Liberté, égalité, fraternité

[Pérou Flaquettes]

You may or may not have seen the pics I've posted half and hour ago in the Tour thread, that one is in it. I briefly explain too the reason of the local farmers' anger.

https://www.onetouchfootball.com/sho...=1#post1458277

[Pérou Flaquettes]

In the lawyers' letter, I laughed at: "Les individus ont pu être interpellés, présentés à un officier de police judiciaire, et n'ont déposé plainte contre personne."

I've never ever heard of anyone in a demonstration who's pressed charges against the police after an incident... Well, the lawyers are "dans leur rôle" as the French say, they're doing their job. Not sure it's the cleverest line of defence though.

[ursus arctos]

Having significant professional experience in the area, I have long been of the opinion that French lawyers are the best in the world at making absolutely batshit crazy arguments in support of their clients' positions with a straight face.

I think that the outfits help

[Gangster Octopus]

Are they all for sale?

[ursus arctos]

They are French.

Therefore they are on strike.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Having significant professional experience in the area, I have long been of the opinion that French lawyers are the best in the world at making absolutely batshit crazy arguments in support of their clients' positions with a straight face.

I think that the outfits help

I'm always wary of those "they/we are the best/worst in the world" statements, you'd have to intimately know dozens and dozens of systems and their media to ascertain that, compare etc.

But yeah, I've noticed that they've got worse over the years, especially the "vedettes du barreau" (star lawyers, household names in France). Paul Vergès and Gilbert Collard (now a Front National cunt) were particularly bad at that. They were very high profile and loved to parade in front of the media, the more famous they got, the more they cranked up their rhetoric. Éric Dupond-Moretti, currently France's most famous criminal lawyer arguably, is a bit like that too but not as bad as Vergès and Collard.

[ursus arctos]

That's fair.

Let's say "best in the G8", as I've worked extensively with lawyers from all of those countries.

As it happens, Vergès and Collard would be my Exhibts A and B.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

They are French.

Therefore they are on strike.

The number of strike days in France has considerably reduced since the 1990s though, unionism/militantism is not as strong as it was, re the latest social movements in France in April-June (SNCF but also public sector, it flopped) and last autumn, minor demonstrations and a general lack of support from the public.

It’s often a small, very visible, vociferous, spectacular and sometimes violent minority (compounded by, for instance, farmers blocking roads & setting buildings ablaze, or Black Bloc type of protesters ransacking places like Nantes repeatedly in the last few yrs – Notre Dame des Landes airport project – etc.) people with a huge "capacité de nuisance" (disruptive power) who, well, create serious disruption. The usual suspects: the SNCF staff ("personnel roulant" - drivers and onboard staff) who think it’s perfectly OK to retire at 52-55, the air traffic controllers who demand 8% yearly pay rises, the outrageously privileged Air France pilots etc. All this happening at the heart of Europe what’s more, fuelling the impression that France is permanently on the streets protesting about one thing or another.

The reality is nowhere near as bleak otherwise the country just simply couldn’t function and would grind to a halt every other week, which of course isn’t the case, productivity and the economy aren’t that dire.

We often talk of Scandinavia or the Northern European countries, Germany etc. as social havens with a culture of compromise between employers and management etc. but they do like their strikes there too. In 2017, the Cologne Institute for Economic Research looked at strike statistics across 23 countries between 2007 and 2016, this is what they wrote about France and Denmark:

https://www.thelocal.fr/20180404/don...ture-in-france

Based on the total number of lost work days as a result of strikes per 1,000 employees, France lost an average of 123 days per year but Denmark, in second place, wasn't far behind with an average loss of 118 days of strike per year.

[ursus arctos]

It was a joke, Kev.

Though it does happen to be true w/r/t to the photo in question

[Pérou Flaquettes]

I realised it was a joke... but a little too late, I'd started typing my reply so I thought, what the hell I'll finish making my point over this chronic "gréviculture" (systematically resorting to strike action) as the French say. Anyway, we certainly could have done in the UK with a few more strikes and social protests since the early 2000s believe me.

[ursus arctos]

Not to mention my home country.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

it took me a second to twig that 123 days per year is approximately out of 240,000, not out of 365. It really doesn't seem like a lot at all.

[ursus arctos]

Well, Macron finally addressed the issue, in an artfully worded statement in which he took "full responsibility", spoke of "betrayal" and proclaimed himself ready to "answer to the French people."

Notably, he did so in front of a group comprised entirely of LREM parliamentarians, who weren't allowed to ask questions even if they were disposed to do so.

If Macron really thought that this would put it to bed, he is going to be very disappointed.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Yep, His Majesty Macron 1st has finally addressed his subjects last night, indirectly of course, and safely, not in front of journalists and parliamentarians, but in front of a group of mates at some bash held at the Maison de l'Amérique latine in Paris (a cultural centre). As ursus says, it’s all his fault, he takes full blame for all the shit ("J'assume tout"), everything except birthing Benalla.

He didn’t go into any detail of course (so, lots of questions unanswered), and even added last night, somewhat childishly: « Qu'ils viennent me chercher » = "They can come and get me", a provocative shot across the bow (aimed at the opposition and the media) that seems straight from Astérix & Obélix and makes him sound like a right puerile twat IMO.

Richard Ferrand, one of his most zealous cheerleaders and chairman of the LREM group at the National Assembly, quipped: « Si j'étais titreur, j'écrirais “Merde aux cons !” » = ‘If I was a headline writer, I’d write “To hell with prats!”.’ We don’t know who the "cons" are here but we can hazard a guess (journalists, opposition). Not the sort of joke that will go down well, it trivialises serious issues and just makes the Macronie sound very arrogant and dismissive.



It’s a way for Macron I suppose to act as a lightning rod, sweep the whole thing under the carpet and put that sorry saga to bed, knowing that it will be difficult to really trouble a French president in office constitutionally speaking (eg, he is the only one who’s not obliged to answer a summons from a Parliamentary Inquiry committee. That’s the weakness of the Fifth Republic I suppose in that it does grant relatively strong powers to the president and the executive in general – his strength being that it brings a dose of stability, low risk of having a Trump character or a Frexit ref’).

The debate now in France is starting to turn into a whataboutery tit-for-tat battle between LREM and the opposition ("And what about you, the Socialistes/the Républicains/the Front National/etc., with your countless "casseroles" – scandals – who are you to lecture us?". They have a point, especially as this Benalla case falls way short of the sort of scandals the Macronists are referring to, many much more serious than this one, and which were either neverinvestigated properly or years later, to the delight of the Macronists who point out that this one was "tackled within days" – conveniently forgetting to mention that it was hushed up for over 2 months by L’Élysée until Le Monde’s revelations last week).

The parliament is winding up in a few days and with August round the corner (traditionally a very sluggish month in France, less so this past decade with the Internet and 24-hours news coverage), the whole thing is going to die a slow (temporary) death but Macron will no doubt have been damaged (probably lost 4-5 approval ratings points) by this scandal even if the opposition hasn’t been able to claim any scalp (I was wrong a few days ago, looks like Gérard Collomb will stay as Interior minister but I wonder whether the best damage-limitation strategy wouldn’t have been to admit to a certain level of shithousery and dysfunction and sack a few key people, such as Collomb, to show real intent to reform the system and try to pass off the whole thing as a error of judgement, inexperience or somesuch).

His "the Republic will be exemplary and there’ll be lots of transparency" platform slogan won’t fly anymore, it’s been seriously undermined by a string of low level, but damaging, scandals (the superfluous addition of a costly swimming-pool in a presidential retreat, the €500,000 crockery bill at L’Élysée, his chief of staff’s dodgy dealings etc.) and after this Benalla shitstorm Macron’s lost total credibility on this front, his claims of integrity and all those promises of a "new world" are dead in the water and that has got to be bad news for him for the next elections, especially the 2022 presidentials, as that’s partly the reason why he was elected (along with the other major reason: the scandals that blighted François Fillon’s campaign).

Hopefully, he was a minister under his mentor Hollande and will remember what happened to him and take heed: Hollande sank to unprecedented popularity depths partly for the same reason, he promised to clean up the Augean stables but instead his presidency was riddled with such shit.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Hopefully, he was a minister under his mentor Hollande and will remember what happened to him and take heed: Hollande sank to unprecedented popularity depths partly for the same reason, he promised to clean up the Augean stables but instead his presidency was riddled with such shit.

It's one of the great paradoxes of democracy that we want politicians to clean up corruption, and then if their new system catches someone on their own side, and prosecutes them, we blame the politician who set up the apparatus for being associated with corruption rather than giving them credit for trying to clean up the whole system

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Hopefully, he was a minister under his mentor Hollande and will remember what happened to him and take heed: Hollande sank to unprecedented popularity depths partly for the same reason, he promised to clean up the Augean stables but instead his presidency was riddled with such shit.

It's one of the great paradoxes of democracy that we want politicians to clean up corruption, and then if their new system catches someone on their own side, and prosecutes them, we blame the politician who set up the apparatus for being associated with corruption rather than giving them credit for trying to clean up the whole system

But Macron did not "catch someone on his own side and prosecuted him", he gave him a slap on the wrist in May (2 weeks' suspension + warning) and that was that, he shielded him. Even worse than that in fact, Benalla was never moved away from security duties as per the terms of his warning (quite the opposite, see previous posts) and even rewarded him with serious luxury perks, such as this flat Quai Branly. That's the problem, not that he had a rogue bloke in his staff.

Macron is given some credit for acting quickly but that’s hugely caveated by him hushing up the whole Benalla thing for over 2 months and then, as I've just written, rewarding him after perfunctorily suspending him for 2 weeks in May, but he did so only because he was cornered and had little choice but to act, Le Monde's revelations last week + media backlash and opposition finally waking up. Anyway, I should really write "the system reacted quickly" (justice, parliament) instead of "Macron reacted quickly" as Macron has little to do with it.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I meant Hollande.

[Lang Spoon]

I’d be laughing a whole lot more at the inevitable implosion of the “Centrist” bullshit ball of smoke and ego that is Macronism if it wasn’t for who was waiting in the wings.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

I meant Hollande.

You meant Hollande what exactly? If you don't mind elaborating a bit.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

I’d be laughing a whole lot more at the inevitable implosion of the “Centrist” bullshit ball of smoke and ego that is Macronism if it wasn’t for who was waiting in the wings.

Macron is not ideal as a president that's for sure, but France hasn't reached anywhere near the level of vileness of the Tories or, God forbid, Trump. There's no-one in France at the minute that looks like they'd be worth voting for (in 2022) but it's early days of course, hope springs eternal. This new socialist leader is just a chip of the old Hollande block.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

You meant Hollande what exactly? If you don't mind elaborating a bit.

Didn't hollande bring in laws to crack down on corruption, which ensnared even the guy charged with implementing the laws. I seem to recall that this was held against him at the time, even though it was evidence that Hollande was serious, and that this was a problem that was going to take a while to clear up.

[ursus arctos]

L'affaire Cahuzac

A former minister who led a French government crackdown on tax evasion was sentenced to three years in jail on Thursday for hiding an offshore bank account of his own, in a scandal that deeply embarrassed President Francois Hollande.

I don't recall the anti-Hollande spin, though

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

That article says that the scandal deeply embarrassed Hollande, and that "The verdict marks the end of a saga that shocked France and shook Hollande, who promised as he took power that his government would be beyond reproach after years of corruption accusations that dogged his predecessors." Though from what I remember of Hollande, he may simply have made a mess of dealing with it, and rather than make the most of the situation he probably sat there like a zombie.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

Didn't hollande bring in laws to crack down on corruption, which ensnared even the guy charged with implementing the laws. I seem to recall that this was held against him at the time, even though it was evidence that Hollande was serious, and that this was a problem that was going to take a while to clear up.

He did, and I’ve highlighted progress made in France in the last decade or so several times on here, and under Hollande in particular. It was never seriously held against him though (not by the electorate, but you're right he didn't get enough credit for it), only by a few rogue parliamentarians and politicians who dreaded having nosy inspectors looking into their shady business (such as Fillon, who repeatedly voted against the transparency laws, he was not the only one of course, there is a cultural resistance to it in France shall we say, I've whinged a few times on here on how direly France needs an IPSA body, I'm not holding my breath on this one, it won't come from Macron anyway).

I’ve mentioned on here a few times that Hollande created the Parquet National Financier (Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offences), that's to his credit, and I’ve developped on the progress made in terms of the independence of justice (the process started before Hollande though, in the 1990s), for instance here in this April 2017 post on the French presidential election 2017 thread, where I wrote at length in my point #2 that things are slowly improving in France in this department, and explained the Cahuzac scandal, the most damaging of the Hollande era. This is what I wrote in April 2017 for instance:

Things are slowly improving in France in this department. It might not always seem like that to foreign observers, and indeed to most French people themselves, but transparency and accountability are more present on the agenda that they’ve ever been. And not just on the agenda but also they are become increasingly enshrined in law.

Now, I’m not being hopelessly panglossian here, I know full well that France will never be Scandinavia, this parangon of whiter-than-white politics, but little by little the French political landscape is becoming more ethical, and about time too. I’ll come back to this legal side of things and the tangible improvements in the next part

The signs are very encouraging: in the last 5-6 years, more high-ranking corrupt politicians (ministers, MPs, senior advisors etc.) have been exposed/investigated/forced to resign/formally charged/brought before the courts/handed jail sentences for magouilles financières (financial shenanigans) than in the previous 15 year (list below). Some of these shysters have decided to abandon politics altogether – did they throw in the towel on realising that it’d be difficult for them to thrive in the new, cleaner French political environment? –, others have been sidelined, blacklisted or barred for a while. It’s very doubtful whether, 10 or 15 years ago, these same people would have either made those decisions (to abandon politics or take a back seat) or would have be taken to task/investigated by their party/the authorities in the same way as now. I suspect not. I think many would have soon been welcomed back after being given a perfunctory ticking-off and handed a clean slate, and pretty much been left to continue on their rotten ways.

In this respect, both the attitudes of the general public and the political mores are slowly progressing, too slowly certainly (it will probably take a generation or two to rid ourselves or the most unpalatable corruption-related habits and malpractices currently ingrained in the system) but things are definitely changing for the better. French ways of thinking are less inward-looking and maybe more in tune with what’s happening in some major neighbouring countries, improvements that are increasingly being relayed by the French media (we’ll draw a parallel with the British situation later in the series).

It is slowly seeping into the French mindset that we simply need higher levels of morality at all echelons of politics (I am under no illusion that the top position, the presidential one, will be very difficult to conquer). As the threshold of tolerance towards corruption/financial wrongdoing/impunity is lowering, there are higher expectations and stronger demands for more transparency and accountability in politics.

The situation has evolved positively in France in the last decade, with a relative acceleration of urgency under Hollande (I am no fan of his but credit where credit’s due), with for instance the introduction of structures and legislation that I alluded to in my first paragraph, novelties that have substantially helped to sustain this dynamic for greater integrity and drive these changes. Media pressure and extensive coverage have undoubtedly played their part too, as it is much more difficult to sweep things under the carpet now in the era of relentless 24 hr news channels and Internet ubiquity than previously.

[Pérou Flaquettes]

L'affaire Cahuzac

I don't recall the anti-Hollande spin, though

You're abso right, there was none or hardly any, certainly none from the electorate, voters in France are hugely in favour of more transparency. There were, however, as I wrote in my previous posts a few dodgy, mostly conservative politicians, such as François Fillon and the old guard, old school MPs such as the dreadful Jacques Myard (and Senators in particular) who were vociferous about having more transparency etc. (no wonder!), they chouiné (whinged) that it was not "constitutional", that it was an attack on liberties etc. I'm not sure but maybe they got their media onside (Le Figaro and Valeurs Actuelles) who may have joined the small chorus of dissenters who inveighed against "an intolerable invasion of privacy".

I summarised the Cahuzac case here in a few lines (sorry, another shameless plug for one of my posts).