And the galley sails on for Macron, French impotence in the face of knife attacks, Musk like son like father... Denis Carreaux's Wandering Week

THE GALLEY IS SAILING In Nice, Emmanuel Macron is sparing no effort to secure commitments to protect the oceans. While the cause is noble and the images flattering, some observers are mischievously pointing out that the head of state is clouding the issue to make people forget that exactly one year ago today, he announced the dissolution of the National Assembly. It must be said that since this unexpected decision, everything has gone to hell in a France in suspense. How can we last another two years under these conditions? Emmanuel Macron himself is unaware . Keen to leave his mark on history, he is multiplying sequences that allow him to assert his leadership, as with the Ukrainian dossier or the oceans. For the rest, the galley is sailing...

Tuesday

POWERLESSNESS - François Bayrou, April 25, 2025: "Our duty is to ensure that this type of tragedy and this type of weapon can no longer be accepted." - François Bayrou, June 10, 2025: "We must spread the idea in the minds of students and their parents that knives are forbidden because they are dangerous." - François Bayrou, April 25, 2025: "Installing gates at the entrance to schools is one option." - François Bayrou, June 10, 2025: " I am in favor of experimenting with gates." In a week or three months, at the next knife attack in a high school or college, we will be bombarded with the same statements, the same promises. In a week or three months, we will be arguing over whether the tragedy that has just occurred is a news story or a social phenomenon. In a week or three months, the sale of knives to minors will be prohibited , but kitchen drawers will still be accessible to them. In a week or three months, we will have prevented nothing, prohibited and powerless in the face of the rise of this endemic violence.

Wednesday

LIKE SON, LIKE FATHER What a golden family! The whole world knows Elon, Donald Trump's insatiable creator and (ex-)evil genius. It could soon discover his father Errol. This 79-year-old engineer with skin weathered by the South African sun is following in his footsteps. Received like a head of state in Moscow for two days, the father of the richest man in the world made a series of shocking statements. Putin? "An impressive personality," a "man of order, stable and pleasant." Russia? A country where "children don't spend their time dancing on TikTok." Moscow? " A surprisingly modern capital," far from the " moral confusion of the West." If Vladimir Putin needs a right-hand man, the old man is available. Like son, like father.

THURSDAY

SEAT 11A If you have booked a plane ticket, choose this seat. 11A: This is the seat of the sole survivor of the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crash . Seated at the front left of the plane, near a door, Ramesh Vishwaskumar Bucharvada, a 38-year-old British man, suffered injuries to his feet, eyes, and chest. " I have no idea how I got out of that plane," he explained before being taken to the hospital. " I was scared. I got up and ran. There were pieces of the plane all around me," said the survivor, who will have to live for the rest of his days with the memory of the crash, but above all the guilt of being the sole survivor of a tragedy that cost the lives of everyone who was with him. This wound will never heal for the passenger of 11A.

Friday

LESS EQUALS MORE Reducing the number of civil servants , what a new idea! It's the government's, necessarily doomed to failure. During Emmanuel Macron's first five-year term, which promised to eliminate 120,000 jobs, 177,000 were created. Jacques Chirac did much better: 715,000 additional civil servants between 1997 and 2007. In twenty-five years, this inflation in the ranks of the civil service has even exceeded one million! Good news for the quality of public services? It seems not. According to a recent survey (1), 61% of French people consider it insufficient. Go figure...

1. OpinionWay & Jean-Jaurès Foundation, January 2025.

SATURDAY

DO AS I SAY... Turning your back on flying isn't so easy. Like Greta Thunberg, who was forcibly sent on a flight to France after her waterborne spree aboard the Gaza flotilla, many young people struggle to reconcile their beliefs with their way of traveling. While 76% of 18-34 year-olds say they are ready to take action for the planet by changing their mode of transport (1), they are increasingly taking the plane. They now represent 46% of French passengers, a figure up 9% since 2016. Do as I say, not as I do.

2. Ifop and Sia firm for the National Aviation Federation.