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    Looks like they had a micro interpreting budget at the FN convention... (turns out that the woman who did the simultaneous interpretation, one Patricia Chagnon, isn't a professional interpreter at all but an FN regional councillor who moonlights for Russia Today. And I suppose they've always been more fluent in German at the FN...).


    https://twitter.com/Alexsulzer/status/972513409559351296
    Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 14-03-2018, 21:46.

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      https://twitter.com/Alexsulzer/status/972513409559351296

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        .

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          https://twitter.com/Hugoslav/status/...561738887168

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            https://twitter.com/AmaliaHeyer/stat...587311558657

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              fucking struggling here after my initial bout of euphoria (ONE tweet properly embedded, yee haw), it's telling me that "my message is too short, please lengthen etc. or that "I've already just posted the same" or something like that. I've got another 4 tweets to embed and am determined to do it even if that means using all the servers' capacity for tonight. OK, Tweet Embed Test # 114...

              https://twitter.com/AmaliaHeyer/stat...587311558657

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                https://twitter.com/AmaliaHeyer/status/972571587311558657

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                  https://twitter.com/Hugoslav/status/972514561738887168
                  Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 14-03-2018, 22:00.

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                    Haha, Front National interpreter thought Bannon was talking of Tom Cruise! You've got to hand it to them, they are fucking useless in every fucking thing they do (a bit like me tonight with embedding tweets then)

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                      https://twitter.com/Hugoslav/status/972516849865908226

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                        https://twitter.com/Hugoslav/status/972528391508414465
                        Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 14-03-2018, 22:08.

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                          She’s special

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                            She seems very happy with her performance though:

                            https://twitter.com/ChagnonPatricia/status/973131661629100032

                            "les aléas du direct qui font le charme des interventions spontanées ", that's a funny one...

                            Well, not her fault I suppose, clearly English is not her strongest suit, but she should have turned down the offer and asked the FN to get a professional interpreter instead, not try to wing it and risk ending up doing a crap job, which is what happened of course (shows how skint they are, they clearly wanted to do it on the cheap. And also shows how underrated simultaneous interpreting skills are, it's a proper job...)
                            Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 14-03-2018, 22:24.

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                              After two days of questioning in police custody, Sarko has been placed under formal investigation for getting tens of millions in illegal campaign contributions from Ghadaffi (though unlike virtually everyone else under garde á vue he got to spend the night between days one and two at home).

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                                I wrote a bit about this Sarkozy-Gaddafi saga here, the infamous Bedouin tent incident, Sarkozy’s then wife being nearly sexually assaulted by Gaddafi in his Tripoli bunker etc.

                                It is quite a story this one, not your usual financial scandal, many dodgy characters, strange deaths, dramatic twists etc.

                                There’s little doubt Sarko was on the take but proving it beyond doubt will be another matter. The investigators are said to have some serious and corroborating evidence (eg a diary that belonged to former Libyan prime minister Shukri Ghanem detailing a series of transfers to Sarkozy's campaign for over €6.5m) but Ghanem fled the country in 2011 and was found drowned in the Danube in Vienna in July 2012. A heart attack, apparently. So, how much this document is worth is anyone’s guess. Another key Lybian witness, B. Saleh (former Gaddafi’s main former banker), was seriously injured last month in a gun attack in South Africa where he fled from France a few years ago.

                                Another superb infographic on this complex case from the excellent Les Décodeurs investigative team (Le Monde):

                                Comprendre l’affaire de Sarkozy et la Libye en 2007

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                                  Pleased to see that Hergé is using his skills for good in the afterlife . . .

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                                    Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                    After two days of questioning in police custody, Sarko has been placed under formal investigation for getting tens of millions in illegal campaign contributions from Ghadaffi (though unlike virtually everyone else under garde á vue he got to spend the night between days one and two at home).
                                    Re the GAV, that's totally understandable, the investigators know him so well now that he's become like a mate to them, so they let him sleep at home:

                                    Les dix affaires dans lesquelles Nicolas Sarkozy est cité ou mis en cause (and they've just uncovered a new one... Chirac et Sarkozy accusés dans un scandale de vente d’armes en Afrique du Sud).

                                    • Affaire du financement libyen de la campagne de 2007
                                    NIVEAU D’IMPLICATION : PLACÉ EN GARDE À VUE

                                    • Affaire des comptes de la campagne de 2012
                                    NIVEAU D’IMPLICATION : MIS EN EXAMEN

                                    • Affaire des écoutes, dite aussi « Azibert »
                                    NIVEAU D’IMPLICATION : MIS EN EXAMEN

                                    • Affaire Tapie
                                    NIVEAU D’IMPLICATION : CONCERNÉ

                                    • Affaire de Karachi
                                    NIVEAU D’IMPLICATION : TÉMOIN ASSISTÉ

                                    • Les hélicoptères du Kazakhstan
                                    NIVEAU D’IMPLICATION : CONCERNÉ

                                    • Affaire des sondages de l’Elysée
                                    NIVEAU D’IMPLICATION : CONCERNÉ

                                    • Affaire Bettencourt
                                    NIVEAU D’IMPLICATION : MIS EN EXAMEN, PUIS NON-LIEU

                                    • Pénalités des comptes de campagne
                                    NIVEAU D’IMPLICATION : PLACÉ SOUS LE STATUT DE TÉMOIN ASSISTÉ, PUIS NON-LIEU

                                    • Voyages en jet
                                    NIVEAU D’IMPLICATION : NON-LIEU

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                                      The Poulidor to Sivio's Anquetil

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                                        He’ll be back though, won’t he? Back in the Big House even. And not the jail.

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                                          Only a few days ago, he said he wanted to come back (although the Républicains members elected their new leader before Xmas, a carbon copy of Sarkozy basically, but in a rural "France profonde" way) and he is still reasonably popular among the Républicains electorate but surely it’s game over for him now, he’s toast, this is going to drag on for a while and there’s the Bygmalion case to come too, a big scandal as well, damning evidence against him. Two days ago, he said he was quitting politics to fight this case (mind, he’d said that before, that he was packing it in).

                                          He went on prime time television on Thursday evening for 25 intense minutes and really hammed it up, great performance, worthy of a Comédie Française award, it was entertaining, he mimicked the accent of one of the many corrupt characters of this saga, the French Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, nearly shed a tear when he heaped encomiums on his "great friend" Brice Hortefeux (another dodgy protagonist of the saga), "I love him dearly" etc., sweated profusely etc. TV comedy gold.

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                                            Jesus Christ…

                                            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...rating-heroic/

                                            Far-Left French politician arrested for tweets celebrating heroic officer's death in siege

                                            French far-Left politician has been arrested for apparently celebrating the death of a gendarme hailed as a hero for offering himself in place of a hostage taken by an Islamist gunman. Stéphane Poussier was detained after tweets posted from his account said: “Every time a gendarme gets whacked… I think of my friend Rémi Fraisse,” an environmental protester who died after police threw a concussion grenade during demonstrations in 2014.

                                            “And this time it was a colonel, great! It also means one less vote for (President Emmanuel) Macron,” said the tweet, which was quickly deleted and the Twitter account closed after it sparked an outcry.

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                                              Poussier has been given a one year suspended sentence for justifying acts of terrorism.

                                              In the meantime, Sarko keeps the hits coming

                                              https://twitter.com/BBCBreaking/status/979365633707134981

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                                                1/2

                                                [follow-up from the convo on Corsican politics in the thread “Des pains, du vin, du Boursin: French football 2017-2018”]

                                                Corsica already benefits from a form of Devo light (in some areas, eg taxation) but want Devo max and then, within a generation, independence.

                                                Officially the autonomist-nationalist coalition running the Corsican Assembly since December 2017 doesn't want fully independence but Paris fears that they will seek it within 10-15 years. (As stated by Jean-Guy Talamoni, the nationalist President of the Assembly. The other part of the coalition, the autonomists, are at odds with the nationalists on this, they simply want greater self-rule). Autonomy was the central plank of their joint platform in the December elections, particularly for areas such as education, work/employment and the property market.

                                                A number of the coalition’s demands would mean modifying substantially the constitution. Paris is open to some minor changes and is indeed currently discussing in parliament revising parts of the constitution (see below) but the central gvt is basically saying that the bulk of those demands conflicts with fundamental constitutional tenets, such as article 1 (the indivisibility of the Republic) and 2 (language).

                                                Below is a summation of what Corsican leaders want, in red (# from JDD) and in black my explanations and take on it.

                                                #1 Davantage de pouvoirs législatifs et réglementaires. Les nationalistes veulent plus d'autonomie politique : ils veulent pouvoir établir leurs lois et leurs règles dans tous les domaines autres que régaliens (la justice, la sécurité intérieure et extérieure, la monnaie et le budget de l'Etat). Ce qui donc veut dire une possible autonomie sur l'immobilier, l'environnement, le travail, les écoles, etc.

                                                #2 Une autonomie fiscale. Les indépendantistes corses veulent pouvoir fixer eux-mêmes impôts et taxes. En 2016, ils demandaient déjà la "territorialisation" de la TVA et un transfert de la fiscalité du patrimoine ou de celle sur le revenu. Avec une promesse faite aux Corses : pas d'augmentation des impôts par rapport à ce qui existe actuellement. Mais l'île de Beauté possède déjà (depuis 1811 et Napoléon) un statut dérogatoire sur de nombreuses taxes, comme une taxation réduite sur le tabac, aucune sur l'alcool, d'autres avantages pour les ménages, ou les entreprises, etc.


                                                The autonomist-nationalist coalition wants a constitutional reform and (more) fiscal autonomy. Which means that Corsica would have to be mentioned in the French Constitution and probably benefit from a new (special) status.

                                                This mention of Corsica in the constitution is the only point Macron is happy to discuss (if no special status), possibly because there have long been calls from mainland France for some sort of constitutional recognition of the Corsican identity (but the main issue remains: how to legally and meaningfully enshrine this “mention” of Corsica in the constitution without giving the island too much of a special status and setting precedents).

                                                This mention of Corsica in the constitution would be part of a larger plan by the Macron gvt to modify the constitution, all this is currently being discussed in parliament, Corsica being one of the many items re constitutional reforms (which is mostly about reducing the number of parliamentarians by one third, shortening the length of their mandat – term of office –, introducing the proportional in votes and giving local governments different roles and remits, which dovetails nicely from Macron’s viewpoint with what the Corsican leaders want, more power for their own assembly. But this constitutional revision is ambitious and fraught with problems & legal hurdles so only a fraction of the overall plan, when finalised, is likely to survive. This could take years.)
                                                Macron ouvre la voie à l'inscription de la Corse dans la Constitution

                                                Re fiscal and taxation matters.

                                                France has had decentralisation since the early 1980s but for historical reasons it is still essentially a centralised country, so devolving more power to regions is always seen as controversial and a bugger of an issue. However, Corsica has long had a preferential treatment with regard to taxation of course. Corsica is a poor island devoid of resources – tourism is big of course, mainly mid-market/upmarket tourism –, life is more expensive than on mainland France etc. so the state rightly chips in to address some of the imbalances.
                                                There are lower taxes, or no tax at all, on many products (eg lower VAT, no tax on transport between Corsica and mainland France etc.), a preferential regime on council tax, lighter taxes for companies and a host of other exonerations and welfare benefits. The special regime benefits Corsica to the tune of about €400 million a year (2011 figure), cf this article.

                                                Corsican leaders want Corsica to be allowed to manager VAT revenues and the property & inheritance/death duties related tax systems, and also generally be able to levy their own taxes and have full control on taxation from income generated in Corsica. That’s a big red line for Paris. In fact, up to this year, Corsicans have benefited from much kinder inheritance taxation on property than mainland French, and up to 2013 there was no death duties at all on property, then the Hollande gvt beefed it up a bit but it still remained greatly advantageous compared to the rest of France. From this year onwards, it has been integrated into the French system and maybe this is something that sticks in the craw of the coalition.

                                                Paris basically says that Corsica already has enough taxation benefits and should manage their budget more efficiently; Corsican leaders say that it’s not enough and want far more autonomy in financial matters.

                                                #3 Un statut de résident. Il s'agit de faire reconnaître une spécificité des Corses en Corse. Une sorte de préférence locale, termes que les nationalistes rejettent. Tout résident, après cinq ans passé sur l'île, pourrait donc être prioritaire à d'autres personnes n'y vivant pas sur l'acquisition d'un terrain, d'un logement ou d'un emploi. Un statut adopté en 2014, mais pour l'heure inapplicable.

                                                The autonomist-independentist coalition wants to create a “resident status”, i.e a preferential treatment for residents/Corsicans who’ve lived on the island for 5 yrs +, mainly in two areas: preferential access to the property market for locals (renting and buying) and on the employment market. This would establish a special treatment for Corsicans/residents.

                                                As in many other parts of France (mainly: Alps, Provence, Côte D’Azur, Paris, parts of coastal Normandy and Southern Brittany, Île de Ré, Quiberon, Bordeaux area & Bassin d’Arcachon, Biarritz area), locals struggle to access the property market as they are priced out due to rampant property speculation/inflation. There are now 3.5 million second/holiday homes in France (not rented out, or not permanently) and again, the gvt is wary that a precedent would be created.

                                                The government have vaguely said they would look into it but are unlikely to do much about it, as legally creating a special status for Corsican residents would be tantamount to discrimination against outsiders in the access to many areas (not just property).
                                                Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 24-05-2018, 21:36.

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                                                  2/2

                                                  #4 Une coofficialité de la langue corse. Les nationalistes veulent que la langue corse soit, sur leur territoire, au même niveau que la langue française.

                                                  The autonomist-independentist coalition wants joint-status for French and Corsican, who would be on the same level in all areas of the administration, with fully bilingual education etc.

                                                  #5 L'amnistie pour les prisonniers corses. Pas pour tous les prisonniers de droit commun, mais pour ceux considérés comme "politiques". "Sur le principe, nous n'excluons aucun fait du périmètre de la loi d'amnistie", a indiqué lundi matin sur Europe 1 Gilles Simeoni. Et donc les personnes incarcérées pour terrorisme seraient également concernées. Dix-neuf personnes sont actuellement en prison pour des faits liés aux revendications indépendantistes.

                                                  This is the most controversial demand: the amnesty and release of the 19 “political prisoners” currently jailed for pro-independence violence, mainly in mainland France. Such as Pierre Alessandri, Yvan Colonna and Alain Ferrandi (all FLNC dissidents at the time of the assassination) who have all been sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting dead Claude Érignac, the Préfet of South Corsica in February 1998, in Ajaccio (the Préfet is the highest ranking state official in a département – (s)he is the representative of the Interior ministry, so it carries a strong police/public order role. It remains the most significant political assassination in post-war France). These lowlifes are rightly seen as “prisonniers de droit commun” by Paris (common-law prisoners).

                                                  Which is also why Macron visited Corsica in February, for the 20th anniversary of his death. Jean-Guy Talamoni, The President of the Corsican Assembly, refused to attend the commemoration in Érignac’s memory. The former FLNC leader Charles Pieri (under the pseudo “Di l'altu pianu“) compared on Facebook Claude Érignac’s widow to "French women who slept with German soldiers during the occupation" (« […] ces courageuses femmes françaises qui, de 1940 à 1944, réussirent à faire 400 000 bâtards aux valeureux soldats du 3e Reich. »). Pieri has since been charged with “public insult”, trial in September. Jean-Guy Talamoni, who is close to Pieri, only belatedly condemned Pieri’s post in a very bland, one-line statement.



                                                  The manhunt that led to the arrest of Yvan Colonna in 2003 is considered one of the most spectacular in French criminal history along with those of Jacques Mesrine (shot dead in Paris in 1979) and Albert Spaggiari (died in 1989).

                                                  In July 2003, after a 5-year long and dramatic manhunt in the maquis and mountains of Corsica where he was on the run and hidden by fellow nationalists, Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna was arrested in his mountain bothy in southern Corsica (he was a goat shepherd). In 2011, a special court sentenced Yvan Colonna to life imprisonment after a seven-week trial (this was the 3rd trial – original one in 2007, retrial in 2009 after an appeal, which was overturned due to a procedural error, cue another trial in 2011).

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                                                    Could this all have been avoided if they’d been tossed a bone to minority languages ala Welsh? The language paranoia of France is perplexing. Not just Corsican but Catala, Breton, Basque, Provençal, Occitan, Blah blah. But I guess well into Victorian times France had a majority of its population speaking another language than French so that’s the root of this. Hard to criticize France for excessive centralism being a dirty Brit in Ireland but (two of the most dysfunctionally overcentralized countries in at least the old Europe 15, even with the devolved “nations” of the UK).
                                                    Last edited by Lang Spoon; 24-05-2018, 22:15.

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