π«π· Breaking the code
Switzerland wins the Eurovision Song Contest, The Olympic Flame arrives in Marseille, and Prime Minister Gabriel Attal hopes to relaunch Macronist EP campaign
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This week
π¨πSwitzerland Wins Eurovision
π₯The Olympic Flame arrives in Marseille
πPM Gabriel Attal hopes to relaunch EP campaign
π¨πSwitzerland Wins Eurovision
Right, letβs start the week off with some good news!
Regardless of whether youβre a passionate fan or not, you will have undoubtedly heard of all of the drama these past few days. Quite frankly, I mostly glossed over it, aside from a tweet or two trying to figure out what on earth happened with the Dutch Entry.
Regardless, many drinks and parties were had, and I hope that you all had a good time enjoying (or not watching) the Eurovision Song Contest, and as many of you will know, there was ultimately a winner: Nemo from Switzerland!
I put a link to the winning act just above, but personally, like many French people, weβre just proud of Slimane and what he managed to pull off with his song βMon Amourβ, coming in 4th place with 445 points, which if Iβm not wrong, is the second best result weβve ever had aside from Barbara Praviβs song βVoilaβ in 2021.
Regardless, hereβs a link to Slimaneβs song:
π₯The Olympic Flame arrives in Marseille
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Right, staying on the cultural topic, weβve reached a big milestone of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games process: the arrival of the Olympic flame in France.
With an incredibly colourful arrival, the grandiose event came after a 12-day crossing of the Mediterranean Sea aboard the French three-masted ship from 1896, the Belem.
On a day that seemed made for this arrival, with blue skies and a shining sun, the arrival of the Olympic flame was picturesque to say the least, and was accompanied by an excellent display by the Patrouille de France (pictured above)
With the olympic cauldron being lit by French Rapper Jul, the Olympic torch was then lit from the flame by French swimmer Florent Manaudou, who has the honour of being the first torchbearer in France.
While the event was incredibly well orchestrated and well organised, itβs important to note that it also took place under incredible security measures, with GΓ©rald Darmanin having stated that the level of security was βunprecedentedβ, with 6,000 police officers and gendarmes having been mobilised for the event.
πPM Gabriel Attal hopes to relaunch Macronist EP campaign
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So, moving back towards to the politics of it all:
Itβs no secret that the Macronist Besoin dβEurope campaign is struggling, and that with Le Penβs protege, Jordan Bardella, 15% ahead in some polls, and RaphaΓ«l Glucksmann nipping at their heels, that the party really needs to figure out how to stem the bleeding and regain the initiative.
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This is why Prime Minister Gabriel Attal tried to motivate the campaign at an event this Tuesday in Paris, at the Maison de la MutualitΓ©, where he shared his βdeep convictionβ that the campaign was at a turning point.
I feel like Iβve heard this kind of statement twice already from the party, but I also donβt have the time to go back and check previous speeches, so grain of salt.
Regardless, heβs putting himself forward to lead the campaign alongside (or perhaps instead of) ValΓ©rie Hayes, the head of list.
With several electoral trips scheduled for the next few weeks, he is also apparently booked for a debate on Thursday 23 May 2024, against Jordan Bardella, on France 2.
With ValΓ©rie Hayes and her entourage having been disappointed by the result of their debate with Bardella on BFM TV, effectively the far-rightβs home turf, Iβd be curious to learn whether or not this was a reaction to that poor performance, or something that had already been agreed.
Regardless of the reasoning, Gabriel Attal will need to really outperform Marine Le Penβs protege, or he may find himself becoming yet another stepping stone to a far-right victory, and a bigger problem in the 2027 Presidential elections.
Anywho, a big part of the messaging behind what Le Monde has called βOperation all hands on deckβ will be based on Emmanuel Macronβs Sorbonne speech from 25 April, and notably the core messaging that βEurope can dieβ. While I wonβt go into the specifics of this speech, I broke it down on Twitch and YouTube for those interest, with the link to the video here:
With under a month for the Macronist camp to somehow close the gap between themselves and the Rassemblement National, I would be very curious to see how they pull it off, and where exactly the think theyβre going to regain their momentum.
With ValΓ©rie Hayer, as talented and effective as she has been as an MEP, being rumoured to have been chosen as the lead candidate because all of the other potential candidates had been promoted to other, more senior posts, or simply not being interested, she has suffered from a lack of profile recognition.
Perhaps anecdotally, outside of the French delegation in the Eurobubble, or those who worked within the Renew Europe Group or others, I donβt know a single French person in Brussels who knew who she was before they had this explained to them.
And honestly, when you go from this to being semi-known for a not-entirely-great debate against the far-right, then you have a lot of work to do.
But hey, thatβs politics.
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