Bienvenue – Willkommen
Das Modewort „Crypto“ lockte meinen Freund vom Verbraucherschutz Thomas Beutler und mich Anfang August in die „Info-Veranstaltung“ eines Bitcoin-Netzwerks. Thomas hat den Bericht unseres Erlebnisses auf seiner Webseite geteilt. Ich gebe den Text hier ebenfalls wieder. So verrückt es auch klingt, die Geschichte ist leider nicht erfunden!
„Zu Gast bei einem Bitcoin-Netzwerk (Erlebnisbericht)“ weiterlesen
Update Datenschutzerklärung
new design 🙂
France, 06 Oct – 02 Nov 2015
Riots in suburbia: ten years on ++ Another shift to the right ++ Regional elections lie ahead
by Matthieu Choblet
Riots in suburbia: ten years on
This year, France commemorates the violent events of autumn 2005 in the so called banlieue. These suburbs are the lost neighborhoods of French metropolitan regions, particularly around Paris, in which most people live in typical large housing blocks called HLM (rent-controlled-housing). Jobs are scarce and public transport connection to the city center reduced to a minimum.
„Report October 2015 (La banlieu)“ weiterlesen
France, 14 Jul – 10 Aug 2015
TV show ‘Les Guignols’: Are the buffoons being muzzled? ++ Hollande’s ideas for France and Europe flouted by opposition ++ Cattle breeders protest against low meat prices
by Matthieu Choblet
TV show Les Guignols: Are the buffoons being muzzled?
„Report July 2015 (Les Guignols, Cattles breeders‘ protest)“ weiterlesen
France, 20 Apr – 18 May 2015
Jean-Marie Le Pen loses power struggle against his daughter ++ A history of female suffrage ++ François Hollande visits Cuba.
by Matthieu Choblet
Jean-Marie Le Pen loses power struggle against his daughter
The executive bureau of the far-right party National Front (FN) suspended its honorary member Jean-Marie Le Pen. The decision was initiated by Marine Le Pen, daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen and current president of the FN, following a provocative interview given by her father. Le Pen, co-founder of the FN in 1972 and its uncontested leader until 2011 has repeatedly caught attention for the belittlement of the Holocaust. So far Marine Le Pen had narrowed her father’s racist and anti-Semitic remarks as mere “political errors”. However, the renewed claim that Holocaust was “a detail of history” was the last straw.
France, 23 Feb – 22 Mar 2015
Departmental elections put political system under stress ++ France granted two more years to comply with European budget rule ++ Tragic helicopter crash leaves ten dead ++ Alleged death of Bouygues’ CEO Martin Bouygues.
by Matthieu Choblet
Departmental elections put political system under stress
Time for elections again in France: The first round of the French departmental elections took place on Sunday 22nd March. Not for the first time in this legislative period, elections, usually considered second-rank, put France’s political system under stress and make the governmental majority shiver.
The reason for this isn’t new either. In the run-up to the elections, the far-right party National Front (FN) was set to win more votes than any other party in the first round of the elections according to polls.
So is FN-leader Marine Le Pen right to claim that her party is “more than ever, the balance point of political life in France”? At least, she has every reason to believe that many voters will choose to penalise the governing Socialist party (PS). Sure enough, the general councils governing the 101 French departments are not the place to decide on popular FN-issues such as leaving the euro zone or the Schengen agreement. The council’s main responsibility lays in the management of welfare allowances and basic education. Anyway, the elections offered the opportunity to grouch on the reform of the departments (see French Report November 2014/2), to make welfare promises and … to reject “Islamic proselytism” in kindergarten.
„Report March 2015 (Départementales, European budget rule)“ weiterlesen
France, 20 Nov – 19 Dec 2014
Sarkozy head of party again, Socialists and National Front on the defensive ++ Shop openings and industry shut-downs ++ Violence and anti-Semitism.
by Matthieu Choblet
Sarkozy head of party again, Socialists and National Front on the defensive
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was (re-)elected head of the opposition party UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) with 64.5 percent of the votes, besting two rival candidates. Over 50 percent of the 268,000 party members participated via Internet. “64 percent is not the triumphal return Sarkozy was hoping for”, grumbled a spokesperson of the governing Socialist Party (PS). And yet, one of the most notorious politicians of the last decade is back on top at France’s major right-wing party.
The UMP was founded in 2002 by Jacques Chirac, former nominee for the Presidential election, with the aim to create a single right-wing party uniting pro-Europeanists and conservative sovereignists. Thereafter, the UMP was the ruling party for ten years until it collapsed in 2012: after Sarkozy’s defeat at the Presidential elections and the loss of the parliamentary majority, the party faced severe financial problems and its leadership was divided by a row over Sarkozy’s succession.
„Report December 2014 (Sarkozy, Shop openings and industry shut-downs, Anti-Semitism)“ weiterlesen
France, 09 Oct – 22 Oct 2014
Government: „reforms are no courtesy, but simply the right thing“ ++ Nobel Prize surprise for Frenchmen ++ Right-wing intellectual in doubt about French virility.
by Matthieu Choblet
Government: „reforms are no courtesy, but simply the right thing“
The French government is pursuing its intention to implement decisive changes in the French economic and social framework. Its latest concerns: the unemployment insurance fund is in deficit of 3.8 bn. Euros in 2014 and the national budget is deep in the red as well, despite of renewed budget cuts. As a consequence, the European Commission is pressuring France to reduce its unemployment benefits. New Minister of the Economy Emmanuel Macron took this opportunity to announce a new reform, notwithstanding that the unemployment benefits were already overhauled in July this year. “No taboos!”, insisted Macron, who joined the government in August and plans to minimise the length and scope of the benefits.
„Report October 2014 (Nobel Prizes and Decline)“ weiterlesen
France, 14 Aug – 10 Sep 2014
Government reshuffle in midst of ongoing political trouble ++ President’s ex publishes nasty accusations ++ Freed hostages identify their tormentor.
by Matthieu Choblet
Government reshuffle in midst of ongoing political trouble
French President François Hollande asked Prime Minister Manuel Valls to assemble a new government following the departure of three ministers, including the eloquent if somewhat insolent Arnaud Montebourg. Opinions defer on whether it was more of a resignation – as the official line goes – or if the ministers were actually forced to leave. In either way, the divide between the head of the executive and the three rebels or frondeurs as they are called in France had been obvious for a while and became even clearer in the last weeks.
“It is not possible to have a proper discussion with François Hollande anymore. Discussion with him are friendly, but useless” claims Montebourg in an interview recorded in June 2014 but only published now. The final brake up occured after Montebourg’s renewed criticism of the prevailing economic policies in the Eurozone. Indeed, Montebourg, who had swapped the sober title of Minister of the Economy for a shiny ‘Minister of Industrial Renewal’ is known for his decided leftist and interventionist stance.