Excellent Sarah. Thanks
You amateurs better getting moving then. x4 here.
I don't know how to do this but I only have one wife!
We have had 10 years of glory!
@ david " we've been married 7 years today Any thoughts? " Only one :- you're a rank amateur. I was married 17 years to my first lady & 27 years with present. Oh sorry! just realised you were talking about naughty French words;-)
Any chance of private lessons in the swearing department. It's the one thing my vocabulary & hence life is missing En France. I used to be a world champion swearer in Blighty but feel somewhat disadvantaged now. Somebody, please, make my life complete. Make me whole again;-)
Note to Catherine and James
Sorry for naughty words but they were only used for educational purposes
Thank you!
Ironically the current maire set up and ran a very successful law practice (which still exists even though he himself is retired) so he certainly knows that what he is doing is illegal!
I am a translator so no language probs
Did meet with the man who is heading up the second list and your advice is pretty much what he is in the process of doing.....for the time being he wants to do everything by the book but will let me know if he wants press involved
Am a former PR girl so am happy to follow up on that side of things to help them out
Thanks for the info - the maire has close ties to Castres (81) where he had his law offices and Albi (so he can suck up to the prefecture). The two Toulouse tribunals 'parent' the local courts but are not, as far as I am aware, courts where he has much influence or contacts
Vas te faire enculer (or allez vous faire enculer) is the translation of bugger off BUT for a French person this is probably the worst insult.
Similarly the French use 'con' a lot....a relatively mild insult in French but is the 'C word' in English so not something I encourage my French friends to translate and use when they want to rebuff my English friends or family!
BLACKMAIL in the French Penal Code: Article 312-10
“Le chantage est le fait d'obtenir, en menaçant de révéler ou d'imputer des faits de nature à porter atteinte à l'honneur ou à la considération, soit une signature, un engagement ou une renonciation, soit la révélation d'un secret, soit la remise de fonds, de valeurs ou d'un bien quelconque.
Le chantage est puni de cinq ans d'emprisonnement et de 75000 euros d'amende.”
I have translated this as follows:-
“Blackmail is the fact of obtaining, by threatening to reveal or to impute facts of such a nature as to attack the honour [of someone] or in consideration for, either a signature, a promise to do something or to renounce [something], or the revealing of a secret, or handing over money, valuables or goods of whatever nature.
Blackmail is punishable by 5 years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.”
I have now ‘decanted’ this for you for your circumstances (not perfect, I did it quickly!):-
“Blackmail is the fact of … threatening [someone] … in consideration for … a promise [not] to do something or to renounce [something] …”.
Bear in mind I am always up for an opportunity to improve my french - would that en etc have entailed something rude in the genital area or would it have been the continental one finger or the UK two finger? My wife (and I apologise for mentioning her but she's the only one I've got and we've been married 7 years today (10 years together altho' I did get the itch this morning) reckons that one should say "vat te faire enco((ler etc. Any thoughts?
what do I think??? I think you should write this lot down and send it to your nearest Administrative Court. (La Cour Administrative). As you are in 81 in Midi-Pyrénées, that would be in Toulouse (I am pretty sure). If indeed this is Blackmail, this is of course totally illegal. And if it is p188ing you off so badly (I can see that, this is France and this type of thing is legendary) you will have to do something bold: go to Court or report it to the Gendarmerie. I think you will get a better result in La Cour Administrative (as less likely to be locally bias). There is an ULTRA STRICT 3 month deadline for filing an action (3 months inclusive of the action or event concerned, 3 months inclusive, not 3 months and a day). You need names and you need to get writing. You do not need a lawyer, you can do it in letter format, e.g. For the Attention of the Administrative Court, I would like to draw the following matters to the attention of the Administrative Court. Re: local elections. It appears to me that the democratic process is being broken down by the actions of [current Maire] in the form of threats to other prospective candidates. This is widely known as Blackmail. This is also criminal act under the Code Pénal in France [Code Pénale, section blah, sub-section blah blah].
http://toulouse.tribunal-administratif.fr/
Get the idea?
Trial by Media? Waste of time. Newspaper don't have powers of enforcement in the democratic process. You need a Court and a Judge, or the Police. But perhaps like me, you trust the Police as far as I could throw a 50 year old CRS man. The Admin Court is there to intervene in ... as the name suggests, the Administrative process. That is what it is there for. The Admin Court has powers of enforcement. That is what you need.
Scarey or what? Do you speak or can you write fluent French?
Want anymore help? I am at free the hippo AT yahoo dot co dot UK (no spaces).
Maybe organise a meeting with a good quality hidden voice recorder and or video - try a little blackmail or your own. You are right a good investigative journalist would be just the go! Local government seems to be the same everywhere on the planet.
Exactly - it was two women who withdrew; easier to scare off I imagine
I went to see the 'opposition' this morning and apparently the man who was 'threatened' told the mayor to 'allez se faire e*****r'
So for the list to be complete they need two women
Still very undecided - happy to support and promote but not too keen to be on a list unless I am one of the last few names and therefore would never be on the council if the list were to be elected.
Lists are officially published at some point. Here it has been word of mouth but we are a small community so we pretty much know who is running
Plus both sides are now touring the village to knock up support
You might have more luck with an eggcup Brian....
No idea how democratic things are in our Commune - except there don't seem to be regular open Council meetings. All I can say is that if we'd been here before they set up the velorail we'd have lobbied for a Ratty.
It's got me going again! I sometimes have the feeling I would just like to test them by turning up at one of their meetings with a jam jar and asking if they have any democracy for me since I have just run out!
Oh yes. I had a bit of a barney with our last mayor (had to resign in shame for several reasons). It came to me saying that I do know how local government functions because I was a councillor in England for many years including one term as chair. I carefully explained that a chairman/woman is the equivalent of maire here but is usually more council inclusive. I know the English system is full of oligarchs to, having had one for years there until he was approaching death's door, but kept that to myself.
Upshot of my mouth acting before my head was that he said I should stand next election, wink, wink, nudge, nudge! I declined. When he stood down in 2012 I felt freed of that burden until I called in at the mairie in December and the present maire, who will stay in office at the forthcoming election, said that I should stand. He gave me the run down on how many EU people there are in local councils and how 'we' do not have one. I wanted to say that I was not inclined to be the token foreign member, but just smiled and said 'No thanks' and left fast. It is all manipulated and mishandled to get the council they want, so I do not want, as I explained to maire one, to be a rubber stamp member.
I said it on another post recently, that I was told about a local maire who gets people to stand who are elected. The newly elected ones all decide they cannot take the seats so he co-opts all the people who are already on 'his' council who either did not bother too stand again or were voted off. That way he has had a little fiefdom for over 20 years without the convenience of any change in members.
Given such accounts, I have the feeling the revolution did not penetrate very far into the mentality of the country that so insistently tells the world it is the mother of modern democracy. Oh yeah?