Salut!

What would France look like under Marine Le Pen?

April 10 update: relief so far with the first round results (subject to change but putting Macron five points ahead) … 

 

 

 

This is my last look at the French presidential elections for The National before voting starts on Sunday. I am, as ever, grateful to the editor for permitting its reproduction here.

My own efforts to vote have come to nothing. Unwillingly, as one able to take part in a French election for the first time having obtained dual citizenship, I'll be counted among the large number of expected abstentions. My constituency is that covered by the French Consulate in London and I am in the south of France. I was unable to vote by proxy as I would have needed to find another London voter to help.

So the far right can breathe a sigh of relief. Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour need have no fear, after all, of my vote for pretty much anyone but either of them. As it happens, I would have gone without massive enthusiasm but faute de mieux for Emmanuel Macron, a decent if aloof statesman. He is to the right of my own political tastes but the main left candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, is too far the other way and the Parti Socialiste's Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, languishes on the level of support cranky contenders attract in the UK ...

 

 

 

 

France's presidentials: Macron, Le Pen and simple lessons from Serge Gainsbourg's life

If I can work out a way of voting in the French presidential elections (for the first time, thanks to my new status as a dual citizen), I shall go faute de mieux for Emmanuel Macron, head and shoulders above the rest in terms of statesmanship and dependability if rather too right-wing for my own tastes. The impediment for me is that I am registered as a French voter in the UK but find myself in France. Proxy voting seems complicated to say the least. As this article for The National - thanks as ever to the editor for permitting its reproduction here - tries to explain, the far right polemicist Marine Le Pen is the main obstacle to what until recently seemed an easy canter to his second term.

Last night, I watched an absorbing France 3 documentary, slightly behind the 31st anniversary of his death, of the enfant terrible of French music, Serge Gainsbourg. There were some wonderful memories and insights from his daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg, Charlotte's mother Jane Birkin, Jane's dad, Francoise Hardy and others.

But there was also a chilling reminder of what far right can mean in France. Those attached to it, and who would if still alive vote either Le Pen or - worse - Eric Zemmour, would doubtless agree with the hoodlums who saw it as entirely normal to prevent Gainsbourg performing because he - a Jew! - had created a reggae version of the national anthem, La Marseillaise. Me, I love it and I could never vote for anyone who wanted to suppress it ...

 

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Evian, a 'phantom museum' and moves to commemorate the historic accord intended to end Franco-Algerian conflict

 

Vladimir Putin's obscene attack on a neighbouring sovereign state, accompanied by the deliberate targeting of civilians, strikes many as a barbaric criminal enterprise carried out by a deranged dictator without trace of humanity or compassion. It reminds us, too, of an unquenchable global thirst for conflict. The Second World War ended 77 years ago but few visitors to Salut! would struggle to add to my list of the wars that have polluted post-war history: Korea, Israel-Palestine, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen ... and, of course Algeria.

This is my piece for The National, a newspaper published in Abu Dhabi and which I helped to create, on today's 60th anniversary of the signing of the Evian Accords. The editor kindly permits me to reproduce my work here:

 

The signing of the Evian Accords on this day 60 years ago officially ended not only a bitter and bloody war of independence between France and Algeria but 132 years of colonial rule.

Named after the spa resort on the shores of Lake Geneva, where the French and Algerian delegations met to ratify its text, the 93-page agreement was meant to herald a new era of mutual respect and friendship.

From l'Algerie Mon Amour, an art exhibition marking the year of Algerian independence from France. It will continue ar the Institute of the Arab World in Paris until July. This item is listed as 'Baya, Musique, 1974, Gouache sur papier' and was donated by Claude and France Lemand

 

 

Reporting the Troubles. As Putin's odious war on Ukraine rages, journalists remember another conflict

 

 

A few minutes ago, I noticed on Facebook that a great French pal of ours, Hervé Amoric, is among the small army of brave journalists covering Putin's horrendous war, in his case from the western city of Lviv (Putin calls his invasion, and slaughter of civilians, a peace-keeping mission and apologists in the West swallow it whole).

Please stay safe, Hervé, and anyone working with you - I am thinking of poor Oleksandra 'Sasha' Kuvshynova, a young Ukrainian 'fixer' killed with a cameraman yesterday.

Hervé is based in London and Belfast. Few journalists know Irish politics and the story of Northern Irish Troubles better. A second volume of Reporting the Troubles has just been published; if a third edition should ever be planned, Hervé should be encouraged to contribute.

 

French far right in turmoil as presidential election looms

 

Just as I was think the 2022 race for the Elysee was a somewhat quiet affair, it explodes into life with Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, the rival far right candidates, at each other's throats. When Le Pen accused Zemmour of harbouring "a few Nazis" in his Reconquest party, a politician from the more house-trained centre-right observed that she was better placed to know of such things things. This is my look at the state of early campaigning for The National. Thanks as ever to the editor for consenting to its reproduction at Salut! ...

 

 

The French election campaign has come to life with a fierce war of words between the far-right candidates, Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour, that damages the chances of either replacing Emmanuel Macron as president.

Gilbert Collard, a member of European parliament and former French MP who switched camps to become a key aide to Mr Zemmour, accuses Marine Le Pen of “spitting bile” after she said her rival’s party was a melting pot of “traditionalist Catholics, pagans and a few Nazis”.

 

Lord Frost acclaims the honoured Brexit heroes. Is folk music the antidote?

In due course, this post will be about tempting you to explore the pages of my music site, Salut! Live

 

 

The new year begins with Lord Frost of Brexit loudly cheering, and welcoming honours for, the negotiating team that brought us what Boris called his amazing oven-ready deal, leaving the rest of us to suffer the predictable and predicted consequences of the worst act of national self-harm in living memory. One that the unelected Lord Frost saw for what it was when actually involved in a business sector - whisky - that earned export money.

But I shall refrain from naming the guilty individuals and can but guess at what turned the heads of this esteemed peer and that other born-again Brexiter, Liz Truss.

 

Salut! offers Christmas greetings. Terms and conditions apply

The festive season. A time for peace and goodwill to all men, hatchets to be buried, enemies forgiven and the misguided excused.

in that noble spirit. Salut! should rise to the occasion and present its Christmas greetings to one and all.

But there will be exceptions.

This is my list but it may be incomplete - please add your own candidates - and is in no particular order:

Genevieve Legay: painful reminders of one woman's involvement in Gilets Jaunes protest

This was one of the four articles of mine that the National (UAE) has published to mark the third anniversary of France's Gilets Jaunes protest movement. All can be seen by checking the link to my work for that newspaper at this link. My thanks to The National's editor for consent to reproduce my articles here .... 

 

                                        

With her rainbow-coloured peace flag and mild disposition, Genevieve Legay posed no obvious threat to public order when she joined an anti-government rally by the Yellow Vests in the resort city of Nice.

But what happened next, one Saturday in March 2019, made her an unlikely symbol of that French rebellion and resistance to the government and police response.

Although the details remain in dispute, Ms Legay fell during a police charge.

Read more on this subject:

France struggles to contain revival of the Yellow Vest protests three years on

 

A very French revolt: the Gilets Jaunes revisited

 

 

Over the past few months, I have spent a lot of time talking to people about the Gilets Jaunes protest movement that exploded across France three years ago last month. Driven initially by anger at soaring fuel prices, it developed into a much broader anti-government and especially anti-Emmanuel Macron phenomenon and led to the biggest and most violent protests seen on French streets since the 1968 Paris spring.

It eventually fizzled out, stifled by a combination of lockdown and a strong-armed police response. For The National (UAE), I talked to protesters, including an elderly woman who was badly hurt in a police charge in Nice, authors, politicians and analysts and lots of ordinary French people. Look up the series of four articles that have now appeared by going to this link

I will post the pieces here. For now, and to honour a pledge to the person concerned, here is the full transcript of my interview with one of those authors, Khider Mesloub (pictured below). It’s a bit rushed but I will properly translate the questions as I have already done with the answers, and do any necessary tidying up, when time allows. i should add that I strongly disagree with much of his analysis, especially those areas where he appears determined to sound a little like Dave Spart … 

 

 

 

 

Eric Zemmour: France's saviour, a far-right menace or media creation?

 

For those who wonder, I did try when writing this piece for The National to contact Eric Zemmour, the broadcaster and essayist who may or may not run for the French presidency but has dominated pre-capaigning his electrifying presence.

His people vaguely held out the hope a 10-minute telephone interview but nothing came of it despite repeated reminders. A set of questions was simply ignored. Entirely his right, of course. But just so that you know why he was not able to answer some of the points made. As ever, I thank my editor at The National for consenting to the reproduction of my work here ...

A town that would rather forget its place in history has been thrust back into the spotlight as the far right poses a growing threat to Emmanuel Macron, five months ahead of French presidential elections.

Civic leaders in Vichy, the elegant spa resort chosen as the seat of Marshal Philippe Petain’s collaborationist war-time government, have traditionally sought to avoid embarrassing reminders.

Seventy-seven years after France’s liberation from Nazi occupation, the town still has no museum dedicated to the Petain years.

As part of its unwanted legacy, “Vichyiste” is widely seen as a pejorative term in France – except on the far right.

READ MORE

Le Pen proposes referendum on immigration

But with Mr Macron facing not one but possibly two radically right-wing, populist contenders for the Elysee, attention again focuses more on Vichy’s past than its recent designation as a Unesco World Heritage site.