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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.

Published: 15 July 2023 08:05 CEST
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: 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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