a new party, unlike the Brexit Party.

It'll be interesting to see if they pick up post-Covid and pre-2022, assuming they happen in that order.

 

[redsquirrel]

Sorry, pick up from what?
They are now a major force in French politics. The French electoral system is always going to make life extremely hard for them to get seats but the NF/RN vote is normalised across France.

 

[stavros]

Sorry, pick up from what?
They are now a major force in French politics. The French electoral system is always going to make life extremely hard for them to get seats but the NF/RN vote is normalised across France.

Yes, a slightly odd choice of words on my part. I was pondering more generally how Covid and the aftermath might affect them. From my understanding of French politics, are particularly the presidential system, names, and indeed membership of parties are less engrained than in the UK. I believe Macron was a minister under Hollande, after leaving the PS.