BUSY JULY; FIRST CHASSÉ-CROISÉ; BAD NEWS A-COMING; FIRST WORLD WAR; HOLIDAYS

BYE-BYE BUSY JULY

The hectic month of July is behind us:  operas, concerts, conferences and master classes in Aix were followed by four wonderful plays in Avignon and a sigh of relief that in the end the social conflict of the Intermittents did relatively little damage to these two main summer festivals. The source of the conflict, however, remains unresolved for now and will have to be addressed before year-end if the 2015 festival season is to be saved.  We cross our fingers.

The highlight of the 2014 Avignon season was probably the 18-hour-long performance of Shakespeare's Henry VI that drew a sell-out crowd from 10AM to almost 6AM the next day. For every one of its three shows! With five interruptions of one hour each, the exhausted but euphoric actors finished their marathon performance to a long standing ovation of an admiring public most of whom had stayed until the end. "Better than Game of Thrones" said one young spectator.

The newly nominated Festival Director, author-actor-director Olivier Py, summed up his first season this way: "It was a stressful time but it was beautiful". It was also costly, since the twelve performances cancelled due to strikes cost the Festival €300,000 in lost ticket sales, something that did not unduly worry the Avignon regulars who generally support the intermittents and vowed to be back next year, come what may.

Similarly, Bernard Foccroule, Director of the Opera Festival in Aix-en-Provence, declared himself satisfied with the 2014 season that despite a difficult start and two canceled performances managed to bring the Festival back into the black after a dip into the red last year. With ticket sales of close to 95 percent this year, things look good for next year when some BIG names are on the program, such as Sir Simon Rattle, Peter Sellars, the talented Katie Mitchell and others.

FIRST CHASSÉ-CROISÉ

Meanwhile, the first big chassé-croisé of the summer, when juillettistes and aoûtiens (July and August vacationers) cross each other coming and going on the north-south highways of France, broke all records on "black" Saturday, August 2nd, with hundreds of miles of traffic backups on all major north-south roads and blistering waits of up to one hour and a half at toll stations. It's a familiar sight on this biggest annual holiday weekend, yet nobody seems willing to forego one day of a holiday rental. Similar difficulties are to be expected every Saturday of August in the southward direction, with another "black" peak on Saturday 16 August in both north and south directions. Don't say I didn't warn you.

BAD NEWS A-COMING

A surprisingly optimistic President Hollande in his July 14th television interview was followed last week by a rather pessimistic Prime Minister Manuel Valls who − before the 2-week summer break of government ministers − announced that the post-holiday return (la Rentrée) will be a difficult one in economic terms. For the eighth month in a row unemployment figures rose in June, and the effects of

Manuel Valls, worried

the Pacte de Responsabilité (blog January 5, 2014) between the government and French business leaders have yet to be seen. Nevertheless, this Pacte is the right government response to youth unemployment, according to Valls, who further warned of a risk of deflation before things will change for the better. Reforms, reforms, reforms - that is what we need and what we are working on, he said, as he asked for people to be patient. "We are working hard and we will succeed".

As members of the Cabinet each went their way on a 2-week holiday "in France and within several hours from Paris so as to be available", François Hollande is taking his own summer break at La Lanterne, the presidential retreat in Versailles, where he intends to celebrate his 60th birthday on August 12th with his children.

WORLD WAR ONE

Hartmannswillerkopf cemetery, Alsace

This month marks the one hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War, called la Grande Guerre in France, which killed 18 million people. On August 3rd, for the first time ever, French President Hollande and German President Joachim Gauck met at the large WW-I cemetery in Hartmannswillerkopf, Alsace, where they honored the 30,000 French and German soldiers buried there. They signed a joint declaration and laid the first stone of a Franco-German memorial building to be opened in 2017. "The terrible battles fought here make of Hartmannswillerkopf a sacred site in memory of the sacrifice of those fallen here, and the new museum will stand as an emblem of Franco-German friendship and a symbol of its reconciliation", read the Declaration signed by both leaders. The meeting was sealed with a long embrace between the two men. 

French and German presidents, holding hands

(Am I the only one to think that this looked a bit forced? The Germans, like the Dutch, are not huggers and both men seemed to be following a script for the journalists and photographers). 

HOLIDAYS

During this government recess and with most of the French on vacation, the month of August tends to be quiet, not to say somnolent. In fact, I feel a bit somnolent myself and will sign off here with a promise to report back to you as soon as everyone starts stirring again. 

As I climb into my hammock, is that a distant plane I am hearing?  Or a buzzing fly?  Or my buzzing cell phone?  Or....  ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz.

SUMMER HEAT, INTERMITTENTS, HOLIDAYS, SARKOZY, BERLUSCONI, TOUR DE FRANCE

HEATED SUMMER

It's been an agitated summer so far with strikes and disturbances at several summer festivals, revelations of financial misconduct within the UMP opposition party, a surprisingly long and tough hearing of former president Sarkozy by French prosecutors, and the Tour de France off to a chaotic start. 

The INTERMITTENTS DU SPECTACLE (temps of the entertainment business) made good on some of their threats (blog June 15) and closed down the première of the Avignon theatre festival at the famous Palais des Papes and a number of other shows thereafter. In spite of an initial positive gesture from the government in response to the strikers' demands, a hard-core group of protesters shut down festivals in Montpellier, Marseilles, Uzès, and elsewhere, and at times the police had to intervene, particularly in a highly charged Avignon where Minister of Culture Aurélie Filippetti was shouted down by hecklers and the mood turned ugly.

In Aix-en-Provence, after a difficult start with one opera cancelled and another one disturbed, a compromise was reached:  the opera festival management distributed pamphlets and prominently displayed large banners in support of the intermittents at the four opera venues in town. In addition, they allowed the temps to present their case on stage at the beginning of each performance − generally to enthusiastic applause of the French audience and bewildered looks from foreign visitors.

At the 2014 International Opera Awards in London on April 7th, the festival of Aix-en-Provence was named "Best Opera Festival in Europe" − a prestigious distinction in a crowded field and proof of its increasingly wide resonance abroad. This month-long event produces €65 million in revenues for the region, approximately half of it for the city of Aix-en-Provence alone. Cancelling this festival would not only have disastrous financial consequences but would severely damage its reputation outside France, where less tolerance can be expected for the salary issues of the intermittents.   

AND AWAY WE GO...

None of this unrest has slowed down the holiday departures in France, when people leave the cities en masse, usually towards the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Every weekend throughout July and August is a "weekend rouge" or "noir" on traffic-choked major highways, as hordes of vacationers − like lemmings − make their way to the sea. While the young splash around in pools or at beaches, their parents settle into their lounge chairs to read magazines or the summer best sellers that have been discussed and recommended in the press.

Yes, the French still haul stacks of books to their summer retreats and, with the exception of some youngsters, still vastly favor paper books over the electronic kind − perhaps partly due to a government policy that prohibits any bookseller from giving more than a 5 percent discount on the cover price of a book, thus leveling the playing field for small and large bookshops. This year, the French government added an "anti-Amazon" law that bans free shipping on online book sales in France. This policy is meant to protect the smaller bookstores from foreign giants who can afford to sell at a loss and threaten the very survival of the French traditional independent bookseller. Amazon has responded with a shipping price of one cent, and there will surely be some more legal skirmishing. But while the French may appreciate supermarkets, they will fight to maintain their less "efficient" but far more satisfying farmers' markets. Product quality and human contact prevail here, as they do in the traditional bookshop where browsing and knowledgeable employees enhance the experience of buying books. With a still robust market of more than 3500 bookshops in France (including 800 small independents), French brick-and-mortar bookstores may have a better chance than others to resist online book sellers. But for how long? 

SARKOZY

After spending 15 hours in police custody on July 1st, former president Nicolas Sarkozy was formally charged with corruption and abuse of power following a number of wiretapped conversations with his lawyer on his private cell phone. These revealed that information concerning his pending Bétancourt case (blog March 17) was being leaked to him by a lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeals who hoped to obtain a prominent position in Monaco with Sarkozy's help. Within hours of his long ordeal, a combative Nicolas Sarkozy appeared on national television to accuse the two prosecuting judges of clear bias, unnecessary humiliation, and building their case on illegally obtained information (lawyer-client privilege). Even if Sarkozy may be proven right, this episode still further erodes his chances of a possible presidential comeback in 2017.

Nicolas Sarkozy

Meanwhile, his UMP party continues to be weakened by internal scandals that have already led to the resignation of party leader Jean-François Copé over the Bygmalion affair (blog June 1). A financial audit has now revealed that the UMP is €80 million in debt, part of it incurred to finance the Copé couple's lavish lifestyle and pay for excessive salaries for the top managers. There are also rumors of a secret fund for presidential campaign expenses beyond the legally allowed limit. A triumvirate of three former prime ministers has taken over the leadership of the party until a new leader can be elected in October. Nicolas Sarkozy's backers are still hopeful that their man may return and, in the absence of any strong UMP candidate on the horizon, they may get their wish.

Old (left) and new glasses

Elsewhere in the political arena, President Hollande's dismal approval rating remains at 18 percent, the lowest ever recorded for a French president, according to an IFOP opinion poll published on June 4th. In a televised interview on Bastille Day, July 14th, he seemed to be in denial of the reality when he announced that the long-awaited economic recovery is there. If nobody has been able to see any sign of it so far, it is because "it is very weak, but it is there", according to the president. Neither his optimism nor his new eye glasses ("less intellectual") were convincing. In fact, the president's horn-rimmed new specs turned out to be made in Denmark, which caused the angry accusation of French frame manufacturers that Hollande is not living up to his government's "Buy French" campaign. Truly, the man can't win.

BERLUSCONI

One man who can and did win was Silvio Berlusconi who, on appeal, was acquitted of the charges of paying for sex with a minor and abuse of power. The judge apparently accepted Berlusconi's testimony that he thought the then-underage prostitute "Ruby" was over eighteen. Known for his harsh opinion of the Italian justice system, this time a jubilant Berlusconi commented that "the vast majority of Italian magistrates do their job quietly and with admirable impartiality and rigor". The ruling by the Appeals Court overturns his lifetime ban on holding political office, but may have little effect given Berlusconi's age and the fact that he is still on trial for political corruption at a court in Naples and for witness tampering in Milan.

TOUR DE FRANCE

This year the Tour de France has been plagued by a series of accidents that knocked several big-name riders out of the race early on. Mark Cavendish crashed out on the very first day in his native Yorkshire, and when the Tour hit French soil on day four, heavy rain and wind caused multiple spills on the slippery cobblestone roads, resulting in a number of broken bones. Among the victims were last year's winner Chris Froome, and former winners Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck. There are now no former Tour winners left in the remaining stages.

  

HAVE A HAPPY SUMMER ...   

AND KEEP COOL!

OPERA OR NO, ECOTAX CANCELLED, ECONOMIC FORUM, REIGN IN SPAIN, NEW PRESIDENT OF EUROPEAN COMMISSION

OPERA OR NO?

Here we are at the end of our pre-opera month of June (master classes, public concerts, conferences, etc.) and VERY relieved to learn that our actual opera festival in July will indeed take place. Just days ago, Bernard Foccroulle, Director of the opera festival in Aix-en-Provence, made it official: after intense debate and negotiations, the intermittents du spectacle, the temps of the entertainment world (see blog June 15) in Aix voted to call off their strike here, even though the dispute remains unresolved in Avignon for now. Phew! A repeat of the disastrous summer of 2003 was avoided in the nick of time.

Protesting "intermittents"

Prime Minister Manuel Valls extended a "helping hand" to the intermittents in announcing that the waiting time between the last paid job and the beginning of unemployment payments would not have to be borne by the intermittents but would be paid for by the State (at a cost of €40 million), and that before the end of this year his government would make sure that the special statute of the intermittents would be fixed once and for all. In exchange, he asked them to drop their strike.

This past month has seen a rash of strikes (railroad workers, air traffic controllers, public defense lawyers, farmers, driving test inspectors, the SNCM ferry between Marseilles and Corsica). Many were in protest against the dreaded "reforms" required to improve France's competitiveness and boost its economy, and to bring its public debt down to 3 percent of GDP. In a country where every announced cutback is greeted with a strike, and where it is now up to a socialist government to enact painful reforms where previous, center-right, governments have failed, this is a near-impossible task.

And yet - it is difficult to see a clear line of conduct in the government's response to this challenge.


ECOTAX CANCELLED

Take the Ecotax (see blog 11/1/2013)  that was to be implemented in France on January 1, 2014 after seven other European countries had already done so, and was to bring in €1.2 billion per year in revenues. Based on the "polluter pays" principle that taxes heavy trucks of over 3.5 tons, this measure had already been accepted by the Parliament and was meant to finance new public transportation systems in cities and promote rail and river transportation of freight. To collect the tax, France had signed a 13-year contract with private Italian company Ecomouv to build and manage the sophisticated Ecotax roadside equipment (portiques) along French highways at a cost of €18 million per month.

Ecotax  "portique"

However, soon after a group of noisy and destructive truckers in Bretagne protested against this tax last October, President Hollande decided to postpone its implementation (again) until 2015. Then, his new Minister of Ecology, Ségolène Royal, announced last week that the planned Ecotax has been canceled and replaced by a special toll fee on heavy trucks, and that the French government will buy a 20 percent share of Ecomouv. The new toll fees will produce only half as much income as the Ecotax would have done and will be less effective in reducing pollution levels, which reached a peak in Paris earlier this year and regularly exceed health safety limits in the Paris, Marseilles and Strasbourg areas.

Dropping the Ecotax means a loss of revenues of some €600 million per year and the cancellation of a number of eco-friendly infrastructure projects and employment opportunities, while a 20 percent investment in Ecomouv is not expected to pay off anytime soon.

What makes the government's decision even more incomprehensible is the fact that recalcitrant Bretagne will be excluded from this extra toll on heavy trucks, and that elsewhere in the country, notably in the industrial Alsace-Lorraine area with its heavy truck traffic across the French-German border, the Ecotax was welcomed.

This seems like a missed opportunity for the government to raise money directly from polluters in order to create and promote clean alternatives -- something that benefits everybody and has already been done successfully by many EU countries.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC FORUM

Perhaps the economic forum on the theme of "Investing Today to Invent Tomorrow", to be held in Aix-en-Provence July 4-6, may spark some new ideas. Among the speakers are current and former French and foreign government and industry leaders, Christine Lagarde (IMF), Pascal Lamy (former head of WTO), Michel Barnier (European Commissioner), former Italian prime ministers Mario Monti and Enrique Letta, various finance ministers, economists from Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, and members of other prestigious institutions. Submitting to this group the case of Socialist France in Today's Globalized World might produce some interesting answers.

THE REIGN IN SPAIN

Juan Carlos resigns

As France is experiencing its share of difficulties, so does Spain where 76-year old king Juan Carlos suddenly abdicated in early June in favor of his 46-year-old son Felipe amid corruption scandals that just won't go away. Starting with his ill-advised elephant hunt in Botswana in 2012 and growing rumors of his amorous liaisons, the king's popularity had been declining but took a serious beating after damaging revelations in the corruption case of his son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarin and daughter Princess Cristina, who stand accused of embezzlement of public funds and money laundering.

After a 39-year reign where he oversaw the transition from Franco's dictatorship to democracy, saved the country from a military putsch in 1981, and had always commanded the affection and loyalty of his people, the latest scandals have seriously damaged his legacy.

Physically diminished after five hip operations, a tired and tainted Juan Carlos seemed no longer able to inspire respect and confidence among his subjects who have been plagued by years of economic hardship and high unemployment.

King Felipe, Queen Laetizia

Juan Carlos is the third monarch to abdicate in the past two years, after Queen Beatrix of Holland and King Albert of Belgium who made way for their oldest sons. Next in line are the monarchies of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and of course the 88-year old queen of England who has given every indication that she will "die in the saddle", but even that heroic death cannot be more than a few years away.

All largely ceremonial figures, these monarchs are becoming increasingly irrelevant and the next generation may well be the last in line. Among the reasons cited for abolishing the monarchy is the cost of maintaining them, but Christina Patterson in the June 28 edition of The Guardian claims that, in the case of Queen Elizabeth II, her "royal grant" of £40 million per year (which serves to cover the costs of her function and maintaining the royal palaces) translates to just over one penny per week per person of the realm. She still carries out about 430 engagements a year, uncomplaining dignity included, and is about the only steadfast thing left in a turbulent time. All that for a penny per person per week − it's a bargain.

PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Finally, despite fierce opposition by David Cameron of the UK, Jean-Claude Juncker was elected as the next President of the European Commission in Brussels where he will replace Jose-Manuel Barroso. 

Jean-Claude Juncker

Juncker, former finance minister and long-time prime minister of Luxembourg, who worked with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl on the establishment of the Euro, is seen as a veteran of European politics but is considered too much of a federalist by Cameron who fears a loss of national influence as a result. His bullying style and barely veiled threat of a UK withdrawal from Europe if he lost, was finally seen as blackmail and isolated him completely. Cameron called his defeat "a bad day for Europe" and said his fight to keep Great Britain in a reformed European Union has become harder. If re-elected, he has vowed to hold an In-or-Out referendum on the question in 2017.

SMILE

As "tweeting" has become an accepted verb and the tweet has entered the dictionary, you may want to know that a tweet in Spain is a "tuit".