France
July 7, 2024 — John Hinderaker
A week ago, the National Rally, a “far right” anti-mass third world immigration party, got the most votes in the first round of France’s two-step voting for the National Assembly. There was hope in some quarters that the Rally could win an absolute majority in today’s second round of balloting, and form a government. But it was not to be. President Macron and his party joined with leftist parties (including
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July 2, 2024 — John Hinderaker
I wrote here about the first round of French elections, in which the “far right” National Rally scored an impressive plurality of votes for the National Assembly. But round two is coming up, and the left-wing and the relatively centrist (Macron) parties are combining to try to stop the “far right” from winning an outright majority in the National Assembly: At least 200 candidates have stood down days before France’s
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June 30, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The U.S. is not the only country experiencing rare political drama. In France, the first round of voting for the National Assembly, France’s lower house, took place today. This is the snap election that Emmanuel Macron called a few weeks ago, to the surprise of nearly everyone, after the “far right” trounced the other parties in EU elections. The National Rally looks to have won a plurality of the vote:
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June 9, 2024 — Steven Hayward
The results are coming in for today’s elections for the European Parliament, and so far it appears right-leaning populist parties are routing the establishment centrist and left parties. Green Parties are taking a disproportionate share of the losses. One of Bloomberg’s headlines in their election coverage package is “Macron and Scholz Get Trounced by Far Right in EU Elections.” In France, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally won with 32% of
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March 22, 2024 — John Hinderaker
In France, at least two teachers have been murdered by Muslim students, one of them beheaded. The French press reports that “death threats and threats of rape have become common among pupils.” Those threats are directed toward both teachers and fellow students. Now, students at dozens of French schools have been sent “threatening messages and beheading videos” by Islamic radicals. The story is hard to parse out, and more is,
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January 29, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Farmers across much of Europe are protesting against their governments’ anti-agriculture policies. In France, farmers are shutting down access to Paris: Farmers set up roadblocks on eight motorways around Paris today as they made good their threat to place a stranglehold on the capital. “The siege of Paris is under way,” said Damien Greffin, vice-chairman of the country’s biggest farming union, the FNSEA. He said the plan was to “encircle”
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January 28, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Left-wing activists have taken to throwing food at paintings in order to make some kind of point. The latest victim is the Mona Lisa, in Paris’s Louvre Museum: In a video posted on social media, two women with the words “FOOD RIPOSTE” written on their T-shirts can be seen throwing soup at the glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece and passing under a security barrier to get closer to the
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January 21, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Birth rates have fallen across Western Europe. In France, as in a number of other countries, the birth rate is below the replacement rate. This is the reason why European countries have turned to immigration to provide workers and to support their native populations as they retire. This policy has produced mixed results, at best. So it is easy to understand why western leaders would want to encourage population growth.
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December 11, 2023 — John Hinderaker
In France, two teachers have been murdered by Muslim students. So you can’t blame educators for being a little skittish: “Teachers strike after Muslim threats over nudes in art class.” Staff have gone on strike at a school near Paris saying they fear for their lives after Muslim pupils and parents voiced anger towards a teacher who displayed a Renaissance painting of nude women. This is the painting: The teacher
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December 3, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Actually, of course, we were anything but down and out. Rather, on vacation. Our plan was to spend a week in Paris, where we had never been, followed by a week in London, where we go pretty often. It didn’t quite turn out that way. Here are a few observations for those who might be interested: * We saw absolutely no political activity–no pro-Hamas demonstrations, in particular. On the contrary,
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November 26, 2023 — John Hinderaker
I have been in Paris for the last week, my first visit to this city. This is a fun time of the year to be in Europe, as the Europeans generally make a bigger deal out of Christmas than we do. Before we left, friends warned us against two things: pro-genocide demonstrators, and bedbugs. So far we have seen the same number of each: zero. Yesterday we visited one of
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November 5, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Yesterday, many thousands of Islamofascists and leftists turned out across the globe for pro-Hamas demonstrations, celebrating the massacre of October 7 and demanding the extermination of Jews. Trafalgar Square was packed to overflowing: Hundreds of thousands turned out in Paris: Some might find the idea of a “kill the Jews” rally in Berlin alarming: And, of course, many thousands rallied to support genocide against the Jews in Washington, D.C. It
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October 13, 2023 — John Hinderaker
What with today being proclaimed an “International Day of Jihad,” and in view of events elsewhere, France has banned all pro-Palestinian protests in order to avert violence. They don’t have our First Amendment, and we couldn’t really do this. Still, some will find it heartwarming: France has banned all pro-Palestine protests. This group is now being run out by the Paris police. pic.twitter.com/s78zsqzIog — 🇺🇸ProudArmyBrat (@leslibless) October 12, 2023
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September 16, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The case of Juliette de Causans is causing quite a stir in Europe. Ms. de Causans is running for the French Senate as a candidate of the Europe Ecologie Egalite party. She put up campaign posters with a photo of her that…isn’t her: The Telegraph reports: A French politician has been criticised for “misleading” voters by using digital enhancements to give her a youthful glow in campaign posters. Juliette de
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July 5, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Last week I quoted from Christopher Caldwell’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe and its discussion of the 2005 riots to provide what I thought was useful background on the current riots. Caldwell also has an excellent essay on the current state of French politics in the current issue of the Claremont Review of Books. I would guess this must have been written three or more months ago, but it
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July 2, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Scott wrote here about the riots that have paralyzed France for five days. Reuters reports that thousands of rioters have been arrested, rioters have burned 2,000 vehicles, 200 police officers have been injured, and more than 700 businesses have been looted, ransacked or burned to the ground. All of this was triggered by the death of a 17-year-old named Nahel Merzouk who was shot by a police officer following a
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July 2, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Riots have convulsed France over the past five nights. The New York Times reports, for example, in a story published in the past two hours “France Arrests Hundreds More in Fifth Night of Unrest.” President Macron scrapped an official trip to Germany in light of the riots, though not before he made it to the Elton John concert in Paris. The occasion this time around is the fatal shooting of
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