Three reasons we don't need to be scared of Marine Le Pen

The win of "Le Front National" in the first turn of the Regional Elections in France few days ago has started a wide debate in Europe.

Marin Le Pen, who lead the party since 2011, has very clear ideas on important topics: end of Euro, stop immigration, protectionism, no same-sex marriage, just to mention the main ones.

Will she be able to win the Presidential Elections in 2017? And if she was President, what could it happen to Europe?

I think we shouldn't be scared of Marine Le Pen for three main reasons.

First, even if the Front National is an important political force, it represents still a minority in France. PS and Republicans still hold the majority of the electorate.

Second, in two years everything can happen. The mood of the electorate can change suddenly, and moreover, the voting logics are very different from the local to the national level.

Third and the most important, European Union needs a political shock. It wasn't enough Syriza and the ghost of Grexit, not enough what it is happening in Syria. Maybe the political and economical establishment need to imagine a France led by Marine Le Pen in order to start thinking a new idea of Europe. 

Never too late.

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Paris attacks: how media and politics generate fear and hate

After the terroristic attacks in Paris, the fist feelings of everybody have been fear and shock.

It is impressive to see a bar where died bodies lie near the tables of the terrace. It is so easy to imagine yourself there. It is automatic to think that it could happen in the bar behind the corner of your street, where maybe you are used to drink a cappuccino on Sunday morning.

The feelings of these days couldn't be different. It was the same after 9/11 and after the attacks in Madrid and London. People died in those attacks have their story and their face, so close to our story and to our face.

What is intolerable is the reactions we have seen from media and from politics in the last week.

From one side, media pointed out the aggression to France without considering almost at all what happened few days before in Beirut (40 people died and more than 200 injured). They didn't put the same rhetoric when the attack at the Russian airplane caused 224 dead persons.

From politics, rhetoric is combined with a blind decisionism. From one hand we have heard embarrassing comments about immigrants and refugees. From the other, we have assisted to worthless reactions, like many raid in Syria that for sure have caused many other dead.

Media and politics put always our society at the centre of the World. They don't try to understand, they just want to emphasize the situations in order to have more readers or followers and more electors.

The only products is fear. And fear generates hate. Will it be a war between hates?

We can just hope that this massacre in Paris will open our eyes on the reality. Even if fear seems leading us towards the opposite direction.

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Immigration: the face of an Europe we don't want!

What it is happening in Italy and in Europe in these days is a shame.

3279 immigrants died in 2014 in the Mediterranean Sea, and this year there are already 1754 victims. The 18th of April one only incident in the Sicilian Channel caused more than 700 victims. 

And what is Europe doing?

Immigrants at the Milan Station (2015)

The Governments are talking about rules, law and national competencies. In the meantime, today in some train stations in Italy (like in Milan and Rome), there are hundreds of immigrants that want to reach their families in the north of Europe but Schengen has been temporary suspended and they actually live in the stations.

Egoism seems the predominant feeling in these days all around Europe, when the topic is the immigration, as well as the Greek crisis or the social policies for the people with less opportunities.

In a very interesting article published on the Italian newspaper La Stampa, it was reported that 170 thousand immigrants "destibilized" Europe last year, but Turkey had to face to an immigration from Syria and Iraq of more than 2 million of people and Lebanon - a country of 4 million of inhabitants - hosts 2 millions of refugees.

Europe is the biggest economy in the world. Even in this difficult period, we should not forget that solidarity is one of the most important value of our common roots.

Should we leave people sleeping and living under the bridges or in the stations? Is this the Europe we want? Is this the spirit we want to pass on the new generations?

I don't.

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Laurent Stefanini is definitely a case of discrimination

Laurent Stefanini is a high - level French officer. Practicing Catholic, he has been the First Counselor of the French Embassy at the Vatican from 2001 till 2005, when he has been nominated Counselor for the Religious Affairs at the Foreign Office and then Head of the Protocol at the Elysee.

Few months ago, Stefanini got the prestigious position of Ambassador at the Vatican. But he is still waiting for the accreditation in order to start officially his office.

The problem? Stefanini is homosexual.

Even if Stefanini got the "approval" of the Cardinal of Paris, few days ago the Pope met him in a private audience in which, it seems, Bergoglio declared the impossibility to give him the accreditation.

A State has the right to give or not the accreditation to an ambassador without any motivation, according to the diplomatic right.

The problem is that the Vatican rules are very rigid and overall anachronistic. France and the Catholic Church have seen contrast in the last year, especially for the law approved in 2013 that allows the same-sex marriage.  Anyway, homosexuality touches the private sphere of a person, but we are talking about a public role and a person who has already covered a preeminent position in the same Embassy for many years.

Nevertheless, this case seems a drop in the ocean. It is estimated that around the 20% of the World Population is attracted to their own gender. At the same time, in 78 countries homosexuality is illegal.

Discrimination and intolerance must be condemn without exceptions. Repeating it seems never enough. 

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Is France coming back to Monsieur Sarkozy?

The 22nd of March it took place an important Administrative Election in France.

The winner? Monsieur Sarkozy. The former President of the Republic, back to the active politics, brought his party. the UMP, to the 29% of votes, winning the elections. The Front National got the second place (25% of votes), whilst the PS got the 22%.

Is France going back to Sarkozy?

It is too early to say that. But few considerations must be done.

First, Sarkozy success in this election can be seen as the result of the weakness of the left, lead by Hollande, who has seemed completely unable to give a strong direction to France in this complex economic situation. Even if French choose him just three years ago for the Elysee. 

Moreover, even if Marine Le Pen can get a lot of votes, it is improbable that the Front National can really win the elections. And to avoid to vote for FN, maybe some French have decided to give their support to the UMP.

Anyway, the election in France are always an important litmus test for Europe. Is Eu able to give an answer to the social and economic problems that many of French, Italians, Spanish (and so on) feel? 

Apparently it seems that Brussels is just waiting, stuck within its contradictions. In the meantime, anti-European, xenophobic and racist forces are growing in every Country.     

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Is it really useful studying French?

It has been recently published on the New York Times the news that French Government wants to strengthen the French language programs in the United States. It seems that this purpose has regenerated a debate in US about the importance of studying French at school as first foreign language.

This is an interesting topic also in Europe. If someone suggests stopping pretending that French is an important language, because it is not an international language anymore, some others pointed out that it is still useful, because used by millions of people around the world.

What is the truth? Is this language really important?

To answer, we have to consider two elements: the number of people who effectively speaks French and the economic and political power of the Countries where they live.

On the basis of a research of KryssTal, French is spoken by 200 millions of people and it is the 9^th most spoken language in the World. Following the top 10 list:

Mandarin (1.1 billion)

English (1 billion)

Spanish (500 million)

Hindi (490 million)

Russian (277 million)

Arabic (452 million)

Portuguese (240 million)

Bengali (215 million)

French (200 million)

Malay-Indonesian (175 million)

Actually the Government of Paris estimates that around 300 million of people speak French. 

The second element to consider is that, as the result of the second largest colonial Empire of history, French is spoken outside France in Belgium, Canada, in many states of North and Central Africa and in some part of Indochina. It is also an official language in Switzerland and in the Italian region of Valle d’Aosta, and in many international organizations such as United Nations, NATO, FIFA, FIA, International Red Cross and WTO.

From the economic point of view, French is the third most spoken language in Europe, the richest area in the world. Many of the francophone Countries mentioned above are political and economical powerful.

Finally, in a world “economics oriented”, French is a good choice. It is spoken across all the five Continents and represents an access key for important and rich markets. Moreover, the worth of French is consolidated by the political, economical and also cultural influence of France, the fifth world economic power. But it is also true that other languages, such as Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian or Hindi, are becoming more and more important, and could represent a better alternative to French in the future.

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