PODCAST. Since the beginning of the Yellow Vest mobilization, several testimonies of journalists insulted or abused by protesters and the police have been shared on social networks. Reportage.
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Source: Journalist at the time of Yellow Vests – Le Parisien
A new book equates the French president’s rise to a revolution. For much of France’s working and middle classes, it has been nothing short of a disaster.
Last September, French President Emmanuel Macron met an unassuming gardener on the grounds of the Élysée Palace. Introducing himself, the 25-year-old timidly explained that he was having trouble finding work. “I send résumés and cover letters… they don’t lead to anything,” he told the president. Many people in France can relate: The country’s unemployment rate hovers just below 9 percent, more than two points above the European Union average. The joblessness rate, meanwhile, is more than twice that for young people age 15 to 24.
Macron’s reaction, however, was less than sympathetic—almost as if he were hearing this problem for the very first time and wasn’t all that convinced of its seriousness. “If you’re willing and motivated, in hotels, cafés, and restaurants, construction, there’s not a single place I go where they don’t say they’re looking for people!” he exclaimed. Then he added, “If I crossed the street, I’d find you one.” Continue reading “The Travails of Emmanuel Macron”
Police firing tear gas and water cannons clashed in Paris on Saturday with thousands of protesters angry over rising car fuel costs and President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies, the second weekend of “yellow vest” protests across France.
Des milliers de personnes sont attendues ce samedi dans une cinquantaine de villes en France pour dire “stop” aux violences contre les femmes. Un collectif citoyen est à l’origine de cet événement, soutenu par des célébrités, plus de 400 femmes journalistes et une centaine de syndicalistes
Thousands of people are expected this Saturday in fifty cities in France to say “stop” to violence against women. A citizen collective is behind this event, supported by celebrities, more than 400 women journalists and a hundred trade unionists.
Continue at France Bleu: France Bleu – Live news, local and national news
Between Macron and Mélanchon a wasteland at the left of the political spectrum has been up for grabs. The latest pretender, a party launched by an essayist, an environmentalist and a leftist economist, has just held its first meeting.
The French left was devastated in the 2017 presidential and legislative elections. The dominant party on the left, the Socialist Party (PS) – the party of presidents François Hollande, François Mitterand and countless other powerful politicians in recent decades – lost 90 percent of its deputies and was forced to sell its historic headquarters in the centre of Paris.
“It’s hopeless,” said Noémie, a 20-year-old philosophy student. “But for the first time in a long time, we want to hope again. I read Raphaël Glucksmann’s book, “The Children of the Void”, and I found it very interesting. This movement is made up of people who are already engaged and who want to go into politics to get things moving. I like their approach.”
Changing Places
Just a week after its founding, Place Publique – a party founded by, among others, essayist Raphaël Glucksmann, economist Thomas Porcher and ecological activist Claire Nouvian – has attracted 10,000 members. On Thursday night, about 1000 of them flocked to Montreuil, a town east of Paris, for the first meeting of the movement that seeks to address “ecological, social and democratic emergencies in Europe” [ . . . ]
Continue at France24: A fledgling party emerges from the ashes of the French left – France 24
Pas De Merde 