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TODAY IN FRANCE

Aujourd’hui: What’s happening in France on Monday

Welcome to Today in France, our daily roundup of the news, talking points and latest info from France.

Published: 9 November 2020 17:13 CET
Aujourd'hui: What's happening in France on Monday
Photo: AFP

French teaching unions have called for a nationwide strike tomorrow in protest at the anti-Covid measures, which they say are too lax. Since the beginning of the pandemic, France's schools have seen a range of different measures from total shutdown to a mixture of in-person and online teaching, as well as strict rules on mask-wearing in class.

The strike comes as the health situation in France becomes increasingly grim, and over the weekend deaths from Covid-19 topped 40,000. We've been looking a little more closely at the latest numbers so here’s a more detailed breakdown of the data on deaths, hospitalisations and case numbers.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe is normally the site of a military parade on November 11th. Photo: AFP

Health measures and lockdown also mean that France’s Armistice Day commemorations on Wednesday will be greatly scaled down, although the day is still a public holiday. If you want to pay your respects anyway, you can make a donation online or wear a bleuet (cornflower) which is the traditional flower of remembrance in France.

In the news

The shooting of a Greek Orthodox priest in Lyon – initially feared to be a terrorist attack – has been revealed to be the result of a domestic dispute with the shooter alleging that the priest had had an affair with his wife.

“The priest is very into sex, and he is very adventurous with the ladies,” a police source close to the inquiry told French daily Le Parisien.

Around the world

Of the course the big news of the weekend came from across the Atlantic, Emmanuel Macron has congratulated US president-elect Joe Biden on his election victory, while many politicians in Paris have also said 'welcome back' – a reference to Biden's pledge to return America to the Paris Accord to deal with climate change.

 

On the web

And video clip of the weekend has to be this one, of the guy dubbed ‘Omelette Man’ crashing a French TV interview.

 

I defy anyone to watch that clip without a smile, but it’s also reawakened an old question – why do people think that the French go ‘hon hon hon’ when they laugh?

Language learning

And our French word of the day is a great phrase for when people will just not give up, so that might also be applicable to a certain figure on the world stage.

For more French words, phrases and colloquialisms, head to our Word of the Day section.
 
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TODAY IN FRANCE

France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

France has paved the way towards paying reparations to more relatives of Algerians who sided with France in their country's independence war but were then interned in French camps.

Published: 16 May 2023 08:29 CEST
France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

More than 200,000 Algerians fought with the French army in the war that pitted Algerian independence fighters against their French colonial masters from 1954 to 1962.

At the end of the war, the French government left the loyalist fighters known as Harkis to fend for themselves, despite earlier promises it would look after them.

Trapped in Algeria, many were massacred as the new authorities took revenge.

Thousands of others who fled to France were held in camps, often with their families, in deplorable conditions that an AFP investigation recently found led to the deaths of dozens of children, most of them babies.

READ ALSO Who are the Harkis and why are they still a sore subject in France?

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 asked for “forgiveness” on behalf of his country for abandoning the Harkis and their families after independence.

The following year, a law was passed to recognise the state’s responsibility for the “indignity of the hosting and living conditions on its territory”, which caused “exclusion, suffering and lasting trauma”, and recognised the right to reparations for those who had lived in 89 of the internment camps.

But following a new report, 45 new sites – including military camps, slums and shacks – were added on Monday to that list of places the Harkis and their relatives were forced to live, the government said.

Now “up to 14,000 (more) people could receive compensation after transiting through one of these structures,” it said, signalling possible reparations for both the Harkis and their descendants.

Secretary of state Patricia Miralles said the decision hoped to “make amends for a new injustice, including in regions where until now the prejudices suffered by the Harkis living there were not recognised”.

Macron has spoken out on a number of France’s unresolved colonial legacies, including nuclear testing in Polynesia, its role in the Rwandan genocide and war crimes in Algeria.

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