In one of my posts yesterday, I went over how the French and German governments’ heavy-handed treatment – in some cases, outright persecution – of ‘right-wing’ parties and their members was backfiring on the establishment pretty spectacularly.
It has to be maddening to the Brahmins of Brussels and their aristocratic underlings parked in presidencies and chancellorships around European capitals to watch the hoi polloi numbers rise, undaunted, by their ever more desperate, ever less effective efforts at suppression.
…Back in 2018, Merz pledged he would cut support for the AfD in half and drive his party back to 40% supporter or higher. He has achieved very nearly the opposite, plunging his future government to the depths of unpopularity before it is even formed and ceding first place to precisely the people he promised to cut down to size. It is a farce beyond anything I could’ve imagined.
There is no plan or strategy here; Merz has no idea what he is even doing. He and CDU/CSU leadership did have a brief flash of insight back in January, when they reached across the firewall to vote with the AfD on legislation to restrict migration. Back then at least, they knew they had to show the left parties they had other options, or they would be destroyed in coalition negotiations with any potential “democratic” partner. Leftist activists took to the streets and Merz rapidly retreated, returning to his standard denunciations of the AfD and pledging never to vote with them again. In return for a measure of mercy from Antifa, Merz voluntarily led his party into a trap, ceding all possible leverage over a radicalised SPD, who will force the Union parties to swallow one poison pill after the other. It is a win-win for them. They get what they want and they get to grind the CDU and the CSU to dust at the same time.
The Germans are grinding themselves ‘to dust’ and the French are not far behind.
As Marine Le Pen marshals supporters and resources to fight her conviction and political banishment, the French government has swung into action yet again against the remaining news outlets that broadcast reports on the trial and its outcome. Well, those who did so in terms unpalatable to the Macron (read: European Union) regime.
There are ‘honesty’ and ‘pluralism’ #rulez, you know, set by their ever-so-honest government that must be followed in these European democracies.
Or they’ll shut down your signal after they bankrupt you.
All it takes is a few anonymous phone calls from disgruntled snitches who didn’t care for what actually might have been balanced coverage, or, God forbid, an honest opinion.
Next thing you know, the government comes knocking.
French Conservative news channels CNews and Europe 1 are under investigation for their critical coverage of Marine Le Pen’s conviction.
France’s national regulator for audio-visual and digital communication, Arcom, will assess whether either channel met obligations “in terms of pluralism and honesty” while covering the trial and conviction of France’s presidential frontrunner.
A government checking for ‘pluralism and honesty’ which they are the predeterminers of is pretty rich and very European.
When the perception is that the government is in the wrong, this exercise becomes rather dicey. Considering one of the statements that the stations are under scrutiny for, you can see where the problem lies.
One conservative channel – C8 – is already off-air. It had a license for a popular program yanked over a verbiage tiff, and last month, French governing entity ARCOM refused to renew the channel’s license entirely.
So what is being ‘investigated’ now – which in the U.S. would be pretty innocuous political commentary – has warning bells ringing. A CNews channel host, whose opinion is now the focus, opined by tying their sister channel C8’s removal to the recent Le Pen banishment as a sign that all was not well with freedoms in France.
…In February, C8, a different TV channel from the same group as CNews, had its highly popular show Touche pas a mon poste pulled from the airwaves by the French Council of State after Arcom refused to renew its licence over a perceived lack of political pluralism.
In his introductory speech, the popular CNews host Pascal Praud said on April 1: “Nine people had decided to ban C8. This time, three judges stopped Ms Le Pen.
“It is possible that we have lost the manual for democracy in France.”
Pretty tame by American standards, but HOLY CRAP by French. The government’s reaction indicates that this is an unacceptable sentiment and unsuitable for public expression.
How dare someone criticize the sainted ‘judiciary,’ non?
…If Arcom found that CNews and/or Europe 1 exceeded the limits set by article 434-25 of the penal code, and “sought to discredit … in conditions likely to undermine the authority of the judiciary or its independence”, then they may have committed an offence punishable by six months imprisonment and a fine of €7,500.
The other problem with this obvious witchhunt is that CNews is damn near the last hold-out as far as presenting news untethered from government narratives and, infuriatingly for the government, also the most popular network in the country.
(Does this bring back memories of parallels to anything here?)
When the Le Pen verdict broke, France tuned in to CNews. The snitches started dialing the feds because they did not care for what they were hearing.
On Monday, Marine Le Pen was convicted by the Paris Criminal Court of misusing European Parliament funds – a four-year sentence, with two years suspended and two years with an ankle tag, a €100,000 fine (around £85,000) – and a five-year ban from holding public office which came immediately into effect. Within 48 hours, Arcom, France’s broadcasting regulator, confirmed it had received multiple formal complaints about CNews.
CNews’s coverage of the verdict on Monday night may have hit the highest viewership metrics since it started in 2017, outperforming all competitors. The verdict dominated the evening’s programming, with extended analysis, panel discussion, and repeated framing of the court’s decision as a politically charged attack on France’s leading opposition figure.
CNews is not a fringe outlet. It is now the most-watched national news channel in France, regularly beating legacy broadcasters like BFMTV and France Info in prime time. Its influence is considerable – particularly among the electorate that forms the backbone of Le Pen’s support.
Under French media law, television channels aren’t free to take sides. French Digital Terrestrial Television broadcasters like CNews must adhere to strict legal mandates of ‘pluralism’ and ‘honesty’, leaving little room for editorial lines that deviate sharply from the state’s view of what is balanced. Breach that line, and the state can and will take you off the air.
The state has the power to regulate CNews right off the airwaves, much as Barack Obama wished he had when he began his administration’s surreptitious attacks on Fox News and its reporters, and the Biden administration wanted to legislate with their dystopian ‘disinformation’ bureau, surveillance programs, and tentacles controlling social media policing.
We came whisker close, but thank GOD we have those protections enshrined to fight off the oppression when it’s exposed.
The French have no such thing. The French people are now teetering on the edge of watching their last alternative for non-state-sponsored pablum be snuffed out.
…The situation bears comparison with the UK, where Ofcom has repeatedly scrutinised GB News for alleged breaches of impartiality rules. But the British system still stops short of what we’re seeing in France: Ofcom still just fines, Arcom shuts down.
With C8 gone and CNews now under formal investigation over how it covered what is the biggest political story of the year, the attack on freedom of expression in France is escalating. The state is no longer content to regulate tone – it is now policing entire editorial lines. Channels that stray from approved narratives risk sanctions, silence, or closure. This is not media oversight, it’s media control.
CNews, owned by billionaire and devout Catholic Vincent Bolloré (who was once fined €100,000 for stating during a Catholic program that abortion was the world’s leading cause of death) versus what the approved French government ‘legacy’ channels pump out.
The problem is the 10 million French boomers who decide elections watch this slop all day. They don’t use the internet. They could tell them Musk is a four-headed lizard who eats children and they’d believe it. This is Macron’s secret btw
— Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (@pegobry_en) January 7, 2025
Pretty easy to see what the problem with the independent channel is.
What lengths the European establishment won’t go to whilst ‘saving democracy’ and their own schweet gigs, huh?
