A look back at a quiet week in which the schools have begun and many parents as well as grandfathers and grandmothers finally came to rest. The first Sunday in March was ‘old school’ busy and fun on the beaches. Young and old are cycling, running, skating or strolling along the sea. Spring seems to be started, the temperature runs all week up to 16-18 degrees. Only Saturday it rained all day and our garden furniture flew in all directions. Unfortunately, these strong winds did not kept a fifty women from Menton to go para-gliding; you know, hanging under a square parachute and then landing right on a lawn. Unfortunately, the sporty woman collapsed by the strong wind against the rocks of Roquebrune Cap Martin and did not survive the fall.
In politics you can see a fall coming; such as those of Fillon. He demonstrated this week how to be true elite. Despite an investigation into salary fraud with EU money and the departure of almost all of his executives, he believes in his victory and calls a conspiracy is going on. Emmanuel Macron is a smarter guy. With his movement “En Marche” he promises everything you want to hear; such as legal marijuana, taxation on robots and this week he wants to abolish the French ‘tax d’habitation’. That sounds like an unrealistic lie and that’s true. But French people likes to be fooled, and no one thinks: ‘How will France pay all of this?’ Not from economic growth; which is only 1.2%. Mr. Macron is therefor called by his opponents Mr. Macaron, the yummy cookies that everybody likes.
The political lords are making themselves uncredible at every level. The mayor of La Gaude, the village near Nice Côte d’Azur handed the key over from his city because he must appear before the court for income tax evasion. French elite believe in their own story; and that they are put above the law and the ordinary people. Yet, this law is badly needed as even normal people tend to break that law.
You probably remember the attack on the Promenade des Anglais. More than 1,000 people (out of 2,500) received compensation of tens of thousands of euros from a special fund for the victims. A couple from Antibes listed themselves as a victim, hoping to earn a little extra. The fund paid 60,000 euros until an alert officer discovered that these people got also listed as a victim in the terrorist attack in Paris. The judge sentenced the couple promptly to six years imprisonment and repayment of the money.
French judges apparently like the number six; a car thief this week in Grasse was also sentenced to six years in prison. The man responded to an ad on Le Bon Coin. On the spot he threatened the owner of the car with a knife and took the car away. It is clear: in France we have a high zero-tolerance policy; we do like this ourselves, especially against processionary caterpillars. This, as polonaise lovers disguised hairy caterpillars shuffle as a long trunk in the garden or on the terrace and pose a serious danger to the respiratory tract of humans and animals. We have the first string of processionary caterpillars therefore doused and burned mercilessly with gasoline. Pathetic yes. But it is our garden and they had no valid papers. Plus, we need security above all.
As a new security measure was installed at the French police. They must record all interrogations and detentions with a video to prove that they comply with the law. So if you are stopped over in your car, that call is being filmed. Let’s hope you have not had too much alcohol in your head, celebrating last exceptional rosé year. It was announced that the Provence sold 23% more of rosé wine in 2016 with a total value of 1.44 billion euros. Perhaps this can be used to pay the “tax habitation’. That would be fair; a notorious wine lover can drink his own tax credit.
Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen continues to score high in the polls; helped by incidents like this. A French Christian schoolteacher was suspended in the middle of France because he read passages from the Bible to nine and ten year old children in his class. Some kids complained about it to their parents; a petition followed where parents demanded that their children were not exposed to such ‘a book full of lies’. Despite the fact that it is a public school here, the parents succeeded in suspending the teacher.
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