Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
Temperatures rising
France is a country where strikes are far from uncommon and where political discontent frequently takes the form of street demos. All of which is to say that people who live in France, especially the big cities, are used to strike days, marches and the occasional whiff of tear gas if a protest turns violent.
But even by those standards, the past week has been unusually dramatic as the government sparked fury by using a constitutional tool to push its highly controversial pension reform through without a vote of MPs. Notwithstanding the fact that Article 49.3 is perfectly legal and has been regularly used since 1958, it’s not hard to see where opponents were coming from when they branded it ‘undemocratic’.
Paris and several other cities have seen nightly protests – albeit from very small numbers of demonstrators – in which bins and piles of rubbish were set on fire and police, as they love to do, fired tear gas.
Dramatic scenes in Paris last night (this 1 snapped by AFP's Alain Jocard) but for balance, I feel I should say that I went to a gallery opening in the 7th then walked back along the river and it was entirely peaceful and lovely. Trouble tends to be concentrated in small areas pic.twitter.com/Zn3BnvC8QR
— Emma Pearson (@LocalFR_Emma) March 24, 2023
The government is clearly hoping to just wait it out until the heat goes out of the protests, but the level of anger on the streets is unusual even by French standards.
READ ALSO Is France facing a rerun of the ‘yellow vest’ protests?
Despite their fury, the French have not lost their sense of humour, as witnessed by this excellent protest banner – ‘If we wanted to get fucked by the government, we would have elected Brad Pitt’.
Tourists seem to be enjoying the chaos too, if the slightly odd trend of posing for photos in front of piles of uncollected rubbish is any indication . . .
🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/pTCaVseWNZ
— Paul Douard (@Paulo_Douard) March 18, 2023
We of course discuss all the latest in the new episode of Talking France – listen here or on the link below.
Emily at the ballot box
On the lighter side of politics, I hugely enjoyed this thread looking at who the characters in Emily in Paris would have voted for in the 2022 presidential elections (if they were eligible to vote, that is, since only French citizens can vote in presidential elections).
How every Emily in Paris character would've voted in the 2022 election if eligible🇫🇷
Starting off with Emily-
Emily is a BoBo on a comms salary yet somehow affords everything, not exactly the brightest either. Clearly a Jadot voter (Green). Didn't realise there was a 2nd round. pic.twitter.com/k8X65YkEpP
— Anglo-French Union Fan Account (@adb0wen) March 17, 2023
Poetry in motion
And I was lucky enough to be at Stade de France at the weekend to witness this gorgeous try in person (enjoy the commentator crying “Le French flair, voilà !” as the ball goes over the line). They didn’t win the Six Nations, but I’m going to make a prediction that this superlatively talented team will be victorious at the World Cup later this year . . .
Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
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