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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: A new political era, pharmacy tunes and Macron’s suntan

From apocalyptic pronouncements to suntan jokes, via private jet rules and pharmacy tunes, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week

Published: 27 August 2022 06:29 CEST
Updated: 27 August 2022 17:16 CEST
Inside France: A new political era, pharmacy tunes and Macron's suntan
Photo by Patrick VALASSERIS / AFP

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

Apocalypse maintenant

As France returns from its summer break, president Emmanuel Macron got la rentrée off to a cheery start by appearing to predict the apocalypse.

In his opening remarks to the first cabinet meeting – which, unusually, were televised – Macron predicted “the end of abundance, the end of insouciance, the end of assumptions – it’s ultimately a tipping point that we are going through”.

And in case anyone was nurturing the delusion that this was merely a tough winter that we face due to energy shortages after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Macron added that this was a long-term trend which is also linked to climate change.

OPINION: Macron’s Churchillian rhetoric provides a vital clue to events in France

It was left to his government spokesman Olivier Véran to attempt to reassure the French that Macron was merely laying out the challenges facing the country in a transparent fashion and that we won’t be living through a live-action version of Mad Max in the months to come (to slightly paraphrase his press conference). 

Here Véran also slips in a revival of the Covid-era slogan tenir ensemble (pull together).

Climate crisis

The Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne is due next week to set out the government’s long-awaited “energy transition”, and she has quite the challenge on her hands – coming up with a plan that will drastically cut France’s energy usage and finally take real action on climate change, while also maintaining the standard of living for the majority of the population.

She may be helped, however, by recent polls that show that climate change is now the number 2 concern of French voters, fractionally behind inflation but way ahead of immigration, crime or terrorism.

It seems that for many people the summer of sweltering temperatures, huge wildfires, storms and the worst drought in 60 years has really brought home the reality of the climate crisis on a visceral level.  

Bronzage 

There was one other aspect of Macron’s speech that caught many people’s eye – his distinctly bronzed appearance.

Even allowing for the fact that he’s been down on the French Riviera for the last few weeks, the president appeared to be unusually deeply tanned.

Private jets and swimming pools

One French proposal that really hit the international headlines this week was a proposal to ban or at least regulate private jets, in response to the climate crisis.

Digging closer into this, and it seems it was really nothing more than some remarks from the Transport minister Clément Beaune.

We’re nowhere near a government policy on this, and Beaune later added that he wanted to work on it on an EU level, so it seems that any action would be years away.

Interestingly, though, the idea seems to have been very popular in France, the country with the highest rate of private jet activity in Europe (according to 2019 figures).

A suggestion by a Green party MP that private swimming pools should be banned because of droughts, however, has been instantly shot down. Perhaps because France also has the highest level of private pool ownership in Europe.

End of summer

Although the government is back (with a bang), schools don’t return until next week, so this is the weekend that many French people will be reluctantly dragging themselves off the beach, packing away flip-flops and contemplating the return to work.

La rentrée really is a national mood in France, even for those who remained at work in August.

Pharmacy fever

And if you’re suffering from post-holiday blues, I can highly recommend heading over to Tik Tok to watch some of these lovely videos of French pharmacy signs set to music.

You may have noticed that the graphics on the distinctive green crosses outside pharmacies are getting more and more sophisticated – from just a simple time and temperature, some of them have become little pieces of entertainment in their own right.

I hope these raise a smile. 

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Political farce, far-right fears and sharks under Paris

This week in France has been heavily focused on politics due to the surprise election, from the soap opera and the memes of the right-wing parties to grumpy faces among the Macronists, plus some light relief in the form of the weird stuff underneath Paris.

Published: 15 June 2024 11:41 CEST
Inside France: Political farce, far-right fears and sharks under Paris

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

Ciotti chuckles

Anyone who says that the French have no sense of humour has clearly not spent any time on French social media this week as the jokes and memes came thick and fast in response to the ridiculous election shenanigans of the once-mighty right-wing Les Républicains party.

You can find the full details here but to cut a long story short, party leader Eric Ciotti announced an election alliance with the far-right, his fellow party bigwigs were horrified and attempted to expel him, Ciotti locked himself inside the party HQ and refused to allow anyone in, leaders held their meeting elsewhere and voted to expel him from the party, Ciotti refused to accept their verdict and posted a video of him showing up at work as normal the following day, insisting he was still in charge.

The whole thing was a gift for anyone with a Twitter account and a sense of humour. 

Sense of humour

The whole idea that ‘the French aren’t funny’ is an oddly enduring trope. I think it’s to do with the fact that French humour is often highly referential, making it hard for foreigners to get if they don’t understand the references.

READ ALSO 5 tips for understanding French humour and jokes

Far right

Funny as the whole Ciotti episode was, it didn’t quite distract from the widespread horror in France at the prospect of a far-right government, and bafflement over Emmanuel Macron’s high-stakes election gamble.

His announcement on Sunday night of a snap election took the country and the media entirely by surprise and seemed to catch plenty of his own party members off guard too.

The election is a gamble – un pari – Macron is banking on the country to reject the far-right at the polls and hand his party back an absolute majority in parliament. This could happen, or Marine Le Pen’s party could win and Macron would then go down in history as the man who handed the keys of government to the far-right. Or – and most analysts think this is the most likely scenario – no party could win an absolute majority and the parliament could be plunged into an even more messy deadlock.

READ ALSO What do the snap elections mean for France?

One of the most outspoken critics has been Gabriel Attal, the 35-year-old prime minister often described as a Macron protege. This photo of him with a face like thunder has become another meme, embodying all those who think that this election is a very bad idea. 

Talking France

We of course talk about the elections in a special episode of the Talking France podcast – listen here. During the election period we will be releasing the podcast on Mondays, and we will also be doing a bi-weekly election breakdown for anyone who wants to stay in touch with the latest – sign up here.

Sharknado

And if you want something to help you switch off from all the politics, I highly recommend the new Netflix film Sous la Seine (Under Paris). Not because it’s good – it’s not, in fact it’s terrible but it’s so bad that it’s actually hilarious. 

One thing that you might write off as dramatic licence is the idea of an enormous underground lake beneath Paris – but this is actually true. In fact, there’s a lot weird shit under Paris . . .

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

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