BUSINESSMEN ON STRIKE; PRE-CHRISTMAS; SARKOZY COMEBACK; ONE JUSTICE FOR ALL

UNUSUAL STRIKE

In a twist on the familiar theme of French strikes, bosses instead of employees took to the streets and struck - the first time this has happened since the imposition of the 35-hour workweek in the early 2000's. According to the business-owners association CGPME, on December 1st some ten thousand owners of small and medium-sized companies (PME, Petites et Moyennes Entreprises) demonstrated in Paris and Toulouse against what they called the intolerable stranglehold of charges and regulations on their businesses. The strike was sparked by three new government regulations: early retirement for "hardship" jobs; minimum employment of 24 hours/week for part-time work; and obligation to give employees at least two months notice before the close of business. "Enough! Let Us Breathe!" was the angry response of business owners who say they cannot take any more rules and cannot implement them anyway. How can we be competitive with all these charges and restrictions? was the leitmotiv. The three main French business-owners associations have called for a week-long mobilization by its members.

PRE-CHRISTMAS

As our American friends were tugging into their Thanksgiving dinner and battling the Black Friday crowds, we were having a perfectly quiet time in Aix-en-Provence. No groaning dinner tables (yet) and no sales until January. For now, all local activity is focused on the rather noisy pre-Christmas commerce which in Aix-en-Provence consists of a big children's fair (bumper cars, choo-choo trains, bungee cords, merry-go-rounds) with its cacophony of "music" that takes over part of the Cours Mirabeau as well as the Rotonde, and the Christmas chalets that occupy the remainder of the Cours − all this for fully six weeks. The first Christmas decorations appeared in October (!) and the basins of our famous fountains, waterless for the duration, have been adorned with unattractive metal structures that light up at night.

Among all the pop music from public loudspeakers and the carnival-like atmosphere in the streets, it is not easy for the Christmas ambiance to penetrate − at least not until churches start having Xmas concerts and reveal their nativity scenes, which can be life-sized and sometimes are set in Provençal landscapes, or until the Tourist Office opens its big Crèche with the famous hand-crafted Santons * descending from their hillside village to carry lavender, olive branches and other gifts to the manger. In the meantime, commerce is king.

If commerce is an unavoidable by-product of Christmas, I'd like it prettily packaged and presented in the joyful, abundant, delicately scented way of big department stores where opulence and enchantment go hand in hand and fairytales come to life in magical window displays − such as I saw in Paris last week, where both the Au Printemps and Galéries Lafayette stores upheld this tradition beautifully. Little Burberry-clad children were happily bouncing around and swinging from the Big Ben clock inside Printemps, or flying from umbrellas in the windows while wooden puppets marched below them and a little train chugged by carrying gifts. At Lafayette, colorful animated monsters filled the windows and this year, under its famous Art Nouveau glass dome, there was an impressive 80-ft upside-down Christmas tree that changed color every hour in a timed music-and-light show. Seeing the big tree at Lafayette's has become a Must and draws thousands of visitors a day.

It brings back memories of Harrods in London or Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, whose fairytale window displays set young and old to dreaming. Bear with me for a moment, while I wax nostalgic about my Anglo-Saxon Christmases past:  every year again, I miss the decorations of natural greenery with pine cones, apples or red berries, and the lovely wreaths on people's doors; the homes fragrant with cinnamon, mulled wine, pomander balls, and burning logs in the fireplace. And, with luck, a performance of The Nutcracker. Mmmmm, I can almost taste it.

But now that I have had my fix of Yuletide magic, I feel equipped to ignore the plastic, tinsel and pop around me and look forward to the Marché de Santons, the Treize Desserts and the mouth-watering displays in local food stores. This is where creativity blooms and where the repas de Noël is turned into a work of art. After all, we are in France, where food takes center stage and, in its rich variety and no-expense-spared luxury, outshines the goose or turkey and trimmings elsewhere. Credit where credit is due.

BACK TO THE EVERYDAY

After a campaign where dirty tricks were not totally absent, former president NICOLAS SARKOZY has just won the leadership of the Conservative UMP party which since last summer had been run by a temporary triumvirate after its then-president Jean-François Coppé was ousted following a financial scandal. With 64.5% of the vote Sarkozy fell short of his hoped-for score of 80%, needed to avoid presidential primaries in 2016, where he will face two heavy-weight fellow contenders: former prime ministers Alain Juppé and François Fillon. This is a first step for Sarkozy in his attempt to regain the French presidency in 2017. After losing his bid for re-election in 2012 he withdrew from politics but admitted earlier this summer that he misses politics too much. Despite his legal troubles, he is clearly aiming for the presidency but his first challenge will be to revive and reunite a broken-down and divided UMP party.

The latest labor statistics have just been released and indicate that unemployment rose by 0.8 percent to a record 3.4 million in October, casting new doubts on the effectiveness of PRESIDENT HOLLANDE's policies to stimulate the economy (tax cuts for businesses) and create employment (job programs for the young). He has said he will not run for re-election in 2017 if unemployment is not reduced. Many voters blame the rise of the right and extreme-right parties on François Hollande's weak performance.

As if rising unemployment, a stalled economy, and budget cuts were not enough to keep Hollande busy, the pesky problem of his love life has surfaced again. Last week, gossip magazine Voici featured a cover photo of the president seated with actress Julie Gayet on a terrace in the grounds of the Elysée Palace. The picture, reportedly taken by a Palace insider with a portable phone, seems to indicate that the Hollande-Gayet relationship is "on again" (or never stopped). Julie Gayet, as you all know, is the "other woman" at the heart of the noisy break-up between Hollande and then-mistress Valérie Trierweiler in January of this year (blog 1/20/14). The in-house Elysée security service has not been able to pinpoint the origin of the picture, but five people of Hollande's immediate entourage have been moved to other duties.

ONE JUSTICE FOR ALL

SPAIN:  Princess Cristina

Princess Cristina with husband

On November 7th, a Spanish court upheld tax fraud charges against Princess Cristina in a corruption case that also involves her husband, Iñaki Urdangarin (blog 2/11/14). The judge dismissed the more serious charge of money laundering, opening the possibility that Cristina can settle the case by paying back taxes.

The investigation has been going on for three years and was one of the scandals that weakened the Spanish monarchy and led to King Juan Carlos's resignation in June 2014. He was succeeded by his son and Cristina's brother, King Felipe VI, who in his acceptance speech promised integrity and transparency as part of a "renovated monarchy for a new time". Fifteen others, including Cristina's husband, still stand accused of embezzling $7.5 million of public funds. Their trial is expected to take place in 2016.

As part of the crackdown on tax evasion in Spain following the country's economic crisis, footballer Lionel Messi who plays for Barcelona was charged with tax evasion during the years 2007-2009. He and his father, who manages Messi's financial affairs, will have to stand trial at an as yet unspecified date, even though Messi has repaid the outstanding taxes plus interest. 

PORTUGAL:  Former PM Jose Socrates

Former PM Jose Socrates

And in Portugal, former Socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates (2005-2011) was jailed on November 24th after two days of questioning on accusations of corruption, money laundering, and tax fraud. Socrates, 57, was detained at Lisbon airport on his return from Paris where he has been living since he quit as prime minister in 2011. Three other people are being held for questioning and the investigative judge has ordered that all remain in temporary custody while the probe continues. In Portugal, formal charges can only be filed at the end of an investigation, which can last up to eight months. Mr. Socrates, who denies the charges, has announced he will appeal.

Judges are being helped by the stricter rules and increased international cooperation against tax evasion and money laundering, and catching some big names has undeniable value. They are fishing in fertile waters and we probably have not heard the last of this.

(*)  Read more about Santons and a Provençal Christmas in my book TAKING ROOT IN PROVENCE by clicking here:

EVIL CLOWNS; DSK; MONTEBOURG; FETE DU LIVRE; LITERARY PRIZES; A SECOND NOBEL

EVIL CLOWNS 

This year the Halloween fun in France was overshadowed by the bizarre phenomenon of "evil clowns". In recent street attacks, one man had his hand slashed by a knife-wielding clown, another person was beaten by a clown with an iron rod in a robbery attempt, in a Paris metro station a clown pursued a passenger with an axe, and clowns have jumped out of dark doorways to scare pedestrians, causing panic. In the southern city of Agde police arrested a group of youngsters in clown costumes, armed with knives, a baseball bat and a pistol. Following these incidents, anti-clown vigilante groups have sprung up across France, and the mayor of Vendargues, a small town near Montpellier, decided to ban clown costumes for a month starting on Halloween. Some of the clowns turned out to be teenagers who wanted to post a YouTube video of their prank but had no intention to harm. Even so, the Police Nationale has issued a formal warning that anyone in a clown costume carrying a weapon will be arrested.

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN

Dominique Strauss-Kahn reappeared in the news when his Franco-Israeli business associate 

Thierry Leyne, 49, committed suicide in Tel Aviv on October 23rd. In September 2013 Strauss-Kahn and Leyne jointly formed a Luxembourg-based finance firm named LSK & Partners, to be run by Leyne as President. Strauss-Kahn, who bought a 20% stake in the firm, took on the chairmanship. Under Leyne's management, the firm ran into financial difficulties and Leyne started borrowing heavily, something Strauss-Kahn became aware of in early October of this year. On October 20th, DSK resigned from the firm and three days later, Leyne jumped to his death from a Tel Aviv skyscraper. 

Thierry Leyne with DSK

In an interview with Le Parisien DSK expressed his sorrow at the human tragedy behind Leyne's death (Leyne's wife had committed suicide in 2011) and admitted that he left the partnership in disagreement over some of Leyne's business decisions. He is likely to lose his entire investment, which he says is "a lot of money." He will now re-focus his full attention on his private consulting firm, Paris-based Parnassus, which specializes in economic advice to governments.

This financial setback comes at a time when DSK is still facing another trial in Lille in February on charges of "aggravated pimping".

ARNAUD MONTEBOURG

Former Economics Minister Arnaud Montebourg announced in an interview on October 7th that he is leaving professional politics in order to go into private business. He has enrolled in a four-week Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD, a prestigious business school in Fontainebleau. The cost of this high-level management course is €34,500 and he is said to have applied for a scholarship.

Having worked for the current socialist government first as Minister of Productive Reconstruction and subsequently as Economics Minister, Montebourg was fired by President Hollande in late August after he publicly voiced severe criticism of Hollande's economic policies (blog 8/27/14). Friend of the trade unions, Montebourg is known for his anti-globalization stance, his protectionism of French industry, and his confrontational style.

In preparation of the English-language INSEAD course, Montebourg is taking two hours of English every day before the start of his management program in November, after which he plans to start his own business, together with a few associates, in the field of medical imaging. "In the past two years I have come to realize that running a business is a real profession," he said of his new calling. But then our newly converted businessman lets it slip that he may yet run for the presidency in 2017.  "We'll see in 2016." He never stops surprising us.  

FETE DU LIVRE

Mario Vargas Llosa

Every year in October Aix-en-Provence invites a major writer to its Fête du Livre and this year our guest of honor was Mario Vargas Llosa who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010. He was the tenth Nobel Laureate to come to Aix (the first was Octavio Paz) which has also hosted such greats as Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, Alberto Moravia, Michael Ondaatje, Carlos Fuentes, Antonio Tabucchi and dozens of others.

Annie Terrier

We have one person to thank for all of this:  Annie Terrier, the founder and driving force behind this exceptional three-day literary event, who 30 years ago created the program "Ecritures Croisées" − for the introduction and cross-pollination of foreign literature in France − of which La Fête du Livre is the annual highlight. With a limited budget and an even smaller staff, she has managed to draw literary giants from all over the world to the small town of Aix-en-Provence. Now 71 years old, Terrier has no plans to retire which, in this land of early retirement, makes her a true exception française.

LITERARY PRIZES

At this time of the year France awards its literary prizes, of which the Prix Goncourt is the most important one among the "big six" that also include the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Femina, the Prix Médicis, the Prix Interallié, and the Grand Prix du Roman de l'Académie Française. Tradition has it that the winner of the Prix Goncourt, first awarded in 1903, is announced at a lunch at restaurant Drouant near the Opéra Garnier where its 10-member jury has been meeting once a month since 1914. Marcel Proust, Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Duras, Romain Gary and André Malraux are among its winners. The Goncourt awards only a token €10 because of its tremendous effect on sales which makes a Goncourt winner an instant millionaire. Those readers in France who only buy one book per year will always choose the Goncourt.

Lydie Salvayre

This year's winner was former psychiatrist Lydie Salvayre for her novel Pas Pleurer (Don't Cry) which is partly based on her mother's experiences in the Spanish Civil War. Salvayre was born in 1948 near Toulouse where her parents, Republican Spanish refugees, had settled at the end of the Spanish Civil War and where she learned to speak French in elementary school. She published her first book in 1990 while working as a practicing child psychiatrist which she continued to do for many years. She has published 21 books, some of them adapted for the theatre. 

The well-known English-language Man-Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded this year to Australian Richard Flanagan for his novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, about a Japanese POW camp on the infamous Burma Railroad of which Flanagan's father was a survivor.

But also...

Nobel Laureate Jean Tirole

Last month, the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Frenchman Patrick Modiano, and shortly thereafter a second Nobel prize, this one for Economics, went to another Frenchman, economist Jean Tirole, 61, professor at the Toulouse School of Economics. The Nobel Committee rewarded Tirole for his "attempts to tame powerful firms" and finding ways to curb the dominance of major companies, often privatized former public monopolies such as water, electricity, and telecoms. His work has been adopted by competition regulators around the world.

These Nobel prizes may help to boost national pride and pierce the dark cloud of pessimism hanging over France. At least for a while.

SAME OLD SAME; WEDDINGS FOR SALE; TRIERWEILER; NOBEL PRIZE; BUSHISMS

SAME OLD SAME...

Pro-family demonstration

The MANIF POUR TOUS of October 5th in Paris and Bordeaux picked up where last year's Manif Pour Tous left off (see blog 6/23/13). In May 2013, following massive demonstrations for and against gay marriage (Mariage Pour Tous), the Parliament passed the Taubira Law allowing same-sex marriage but deferred a decision on gay adoption. So when the pro-traditional-family forces of conservative Catholics marched again this month it was to express their strong opposition to the Taubira Law and to demand a law against surrogate motherhood. Prime Minister Valls obliged by stating that surrogate motherhood is already illegal in France ("It's a form of female slavery. Surrogacy is the selling of human life, and it will not be accepted here") and that French parents who avail themselves of surrogate mothers abroad cannot count on automatic French citizenship for those babies. Remains a final vote on gay adoption and probably another protest march.

The INTERMITTENTS DU SPECTACLE, those theatre temps who managed to disrupt several festivals and close down a number of opera and theater performances in Aix and Avignon this summer (blog 7/21/14), have returned to the streets. To calm the waters and prevent an all-out strike, such as the one in 2003 that closed down all summer festivals, Prime Minister Valls promised the temps in July that the government would settle the recurring issue of their unemployment pay once and for all before the end of this year. On October 1st, the temps called a one-day strike and marched in Paris to demand a specific date for this negotiation. A "warning shot" strike, you might say.

WORK ON SUNDAYS.  The sensitive issue of Sunday work is back on the table, something that no government has managed to resolve so far. Over time, the applicable rules and their exceptions have become so opaque and complex that a thorough review and simplification was recommended in the Bailly report of last winter (blog 10/13/13). To speed up the process, Prime Minister Valls proposed this summer that this issue be decided by order instead of by parliamentary vote. It wasn't long, however, before he had to give in to pressure from his majority and accept the slower and more hazardous route of Parliament.

Even though France is under a lot of pressure from "Brussels" to implement the necessary structural reforms to reduce its deficit, "speeding up the process" is simply not a French concept.

Macron in Lyon, October 9, 2014

ECONOMICS.  Another young man in a hurry is our new Economy Minister, 37-year old Emmanuel Macron who in the October 12 Journal du Dimanche pleads for a €300 billion "New Deal" for Europe (modeled after the American New Deal of the 1930s) to boost investment and growth. "Such an EU-financed New Deal would allow France to obtain €10 billion of supplementary investment funding each year and make everyone a winner whereas today everyone is a loser", he says. Experts like Joseph Stieglitz agree that austerity measures without investment do not work and in fact impede growth. "We cannot simply blame Brussels or Berlin for our problems", says Macron. "We need to show that we can move and modernize this country, unblock and free up the economy, provide opportunities to those who want to work, and make working, creating and producing simpler. We have six months to turn things around in France".

First obstacle on this fast course: the strong objections voiced by Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, leader of the Socialist Party, to any reduction of the amount and the duration of unemployment insurance, one of the reforms that President Hollande has avoided addressing so far. Even though Manuel Valls on his recent visits to Berlin and London spoke of a business-friendly France that is ready to make the necessary reforms, President Hollande sidestepped the issue and commented that there is enough on his agenda right now and unemployment insurance is not one of the items. This government is still not speaking with one voice, which does not augur well for speedy solutions.

The ECOTAX on heavy trucks that was initiated by Nicolas Sarkozy for implementation on January 1, 2014, then repeatedly postponed by President Hollande, and considerably weakened by his newly nominated Minister of Ecology Ségolène Royal last June (blog 6/30/14), was finally cancelled altogether. The coup de grâce came when Royal announced on October 9th that she had suspended this tax sine die. To make up for the financial loss of €550 million/year she plans to make the privatized highway companies pay "out of their excessive profits". Finance Minister Michel Sapin fears that these concessionary companies have ironclad long-term contracts that would be difficult to change and would take a long time to renegotiate. In the meantime, the loss of Ecotax revenues is real and the Italian Ecotax collection company Ecomouv will have to be paid €1.8 million per month in indemnity.

Pollution peak in Paris, March 2014

This Ecotax - a "polluter pays" contribution to the maintenance of public roads - had received unanimous approval in Parliament and is already successfully applied in seven European countries. It is baffling that the Minister of ECOLOGY could cancel this tax, ignoring its public health aspects, and showing a total disregard for the greater good of clean air and a better environment for all. And all it took was the threat of the federation of French truckers to block the highways on October 13th. It didn't even have to come to that; four days before the deadline Royal sold out.
An appalling lack of courage and political will - altogether too common, alas.

WEDDINGS FOR SALE

Let's get away from French politics for a bit of soft news:  the oft-announced marriage of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie finally took place on August 28th when they tied the knot, surrounded by their six children, at Chateau Miraval, their wine-producing property in the south of France. The very traditional bride wore white satin but with a personal touch: her long veil was embroidered with drawings made by her children. It was a small wedding by Hollywood standards, and photographers were banned from the event except for People and Vogue magazines who had bought the rights to exclusive photographs, with the proceeds of this deal (at last count some $2 million) to go to charity.

A month later, long-time-most-eligible-bachelor George Clooney married Lebanese-born British human-rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in the romantic setting of Venice. Oscar-winning actor and producer Clooney is also known for his humanitarian work on the Darfur crisis in Sudan. Like the Jolie-Pitts, George Clooney sold the rights to his wedding pictures to several magazines - People, Hello, and Vanity Fair - for the benefit of different charities. The bulk is to go to the Satelite Sentinel Project (SSP), founded by Clooney and John Prendergast in 2010 as an early-warning system to deter mass atrocities and focus world attention on rapid responses to human rights violations. 

Weddings and Charity = happiness spread around.  Nice idea. 

TRIERWEILER

Trierweiler and de Senville (left) in happier days

Having relieved herself of pent-up anger against President Hollande in her tell-all memoir Merci pour ce Moment, one would think that former First Lady Valérie Trierweiler might have moved on to other pleasures and enjoy her new status as bestseller author and brand-new millionaire. But no, the girl is still angry. On September 28th, at a party given by friends in a popular Parisian bar, she ran into friend and fellow journalist Valérie de Senneville (wife of Finance Minister Michel Sapin), who had distanced herself from Trierweiler after the publication of her book. In a heated exchange Trierweiler accused de Senneville of treachery and before stunned bystanders then pounced on her former friend, scratching her face and pulling her hair. Fellow guests pulled the women apart and managed to persuade de Senneville not to bring legal action for assault and keep things quiet. But soon France Dimanche magazine revealed the incident and headlines like "Rottweiler in Catfight" began appearing. Now that the British press has gotten hold of the story, can cartoons be far behind?

NOBEL PRIZE

Nobel laureate Patrick Modiano

Finally some good news for France when this year's Nobel prize for literature was awarded to 69-year old French author Patrick Modiano, whose work deals mostly with the experience of Jews in Nazi-occupied collaborationist France. Modiano remains relatively unknown outside France because few of his books have been translated into English. The Nobel Committee praised his "art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies".

The rather shy Mr. Modiano was modest and appealingly inarticulate in his interviews where he never finished a sentence and described his work as "writing the same book for 45 years". Clearly, his medium is the written word, not the spoken one.

BUSHISMS

This appeals to my soft spot for malapropism and inarticulateness, and inevitably brings to mind George W. Bush Jr. who has elevated these to a high art.

Who can forget these Bushisms:

Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.

I stand by all the misstatements I have made (to Sam Donaldson, 8/17/93)

If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.

Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.

Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.

They misunderestimated me.

For NASA, space is still a high priority.

It's time for the human race to enter the solar system. 

... whereupon I wish our space cadet a happy trip and hope he will send us more of his wisdom once he gets there.