Groups of men sit on park benches with litter up to their knees. Others lie face down in the dirt. The smell of urine and rubbish festering in the sunshine hangs in the air.
Dealers known as modous move among the bushes, whispering incentives to seduce their clients with crack from the “kitchen” on a nearby street.
A man in shorts performs a solitary dance. Another lights his crack pipe and waits for the high to kick in.
A poll has revealed that 62 per cent of French people would support holding a nationwide referendum on the subject of limiting immigration to France.
… Gen Lecointre quit a day after it was reported Mr Macron’s government forced him to summon the six to a “higher disciplinary council” for their remarks. They risk losing their status as reserve officers.
French newspaper Le Monde reported the government pressured Gen Lecointre to speak out against the signatories, even though military officials wanted the matter dealt with privately.
Gen Lecointre said at the time there was no desire for an uprising within military ranks and accused the retired generals of breaking their duty. “The more senior they are, the more serious the sanctions will be,” he said.
In a response to the letter, Ms Le Pen urged the generals to “join her in the battle for France”.
“I can say that I share their concern, I share their assessment,” she said.
Funding from abroad is dividing the country
France has a serious mosque problem. There are not enough of them to go around.
Some of the country’s 6,000,000 Muslims worship in informal prayer rooms which occasionally become breeding grounds for radical, anti-western Islamist teaching. Financing new mosques is difficult in a secular country where public subsidies for religion are banned.
“I look on every side and all I see is darkness.”
I use that quote from Pascal (Pensées, 229) because I am not setting out to assert positive truths nor to defend opinions. I see a situation which — as Pascal writes in his next sentence — “offers nothing but cause for doubt and anxiety”.
In asking me to give an opinion on the now celebrated “Letter of the Generals,” UnHerd‘s Will Lloyd rightly notes: “What seems most extraordinary about the furore that followed is that so few people questioned the premise of the letter — that France is on the point of collapse.”
Ow, la la!
French President Emmanuel Macron was caught on video being slapped across the face Tuesday during a tour to “take the country’s pulse” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“À bas la Macronie!” a man could be heard shouting — “Down with Macronia!” — at the 43-year-old leader in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage in the Drome region.
Macron came with all that agility and stamina to receive Slap pic.twitter.com/GyVzfRDn6v
— Noble 🔴 (@Noble_Hassan) June 8, 2021
An LGBT police group has stated it will not be taking part in a Pride parade in Paris which is set to start in the no-go suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis, over fears regarding officer safety.
The police LGBT group FLAG! released a statement this week saying that due to safety concerns for officers, they would not be participating in the Pride march this year.
Thirteen people have gone on trial in France charged with online harassment, including death threats, against a teenage girl who was placed under police protection after posting anti-Islam rants on social media.
The girl, named only as Mila, was forced to change schools over her expletive-laden videos, and the episode fuelled a debate about the right to offend people’s religious beliefs.
“The Qur’an is filled with nothing but hate, Islam is a shitty religion,” the teen said in the first post on Instagram in January 2020. She was 16 at the time.
I’d say she nailed it.
Pakistani court acquits Christian couple sentenced to death for blasphemy
…Kausar and Emmanuel were convicted following a complaint by a shopkeeper who claimed to have seen the text message.
Amnesty International said: “Today’s decision puts an end to the seven-year long ordeal of a couple who should not have been convicted nor faced a death sentence in the first place. ‘Blasphemy’ cases are often premised on flimsy evidence in environments that make fair trials impossible, underscoring the significance of this verdict. The authorities must now immediately provide Shafqat, Shagufta, their family and their lawyer Saiful ul-Malook with adequate security.”
They’re Dead Men Walking now.
On its website, Milli Gorus Association, a Turkish diaspora group, claims it will be “comparable in symbolism” to Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, the world’s oldest Gothic cathedral.
But a row over its funding has President Emmanuel Macron’s government accusing it of symbolising something far less flattering – namely “foreign interference” against its attempts to build an apolitical “Islam of France” and to stamp out Islamist “separation”.
President Emmanuel Macron has warned that France would withdraw troops from Mali if political instability there leads to greater Islamist radicalisation.
It follows a second coup in nine months in the West African nation.
Mr Macron warned of the risk of Mali “moving towards” greater Islamist influence.
France has 5,100 troops in the Sahel region which has been a front line in the war against Islamist militancy.
Paris, April 4, 2017. 4:00 am. A man breaks into the home of Sarah Halimi, a 65-year-old retired Jewish physician and educator. He beats and tortures her for over an hour while reciting verses from the Quran and repeatedly shouting, “Allahu Akbar!” [Allah is the greatest!”]. He uses anti-Semitic slurs and calls her “Sheitan” (Satan). He throws her from the balcony of her apartment and she falls to the ground, three floors below, dead. The police arrest him.
What happened was an unspeakable antisemitic murder. It was also the start of a process that brought to light once again the many serious and shameful dysfunctions that mark today’s France.
“A man stabbed a municipal policewoman several times in the premises of the municipal police in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, in Loire-Atlantique. The policewoman is seriously injured. The suspect, known for radicalization, was arrested by the gendarmes and seriously injured during the operation.
…The suspect was arrested by the gendarmes a few hours later. Three gendarmes were injured during this operation. The suspect, armed, was seriously injured. According to reports from Europe 1, he is known to be radicalized and was released from prison a few weeks ago. This man, of French nationality, radicalized in prison and is registered with the FSPRT (file of reports for the prevention of terrorist radicalization). His release was validated by the Loire-Atlantique departmental assessment group. The suspect, who has a psychiatric history, had undertaken to undergo therapeutic treatment.”
A top French military official has said that while it will be difficult for the EU to forge a “common political identity,” Europe must not be forced to choose sides in the rivalry between the US and China.
In an interview with Le Figaro, the chief of the defense staff, Army General Francois Lecointre, spoke about the dangers coming from powers that “challenge the stability and international law,” in particular, Russia, China, and Iran.
“We are heading towards a reorganization of the world order that is structured around the competition between the United States and China,” the general said, adding that every nation “will be called upon to choose sides.”
Police officers gathered outside France’s National Assembly make for a powerful image: the proximity of security and politics, made real on the banks of the Seine.
Often criticised for overly aggressive tactics during protests, French police come here on Wednesday as protesters themselves, calling for a tougher response to the aggression security forces face.
Within the past month, a policeman was killed during an anti-drugs operation, and a policewoman was stabbed to death in a targeted attack. “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Stanislas Gaudon, head of the Alliance police union. “It was something we were afraid of, almost expecting.”
France’s top policeman has blasted nearly a hundred of his former colleagues who signed an open letter asking the president to better defend the police from “hordes of masked individuals.”
Striking a similar tone to earlier open letters that were signed by retired and active military personnel, a petition signed by 93 former police officers urged President Emmanuel Macron, the government, and lawmakers to “do everything possible to put an end to the extremely serious situation that France is going through in terms of security and public peace.”
