🐄Weekly Dispatch - Salon escapades
26 February 2023 - A reader questionnaire, the future of Corsica within (or outside of) France is up for debate, Johnson announces NATO Sec. Gen. Candidacy, and the Salon de l'Agriculture is open
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.
The French Dispatch is a reader-supported publication. If you enjoy reading this, like, subscribe, share it with your friends and colleagues, and consider taking a paid subscription.
This Week
📝Reader questionnaire
🏝️The future of Corsica
🪖Johnson announces NATO Sec. Gen. Candidacy
🐄The Salon de l'Agriculture is open!
📝Reader questionnaire
I want to give you the opportunity to give me feedback on what you like or dislike about this publication, to let me know what topics you’d like to read about and to let me know what you think about my work.
All you have to do is click on the picture below, and it’ll take you right to the five-minute Reader Questionnaire, which is running for another few days!
🏝️The future of Corsica

A part of our country that is rarely discussed internationally, it has become an increasingly important part of the political discourse due to the discussions on the institutional future of the island.
Having been suspended for five months, discussions on institutional reform for Corsica and a revision of its place within the republic have now restarted, with discussions happening on Friday.
With Emmanuel Macron present at the meeting, he repeated that there was “no taboo” in the discussions nor a “predetermined solution”. He was clear that he is willing to include any potential changes within his constitutional reform project.
So long as it happened “after the summer” and that a proposal was made that could become a part of the reform.
The Minister of the interior, Gérald Darmanin said it was “time to inaugurate, together, the beginning of the sequel. Yes it is time to write a new page in the history of Corsica.”
However, a lot of this has not necessarily calmed everyone’s nerves. The separatists from Corsica Libera and Core in Fronte reminded everyone involved that their red line was “the recognition of the Corsican people”.
Amongst the nationalists, there is a general distrust of the government, with the president of the Executive Council of Corscia, Gilles Simeoni accusing the government of playing for time and using delaying actions to avoid the discussion:
“On the one hand, we hear intentions of opening and on the other hand, they do everything so that it does not move forward…[it is time to] put the cards on the table”
With the Corsican nationalists waiting for a hand to be reached out by the government and waiting for answers on what institutional developments could happen and how Corsica can be entered into the Constitution, a game of chicken has begun.
The government would prefer this to be a discussion involving suggestions and requests from the Corsicans, giving them more manoeuvrability to respond and act.
One important thing to note is that Darmanin has been clear that he does not want to see a break in the equality between the French people, and does not want to see one part of our population and our country break away and stop being French.
He was also clear that anyone engaging in autonomy would de facto have to take charge of their own economy and would need to own their autonomy in every way without the total support of the country they become autonomous from.
Which not many nationalists or separatists typically have an answer to.
🪖Johnson announces NATO Sec. Gen. Candidacy

If you missed it yesterday, there was some interesting news that will have an impact on French security and its situation within NATO:
Boris Johnson, the disgraced former Prime Minister who quit after one scandal too many, is putting himself forward as a candidate for NATO Secretary General.
With France having a strong position and a lot of weight to put behind a candidate, you can imagine that the claims that Boris Johnson was running made a lot of heads shake at the thought of the headache they would have to suffer from, and how this would impact the ability of France to defend itself and its allies with an unreliable leader.
If you want to read about this, click on the link below!
🐄The Salon de l'Agriculture is open!

A fun thing to end this Dispatch is the International Agricultural Show, which started yesterday at the Porte de Versailles in Paris and runs until Sunday 6 March.
Visited by Presidents and politicians every year, this is a great experience to see everything that French agriculture, culture, and the culinary world offer.
The event is broken up across eight exhibition halls with several themes zones:
Livestock and related sectors
Crops and plant sectors
Agricultural services and professions
Products from regions across France & its overseas territories
Not only will this great event teach you about France’s different regions and what they bring to our culinary culture, but you can also taste different foods and drinks from around the world, coming from every territory of the French republic.
After the COVID-19-related cancellation, this monumental event deserves all of the support that it can get, as do our tradesmen and agriculteurs across the country, so if you’re in Paris and have a spare day or afternoon over while it’s open, you should head over to salon-agriculture.com and grab a ticket!
Thank you for reading the French Dispatch! If you liked what you read, you should like this post and subscribe to the newsletter by clicking/tapping the button below:
And if you’d like to contribute a coffee or two to help fuel my coverage of the wild world of politics, feel free to click on the picture below: