FLASH FLOODS IN FRANCE; GOVERNMENT SHAKEUP; AZNAVOUR DIES

FLASH FLOODS IN FRANCE

Fall arrived with a bang in the south of France where serious floods in the Aude region, in and around the city of Carcassonne, caused 14 deaths last week and the greatest devastation ever registered there since 1891. Bridges and roadways were washed away, cars, trees, and heavy debris tossed around like so many toys, and houses flooded, sometimes to their rooftops. In the small town of Trèbes, hardest hit, a number of people were rescued by helicopter while others had drowned inside their house. Not a single front door in a nearby village had resisted the force of the rushing water which quickly rose to the third floor, trapping some in their beds.

After the deluge

An Orange Alert had been issued that day, warning of heavy rains and potential flooding, and raised to a Red Alert later on in the evening when some may already have been asleep. As the weather service explained later, rainstorms can be forecast with a certain amount of accuracy but it is near impossible to predict where exactly the torrential downpours will occur. As the storm progressed and meteorologists concluded that the Aude Valley lay directly in its path, they changed the alert to Red and local authorities began to issue evacuation orders. However, villagers in this valley are quite used to Orange alerts and many of them do not like to leave their sturdy age-old houses which have survived so many storms before. They may have regretted their decision to stay on but were unanimous in calling this a phenomenon "the likes of which they had never seen before" − the same sad refrain heard throughout this summer following record-breaking floods, droughts and fires from Capetown to the Arctic.

Of course, it is now a scientific fact that these ever-increasing natural disasters are a direct result of man-made global warming. But last week the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delivered a shocking report showing that global warming has increased faster than expected and that we have only 12 years left to keep the temperature increase down to 1.5°C by 2030. Even one half degree more (the Paris Agreement aimed for "between 1.5°C and 2°C") could double the risk of severe droughts, flooding and fires that would affect untold millions of people. The proposed solutions are costly but the cost of doing nothing would be far higher and fatal for many. It is no longer a political choice but a moral obligation for our leaders to safeguard a livable planet.

The unconscionable decision of president Trump to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change affects and endangers us all, and would be significantly aggravated if Jair Bolsonaro, presumed president-elect of Brazil, were to follow Trump's example and withdraw Brazil as well, as he mentioned during his campaign. It is to be hoped that the other signatories to the Paris Agreement (195 in all) will find a way to prevent this.

GOVERNMENT RESHUFFLE

President Macron with new Interior Minister Christophe Castaner

Two weeks after France's Interior Minister Gérard Collomb tendered his resignation earlier this month, President Macron finally announced the appointment of Christophe Castaner as Minister of the Interior. An early Macron supporter, Castaner left the Socialist Party in early 2017 to join Macron's new political movement En Marche, and was rewarded with the job of government spokesman and subsequently Liaison with the Parliament. The appointment is seen as an appeasement to the Left's growing perception that Macron's policies are veering to the right in matters of budget and immigration. In the shakeup, four ministers were replaced, including embattled Minister of Culture Françoise Nyssen.

Macron's approval ratings have plummeted since the Benalla Affair (see August 8 blog) and the resignation of popular Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot a month later. But the unexpected resignation of political heavyweight and Interior Minister Gérard Collomb, former Socialist mayor of Lyon and at 72 the most experienced politician in Macron's young Cabinet, created a power vacuum that sparked the reshuffle. It took Macron fully two weeks to form his new government, which some speculated was due to difficulties in finding willing candidates. An Elysée insider called the new team dynamic, with a second wind but the same political mandate. In a televised address the next day, a solemn-looking Macron said that his government will stay the course and that he plans to maintain his calendar of reforms in the coming months "when difficult decisions will have to be made."

Macron speaking at UN General Assembly

Despite his problems at home, Macron's international standing remains high but it is far from certain that he can regain the voters' confidence in time for the European parliamentary elections next March, where in a worst-case scenario a wave of right-wing Eurosceptics might be elected to the EU Parliament in Strasbourg. And rising nationalism in Europe is not his only worry when the US president keeps breaking international agreements left and right, causing Macron to pick up the banner for such causes as the Paris Climate Agreement, a deal with Iran, the preservation of international institutions such as the UN Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but above all multilateralism which he defended so passionately before the UN General Assembly last month. The contrast between the Macron and Trump messages, between globalism and isolationism, between statesmanship and populism, could not have been greater.

In less than two years as French president, Macron has won recognition and appreciation on the international stage where he has chalked up some wins and some losses, but even an ambitious and energetic 40-year old has only 24 hours in a day, and burning the candle at both ends has its consequences. Some minor incidents of his own making have dimmed his glow and slowed down his progress. Perhaps the renewed Cabinet will give him a breather in preparation for the next battle over his Reforms, which no French president, from de Gaulle on, has ever been able to win. 

CHARLES AZNAVOUR DIES

French singer-songwriter Charles Aznavour, whose career spanned eight decades, died on October 1st at age 94 at his home in Provence. Upon the announcement of his death, the Eiffel Tower lit up in gold in tribute to "the last of the giants of the French chanson".

Born Shahnour Aznavourian in Paris to Armenian parents, Aznavour recorded some 1400 songs, 1300 of which he wrote himself, and sold more than 100 million records in his lifetime. He began his singing career as an opening act for Edith Piaf at the Moulin Rouge, and over time recorded with Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Céline Dion, Bryan Ferry, Sting, and Liza Minelli, as well as with Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. Multilingual and an inveterate traveler, he has recorded in a number of languages and was named "Entertainer of the Year" by CNN in 1998 because of the global reach and popular appeal of his songs.

He may be less well known for his film career. Starting as a child actor when he was 9 years old, he appeared in some 70 films, most notably Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player and the Oscar-winning The Tin Drum. In 2017 he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Homage to Aznavour in Cour des Invalides

The nation paid homage to Aznavour with a sober ceremony at Les Invalides, site of Napoleon's tomb in Paris, in the presence of both President Macron and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia. His coffin, draped in the French flag, was carried into the famous courtyard where a spray of flowers in the colors of the Armenian flag awaited as an Armenian folksong was played on the traditional dudek flute. In his eulogy, Macron spoke of the many Aznavour songs that accompanied three generations of us and will be eternal "because poets never die." Prime minister Pashinyan declared a national day of mourning in his country for its famous son and benefactor.


TOUSSAINT

And then, suddenly, another vacation was upon us − this time the two-week school holiday of Toussaint, the celebration of All-Saints Day. [In spite of its official secularity, France celebrates every Catholic event with a holiday.] It seems like only yesterday when the 2-month-long summer holidays ended and children went back to school in early September. But the French school year includes a break every six weeks and, as usual, many people use these breaks to leave home − for the countryside, a family visit, or an all-in trip abroad. The first sign of these school breaks for those of us without young children is the announcement of traffic conditions on the morning news, with alerts of congestion or accidents on the clogged exit roads of major cities ("all fluid" this morning).

As the weather continues to be unusually warm for this time of the year, certain summer dress styles persist on the city's sidewalks, like the tiny shorts and flimsy tops on teenage girls who never seem to be cold. Even so, we are slowly moving from our favorite summer rosé to red wine as the multiple mushroom varieties appear on our market stalls and the idea of winter food is beginning to make its way to the surface.

The daily farmers' market in Aix-en-Provence has managed to open my supermarket-trained eyes to nature's seasonal gifts, which in this blessed part of the world are bountiful at all times.
So, as a convert to the food-driven French lifestyle, I raise my appéritif to the hearty stews, cassoulet, choucroute garnie, venison, game, chestnuts and truffles in the coming months.

Mother Nature has a nice way of making up for shorter days with longer meals. 

CHEMNITZ; HULOT RESIGNS; MACRON'S DIFFICULT RENTREE

GROWING NATIONALISM

After its summer break the French government reconvened in Paris in late August to discuss the budget and outline the roadmap for 2019 — year of all dangers with the May elections for the European Parliament, the finalization of the Brexit deal in March, and the threat that growing nationalism in the EU may result in a strong increase in far-right seats in the EU Parliament in Strasbourg.

Anti-immigration protests in Chemnitz

Of particular concern is the hardening of the anti-immigrant stance in Italy, Hungary, and more recently Sweden, as well as a recent outbreak of violence in the German city of Chemnitz where far-right and leftist demonstrators clashed following the stabbing death of a 35-year old German man, allegedly at the hands of an immigrant. The riots lasted two days and caused a number of injuries before an underpowered police force managed to retake control. There have been several flare-ups and the tension remains high. These clashes show the strength of the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party with its threat to the fragile coalition government headed by Angela Merkel, and the clear shift to the right since 2015 when Merkel's Open-Door policy drew one million refugees to Germany.

More than ever, French president Macron seems to be the last man standing in the fight to preserve and strengthen the European Union, and among his first post-holiday actions was a four-day salvaging trip to Denmark and Finland to try and push them to more involvement in the EU and greater participation in Europe's defense post-Brexit, citing changing trans-Atlantic relations.

NICOLAS HULOT

The importance of these state visits was momentarily overshadowed by an incident back home, when on 28 August (as Macron was on his way to Denmark) France's most popular member of the government, Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot, suddenly announced his resignation on a morning radio program. As he was being interviewed by two journalists on France-Inter, an increasingly frustrated Hulot suddenly announced: "I am going to make the most difficult decision of my life. I am leaving the government." It seemed a spur-of-the-moment decision but one that had long been simmering and that he had not shared with president Macron and prime minister Edouard Philippe "for fear that they would talk me out of it once again." He then listed a number of disappointments and frustrations of his 15 months in government, including the final realization that the Macron-Philippe team "for whom I have the greatest admiration and affection" would never accord Ecology the urgent attention it deserves because today the worlds of Economics and Ecology are simply incompatible.

Hulot in Parliament

It appeared that the final straw may have been the ministerial meeting of the day before, where Hulot noticed the presence of a lobbyist for the National Hunting Federation, a one-million strong voting block. Among the issues on the table was the hunters' demand for a 50 percent reduction of their hunting-licence fee as well as the addition of several more migrating bird species to their hunting list, all strongly opposed by Hulot. The hunters won on both counts, and Ecology suffered another defeat in the service of political bargaining.

"Lobbyists have no place in a ministerial meeting," was all Hulot would say at first, but when pushed he added that he felt alone in his fight, without formal backing, and that neither the government nor the public seemed able to grasp the severity of the situation. We have let several opportunities for decisive action pass because the political support was not there, he said. Reminded of a few successes he has booked nevertheless, he said they were not enough. Moving by little steps does not get us to where we need to be if we want to stop, let alone repair, the daily damage to our planet. Global warming was predictable and the warning signs have been there for many years. Today the planet is an oven, disastrous fires and record-breaking temperatures this summer in many parts of the world and destructive floods in others, are a picture of our future. We have wasted precious time and from now on, anything we can do to reduce global warming will be more expensive and less effective because much of the damage done is already irreversible.

When told to be patient he answers that he has been patient for 30 years, during which time large areas of Africa have suffered such severe repeated droughts that whole populations have been driven from the parched lands where they used to grow crops or raise cattle, and forced to join the stream of migrants northwards, to Europe and elsewhere. "I can no longer lie to the French people or to myself," he said, barely able to control his voice as he suddenly announced his resignation. It was a dramatic moment, all the more so on public radio.

Nicolas Hulot, who became famous for his nature films and Ushuaia TV show, has long been an ecological activist. He created his own foundation in 1990 and always managed to remain independent. He turned down offers from presidents Chirac, Sarkozy and Hollande before President Macron managed to persuade him to join his government. Perhaps Macron's youth and promise of reforms did the trick, but in the end Hulot's visceral fears were borne out: Ecology and a liberal business agenda make poor partners.

A profoundly disappointed Hulot admitted that he had not been able to work effectively within the constraints of politics and that he may not have the makings of a Minister. In leaving, he expressed the hope that his departure would not be politicized but might serve as a wake-up call. Individual efforts are no longer sufficient; it will take a massive public outcry to stop global warming. "Where are my troops? Where is the public support?" he had complained in his resignation speech.

A well attended March for the Planet held throughout France yesterday was a hopeful sign that the wake-up call was heard, as many thousands took to the streets in support of Hulot and his fight against climate change. Large numbers of young environmentalists as well as a number of NGO's joined forces in marches in Paris and other French cities, urging the government to act NOW and promising to keep the pressure on. Their message: If governments cannot do it, citizens will have to take over to force us off the path to self-destruction we are on today. If the political will is there, Economics and Ecology can and must co-exist.

MACRON'S DIFFICULT RENTREE 

Early September is the time of La Rentrée in France, when children return to school and government ministers to their respective offices. What in July still looked like a smooth return to the Macron Reforms program after the summer break, had turned into a more complicated situation by September. The upheaval caused by his bodyguard Alexandre Benalla (see August blog) and the very public resignation of Nicolas Hulot have caused a lot of ink to flow. Then, a week after Hulot, Sports Minister and Olympic fencing champion Laura Fessel resigned "for personal reasons" and Culture Minister Françoise Nyssen's future is hanging in the balance over unauthorized changes to a protected historical building she owns in Paris.

Barely into the second year of his mandate, Macron's cabinet, with its mix of experienced politicians and youthful newcomers, has lost some of its luster, and the pace of the Reforms agenda has been slowed down by growing opposition and disappointing economic results. The latest polls show Macron's approval rating down from an early high of 66 to an all-time low of 31 percent today. 

Macron with Merkel in Marseilles

The honeymoon is over and the pressure is on. It remains to be seen whether his efforts to prop up the European Union (Brexit, immigration, growing nationalism) and the upcoming elections for the EU Parliament will turn into his favor and regain him some credit. He has been making the rounds of EU capitals to that effect. Last Thursday he traveled to Luxembourg to meet with the prime ministers of The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg on efforts to deepen European integration. The next day he hosted Angela Merkel in Marseilles to seek her backing on migration and EU institutional reforms. And on September 20 he will attend the informal summit of EU leaders in Salzburg, Austria, where cooperation on immigration will be at the top of the agenda. There is work to be done to relight the fire that sparked this beautiful project of a United Europe.

AND YET...

Orhan Pamuk

Despite concerns about Brexit, growing nationalism, and climate change, it is not all gloom and doom here. First of all, the summer heatwave is finally over and we are now enjoying the best of all conditions: warm, sunny days with cooler nights and mornings. France survived the long summer without major fires or floods, and the sometimes overwhelming flood of tourists has dwindled to more pleasant proportions.

Another source of joy:  the guest of honor at this year's annual Aix-en-Provence literary festival in October will be Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, the 11th Nobel Prize winner to attend our three-day Fête du Livre!

Hurrah for France and the place it accords Culture, an essential part of its art de vivre. 

FRANCE WINS WORLD CUP; TRUMP IN EUROPE; MACRON IN TROUBLE; HEATWAVE

The sizzling-hot month of July was punctuated by two major celebrations:

BASTILLE DAY on the 14th of July, as alway a showcase of France's grandeur with the requisite pomp and circumstance and an impressive military parade down the Champs Elysées that last year caused an envious Donald Trump to say: "I want one of those". (I hear he is getting one).

Bastille Day concert

Then the evening program with an open-air concert at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, with the Orchestre National de France and international opera stars who not only sang a number of operatic arias but a stirring rendition of La Marseillaise as well, backed up by the full choir of Radio France. And, finally, splendid fireworks on a theme of Love to cap this glorious day. The French do know how to show off and this was a stunner.

Macron in Moscow

The next day, the French soccer team beat Croatia in the WORLD CUP finals in Moscow, to an explosion of joy throughout France where every bar and every terrasse showed the match on a large-screen TV, and most cities had set up fan zones in parks and other public areas where people could watch Les Bleus on giant screens. The final whistle set delirious crowds running down the streets singing, hugging, flag-waving and chanting "On est champion!" until their voices gave out. Even President Macron who attended the match in Moscow could not contain himself and jumped into the air. On this weekend, all was well with the world, at least in France.

But then Donald Trump elbowed his way back onto the scene with a 7-day European visit that quickly went from embarrassment to disaster.

THE GREAT OFFENDER

The visit started with the NATO summit in Brussels on July 11-12, where Trump demanded (not unreasonably) that Europe spend a proportionately greater share of the cost of its defense, which he put at 4% of GDP per member country. Having noisily declared NATO obsolete last year, he now recognizes its raison d'être as long as everybody pays his fair share, which in the end he accepted as the 2% of GDP agreed to previously. As has become his trademark, Trump took center stage at the first-day breakfast meeting with an on-camera attack on Angela Merkel when he said Germany was being "totally controlled by Russia". Merkel's pointed response was that she knew what an authoritarian regime was since she grew up in Soviet-controlled East Germany, and that she was happy that today, with NATO, Germany was free to make its own decisions.  

The next day Trump flew to the UK where he met with Theresa May at Chequers, her official summer residence, and publicly crtiticized her Brexit negotiations ("She should have listened to me") while praising her arch-enemy and former foreign minister Boris Johnson, who "would make a great prime minister". Having been banned from London where Mayor Sadiq Kahn said he could not guarantee Trump's safety in the face of massive protests against his visit, he then went on to Windsor Castle where the Queen received him for tea. The cringe-worthy visit will be remembered for the boorishness of the visitors (they kept the Queen waiting, Melania did not curtsey, at the inspection of the Royal Guards Trump did not look at them, he lumbered ahead of the Queen, jacket unbuttoned...) and for the shortness of the visit: exactly 47 minutes, including the tea.

Then on to Scotland for a 2-day stopover at one of his golf clubs before flying to Helsinki and his meeting with Vladimir Putin, which included an unusual 2-hour private discussion with only an interpreter present. Did anyone miss the disastrous press conference where Trump took the side of Putin over his own intelligence services on the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 elections? "Vladimir Putin was very strong in his denial of meddling and I don't see why I wouldn't believe him," he was seen and heard to say, until he tried to wriggle his way out of this blunder the next day by claiming he had meant to say "would" and that he had used "sort of a double negative". Altogether the stuff of some third-rate comedy, and funny if this was not the president of the United States with, at least in theory, the power to save us or doom us. 

MACRON CORNERED

If this did not puncture the bubble of euphoria following the World Cup victory, a scandal from our very own Elysée Palace did. Starting as a seemingly minor incident where one of President Macron's bodyguards was filmed manhandling a demonstrator during the May Day riots in Paris, it soon ballooned into an "affaire d'état" when it became apparent that Alexandre Benalla, the bodyguard in question, had been wearing riot gear that identified him as a police officer when he wasn't. The 26-year-old Benalla was initially suspended for two weeks but kept his job, and it was only after Le Monde published a video of the incident that questions arose about Mr. Macron's security team and the highly centralized and vertical power structure of his office. How did Mr. Benalla obtain a police helmet and armband and a two-way radio? What was he doing at the riots when his job is limited to the personal protection of the president at home and abroad? Why did the Elysée not report the incident to the judicial authorities? Was it an oversight or a cover-up? As pressure mounted, Benalla was fired, but nothing stopped the snowballing news coverage and the growing demands for Macron to explain himself.

Benalla in action 

This was a golden opportunity for the opposition which called for a formal investigation. Macron's reforms agenda, with several parliamentary debates still scheduled before the summer break, was interrupted to answer the clamor for explanations from the left as well as the right. But even testimony from the Paris Police Chief and a number of ministers before the Commission of Inquiry failed to calm the waters and finally Macron, who had dismissed the Benalla incident as a storm in a teacup and accused the press of acting like a judicial power, broke his silence and said at a party meeting: "If they want a guilty one, he stands before you. They can come and get me. I answer to the French people." These were his last words on the matter before his busy agenda took him to long-standing foreign meetings and ultimately, in early August, to his own summer break at the presidential retreat of Fort Bregançon where his first-day guest was Theresa May for an informal Brexit meeting.

Macron with bodyguard Benalla

Even though August is shut-eye time here and serves only to recharge your batteries for La Rentrée in September, there is a movement afoot to keep the Benalla affair alive and to "get Macron" when government reopens. #AllonschercherMacron is their hashtag and it has started trending, turning this initially minor incident into the first serious challenge to Macron's presidency. He is nosediving in the polls, accusations of "arrogance" have resurfaced, and the combined efforts from the extreme right and left to make Macron pay may well affect his reforms program come September.

The image of Jupiter - Roman god of the gods, powerful and above the fray - that Macron invoked in his presidential campaign has come to haunt him. Meant to contrast with the disastrous "normal" presidency of the indecisive François Hollande, the allusion has since been interpreted as imperial and too lofty. Even after a successful first year in office, the young president-in-a-hurry, surrounded by his entourage of relative newcomers who have no debts to the old political order, has been unable to shake the label of 'president of the rich' and 'out of touch with the common people'. Perception is reality, as Public Relations 101 teaches us, and Jupiter will have to come down from his cloud and face his accusers with some convincing counter arguments and, perhaps, a touch of humility. Especially now that respected foreign publications (NY Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Der Spiegel and even The New Yorker) have taken on the Benalla story, this is no longer the 'storm in a teacup' it may have seemed some time ago. 

No rest for the weary:  Macron's preferred holiday reading of philosophy and poetry may have to make way for crisis management this summer.

LA CANICULE 

After weeks of an unrelenting heatwave across much of Europe and as far north as the Arctic Circle, la canicule has become a daily item on French radio and television. Unusually high temperatures, with an all-time record of 48°C (118.4 F) in southern Spain and Portugal, have affected tourism and stretched public services. Our personal high in our 20 years in Aix-en-Provence was 41°C and the entire tinder-dry south is on high alert for fires, especially when the mistral blows. Noxious algae are proliferating, fish are dying, asphalt is melting, and in Holland warning signs have been posted on the bicycle paths where sand between the paving stones has turned to powder, loosening the stones and creating dangerous conditions.

The memorable heatwave of 2003 that killed 15,000 people in France began in May and lasted a record five months, but today's temperatures are higher than ever before and, according to experts, are a sign of what's to come. Perhaps next summer we'll head for the hills.

Hoping for our sake and yours that we will soon wake from this sweaty nightmare, I wish you all a happy vacation, wherever it may be. See you in September.

MARSEILLES; DOGGY BAGS; SUMMERTIME ACTIVITIES

Flag of Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur

Somehow Donald Trump has bloated my blog lately and I feel the need the throw the windows wide open to let Provence back in. I tip my head back to the spotless blue sky, close my eyes, inhale the local scents and sounds and, after all the craziness and hatefulness spilling from Washington, let myself drift back to the simple joys of summer in Provence. Aaaahh, normality!!

So here's some light fare and local news that won't keep you awake at night.

MARSEILLES

A recent uproar in Marseilles made the front page of  La Provence, the largest of the local papers. It appears that "Brussels" had begun slapping fines on some of the local fishermen who sell their daily catch at the waterfront of the Vieux Port because they had not been listing their fish by their latin names, as required by EU regulation number whatever. Adding the scientific name would assure the consumer that he is indeed getting what he thinks he is buying and not a different or lower-quality species. Also required:  listing the date and place of the catch, as well as the method of fishing. High-volume sellers such as supermarkets print this information on labels and packages, but at market stalls like those in Marseilles it is handwritten on slates.

Even though these EU rules are five years old already, Marseilles, always a bit contrarian, considered the "latin" requirement a step too far and the height of absurdity because the fishermen go out at night and bring in their catch in the early morning where the fish is sold directly, mostly by the fishermen's wives, to a steady clientèle of locals who "need no latin to know what they are buying or where it comes from. They trust us and we know each other." And what about the various sub-types of seabream or seabass, grouper, tuna, hake or whiting? "Nobody here expects to read doradus doradus on my slate, or epinephelus aeneus or mugli cephalus or thunnus thynnus. What are they thinking là-haut (Brussels), forcing a third language on us (marseillais, french, latin)?! Chez nous une dorade est une dorade, ça suffit aux clients!"

The clients agreed and supported the fish sellers, who put pressure on Jean-Claude Gaudin, mayor of Marseilles, who spoke of it to President Macron and, voilà, the issue had become a matter of state. Macron, who has bigger fish to fry (pardon the pun) and knows which fights he cannot win, responded within a day and gave Mr. Gaudin a personal guarantee that the fish sellers of the Vieux Port in Marseilles would be exempted from the latin rule. Common sense prevailed; time to pour a pastis and move on.

A roar of a different kind was heard in Marseilles last weekend during the Formula One festival, a promotional event preceding the actual F1 race at the newly reopened Paul-Ricard racetrack in nearby Le Castellet on June 24th. The French have always been mad about car racing, ever since the first Grand Prix was held here in 1906. As a former F1 reporter I share this enthusiasm and was glad to see the large turnout for a simple demonstration of two F1 cars from 2011, driven by David Coulthard and Franck Montagny, respectively, who "raced" down a 2-km stretch (including a hairpin turn) of the beautiful Vieux Port in Marseilles, engines screaming, accelerating, decelerating, and laying lots of rubber. I felt the thrill of old, even though this was just a child's version of the real thing two days later which I watched from the comfort of my couch.

Going back to food for a moment (after the fish fight in Marseilles), you may be pleased to know that the French Parliament passed an amendment last month that requires restaurants to offer doggy bags to those who want them − as from July 2021!!  Reactions varied from outright objection to a shrug of indifference, but three years should be enough to get used to the idea. According to ADEME (Agency for the environment and energy conservation) which hopes to reduce food waste by half in 2025, France wastes 10 million tons of food (estimated at €16 billion) per year, mostly in restaurants.

One positive side effect of this drive against waste is the emergence of an app that allows food providers (mostly bakeries, pastry shops, take-out food shops) to sell their products at one-third or less of the original price at the end of business hours. The client can order and pay online, and pick up the item at a specified time. It's good for seller and buyer alike and in the two years of its existence the app has become very popular in bigger cities, its awkward name notwithstanding. "Toogoodtogo" might lead you to believe that this food is too good to take out, i.e. should be eaten on site, when "Toogoodtowaste" is what they mean. English still has a little way to go in France. 

OPERA AND MORE

Summer in Aix means opera and all that comes with it: Master classes, open-air concerts, interviews with singers, directors, stage designers, etc. and some noteworthy public events that are free and very popular, such as this year's interactive opera Orfeo & Majnun, based on the legend of Orfeo and Eurydice and its Arab counterpart Layla and Majnun, sung in three languages by professional singers and a choir of amateurs.

Excerpts of this work were performed last Sunday on the Cours Mirabeau in the center of Aix, with the participation of a large public of young and old who paraded down the Cours with hand-held cut-out animal figures they had fabricated themselves that afternoon with the help of volunteers who demonstrated how to cut these figures from sheets of polyethylene or Styrofoam and mount them on sticks. It was a happy mix of music, fun and fraternity, and a creative way of bringing opera to the people. Here is a little video on these easy-to-make animals and their creator, Roger Titley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K01rvh0S1_c

For those who don't care for opera there is the three-day Economic Forum at the faculty of law of Aix-Marseille university, where business leaders, economists, politicians, bankers, journalists, philosophers, but also young start-uppers and graduate students, will discuss this year's topic of "The World's Metamorphoses".

The wide range of knowledge and international experience of the participants from 30 different countries who represent governments, international agencies, as well as institutional and private business environments, should make for interesting debates, all of them open to the public.

Not your cup of tea? There is also the month-long theatre festival in Avignon with its bewildering choice of some 1300 plays in big and small venues, running from 10 a.m. to midnight every day. For foreigners it's good to know that more and more plays are performed in English or another language (with subtitles). 

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

Whatever your choice, ENJOY!


But if the thought of all this activity exhausts you, and as temperatures are climbing into the mid-thirties Celsius, there is always the option of doing nothing at all. A long siesta, preferably under a tree, with a cool drink and a book within reach, and a mind wiped clean of the turmoil surrounding us — why look any further?






PS: While you're having that snooze, Angela Merkel's political survival is hanging in the balance and the EU summit in Brussels last week managed in extremis to come up with an interim solution of 'closed centers' for the migrants who keep landing on our Mediterranean shores, even if it is in vastly reduced numbers. After an all-nighter, the 28 divided EU member states agreed on this vague proposal that will of course require future meetings and negotiations that may or may not be successful, but at least they bought themselves some time until the next crisis.

More on this subject next time. Right now, it's just too hot…

ITALY AND THE EU; CANADA G7; NORTH KOREA

ITALY

di Maio (l) and Salvini, unlikely alliance

Italy just elected a populist coalition government powered by the left-wing Five-Star Movement of Luigi di Maio and the far-right League of Matteo Salvini, both Europhobes. After reluctantly accepting to keep the Euro as single currency, they quickly expressed their hostility toward the European Union and 'Brussels' which they blame for most of Italy's problems. The new Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, who will do his best to keep this rickety ship afloat, is a civil lawyer who has no previous government experience.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte

This new Italian government adds another layer (post Brexit) to the growing populism in Europe, where anti-immigrant sentiment and fear of loss of national sovereignty in the face of mass immigration have weakened the traditional center-right governments that have dominated for so long. After her party lost the last election, Angela Merkel was forced into a coalition with the center-left which has considerably weakened her at home and on the international scene. In losing the support of now-europhobic Italy, still the third-largest EU economy, fervently pro-Europe French president Macron will have to redouble his efforts to keep the EU engine from stalling without Mrs. Merkel by his side. We wish him well and cheer him on.

A strong and coherent European Union is more important than ever when Donald Trump's America First policy suddenly lands on your doorstep with a threat of punishing tariffs. Forgotten are the tales of French discontent or news of the continuing railway strikes in France that are hiccuping along at the rate of two days of shutdown per week, to little effect. Travelers have adapted to the reduced service and found alternative solutions, the hue and cry of the unions has died down to a whimper, and repeated street protests have simply not had the expected success.

CANADA and the G7

The attention has shifted to President Trump's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum that, if applied, would have devastating effects on the EU economy, in particular on the auto industry in France and export-dependent Germany. Emmanuel Macron has called these tariffs (25% on steel, 10% on aluminum) illegal and has put the matter before the World Trade Organization in Geneva. "This is not a question of national security of the United States," he said. "It is protectionism, pure and simple, and that is unacceptable." Germany's Angela Merkel agreed, cautioning against a global trade war where "there are no winners". EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström called this "a bad day for world trade" and condemned this "economic nationalism that will penalize everyone, including the US". European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the European Union now had no choice but to challenge the United States' action at the WTO and promised European counter measures, while European Council President Donald Tusk expressed concern over the fact that the rules-based international order is being challenged by its main architect and guarantor: the US.

The American elephant has wreaked havoc in the global china shop and left anger and frustration in its wake. But it also has united the EU countries as never before, and they wasted no time in agreeing on retaliatory tariffs on American products in the hope that the WTO will soon declare the US tariffs illegal and things can return to normal. Mexico and Canada will do the same, with Canada slapping retaliatory import duties as early as July 1st on American steel and a list of US consumer products worth C$16.6 billion, while simultaneously challenging the US tariffs before the WTO and under the NAFTA agreement.

Without distinction between friend and foe Trump is punishing us all for his trade imbalance with China. But with his America First policy and the unilateral cancellation of several multilateral agreements, he is increasingly isolating the US and encouraging other nations to work towards greater independence from the US, an ally whose word cannot be trusted and whose self interest today outweighs such universal interests as saving the planet from the devastations of global warming. Under Trump's presidency, the world has become angrier, more divided and more dangerous.

Six to One - speaking volumes

The summit of the seven leading industrial nations (G7) in Canada on June 8-9 quickly turned into a G6+1, with Canadian host Justin Trudeau and his counterparts from France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and Japan all condemning the new American tariffs and rejecting the "justification" that they would be a threat to US national security.

A combative Donald Trump appeared late at the summit and left early. Seemingly unconcerned about the outcry over his tariffs, he simply reiterated his complaint that Canada and Europe have long imposed unfair tariffs on the US but added that he thought a deal could be worked out. He also used the occasion to call for the G7 to let Russia back in (to form the old G8); this in ignorance of, or in spite of, the fact that Russia was expelled because of its illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Angela Merkel later said that all EU members at the summit agreed that Russia could not be readmitted as long as there was no clear progress on Ukraine. 

Nevertheless, even though the vote for retaliatory tariffs against US exports was unanimous, the G6 cannot afford to risk an all-out trade war with a nation that accounts for more than half of the combined GDP of the G7. France has already withdrawn two of its biggest companies, oil giant Total and automaker Peugeot, from Iran in fear of the American reprisals threatened by Mr. Trump against those who do business with Iran. The G6 may find Donald Trump repellent, they nevertheless intend to do everything they can to prevent the American tariffs from being implemented.

Eloquent body language

In the course of the Friday G7 meeting, Trump seems to have softened somewhat, promising separate follow-up negotiations with individual countries (he likes one-on-one dealing). The next morning he left Canada to fly to Singapore for his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, leaving some of his entourage in place to attend the final sessions, including the one on climate change. But no sooner had a carefully crafted joint communiqué been shared with Trump than he tweeted from his plane that he would not sign it. This president who habitually insults people (and was on his way to meet North Korea's "little rocket man") took umbrage at Justin Trudeau when he said in a post-G7 press conference that Canada had felt insulted by the tariffs imposed on a long-time ally and that he planned to go ahead with reciprocal tariffs on American goods. Petulant and vindictive, Trump now got personal and nasty, calling Trudeau "weak and dishonest" and blaming him for the failure of this G7 summit.

What sandbox is this thin-skinned, impetuous, egocentric and ill-tempered man-child playing in??
Where are his handlers?! 

NORTH KOREA

Historic handshake

Trump's June 12 meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong-un − Dr. Strangelove meeting Rambo − did nothing to reassure us. If anything, Kim appeared to be the winner of this first round: having the president of the United States flying halfway around the world to come and shake his hand and make the goodwill gesture of canceling military exercises in the area, without giving anything in return. And what did Trump get? A photo opportunity and the illusion that he had "solved the North-Korean problem".

Trump used the historic occasion to give a singularly embarrassing speech that talked about building hotels and condos on the beautiful beaches ("look at it from a real-estate point of view") and expressed his admiration for Kim Jong-un who "at only 26 years of age took over from his father and is running the country with a strong hand". In one of his inane tweets following the meeting he tells us that we can "now sleep better because there will be no nuclear war with North Korea." Deal done. Check off another victory for world peace. DT is ready for his close-up and, yes, for that Nobel Peace prize.

Having just savaged Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, one of his closest allies, and then praised a brutal dictator who notoriously murdered his own half-brother among his other human rights abuses, it is clear that supreme leader Trump does not know the difference between right and wrong. Sleep better? Not likely. With nasty visions of a future controlled by two unhinged maniacs with the Red Button at their itchy fingertips, I will just try to stay calm and breathe in slowly, thinking positive thoughts. Like... uh... um ... hmm... let me get back to you on that.