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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: A nation in shock after knife attack on toddlers

Our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France - and of course the news this week has been dominated by shock and horror at the appalling attack in Annecy, in which four toddlers and two adults were stabbed.

Inside France: A nation in shock after knife attack on toddlers
Candles and flowers at the playground in the Jardins de l'Europe in Annecy, the scene of a knife attack in which four children and two adults were seriously injured. Photo by OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / 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.

Horror

“A nation in shock” is how Emmanuel Macron put it, and that’s a good description for the horror that has gripped France after a man armed with a knife entered a children’s playground and stabbed – apparently at random – four toddlers and two adults. 

READ ALSO Annecy knife attack: What we know so far

The pretty Alpine town of Annecy – best known for its beautiful lake and a popular tourist spot in summer and winter alike – is now trying to come to terms with this appalling tragedy while also fending off the unwelcome attentions of the far-right.

The town’s Green mayor, François Astorg, has pleaded for calm and for the town to be allowed to grieve. Local authorities put in place a ban on demonstrations on the evening of the attack, after calls for far-right activists to gather in Annecy.

Politics

There is of course still a lot that we don’t know about the attacker and his motivations, but the fact that he described himself to police as a “Christian Syrian asylum seeker” was enough for some.

Although he had applied for asylum in France he should more correctly be described as a refugee, since he had been granted asylum in Sweden, where he was living until November 2022. His application in France was rejected because he already had refugee status in Sweden.

Eric Ciotti, the new leader of Les Républicains, immediately declared the attack “a terrorist act” and called for new laws on immigration.

Compared to him, far-right leader Marine Le Pen was relatively restrained in the first hours after the attack, restricting herself to expressions of shock, horror and sympathy for the families – although her deputy Jordan Bardella was a lot less restrained.

Les Républicains – the party of De Gaulle, Chirac and Sarkozy and the dominant force in French post-war politics until 2017 – is traditionally described as a ‘centre right’ party. But this illusion can no longer be maintained under the leadership of Ciotti who seems determined to out-radicalise the far-right. 

Podcast

Our Talking France podcast was made before the attack happened, which is why we don’t talk about it, but there are lots of other topics to consider – such as who ‘won’ the pension strikes and whether this means a strike-free summer, whether French mayors can hike your water bills and how to make the most of summer in France.

Listen here or on the link below.

Marmitegate

And on a lighter note, I really enjoyed the reactions to this tweet – it’s always funny to see how other nationalities view your country’s local specialities and treasured traditions.

I’m a lover of Marmite (which I’m informed was invented by a German, although lots of countries have a variation on the salty yeast spread) but even within the UK it’s not uncontroversial. 

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: French lose the plot, sports stars speak out and Paris prices fall

From the latest on the increasingly crazy French elections to the powers of a president, the influence of sports stars and the lustre of the Olympics, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Inside France: French lose the plot, sports stars speak out and Paris prices fall

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.

Losing the plot?

Welcome to another crazy week in French politics – I’m not saying that this election is getting to me, but the other night I dreamed I was having an argument with far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon. I think I need a holiday.

France might need a holiday too – the political discourse is getting increasingly wild, leading to our columnist John Lichfield to declare that the country has “taken leave of its senses”

Latest polling suggests that Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party would take the biggest vote share at 33 percent, followed by the increasingly fragile leftist coalition Nouveau Front Populaire with 29 percent and then Emmanuel Macron’s centrist group with 22 percent. Those figures would give none of the blocks an overall majority, instead leading to a total parliamentary deadlock.

French election breakdown: All the latest from the campaign trail

Earlier this week ‘Article 16 of the constitution’ was trending on French Twitter; this is the one that lays out the powers afforded to the president versus the prime minister, as people tried to work out what – if any – decisions Macron would be able to take in the final three years of his mandate.

READ ALSO: What does a French prime minister actually do

The satirical magazine Le Canard Enchâiné perhaps sums it up best in its cartoon, showing a man about to shoot himself in the head with a gun labelled ‘Rassemblement National’ and saying “We never tried this before”.

The Canard Enchainé’s cartoon as posted on Instagram

Sports stars engaged

On a more positive note, it’s been nice to see France’s biggest sports stars use their platforms to encourage people to vote, and speaking out against hatred and intolerance and in favour of diversity and inclusion.

I could not disagree more with the Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon, who criticised Kylian Mbappé’s call for people to vote against the far right, saying that footballers should “leave politics to other people”.

The whole point of living in a democracy is that politics belongs to everybody. As Mbappé said: “The Euros are very important in our careers, but first and foremost we are citizens and I don’t think we can be disconnected from the world around us.”

And I admit I’m biased about this – I’ve been a fan ever since I saw him make his professional debut at the age of 18 in my then-hometown of Castres – but I was also pleased to see French rugby legend Antoine Dupont taking a stand on another social issue, appearing on the front cover of LGBTQ magazine Têtu to decry homophobia (although the cover photo did rather make him look like he had forgotten his shades and was squinting into bright sunlight).

Talking France

We of course discuss all the election latest with John Lichfield in the latest episode of the Talking France podcast – and in what was perhaps linked to my need for a holiday we’re also discussing places to visit in France this summer.

Amid warnings of over-tourism we’re taking a look at the places predicted to be most crowded this summer – and suggesting some alternatives. Listen here or on the link below.

Fun and Games

It was thought that people might avoid Paris this summer – but the combination of good deals on the Olympic ticket resale site plus travel and accommodation costs dropping back to seasonal norms has seen a flurry of people booking a last-minute trip to the Games.

Personally I always thought the ‘everyone fleeing the capital’ narrative was a little over-played, but it’s been interesting to see that attempted price-gouging has also largely failed – at the start of the year there were Airbnb listings for frankly insane prices (I saw one that was €7,000 for two weeks), while now costs are largely at the summer average.

Paris travel deals to take advantage of as prices fall ahead of Olympics

Wrestling 

If you’re a Games fan I highly recommend the temporary exhibition at Paris’ Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration (a strong contender for the capital’s best museum, in my opinion) on the history of Olympics and their politics.

It also includes this statue which we’re told depicts ‘wrestling’ at the Olympics in antiquity. If you say so . . .

Photo: The Local

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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