🇫🇷 Macron and Tusk's new Franco-Polish treaty
Far-Right Sébastien Deyzieu protest in Paris, Emmanuel Macron signs a new treaty with Poland’s Donald Tusk, and Marion Maréchal makes moves on Bardella's RN
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This week
⬛Far-Right Sébastien Deyzieu protest in Paris
🇵🇱Macron signs new treaty with Poland’s Tusk
🙅Marion Maréchal makes moves on the RN
⬛Far-Right Sébastien Deyzieu protest in Paris
So, let’s start the week off with an event that caused a lot of disagreement in France this week.
The far-right group, the 9th of May Committee, protests every year on the anniversary of one of its activists, Sébastien Deyzieu, a militant of the small Pétainist and anti-Semitic group, Œuvre française, who does on 7 May 1994.
Back during a demonstration “against American Imperialism” which had been banned by the prefecture, Deyzieu ran away from the police, and during this chase, he tried to flee by climbing into a building, and fell to his death between the fourth and fifth floors.
Every year, you get a few hundred of these protestors turning up and being heavily monitored by armed police as they traipse around with neo-Nazi symbols and usually making loud comment, but this year it seems they numbered at around 1,000, bolstered by neo-Nazis from Hungary, Germany, Italy and Spain.
However, the far-right banding together and making everything unpleasant aside, the really interesting story took place in the legal arena.
Initially, the Paris Police Prefecture banned this annual demonstration based on the potential risk of public disorder, at the request of the prefect of Paris police, Laurent Nuñez.
However, the Administrative Court of Paris suspended this ban on the basis that it was “a manifestly illegal attack on the freedom of demonstration.” The reasoning behind this from the judge was that “the same demonstration organised last year had not given rise to any prosecution of demonstrators because of an unlawful concealment of their faces or comments constituting a call to hatred or discrimination.”
However, the drama didn’t just stop at this.
The initial ban on the neo-Nazi protest was also combined with a ban on an anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstration, which was planned to take place on the same route as the far-right. Naturally, you can imagine how this would end up.
A static protest denouncing the far-right rally was also banned, which was also rejected.
A part of the reason why the three protests were initially banned was the ongoing climate of tension linked to the murder of Aboubakar Cissé, a young Malian Muslim who was stabbed to death 57 times while worshipping in his mosque in La Grand-Combe by a young man who repeated Islamophobic comments during the attack.
This led to calls for “self-defence brigades”, which led to the Minister of the Interior making several court referrals, as the remarks “reflect a call for violence and feed the current climate of tensions between antagonistic activists.” The attack was also unanimously condemned by politicians, led by President Macron and Prime Minister Bayrou.
However, with all of this in mind, and while the judge withdrew the ban on the far-right protest and the third protest denouncing, the ban on the anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstration was upheld due to the fact that it was “not manifestly illegal.”
The reasons for this were two-fold:
Firstly, it “would have led to the mixing of participants in each of these demonstrations whose ideological antagonisms are strong.”
Secondly, the judge “took into account the fact that members of the organisations that supported the demonstration had committed acts of violence in the past”
Naturally, this caused widespread indignation across the left, who decried the fact that one protest was allowed to continue while a left-leaning protest was rejected, and many questioned why a protest that included hundreds of members from banned far-right groups were allowed to take place.
There are also several issues when it comes to the protests that took place, as a significant portion of the far-right individuals had covered their faces, which is considered illegal under the 2010 “anti-burqua” law.
But what do you think? Should only one have been banned? Should they all have been prevented?
🇵🇱Macron signs new treaty with Poland’s Tusk
Moving to more positive topics: on Friday 9 May, French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk signed a landmark treaty of friendship in Nancy, France, cementing a new strategic partnership between the two leading European military nations and elevating the Franco-Polish relationship to new heights.
The agreement, reminiscent of France’s bilateral accords with Germany, Italy and Spain, acknowledges Poland’s rising influence on Europe’s eastern flank in the face of Russian aggression, and the rising influence of the ‘Weimar Triangle’
The treaty, initialled at the Lorraine city’s town hall, includes a “defence and mutual assistance clause” intended to foster “a truly integrated defence partnership,” Macron declared. The French President quickly clarified that this arrangement supplements, rather than replaces, the structures of NATO and the European Union. The accord also addresses the growing threats of foreign interference and cyberattacks, as both leaders vowed to defend European democracy in the face of strong hostility from other great powers..
Significantly, Macron reiterated that France’s “vital interests”, the bedrock of its nuclear deterrence doctrine, extend to the protection of “main partners” in Europe.
Citing the precedent set by President Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s, Macron noted the European dimension of France’s nuclear posture has been consistently reaffirmed. “in the decision-making of what are vital interests, the interests of our main partners are integrated,” he said, standing alongside Tusk.
"Since the 1960s, with the words of General de Gaulle, the European dimension of this deterrence has been affirmed and it has been constantly reaffirmed by all my predecessors – and I have been able to do it myself,"
- Emmanuel Macron speaking on Friday 9th May in Nancy
The treaty outlines ambitions for deeper cooperation in industry, innovation, energy, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Tusk hailed the agreement as a guarantee of “mutual defence and cooperation in disruptive technologies and the nuclear field,” describing it as a measure to enhance European stability.
He reiterated both nations’ unwavering support for Ukraine, expressing hope for a resolution to the conflict, and continuing to be an influential actor within the famous ‘Coalition of the Willing’
The mutual defence provision of the treaty “opens up the possibility of cooperation” around nuclear deterrence, Tusk confirmed, as Macron elaborated that this cooperation gives operational expression to the solidarity already embedded in NATO’s Article 5.
“This clause of mutual support in the event of aggression against one of our countries is the very essence of this treaty,” Tusk added. Though a bilateral pact had been signed in 1991 after Poland’s emergence from Soviet dominance, this latest treaty marks a far more ambitious step.
However, it’s important to understand that this forms a part of the development of a concurrent defence network that falls outside of the NATO structures that have been weakened by US President Donald Trump, who continues to sap away at the trust of his allies.
“Poland is our other very important European partner. There was no reason, it was even an anomaly, to consider that we had a privileged treaty with Germany, that we had enhanced our relationship with Italy and Spain, but not with [Poland]”
- Emmanuel Macron speaking on Friday 9th May in Nancy
The timing and setting of the signing were steeped in symbolism. Taking place on Europe Day, commemorating the 75th anniversary of European integration, Macron and Tusk’s meeting at Place Stanislas in Nancy contrasted sharply with Vladimir Putin’s militaristic Victory Day parade in Moscow.
With the war in Ukraine now in its third year and American commitment in question, Europe’s imperative to strengthen its defence has never been clearer. Macron made no concessions to illusion: “President Putin is on the side of war, not peace.”
“President Putin is on the side of war, not on the side of peace ... and those who may have believed that he had a desire for peace are on his side"
- Emmanuel Macron speaking on Friday 9th May in Nancy
The treaty marks France’s intent to elevate relations with Poland to the level of its strategic ties with Germany, Italy and Spain. The Élysée underscored that leaving Poland out of these privileged arrangements had become “an anomaly.”
With its 38 million citizens and active backing of Ukraine, Poland is rapidly modernising its armed forces and is nearing a total spend of 5% of its total GDP on defence, taking a strong stance as a potential frontline state that may have to face down a Russian threat.
Traditionally reliant on US support, Poland has found itself unsettled by former President Trump’s equivocal stance on NATO and is seeking new assurances within Europe, which proponents of Strategic Autonomy hope will lead to more substantial support for buying and producing more European equipment.
France, meanwhile, hopes to strengthen its regional diplomatic leadership and expand defence industry markets, with Poland seeking acquisitions ranging from transport aircraft to submarines. The French concept of a European nuclear umbrella has been welcomed by Tusk and piqued interest in Berlin.
The French President, however, has maintained that ultimate authority over France’s nuclear arsenal will remain solely with the President of the Republic, quieting calls by some for the French nuclear arsenal to be ‘made European’.
🙅Marion Maréchal makes moves on Bardella’s RN
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Moving back to the far-right, the Rassemblement National can now safely add another problem to the ever-growing list of headaches: the attempted return of Marine Le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal.
With Marine Le Pen having received a five-year ban from politics, and her party straddling the line of appealing this decision and preparing Jordan Bardella to lead without sabotaging his boss, they’re now having to deal with an attempt to take control of the party.
As highlighted in this deep dive from Le Monde, there are now expectations that Marion Maréchal may attempt to position herself as Marine’s natural successor, with the attraction of this proposal being that she is the only potential candidate who could continue the presence of the Le Pen family name on the electoral ballot.
While she’s keeping a low profile as an MEP, with a typical lack of presence from the French far-right in the European Parliament, and while her entourage has apparently mocked the gossip, the politician has a long history of self-centred political backstabbing.
For those who have forgotten: Marion Maréchal made the active choice to run against her aunt for the 2024 European Elections, leading Eric Zemmour’s list. After having sapped quite a few votes from her former party, she very quickly stabbed her mentor, Eric Zemmour, firmly in the back, taking away all of the MEPs he’d managed to get elected
Marion then started making moves to build her own party, which didn’t really go anywhere and stagnated quickly, leaving her in political limbo after a very successful period of political gymnastics.
Of course, having tried to play down the rumours (“Jordan Bardella would be the most natural candidate behind [Marine]”), she nevertheless happily talked herself up:
“I am the third personality of the RN in the polls, and because of my parentage, the subject arises. But I have no desire to fuel this. I'm not in the logic of pushing myself off the collar, nor of staying lurking in the shadows waiting to be able to jump on the opportunity. I am not running for anyone's place, I am giving my support as part of a coalition that must continue to be built.”
- Marion Maréchal speaking to Le Monde
Sure. Why not.
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50 shades of far-right.
I think it is better to allow the demonstrations so we who are against the far-right can go there and express our views, and maybe also throw some water balloons and other things on them
How fitting that the new Franco-Polish treaty should be signed in Nancy, where a former Polish king once reigned as Duke of Lorraine. The memory of Good King Stanislas lingers still...