The Weekly Dispatch is your weekly summary of the major events taking place in French and European politics, published on Sundays in order to give you the perfect way to catch up with current affairs.

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The French Dispatch

An Update on The French Dispatch

So, it’s been almost a full-year since I launched this publication, and what an absolute joy is has been to write about a topic I love, to focus my expertise and knowledge in a way that has helped th…

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6 months ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · Julien Hoez

📢Launch of the National Council for Refoundation

s past Thursday, Emmanuel Macron officially launched the CNR in front of representatives from 40 union, employer, association and local governments, announcing that a vast online consultation should open next week for all French citizens.

Participants were asked to leave their phones in boxes to guarantee the confidentially of the eight hours discussions that were held with Macron, Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne, and other members of the government.

Many have expressed scepticism of the process, with some leaders opting to not take part in the meeting, which received a strong rebuked from Senate president Gérard Larcher: "The twelve who are not here are wrong, because when we have a mandate, we have a mandate to represent, to speak, even to come and say that we don't agree.” He did cap the comment off with the statement that he wanted to be “optimistic” and that “the door will always be open” to those who had not come.

Those who came, however, were pleased, with François Bayrou celebrating an event where “everyone will say that something happened”. Laurent Berger, president of the CFDT, added that it was “useful, demanding, annoying sometimes, because we don't agree. But, casually, it progressed”.

Saïd Hammouche, president of the Mozaïk RH association, also underlined how important it was to have taken this, outlining that it was a case of either “[looking] at our feet without doing anything, or [keeping] hope and [trying] to imagine other means of public action. This is only the beginning”

🥊Fabien Roussel Starts a Fight with NUPES

Having been seen by many as the problem child of Mélenchon’s NUPES coalition, Fabien Roussel, the President of the French Communist Party, decided to stir the pot by declaring that he is against. “a France of RSA and unemployment”.

RSA, or Revenu de Solidarité Active, helps to provide a minimum income for unemployed and underemployed workers to help them either find work or complement low pay. It provides about €550.93 per person.

Speaking to journalists at the Fête de l'Humanité, the Communist leader declared that “the left must defend work and wages and not be the left of allowances, social minima and substitute income”.

First secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, immediately reacted by stating that while “It is true that part of the population did not follow the left” and that it is necessary “to restore its confidence”, that he did not believe that a “Republic of Labour” is incompatible with “the protection of unemployment insurance”.

Julien Bayou, national secretary of Europe Écologie Les Verts lined up with Faure on this, saying that the left “must not oppose those who are employed and those who are not", and that the Green “want to promote something other than emancipation through paid work”.

Roussel, however, wants more from the coalition, and believes that they should “go beyond the four forces” and consider moving towards the use of social movements, before leaving us with a very odd anecdote:

“a man on the left who draws a generally positive balance sheet from the legislative elections when there are 89 RN deputies has a little poop in his eyes”.

🚓 Aurélien Taché Fined for Insulting the Police

And then there’s MORE trouble!

Europe Écologie Les Verts deputy, Aurélien Taché was fined €5,000 for having insulted the police who intervened after an attack in which he was the victim.

A former marcheur who was elected for La République en Marche in 2017, he was one of the deputies who quit the party in 2020 due to a disagreement on the direction of government policy, and founded the former “Ecology, Demoracy, Solidarity” group in the Assemblée National alongside notable MPs such as Cédric Villani (who you may all know as the scientist with the long hair).

After the group evaporated, he joined the “Ecologist Pole” coalition in the 2020 municipal elections, before successfully under the NUPES Coalition

To his credit, the deputies lawyer made it clear that Taché "assumed his responsibilities by appearing before the judges and by recognizing the facts for which he was prosecuted" also adding that the "sentence is fair and proportionate and we are satisfied with it.”

However, there is a worrying propensity within the NUPES coalition for subverting state authority, and otherwise attacking the powers that be as a political ploy, which is something that we have seen regularly from Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who once famously declared that he was the republic when his party headquarters were being searched.

👉 Eric Ciotti is dragging Les Républicains right

With the Les Républicains primaries a few months away, and certain people fixing their eyes on the 2027 presidential elections instead, the seat seems open for the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes, Eric Ciotti.

Formerly a candidate in the 2022 Presidential Primaries, Ciotti lost that battle to Valérie Pecresse, who found her result wanting and left the party questioning its identity and existence.

Eric Ciotti is known as a man who is a man of far-right politics focused on total security, and while he was very popular with the militants, the executives of the party are very unhappy about the possibility of him elading their party.

Hervé Morin, a centre-right official, threatened to quit the party outright if he was elected, and both the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) as well as the New Centre, have warned that their alliance would likely break if Ciotti won this election.

But this may not actually be enough.

“This epidermal reaction of “everyone against Ciotti” was not crowned with success in the presidential election. I'm not sure that the activists will risk it again next December!” He declared.

His strategy effectively seemed to be focusing on a very simple, yet aggressive message that will play well with many militants within the party: “it could have been me leading the charge in 2022, but you picked Pecresse and look at what happened.”

Already being pushed by his supporters, and other hardliners will be throwing their weight behind Ciotti, particularly Laurent Wauquiez who is looking to support Ciotti’s candidacy to enable his comeback to the frontlines of politics, and to strengthen his position for 2027 Presidential race.

However, the Les Républicains executive are currently hedging their bets on another candidate: Senator Bruno Retailleau.

"He was able to maintain the cohesion of the group during the congress and prevent tears at a complicated moment, which made it possible to judge his capacities for gathering without obscuring the debate of ideas"

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