The Weekly Dispatch - 7 August 2022
The Weekly Dispatch - 7 August 2022
France ratifies Finland and Sweden’s NATO app and reinforces its LGBT+ work, Darminin fights to expel Hassan Iquioussen, Melenchon supports ‘One China’ against Taiwan, and Putin dislikes Macron.
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.
France Ratifies Finland and Sweden's NATO Accession
With 20 countries having already signalled their support for Finland and Sweden to join NATO, France was one of the 10 countries that had yet to discuss it within their national parliament due to the focus on the cost of living crisis.
However, this Tuesday, the French parliament ratified it’s side of the accession protocol for the two countries, one week after the French senate supported the move.
A French LGBT+ Rights Ambassador
On the 40th anniversary of the depenalisation of homosexuality in France Elizabeth Borne traveled to Orleans to speak at an LGBT+ event commemorating this.
Some have claimed that this was a reaction to the minor scandal related to Minister Caroline Cayeux, designated homosexual people as "those people". However , Borne deplored the "hurtful expressions" and assured that there was "no ambiguity about the commitment of all the members of the government, who have the same vision of a progressive society".
However, this engagement was also accompanied by some big announcement, not least of which being the new role of ambassador for LGBT+ right, who will be tasked with “[coordinating] the action of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs for the protection against discrimination and the promotion of LGBT + rights” and that they will “carry the voice of France”.
This role will include fighting for "the universal decriminalization of homosexuality and transidentity", which, if this is a serious fight that the French government wants to engage in, will lead to some uncomfortable discussions with many African and Middle Eastern states.
Prime Minister Borne also made a point of praising "the exemplary work of LGBT + associations and centers" who had created, maintained, and become "identifiable and accessible entry points for the many people who do not know where to turn" when they need advice or help.
She claimed that in the last years, these centers "helped almost 6,000 people all over our country", which is an important step when, as she stated, "anti-LGBT+ hatred continues to exclude, hurt and even sometimes kill".
A fund of 3 million euros, announced during her visit, will allow the creation of ten new centers, in addition to the thirty-five that already exist across France. Her goal, however, is for there to be at least two of these centres in each region of France, and at least one center in each overseas region.
Whether this will be enough is up for debate, but it’s clear that more has to be done to provide support these associations and centres with the material and funding that they need in order to reach the people that they need to reach and to do the work that they need to do.
Darmanin Fights to Expel Hassan Iquioussen
There is one very explosive fight brewing this week in Paris, which doesn’t look like it’s going way anytime soon.
Minister for the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had announced an order to expel Hassan Iquioussen from French territory, with the accusation that he had engaged in “hateful discourse against France’s values”:
This preacher has for years held a hate speech against the values of France, contrary to our principles of secularism and equality between women and men. He will be expelled from French territory.
Having spent his life in France, Iquioussen has become known as the “Preacher of the cities” been claimed to be close to the communitarian Muslim Brotherhood, which has been accused of actively working to prevent Muslims integrating into France’s liberal society and culture.
Iquioussen was accused in 2004 of anti-Semitic remarks by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, and according to the elements collected by the northern prefecture that includes his home near Valenciennes , speeches that promoted "hate towards the values of the Republic, including secularism " , and which also attacked “equality between women and men” while also developing “anti-Semitic theses”.
He has also been accuses of inciting "a form of separatism" and of fueling "conspiracy theses around Islamophobia". Due to his long history, the departmental commission for the expulsion of foreigners gave it’s support for his expulsion.
As you can imagine, with the political situation in France, the situation was borderline explosive, with the increasingly political rhetoric over what should be done with islamists, and common claims of Islamophobia being aimed at the government from the left wing of the political spectrum, but things can always get worse in political discourse.
With Iquioussen having a strong presence on social media, with a YouTube channel that has had over 33 million views, he naturally had many defenders, but also a large platform to defend himself with, and made the following statement:
“Today, I am accused of making discriminatory or even violent remarks, which I strongly contest. I trust in justice and in my advice to cancel this eviction procedure”
And in his favour, the Paris administrative court suspended his expulsion to Morocco, considering that it would cause a “disproportionate attack” on his “private life and family”. Their judgement included the following justification:
"The sole reason based on the existence of acts of explicit and deliberate incitement to discrimination against women cannot (can) justify the expulsion measure without seriously and manifestly disproportionate interference with her right to carry out a normal private and family life”
Darmanin immediately announced his intention to appeal this decision to the Council of State.
Mélenchon Supports ‘One China’
In a long blog post, far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote that "Taiwan is an integral part of China" and claimed that the Americans had only sent speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in order to "open a new front” with a “provocation”.
In one particularly bizarre and concerning phrase of his blogpost, he writes:
"Whatever the scope and level of criticism that may be leveled at the Chinese government, we must refuse to condone war on China to satisfy US views on Taiwan. If I had been elected, I would have held this reasoning with the US government"
He went on to declare even more bizarre statements that completely contradict Chinese statements on the definite possibility of ‘reuniting’ Taiwan and China”
“[Between Taipei and Beijin] everyone is sticking to a desire for peaceful coexistence, while waiting for better. What? The Chinese will solve the problem between themselves. There is no other reasonable outcome possible”
The far-left demagogue then lurched into conspiratorial populism, by appealing to the kind of sentiment that is being spread by politicians like Marine Le Pen to reduce or totally remove sanctions on Russia:
"One day or another, the real results of this kind of measure will be made. You just have to see what is happening with Russia to understand who benefits from this 'strategy'”.
Firstly, putting aside the fact he doesn’t seem to have a grasp of geopolitics or economic interdependency, he simply doesn’t seem to understand local politics in the region, and seems to be relying on a position borne from his Trotskyist political position to make a political statement that ignores the lack of interest that anyone has in launching a second war that will most definitely become global very, very quickly.
We currently have enough problems on our hands with what’s happening in Ukraine, believe it or not.
Secondly, he completely ignores the statements and behaviour of the Chinese state towards Taiwan, which veer from ‘you have no right to independence’ to ‘look at the military exercises surrounding your island’
Thirdly, his claims that everyone is using Russia as practice to take down China is nonsense, and highlights his previous statements against supporting the Ukrainian survival effort against the genocidal war of the Russian state
"The leader of rebellious France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said he regretted, on Tuesday March 1 in the National Assembly, the decision of the European Union to supply arms to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia"
"The Russian people are not our enemy"
It has to be made clear that the world has spent decades trying to work together with China and find a way to peacefully coexist, and that the Chinese state has been a constant aggressor in Asia, the Pacific, and the wider world, and if you want to better understand how, read up on China’s so-called ‘Wolf-Warrior Diplomacy’
But what do we expect from a man who thinks that Maduro’s Venezuela is an ideal state. Mélenchon is a friend of authoritarian dictatorships, not of free, democratic states close to our republican values.
He didn't want France to help Ukraine fight against Russia, he doesn't want us to support Taiwan against China.
But at least the Chinese state thanked him from his support, right?
Thank you @JLMelenchon for consistently supporting the one China policy #PelosiVisit #Taiwan #OneChinaPolicy
Putin Doesn’t Like Macron
In news that will shock absolutely nobody, the authoritarian dictator doesn’t like to be told that he did something bad, or to be punished for it.
"First of all, France is an unfriendly state," Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters, denouncing our efforts to stop them killing, raping and looting their way through Ukraine. in their genocidal war.
Having spoken several times since the beginning of the year with specific reference to Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Poutine, have been presented as being far closer than they are in reality.
The French president, for example, spoke to the Russian president on a regular basis after having been asked to by Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in order to attempt to help find solutions to the issues that were being raised by the Russian invasion.
The Kremlin have stated that discussions between France and Russia are currently not "necessary", with Peskov stating that the two leaders "don't call each other because they feel the time is not right, and right now it just isn't necessary”, but that “If the need arises, they can call each other within a minute.”
However, much of this is the less due to a lack of necessity, and more the result of the French stance on the Russian invasion, and French efforts to push every lever he can to support Ukraine at the French level and the European level, as well as the strengthen the EU through historic actions taking during the war.
I’m talking, of course, of the EU’s historic purchasing of military equipment on it’s own behalf in order to supply these to Ukraine, or providing funding for the war effort as a Union to Zelenskyy’s army.
Not only this, but the invasion has allowed several pushed in key domains of EU security: the material and financial reinforcement of NATO; the addition of two new members and several more prospects; the development and reinforcement of key EU policies such as the Strategic Compass, Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
Putin and his entourage are keeping an eye on what is happening, and worrying about the extent to which their threats of nuclear Armageddon have little impact on the consequences that they face for their actions, as well as how these consequences are digging a crater within their economy.
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I have to say that both Darmanin and Melanchon have quite bad values, both are making collectivist claims. Actually, I have been writing but mainly in Swedish why rhetoric about "national" values tends to backfire and also lead to bad conclusions, including to politicians and governments breaking the same values they claim to defend.