Hollande
Published:
April 3, 2014 at 11:35am
So Francois Hollande has sacked his prime minister and appointed Spanish-born Manuel Valls instead. Valls was naturalised as a French citizen in the 1980s.
Hollande recognised, in a televised address, the French public’s “discontent and disappointment” is his rule, demonstrated to him by means of a stinging defeat in local elections. Hollande has suffered the lowest approval ratings of any French president since World War II.
Hollande’s Socialists lost more than 150 towns and cities to the centre-right opposition UMP and (this is very worrying) to the far-right National Front led by Marine Le Pen, which made great gains.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-04-03/news/teacher-involved-in-dingli-cliffs-tragedy-to-be-arraigned-today-4487741442/
Why in your view is it worrying that the national front and UKIP look set to defeat the pro EU parties in their respective countries?
It’s their democratic right to do so, and one does not need to be on the far right of the political spectrum to realize that the EU has developed into far more than a free trade zone as originally envisaged.
Would you expect any better of Hollande?
The disasters in his ‘romantic’ life are simply a reflection of the disaster he is cable of causing in his public life.
No wonder he approved of Jo as Malta’s PM.
L-ispizjar milli jkollu jaghtik.
If Hollande has a shred of self-awareness, he would find that the French are actually sick of him and not of the prime minster he has sacked.
Taking it a step further, Valls is Catalan, speaks Catalan, a big supporter of the Barca Club. Madrid can’t be very happy about his appointment.
As for Le Pen, taken together with what is happening with Farage in the UK, the entire Russia discussion, Scotland and Catalonia pushing for independence, I’d say the EU should start to get seriously worried.
The same Marine Le Pen who together with her fellow FN MEPs were among the paltry few to vote with the Maltese Labour MEPs on the citizenship issue. These are Joseph Muscat’s fellow-travellers. But then, the Malta Labour PArty has always been a far right party in reality.
X’arukaża! Aren’t these the same Le Pen mob who want to stop further transfer of power from the corrupt member states to our glorious, transparent wizards at the Brussels Centrum?
I hear they’ve been listed on the Union’s Anarchists & Saboteurs Watchlist. A show trial is in order. And Muscat had better be warned. Guilt by association is a villainous act.
F’hiex wasalna, f’hiex wasalna… hux ġejja Malta issa wkoll!
Lady Deafley, ħarisna int għax m’għandna ‘l ħadd iħarisna.
[Daphne – You can be so immensely trying at times, Kevin. I think you should be coaching Karmenu Vella, getting him ready to face the EP grilling he so dreads, the poor thing. He was kind enough to give an election testimonial (“ivvota ghal Sharon ghax mara”) for your missus, after all. Time to return the favour (not that it worked).]
Kev, you are proof positive that the ‘pimps, thieves and scroundels’ of the labour national socialists have no sense of humour.
PS Kev, what do you what to be when you grow up? An archetypal ponce?
True, but between the FN and the PL I would choose the new Marine-led FN any day. They are much less nationalist than the PL.
I don’t think that they are going to be half as bad as the politically-correct left-leaning media are making out. In fact there is already talk that many of the Algerian Francophiles (Muslims) are beginning to back the FN.
I think the rise of the FN in France, if nothing else, has demonstrated the irrelevance of the French Socialists.
It will be a big problem if they disrupt the work of the EP and if they manage to form a parliamentary group, which is very unlikely due to the fractious nature of the Right, they would have the reins in the EU.
The same FN whose leader (Jean-Marie Le Pen) was invited to attend a Crans Montana Conference here in Malta in 1994 or 1995, when PN was in government and Fenech Adami at the helm. For some reason, Le Pen didn’t show up at the end! Who knows why ?
MLP is definitely a populistic, far-right party. It took me 2 long years, after I landed here in early 90s, to figure that out as to me a “Labour” party was necessarily on the left side of politics: open, cosmopolitan, progressive, etc.
It is the PN, rather, that is left-leaning and definitely not Malta’s Labour.
From the inception of the Malta Labour Party, led by Dom Mintoff, to the current Labour regime the continuous thread of National Socialist is startlingly clear.
It is extremely sad that local commentators have not been more vociferous on this issue.
The result is that the country is now saddled with an evil little twerp who regularly impersonates Mussolini no less to the ghoulish delight of his grotesquely misnamed ‘liberal progressive movement’.
If Hollande replaces his prime minister in a bid to relaunch presidency, does this make the situation in Malta considerably worse for Joseph to replace 4 cabinet members?
Oh mon dieu
http://fotos.noticias.bol.uol.com.br/imagensdodia/2013/04/24/imagens-do-dia—24-de-abril-de-2013.htm#fotoNav=20
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140403/local/efficient-planning-system-proposals-taking-country-back-30-years-faa.513397
For once, Astrid Vella is right. The proposed changes will wreak havoc to our countryside and to our heritage.
As an aside, the changes were drafted by Robert Musumeci. The extent of conflict of interest makes a mockery of the architects’ warrant.
From James Tyrell on timesonline:
“Before the last election I honestly believed that Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party would be a breath of fresh air for Malta. I now see that I was wrong. I thought that once in office he would remain there for many terms because of the good he was doing for the country. I was wrong. It’s obvious that Joseph has decided he likes being in opposition much more than he likes being in Government and therefore has decided to prostitute himself to please his backers.”
At last someone who admits how very wrong he was.
Good. Will James Tyrell now subscribe that maybe we weren’t so wrong in our scepticism, ‘a prescindere’, of Muscat’s proposals?
He doesn’t have to put it in writing. This country doesn’t have a democratic right to choose, which is why the PN has a moral duty to govern.
Gonzi’s decision was to push the boundaries of choice, his reform was unequivocal, no more messing around with illegalities, sanctioning and formal bureaucratic legitimation of illicit behaviour and subtle design of hidden agendas.
And that is self evident truth. Mea culpa James Tyrell, mea maxima culpa. The onlty redeeming factor being the lack of familiarity with this lot’s double faced nature and a command of a language used to allow it.
On the other hand, what will he do to help rid us of this lot?
It doesn’t bode well for European Socialists in the coming EP elections. They are hoping to overtake the Popular Party but, if they have a poor showing in France, this will be almost impossible.
http://www.independent.com.mt/mobile/2014-04-03/news/i-have-never-been-in-favour-of-referenda-alfred-sant-4494229504/
Still bitter, 10 years later!
A big reshuffle to deal with a crisis.
Now where did I hear that before?
And what is Hollande playing at?
He put a man who frequently attacks businesses as minister of the economy and he also gave a ministry to his ex-wife.
Expect all sorts of sparks to fly.
What an incompetent man. No wonder Hollande and Muscat hit it off so wonderfully.
Marc Sant calling George Abela an opportunist: look who’s talking.
https://www.facebook.com/msant?hc_location=timeline