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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Political psycho-dramas, party in the port and Tricolore textbooks

From the latest political dramas (and what they say about a chaotic party) to French binge-drinking, parties and textbooks, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 27 May 2023 08:08 CEST
Inside France: Political psycho-dramas, party in the port and Tricolore textbooks
La Rochelle's players celebrate their European Rugby Champions Cup victory during a parade in La Rochelle. Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / 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.

Psycho-drama

After achieving almost two weeks of relative calm, the French government is involved in yet another political row, although this time most of the drama was created elsewhere. 

Approached behind the scenes and asked if they would consider supporting the government’s proposed immigration bill in parliament, the traditional centre-right Les Républicains party instead opted to launch their own immigration policy via the medium of an interview in the Journal du Dimanche. What they came up with would require changing the French constitution and possibly leaving the EU, and has been described as a “cut and paste from Marine Le Pen’s manifesto”.

It seems that the progress of the immigration bill is blocked for now, but this seems to be more about the internal psycho-dramas of the once-mighty Les Républicains (party of Sarkozy, Chirac and De Gaulle) than about the government’s truthfully fairly modest bill.

Heading for obscurity after securing less than five percent of the vote in the 2022 presidential election, the party gained a new lease of life as the potential power-broker in parliament after the government lost its overall majority. But can a party truly be a power-broken if it either cannot (as with pension reform) or will not (as with the immigration bill) deliver the votes? 

Party in the port

I’m severely jealous of anyone who was in La Rochelle last week as the entire town erupted into celebrations when their rugby team won the European rugby tournament for the second year in a row. 

The scenes from the Vieux Port on Saturday and during the team’s victory parade on Sunday looked like a lot of fun.

Le binge-drinking

Meanwhile, the French rugby league released this joke ‘sick note’ for fans who might have overdone it to present to their bosses on Monday. A handy template if you ever need to write a sick note, it also dispels that myth about the French always remaining moderate drinkers . . .

Tricolore

The below tweet will probably only make sense if you went to a British school in the 1980s and 90s . . .

We discuss the mighty Tricolore in the latest episode of Talking France, along with that immigration row, the great divide between car-free cities and car-dependent rural France, free Olympics tickets and the weird things that happen along the Franco-Spanish border. Listen here or on the link below. 

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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