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Mayotte is not easy to find on the map.

By S.G. Kazolias. They are Black. They are African. They are serious practicing Muslims. They are French citizens. And they vote for extreme right wing anti-immigrant candidates. The “natives” of the French Indian Ocean “Department” of Mayotte launched a general strike February 22, barricading roads, occupying public facilities and shutting down the island. Basically, they want more generous French subsidies to Mayotte, more police, more infrastructure development and an end to lawlessness which they blame on massive illegal immigration.

The Maore demand the French President, or the Prime Minister, come to talk to them or they will take law into their own hands and, yes, get violent.

by S.G. Kazolias:  President Emmanuel Macron campaigned to put an end to what he called “Social Dumping” —- the practice of temporarily hiring workers from poorer EU countries at the minimum wage and paying their much lower social security in their home country.  On March 1, EU delegates in Brussels agreed to revise the 1996 accord allowing this. But getting all EU countries to agree may be harder.

When the then 12 EU members approved the 1996 ‘Posted Workers’ directive, labor costs between the different countries was one to three. As the EU enlarged to 28 with the former Soviet Block countries, that differential became one to ten and employers took advantage of it. Skilled labor was brought in from countries like Bulgaria, Romania and Poland at a fraction of the cost.

imagesBy S.G Kazolias. President Emmanuel Macron’s reform strategy remains the same: call in the unions, associations and organizations of those concerned by labor reforms for “consultations.” The government says what it wants, the others tell the government what they won’t accept and the government goes ahead with its original plan through a process that by-passes parliamentary debate.

th-3By S.G. Kazolias. A young, mixed-race French girl from the city of Orléans is being burned at the stake because a local association chose her to represent Joan of Arc at this year’s Fête de Jeanne d’Arc. The 17-year-old  Mathilde Edey Gamassou, whose father is from the African country of Benin, was selected out of 250 candidates for the celebration of the 1429 victory that freed Orléans from the English and the ethnic French, anti-immigrant movement hit the ceiling.

78591470-media-censorship-and-right-of-freedom-of-speech-concept-boot-with-text-censorship-and-pile-of-newspaSocial-media platforms are increasingly under attack for the content they carry and face heavy fines in some European countries. What is under question here is the legal responsibility of a platform for the content users post as well as how much freedom is to be given to speech. It is like a return to the XVth and XVIth century when the Church tried to control philosophy and science.

Migrants continue to make their way to Europe and Europeans are showing their discontent more and more at the ballot boxes. Yet, many in Europe still argue more are welcome. The European experiment of integrating those from other cultures is a failure and more will make matters worse.

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French President Emmanuel Macron, who is pushing through this month with labor reforms, has not waited for the street to react before attacking another elephant in the closet: the national train company, SNCF.

In the cross-hairs are France’s “special regimes”— certain public sectors where employees have benefits which go far beyond what normal public and private employees enjoy. The first to go, as soon as July 1, 2018, according to the daily Le Monde, will be the SNCF’s generous retirement program which is held responsible in great part for the monopoly’s 44 billion euro debt.

 

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President Emmanuel Macron

Emmanuel Macron’s popularity has fallen a record 24 points in two months. Only 40% of those polled say they are satisfied with the country’s youngest ever president, according to an Ifop poll published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche. Fifty-seven percent said they are dissatisfied with the job he is doing.

18620302_277377416061060_6440147415128807770_nParis: Nearly 300 thousand people in France have signed a petition over the past two weeks against the idea of creating the position of ‘First Lady’ for Brigitte Macron.