️👮Weekly Dispatch - Political Vandalism
️👮Weekly Dispatch - Political Vandalism
13 May 2023 - Sarkozy referred to criminal court, Macron calls for pause in environmental regulation & invests €700 million into solar panel factory, and violence in Saint-Brévin causes loss of Mayor
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This week
️👮Nicolas Sarkozy referred to criminal court
✋Macron calls for a ‘pause’ in environmental regulation
☀️Investing €700 million into solar panel factory
🏙️Violence in Saint-Brévin causes loss of mayor
️👮Nicolas Sarkozy referred to criminal court
So, back to Sarkozy being in trouble.
As many of you will know, former President Nicolas Sarkozy has been at the centre of an investigation into “illegal election campaign financing”, from Libya, during the 2007 Presidential Election.
Having been an ongoing thorn in his side for a decade now, things have gotten even worse, with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office calling for him to be tried for not only this but for "concealment of embezzlement of public funds", "passive corruption", and "criminal association".
Luckily he’s not alone, with 12 others also referred to the court on similar charges.
Consulted by Agence France-Presse, the indictment affirms that “although it seems clear that all the Libyan funds initially intended [for the 2007 campaign] were not mobilized for this purpose … opaque circuits for the circulation of Libyan funds [occured]…in cash disbursements within a time frame and chronology compatible with occult use"
Furthermore, the indictment stated that “several relatives” of the former president “consistently acted as intermediaries” but that these interactions could never have taken place without his “approval and full knowledge of the facts”.
Things will get very interesting for the former president and his entourage, despite their accusations that this is a “conspiracy” against him and that he was merely attempting to defend himself against.
✋Macron calls for a ‘pause’ in environmental regulation
Alright, time for some more Presidential drama.
This week saw President Emmanuel Macron presenting a new ‘green industry’ bill, with the goal of reinforcing the reindustrialization of the French state, protecting French business, and ensuring that this complies with our fight to protect nature.
With citizens being pushed by inflation and the cost of the living crisis to buy as cheaply as possible, there is a genuine question regarding how the government can actively encourage a new green attitude that will undoubtedly cost more.
As eagle-eyed viewers of
will remember, one of the major triggers of the Gilets Jaunes protests was the increase in taxes paid on fuel for cars, which triggered years of social unrest from certain quarters of the French population.This means that the state has to be careful in how it engages in this kind of societal shift and how it builds strategies and tactics to make this happen. This is exactly what Emmanuel Macron tried to do as he set out his idea of what Europe needs to do:
“We don't just want to be a green market but to produce green on our soil…We have already passed a lot of regulations at European level, more than the neighbors … Now, we have to execute, not make new rule changes, because otherwise we will lose all the players.”
Naturally, as is becoming habitual, this statement caused much drama in Europe.
The Conservative European People’s Party (EPP) has been demanding a moratorium on several portions of the European Green Deal for a while now, which was already causing fights in the European Parliament.
Philippe Lamberts, the co-president of the Greens Group in the EP, deployed Macron’s “nonsense” and claimed that he was attempting to “straddle the horse of the EPP”.
Coming from the same political wing, La France Insoumise MEP and co-president of the far-left GUE-NGL group noted that “it's true that global warming is settled, it's really time to take a break...”
Further to the right, Les Républicains MEP François-Xavier Bellamy chose to not only attack the “absolute contradiction” between Emmanuel Macron’s statement and the work of Macronist MEPs in Brussels but almost demanded royalties.
“We have been defending the idea of a legislative moratorium for several months. We are almost going to ask Emmanuel Macron for a copyright”
In the centrist Renew Party, MEPs from Renaissance defended the President’s remarks and helped to clarify certain topics. Pascal Canfin, chair of the ENVI committee at the EP, stepped forward with this statement:
“[It was] an unfortunate sentence which does not reflect what France is doing. He has since clarified that it is not a question of going back on the legislation under negotiation…The president has never spoken of a moratorium or the repeal of current standards or those under negotiation”
However, what does the text actually demand?
Well, if you’ve subscribed to this lovely newsletter, you’ll find out during the week!
☀️Investing €700 million into solar panel factory
Evidently, The French President isn’t as anti-environment as many would have you believe.
Tomorrow, during the 2023 Choose France summit in Versaille, Emmanuel Macron will officially announce the establishment of a solar panel production plant in Sarreguemines, Moselle.
With an initial investment of €700 million, this is expected to give France an extra push towards achieving as close to complete strategic autonomy in energy production as possible and create 1,700 jobs.
Even better, it may be in service as early as 2025.
Announced by the Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure, he had this to say:
“For years, we have subsidized photovoltaic panels that were made at the end of the world, here we are going to have photovoltaic panels Made in France…It's the ecology of the concrete, we will manufacture the products that we will consume in France ... we will create jobs in France”
It’s important to know, though, that this project, led by the InnoEnergy group, follows the collapse of a similar project in the same place led by Norwegian Rec Solar
So let’s hope that this one works out a little better.
🏙️Violence in Saint-Brévin causes loss of mayor
Sadly, we must end this week’s dispatch with a sad story and a sad look into French politics.
Yannick Morez, the Mayor of Saint-Brévin-les-Pins in the Loire-Atlantique, found himself forced to resign after several months of threats and violence related to opening a reception centre for asylum seekers.
This harassment eventually culminated in a fire on March 2022 that targeted the Mayor and his family, burning his two cars beyond repair and almost setting fire to this house. Luckily, workers who were passing by woke him in the morning, avoiding a disaster.
A judicial investigation has since been opened concerning the "destruction of property by a means dangerous for people, committed because of the status of person depositary of the public authority of its owner or user"
After reflecting with his family, he finally announced his resignation, highlighting, in particular, a “lack of state support” as one of the many reasons behind his decision.
This has fed into a long-term discussion on the safety of Mayors in an increasingly aggressive, polarised, and violent political landscape. Recent years have seen several mayors quit their posts due to the difficulty of their positions and the violence of the opposition that they have faced.
And some have even argued that the state is outright complicit in abandoning Morez. Philippe Croze, a local retiree, argued that “the State imposed that the reception of refugees be made permanent, then it abandoned the mayor”
However, with an increasingly large focus being turned on protecting mayors and other politicians across France, some moves are being made.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, for her part, has announced that she will offer to receive the former Mayor in Paris and that she desires to “better protect mayors”. In contrast, President Emmanuel Macron announced his “solidarity” with Yannick Morez.
However, many are asking themselves if there is anything the state can actually do to defend these representatives of our republic and our democracy from such horrid attacks?
With the increasingly violent rhetoric rising through the political sphere, they ask if we can say that the increase in police officers or other security measures has any genuine effect in combatting.
And your favourite newsletter would be very interested in your response to this question.
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I do not know much about Saint-Brévin but I get an impression that there is a lack of community feeling and engagement there if people are ignorant and passive regarding refugees and anti-democratic behaviours. After all, refugees and asylum-seekers is also about security.