France

Since the results were announced of France’s July 2024 legislative elections, President Emmanuel Macron has been unable to build a majority in the National Assembly, which appears more divided than at any time in the history of what the French call “the Fifth Republic”.

The elections produced three blocs, all of which appear to hate each other: the left, coalescing around Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left La France Insoumise (“France Unbowed”), Macron’s centrist Renaissance party, and Marine Le Pen’s right-wing Rassemblement National (National Rally).

Three factors seem to favor France’s slide towards an open or latent form of even greater internal conflict.

Many had dismissed it as a costly indulgence for a nation facing economic hardship, while some condemned it as a dangerous diversion from the deepest political crisis France faces since the 1950s.

And, yet, the two-week long Summer Olympics hosted by Paris is now universally lauded as a success in organizational, artistic, and of course sporting terms. For two whole weeks the usually grumpy French, some of them in civil war mood, sheathed their daggers to have a good time together.

The old ditty that sport unites while politics divides sounded more plausible than ever.

French politics are ridiculous.

The phrase ‘without fear or favour’ has been much in the news of late. Whether the maxim is still applicable to the British constabulary is a matter of conjecture. Some, like the ex-policeman Harry Miller, have been saying for years that the police ‘have traded impartiality for the praise of special interest groups’. Miller was visited by Humberside police in January 2020 after he expressed gender-critical views in an online poem. He later won a legal challenge against the police.

Paris. June 9. 8pm. The results of the European Parliament elections were made public. in In France, the party of President Emmanuel Macron garnered 14.6% of the vote, 8 points less than in 2019; the French population had turned away from Macron. The Socialist Party came out with 13.8% of the vote and Rebellious France, a far-left party, 9.89% of the vote. The moderate right party, The Republicans, received only 7.25% of the vote and continued to slide towards insignificance. The right wing National Rally received 31.3% of the vote, 10 points more than in 2019, an extremely high result for a long-marginalized party.