Inside France: Ministers at risk, cooling cities and the best Macron memes
From the latest on the election trail to the challenge posed to French cities by the climate crisis, via a quick diversion into some funny Macron memes, our new weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.
Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
Putain, il fait chaud, this week has been a scorcher.
Not only was the heatwave intense - with 12 départements put on the rarely-used 'red' alert level for temperatures that are dangerous to health - but weather experts say it is unusually early for a heatwave to strike.
But as the planet gradually warms, extreme weather events become more likely and this is something we will have to get used to.
On our Talking France podcast this week we discuss how cities are adapting to the heat, especially those in northern France that are simply not designed to cope with 40C temperatures.
This 'forecast' from 2014 has also been widely shared this week.
In 2014, this French weather presenter announced the forecast for August 18, 2050 as part of a campaign to alert to the reality of climate change. Now her forecast that day is the actual forecast for the coming 4 or 5 days, in mid-June 2022. pic.twitter.com/10vAIICXNn
— Sylvain Perdigon (@sylvain_anthro) June 15, 2022
Elections
Sunday sees the second round of voting in the French parliamentary elections, with Emmanuel Macron's centrist coalition in a tight race to secure an overall majority in the parliament.
We will be updating the site live on Sunday evening with the latest results HERE.
In last week's first round of voting, the extreme-right TV pundit Eric Zemmour did very badly - not only was he and all his party's candidates eliminated in the first round, but his total share of the vote fell from seven percent in the presidential elections to a humiliating 4.24 percent. Several other extremist candidates including anti-vaxxers also failed to get past the first round.
While most of France goes back to the polls on Sunday there are some exceptions, including my neighbourhood in which the sitting MP, Alexis Corbière of the far left La France Insoumise party, was re-elected with a whopping 61 percent of the vote - any candidate that gets an outright majority of more than 50 percent is elected directly without the need for a second round.
Macron visit
Emmanuel Macron joined his German, Italian and Romanian counterparts to visit Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday, where the group announced that they would back giving Ukraine candidate status to join the EU. Macron also announced the delivery of more Cesar long-range self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine.
The French, German and Italian leaders travelled from Poland on a night train, and as soon as they set off, the memes began.
https://twitter.com/twlldun/status/1537306870242807810
A video clip of the three leaders talking also revealed that Macron seemed to have a fancier carriage that Mario Draghi and Olaf Scholz.
https://twitter.com/vonderburchard/status/1537359934760923140
Once in Ukraine, the leaders visited the devastated Kyiv suburb of Irpin before meeting Zelensky and holding a joint press conference where all four leaders avowed their total support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.
As is always the case on these occasions, much attention was given to how the leaders greeted each other, anyone hoping for signs of a rift between Macron and Zelensky would have been disappointed when they watched the video, as the two greeted each other warmly with a handshake and a hug.
But it's always possible to get a photo at a certain angle that appears to tell a different story, and this one has lead to some funny memes.
https://twitter.com/BDStanley/status/1537728861412139008
Music
And don't forget the Fête de la musique on Tuesday - one of France's most fun festivals.
Comments
See Also
Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
Putain, il fait chaud, this week has been a scorcher.
Not only was the heatwave intense - with 12 départements put on the rarely-used 'red' alert level for temperatures that are dangerous to health - but weather experts say it is unusually early for a heatwave to strike.
But as the planet gradually warms, extreme weather events become more likely and this is something we will have to get used to.
On our Talking France podcast this week we discuss how cities are adapting to the heat, especially those in northern France that are simply not designed to cope with 40C temperatures.
This 'forecast' from 2014 has also been widely shared this week.
In 2014, this French weather presenter announced the forecast for August 18, 2050 as part of a campaign to alert to the reality of climate change. Now her forecast that day is the actual forecast for the coming 4 or 5 days, in mid-June 2022. pic.twitter.com/10vAIICXNn
— Sylvain Perdigon (@sylvain_anthro) June 15, 2022
Elections
Sunday sees the second round of voting in the French parliamentary elections, with Emmanuel Macron's centrist coalition in a tight race to secure an overall majority in the parliament.
We will be updating the site live on Sunday evening with the latest results HERE.
In last week's first round of voting, the extreme-right TV pundit Eric Zemmour did very badly - not only was he and all his party's candidates eliminated in the first round, but his total share of the vote fell from seven percent in the presidential elections to a humiliating 4.24 percent. Several other extremist candidates including anti-vaxxers also failed to get past the first round.
While most of France goes back to the polls on Sunday there are some exceptions, including my neighbourhood in which the sitting MP, Alexis Corbière of the far left La France Insoumise party, was re-elected with a whopping 61 percent of the vote - any candidate that gets an outright majority of more than 50 percent is elected directly without the need for a second round.
Macron visit
Emmanuel Macron joined his German, Italian and Romanian counterparts to visit Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday, where the group announced that they would back giving Ukraine candidate status to join the EU. Macron also announced the delivery of more Cesar long-range self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine.
The French, German and Italian leaders travelled from Poland on a night train, and as soon as they set off, the memes began.
https://twitter.com/twlldun/status/1537306870242807810
A video clip of the three leaders talking also revealed that Macron seemed to have a fancier carriage that Mario Draghi and Olaf Scholz.
https://twitter.com/vonderburchard/status/1537359934760923140
Once in Ukraine, the leaders visited the devastated Kyiv suburb of Irpin before meeting Zelensky and holding a joint press conference where all four leaders avowed their total support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.
As is always the case on these occasions, much attention was given to how the leaders greeted each other, anyone hoping for signs of a rift between Macron and Zelensky would have been disappointed when they watched the video, as the two greeted each other warmly with a handshake and a hug.
But it's always possible to get a photo at a certain angle that appears to tell a different story, and this one has lead to some funny memes.
https://twitter.com/BDStanley/status/1537728861412139008
Music
And don't forget the Fête de la musique on Tuesday - one of France's most fun festivals.
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