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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Political deadlock, religious clothing and odd-shaped balls

From the desperate political wrangling of Emmanuel Macron to the reasons why France is again talking about Muslim women's clothing, via some train news and the start of Rugby World Cup, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 9 September 2023 08:09 CEST
Inside France: Political deadlock, religious clothing and odd-shaped balls
Photo by FRANCK FIFE / 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.

French secularism (again)

As French schools restarted on Monday we’re back to business as usual – and in France that means another row about ‘religious’ clothing.

The latest version concerns the abaya in schools. There are very real concerns about equality and secularism, and France’s state laïcité is a policy supported by the vast majority of the population – but after a while you can’t help but notice that every single one of these secularism rows focuses on one group – Muslim women and girls.  

99 problems

Meanwhile Emmanuel Macron is facing the exact same problem that he faced this time last year – he has no overall majority in parliament and little chance of building one.

Another round of meetings with party chiefs has produced little of substance and it looks like France is set for another year of parliamentary deadlock, with the government resorting to the constitutional power known as Article 49.3 to force through crucial items like the budget. 

If we’re really in for another four years of this, it’s little wonder that within the political world, attention is already focused on 2027. 

All aboard

But before we get too gloomy about the state of the country, we did get some good train news this week – the Paris-Berlin sleeper service is coming back from December and France plans to launch a rail pass modelled on Germany’s ‘€49 ticket’.

READ ALSO Where can you get a night train from Paris?

Odd-shaped balls

As a fan, I’m obviously very excited about the start of the Rugby World Cup – but also at how much France is embracing it, even the emergency services are (apparently) practising their rugby skills.

I went to a couple of internationals in France last year which organisers were using as test events for World Cup matches and I’m going to stick my neck out and predict that fans will have a really good time. French club rugby always has a great atmosphere so I’m excited for the foreign fans who will get to experience it too.

I’m also strongly rooting for a France win – not only would it be great for Les bleus to win their first World Cup in the year that they’re hosting, but this team really does represent a golden generation of astonishing French talent. When they get it right, it’s like watching poetry in motion. 

Podcast

And we’re happy to be back with the Talking France podcast.

This week is a rentrée-special episode looking at the challenges facing the country as it goes back to work, the reasons behind that abaya ban and why property taxes are rising. Plus our French holiday tips. 

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.

Published: 22 June 2024 10:54 CEST
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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