France

France: A ‘Field of Ruins’

Paris, France. March 23, 8 p.m. A demonstration took place; as usual now, riots followed the demonstration and swept through the center of the city, then to other cities. Cars were burned, shop windows smashed, garbage dumpsters set on fire. A garbage collectors’ strike began two weeks earlier; nearly ten thousand tons of garbage, still strewn on the sidewalks, almost completely block some streets. The proliferation of rats threatens disease. Oil refineries are shut down; gas stations are running dry. More demonstrations took place March 28 — and more riots.

France, once again, is on the verge of chaos.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

French envoy: Canada should link with Europe, surpass ‘weak’ military engagement

OTTAWA – France’s ambassador to Canada says Ottawa must choose between tying itself entirely to Washington or broadening its links to partner more with Europe — while also calling out Canada’s “weak” military engagement.

“This nagging question of the future American commitment offers, in any case more than ever, the opportunity for Europe, France and Canada to play a role together,” Michel Miraillet said in a French-language speech Tuesday to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations.

Given France’ & Europe’s internal Islamic rot I think we should take a pass though Junior will find it appealing and he’ll just love this… 

Macron warns Europe must not ‘dissociate’ with China

French President Emmanuel Macron landed in China on Wednesday for a three-day visit. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was also expected to join the trip.

The leaders will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping with the objective of repairing ties with Beijing — an important economic partner.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, France, USA, WTF?

The Anniversary of Mireille Knoll’s Murder and France’s Jewish Exodus

March 23 marked the anniversary of the murder of Mireille Knoll, an elderly Jewish woman and a Holocaust survivor who was living in Paris. Her murder was one of many brutal, antisemitic attacks in France over the past several years.

On March 23, 2018, two men, Yacine Mihoub and Alex Carrimbacus—both Knoll’s neighbors—entered her apartment, stabbed her eleven times, and lit her body on fire. Allegedly it was a botched robbery that turned into a murder. But, during the investigation and trial, it became evident that antisemitism was a factor in Knoll’s murder.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", France, Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West

France minister: ‘Over 1,000 officers injured in unrest’

More than 1,000 law enforcement officers and firefighters have been injured in demonstrations and riots across France, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told local media on Sunday.

In an interview with France’s Journal du Dimanche, Darmanin said since March 16, “1093 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters have been injured.” He added that there have also been “2,579 arson attacks and 316 attacks on public buildings.”

He did not reveal how many protesters have been injured but told the weekly newspaper that 36 officers were being probed on charges of excessive use of force.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

France: Man Receives 4-Year Prison Sentence for Cathedral Arson Attack

A French criminal court has handed a four-year prison sentence to a Rwandan national after finding him guilty of setting fire to the Saint-Paul and Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Nantes in July of 2020—an act which resulted in severe damage to the Gothic church, whose construction began in 1434.

… On Wednesday, March 29th, the court ruled that Abayisenga—who is also facing legal action for another incident in which he is believed to have murdered Father Olivier Maire in April 2021 in the western department of Vendée—was not mentally sound during the time that he set fire to the cathedral.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCamp Of The Saints, France

Paris breathes easier as refuse workers’ strike called off and rubbish cleared

The smell of spring is in the air in Paris. It makes a change from the stench of overflowing bins that had hung over the French capital for the last three weeks after refuse collectors went on strike and up to 10,000 metric tonnes of festering rubbish piled up on the streets.

Hours after the CGT trade union announced it was suspending the industrial action and lifting a blockade of incinerators serving the city, much of the rubbish had gone.

With the sun out and an unexpectedly warm day, it was just as well.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

Rural France revolts over Macron’s drive for wind turbines

With its gently rolling fields, grazing cattle and chestnut trees, the Corrèze départment in central France has long been a picture of tranquillity. Yet the peace is being disturbed by bitter disputes that have followed President Macron’s drive to accelerate France’s so far slothful move into renewable energy.

“I had one of my barns set alight with my cows inside. I burnt my arm trying to get them out but I still lost nine. Later, I was told there had been outside interference,” said Jean-Luc Soustrot, 47, a cattle farmer from the village of Saint-Pardoux-la-Croisille.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance, Green-Scam

On the streets in Bordeaux: ‘It pains me to see our city on fire but we need to take a stand’

A crowd has gathered outside Bordeaux’s City Hall. People are taking pictures of the walls and doors, which were set on fire at the weekend. They are still standing but now blistered and black. Rony Bertrand, 60, shakes her head in dismay at the damage done to the building, which was built in the late 18th century and survived the French Revolution.

“It’s become so normal now that things are being destroyed, it sickens me,” Bertrand says. “Who’s going to pay for this? The people of Bordeaux are, that’s who.” Philippe Rouchon, 56, who works in fire prevention, says “it pains me to see this, my job is to prevent fires” – but he understands the protests, at President Emmanuel Macron pushing through a rise in the pension age to 64.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

France protests: police warn of ‘ultra-left’ from across Europe joining marches

An increased number of potentially violent individuals from abroad are expected to infiltrate the ranks of those protesting against President Macron’s pension reforms during the latest round of strikes and marches, Paris’s police chief has warned.

“What poses a problem for us is the pre-cortege, these individuals who come in front of the trade union procession,” Laurent Nunez, the president of Paris’s prefecture de police, told Radio France.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

French protests threaten to spill into Europe

The cost-of-living crisis is hurting the whole continent

Shocking scenes emerged this weekend from Sainte-Soline, a rural district in Western France. Police vehicles burned as protestors hurled rocks and fireworks. At one point, police officers on quad bikes used what appeared to be light mobilised infantry tactics against the protesters, who opposed the building of a large water reservoir to be used for farm irrigation.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

Protester critical and French police hurt in ‘horrifying violence’

A demonstrator is fighting for his life after an environmental protest ended in “scenes of horror” when police fought activists using petrol bombs, axes, metal spikes and other weapons.

The 30-year-old man suffered a head injury, adding to tensions over claims of police brutality during protests against President Macron’s pension reforms.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

The French social contract is broken, now the young are fighting back

The driving force behind protests against President Macron’s pension plans are young people defending their inheritance: retirement at 62

At the age of 20, Nanuq has yet to enter the workforce but she is already thinking about when she will be able to retire.

The third-year textile design student was among more than a million people who took to the streets across France on Thursday in support of a one-day general strike — the ninth since January. It was the biggest, and also most violent, protest so far against President Macron’s plan to raise the pension age from 62 to 64.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

French protestors stack piles of rubbish-filled bin bags into makeshift barricades against riot cops as demonstrations over pensions rage across the country

Fears mounted of yet more unrest on the streets of France this weekend as the government struggled to get a grip on the demonstrations causing nationwide turmoil.

Mounds of rubbish left by striking bin men continued to pile up in Paris, serving in part as makeshift barricades for protesters.

The demonstrations, sparked by president Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to raise the state pension age from 62 to 64, have turned violent in the past ten days.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

France is on a knife edge

It’s no surprise that King Charles’s state visit has been cancelled

Yesterday was a day of anarchy in France – and the protests overnight have led to King Charles’s state visit to France, which was due to start this weekend, being cancelled. The King had been due to visit Paris and Bordeaux, two of the cities hit by the most extreme violence. In Bordeaux, a town hall was sacked. In Lorient, a police station was attacked – and in Nantes a court was vandalised. The worst of the violence was in Paris. Hundreds of thugs clad in black fought running battles with police, 149 of whom were injured, and they also smashed and looted shops, banks and restaurants. Gérald Darmanin, the Interior Minister, attributed the violence to far-left extremists to whom he addressed a message on Thursday evening: ‘I want to tell them that we are extremely determined, that violence will not succeed.’

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

France strikes: rioting feared in latest pension reform protests

Public services will grind to a halt in France today as more than a million people are expected to return to the streets in protest at President Macron’s pension reform, which he defended as an unpleasant duty yesterday.

Some 12,000 police officers have been deployed to curb predicted violence after a week of spontaneous riots in Paris and other cities against the deeply unpopular retirement revamp that Macron imposed without a parliamentary vote last week. The government fears the re-emergence of a violent grassroots revolt like the gilets jaunes [yellow vests] insurrection of 2018-2019.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance