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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Le Pen, hip-hop and French village mayors

From the political fall-out of the riots to French village life and some TV recommendations, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Inside France: Le Pen, hip-hop and French village mayors
French hip-hop pioneers JoeyStarr and Kool Shen are the subjects of the drama Le Monde de Demain. Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT / 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.

Far-right on the march

As the dust settles from the riots and the clean-up begins, we’re seeing a lot of hot takes on what it all means, and one of the most common is that they make a Marine Le Pen presidency an inevitability.

I was pleased to read the opinion from our columnist John Lichfield that this is far from inevitable, even with the caveats that of course predicting the results of an election in four years’ time is very difficult.

Polling does suggest that in short term Le Pen and her far-right party Rassemblement National have benefited politically from the social unrest, but interestingly she has mostly achieved this by saying very little. That was also her strategy during the pension protests, when she was conspicuous by her absence from most of the debates.

Her ‘dédiabolisation’ strategy is basically to say little and ensure her MPs turn up in parliament, dress smartly and don’t say anything overtly racist. 

And it seems to be working for her – but if she wants to run for president again in 2027 (and every sign indicates that she does) then surely at some point she will have to explain her policies to the French people? And try to present an economic plan that comes somewhere close to adding up?

Jardin-travail 

The Local has been partly produced from the Charente ‘branch office’ this week – aka our extremely overgrown garden in the pretty south-west département which also encompasses the lively town of Angoulême, best known for its cool street art and annual comic book festival. 

Among the many nice things about small villages in France is going for an evening stroll and bumping into the mayor, who welcomes you to the commune. Anne Hidalgo never did that . . .

READ ALSO Why are village mayors so important?

French viewing and listening

The Talking France podcast is now on its summer break, we’ll be back in September, in the meantime we have a year’s worth of previous episodes to catch up with here

Hip-hop

If you’re looking for more France-based entertainment I really enjoyed the mini-series Le Monde de Demain (Reign Supreme), a based-on-a-true-story drama about the growth of hip-hop in France in the 1980s. Originally made by Arte, it’s also now available on Netflix.

The drama is great in its own right with amazing music and fabulous 80s fashions (especially the main character’s mullet) but it felt especially nice to be watching something about the Paris banlieues that wasn’t about riots, crime and poverty but instead showcases the creativity and energy that is also found in the suburbs.

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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