Of course, the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers are essential conditions for judicial impartiality. The verdict delivered by the Paris correctional court against Marine Le Pen, in the case of the Front National’s (now Rassemblement National) European parliamentary assistants, stems from this necessary—and sometimes perplexing—independence of judges. The surprise and embarrassment that the verdict has cast on the political class… even at the highest levels of government, are a testament to this.
The recent European and parliamentary elections show the extent to which a large proportion of the political class is out of touch with the people and incapable of delivering a long-term project that unites the nation as a whole. On the one hand, the Macronie elites, whose sole obsession is to “deliver” us from the peril of the far right, have shown no vision for turning France around. To put it plainly, they have done nothing but avoid confrontation with reality. On the other hand, the Woke compatible media, which practices Big Brother-style inversion of values, has for years been constantly telling the French how they should think, travel and consume, without imagining that they would one day make them pay for it, this overflow of inane moralizing.
Social networks had an impact on the European and parliamentary elections, as the various polls and staggering statistics showed. Much less present on social networks and very divided, the New Popular Front has nevertheless managed to turn digital tools into a strike force capable of competing with Jordan Bardella, who has become almost an influencer on young people’s favourite applications. A winning bet.
Faced with the risk of a National Rally victory, which would have brought the far right to power, the salvation came from a republican mobilisation rallying all democrats. The tremendous public outburst on 7 July curbed the ambitions of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella. Except that the “glass ceiling” is coming up against an ever-increasing number of cleavages that are likely, in time, to hamper this “cordon sanitaire” designed to keep the far right out of the Republican arc.
Face au risque d’une victoire électorale qui offrirait la majorité parlementaire à l’extrême droite, le salut ne peut venir que d’une mobilisation républicaine ralliant tous les démocrates, car aucune formation politique ne peut résister, seule, à la poussée du Rassemblement national. Or, de nombreux clivages entravent le ‘‘cordons sanitaire’’ républicain. Pour les dépasser, il conviendrait de substituer au bon vieux ‘‘Front républicain’’, dirigé exclusivement contre l’extrême droite, un ‘‘tri sélectif républicain’’ destiné à isoler et bloquer tous ceux que les outrances et les dérives placent hors de l’arc républicain, de quelque bord politique qu’ils se revendiquent.
They have taken hostage the beautiful rallying cry of the Spanish Republicans during the civil war from 1936 to 1939: “No pasaran” (“They shall not pass”). That’s the title a score of rappers dared to give to an infamous video intended to mobilise against the National Rally. Under the guise of calling young people to their duty as citizens, these brilliant artists, anxious – they tell the gogos – to “get back to the essence of rap”, pour out ten minutes of calls for hatred, murder, rape and pogroms. As unbearable as it is to even mention these rants, here are a few that are more akin to the courts than to a “rather exciting variety of angles”, as Libération swoons.
As part of its “de-demonisation” strategy, the National Rally is doing everything it can to distance itself from the fascist and anti-Semitic past of the National Front and its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen. So much so that the RN not only claims to be contributing to the fight against anti-Semitism but is now posing as the ultimate “protector of the Jews”, a label accorded to it by eminent figures including the famous Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld.
And yet, despite all the efforts made to banish natural anti-Semitism from its ranks, it is back at full gallop! Witness the many infamous anti-Semitic statements made by RN candidates who have qualified for the 2nd round of the current legislative elections.
The “France, what have you done with your left?” launched by Jean-François Kahn in his latest pamphlet is being followed this strange summer by a new concern. “France, what have you done with your sense of moderation and Cartesian reason?” we might ask ourselves as we gaze up at the uncertain skies in the wake of a legislative election that saw the tumult of passions and radicalism prevail over consensus and restraint…
Since the Dreyfus Affair, left-wing movements have been perceived as Judeophilic, despite historical anti-Semitism dating back to the 19th century, which saw the left confuse Judeophobia with anti-capitalism. And since the Nazi horror, anti-Semitism has been relegated to the far right. Except that the decolonial and indigenist excesses of wokism are in the process of giving rise to a left-wing neo-anti-Semitism that has nothing to envy the abjectness of fascist currents on the far right.
The heatwave episode that crosses France accentuates tensions in hospitals. But the heat wave is only an aggravating factor in a crisis which has continued to worsen, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, and which is putting the hospital on the brink of agony: in Ile-de-France, 16% of the beds in the 38 AP-HP hospitals are closed due to lack of staff, i.e. twice as many as before the Covid! The overcrowding of the hospitals is symptomatic of the global crisis of the health system: because of medical desertification, for lack of attending physicians or specialists, many French people fall back on emergencies, which are saturated. From general practitioners to emergency physicians, including nurses in nursing homes and even to health executives, everyone is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
