Among the few star supporters, the citizen movement can count on that of Brigitte Bardot. The former actress went to a meeting of yellow vests, expressing her emotion of being with citizens mobilized for three months.

On February 17 in the middle of the afternoon, the famous actress Brigitte Bardot went to a meeting of Yellow Vests organized in Saint-Aygulf, near Fréjus, in the Var, the day after the anniversary of the three months of mobilization.

Read also: The movement of yellow vests passes the milestone of three months with the act 14

A surprise visit during which the former actress was keen to assert her support for the citizen movement. Showing her emotion of being with citizens mobilized for three months, she said in particular: "You are great [...] Do not let anything go. I support you, thoroughly, thoroughly. "

...

"I support them because they have balls," she said, according to L'Obs [L'Observateur].

 

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https://francais.rt.com/france/59234-je-soutiens-parce-quils-ont-des-cou...

 

Translation by Jules Letambour.

 

 

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The French yellow vests went to Geneva, Switzerland, and quietly protested in front of the Palais des Nations where the UN Human Rights Council meets — to denounce the police violence they have suffered since the beginning of the movement.

It was a symbolic and powerful event: on February 20, nearly 2,500 yellow vests gathered in front of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, where meetings of the UN Human Rights Council are held, to denounce "French police violence".

"We come to pay tribute to our victims and our wounded to denounce the police violence that we have suffered since the beginning of the movement. Some people lost their eyes or had their hands torn off, serious injuries," said Nicolas Mollier, one of the organizers, on the Swiss channel RTS the day before.

The former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Switzerland's Jean Ziegler, came to support the movement and support this action.

After paying tribute to the victims, the Yellow Vests chanted their usual slogan, "Macron resignation!", Before singing a resounding Marseillaise.

Heavily supervised by the organizers, who insisted to see an "extremely peaceful and smooth" event, the rally was held for two hours in a calm atmosphere.

Independent experts from the UN have expressed concerns in mid-February about the behavior of law enforcement in France against demonstrators. This group of UN human rights experts has asked France to "rethink [its] policing policies to guarantee the exercise of freedoms".

 

Read more:

https://francais.rt.com/france/59310-macron-demission-2500-gilets-jaunes...

 

Translation by Jules Letambour

 

 

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Please note that some of the Yellow Vest movement has also been infiltrated at times by "agents provocateurs" (destructors of property) employed by the government to make the movement look bad...

An ad campaign launched by the French government to encourage people to register to vote has hit an embarrassing snag: Twitter won’t run the ads, as the company fears they may violate the new French law targeting fake news.

The Elysee hoped to inspire citizens to register to vote in the European elections ahead of the upcoming deadline by paying for sponsored tweets promoting the hashtag #OuiJeVote (Yes, I Vote). But the seemingly innocuous ad campaign faced an unexpected hurdle: France’s recently-passed anti-fake-news legislation, which places strict rules on online political campaigns. The law states that all political ads must indicate who paid for them and how much was spent.

Fearing that the ad may violate the law passed by President Emmanuel Macron’s own government, Twitter refused to run the ad.

The decision stunned French lawmakers and officials.

“I thought it was an April Fools!” tweeted MP Naima Moutchou.

 

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https://www.rt.com/news/455476-twitter-bans-french-ad-fake-news/

 

 

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Riot police and protesters have fought running battles in the centre of Paris as gilets jaunes anti-government demonstrators in fluorescent yellow vests led street marches over what they called “a crisis” of high taxes and economic inequality.

Less than a week after the fire that destroyed the roof and spire of Notre Dame Cathedral, firefighters rushed to put out multiple small fires around the Place de la République, as motorbikes, bins, bicycles and cars were set alight on roads and pavements. Groups of masked men threw projectiles and police fired teargas. Some rioters in masks smashed the window of a sports shop and ran in to loot it, emerging with bags full of goods.

The interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said on Saturday that Paris could become “the capital of rioting”, suggesting extremist demonstrators planned to attend the street marches. Politicians from Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche party said “black bloc” masked anarchist protesters were present.

The street demonstrations had begun peacefully in Paris on Saturday morning – the latest in five months of gilets jaunes demonstrations that began as a fuel-tax revolt in November and have morphed into an anti-protest movement in response to the government’s tax and social policies.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/20/gilets-jaunes-battle-riot-...

 

 

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Arrested Saturday, journalist Gaspard Glanz, specializing in the coverage of social movements, alsways has had a tense relations with the police.

The arrest of independent journalist Gaspard Glanz, in full act XXIII yellow vests, has attracted a large amount of support on social networks.

Arrested Saturday in Paris, for "participation in a group to commit violence or degrading" and "insulting persons representing public authority", he spent 48 hours in custody and will be judged on October 18 in a Paris court. Meanwhile, he has been forbidden to set foot in Paris on Saturdays until that date, as well as May 1st. This is a decision that his lawyer Raphael Kempf intends to challenge and which, according to him, "undermines the freedom of the press and that of working" of Gaspard Glanz.

Specialising in social movements

For a few years this photojournalist, head of the agency Taranis News, which he founded in 2011, has specialized in the coverage of social movements, including, in recent months, that of the yellow vests.

Diplomed with a degree in criminal sociology from the University of Rennes, he is considered "one of the leaders of the new generation of daredevil journalists who do not hesitate to go where the protesters and police officers 'confront', as described by L'Obs in 2016. This has given him "a dozen scars caused by shooting Flashball", he says. And he has already been arrested three times in the past: during the COP 21 in November 2015, during protests against the labor law in 2016, and in October of the same year during the evacuation of the Calais jungle.

Sued for defaming police with publication on Facebook of a picture of several policemen, with the inscription "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer", the Nazi slogan, he was eventually let off. He was also fined € 500 for stealing a walkie-talkie, an action he has always denied, claiming that the walkie-talkie had fallen from a policeman's pocket.

During this arrest he had also discovered that he was labeled "S" (criminal considered as an "individual likely to engage in violent actions"). His lawyers challenged this charge before the Council of State in February. But their request was rejected. As Gaspard Glanz describes himself as a "street journalist", practicing "urban journalism, for young people", who is interested "in the crowd in general: festivals, demonstrations, rallies", the Parisian police consider him a dark character, "close to the ultraleft" or "zadistes", according to Le Point.

"His highly tense relations with the police are also due to his revelations of police behaviour," adds the Libération. Though he denies any militancy and says he is "independent", he regularly denounces police brutality. He has also provided several video footage that helped compromise Alexandre Benalla. "Nothing to make him popular with the people in power," says the Libération.

 

 

Translation by Jules Letambour.

Read more:

https://www.sudouest.fr/2019/04/23/qui-est-gaspard-glanz-le-journaliste-...

Two days after the pronouncements of Emmanuel Macron, who have generally not convinced the French, the Yellow Vests are meeting in the streets of France for the 24th Saturday in a row

1h37 CET

Protesters begin to gather near Radio France to prepare their "march on the media." The former spokesperson of France insubordinate Raquel Garrido is present. "No to the pejorative or even insulting take against yellow vests and the people in general. Yes to PLURALISM on the air, on the guest side AND on the editorialists comments! "She tweeted on arrival. The procession should start between 12h and 13h30 and go towards TF1 [public broadcaster] before going through CNews, France Television, BFMTV and finally the CSA.

 

Read more:

https://francais.rt.com/france/61464-acte-24-apres-annonces-macron-gilet...

 

by David Studdert 

The weekend just gone, Manifestation 23, marked a seismic shift in the five month battle between the Gilets Jaunes and the French state. The Notre Dame fire has brought into the open the strategic shift in public opinion that has occurred over the winter; shifts all to the advantage of the Gilets Jaunes. While the cold winter months with their looming darkness only allowed us to glimpse two equal parties grinding away at each other in the gloom, the advent of spring and its clear light, reveals how the Gilets are gathering reserves of strength all over France, and how, now, they are slowly winning in Paris as well. The sight of French police surrounding Notre Dame and denying access to its ‘own’ population, starkly illustrates what the state seeks to deny. After all, these sort of monuments are the materiality through which states demonstrates their connection to the population, their right to rule and their own power.

The Neo-liberal state is crumbling and Macron is going be the sacrificial lamb. At this stage he will be lucky to last two months. His clumsy handling of the Notre Dame blaze has outraged and enraged more sections of the French population. Indeed throughout the five months of protest, and despite the wall to wall media propaganda, opinion polls consistently show continued and unwavering sympathy and support of the Gilets Jaunes.

In the sharp light of spring it is clear that Macron’s winter strategy: the Great National Debate, has achieved nothing for the government and more tellingly perhaps, has further revealed Macron’s own incapacity to either change himself or shift course. As one anonymous French state official reportedly said: ‘Mitterrand gave them an extra week’s holiday, but Macron can’t manage anything’. He simply seems unable in any form to communicate with either the Gilets or the people of France. His constant speeches, with their casual insults and lack of empathy, remain one of the best recruitment tools the Gilets possess.

His recent pronouncements continue this trend. His promise to rebuild the cathedral in five years was met with scorn – ‘this is not a railway line’, said one commentator, while his invitation to the world (a typical empty gesture) angered and aroused traditionalists. Indeed, as has been widely reported, his endorsement of cash donations from billionaires, simply provided the Gilets with yet more free sticks to beat him and the state.

Even his big showpiece speech was cancelled when the Cathedral burst into flames. And what was his big announcement? A freeze on hospital and school closures, the index-linking of pensions to inflation and the closing of the École Nationale d’Administration (ENA), the university that produces the country’s political and civil elite, all of which, particularly the last, were seen as too late and totally irrelevant. After all it doesn’t put food on the table or help the people get to the end of the month with any money. As I noted in previous articles, this is typical of Macron, revealing only how his personal authority is slipping away, and strangely enough, how irrelevant he is becoming to the entire debate.

Above all, Macron is guilty of being one of those stupid/intelligent middle class people; the sort neo-liberalism delights in providing for us in many guises: administrators, legacy media editors, heads of departments, councillors, politicians. He is bright, he is buffed, he has aspiration, he can speak fluently on subjects for hours, yet for all of that, every speech he makes simply inflames the situation. And this, coupled with his inability to convey a shred of empathy and his apparent lack of understanding concerning both politics and national history, reveal him to be nothing so much as a messenger boy for the rich and the powerful. Once again none of this escapes the French population.

Clearly Macron much prefers international summits to meeting his own people and in truth his dreams of the future, which is all he has, are as banal as Marinetti’s.

All of this was starkly obvious in the course of the great National Debate. Billed as a listening exercise, every photo showed Macron not listening, but lecturing, while his rolled shirt sleeves made him look like a boy, inexperienced and out of his depth. The state PR is simply not working and one can’t believe that any worker in France was fooled by this nonsense.

So Macron is finished and he’ll be gone soon, but the question remains where does this revolt go from here? For the manner in which his removal occurs, how long it takes and who replaces him, will determine the next stage.

Unfortunately for the French neo-liberal state, Macron’s dismissal will not solve the problem. Firstly because, in an immediate sense, there is no alternative candidate within ruling circles acceptable to the Gilets. Secondly, because it is becoming increasingly apparent that neo-liberalism as a form of governance can only succeed in a climate of profligate personal credit, which, along with rising house prices (not counted as inflation), remains the only method available to Neo-Liberalism for generating wealth among all social classes. They simply are unwilling or unable to give anything to the people.

The dismissal of the Paris police chief and the calls by the state for the police to use greater violence and employ more weaponry, simple confirm the gridlock which has entangled the neo-liberal state and its bureaucratic class. A gridlock which not only depresses and represses the rest of us, but also, within the current ruling dogma, is impossible to transcend; violence and exclusion are all the contemporary state has left.

And what of the Gilets? Well, they are everywhere. Every week Facebook is full of online Gilet house-parties, where films, discussion and reinforcement abound. When they don’t demonstrate they talk.. Nor, despite the toil required, is there any sign the people of France are quitting the movement. My roundabout still has people each week-end, as they have been every week-end through what was a cold and desolate winter, and in this they are simply duplicating events at the other twenty or so occupied roundabouts in Gers and all through France. Recently the group at my roundabout distributed a flyer saying that they were finding it difficult to continue every weekend and could others come and assist them, something which according to locals, met with an influx of new recruits. ‘Nous le faisons pour vous’ is their standard speech as they hand out flyers to passing motorists, almost all of whom appear friendly and sympathetic; something entirely to be expected, given all of them are locals.

Some liberal commentators still persist in presenting the Gilets as supplicant Oliver Twists, begging for more from their superiors table and these same commentators love to speak of the revolt as being the periphery verses the centre. As I have made clear in my previous articles, this is the opposite of the truth.

For the Gilets are showing rising levels of political consciousness; with an apparent endless enthusiasm for debates concerning violence, socialism and their demands – debates which are still, even after five months, managed online with toleration and respect for the diversity of people’s opinions.

Additionally, from a strategic perspective the Gilets have already demonstrated their capacity to bring every major French city to a halt. Toulouse, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Lyon, have all seen large, persistent demonstrations coupled with massive arrests.

Concurrently, smaller provincial centres like Tarbes in the south west continue to host their own weekly demonstrations, something duplicated in similar centres all over France. And with that is rising, both a hatred of the police, particularly the metropolitan police, and a sense of unity and determination among the Gilets. Naturally most of this escapes the metropolitan elite and the official media, preoccupied as they are with head counts and privates on parade. Yet even in Paris, there is considerable evidence of the movement’s growing support, with people increasingly prepared both to manifest at demonstrations and to express sympathy in media interviews, phone-ins and online.

This narrows the state’s room for manoeuvre drastically. In short the invisible hand is now visible. Something clear when the government, in a brief and crude attempt, sought to blame the Gilets for the Notre Dame blaze – accusations howled down and swiftly rescinded.

Slowly, slowly this battle is developing into a life or death struggle for the neo-liberal state and we can, over the next few months, expect them to intensify their violence during demonstrations, inaugurate house arrests, seal of more railways routes and Paris monuments and ultimately intensify various false flag operations aimed at splitting the movement and fermenting inter-communal conflict.

For the Gilets, this sense they are winning will only increase their determination. If I could make a prediction this will lead ultimately to increased demonstrations, perhaps beyond the self-imposed week-end boundaries, as well as larger, longer blockades of railways and motorways. The French word for demonstration is manifestation and that is a useful word here, because in every sense and every action the Gilets are manifesting their unity, their vision for France and their commitment to that vision.

The last week has been a good week for those who believe that neo-liberalism is a con trick, incapable of providing most a reasonable life, or indeed frankly of governing an increasingly sophisticated social world and an increasingly savvy citizenry. The simplistic nostrums of neo-liberalism remain incapable of confronting the huge problems facing us as a species – a simple truth which is becoming increasingly obvious.

Finally, this week, both the Gilets Jaunes and the Extinction Rebellion in London, are revealing that, despite massive surveillance, militarized, violent policing and the state’s propaganda apparatus, contemporary populations are developing new methods and new visions capable of surmounting these obstacles and finally, after this endless decade of stagnation, moving us forward in a positive, inclusive and effective manner.

 

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2019/04/29/tipping-point-the-gilets-jaunes-are-...

 

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Note: Tony Abbott is an idiot.

Emmanuel Macron has declared war against false information. His government even passed a law in December 2018 to prevent manipulation of information. However, since taking office, the President of the Republic and his ministers have accumulated many porkies. Here are one of the five biggest fake news conveyed by the executive power.

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At the conclusion of "the 26 April great debate", Emmanuel Macron said: "When I look at it, France works much less than its neighbours [...] When I compare ourselves to our neighbours, or to others OECD countries, we work less during our entire life, and we work less per year as well. All economic studies show it: the differential that we have for wealth creation, and therefore income for our fellow citizens, is linked to this amount of less work"

Nevertheless, when one looks closely at the OECD figures, the stats are different. In 2018, the average French worker worked 1,526 hours . This figure places France just behind the United Kingdom (1,538) but ahead of Austria (1,511), Sweden (1,474) and even Germany (1,356). On the other hand, when looking at productivity, France ranks ninth in the OECD at 60.21 dollars produced for an hour worked, just behind Germany (60.47) but way ahead of the average of the countries in the euro zone. (53,61).

According to the OECD therefore, nothing allows Emmanuel Macron to affirm that the French work less than their neighbours.

 

Read more:

https://francais.rt.com/france/61719-quand-executif-ment-fake-news-marqu...

 

Translation by Jules Letambour.

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The one who does not do his job is Macron...

 

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A lawyer for the pro-Yellow Vest priest, filmed singing anti-Macron songs following mass, has told RT he will petition the Pope if French prosecutors bring charges against the cleric for insulting the office of the president.

 

Father Michel, a popular priest in the department of Eure in Normandy was filmed leading dozens of Yellow Vest supporters in a post-service chorus of “Macron, moron” and “we’re coming to get you.”  [in French, bien sur]. Shared thousands of times, the clip prompted angry local officials to lodge a complaint against the priest. If charges are filed, he could face legal action for talking politics in a place of worship and for failing to acknowledge the most sacred of French ideals — the separation of church and state.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/461331-macron-moron-priest-investigation/

 

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Awaiting the president's new year wishes, the CGT has criticised the government for organising "the bordel (brothel/bordello)". Secretary of State Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari accused protesters of practicing "blockage" of union rights.

On the 25th day of a bogged-down conflict about retirement and pensions, the tone has hardened between the CGT and the government. All eyes are now turned to the speech of Emmanuel Macron Tuesday 31, as strikers and the opposition await a better initiative from Macron, the head of state.

Transport disruptions continue, in particular in Île-de-France, where a small amelioration has been announced. On Sunday, 4 TER out of ten, 6 TGV out of 10 and 1 Transilien (Parisian commuter train) out of 5 were operating.

 

"Bordello" and "decay"

While no negotiations are scheduled before January 7, Philippe Martinez, the secretary general of the CGT, in the Journal du Dimanche, accused the government of organising "the bordello" and encouraging "the decay" of a social movement, already longer than that of 1995.

"They said to themselves, 'We're going to stick to ultimatums to the workers during the Christmas holidays.' Emmanuel Macron wants to be the man of the new world, but he imitates Margaret Thatcher", Martinez barked: "Macron said that he had changed, that he was ready to listen ... Where is thus the second act of his quinquennium?".

Also in the Journal du Dimanche, the Secretary of State Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, criticised the CGT for practicing unionism "blocking" or even "intimidation" and denounced "the pressure exerted on railroad workers" to participate in the movement.

In this context, the speech of the President of the Republic, who has remained mostly silent on the conflict for weeks — leaving his Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on the front line, to defend the new "universal" system of retirement on points — is awaited.

Emmanuel Macron, then in Ivory Coast, made an unsuccessful appeal for a Christmas truce and announced that he was giving up his presidential pension before going on holidays to Fort Brégançon.

He thus spared himself fireworks, possibly making an offer on the 31st to unblock the situation — unless he opts for a showdown, at the risk of radicalising the opponents.

"There is a determination, an anger that is deep and that'll still be there in January," warned Fabien Villedieu, SUD-Rail delegate, on BFMTV.

 

Macron's greetings expected

Enduring Emmanuel Macron's silence, his troops sent contradictory messages.

The Head of State is expected on a possible adjustment of the pivotal [retirement] age, which the executive plans to introduce from 2022 and to add an extra-penalty: a "red line" for the CFDT, which request withdrawal of the proposal.

The president may also want to better explain [his] point system that confuses the French.

Putting forward the abolition of special regimes may not be enough, as the majority of French people positively supports the protest, while the government has granted [retirement] exemptions to certain professions (police, pilots, dancers of the Opera de Paris, etc.).

The left has asked Macron to withdraw the reform. The right, through the voice of the group of LR deputies to the Assembly Damien Abad, also demands "clarifications" and insists on taking into account [personal] arduousness, a lever for negotiations.

"On December 31, the president will pledge to continue his fight, stay above the fray and let his government continue its decay strategy" by the time talks resume, communications advisor Damien Albessard.

 

Read more:

https://www.sudouest.fr/2019/12/29/retraites-djebbari-denonce-un-syndica...

 

(Rough) translation by Jules Letambour

 

 

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Read also:

 

why I stopped reading mother jones...

 

french malcontents...

 

the top 5 mainstream media myths that perpetuate income inequality — nothing new...

 

 

strikers

The Elysee is trying to avert yet another scandal after President Macron’s party-dominated parliament rejected a plan to extend work leave for parents who had experienced the death of a child, prompting cries of “Shame!” online.

The proposal, put forward by the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) and Agir (the Constructive Right), asked to extend the leave from five to 12 days, but was voted down by government deputies from French President Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche! (LREM) party.

Anticipating the eruption of another national controversy, France’s Labour Minister Muriel Pénicaud quickly stepped in to admit that the government made a "mistake" and promised to find a solution to the issue in the coming days. In an interview with Le Parisien on Sunday, she said the extension to 12 days will "return to the Senate in the form of a government amendment.”

Minister for Relations with the Parliament Marc Fesneau (MoDem) made similar comments. "Let's admit that there was a mistake, it's not worth beating around the bush," he said. But the condemnation from opposition parties and French citizens was swift.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/479992-france-parents-leave-child-death/

 

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The Famar factory, the only French company authorized to produce chloroquine, is currently in receivership. Unions are trying to save workers and are calling on the state to intervene to deal with the Covid-19.

At a time when chloroquine is raising hopes around the world, the only French company authorized to produce the drug is in receivership. The Famar factory in Saint-Genis-Laval (Rhône) is the only site able to produce the chloroquine sold on the French market under the name Nivaquine by Sanofi, a drug usually used against malaria.

The Saint-Genis-Laval site did not find a buyer.

Today, the unions are trying to save the 250 employees of the company threatened with closure. Of the 12 sites of the pharmaceutical group sold by the American investment fund KKR, only the Saint-Genis-Laval site did not find a buyer. The employees then appeal to the State to maintain the activity of the site during this period of crisis.

It seems to me that it would be normal for the State to be able to take control in order to maintain production "It seems to me that it would be normal for the State to be able to take control in order to maintain production and supply the market for be able to stem the health risk that we know if, indeed, nivaquine can be used in treatments against Covid-19 ", indicates Yannig Donius CGT FAMAR Lyon delegate.

For the moment, the Ministry of Economy has not retained the possibility of taking over the Saint-Genis-Laval site. The government authorizes hydroxychloroquine to treat patients affected by Covid-19 Chloroquine should also not be confused with its derivative, hydroxychloroquine, which was put forward by Professor Didier Raoult who heads the Institut hospital- university in infectious diseases of Marseille. It is sold under the name of Plaquenil and prescribed for the treatment of lupus. It will be part of an Inserm clinical trial to test existing drugs against Covid-19.

Proof of the hopes it raises, the government authorized by decree, the prescription of hydroxychloroquine to patients affected by Covid-19. A victory for Professor Didier Raoult who thanked the Minister of Health.

 

Find out more about RT France: https://francais.rt.com/economie/73190-usine-famar-le-seul-fabricant-chl...

 

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Jean Castex’s first three errors

by Thierry Meyssan

Without a doubt, Jean Castex is a brilliant senior civil servant. But that does not make him the right man to become Prime Minister of France. He has not thought about how to restore the social pact in the face of financial globalisation and is satisfied with measures to buy social peace in the short term. As soon as he was appointed, he showed that he did not want to reform the political class, that he was content to fight the pandemic by doing as others did, and that he supported the Maastrichian project conceived during the Cold War.

The French administration works very well on its own. In this sense, it is one of the best in the world. The role of ministers is not to take the place of the directors of central administration who keep the machine running. On the contrary, it is to adapt the administration to the changes in the world; to steer it in the direction imagined by the President of the Republic and approved by the citizens at the time of his election.

The President of the Republic cannot have an opinion on everything. But he must think about Foreign Affairs and Defence, Police and Justice, Money and Taxes. These are the so-called regalian functions. At the moment, they must rethink this whole system in order to re-establish the social contract in the face of a profound change in the structures of society.

Inequalities in wealth have increased considerably. In recent years, the middle classes have melted like snow in the sun and a new social class has emerged, which has appeared in full view of everyone at the Yellow Vests demonstrations. The richest man in the country has a fortune equal to what a minimum wage earner cannot earn grossly in a million and a half years. This astronomical gap returns the country to a medieval organization and makes it impossible for democracy to function.

Since President Jacques Chirac’s stroke on September 2, 2005, there has been no pilot in the plane. In the three presidential elections of 2007, 2012 and 2017, none of the elected candidates presented a vision of the country, just sectoral measures. Deprived of a president worthy of the name, France has therefore been adrift for 15 years.

The new French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, is a very high-ranking civil servant whose efficiency and attention to others is praised by everyone. But he is not a politician capable of setting new objectives and rethinking the architecture of the system.

His chief of staff, Nicolas Revel, is a ferocious Atlanticist. He is the son of academician Jean-François Revel and journalist Claude Sarraute. The former was the principal agent of the National Endowment for Democracy in France. The second was a columnist for Le Monde. With humor, she applied herself to ridiculing the workers’ unions and valorizing societal struggles.

The record of Jean Castex’s early days at Matignon is disastrous. In this article, I will point out his first three decisions in terms of government organization, response to the pandemic and European policy.

1- The reform of ministerial cabinets

As soon as his government was appointed, the new Prime Minister reformed the restrictive rule imposed by his predecessor on the composition of ministerial cabinets. He increased the number of political staff from 10 to 15. Indeed, the ministers in Édouard Philippe’s governments complained that they did not have a team large enough to control the central administrations. What was the use of their 10 collaborators? To respond to the public and to improve their image.

Admittedly, ministers are not elected and are therefore accountable only to the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic, not directly to the voters. But since everyone thinks first of his or her career and then of his or her function, 10 public relations assistants are not too many.

Under these conditions, it was not necessary to create 5 additional posts for each minister, but to ensure that the staff hired was in the interest of the government, not the minister’s future. Indeed, without prejudging what each will do, it is obvious that Jean Castex does not want the advisers to interfere with the administration, but to inform the ministers on the technical aspects of the files. It is only a small step forward that will not solve the problem.

2- Mandatory masks

Just before being appointed Prime Minister, Jean Castex was charged with a mission on ending lockdown after the Covid-19 epidemic. He is therefore supposed to have thought about the prevention of this disease.

While the previous government had declared that masks were of little use, Jean Castex made them compulsory. Public opinion misinterpreted this change in policy in terms of the availability of these masks: when there were none, they were useless; when they were there, they became mandatory.

In reality, eight months after the start of the global epidemic, we still do not know how this virus is transmitted and therefore how its spread can be prevented. The difference in the instructions is not due to the availability of the masks, but to the willingness of the new government to show that it is taking matters into its own hands. This is not a medical measure, but a way to reassure oneself.

Remember, when the virus arrived in the West, all the authorities said that it was spread by contact via solid surfaces. There was hysteria in Europe about door handles. Touching a doorknob and putting your hand to your face was enough to risk immediate death.

It had been discovered that the virus could survive a few hours on doorknobs and even two days on cardboard. The conclusion was that letters and packages should be stored for 48 hours before being opened. Today, these instructions seem silly and no one follows them. However, scientifically speaking, nothing has changed. We know no more about the modes of contamination today than we did yesterday. We have only noticed that there seems to be no transmission via solid surfaces. It is therefore "believed" to be transmitted directly through some mysterious human liquids. The commonly accepted "opinion" is that the disease is transmitted through respiratory droplets. It is therefore advisable to wear a mask. But this belief is no more certain than the previous one.

I remember that the same was true during the AIDS epidemic. The retrovirus had been identified in blood and semen. It was concluded that it could be transmitted by mosquitoes and fellatio. For three years, health authorities in many countries increased prevention messages to that effect. Today, we know that they were wrong. AIDS is not transmitted by mosquitoes or fellatio.

The mistake is to believe that it is enough to catch a virus to get sick. The human body is designed to live with many viruses. Most of the time, it knows how to protect itself from them. Covid-19 is a respiratory disease. It is therefore transmitted like other respiratory diseases: through the air. If this is the case, the only useful masks must be airtight, like gas masks used by armies or P4 laboratories. Surgical masks, on the other hand, are false protection because they do not adhere to the skin and allow air to pass through in many places.

In the case where Covid-19 is transmitted like all other respiratory diseases - which is a priori the most probable hypothesis - the prevention must be to ventilate closed spaces. This is what the WHO declared at the beginning of the pandemic.

However, another problem arises. In recent years, air conditioning systems have been installed in many buildings. If the air-conditioned air absorbs vapours from contaminated water, all other people breathing in the air may be contaminated. The outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease (a serious bacterial infection of the lungs) at the 1976 American Legion Convention in Philadelphia is remembered. The same disease was similarly transmitted in 2000 to patients at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, shortly after it opened. The entire air-conditioning system in this gigantic, brand new hospital had to be overhauled.

A distinction must be made between air-conditioning systems that expel air outside and those that operate in a closed circuit, possibly spreading the disease throughout the establishment. Contamination in the slaughterhouses, which are closed-circuit, low-temperature air-conditioned areas, suggests that this hypothesis should be taken very seriously.

To consider this hypothesis is to consider admitting that many modern buildings need to be rehabilitated, as was done with the Pompidou Hospital. These are substantial budgets comparable to those spent on asbestos removal from buildings.

For a senior civil servant, it is better to ignore this issue. Do not change anything, act like other States and make it compulsory to wear a mask.

3- The Hamiltonian Moment

The Franco-German project of Chancellor Helmut Köhl and President François Mitterrand was conceived during the Cold War. It was set out in the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and continues inexorably. The strategic objective is to build a supra-state structure capable of neutralising the divergence of interests between the two countries and of competing economically with the United States, Russia and China. Inexorably, the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place one by one, as was the case with the Constitutional Treaty.

Given the opposition of many European peoples to this construction under US control, the current steps are difficult to take, but the Covid-19 outbreak allows the German and French leaders to act in health panic. This is the Hamiltonian moment, in reference to the way Alexander Hamilton turned his country from a system of cooperation between independent states to a Federation. During the period 1789-95, when he was the 1st Secretary of the United States Treasury, he had the debts incurred by the member states during the War of Independence taken over by the federal government, creating their dependence. However, it was not until seventy years later, when the southern states refused the single customs duties that the federal government tried to impose on them in the interests of the northern states, that federalism proved to be a straitjacket, leading to the Civil War.

Following one of the longest summits of EU Heads of State and Government, a EUR 750 billion plan was adopted by the European Council to facilitate post-Covid economic recovery. It will not be financed by a devaluation of the euro, as only 19 out of 27 Member States are members, but by 30-year loans. It should therefore be, if not impossible, at least very difficult to organise exits from the Union along the lines of the United Kingdom over the next 30 years.

Initially, when companies receive European grants or loans, everyone will be delighted. But when things get better and we see that we have been alienated for 30 years, the revolt will rumble.

This plan is presented as an emergency measure in the face of a terrible crisis. It is merely a communication package, as evidenced by the fact that, once adopted by the Council of Heads of State and Government, it has been sent back to the European Parliament and the national parliaments, which will not take a decision for months. Throughout this period the so-called "emergency" aid will be blocked.

The plan is accompanied by a new EU budget for the next seven years. It reveals the true nature of this union: for example, while the new "European Defence" was being communicated, its defence budget is being halved without explanation.

It is this sleight of hand that Jean Castex has just endorsed, putting the dream of power of Kohl and Mitterrand, then Merkel and Macron, before the will of independence of the peoples. It is a choice of extreme gravity that has already been shattered on the two occasions when France alone, and then Germany alone, attempted it with Napoleon and Hitler. In the current version, the Heads of State of the two countries agree among themselves, but probably not their peoples, and even less so those of the other countries concerned.

Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex have agreed instead of the French to chain the country to the EU for 30 years in order to recover EUR 40 billion. But for what purpose? To reform the way work is paid and to bridge the social gap between the ultra-rich and the rest? To compensate the French people whose work has been destroyed by imposed confinement? Or to save time while preserving social peace? Unfortunately, these two men do not want to change anything and this money will be spent at a complete loss.

Thierry Meyssan
Translation 
Roger Lagassé

Read more:https://www.voltairenet.org/article210605.html
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The Argentine football icon died on Wednesday at the age of 60 of a cardiac arrest. His death prompted a flood of tributes from around the world, including a controversial homage from French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Venezuelan government has taken exception to Emmanuel Macron’s politicised tribute to football legend Diego Maradona.

In a statement released by the Elysee Palace on Wednesday, Macron suggested that Maradona’s friendships with “Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez will taste like a bitter defeat,” because it was on the pitch that the footballer “made the revolution".

Reacting to Macron’s remarks on Twitter, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza suggested that although “Macron and his advisers wanted to deploy their poetic prose to send off the great Diego,” they ended up dishonouring his ideals and struggles.

El señor @EmmanuelMacron y sus asesores quisieron desplegar prosa poética para despedir al gran Diego. Sin embargo, deshonran sus ideales y sus luchas. La única derrota es la de una clase política que tiembla ante el uniforme amarillo de los trabajadoreshttps://t.co/0YjExqQ3yo

— Jorge Arreaza M (@jaarreaza) November 26, 2020“The only defeat is that of a political class which trembles before the yellow uniform of the workers,” Arreaza quipped, referring to the Yellow Vests movement, which has carried out large-scale protests in France over the past two years, and has been compared in its scale and impact with the demonstrations of May 1968.

Prompted by the policies of Macron's government, including austerity measures, the introduction of a new fuel tax and a simultaneous repeal of a wealth tax on France’s richest people, the Yellow Vests protests forced the government to repeal part of its neo-liberal agenda, including a freeze on a planned fuel tax hike, an increase in the minimum wage and the cancelation of a tax increase on low-income pensioners.

In later life, Maradona maintained friendships with many of Latin America’s social democratic, democratic socialist and communist leaders, including Peronist President of Argentina Nestor Kirchner, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, and Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Maradona’s political causes also included support for Palestine, opposition to the US-led war in Iraq, support for Iran, and a war of words with the late Pope John Paul II over the discrepancy between what the Catholic Church says about the need to help the poor and its own opulence.

 

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/society/202011281081303935-macron-infuriates-venezuela-with-bizarre-maradona-tribute/

 

 

Meanwhile:

 

Protesters throughout France have shown up for rallies against a controversial draft law on public safety, under which filming a police officer on duty may result in a hefty fine. Critics say it fosters impunity for misconduct.

The protests were organized in many large French cities, including Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Brest and Nice, with thousands participating despite Covid-19 concerns. The main event is happening in the Place de la République in the capital.

PARIS - Très forte mobilisation pour la #marchesdeslibertes contre la #LoiSecuriteGlobalepic.twitter.com/VFe2pGvDSY

— Clément Lanot (@ClementLanot) November 28, 2020

 

The demonstrators are voicing their anger over a draft law on public security, which was approved by the lower chamber of the parliament this week. Article 24 of the bill bans filming of police officers on duty with an intention to harm them. Lawmakers who voted for the bill are among the officials who were shamed by the protesters.

Sur le trajet de la #marchesdeslibertes, les portraits des députés qui ont voté pour le projet de loi sécurité globale.Les gens s’arrêtent, prennent en photo, commentent. Un homme à ses amis « j’avais voté pour faire barrage...c’est la dernière fois. »#StopLoiSecuriteGlobalepic.twitter.com/y3fGKmHHiK

— Sihame Assbague (@s_assbague) November 28, 2020

 

The reasoning behind the provision, which introduces a fine of €45,000 ($53,450) or even a one-year jail term, is that members of the force need to be protected from doxxing and online harassment. Critics say it curtails journalistic freedoms and would be used to intimidate people who want to expose police brutality and other forms of misconduct.

Beaucoup de monde aujourd'hui à #Brest !Tous et toutes sont là pour la #marchesdeslibertes, que vous pouvez suivre avec nous en direct sur https://t.co/59PfKEJ3nH ainsi que sur nos réseaux sociaux #StopLoiSecuriteGlobale#PPLSecuriteGlobalepic.twitter.com/Y60K9n0ekq

— L'insoumission (@L_insoumission) November 28, 2020

 

The protests were organized by unions, but they have many supporters. The Yellow Vests movement, which was sparked by growing social and economic inequality and for months remained a major problem for President Emmanuel Macron, is among them. 

 

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/508106-france-protest-filming-police/

 

 

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The speaker of French President Emmanuel Macron's ruling party has said the government is dropping part of a controversial bill curbing the right to film on-duty police – which drew huge public anger – and will re-draft it.

Christophe Castaner, president of La Republique en Marche in the National Assembly, told the press on Monday that the government recognized "misunderstandings" around article 24 of the global security bill.  

Castaner said article 24, which prohibits the filming of on-duty police officers, of the law on comprehensive security would be removed and rewritten for future submission. 

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/508248-france-security-law-police-filming/

 

 

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