Drownout France

The Politics of Prancing

Raffarin and co.

For those of you stuck with the shabby New York Times, here are the headlines on my Parisian radio at this moment:

France:
1. (Raffarin is the PM and Chirac is the President, conservative government in place)
2. They have already passed a 5% tax cut
3. They announce now a move to "soften" the 35-hour workweek (NB: in the UK, where there is a 48-hour cap, the "exception" has become the rule)
4. Minimum wage ("smic") is to be reformed (I can't figure out if this means raising it or lowering it)
5. The "rentrée" is underway -- back to school and back to work (after 6 weeks or so of vacation, countrywide)

Spain:
1. They have banned a political party associated with Basque terrorism

Germany:
1. Schroder is coming back in the fight of his life against the grave conservative (think Dick Cheney not the hystrionic Trent Lott) competitor Stoiber, due to floods
2. The TV debate was a tie

UN/Johannesburg:
1. Being covered closely

US:
1. Bush plans to attack Irak no matter what (according to Cheney)

Posted by amol at August 27, 2002 12:14 PM