## F06 LiveFromFrance S2E06

If only I could have imagined this month... It's a real disaster. I'll talk briefly about the Cannes Film Festival. Nothing special except a lot of talk about #MeToo and the consequences in French cinema. It's finally moving a bit, but there's so much to do. Every month another director or actor is accused of abusing a woman. But only for 10 days. The main events are "Nouvelle Calédonie" (New Caledonia) and the European elections and their consequences. President Macron has really gone mad! For 30 years, a peaceful decolonization process had been installed in New Caledonia. But the French government has recently forced the process with 3 referendums and only 1 real election with independence parties and loyalist/colonialist parties. In the 90s, there were good French politicians to initiate this process, with a good culture of decolonization and negotiation process. With Macron and his interior minister Darmanin, everything is brutal, without any knowledge of what is the history of New Caledonia/Kanaky and 
its indigenous people. They don't know anything about slavery and history... .... And even with Macron's trip to New Caledonia, nothing has been done to calm things down...

But that's not the only sign of the madness of President Macron and his government. The European Parliament elections took place in the first week of June. As usual with Macron, there was no real campaign. His candidate was a woman, but only because no one wanted to be defeated. The far right was polling at over 25% and 10% behind the ruling party and the socialist party. No real debate between the main candidates. No debate about the future of Europe, apart from Ukraine. There was so much to be said about energy, the economy, ... not just immigration, which is responsible for everything for the far right parties in Europe. Unfortunately, it was a long way behind the ideas of the Rassemblement National and the result was worse than the polls : 40% for all the far right parties! Only 15% for the President's party and 28% for the left. A disaster...

But at the same time there were commemorations of D-Day, a great symbol of the fight against fascism and the far-right parties. ... History was forbidden because of a long work of the far-right to rewrite history in the media. They let the poison spread everywhere without seeing the danger. Freedom of speech? There's always a limit, as we've seen in US politics for the last 10 years. Racism and xenophobia are now freely expressed. Even if they are condemned for provoking racial hatred, these people are allowed to express themselves much more than all the moderates. Where are all the young people who died or fought on D-Day? Where are all the people who fought in the Spanish war in the 30s... When we talk about Ukraine with Russia as the devil, the poison is now in our youth. With more than 25% of young voters, it's a disaster. 

But the real madness happened on 9 June. Macron decided to dissolve the National Assembly. His idea was more to destroy the left and the Republican Party than to win anything. His party has never been weaker in the last 7 years. The far right has never been stronger and could have more than half of the National Assembly. We are back to the Vichy regime if nothing is done. In Europe, many far-right parties have come first or second in elections, but there are few countries where they are in government. We are one month away from the Olympics and French politics is a total mess. The French were about to go on their summer holidays. There are protests against the far right, but only with young people and trade unions. For those who know French history, it's like the situation in the 30s of the 20th century. Macron is our Nero. So the left parties will be united in the "Front Populaires" as in 1936.... But all the financial power prefers this right-wing party of hatred, of the destruction of all the social model
 that came out of the Second World War, to this "radical" left, which is less radical than when President Mitterrand came to power in 1981. Like many of my fellow citizens, I don't recognize this Europe and this country any more. Belgium is also in a sad situation, with one half of the country on the extreme right and the other half (the French-speaking half) on the left.

The Olympics are totally secondary now… Some people have compared to the 1936 Olympics. I hope it won't be like that. And I'm not very optimistic for the Left Alliance because of some candidates who have nothing to do there (see MeToo and treachery). It's a long story...

2Dɛ

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