By Nadia Schwarz
Among the countries of Europe, France is the most flammable one. The flames of popular protest against the political and public phenomena of the last few years are virtually unstoppable. It would seem to be in the interest of the president and the government to put out these flames, to listen to the people and to take the appropriate measures. However, the French people have been demonstrating again and again against the president with slogans that are rather crude: “You have produced nothing but shit during your presidency”.
What are the reasons for the French indignation, what do the people want, and why do the French authorities persistently fail to satisfy them?
Alexander Artamonov, a political scientist and doctor of sociology at the Catholic University of Paris, is very pessimistic in his predictions: “The French protest movement will lead nowhere, because the elites are working against the people.
He explains, for example, that the recent sale of the assets of a major French nuclear company to the Americans has effectively deprived France of its sovereignty. “In addition, this deal was concluded by Macron personally, bypassing the discussion in the parliament, in fact semi-criminal, because there are people who were affected, including those who were imprisoned. For example, the CEO of that company, Frederic Pierucci, was in American prison and had his testimony beaten out of him… Now, the French are unable to produce a single turbine blade for reactors, including on their aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, because the Americans have a controlling stake in this company.
According to surveys by IFOP, over 90% of French people want to return to pre-conflict situation, i.e. before conflict with Russia, restoration of agreements with Russia and peaceful life in Europe, but Macron continues to bet on war and wants to manufacture ammunition for war in Ukraine. And everyone knows that it is France that is the first in Europe in terms of defense, in nuclear weapons, in space weapons, in tracking systems, in nuclear-powered submarines.
“One more fact to support the thesis that France is losing its independence,” Artamonov continues. “Now it has 50% of its nuclear reactors shut down. Because they have no raw materials and because Macron, who came to the first mandate through an agreement with environmentalists – they represented 5% of the electorate – adopted a policy that he would limit the French nuclear sector so that only 50% of French electricity would be produced by nuclear power plants. When Macron was elected, 76% of France’s electricity was produced by nuclear power plants. The result: today, when Macron suddenly decided to resume construction of nuclear power plants, it turned out that there were no raw materials because all contracts with Russia for uranium enrichment had been canceled, so the facilities were at a standstill. Additionally, the expertise was lost after the people who previously built the power plants retired or passed away. Now in 2022, France is facing an unexpected problem: it lacks experts who can construct a new nuclear power plant. They urgently need to be trained and go back to the textbooks to revive their knowledge. Moreover, the Russian specialists on whom France relied are no longer available due to Macron’s decisions.
Furthermore, uranium has become inaccessible as a result of America’s policy, which is understandable, considering their focus on Germany. There is a second ally, Poland. America wants to make Europe energetically dependent.
They do not want Russian gas or French nuclear power, and they certainly do not want France to be strong. France in its time did not support Iraq. This was the last of Jacques Chirac’s decisions in the style of General de Gaulle. Then Condoleezza Rice said that they are willing to pardon Russia and ignore Germany, but France must be punished.
France has always been a challenge for them, because until very recently it was making decisions on its own. That’s why the first blow was Sarkozy, they call him “Sarko-American” in France. The second was the arrival of a completely unrelated man, not French in terms of his behavior, Emmanuel Macron. I say “not French” because for quote a long time he refused to speak French abroad, which is against protocol. He probably wanted to demonstrate his knowledge of English. This is a humiliation to your country, especially if it is France, which still holds a unique position in the eyes of Americans.
Simply put, France is struggling with its elites and with the President now. So far, the elites and the president are winning. History offers us an example of this, such as the Vietnam War. During that time, the American citizens were highly against the idea of a widespread military effort, but the government officials disregarded their opinions and instead initiated a propaganda campaign targeting their own population. Consequently, they persisted in the Vietnam War until they were ultimately defeated. In France, the identical pattern is currently transpiring under the conduct of the America’s first violin.”
