European Politics > Survey in France reveals an appalling lack of knowledge of the European Parliament just before elections

 

European elections: One month ahead, the French badly need to start doing their homework

The French public lacks crucial information about the upcoming European elections and the role of the European Parliament while holding broadly pessimistic attitudes about the European Union, according to an exclusive survey carried out by French pollster Viavoice for French media including FRANCE 24's parent group France Médias Monde, France Télévisions and Radio France.

Issued on: 06/05/2024 - 16:49

4 min

By:Romain BRUNET

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Just under 50 percent of French people are interested in the European parliamentary elections, with 48 percent declaring no interest in the June vote, according to a Viavoice survey published Monday.

Moreover, a large proportion of respondents still fundamentally misunderstand the aims of the upcoming vote – and the nature of the European Parliament itself.

Nearly half (46 percent) of French people surveyed think that the upcoming elections allow voters to elect the members of the European Commission – which is not the case – and just 40 percent correctly responded “false” to a question asking if the voting will take place over two rounds.

The results inspire even less confidence when it comes to what the European Parliament actually does all day. Almost eight out of 10 French respondents (79 percent) described themselves as not at all or barely informed about the parliamentary body’s work. Just 21 percent said that they would be able to name at least one key measure passed in Strasbourg during the last legislative period of 2019-2024. This is despite the fact that the European Parliament has voted through a number of major measures these past five years, including the 750-billion-euro COVID-19 recovery plan and the European Green Deal, which notably banned the sale of new combustion engine-powered cars from 2035.

More than four out of five French people unable to name a French MEP

The French people’s lack of information is also rather stark when it comes to the candidates themselves. Just 39 percent were able to confidently name the top candidate of the far-right National Rally party (Jordan Bardella). That number fell to 22 percent for the centre-right Renaissance party’s top candidate (Valérie Hayer), 21 percent for the top candidate of the social democratic Socialist Party (Raphaël Glucksmann) and far-right Reconquest (Marion Maréchal).

The top candidate of the left-wing French Unbowed party (Manon Aubry) could be named by 19 percent of respondents, with another 18 percent being able to confidently name the top candidate of the right-wing Republicans (François-Xavier Bellamy), 14 percent for the Green Party’s top candidate (Marie Toussaint) and just ten percent for the top candidate of the Communist Party (Léon Deffontaines).

What’s more, 82 percent of respondents were incapable of naming at least one French member of the European Parliament. And of the 18 percent who said they could, 10 percent named Marine Le Pen and six percent simply responded “Le Pen” without giving further details. Neither National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, his daughter Marine Le Pen nor his niece Marion Maréchal are currently seated in the European Parliament.

The leading figures in Europe’s lofty institutions didn't fare much better. Just 45 percent of French people said they were very well or fairly well acquainted with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, a figure that dropped to eight percent when it came to European Parliament president Roberta Metsola.

French people divided on the Ukraine war

The Viavoice survey also revealed fiercely competing opinions on France’s role in the war in Ukraine. The results show a nation divided, with 29 percent saying that France is giving Ukraine too much military support, 40 percent responding that France is supporting Ukraine the right amount and just 16 percent saying that France is not supporting Ukraine enough.

Similarly, 39 percent of French people think that EU member countries are united in their support for Ukraine against Russia, compared with 40 percent who think the opposite. In contrast, 63 percent said that the EU had an important role to play in bringing the war to an end.

The French are equally divided when it comes to Ukraine’s potential EU membership: 42 percent of respondents describe themselves as against Ukraine joining the EU, compared with 41 percent saying they are in favour of it.

Euro-pessimism about the economy

Finally, the survey showed that the French are pretty pessimistic about the future, with 64 percent of respondents predicting that the European economy is going to get worse in the coming months, including 35 percent who think it will worsen significantly. In addition, 55 percent of those asked think that the EU’s place on the international stage will deteriorate in the coming months – a figure that has risen by 11 points compared with June 2022.

And while the French see the European Union as more of a strength than a weakness when it comes to scientific and technological innovation (62 percent against 22 percent) or peace in Europe and across the world (54 percent against 31 percent), they’re more sceptical about its role in the face of economic challenges (37 percent against 42 percent). Nor do they seem hopeful about its role in the fight against discrimination (36 percent against 42 percent), or against social issues (30 percent against 51 percent).

This article has been adapted from the original in French.

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European Politics > The UK's new Home Secretary is Awesome

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Whether she is allowed to accomplish what she is setting out to do is a good question. But she seems to be heading in the right direction on so many fronts. God bless her. The woke crowd is going to come after her like a plague of banshees.

I’ll take dramatic action to stop Channel migrant crisis after

30,000 boats reached UK this year, says Suella Braverman

Kate Ferguson, The Sun

20:00, 1 Oct 2022

NEW Home Secretary Suella Braverman last night admitted the Channel migrants crisis is “out of control”.

More than 30,000 have arrived in dinghies on our shores this year — ten times the total in 2018.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has admitted the channel migrants crisis is 'out of control'

More than 30,000 migrants have arrived on our shores by dinghies this year - ten times the total in 2018

But Ms Braverman has vowed to “take dramatic action” and change controversial laws to stop illegal immigrants playing the system.

Top of her list is reforming the Modern Slavery Act so it is easier to boot out Channel migrants and foreign criminals.

In her first interview since getting the top Cabinet job, she also admitted some police forces have been “captured” by woke groups and “pander to political correctness”.

She vowed to cut immigration numbers despite moves by new PM Liz Truss to let more high-skilled foreigners into Britain to boost growth.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun on Sunday on the eve of Tory Party conference in Birmingham, she promised to get tough on law and order.

Ms Braverman said: “There’s a crisis on the Channel and it’s been going on for far too long. There have been huge attempts to try and stop the problem and I feel that we are at a stage now where we need to take dramatic action.

“So the problem has gone out of control for a variety of reasons.”

She said the problem has spiralled for a “variety of reasons”, including the Modern Slavery Act, brought in by Theresa May to stop exploitation, which is being abused.

Ms Braverman added: “What’s happened is that the aims and the structure of that legislation have been completely distorted. Now what we are seeing is a majority of people coming here from Albania — some 80 per cent — of the people coming across on small boats are claiming to be victims of modern slavery.

“That’s regardless of the fact that they may have paid tens of thousands of pounds for the privilege of being a so-called modern slave. That’s also regardless of the fact that they will have actively sought to come to the UK through an illegal, illicit and dangerous method. So it’s being abused.”

She also warned that foreign paedophiles, murderers and other convicted criminals are abusing the law to block their deportation.

Ms Braverman said: “Unfortunately, it’s a really low bar that you have to cross to be considered to be a victim of modern slavery, that is what is gumming up the system at the moment.

A group of migrants walk ashore in Dungeness, Kent, after being intercepted by a lifeboat on August 25, 2022. Credit: PA

Modern slavery

“And what’s even worse about modern slavery, and the way it’s being applied at the moment, is that we’re getting some egregious cases, which make my blood boil in terms of how it’s being abused.

“We are getting instances where convicted paedophiles, convicted drug dealers, convicted murderers, who served their sentences in English jails — at the end of their sentence, we want to deport them because they are considered to be foreign national offenders.

“What do they do? They claim modern slavery.”

She told of a convicted paedo from Pakistan, jailed here for ten years, who has still not been kicked out of the country because of the Modern Slavery Act.

Ms Braverman added: “That, I cannot emphasise enough, is plaguing our system, stopping the legitimate removal from our country of serious criminals, putting the safety of British people at risk, undermining the generosity of the British people . . . and making a mockery of our country and our sovereignty — and this has to stop.”

Ms Braverman hinted that she will reform the Act to increase the evidential threshold and crack down on people suddenly claiming to be modern slaves after years of living here carefree.

She is expected to flesh out the plans later this week.

Under her predecessor Priti Patel, Britain signed a deal to send Channel migrants to Rwanda in a bid to deter crossings. But the plan was dealt a blow earlier this year when Euro judges in Strasbourg blocked the first flight.

Rwanda’s Hope Hostel — which was meant to house the migrants — stands empty and the policy is bogged down in a High Court battle. 

Ms Braverman lashed Euro judges for intervening. And she warned Britain could quit the European Convention on Human Rights or come up with a new British Bill of Rights to boot foreign judges out of UK cases.

She fumed: “It was thwarted because, frankly, of an interventionist politicised court in Strasbourg.

“And a decision taken . . . where there was no UK representation, behind closed doors, and in a very mysterious way, frankly. We really need to review and look at our relationship with Strasbourg.”

In the meantime, the UK is still committed to the Rwanda deal and is looking to sign similar agreements in other countries, such as Albania.

Ms Braverman, who used to live in France and speaks the language fluently, also signalled a reset as she vowed to work closely with Paris on tackling Channel migrants.

“We do have a common and shared mission”, she said as he revealed she plans to visit France shortly.

On policing, she took aim at woke cops who spend more time virtue signalling than catching thieves and called for a return to “old school, common sense policing”.

Last week, she slapped down Sussex Police after the force used Twitter to defend a transgender paedo from being “misgendered” by the public. She said: “There’s been, in some parts of our policing sector, a tendency to pander to political correctness, a capture by lobby groups, and a lack of courage to adopt old school policing, or what I like to call common sense policing.”

The Twitter spat was the “tip of the iceberg”, she warned.

Cops spend too much time engaging in “gesture” politics like taking the knee and dancing at Pride events, she added. I want to encourage the police to get back to basics.

The Home Secretary stressed: “I think that is all the wrong focus. I want to encourage the police to get back to basics, get back to investigating every burglary, making sure that antisocial behaviour in our communities, car theft, drugs, graffiti, vandalism, that all that is jumped on instantly. Those crimes have been forgotten.”

Ms Braverman is also looking at lifting the requirement for some officers to have a degree before entering the force so those with “street smarts” are snapped up.

On immigration, she insisted the Government is still committed to cutting numbers despite Ms Truss’s dash for growth.

The Sun on Sunday revealed last week that the PM is planning to create new routes for foreign workers to move to Britain to kick-start growth.

The controversial move sparked a Cabinet row amid fears it would open the floodgates to cheap foreign labour and uncontrolled numbers.

But Ms Braverman moved to calm jitters that this growth drive will see promises to cut net migration torn up.

The 2019 Tory manifesto pledge to get numbers down is an aim “shared by the Prime Minister and myself and everyone around the Cabinet table”, she insisted.

And she hinted any loosening of immigration rules for high skilled workers will come with moves to crack down on others coming to the UK.

The Home Sec said: “What we've got is too many low skilled workers coming into this country. 

“We've also got a very high number of students coming into this country and we've got a really high number of dependents. 

“So students are coming on their student visa, but they're bringing in family members who can piggyback onto their student visa. Those people are coming here, they're not necessarily working or they're working in low-skilled jobs, and they're not contributing to growing our economy.”

She added: “We want people with high skills, we want people with tech qualifications…What we don't want is a very steady stream of cheap foreign labour.”

Meanwhile, she said social media bosses must “start taking responsibility” and protect users online. She spoke out after a coroner ruled disturbing online content contributed to the death of schoolgirl Molly Russell.

I like this woman! 

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Swedish Doctor of Theology: Islamism is Evil and It’s Time We Change Our Attitude

 By EMMA R.

Prazis images / shutterstock.com

Theologist Ann Heberlein warns in Swedish newspaper Nyheter Idag for the dangers of Islamism. 

“Evil,” wrote Hannah Arendt in “Responsibility and Judgement”, are things that make us think “this should not have happened”.

In the midst of Christmas preparations, evil is making itself known – first an act of terror at a Christmas market in Strasbourg. A man shoots irrationally straight into a group of people who drink Glühwein and buy Christmas gifts. Five people die and ten are injured. This should not have happened.

Barely a week after the massacre in Strasbourg, two young women, Norwegian Maren, 28, and Danish Louisa, 24, are bestially murdered in Morocco.

The two friends were going to spend their Christmas holidays hiking in the Atlas Mountains. What would be an adventure, a memory for life, ended with their death. Several men are arrested, suspected of killing the two women. This should not have happened.

The common denominator of the deeds is spelled Islamism. The perpetrators in Strasbourg, as well as the murderers in Morocco, are reported to be Islamist terrorists.

Blinded by religious fanaticism and hatred of the Western lifestyle which they regard as sinful, they attack innocent people. We are their enemies.

Today, Sweden is for ISIS terrorists what Argentina and Brazil were

for the Nazis after World War II

A sanctuary where they can lick their wounds and start a new life without taking the consequences of the assaults and crimes they committed.

Instead of being locked up, the terrorists are visited by a social secretary. It is high time we change our attitude, states Ann Heberlein.

As I have been writing for some time, Muslim radicals (fundamentalists) are completely insane and need to be segregated from society. Anything less is societal suicide.

What is the Solution to the Terrorism Problem in Europe?

Combat marginalization or expel troublemakers? MEPs offer solutions in wake of Strasbourg attack

A French soldier stands guard near a closed wooden barrack shop at the traditional Christkindelsmaerik (Christ Child market) in front of the Cathedral the day after a shooting in Strasbourg, France, December 12, 2018. © Reuters / Christian Hartmann

The Strasbourg Christmas market shooting has fanned the flames of a debate about how to keep Europe safe, with MEPs from opposite sides of the aisle providing RT with radically different views about what must be done.

The deadly attack in the northeast French city, which killed two people and left more than a dozen wounded, seems to have had a profound effect on EU parliamentarians – many of whom were present when their Strasbourg-based headquarters was put on lockdown following the shooting.

However, serious disagreement remains over how to move forward, with conflicting views on immigration, terrorism, and borders dominating the security debate.

Worried and angry

Greek MEP Stelios Kouloglou, a member of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left, said that his deep concern for those stuck on the streets of Strasbourg during the attack quickly turned into anger.

“We were worried about our colleagues who were outside already. But there was also anger. Anger against those cowardly people killing innocent people passing by … Killing kids, tourists, what is this? It looks like they don’t have any kind of heart or soul,” he told RT.

The left-leaning MEP said that the parliament held a minute of silence for the victims of the attack – a practice that, according to him, was becoming far too frequent due to the regularity of similar attacks across Europe.

He thinks what needs to be done is “changing policies to find the sources of terrorism and to attack the resources of terrorism.”

Hailing from the opposite end of the political spectrum, Christine Arnautu – a French MEP for right-wing National Rally, and the party's vice president for social affairs – also noted the solidarity displayed by parliamentarians following the attack. She warned, however, that candlelight vigils won’t keep France safe.

© REUTERS / Vincent Kessler

“Everyone has showed compassion, all the deputies, because these incidents are very traumatizing. But when it comes to real solutions … it is not enough to light up candles, to cry, to say, like they do all the time, ‘je suis Charlie’, ‘je suis Strasbourg’, ‘je suis Bataclan.’ No, we are France and we want France to live in peace.”

Integration or deportation?

The suspected gunman in the attack – 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, who was born in Strasbourg but whose family roots trace back to Morocco – has rekindled a longstanding debate in Europe over immigration and integration.

“We have to reintegrate the marginalized youth in the suburbs of Paris and Brussels and Strasbourg,” Kouloglou said. “Give them jobs. Give them hope for life. Because those are miserable, desperate people. And they end up doing such cowardly things.”

In order to create lasting security in Europe, the wars in the Middle East must be brought to an end, Kouloglou said. The Greek MEP also encouraged Europe to engage with “moderate Islam” and stressed that stereotyping Muslims would only lead to more hate and violence.

French police evict thousands of migrants living on sidewalks in French cities © REUTERS / Pascal Rossignol

His French colleague took a different approach, arguing that the act of “Islamic terrorism” shows that there are some who are incompatible with French values.

Arnautu urged France to expel all people currently on the country’s terror watch list, noting that Chekatt had been flagged but was still not stopped from carrying out an attack. She also accused immigrants of not being sufficiently loyal to the French state.

Having a nationality should mean something. And those people, hate France, hate our country, hate our culture, because of this there was no coincidence in the fact that it happened on a Christmas market

Ultimately, according to Arnautu, the Strasbourg attack should compel France to rethink its open borders with the rest of Europe, which has allowed for a “free circulation of people” resulting in “criminals” entering the country.

“It was said that this attacker has previously been in Germany or elsewhere. He might be crossing borders now. Every time we have such a tragedy, we get back to the topic of border control. For example tonight I believe the Franco-German border is controlled, but it's too late.”

Clash of ideologies

Both parliamentarians believe something must be done to prevent further attacks on European soil – but a clash of ideologies may serve as a serious hurdle to comprehensive action that can be agreed upon.

“The right and the extreme right are trying to blame the refugees for the terrorist attacks,” Kouloglou said, adding that in reality, “almost all” such attacks are carried out by people holding European passports. 

Returning to the issue of integration, the Greek MEP noted: “We don’t have to blame refugees or immigrants. We have to blame ourselves.”

It is not a refugee problem! It is a radical Islam problem! The issue with refugees is simply that they dramatically increase the Muslim population which, potentially, increases the radical Islam problem. 

German police are seen at the Franco-German border after a shooting in Strasbourg © REUTERS / Christian Hartmann

He said that painting Islam and refugees with such a wide brush would only lead to more tragedy.

[The right] try to blame Islam as a whole and now refugees and immigrants. This is not solving the problem. You create more enemies, you create enemies among the refugees.

He is right, to a point. However, pretending that Islam is not at the centre of the problem is colossal stupidity.

Arnautu, on the other hand, blamed Europe’s left-leaning and liberal parties for the continent’s security problems.

“There are ideologists, (idealists?) who, despite all the tragedy, the deaths we've been witnessing for the past six years, keep saying that we should be tolerant, we should live together,” she said.

“No, we don't want to live together with them. And I think we will see a lot of bad things if we stay in this EU, instead of protecting our sovereignty.”

Radical Muslims must be dealt with. They must be segregated from the normal population, and waiting until they kill people is not the solution. As Kouloglou said at the beginning of this article, "It looks like they don’t have any kind of heart or soul,”. They don't! They are hardly human and do not deserve to be treated with any respect or privilege. 

My solution is to lock up every radicalized Muslim in a sanatorium, declaring them clinically insane, for they surely are.

“I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible…impossible…for any human being to read the biography of Mohammed and believe in it, and then emerge a psychologically and mentally healthy person.”

- Syrian Psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan

Almost 1,000 Cars Torched Around France on New Year's Eve

 But government insists it 'went particularly well'

A car on fire in Paris CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES

Henry Samuel, Paris, Telegraph 

Vandals in France torched 945 parked cars over New Year's Eve in an arson rampage that has become a sinister annual "tradition" and amid a row over whether the government had sought to play down the figures.

According to the French interior ministry, the total of 945, which included cars that were either "totally destroyed" or "more lightly affected", amounted to a 17 per cent rise compared to last year.

Despite this, New Year's Eve "went off without any major incident", the interior ministry insisted in a statement, adding that there were only "a few troubles with public order",

In fact, police arrested 454 people over the night, 301 of whom were taken into custody. 

I guess the word 'few' has many definitions.

On Sunday, the ministry had chosen to release a much lower figure of 650 cars torched, as this only indicated the number of vehicles "set on fire" and not those engulfed in the ensuing flames.

So if you set one car on fire and the car next to it burns, it doesn't count; it's a freebee!

The lower figure enabled it to claim: "Once again this year, the overall  number of vehicles burned demonstrates that, however intolerable, the phenomenon is contained". By this calculation, the rise, it said, was only 48 cars.

But the the lower figure prompted the far-right Front National to denounce what it called the government's "extremely hazy security record".

"The new interior minister Bruno Le Roux…(initially) didn't communicate the number of vehicles burned and considers that the number of cars directly set on fire to be 'contained' while even this constitutes a signifiant rise of 8 per cent," the FN said in a statement.

Le Monde, the national daily newspaper, also accused the ministry of muddying the waters.

The government responded that the figures released were the "most pertinent and the most coherent". 

"There is absolutely no attempt at hiding anything," said Pierre Henry Brandet, an interior ministry spokesman.

"You have to look at the trend over several years, and what is significant is that there has been a significant drop over five years,"he said.

But, M Brandet, it doesn't help if the drop came as a result of how you count the number of cars. Is that method of counting consistent through the years? Statistics are meaningless otherwise.

Mr Brandet conceded, however, that the figure was still too high, adding: "These incidents are not tolerable and the perpetrators must be found and answer for their acts before justice."

Over New Year, a fire fighter in the eastern department of Ain was hurt while trying to extinguish one car. 

In Nice, where security has been extremely tight since the deadly Bastille Day truck attack of last year, two police officers were hurt when revellers threw "projectiles" at them. 

Bruno le Roux, the interior minister, said that no attack on security would not be tolerated. 

"I regret that once again there were too many instances of security forces being hit with objects, or faced with attacks or insults," he said.

But he thanked the tens of thousands of police and firefighters, adding that they "allowed December 31st to go off particularly well". 

With France under a state of emergency since a spate of terror attacks, some 90,000 security forces were out in its streets on New Year's Eve to police mass gatherings such on Paris' famed Champs-Elysées, where half a million revellers convened.

French domestic intelligence agents also reportedly swooped on a string of individuals ahead of festivities who they suspected might have been tempted to wreak violence.

The custom of setting vehicles alight on New Year’s Eve is said to have kicked off around Strasbourg, eastern France in the 1990s, in the the city’s deprived, high-immigrant districts.

It quickly caught on among disaffected youths in cities across the country, and is seen by some as a litmus test of general social unrest.

The most notorious spate of car burnings in recent years was seen in the 2005 riots when hundreds of vehicles were torched.

As stated above, the 'tradition' began in mainly Muslim areas. Who knows how many Muslims were involved in this year's event but it is safe to say many. Of course, the police or government will never tell us, they don't want you blaming Muslims for doing what they do.

Meanwhile, France is in a state of emergency; 90,000 police or military were on the streets; nearly a thousand cars burnt; police were attacked; several hundred people were arrested; and the government declares it a good night! Good grief!

Former French president Nicholas Sarkozy briefly abandoned issuing a breakdown of New Year's Eve car burnings in 2010-11 amid fears this was sparking copycat actions, but it has since been re-instated.