[youngian]

No comments from Mail readers on this story despite usually having plenty to say about Le Pen.

Marine Le Pen will ABANDON her bid for 'Frexit' after reluctantly accepting France does not want to leave the EU, National Front official claims

Le Pen last week said National Front will debate its anti-euro stance next month
But party official has indicated she will drop her bid for France to leave the EU
Top strategist admitted 'it makes no sense for us to keep insisting stubbornly'

Marine Le Pen is to abandon her bid for 'Frexit' after reluctantly accepting the country does not want to leave the EU, a National Front official has claimed.

The far-right leader, beaten to the presidency this month by pro-European Emmanuel Macron, will also drop her pitch to restore the French franc, according to her party's chief economic strategist.

Le Pen had said on Friday that the National Front would start debating its trademark anti-euro stance after next month's parliamentary elections.

'There will be no Frexit. We have taken note of what the French people told us,' Bernard Monot, the party´s chief economic strategist, told The Telegraph.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z4hny1pBq0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[The Weeping Angel]

Centrism cannot defeat Fascism said various left-wing commentators in twitter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40322140" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[youngian]

He's strong and stable

[Kreuzberger]

En Marche, on marche, nous marchons. It is difficult to see any long term, viable alternative for the UK or even Spain and perhaps Italy, if they could grow the fuck up out of their TV listings magazines.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Discussed this a bit with various Frenchies*.
Seems to me that they aren't utterly convinced by Macron/LREM but they see all the alternatives as not only worse, but spiralling into disaster. Especially the FN (Madame Le Pen's problems were described to me with great glee by me neighbour).

Could it happen here? No.

The French system, a president who is directly elected and more than a figurehead, a National Assembly elected on a national, not constituency vote allows this sort of result, but the Mother of All Parliaments doesn't. We have to work bottom up, and that allows only gradual and incremental change, not a sweeping out of Les Etages Augean.

I think if we had been electing a president Corbyn would have won. But we weren't, and won't be any time this century. Which is why we'll never have PR, it would be suicide for the major parties.

But for my beloved France, j'suis heureuse.

*
1 neighbour
1 neighbour's son
1 farmer called Michel
1 shutter-fitter
2 people in the garage
1 restaurant proprietor

[Malcolm Armsteen]

'My' local commune went En Marche, but not by a huge majority. The turnout was low. Seems to fit in with what people were telling me, that Macron got their grudging, rather than enthusiastic, support.

In other news, I see that the local Confrerie des Vikings (I never knew there was one, I'm considering joining) has just presented their annual awards for the best cider and sausages - and that Saint Hilaire du Harcouet is considered the sausage capital of Normandy. I must say that the only sossidges I've eaten there have been bought from stalls in the market. But they are very good.

https://actu.fr/normandie/saint-hilaire ... 64987.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



No idea why the head Viking appears to be wearing a smock and a bowler hat.

[Bones McCoy]

No idea why the head Viking appears to be wearing a smock and a bowler hat.

It's early, and when i first glanced the picture I wondered whether the DUP had branched out into French politics.

[Daley Mayle]

No idea why the head Viking appears to be wearing a smock and a bowler hat.

It's early, and when i first glanced the picture I wondered whether the DUP had branched out into French politics.

Jamais, jamais, jamais, jamais!

[Kreuzberger]

Ha! I read the page from the top and was rapidly coming to the same conclusion.

Bowler hats, "Grand Master" insignia, a wee sash - all very nice for the En Marching season.

[youngian]

The Principality of Orange (in French la Principauté d'Orange) was, from 1163 to 1713, a feudal state in Provence, in the south of modern-day France, on the left bank of the river Rhone north of the city of Avignon.

It was constituted in 1163, when Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I elevated the Burgundian County of Orange (consisting of the city of Orange and the land surrounding it) to a sovereign principality within the Empire. The principality became part of the scattered holdings of the house of Orange-Nassau from the time that William I "the Silent" inherited the title of Prince of Orange from his cousin in 1544, until it was finally ceded to France in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Orange" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Safe_Timber_Man]

Worrying developments in France as what appears to be a terrorist attack and hostage situation is unfolding:

[Malcolm Armsteen]

French TV now saying the gunman is dead (shot by police), but there are other casualties, stories of two dead, unknown number injured. Not confirming that it is a terrorist attack.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Ministry of the Interior now saying they are treating it as a terrorist attack.

A thought - if you take a shot at the CRS then when they come to get you you're not going to survive...

[Safe_Timber_Man]

Are they basically the French version of our counter-terrorism police? Or more like the US SWAT?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Compagnie Republicaines de Security.
Crowd and riot control, 'special' operations. Including foot patrols on beaches etc.
Military-style in a way we don't have here (they are part of the Police Nationale) and hard as nails. Not recruited for their skills at cake making and knitting. A tendency to carry machine guns. Which is why they were attacked whilst jogging, they don't carry their firearms then.