🇫🇷Weekly Dispatch - Bans, plans, and feedback
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🇫🇷Weekly Dispatch - Bans, plans, and feedback
03/09/2023 - How you can strengthen The French Dispatch, the abaya ban fuels debate, a water crisis in Mayotte, Borne announces that she's banning disposable cigarettes.
The Weekly Dispatch is your weekly update on major events in French and European politics, published on Sundays to give you the ideal summary of current affairs.
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This week
💪How you can strengthen The French Dispatch
🇫🇷Abaya ban fuels debate
💧Water Crisis in Mayotte
🚬No new tobacco tax and disposable cigarettes ban
💪How you can strengthen The French Dispatch
Ladies and gentlemen, as you know by now after over 151 posts of your favourite publication in just short of two years, this is a passion project of mine and something that I want to ensure is giving you all the information you all want.
I did want to summarise all of the discussions and responses to these dispatches over the years however, as well as responses to the various surveys, tweets, notes, and announcements that i’ve put out.
If you missed it, click on this article 👇
How you can strengthen The French Dispatch
🇫🇷Abaya ban fuels debate
This past Sunday, French Education Minister, Gabriel Attal (Renaissance), made the announcement that the Abaya, a long garment worn by Muslim women, would not longer be allowed within French schools starting in September.
“Schools of the Republic are built on very strong values and principles, especially laïcité” he stated on TF1, launching a pre-emptive defence of the move:
“For me, laïcité, when put in the framework of a school, is very clear: you enter a classroom and you must not be able to identify the religious identity of students just by looking at them,”
Naturally, the announcement led to a series of strong rebukes from the opposition, notably from La France Insoumise. Danièle Obono (LFI) decried it as a “new islamophobic campaign”, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) described his “sadness” on Twitter:
“Sadness to see the return to school politically polarized by a new absurd entirely artificial religious war about a woman’s dress. When will there be civil peace and true secularism that unites instead of exasperating?”
Of course, he appears to have forgotten the several times where he defended a Laïc position, stating things such as:
"You offend me with your behaviour. Because I (...) believe in the equality of women and men and I have never believed that God wants to lower one compared to the other. Then why are you accepting a sign of submission?"
In a now deleted tweet: “I dispute the term Islamophobia. You have the right not to like Islam just as you have the right not to like Catholicism.”
On l’Emission politique by Léa Salamé and David Pujadas on 23 February 2017: “the veil is a sign of submission ... I'm against all ostentatious religious symbols ... I can't see where God would be interested in a cloth on the head.”
Appearing on “On n’est pas Couché”, he then decried the wearing of religious muslim clothes as a “degrading treatment” and a “provocation”. For you francophones, here’s a short excerpt of your favourite far-left firebrand:
“The question is: is this degrading treatment or not? I think it's degrading treatment ... it's a provocation by certain fundamentalist groups against the Republic.”
-Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on “On n’est pas Couché”
Evidently for some, personal convictions fall to the wayside when you can attack a political opponent such as Emmanuel Macron, and demonise claims that you yourself have made and believe in.
While visiting a school in the region of the Vaucluse this Friday, Emmanuel Macron waded into the debate and expressed his support of the new plan. He was clear in his belief that “religious symbols of any kind have no place” in schools due to the principle of laïcité.
Macron also added the following statement when speaking to journalists:
“Schools in our country are secular, free, and compulsory. But they are secular. Because this is the very condition that makes citizenship possible and therefore religious symbols of any kind have no place in them. And we will vigorously defend this secularism,”
This was followed up by a statement by Elisabeth Borne this morning on RTL, where she added her voice to the growing choir to note that “there is manipulation and attempts to provoke LFI. There is no stigma.”
Lionel Jospin had also added his two cents into the discussion earlier this week, speaking to France Inter this Friday and outlining how he believed there was a need to protest young children, particularly young girls, from proselytism:
"The idea that the abaya has no place in school, from the moment when on social networks we see a proselytism that pushes young girls to wear it, seems to me to be a good thing . And it's not up to school leaders to decide."
Unfortunately, due to the propensity for such positions to be taken by right wing and far-right wing actors targeting Muslims and other migrants, it’s very difficult to have these kinds of conversations despite these being part of laws targeting everyone.
It’s important to note when discussing this that these laïc laws target all religions, including Christianity and Judaism, and that these aren’t attempts at isolating one specific religious community no matter how people try to shape this debate.
💧Water Crisis in Mayotte
Following on from that doozy of a story, we have an ongoing crisis in the French overseas department of Mayotte, which is suffering from the worst drought it has dealt with since 1997, and necessitated severe water rationing.
Philippe Vigier (MODEM), the Minister for Overseas territories, visited the island in Indian Ocean island on September 2 in order to announce the government's emergency strategy to counter the potential health threats posed by the shortage.
Key provisions of this plan include distributing bottled water at no cost to the most at-risk populations, as well as setting up 15 new cisterns and 200 water ramps across the island, at a cost of €2.5 million.
The drought's impact has been felt for several months, impacting the islands c.300,000 inhabitants (excluding undocumented residents), and has seen water supply being severely limited.
Another pillar of this plan it to conserve as much of the remaining water supply until the upcoming rainy season in November, and official guidelines now permit residents to have access to drinking water only once every three days.
Addressing the gravity of the situation, Vigier described the initiative as "a real Marshall plan for Mayotte.” He also emphasised the work being done to ensure that the 30,000 vulnerable individuals on the island were being supported:
“All vulnerable individuals, notably pregnant women and children, will receive daily water allocations of [up to] two litres per person. Currently, 30,000 such individuals have been identified."
He emphasized that collaborations with the regional health agency and local municipalities would further pinpoint those who needed additional support.
Alongside these measures, the minister revealed that the desalination plant will be expanded, with five engineering specialists having been sent in order to provide technical support with the project.
Vigier also added that the French state is engaged in “significant work” to identify any problems of “leakages and interconnections" between the drier southern regions and the northern parts of Mayotte, with the aim to complete any necessary work by end of October.
🚬No new tobacco tax and disposable cigarettes ban
Appearing on RTL this morning (Sunday 3 September 2023), Premier Elisabeth Borne appeared and made two major announcements.
Firstly, she confirmed that her government made the decision not to raise tobacco taxation in 2024, a decision taken as it finalizes its budget for the 2024 year.
"We increased the tax on tobacco this year and we do not plan to increase it next year" She stated, while being quick to underline her government's commitment to public health. emphasizing, "that [this] does not mean that we are not very vigilant about tobacco consumption."
Born then cited an alarming statistic that "tobacco is responsible for 75,000 deaths per year," in France, making it “an important public health issue” this is clearly a priority for her government.
Forming a part of the government's comprehensive anti-tobacco plan for 2023-2028 in order to combat rising tobacco consumption, notably among the youth, she had a second announcement.
Disposable electronic cigarettes, popularly known as “puffs”, will soon be banned in France, following similar actions from other European states, such as Germany, Belgium, and Ireland.
“We will soon present a new national plan to fight against smoking, which includes the prohibition of disposable electronic cigarettes, the famous ‘puffs’ which give bad habits to young people.”
The growing popularity of "puffs" is attributed to their sweet-like flavours, as well as their bright packaging, which has been designed to closely resembles sweets, they also benefit from low prices (c. €12 for 500 puffs) they particularly appeal to teenagers.
Naturally, this was always going to fall into government crosshairs, with e-cigarettes being legally prohibited for minors, and with concerns that this could these could translate into a full-on nicotine addiction.
Elisabeth Borne noted this explicitly, stating that “we can be told that it's not nicotine, but it's a reflex, a gesture that young people get used to. Then that's how they transition to smoking, and we have to stop that.”
Additionally, environmental concerns have been raised surrounding the disposable e-cigarettes. Former health minister, François Braun, had outlined the imminent need to ban these back in May. This was due to their plastic composition and non-recyclable lithium battery.
Now, the main question on everyone’s mind is: will this work?
Looking at a 2016 study by the American Journal of Public Health on the “Independent and Interactive Effects of Smoking Bans and Tobacco Taxes on a Cohort of US Young Adults”, we can glean some ideas of how successful this could be.
In their conclusion, they note that:
“Social smoking among young adults is primarily inhibited by smoking bans, but excise taxes only deter such smoking in the absence of a ban. Heavy smokers are primarily deterred by taxes. Although both policies have an impact on young adult smoking behaviours, their dual presence does not intensify each policy’s efficacy.”
We’ll just have to see whether these will also have an effect in France, which contrary to popular belief, is not a “a country of smokers”.
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🇫🇷Weekly Dispatch - Bans, plans, and feedback
Mayotte sounds as an exotic part of France :)