I get your point
I just find talking about French politics on a French forum more interesting than talking about Trump, Boris, Nicola Sturgeon and the royal family.
The parallels are the same with our dearest Mr Macron.
The only difference being, France is the only country in flames every week.
Which I am watching right now on TV.
No, but chez nous it’s by choice.
It’s principally an immigrant to France forum which is mostly populated by British, so you are always going to have a mix of UK and French topics.
You can’t expect people to ignore the UK where they have spent a lot of their lives, most of us don’t have a vote to influence French politics, but can still with the UK.
True.
The violence and destruction in Paris today is quite scary. I’m watching it live.
If that happened in the UK…you would be taking about it for weeks and blaming this that and the other. Which is fair. I’m glad I moved to France will be a typical response.
But this happens every week in France. But nobody mentions it.
It’s expected behaviour, like French police violence and striking. It would be very very out of character for British to do these things, so certainly a talking point.
The destruction, policing costs, economic consequences of just today alone will cost tax payers millions not forgetting insurance.
The cost of the GJ movement must have cost the country billions to the tax payers
That equally applies to second home owners.
Is Mr Macron a great leader ?
He’s not too bad. Certainly better than most of the other likely options and considerably better than some other European leaders, and I’d say top 25% globally. What more can you say really? Not bad, could be better, could be worse, perhaps that should be the unofficial motto of all centrist politicians 
Nobody is perfect , I don’t see reports of him having parties in lock down then lying about it
Maybe he’s not having parties, or nothing has come out yet.
But he’s slowly reforming French society as a whole giving more power to the state to govern the population and less individual choice given to the population to choose from. As an exemple it’s obligatory to school your children when they are 3 years old, since 2019. Before 2019 it was obligatory from the age of 6.
Well MCA let’s be honest.
Surely with all the time you’ve spent in France it cannot have escaped your notice that year after year, this time of year has strikes etc.? Roughly, say, just accidentally a day or two adjacent to the series of Public Holidays between Easter and the end of May and the various Ponts.
The cause at issue seems to vary a little but it’s uncanny how close strike days fall each year to these.
Take today Thursday 6th April for instance. Which has a strike. .Unlike some other countries France does not have Friday 7th April as a Public Holiday however Monday 10th April is. 1 day of personal leave or flexi-Friday hours can nicely combine for some to a 5 day weekend from Wednesday 5th April evening through to Tuesday 11th April morning, for many at a nice time of year
Well Karen let’s be honest.
Those on strike aren’t doing it for a day off (without pay) they can get a sick note for that.
It s how we express ourselves. We do it regularly and it doesn’t matter whose administration it is, it will happen when an unpopular measure is in the pipeline.
I don’t condone vandalism etc but the right to go out and shout and make a nuisance of yourself and disrupt is a fundamental one and when necessary we need to use it or lose it.
I don’t. You don’t get paid if you are on strike which is why long strikes generally fizzle out.
In my line of work if you have a day off because you’re ill you aren’t paid for the first day you are ill anyway. So usually you go in to work ill and spread your germs around a bit more then collapse in a heap and lose more time. Pfffffff
Have you ever wondered why strikes are on Tuesdays and or Thursdays? It’s because if it is next to a weekend legally they can dock 3/31èmes of our salary instead of just one. This is the case for fonctionnaires, don’t know about the private sector nowadays.
Same in the private sector
I thought it might be!
Yes maybe I wasn’t clear enough. They don’t get paid for going on strike, they lose a days pay.
Info for the general tread
Many employees that are written off work for medical reasons may lose up to 3 day of social security payments, so if on an arrêt maladie for 5 days from Monday to Friday you only receive benefits for 2 of them, I’ve known doctors to sign off patients for 3 weeks as the calculation is on a 6 day week so the patient doesn’t lose out.
Yes 
Good for Ponts too though
but when the holiday is on a weekend then you loose the holiday.
Yes - luck of the calendar, some years you lose out. Swings and roundabouts 