The Weekly Dispatch - 09 October 2022
The Weekly Dispatch - 09 October 2022
There's a new Energy Sobriety Plan in France, Elisabeth Borne is traveling to Algeria with a ministerial delegation, and the NUPES feel duped by Mélenchon's violent call to protest on 16 October
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The New French Energy Sobriety Plan
With the EU Council having agreed on emergency EU measures, the French government has been handed a reinforced deck of cards to make this work and will be able to move ahead with their plans to hopefully spare French citizens the high prices and power cuts that many fear.
Firstly, all parts of the administration are being asked to lead by example in the fight against this through several measures:
Increased remote working during over the “ponts du calendrier” (en bon francais, the days between public holidays and weekends), with an increase of 15% in the teleworking allowance
Cutting off hot water in bathrooms
Reducing the speed of service vehicles on motorways (130km/h to 110 km/h)
Communities and business are also being told to take similar actions across the board:
Offices and businesses have been asked to stick to a recommended temperature of 19°C, with hotels being recommended 17°C
Communities are being asked to reduce temperatures in gymnasiums by 2°C, and swimming pools by 1°C
Some communities have already closed these because of costs, however
There has also been a decree published this week to shut of illuminated signs and advertisements between 01h00 and 06h00
Companies have committed themselves to enact sixteen concrete actions, which include everything from limiting heating and ventilation, turning off lights in unoccupied buildings, increasing employee knowledge and training in ecological measures and actions.
However, while this is all excellent, and will have benefits beyond the current energy crisis, there have been calls for a more regulated approach to this, to avoid unintentional overstepping or weaker-than-necessary reactions to crises.
This will be an increasingly prominent question in French as well as European politics, due to a increased perception that we have simply not prepared enough for crises that require increasingly prominent actions by governments.
Borne in Algeria
Following on from President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Algeria to repair relations and to reinforce our cooperation with the country, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne is in the Algerian capital today and tomorrow in order to reinforce the Franco-Algerian relationship.
Having stated that the question of gas will not be touched upon, she will be leading a delegating of fifteen ministers and a secretary of state who are hoping to build the widest possible level of cooperation possible on the back of long-term disputes and discords between various governments.
It’s also being arranged in a way that Macron and his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, don’t get stuck in the technical discussions where things tend to implode in these types of negotiations, and can focus on higher-level geopolitical diplomacy.
Ultimately, the goal is to create a roadmap for the development of the relationship, and to organise a calendar of regular bilateral meetings that will allow the countries to overcome issues, discuss challenges as they appear, and to remove the obstacles to a stronger relationship that include everything from visa application rejections of Algerian citizens, admission of irregular migrants on Algerian territory, and economic, defence, and energy topics.
However, let’s be entirely honest, the question at the back of everyone’s mind will be Algeria’s role as a gas supplier to the French state, which will be increasingly important in the months to come.
16 October Protests divides the NUPES
Who doesn’t like a good French protest?
The NUPES coalition leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, recently launched a rallying cry for protests on Sunday 16th of October against the cost of living and the impact it is having on French citizens.
“On October 5 and 6, 1789, women marched on Versailles against the high cost of living. They bring back the king, the queen and the dauphin by force to Paris under popular control. Do better on October 16”
Naturally, as he likes to do, he made his call ambiguous enough that it not only lit a fire under the French political class. Government spokesperson Olivier Véran (Renaissance) saw in this comparison to the French Revolution “a disguised call for social violence”, remarking that it was “not the first time that [Mélenchon] goes beyond the limits, he is always in excess".
However, what’s remarkable, or increasingly normal, is that he has managed to divide his coalition once again with his remarks.
The First Secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, currently attempting to win re-election as first secretary of his party, once again had to distance himself from the La France Insoumise leader:
“There Jean Luc you can do better. Provocation is not always the best way to be heard. There is no longer any king or queen. We will have neither spade nor pitchfork. Our mobilization will be non-violent and its strength is its message: justice against social disorder”
Dissidents within Faure’s party have also been calling for him to cut off the PS’ participation in the march entirely, with Hélène Geoffroy, having said that the PS should not participate at all. Another member of the PS also sent a stern reminder to Faure: “These excesses are beginning to annoy us. LFI is not Nupes, we will have to distinguish ourselves more and more”
Another remarkable thing about the situation is that some people are now beginning to set-up for the eventual departure of the LFI firebrand, with a PS member stating that “the left [has never] won through radicalism. And we can see that Mélenchon does not want to be the unifier”.
With an increasingly violent discourse, questions are clearly becoming asked about the stability of the NUPES coalition, and the damage that this reductive form of political engagement is inflicting on the French state.
What’s most likely is that, combined with increasing polarisation, this violent rhetoric will further entrench the divisions that are making cooperation across the aisles more and more difficult, and will continue to weaken the French state.
However, there is a way back from this, and this is the same as when dealing with the far-right: the need to push them back into the shadows through an increase in political knowledge and a clarification of the intentions of these parties, as well as an underlining of the true meanings of their discourse.
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