France in Shock as Video of Student Threatening Teacher With ‘Gun’ in Class Goes Viral

Violence, insults, and threats in French Schools - The New Normal

© youtube.com/user/lafouine

An appalling video showing a student in a French school threatening a teacher with a dummy ‘gun’ in class has shocked France. Questions are being raised about the regularity of such incidents and the authorities’ response.

The viral footage, initially distributed on Snapchat, shows a class in a school in Creteil commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris. A male student stands in the middle of the classroom and threatens the teacher with an object that looks like a gun, and demands that she write ‘present’, not ‘absent’ in the attendance list. In the background, there is another student making obscene gestures at the camera.

And, the idiot recording the whole thing thinks it's hilarious.

Marine Le Pen✔
@MLP_officiel
 Le calme de cette enseignante braquée en plein cours par un élève et l’absence de signalement et de plainte immédiate par l’établissement scolaire à la suite de ce comportement suggère que ce type d’incidents est régulier.  Qui cela étonne-t-il encore ? MLP #Créteil

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1053936594288345089

French media report that the gun was “an airsoft type” ball gun or a toy gun – which wouldn’t be capable of hurting the teacher. In spite of the shocking situation, the teacher seems unperturbed, as though it’s not the first time this has happened.

Following the incident, the teacher filed a complaint and two 16-year-old students were taken into custody, according to French media. The student who made the obscene gestures was soon released, while the main perpetrator is in custody and will stand before a juvenile court on Sunday. 

The story caused shock and outrage on social media, with people raising questions regarding the punishment for the students, whether the teacher’s reaction was appropriate, and how the authorities should respond. “I hope they will be severely punished,” one person wrote.

The mayor of the city of Nancy, Laurent Henart, expressed “condemnation and indignation.” The educational community should take exceptional measures “to ensure security” in schools, he tweeted.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the incident “unacceptable” and urged the ministries of interior and education to handle the case. 

“Every day, teachers are insulted,” one person commented under Macron’s post. Another person said teachers have to deal with violence, insults, and threats almost every day.  “Should we get used to this free daily violence? The New World of Macron!” one person asked. 

Marine Le Pen, the president of France’s National Rally (formerly Front National), tweeted that the teacher looked relatively calm. The absence of an immediate report and complaint by the school “suggests that this type of incident is regular,” she wrote. 

Macron Won France's Presidency, but He Needs a Legislative Majority to Govern

And at this point, he doesn't have a single elected member

French President-elect Emmanuel Macron waves to a crowd of supporters outside the Louvre 

Museum in Paris on May 7, 2017. (Patrick Kovarik / AFP/Getty Images)

Kim Willsher and Chris O'Brien, LA Times

In the end, French voters chose to look outward and not in on themselves after a divisive presidential election that devolved into a bitter clash over two opposing visions for the country and its place in Europe and the world.

Political leaders around the world offered their congratulations to Emmanuel Macron, breathing a sigh of relief that French voters on Sunday overwhelmingly picked a centrist who embraced the European Union and international cooperation over the extreme-right, anti-immigration Marine Le Pen and her National Front party.

In a joyful celebration at the Louvre Museum that drew thousands of dancing and cheering supporters, Macron, 39, pledged to be a president for all of the French and to bind the political wounds that have deeply divided the country.

“Tonight, there is only the reunited people of France,” he said. “The world is watching us. Europe and the world.”

Yet any hope that France might be ready to rally around its youngest-ever president were dashed as opponents across the political system declared loudly their intentions to mount a fierce resistance to Macron’s government.

After swiftly conceding the election, Le Pen said that her National Front was now the primary opposition party in France and called on her supporters to continue to stand up against the establishment.

"I call on all patriots to take part in the decisive political battles that are beginning today,” she said.

The mainstream Socialist and conservative parties that lost badly in this presidential election were already gearing up to try to regain ground in next month's critical legislative elections.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the far-left candidate who came in a close fourth during the first round of voting last month, issued a call to his supporters to resist Macron and his reforms as they fight in the next round of elections. And one of the country's major unions called for nationwide demonstrations Monday, a national holiday in France, to remind Macron that its members’ votes against Le Pen were not a sign of support for his policies.

As political honeymoons go, Macron's may have ended before the clock struck midnight.

It had been a nail-biting campaign to the end with allegations of “massive and coordinated" hacking of Macron campaign documents to disrupt the vote just hours before the polls opened Sunday, and fears that the opinion polls might once again have gotten it wrong.

When the provisional results came in — 65.1% for Macron, 34.9% for Le Pen — there was an explosion of joy on one side and recrimination on the other.

Once again, the threat of rising populism, xenophobia and fear-mongering over immigration, security, Islam and terrorism had been seen off in Europe — for the moment. 

Or, to put it another way, France, like much of Europe is still not willing to believe that it is doomed to a future of creeping Sharia, increasing terrorism, increasing anti-Semitism, and a rapidly failing European culture. 

It isn't that France defeated the 'fear-mongering' far right, it is that the politicians and media made the far-right the object of 'fear-mongering'. The French voted out of fear - fear of Islam or fear of Hitler. They have yet to come to grips with the fact that Hitler is long gone and Islam is on the door-step. 5 years from now, that should be painfully obvious.

Macron may have won the battle, but he will need to secure a parliamentary majority in order to win the war over who gets to govern France.

After naming a prime minister, Macron will assemble what he has described as his administration's "commando" — 15 ministers to push through his election pledges. But he could be forced to make changes to the lineup if he doesn’t win a convincing majority in the two-round legislative elections on June 11 and June 18 that will decide the 577 members of the National Assembly.

The president-elect has said that his insurgent movement “En Marche!” — or “Onward!” — will field candidates in all constituencies, but it will be starting almost from scratch without a single existing member of Parliament.

The pressure is on. After widespread disappointment in his two predecessors — the outgoing Socialist President Francois Hollande and conservative Nicolas Sarkozy — voters expect Macron to live up to his promise to bring a fresh new style to the presidency and real economic and social change.

Macron is young, and hopefully he will do something for the young

in this country. We're fed up with the same old politicians,

the same old promises.

— Vince Andre, 29-year-old student

Sylvain Crepon, a French political analyst and member of the Radical Politics Observatory at the Paris-based Jean-Jaures think tank, said next month's votes would be complicated for Macron.

"There are lots of uncertainties in the legislative elections, especially as the winner of the presidential election doesn't even have a party and is insisting lawmakers must not [hold more than one elected position at a time], which concerns 40% of the outgoing members of Parliament," Crepon said.

There are three possible outcomes. The new president could obtain an outright majority in the National Assembly, giving him the ability to govern as he sees fit. If he does not have a majority in the lower house and is forced to appoint a prime minister from an opposition party, he will be in a situation that the French call "cohabitation," meaning he can do little.

The third possibility is that “En Marche!” would have the biggest group of lawmakers in the National Assembly, but not a clear majority, giving the new president some room to maneuver, but not a free hand.

The disarray in Hollande’s Socialist Party and Sarkozy’s Republicans following their humiliating rejection by voters in the presidential battle could work in Macron's favor. However, the center-right Republicans are regrouping and have already produced a list of candidates for all parliamentary seats.

An OpinionWay-SLPV analytics survey last week suggested that Macron could win up to 286 seats in the National Assembly, the center-right parties around 200-210, the National Front 15-25, the Socialists up to 43 and the far-left up to eight seats..

President Trump tweeted his congratulations to Macron on the “big win” and said he looked forward to working with the president-elect.

Macron arrived at the celebration outside the Louvre to the strains of “Ode to Joy,” the Beethoven classic and European Union anthem, a symbolic choice.

“What we have done for the last many months has no precedent or equivalent,” he told the cheering crowd. “Everyone said it was not possible, but they didn’t know France.”

In a nod to the nine rivals who lost in the first round, Macron said he was grateful to those who had disagreed with his program but still voted for him in order to “defend the republic against extremism.”

The crowd began booing and whistling when he said he “respected” the feelings of those who had voted for Le Pen "out of anger, disarray and sometimes conviction.”

“No, don’t whistle them,” Macron said. "I will do everything I can in the next five years to ensure there is no reason to vote for extremes.”

Waving a flag outside the Louvre, Vince Andre, a 29-year-old student, said he was delighted with the result.

"Macron is young, and hopefully he will do something for the young in this country,” he said. “We're fed up with the same old politicians, the same old promises."

Across at Le Pen’s reception, the atmosphere was more subdued, but not what might be expected following her electoral thrashing. There was more a sense of determination than resignation.

Inside a restaurant tucked inside a wooded park, Le Pen delivered her concession speech to a few hundred supporters and the limited number of journalists who were granted access. She mixed through the adoring crowd, hugging and kissing well-wishers, and later danced the night away to disco music.

Although disappointed, her supporters expressed pride that Le Pen had come so far against a system they consider to be stacked against her.

“We ran against the country’s political system,” said Jean Messiha, an economist at Paris’ Science Po university and a top campaign advisor. “And now the National Front is the primary opposition party in the country.”

This combination of pictures shows French presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron, left, and Marine le Pen exiting polling booths on May 7, 2017. (Eric Feferberg / AFP/ Getty Images)

Anne Lavernier D’Havernel walked out of the event carrying a blue flower and wearing a smile. Saying the party had “lost the battle, but not the war,” she said the press and political establishment had misrepresented people like herself, who had hosted refugees at her home and respected all races and countries.

Still, the recriminations began minutes after the election results flashed up on television screens.

Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front, blamed his daughter's advisors for her defeat. Her niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, one of the party's two members of Parliament, said the far-right had failed to get its message across.

She is absolutely right!

Other party members floated the idea in televised interviews that Marechal-Le Pen, who is seen as even more right-wing than her aunt, might replace her as leader.

Le Pen's defeat was a blow, but not a knockout for Europe's far-right parties, which have picked up support across the continent as disillusionment with the EU grows and countries struggle to emerge from a long economic crisis that has left many mired in slow growth and high unemployment, while simultaneously dealing with waves of migrants fleeing war and poverty around the world.

In March, Dutch voters scuppered right-wing populist Geert Wilders' promised "Patriotic Spring" revolution, giving him less than 13% of the vote in legislative elections and delivering a clear victory to his liberal rival, Mark Rutte.

Last December, Austria's far-right Freedom Party was narrowly defeated in a presidential vote but claimed it was in "pole position" for legislative elections next year. Sweden also holds a general election next year with the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party currently in third place.

Far-right movements have also been picking up public support and making electoral gains in Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Germany.

Joel Gombin, one of France’s leading experts on the far right, said the National Front, or FN, could increase its representation in Parliament considerably.

"Traditionally the FN doesn't do so well in legislative elections, but we will see some probable increase following the presidential success,” Gombin said. “I'm not sure it will be anywhere near the 100 MPs the FN announced, but it could be between 15 and 20, and even then it's 10 times more than the party has at present.”

Five Things You Need to Know About France's Vote

This report comes from Al Jazeera. It is well written and thoughtful although it comes from an Arab perspective. Please read with that in mind, and know that I have not vetted the links below so use at your own discretion.

By the end of Sunday, the European stalwart will have a new leader

'France is a founding member of the European Union, and this election could lead to the bloc's ultimate downfall' [Reuters/Benoit Tessier]

by Anealla Safdar, Ahmed El Amraoui, Al Jazeera

Why is this election important?

On Sunday, France will choose its next president. The election is being closely watched because, for the first time in modern French history, neither of the two candidates in the decisive second round are from mainstream parties of the left or right.

"The Republicans - which is on the right - and the Socialist Party on the centre left represented only 26 percent of the total votes from the first round, which is the lowest cumulated score for France's two main parties in the history of the Fifth Republic," Pierre Bocquillon, a lecturer of politics at Britain's University of East Anglia, told Al Jazeera.

"They are perceived as disconnected from citizens, not delivering on their promises and conducting similar policies when in power. More than a victory of the challengers, it is first a spectacular failure of both the Socialist Party and The Republicans."

Frontrunner Emmanuel Macron, 39, is a centrist running as an independent and launched his own movement just last year - "En Marche!". He was previously an economic minister under the socialist government of outgoing President Francois Hollande.

His 48-year-old rival Marine Le Pen, leader of the far right, recently stepped down from the National Front (FN) party that raised her. The move was seen as part of her efforts to distance herself from the racist roots of the party, which was founded by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1942.

France is a founding member of the European Union, and this election could lead to the bloc's ultimate downfall.

While Macron is a great supporter of the EU, Le Pen rails against it at every opportunity. She has promised a referendum on France's membership, in the hope the country will "Frexit" in Britain's footsteps.

Other hot topics in the campaign have included: unemployment, security of the economy, workers' rights, globalisation, immigration, refugees and secularism.

Further underlining the unpredictable nature of this election, on Friday - with one and a half days to go until the vote - nine gigabytes of data from Macron's team was posted online in the final hours of campaigning. 

WikiLeaks has said the dump was authentic, though did not claim responsibility. 

The leak comes in the wake of accusations that Russia attempted to hack the 2016 US election. 

Macron's team has said the "hacking" is an attempt at "democratic destabilisation".

To find out more about the two leading candidates, click here.

Who's going to win?

In the first round, Macron won 23.9 percent of the vote compared with Le Pen's 21.4 percent. Polls before the campaign blackout on Sunday's vote showed Macron winning to the tune of around 65 percent of the electorate.

After an unprecedented televised debate between the rivals on Wednesday, he gained one point in the polls as Le Pen was on the defensive, appearing to many as a less convincing leader.

Macron is likely to attract voters who cast their ballots for the traditional left and right candidates in the first round on April 23, losers Benoit Hamon and Francois Fillon. Both have urged their supporters to pick Macron.

However, Jean-Luc Melenchon, a far-left candidate, won more support than Hamon at the initial April 23 round, and it is less clear what his supporters intend to do. Some say they will cast blank votes, others have indicated they will vote for Le Pen. Unlike several other leading politicians, Melenchon has refused to call on his fans to back Macron.

Polls failed to predict two major recent events in the West: Britain's decision to leave the EU and the election of US President Donald Trump. And it is these two surprises, many analysts say, that mean anything is possible.

Another common subject is whether or not another attack on French soil would boost Le Pen, who ritually condemns what she calls "Islamic terrorism".

However, polls hardly moved after an attack before the first round, in which French national Karim Cheurfi killed a policeman on the famous Champs Elysees.

"I would say it's unlikely - not very unlikely that Le Pen would win," Nacira Guenif, a sociologist and professor, told Al Jazeera.

"Even if she fails, to some extent she has already won … This is the most depressing, preoccupying statement you can make. She has won in many ways. She will pollute and invade the public debates, the political issues for a long time."

For a professor and sociologist, Guenif doesn't seen to understand that Le Pen is not the driver of the far-right movement but the legitimate expression of the feelings of many French nationalists. The centre and left wing parties have ignored the elephant in the room for decades now and, if Macron wins, will ignore it for another 5 years. 

The centre-left strategy is to generate more fear of a right-wing government than of Islamization. Islamization, the elephant, is a vastly greater threat to French identity than Marine Le Pen will ever be. But liberal politicians and MSM, including Al Jazeera will never admit that until it is too late and France is no longer French.

No-Go Zones in France:

How has the far-right managed to get so far?

The last time the far right made it this close to running France was in 2002, when Marine's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was up against the right-wing Jacques Chirac, who ultimately won.

Then, Le Pen won just 18 percent of the vote as millions rushed to keep the extreme right out.

However, the younger Le Pen appears more of a mainstream player compared with party figures during the ruling period of her father - an outright racist who served in the Algerian War, during which it was later discovered he had carried out torture.

Le Pen has promised a referendum on France's membership in EU if she wins, in the hope the country will 'Frexit' in Britain's footsteps [EPA]

She is also riding a gripping populist wave, presenting herself as "the candidate for the people" and slamming, among other things: immigration, refugees, French minorities including Muslims, the EU and euro, globalisation, foreign workers, and taxes (except on foreigners).

"This is a moment when we realise how successful the NF has been in imposing some of its ideas on a part of the mainstream right, even though they only have four MPs and Le Pen will be defeated," Jean-Yves Camus, director of the Observatory of Radical Politics at the Jean Jaures Foundation, told Al Jazeera.

He forgot to mention, 'even though MSM and political academia deny the reality of the concerns of genuine French people for their country and way of life'. Another political 'expert' who seems to think that populism works from the top down.

What do other countries make of it all?

Western Europe's far right are watching this election closely. A Le Pen win would give them a significant boost.

Among her supporters are Geert Wilders, an Islamophobic Dutch politician who recently lost an election, and Nigel Farage, the former leader of the populist United Kingdom Independence Party.

In January, she travelled to the Trump Tower in New York, sparking speculation that the new US president was among her allies. Trump tweeted a mysterious message during the first round: "Very interesting election currently taking place in France".

France: Who are Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen?

Russian President Vladimir Putin officially welcomed her to Moscow in March, saying she represented a "quickly developing spectrum of European political forces", but denied interfering in the political process.

As for Macron, Barack Obama, the former US president, threw his support behind the former investment banker on Thursday. Macron is said to have taken inspiration from Obama's grassroots campaign strategy.

Meanwhile, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said she believes Macron would be a "strong president" for France.

Though British prime minister met Macron, she has not - unlike the UK's Labour, Lib Dems, Greens and SNP opposition parties - endorsed him.

What next?

In the short term, if Macron wins, there is expected to be a greater sense of calm and security on the streets than if Le Pen wins the presidency.

"In the short term" is key phrase in this sentence. Short-term gain for long-term pain. Islamization will get much worse under Macron and the result will be disastrous in the long-term.

In the immediate aftermath of the vote, if the far-right candidate does succeed, clashes on the streets are expected as anti-fascists and other demonstrators express their anger over the result.

Even so, Macron's popularity is by no means universal.

At a protest in Paris on May 1, which turned violent, thousands of demonstrators chanted "Ni Le Pen, ni Macron" translating to "Neither Le Pen nor Macron".

Once elected, the French president can serve a maximum of two five-year terms in office.

Parliamentary elections are expected in June. Early polls suggest Macron's party will emerge as the largest, followed by conservative parties. The far right is expected to come out last.

Marine Le Pen Steps Down at National Front to Boost Run for Presidency

After qualifying for run-off in France's presidential election,

she seeks to build wider appeal

CBC News

After qualifying for the second round of voting in the presidential election, Marine Le Pen has decided to step down as president of her party, the National Front. (Kamil Zihnioglu/Associated Press)

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has announced that she is stepping down as leader of the National Front, the party she has helmed since 2011.

The announcement came a day after Le Pen came second to centrist Emmanuel Macron in the first round of the French presidential election, securing her a chance to bid for the presidency.

Monday's move may be a way for the 48-year-old candidate to embrace a wider range of potential voters ahead of the May 7 run-off between herself and Macron.

She took 21.3 per cent of the vote on Sunday, to Macron's 24.01 per cent.

"Tonight, I am no longer the president of the National Front. I am the presidential candidate," she said on French public television news.

She may be trying to distance herself from the anti-Semitic and openly racist associations of the National Front, particularly under her father and predecessor Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Marine Le Pen has tried to remake the image of the National Front since she assumed its leadership, expelling many of the old guard leaders who served under her father.

She has built a wider base of support through two election campaigns, coming third in the first round of voting in 2012.

Her own platform, not the party's

She has said the platform she ran on in 2017 is her own and not her party's. If Le Pen wins, she would be France's first woman president.

Le Pen went on the offensive against Macron in her comments Monday. "He is a hysterical, radical 'Europeanist.' He is for total open borders. He says there is no such thing as French culture," she said.

Her campaign so far emphasizes returning French sovereignty, leaving the European Union, clamping down on  free trade, and slashing immigration.

Among her proposals:

Negotiation with Brussels on a new EU and a referendum on EU membership.

Expelling illegal immigrants and reducing legal immigration to 10,000 people per year.

Closing "extremist" mosques.

Fixing the retirement age at 60 and enshrining a 35-hour work week.

However, some doubt whether she has left behind the old remnants of National Front racism and anti-Semitism.

Denunciation by other politicians

On Monday, Israel's president denounced Le Pen for her statement earlier this month denying France was responsible for its role in rounding up French Jews for deportation to Nazi death camps.

Speaking Monday on Israel's Holocaust memorial day, President Reuven Rivlin said he found the comments "uniquely disturbing."

Politicians on the moderate left and right, including French President François Hollande and the losing Socialist and Republican party candidates in Sunday's first-round vote, manoeuvred to block Le Pen's path to power.

In a solemn address from the Elysée Palace, Hollande said he would vote for Macron, his former economy minister, because Le Pen represents "both the danger of the isolation of France and of rupture with the European Union."

Hollande said the far right would "deeply divide France" at a time when the terror threat requires solidarity. "Faced with such a risk, it is not possible to remain silent or to take refuge in indifference," he said.

With files from The Associated Press

Marine Le Pen is Now Leading Among French Voters – Poll

French presidential candidate and leader of the right-wing National Front party Marine Le Pen is gaining more support, leading with 25 to 26 percent of the vote, according to the latest Ipsos Sopra Steria survey, carried out for Cevipof and Le Monde.

Francois Fillon comes in second, with 23 to 25 percent of the vote, and Emmanuel Macron – also gaining support – is third with 19 to 21 percent.

The fluctuation in the percentages depends on the eventual Socialist Party candidate, as yet unnamed. The party’s candidate could be former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, former Minister of Industrial Renewal Arnaud Montebourg, or former Minister of Education Benoit Hamon.

Almost 16,000 people over 18 years old were interviewed for the Ipsos Sopra Steria poll, making it a major survey in the country, about 16 times the size of usual French political polls. The survey was conducted from January 10 to 15, 2017.

In mid-December, Fillon topped the list with 28 percent, while Le Pen had around 25 percent.

The poll shows a significant drop for center-right Fillon, and a significant consolidation for Le Pen as well as Macron, with the latter rising dramatically over the past few weeks.

Under the French electoral system, the two leading candidates will meet in a May 7 run-off.

Among Le Pen’s policies is support for ‘Frexit,’ or French exit from the EU. She has also stated that France should leave NATO, as the bloc exists “only to serve Washington’s objectives.”