December 10, 2012

Norway: European Union’s presidents collect Nobel peace prize in Oslo

The Nobel peace prize is awarded to the European Union at a ceremony in Norway’s capital Oslo. The EU’s three presidents Herman van Rompuy, José Manuel Barroso and Martin Schulz collect the prize. German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president François Hollande are given a spontaneous round of applause as they are honoured in a speech. The Nobel committee points to the reconciliation between Germany and France after the second world war as the beginning of 60 years of European peace (via guardian.co.uk)

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Filed under: Herman van Rompuy José Manuel Barroso Martin Schulz Angela Merkel François Hollande Norway Oslo Nobel Peace Prize Video 
October 20, 2012
Parallel universes - cartoon At the European Council, François Hollande and Angela Merkel remain divided on the issue of ECB supervision of European banks. Meanwhile, in the Greek capital, the growing number of violent attacks on immigrants mounted by neo-Nazi activists of the Golden Dawn party is met with indifference by the country’s political class. Recently Greek MP Eleni Zaroulia, who is the wife of the leader of Golden Dawn, Nikos Michaloliakos, and a member of the European Council’s commission on equality and non-discrimination, described immigrants as subhuman in a speech to parliament. (via Presseurop)

Parallel universes - cartoon

At the European Council, François Hollande and Angela Merkel remain divided on the issue of ECB supervision of European banks. Meanwhile, in the Greek capital, the growing number of violent attacks on immigrants mounted by neo-Nazi activists of the Golden Dawn party is met with indifference by the country’s political class. Recently Greek MP Eleni Zaroulia, who is the wife of the leader of Golden Dawn, Nikos Michaloliakos, and a member of the European Council’s commission on equality and non-discrimination, described immigrants as subhuman in a speech to parliament. (via Presseurop)

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Filed under: European Council François Hollande Francois Hollande Angela Merkel ECB Eurozone Debt Crisis European Financial Crisis Greece Golden Dawn Neo-Nazis Far-Right Policits Eleni Zaroulia Cartoon Cartoons Illustration 
October 20, 2012
France: Karl Lagerfeld condemns imbecile Francois Hollande President François Hollande of France is an “imbecile” who “hates the rich” and whose tax hikes will prove “disastrous” for France, controversial fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has warned. The German haute couture icon’s undiplomatic outburst follows a string of attacks on celebrities over their taste and looks. He has recently dubbed British singer Adele “fat” and Russian men “ugly”. This time, however, Chanel’s 78-year old creative head trained his fire on France’s Left-wing leader, whose government is currently debating 20 billion euros in tax rises for the wealthy and big business and a 75 per cent tax on millionaire earners. Likening Mr Holande to former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero, a fellow Socialist, Mr Lagerfeld said: “He’s an imbecile. He will be as disastrous as Zapatero.” “Hollande hates the rich. It’s a disaster. He wants to punish them, and of course, they are leaving, nobody is investing,” he told Spanish Marie-Claire magazine. “Foreigners no longer want to invest in France and it cannot work like that.” Mr Lagerfeld’s comments joined a chorus of criticism from French business leaders to David Cameron on the left-winger’s fiscal policies. Earlier this week, Laurence Parisot, head of employers’ group MEDEF, warned France was sliding into a grave economic crisis and risked a full-blown “hurricane” as investors flee rocketing tax rates. (via Telegraph)

France: Karl Lagerfeld condemns imbecile Francois Hollande

President François Hollande of France is an “imbecile” who “hates the rich” and whose tax hikes will prove “disastrous” for France, controversial fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has warned.

The German haute couture icon’s undiplomatic outburst follows a string of attacks on celebrities over their taste and looks. He has recently dubbed British singer Adele “fat” and Russian men “ugly”.

This time, however, Chanel’s 78-year old creative head trained his fire on France’s Left-wing leader, whose government is currently debating 20 billion euros in tax rises for the wealthy and big business and a 75 per cent tax on millionaire earners.

Likening Mr Holande to former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Zapatero, a fellow Socialist, Mr Lagerfeld said: “He’s an imbecile. He will be as disastrous as Zapatero.” “Hollande hates the rich. It’s a disaster. He wants to punish them, and of course, they are leaving, nobody is investing,” he told Spanish Marie-Claire magazine.

“Foreigners no longer want to invest in France and it cannot work like that.” Mr Lagerfeld’s comments joined a chorus of criticism from French business leaders to David Cameron on the left-winger’s fiscal policies.

Earlier this week, Laurence Parisot, head of employers’ group MEDEF, warned France was sliding into a grave economic crisis and risked a full-blown “hurricane” as investors flee rocketing tax rates. (via Telegraph)

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Filed under: France Fashion Fiscal Policies Karl Lagerfeld François Hollande Francois Hollande Taxes Marie Claire Fiscal Policy David Cameron Laurence Parisot MEDEF 
April 21, 2012

Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande make last appeals before France’s presidential election

Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, the two leading contenders in the race for the French presidency, make their final appeals to voters ahead of the polls on Sunday. Hollande, tipped in opinion polls to win the two-round election by a comfortable margin, urges his supporters to turn out en masse to vote in the first election round (via guardian.co.uk)

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Filed under: France Politics Election Elections Nicolas Sarkozy Francois Hollande François Hollande Video 
February 3, 2012
Paris, France A woman throws flour on François Hollande, the Socialist party candidate for the 2012 presidential elections (via guardian.co.uk)

Paris, France

A woman throws flour on François Hollande, the Socialist party candidate for the 2012 presidential elections (via guardian.co.uk)

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Filed under: France Paris François Hollande Flour-Bombing Flour Bomb Photography 
January 9, 2012
France: Nicolas Sarkozy closes gap on rival Francois Hollande Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has closed the gap in voting intentions on his opposition Socialist rival Francois Hollande, just four months before they face off in an election, according to the first poll of the year. The poll by the Ifop institute for the Journal du Dimanche newspaper forecast Mr Hollande would beat Mr Sarkozy 54 to 46 per cent in a head-to-head run-off - the closest margin between the two favourites in many months and two points closer than in the last Ifop poll in December. Mr Sarkozy’s supporters have begun privately boasting that the momentum in the race now favours the president, who has been slowly building support while his once dominant rival’s campaign got off to a lacklustre start. The president is not expected to officially declare his intention to run for a second five-year term until March, but no one doubts he will and his weekly agenda has long resembled a campaign programme. Mr Hollande, a former Socialist leader who has never held ministerial office, enjoyed strong public support during his party’s primary season last year, but has made a slow start to the campaign proper. (via Telegraph)

France: Nicolas Sarkozy closes gap on rival Francois Hollande

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has closed the gap in voting intentions on his opposition Socialist rival Francois Hollande, just four months before they face off in an election, according to the first poll of the year.

The poll by the Ifop institute for the Journal du Dimanche newspaper forecast Mr Hollande would beat Mr Sarkozy 54 to 46 per cent in a head-to-head run-off - the closest margin between the two favourites in many months and two points closer than in the last Ifop poll in December.

Mr Sarkozy’s supporters have begun privately boasting that the momentum in the race now favours the president, who has been slowly building support while his once dominant rival’s campaign got off to a lacklustre start.

The president is not expected to officially declare his intention to run for a second five-year term until March, but no one doubts he will and his weekly agenda has long resembled a campaign programme.

Mr Hollande, a former Socialist leader who has never held ministerial office, enjoyed strong public support during his party’s primary season last year, but has made a slow start to the campaign proper. (via Telegraph)

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Filed under: France Politics Elections Polls Nicolas Sarkozy François Hollande Presidential Election 
September 12, 2011
Breaking: Accident at nuclear site in France

newsweek-paris-france:

This quick follow-up from Tracy McNicoll of Newsweek & The Daily Beast in Paris:

One dead, no leak, no evacuations, etc., is the confirmed update on the nuclear story — it was in an oven in a low-radiation storage facility, not a reactor. Am not sensing this will get huge frankly, unless the “no leak” bit were to get revised, but there are three or four different authorities confirming it (there was coverage on 24hr newschannels when the news broke, but it is already only rating short briefs in the news loops) — not seeming like a bigger deal for the nuclear industry than past issues, especially what the pall of Fukushima had seemed to be.

What it will likely do is feed the debate on the left as nuclear energy is one issue for the primaries where there are shades of difference between Martine Aubry and François Hollande. Aubry, who happens to be campaigning about energy policy today down south, had repeated this morning that France should prepare to pull out of nuclear energy, although she mentioned that Germany’s calendar for a pullout is 2025, when France has a lot more to pull out of so the calendar wouldn’t be the same (i.e., it would be much longer). Hollande, meanwhile, wants France to maintain 50% of electricity from nuclear in 2025. (Shades of difference, I say, because those don’t seem very contradictory to me).

shortformblog:

An explosion has occurred at a nuclear site in southern France, according to the country’s nuclear safety watchdog.

The facility at Marcoule is a nuclear waste management site that does not include any reactors. The explosion took place near a furnace, an spokesperson for ASN, the watchdog, told Reuters.

Officials in the Gard region confirmed Monday’s explosion but also said they could not give any more information.

The Marcoule site is located in Langedoc Roussillon, in southern France, near the Mediterranean coast.

AP is reporting one dead, but no leaks. Apparently, it was an oven that exploded, not a reactor or anything crazy like that.

(Source: newsflick)

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Filed under: Breaking France Marcoule nuclear plant News Nuclear france nuclear nuclear explosion François Hollande Martine Aubry 
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