I see that M Macron has rejected a candidate for PM coming from the left alliance:
Is this likely to make a practical difference i.e. will there be riots or a French parliament unable to make decisions?
A natural consequence of his decision to call an election, he thought the right were the biggest threat and couldn’t have imagined how powerful the leftish parties would become.
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Can La France function without a National Assembly for a year until Macron can call another one?
I’m just surprised that the NFP hasn’t fallen apart yet as they hate each other more than they hate the French right.
Belgium seems to manage every time this happens to them.
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So no concerns of rioting, societal disruption and massed strikes? Let’s hope it’s just a wimper and not a bang.
I’m glad you reminded me - I was thinking the other day, I wonder if they’ve elected a new PM yet, and hoping I’d not just missed the whole thing.
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There might be a riot, but they’re an everyday occurrence.
There’s a few things at play here:-
Firstly, none of the three groups have a sufficiently significant majority to survive a vote of no confidence.
Secondly, unlike in many other other European countries, the Left and Centrists are refusing to compromise to form a viable governing alliance. France doesn’t have that sort of historical precedent.
Thirdly, the Leftists actually consist of a very broad coalition that was created with the sole intention of stopping le Pen. IMO the most likely outcome is a Leftist split where some eventually form an alliance with most of the Centrists. But this will have to be very carefully packaged and presented.
Lastly, of course Macron understands all this far, far better than moi and I suspect one of his prime intentions is to prevent the reversal of his pension reforms, that would be economically disastrous a few years down the line.
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That would be pleasing, but we can’t bank on it happening. Thanks for the insight.
For those interested in French politics, I found this interview interesting…
Thanks, but need to watch this again, just over halfway through, a surfeit of economic theory delivered in rapid French caused my head to explode…
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I have a feeling that I’d understand about 1 word in 20. 
Try slowing down the playback speed.
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‘Slow economics’ - that’s what we need…
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Using 2 phones or 1 phone and other hardware, play video aloud and use Google audio translate.
Translate by speech - Computer - Google Translate Help.
Advice to use earphones for the translating device is good unless you can distinguish through the babble of two languages simultaneously.
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Or just activate English subtitles, Mrs Heath-Robinson!
Another point of view of the budget & the suppression of the abatement of the 10% on pensions & other actualities.
The protest against rising retirement age continues
I feel it is probably a hopeless quest because an economic necessity. That said, I find it endearing that people in France view their retirement as something to look forward to and a new beginning of activities, not merely an end of activity.
My son was telling me that he told some of his pupils they must do better in class so they can go to Lycée and then Uni to get better jobs eventually. Most of their responses was that they were not going to work but apply for the RSA instead just like their fathers and brothers and stay at home. Little do they know that the rules for applying for that are already pretty strict so by then, probably impossible as the economic problems bite harder and more young are needed to work to pay the pension bill. I have noticed though, a lot of older people who could have retired a few years back at 62 are still working because they enjoy it and have nothing else to occupy them, especially ladies who work on the supermarket tills.
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I used to work two evenings/nights in a state school boarding house. One of the things that I picked up on quite early on was that a lot of the teenage boys had no interest in their everyday school work because they, ‘weren’t going to need exams because they were going to become professional footballers and be rich’.
There was another group of wannabe singers and musicians and a few boys and a lot of the girls were basing their hopes on modelling. I imagine that these days being a YouTube/Instagram/TikTok influencer will have joined the list.
The facts suggested that they were going to be disappointed. The boarding house was part of a large Comprehensive school and in its long history it had not produced one professional footballer and although a handful of players had been taken on as apprentices by league clubs they had all been released at the end of their contracts.
I don’t know about modelling but the school had produced one big name in the music business, Pete Doherty. His mother was actually one of the duty nurses, something I didn’t believe at first when some of the girls were talking about it. Talking to her convinced me though and I have since seen a book she wrote, My Son Pete, which outlines his background and troubled career.
Society hasn’t helped career teachers in their efforts to help adolescents make the right choices and guide them through the path to their chosen career.
I know this is a snapshot and not true of all children everywhere as two of my own children who were making the same choices at the same time in different schools were guided onto the paths leading to Law and Architecture when making their GCSE course choices.
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Unfortunately another side effect of the mobile phone/social media world in that all the young want to be influencers or TikTok stars and some for some very nasty vile acts too. They don’t seem to realise that the years in education only come once and pass very quickly although it dosn’t seem so at the time and before you know it, you are high and dry with either some exam passes under your belt or nothing and left to your own devices. Unemploment pay here has to be earned first, you don’t go along and demand it as a benefit until you have worked and paid in for some years and then its mandatory to go to interviews or have it cut. P Doherty I would not call a famous musician, more well known for model girlfriends and taking drugs and being arrested I would have thought.