Latest news with #Macronist
Spectator
17-06-2025
- Health
- Spectator
France's toddler screen ban is pure state overreach
The French government is preparing to ban all screen time for children under the age of three. The measure, announced by the Minister of Labour, Health, Solidarity and Families, Catherine Vautrin, will form part of a broader national plan to combat screen use among the very young. Due to be launched in the autumn, the policy will ban tablets, televisions and smartphones in nurseries, hospitals, and other childcare settings, with sanctions for anyone who breaks the rules. The aim, according to the minister, is to change behaviour around early childhood and screen use. What next? A ban on loud toys? Fines for bedtime past eight o'clock? 'This is how you change things', Vautrin told Le Journal du Dimanche. 'You state a principle, and little by little, it becomes anchored in people's minds.' A 2022 study by Inserm, France's national medical research body, tracked 14,000 children from birth and found that early screen time, particularly before age two, was associated with delayed speech development and reduced socialisation at nursery school. The same children were more likely to show concentration problems later in primary school. Vautrin cites this research to justify the governments agenda. But what's interesting is that the researchers stopped short of calling for a ban. They pointed instead to the importance of parental interaction and content quality. In other words, common sense. And there it is. Not content with banning smoking at bus stops and removing outdoor heaters from café terraces, the French state has now decided to parent the parents. And it starts with Teletubbies. The measure may sound harmless, even well intentioned, but it marks yet another step in the Macronist habit of turning private judgement into public regulation. Nobody disputes that toddlers don't benefit from screen time. The NHS in Britain advises parents to avoid it entirely before age two. But in Britain, such advice remains just that: advice. Ofsted does not bar nurseries from showing a short film or using a digital device if it's part of a wider educational context. The state leaves space for discretion. France will not. Vautrin's move echoes the earlier French ban on outdoor smoking, not because enforcement is practical, but because stating a principle is seen as a way of reshaping society. The technique is always the same. Issue a prohibition, turn it into a campaign, publish guidelines, introduce fines, and wait for the culture to shift. Screens today, sugar tomorrow, and after that who knows. It's this compulsive reflex to legislate behaviour that reveals the French state's underlying philosophy. Trust is not part of the equation. Citizens, even parents, are not to be guided or encouraged, but managed. And if we push back, we're branded irresponsible or worse. The irony is that a government that cannot staff its own schools properly now wants to police what toddlers watch in a hospital waiting room. French nurseries, already under pressure, will now be expected to enforce rules that have little to do with care, and everything to do with performance. The spectacle of state virtue. By contrast, the UK's approach is more relaxed and arguably more effective. The NHS's guidance on screen use is based on moderation and common sense. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health explicitly declined to set arbitrary limits for parents, saying what matters most is context, content and family interaction. British ministers assume most parents are capable of knowing that ten episodes of Teletubbies in a row probably isn't ideal. They don't necessarily reach for the statute book to enforce what can be solved with a bit of judgement. Of course there'll always be parents who overdo it, who hand over a screen too often or for too long. But why impose rules on everyone else? There are times when giving a child an iPad makes perfect sense. In a waiting room. On a flight. We've all done it. The problem is not the occasional screen. It's turning rare indulgence into routine. And that is something most parents are perfectly capable of managing. But Macron's France is different. Every issue, however small, becomes a matter for the state. And every household, a target for reform. Behind the screen ban is something bigger. The idea that family life must be shaped, top down, in accordance with the latest official theory on wellbeing, risk and social cohesion. One can only imagine what is next. A ban on loud toys? Fines for bedtime past eight o'clock? The real risk is that even reasonable advice becomes politicised. What might have worked as a gentle public health message will now land as another round of social engineering. And those who resist will not be engaged, but blamed. I don't need the government standing over my shoulder while I raise my child. Children belong to their parents, not to the state. Good parents already know that too much screen time isn't healthy. They do not need a government minister telling them what to do. What they need, what everyone needs, is a government willing to trust them. It's not the screen ban itself that is the problem. It's the belief behind it, the idea that the state always knows better. That's what needs to be switched off.
Local France
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Local France
Macron to launch 'charm offensive' to try and win back the French
The French president will on Tuesday evening take part in a TV debate show, the first in a series of steps designed to be a 'reset' with the French public as he battles with low approval ratings and the loss of his parliamentary majority. In the two-and-a-half hour show on primetime TV, the president will take part in a wide-ranging debate with the following people; union leader Sophie Binet, fitness influencer Tibo InShape, far-right mayor Robert Ménard, lobbyist Agnès Verdier-Molinié, and left-wing essayist Salomé Saqué. Chaired by journalist Gilles Bouleau, the debate is set to cover subjects ranging from immigration to sport in schools, pension to reforms to changes in France's right-to-die laws. Broadcaster TF1 has moved its scheduled programme, the highly popular desert island survival show Koh-Lanta, to make room for the debate. Advertisement It is also believed that Macron will announce a referendum or series of referendums on important questions facing France - possible topics include screen time for children, work legislation and changes to France's right-to-die laws (which are already making their way through parliament). As previously announced , he also wants to set up a citizens' council to look at the organisation of the French school year and whether children get too much holiday time. After several months where the president has seemed more active on the international than the domestic stage, his calendar for the next week includes multiple trips around France to meet members of the public - a trend that his office has indicated is likely to continue over the coming weeks. In addition to attending the annual Choose France business summit in Paris, Macron will also visit Nanterre, Caen and Vendin-le-Vieil this week, with a focus on measures to tackle organise crime as he pays tribute to prison guards. Macronist MP Karl Olive told French newspaper Le Parisien : "The president had donned the captain's armband at European level, and now he's making a comeback in France. I think he's been reinvigorated." Since the loss of his parliamentary majority in disastrous snap elections in summer 2024, Macron has been facing a deadlocked parliament and approval ratings of just 26 percent . In recent weeks early campaigning has stepped up for the next presidential elections, which are now less than two years away. Although Macron himself cannot stand for a third time, he is keen to make use of the final two years of his mandate, and secure a centrist successor. READ ALSO Who's who in the 2027 presidential election race
Local France
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Local France
ANALYSIS: Who will win France's next presidential election?
In France parliamentary and presidential elections are held separately - the chaotic situation in parliament means that fresh parliamentary elections are likely to be held sooner , but presidential elections normally take place on a regular cycle. At this stage there's only one thing that we know for sure about the candidates - Emmanuel Macron will not be among them. The French constitution limits presidents to two consecutive terms; Macron - elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2022 - could theoretically stand in 2032, but he cannot stand in 2027. This, combined with the five-year ban on holding office for far-right leader Marine Le Pen, has thrown the race wide open. You can hear the team at The Local discussing the elections with politics expert John Lichfield in the latest episode of the Talking France podcast. Listen here or on the link below Here's a look at the declared and likely candidates; The centre Because of the two consecutive terms rule it has always been clear that Macron cannot stand in 2027, and some centrist candidates have been planning their bids for some time. Chief among these is Macron's former prime minister Edouard Philippe . Since being sacked as PM in 2020 (its widely rumoured for the crime of being more popular than his boss), he hasn't held a political position on the national stage - although he is mayor of Le Havre - but he has created his own centrist party, Horizons, with the apparent aim of running for president. Philippe remains popular with the French public, consistently topping polls of most popular politicians. Macron's current prime minister François Bayrou is also believed to be considering a fourth presidential bid. Bayrou is not a member of Macron's party - he was in fact a centrist before Macron - and has stood for election in 2002, 2007 and 2012, never doing better than third place. Within Macron's own party there are likely to be several candidates, including Gabriel Attal - a 36-year-old Macron protégé who became France's first out gay prime minister in 2024. Attal held a meeting in Saint-Denis last weekend, promising a 'foretaste' of his presidential campaign, although it didn't get into any specific policies. He was especially outspoken over the Le Pen verdict, telling supporters at that meeting "if you steal, you pay". Like Philippe, Attal is popular and consistently polls well with the public, despite his close ties to the unpopular president. Justice minister Gérald Darmanin , a Macronist to the right of the party and a noted hardliner on immigration, is also understood to be considering a bid. Advertisement One interesting aspect is how Macron's party will choose its candidate - Macron himself created the LREM movement in 2016 and since then he has been the party's only presidential candidate. There is therefore no precedent for how the party picks a candidate - whether it will have primaries or rely on an internal selection by party chiefs. The far right Until last week, Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen was the only person who had formally declared her candidacy. However her plans were thrown into disarray when the judges in her embezzlement case imposed a five-year ban on standing for public office - effective immediately. She is still trying to overturn that via the appeals court and an appeal to the Conseil Constitutionnel , but it's far from certain whether she will succeed. If she fails, it's probable that her deputy, 29-year-old Jordan Bardella , will stand as the RN candidate. Some analysts believe that he might actually have a better chance in the polls, but Le Pen herself is quoted as saying he is "not ready". The polemicist-turned-politician Eric Zemmour , who stood in the 2022 elections, is also understood to be considering a second run at the presidency, while Marine's niece Marion Maréchal is also considered a possible candidate for Zemmour's extreme right Reconquête party. The left The left has no shortage of candidates, but a big question is whether there will be a candidate of the 'united left' or not. Advertisement The 2022 presidential elections saw six leftist candidates, none of whom advanced beyond the first round, but since then the four main parties of the left - the centre-left Parti Socialiste, the Greens, the Communists and the hard left La France Insoumise - have been in various coalitions or parliamentary groupings, mostly under the leadership of LFI boss Jean-Luc Mélenchon . Mélenchon himself is understood to be considering a fourth bid, but there are other candidates for a 'united left' candidate. These include the journalist-turned-MP François Ruffin who last weekend put himself forward as a candidate for a combined left bid - the 49-year-old native of north-east France has continued his career as a documentary film-maker since entering parliament, his 2024 film Au Boulot focused on the minimum wage and gig economy workers of France. Raphael Glucksmann - the centre-left candidate in the most recent European elections - is also understood to be considering a bid in the hopes of uniting the left. This week, Philippe Poutou - who has stood three times on a Trotskyist ticket, never getting more than one percent of the vote, announced that he would not stand in 2027 and is instead opening a bookshop in Bordeaux. However his fellow Trotskyist election candidate Nathalie Arthaud may stand again. It's also unclear whether the Communist party would field its own candidate - likely party leader Fabien Roussel - or would be part of a united left grouping. Advertisement Right wing There's also what is left of the old centre-right Les Républicains party - the party of ex presidents including Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac, but these days much reduced electorally and lurching sharply to the right. The former LR senator, currently serving in François Bayour's government as interior minister, Bruno Retailleau is understood to be considering a bid. Other likely candidates within the party include MP Laurent Wauquiez and the president of the northern French Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand .
Sky News
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
France needs to sort its political mess - or populist winds blowing from the US will strengthen
Contemplating the turmoil sown by the return of President Trump, nobody could deny that the results of leadership elections in major nations matter to the rest of the world. Take just the members of the G7 - so-called rich, industrialised democracies. Italy elected Giorgia Meloni in 2022, confirming the rise of the far-right. She was not only Italy's first female leader, she was also the first from a neo-fascist party since Mussolini. The arrival of Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer changed the complexion of politics in the US and the UK last year. Germany elected a more hawkish chancellor in waiting this spring. Barring accidents, the next potentially transformative election in what used to be called the "Western alliance" will not be for two years. France is due to elect a new president to succeed Emmanuel Macron in the summer of 2027. The contest is already plagued by undercurrents of disruption, conflict between politicians and the law, and populism - similar to the fires burning elsewhere in the US and Europe. This week French judges banned the frontrunner to win the presidency from running for office for the next five years. It looked as though they have knocked Marine Le Pen out of the race. Nobody, least of all her, the leader of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), knows what is going to happen next in French politics. In opinion polls just over half of the French population, between 54% and 57%, agreed that justice had run its course. "The law is the same for everyone," President Macron declared. After lengthy consideration by a tribunal of three judges, Le Pen and nine other former RN MEPs were found guilty of illegally siphoning off some €4.4m (£3.7m) of funds from the European Parliament for political operations in France, not for personal gain. Le Pen was sentenced to a five-year ban and four years in prison, not to begin before the appeals process had been concluded. Even then that sentence in France would normally amount to two years' house arrest wearing an ankle alarm. 2:52 French presidents, such as Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, have been convicted before. Controversy is flaring because Le Pen was given an extra punishment: the immediate ban on running for political office, starting this week. Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, her second in command at RN, likened the ban to a "nuclear bomb" and a "political death penalty". Speaking in L'Assemblee Nationale, of which she is still a member, Le Pen identified herself with Alexei Navalny, the dissident leader murdered in Russia, and Ekrem Imamoglu, the recently imprisoned Turkish opposition leader and mayor of Istanbul. The ban was imposed at the discretion of the chief judge Benedicte de Perthuis, a former business consultant, Francois Bayrou, France's Macronist prime minister admitted he was "troubled" by the verdict. Not surprisingly perhaps from him, since the prosecution is appealing against verdicts in a similar case of political embezzlement, in which Bayrou's party was found guilty but he was acquitted, escaping any possibility of a ban. Bayrou is expected to be a candidate for the presidency. Meanwhile, RN has the power to bring down his government since it is the largest party in the Assembly, with 37%, but was kept out of power by a coalition. Populist forces on both sides of the Atlantic rushed to support Marine Le Pen. Matteo Salvini in Italy, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Vladimir Putin 's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov all denounced what they saw as a "violation of democratic norms". Hungary's Viktor Orban said on X "Je suis Marine Le Pen". Orban's post came on the same platform Donald Trump Jr posted that " JD Vance was right about everything", a reference to the US vice president's speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he claimed Europe was silencing populist opposition. President Trump weighed in: "The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech… it is the same 'playbook' that was used against me." Le Pen has called for bans and tough sentences for corrupt politicians from other parties. In France, mainstream commentators are accusing her of hypocrisy and "Trumpisme" for attacking the courts now. They also allege, or rather hope, that RN's anger is endangering Marine Le Pen's drive to make her party respectable with her so-called "wear a neck-tie strategy", designed to dispel the loutish, racist image of her father's Front National. 0:26 For all the protests, justice and politics are now inextricably mixed in France. A ban from political campaigning would be pointless for most convicts, who have no political ambitions. Any suggestion that Le Pen was just being treated like any other citizen was dispelled when it was announced that her appeal would be speeded up to take place next summer. The president of the court de cassation conceded: "Justice knows how to adjust to circumstances... an election deadline in this case." The ban could be lifted in time to give Le Pen a year to stand for the presidency. At this stage, a full acquittal seems unlikely, given the weight of evidence against RN. That is awkward for her and her party because, presumably, she would be campaigning while under house arrest. The best course of action for 29-year-old Jordan Bardella, Le Pen's apparent successor, or "Dauphin", would be to stick with her now. He would gain little if he split RN by insisting she is fatally wounded. 👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 If she loses her appeal in a year's time, his loyalty and indignation would be likely to boost his candidacy. Conventional wisdom is that without a lift he may be slick, but is too callow and too square to stand a chance of becoming president in 2027. The far right in France is no different from the far right elsewhere - prone to internal rivalries and in-fighting. The craggy intellectual Eric Zemmour came fourth in the first round in the last presidential contest in 2022. Back then he had the support of Marion Marechal-Le Pen, Marine Le Pen's flighty niece. The two have since fallen out and may separately bid to carry the far-right torch. Macron is riding high as an international statesman but he is unpopular at home. Even if he wanted to, he cannot stand again because of term limits. His attempts to spawn an heir apparent have failed. The 34-year-old prime minister Gabriel Attal led Ensemble to crushing defeat in last year's parliamentary elections. Current prime minister Bayrou, and former prime minister Edouard Philippe, will probably make a bid for the centre-right vote. Bruno Retailleau, the trenchantly hardline interior minister, looks a stronger candidate for the Gaullist Les Republicains. In the last presidential contest, Jean-Luc Melenchon of the hard-left La France Insoumise came third. He may fancy his chances of getting into the final two in 2027 against a right-wing candidate, unless the Socialists get it together. Or perhaps he may let through two finalists from the right and the extreme right. It is a mess. France and Europe need effective leadership from a French president. The unnecessary judicial suspension of Marine Le Pen's candidacy has simply generated uncertainty. Her supporters are outraged and her foes no longer know who they are fighting against. The French establishment thinks it will all blow over. Just as likely the controversy in France will strengthen the populist winds blowing across the continent and the US.
Sky News
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
France needs to sort its political mess - or else the populist winds blowing from the US will strengthen
Contemplating the turmoil sown by the return of President Trump, nobody could deny that the results of leadership elections in major nations matter to the rest of the world. Take just the members of the G7 - so-called rich, industrialised democracies. Italy elected Giorgia Meloni in 2022, confirming the rise of the far-right. She was not only Italy's first female leader, she was also the first from a neo-fascist party since Mussolini. The arrival of Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer changed the complexion of politics in the US and the UK last year. Germany elected a more hawkish chancellor in waiting this spring. Barring accidents, the next potentially transformative election in what used to be called the "Western alliance" will not be for two years. France is due to elect a new president to succeed Emmanuel Macron in the summer of 2027. The contest is already plagued by undercurrents of disruption, conflict between politicians and the law, and populism - similar to the fires burning elsewhere in the US and Europe. This week French judges banned the frontrunner to win the presidency from running for office for the next five years. It looked as though they have knocked Marine Le Pen out of the race. Nobody, least of all her, the leader of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), knows what is going to happen next in French politics. In opinion polls just over half of the French population, between 54% and 57%, agreed that justice had run its course. "The law is the same for everyone," President Macron declared. After lengthy consideration by a tribunal of three judges, Le Pen and nine other former RN MEPs were found guilty of illegally siphoning off some €4.4m (£3.7m) of funds from the European Parliament for political operations in France, not for personal gain. Le Pen was sentenced to a five-year ban and four years in prison, not to begin before the appeals process had been concluded. Even then that sentence in France would normally amount to two years' house arrest wearing an ankle alarm. 2:52 French presidents, such as Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, have been convicted before. Controversy is flaring because Le Pen was given an extra punishment: the immediate ban on running for political office, starting this week. Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, her second in command at RN, likened the ban to a "nuclear bomb" and a "political death penalty". Speaking in L'Assemblee Nationale, of which she is still a member, Le Pen identified herself with Alexei Navalny, the dissident leader murdered in Russia, and Ekrem Imamoglu, the recently imprisoned Turkish opposition leader and mayor of Istanbul. The ban was imposed at the discretion of the chief judge Benedicte de Perthuis, a former business consultant, Francois Bayrou, France's Macronist prime minister admitted he was "troubled" by the verdict. Not surprisingly perhaps from him, since the prosecution is appealing against verdicts in a similar case of political embezzlement, in which Bayrou's party was found guilty but he was acquitted, escaping any possibility of a ban. Bayrou is expected to be a candidate for the presidency. Meanwhile, RN has the power to bring down his government since it is the largest party in the Assembly, with 37%, but was kept out of power by a coalition. Populist forces on both sides of the Atlantic rushed to support Marine Le Pen. Matteo Salvini in Italy, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Vladimir Putin 's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov all denounced what they saw as a "violation of democratic norms". Hungary's Viktor Orban said on X "Je suis Marine Le Pen". Orban's post came on the same platform Donald Trump Jr posted that " JD Vance was right about everything", a reference to the US vice president's speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he claimed Europe was silencing populist opposition. President Trump weighed in: "The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech… it is the same 'playbook' that was used against me." Le Pen has called for bans and tough sentences for corrupt politicians from other parties. In France, mainstream commentators are accusing her of hypocrisy and "Trumpisme" for attacking the courts now. They also allege, or rather hope, that RN's anger is endangering Marine Le Pen's drive to make her party respectable with her so-called "wear a neck-tie strategy", designed to dispel the loutish, racist image of her father's Front National. 0:26 For all the protests, justice and politics are now inextricably mixed in France. A ban from political campaigning would be pointless for most convicts, who have no political ambitions. Any suggestion that Le Pen was just being treated like any other citizen was dispelled when it was announced that her appeal would be speeded up to take place next summer. The president of the court de cassation conceded: "Justice knows how to adjust to circumstances... an election deadline in this case." The ban could be lifted in time to give Le Pen a year to stand for the presidency. At this stage, a full acquittal seems unlikely, given the weight of evidence against RN. That is awkward for her and her party because, presumably, she would be campaigning while under house arrest. The best course of action for 29-year-old Jordan Bardella, Le Pen's apparent successor, or "Dauphin", would be to stick with her now. He would gain little if he split RN by insisting she is fatally wounded. 👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 If she loses her appeal in a year's time, his loyalty and indignation would be likely to boost his candidacy. Conventional wisdom is that without a lift he may be slick, but is too callow and too square to stand a chance of becoming president in 2027. The far right in France is no different from the far right elsewhere - prone to internal rivalries and in-fighting. The craggy intellectual Eric Zemmour came fourth in the first round in the last presidential contest in 2022. Back then he had the support of Marion Marechal-Le Pen, Marine Le Pen's flighty niece. The two have since fallen out and may separately bid to carry the far-right torch. Macron is riding high as an international statesman but he is unpopular at home. Even if he wanted to, he cannot stand again because of term limits. His attempts to spawn an heir apparent have failed. The 34-year-old prime minister Gabriel Attal led Ensemble to crushing defeat in last year's parliamentary elections. Current prime minister Bayrou, and former prime minister Edouard Philippe, will probably make a bid for the centre-right vote. Bruno Retailleau, the trenchantly hardline interior minister, looks a stronger candidate for the Gaullist Les Republicains. In the last presidential contest, Jean-Luc Melenchon of the hard-left La France Insoumise came third. He may fancy his chances of getting into the final two in 2027 against a right-wing candidate, unless the Socialists get it together. Or perhaps he may let through two finalists from the right and the extreme right. It is a mess. France and Europe need effective leadership from a French president. The unnecessary judicial suspension of Marine Le Pen's candidacy has simply generated uncertainty. Her supporters are outraged and her foes no longer know who they are fighting against. The French establishment thinks it will all blow over. Just as likely the controversy in France will strengthen the populist winds blowing across the continent and the US.
