The European decline of France
It's a Breton affair unless it's a Macron affair.
Yesterday morning, says Karl de Meyer, a journalist from Les Echos in the Brussels office. The news of the resignation/dismissal of Thierry Breton surprised absolutely everyone in European circles.
Certainly the disagreement with Ursula van der Leyen was public knowledge. But Thierry Breton had been renewed for a second term in July by Emmanuel Macron who had praised his record.
“We therefore expected – he continues – that he would obtain in the new commission a broad portfolio aligned with the priorities of the presidential speech of Sorbonne 2.”
The surprise is therefore total.
What happened?
It is Henri Vernet, an expert on the diplomatic machine, who tells us the behind the scenes in Le Parisien Aujourd'hui en France: “Everything was decided in the last few days,” he explains. “While Ursula Van der Leyen was finalizing the scope of the French portfolio with Macron's teams. She then apparently laid down her cards without hesitation: “either an average portfolio with Breton, or a very large portfolio with someone else”…
Small country
And that's where the affair becomes a Macron affair… “Under pressure from Brussels, Macron drops Breton” This is how Le Figaro sums up the affair in a headline. And the reasons for this abandonment are not very flattering: “We are not going to make a trial of intent against Stéphane Séjourné – writes Philippe Gélie – in the editorial on the front page of the newspaper but his parachuting into Brussels gives the unfortunate impression that the president in distress is trying to relocate his close relations”. “It is fair to say – he continues – that the episode tarnishes the prestige of France, now treated in Brussels like a small country”.
In his editorial, the boss of Les Echos also fired live ammunition:
“The combination of Ursula van der Leyen's Diktat and Emmanuel Macron's Weakness, writes Christophe Jakubyszyn, risks moving us even further away from the European ideal”…
“The Breton Clash weakens France” confirms the opinion in the headline.
“The image of the European Commission was already one of the worst on the Continent in our country – recalls Jade Grandin de l'Eprevier – and this is likely to get worse with this latest snub…
That's enough!
Another Europe, that of football.
Because, and this is a major event, the Super Champions League begins today. A completely remodeled European Cup.
“A monster” as the Team calls him, of 546 matches per season…
And we can clearly feel the daily sporting experience divided between the anticipated pleasure of all these enticing matches, and the simple common sense expressed in its columns by some of the big names in football.
“The calendar is becoming too busy” comments Carlo Ancelotti… “Enough is enough” exclaims German football legend Uli Hoeness.
We really play too much, all for money, sums up Arigo Sacchi, former coach of Milan and Italy.
Because this is at least one certainty. This new formula will bring in a lot, a lot of money.
The Bee and the Baby
Do insects now have more consciousness than European football officials? I'm extrapolating a bit, but it's a very interesting article to read in La Croix, which poses an abysmal question: “Are insects endowed with consciousness?”
Since Aristotle, the question has been plaguing Philosophers and Ethologists, but research is progressing, explains Juliette Paquier.
More than 200 scientists signed a text a few months ago calling for recognition of the possible existence of consciousness in insects.
According to neuroscience researcher Aurore Avarguès-Weber, “bees have the same cognitive capacity as a 3-year-old child”… Something to think about when you watch your little ones devour their bowl of chocapic for a snack.
“Moustachioed and scarred mugs”
But we're not going to end with these dear blond heads. But with hot heads this morning. Burned and tattooed!
A wonderful story told to us by Le Figaro.
The scientific police have discovered by chance a real photographic treasure. It consists of 23,000 photos of convicts from the beginning of the 20th century who uncover their tattoos for the camera.
“Bare-chested, scarred mugs more eloquent than any criminal record – writes Christophe Cornevin -. These convicts returned from the penal colony sport an avalanche of tattoos that allow us to trace trajectories written in a cloud of powder, pain and the spilled blood of innocents…
You will discover all this. And even many other things when sometimes the Apache of the suburbs becomes a Philosopher, and he gets this formidable maxim tattooed on his chest:
“The past has deceived me, the present torments me, the future frightens me.”
