FRANCE: Sarkozy hails ‘unity’ of new government team
A crowd of journalists and photographers gathered on Wednesday morning in the gardens of the Elysee presidential palace. Indoors, the new government cabinet led by Francois Fillon, the third cabinet under the French prime minister, met for its first official meeting and later posed for the traditional family portrait.
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Jean-Louis Borloo, ‘Magnificent Cocu’
I always tested much sympathy for the good broth Jean-Louis Borloo compelling spectacled but after his “missed Matignon”, I am even more for his own person. The loser manipulated and rolled in flour always arouses sympathy, a fortiori when the author of the package is a master in this field.
In this presidential charade decoy that the right of the UMP cronies and finely attended François Fillon, Jean-Louis Borloo is somewhat the magnificent Cocu holding both the Crommelynck hero and a character that could create Choderlos de Laclos in its dangerous liaisons, exhibit comes to play at the Elysee Montmartre guignolesque stuffing and perverse comedy.
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English as a Second Language
The majority of English speakers coming to France are a little nervous about speaking French as a second language and one finds a similar reaction amongst French students who are learning to speak English. But some 18 to 25 years old French students are paying up to $6,000 annually to master a second language they all studied for six years in high school before earning their Baccalauréat degrees and entering the job market.
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High Speed Living in France
The very first TGV (Train à grande vitesse) departed on its journey between Paris and Lyon in 1981, since when, living in France has sped ahead of the rest of Europe in the race to build a fully functioning high speed rail network.
Currently having almost 1,250 miles of specially built lines linking many of its major cities in service, France is looking for new ways to extend its lead.
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Civil Partnerships
Foreign civil partners living in France will have their relationships officially recognised for the first time, thanks to a measure passed by the French National Assembly yesterday (29 April).
The move means that British ex-pats who have had civil partnerships in Britain will now have their union recognised in France as PACS, which is a form of civil union in France. While similar to a British civil partnership, PACS can be entered into by both same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
Photo: kimberlyfaye
French president Nicolas Sarkozy now has 15 days to “promulgate” the measure into law, after the National Assembly endorsed the Senate’s position, which passed it last month.
Currently, same-sex couples who live in France but have legal partnerships or marriages registered in other countries are not legally recognised as a couple.
This means that an ex-pat who has entered into a civil partnership in Britain is subject to a higher rate of inheritance tax if their partner died, than somebody with PACS – especially if property was owned.
The measure has been welcomed by both the European Union and the European Parliament, who had been putting pressure on the French Government to recognise the legal status of same-sex couples that had registered their partnerships in another country.
“We have been calling for this for some time,” said the president of the European Parliament’s all-party Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights.
“I am looking forward to similar moves in other countries and eventually hope that same sex partnerships will be recognised throughout all 27 Member States of the EU.”
The non-recognition of foreign same-sex couples in France has been particularly frustrating, as PACS are recognised by EU countries that have same-sex partnerships laws.
France’s New Minister for Overseas Territories
Nicolas Sarkozy, the height-challenged president of France, has chosen yet another glamour girl to join his cabinet (or should that be “harem”). The former television presenter, Christine Kelly, who also happens to look great in a bikini, has been made Minister for Overseas Territories.
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