Post-election reflections...
On France and its twisted relations with democracy and with the rest of the world
Dear readers,
if you know me and/or read me, you know I don’t consider borderx as more that sheer virtual lines and that I live as a citizens of many places…
I was born in France and grew up there, however, so it is a country, a history and a political system I know quite well. I studied at La Sorbonne then Sciences Po, specialising first in European literatures and cultures, then in international affairs and journalism. I also covered France’s elections and major event from 2005, for France 24, then the Canadian Broadcasting House (CBC), Deutsche Welle (DW), France Culture, Radio France Internationale…
This year we see the culmination of serious issues raises with the arrival in power of Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2007, in terms of corruption, manipulation of the media, and serious disrespect of people’s democratic right to representation.
First, a few lines, written a few hours after the results came in:
France saved its republic from the shame of joining the European countries led by the far right, but it is now deeply divided, and its Parliament without a clear leadership. The near future is still uncertain.
The first feeling was relief… For most of us, French democrats, for the dual nationals, and for the millions of expats living here.
Voting in Marseille in the morning yesterday, Gaëlle, 38 years old, told me it was important for her to vote because she is “not in agreement with the values of the National Rally”.
“I wanted to express my political voice as a left-wing person, who wants a mixed France, proud of all the people who live here and who participate in life in society. A tolerant and loving France.”
For those living in Marseille, one of the most multicultural cities in France, considered as the “gateway to the global south” by many, including some directors of its leading cultural institution, it’s not a surprising stance.
But Marseille, unlike Paris, wakes up on Monday (8 July 2024) as a deeply divided city; its western districts now represented by the left; a surge of the far right on the eastern, richer parts.
The New Popular Front surprisingly came out first on Sunday night’s results, after two weeks of tense campaigning, and constant obsession about the far right on 24-hour news channels.
But the group are in a difficult position now, as President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly said he would not want to work with them to form a government.
“We have to completely change our method, and the left must present within the week a candidacy for the post of Prime Minister after the second round of the legislative elections,” the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, said on FranceInfo on Monday morning, 8 July.
Macron’s current Prime Minister and special protégé, Gabriel Attal, announced on Sunday evening that he would submit his resignation to Emmanuel Macron on Monday morning, but added that he would be keen to stay “as long as duty requires”.
The presidential palace announced a few minutes later that Macron would wait to know the exact "structuring" of the new Assembly before choosing the people invited to join the government.
Politicians like François Bayrou, a centrist who heads a party allied to Macron, has floated the idea of an alliance excluding what he keeps calling “the extreme left” and extreme right, gathering together a “democratic and republican” grouping which would govern together.
But for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of left-wing party France Insoumise (LFI, or Unsubmissive France), Macron "has the duty to call on the New Popular Front to govern”.
With this type of deadlock, and the rise of the far right - the RN being now the third political force in parliament - an unseen situation in France, many have reasons to keep on worrying, especially foreigners living in France and French people living abroad, with family spread over two countries if not continents.
"I spent the evening on the phone with the family,” my French Tunisian friend Nadia wrote to me. “What a relief indeed. I find that we feel it in the atmosphere of the city too…” she said of Marseille.
In Bruxelles, Sandra, a friend of mine who is French Greek and moved to Belgium twenty years ago, even joked that she will probably agree to come back and visit us again in France…
From New York, Farah, another French Tunisian friend of mine, who campaigned for two weeks for the New Popular Front, said she cried of relief.
In Paris, where the left is quite high, most of my British and American friends who have been living in France now want to get their French nationality as soon as possible, a right they have now that they have lived here for decades, having children born in France and French spouses.
What is sure is that France probably has another year of turmoil in front of her. The French Republic’s constitution is heavily tilted in favour of the executive, giving more power to its President and Prime Minister. To rebalance the system in favour of such a hung parliament will demand a lot of flexibility and creativity from MPs and members of a potential coalition government.
It could be a blessing, teaching the French how to live and run a country through compromises and tolerance, and stop relying on the providential strong male leader. But the road to that goal might not be the straightest line…
Now, a few articles I wrote about artists revealing more of France’s unreported dark side…
Director Nicolas Lambert probes France's 'family secret', its colonial past
Actor and director Nicolas Lambert is drawn to the darker sides of France, from the oil business to arms sales. His one-man show France, Empire, appearing this month at the alternative theatre festival in Avignon, mixes personal and collective stories to uncover "a national family secret": France's colonial past.
Issued on: 09/07/2024
Lambert compares colonial history and its traumas to "a national family secret" – something both intimate and often avoided.
"There is a lot of emotion in the room during the show," he said. "We have a lot of psychologists who work on the notion of trauma coming to watch, and that touches me a lot.
"It seems like a good, good tool for them, to discuss these issues individually but also collectively. Some people cry too, it frees something."
Read more from my article here: https://www.rfi.fr/en/culture/20240709-director-nicolas-lambert-probes-france-s-family-secret-its-colonial-past
French-Algerian artist Kader Attia explores colonial wounds, creative restoration
French-Algerian artist Kader Attia explores the idea of repair through creativity in a new exhibition of his recent work at the museum of modern art in Montpellier, in the south of France. His work is inspired by his memories of Algeria and his travels around the Global South.
Issued on: 30/06/2024
"Descent into Paradise" is Attia's first exhibition in over five years in France. He describes it as "a journey through my life story, the starting point of a dialogue, and a reflection on our times, a challenging path".
The title is a deconstruction of Dante’s Divine Comedy, from purgatory to hell, underneath which is hidden the ambivalent beauty of paradise, he adds.
Curated by Numa Hambursin, the show draws inspiration from the spatial organisation of the MoCo museum of modern art in Montpellier.
Visitors go from the top floor down to the basement as a metaphor for a voyage from the sky to the earth and its depths.
It's a reflection on repair, reparations and transcendence that "questions the notion of verticality as a vital and spiritual movement", according to the curator.
Algerian inspirations
"Algeria is definitely very important in my work, especially the traces of my family," Attia told RFI on the opening day of the exhibition, which is being shown in conjunction with "Being Mediterranean", a show of contemporary art from around the Mediterranean.
"My grandmother and my father fought against colonialism. But I also really care about the idea that we can have several identities."
Keen to share his identities with the world, Attia says his art is a way to honour the legacy of our ancestors.
"I grew up in a family in poverty in the east of Algeria, in the Aurès mountains – a landscape that has been significant in my life."
A multimedia artist, he uses drawing, photography, video, sculpture and installations.
The first works on display are a series of photographs of geometrical rocks from the Bab El Oued area of Algiers, where the artist would visit family.
In some photographs, young men look out towards the sea and towards Europe – except one, who sits reading a newspaper. He represents the people who decide to stay, perhaps to make a difference in their country, instead of dreaming of immigration.
» Read the rest from here: https://www.rfi.fr/en/culture/20240630-artist-kader-attia-descent-into-paradise-moco-montepellier
France's tense political climate mirrors Israel's, says scholar Ilan Pappé • RFI English - The video:
Israeli historian Ilan Pappé has seen his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine reissued in France after a French publisher pulled it from shelves. He tells RFI that it fits with a broader political climate that limits freedom of expression, both across Europe and in Israel.
Full interview here: https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20240628-france-s-tense-political-climate-mirrors-israel-s-says-scholar-ilan-papp%C3%A9
‘I saw the hatred caused by Brexit – now I fear France will be the same’
Foreigners living in France have described keeping their head low and fear their rights will be eroded under a far-right government that has pledged to crack down on immigration
Melissa Chemam
June 30, 2024
» for the i Paper: https://inews.co.uk/news/world/i-saw-the-hatred-caused-by-brexit-now-i-fear-france-will-be-the-same-3140517
British expats and foreigners living in France fear that their rights could be eroded under a potential far-right government after the National Rally (RN) pledged to crack down on immigration.
Opinion polls ahead of the first round of voting on Sunday have suggested the RN has a comfortable lead of 33 per cent – 36 per cent of the popular vote, with a hastily assembled left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front, in second place on 28 per cent – 31 per cent and Macron’s centrist alliance in third on 20 per cent – 23 per cent.
The far-right party led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella has announced plans to ban dual nationals from holding key “strategic positions” in the defense or security sectors as well as scrap the right of nationality for children born in France and raised by foreign parents. It also plans to restrict welfare and healthcare access for foreigners and preference some people for welfare payments in a breach of EU rules.
The crackdown has affected the mood of British expats and foreigners living in the UK who don’t have French nationality, with some feeling like their future in their adopted home is in doubt.
David Schischka Thomas is an art dealer and DJ from Birmingham who has been living in France for eight years with his wife, near Limoges. He said the current election has led them to think hard about their future in the country.
“We have lived through the rise of the far right in the UK with all the racism, hatred, misinformation, and then the polarisation caused by Brexit,” he told i. “I am now worried that France will go the same way.”
“My wife is black and we are both very anti-far right,” he adds.
“I would go for French citizenship, as I could still keep my UK citizenship, but my wife is both British and a New Zealander, so she would lose her NZ citizenship, and is not willing to do so.”
For now, they cannot imagine going back to the United Kingdom.
“We both know many French people, they are all left-leaning and angry about what is happening. Most of the Brits around here are complacent and don’t think it will affect them. Even the local French conned by the far right apparently say we are not the type of migrants that they want out of France.”
“But most of the people who vote for the far right are easily manipulated, in my opinion. We have been made to feel very welcome on the whole, there is just an occasional obvious racist my wife notices. But will it change?”
Briton Sarah Barden, who lives between France and Belgium, has not become a French citizen despite years spent in Paris. Now she is worried she won’t be able to plan her future in the country.
“The issue isn’t the vote only, but how broken the country is,” she told i, saying that the snap election campaign has shown a lack of leadership, with many people feeling forgotten. “This campaign had zero mention of current wars, the economy, preserving green spaces, hopes for the young and old, how we fund fossil fuel… It’s only about blaming immigrants.”
Fiona, who did not want to reveal her last name and is also from Britain, moved to France in 2008 and considers it her home. She lives in Brittany near Saint-Malo, where she has her own textile and design store.
“I’ve built my business and life here. My family is French – my husband, my daughter. I’m really upset that I can’t vote. I started the citizenship process before Covid and had a heap of issues that slowed down the process. I’m going through the paperwork again now. I’m really worried. For the first time, I’ve felt like maybe I should keep my head low. There are people canvassing for the RN (National Rally) in our village, though, traditionally this wouldn’t have been a far-right area.”
Immigrants from other countries share the feeling, as well as some French Arabs who say they will never be seen as “French enough”.
Nu Barreto, a French Guinea artist living near Paris, said he is not panicking but feels the country is facing a stark choice.
“I know who to vote for. We have to fight this atmosphere and convince as many people to vote. It’s a global atmosphere and it won’t disappear just right now,” he said.
Tunisian French writer Farah Abdessamad said: “The issue has never been about French German or French Canadian dual nationals, but it’s about France’s unaddressed legacies regarding its formerly colonised indigènes, its inability to embrace diversity, to see colour and race.”
She added: “And yes, it hurts that these ideas have perverted the minds of so many so quickly, but it’s not coming from thin air either.”
That even binationals are now singled out by the far-right and their enablers is no mistake: it’s part of a continuum that previously essentialised Arabs and relegated their rights during the colonial era.
“Today, we Arabs are made into conditional citizens who will never be seen as French enough, though authorities continue to deny that systemic racism exists.”
Thanks for reading, and let’s stay aware of how fragile democracy really is.
best,
melissa
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Melissa Chemam
Journalist, Audio Producer & Writer
@ RFI English, New Arab, ART UK, Byline Times...
My blog: https://melissa-on-the-road.blogspot.com/
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXE4ofFjz0lsRzemjdmFf7w
Great roundup, Melissa, and turn of events for France!