Category Archives: France

Coronavirus diary day 9 – Will key workers keep their jobs when it’s over?

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What about the shopworkers? Our neighbour, Marianne, chatted with a checkout operator at the supermarket yesterday. Despite her mask and gloves, the woman was in a state of some anxiety. She said she hoped customers would use the newly installed automatic tills to reduce risk of infection.

“I don’t use them because it’s a threat to their jobs,” Marianne commented.

Today we’ve discovered we can’t survive without these workers. Is their thanks going to be the sack because people have become used to using automatic checkouts?

And, despite all our expressions of gratitude today, are we going to just shrug and say “Oh well, you can’t fight progress”?

And the millionaires, who promised donations after the Notre Dame fire, where are they?

Have they come forward to help finance the manufacture of Covid-19 tests, masks and research into a cure? Are they turning over production to make up the shortage that means even frontline workers are not being tested?

Are governments going to force them to do so, or at least ask them nicely?

Incidentally, it seems that some never delivered on the Notre Dame fire promise.

And when it comes to footing the bill for the emergency economic packages, reconstructing our health services and repairing the damage done not only by Covid-19 but also by austerity, will the wealthy – people who have more money than they know what to do with – pay up?

We in France have some experience of a certain disruption to normal life thanks to last year’s strikes. People have already had a bit of practice in working from home. And we in the banlieue – I don’t like to translate that as “suburbs”, which may be technically correct but sounds so Desperate Housewives and you don’t get many riots there, do you?  – were partly cut off from the capital by the effect on public transport. It’s difficult enough to get Parisians to come out to the wilds at the best of times. I didn’t see some of my friends for months.

Among last year’s protesters were health-workers, already sounding the alarm that the emergency services were overloaded due to funding cuts.

France Musiques, the radio station I listen to at home, is broadcasting replays, which is very enjoyable but leads to some confusion on days, times etc. Some of the programmes have competitions to win CDs that have already been distributed or tickets to concerts that have, of course, already taken place.

I wonder how many people take part in them.

The flamboyant Professor Didier Raoult, who has been administering hydroxychloroquine (I think I’ve got the science right this time) against Covid-19 in Marseille, has quit the government’s emergency medical council in protest at what he believes is an inadequate amount of testing.

Some papers have implied that he was not very assiduous in attendance before he resigned.

It’s my understanding that the problem is upstream – there aren’t enough kits and they are not being produced fast enough, which is, indeed, a scandal.

At present 5,000 tests a day are being carried out, according to Health Minister Olivier Véran, who claims that this is more than any other European country, although that is probably not something to be hugely proud of.

Health officials say the figure will reach 29,000 a day by the end of next week but that lockdown must be allowed to flatten the famous curve before systematic mass testing can get under way.

At least pollution is down. The Paris region monitoring body has found a 20-30% drop in air pollution, compared to a normal March.

Near major roads the level is 70-90% lower than usual.

Obviously, this is due to the reduction in road traffic and air traffic.

But the amount of fine particles, which are most dangerous for our health, has not fallen because of household heating and agriculture.

The death toll in France has risen to 1,100, although that is only those recorded in hospitals. There were 240 recorded deaths yesterday. There are 22,300 recorded cases of the virus, up 2,444, 10,176 people in hospital and 2,516 in intensive care.

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Coronavirus day 8 – Queues, blues and no miracle cures

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Queueing across Champigny’s Place Lénine on Monday

‘’Have you tasted this tea?’’ my elderly Mum asked when I took her breakfast.

We’re fussy about our tea in this house but lockdown has forced us to change from the loose-leaf Darjeeling from a shop in a neighbouring town to supermarket-bought English Breakfast teabags. What a comedown!

At least it proves she’s not lost her sense of taste.

Yesterday’s trip to the supermarket – via the bottle-bank to which I made a considerable contribution – was eerie.

The streets were weirdly silent and Champigny’s main square was empty apart from a well-spaced queue outside Monoprix.

Despite being a bit more expensive than its competitors, Monoprix is the town centre’s most popular supermarket, so I had already decided to go to another one nearby. No queueing outside here but more than its usually desultory number of customers moving around a more confined space, so it wasn’t that great an idea.

The queue to get into Monoprix had gone down when I came out. They seem to be being very strict, with the security guard – who is hyperactive at the calmest of time – letting a handful of people in at a time, so I suppose I should go and stand in line on my next big shop.

The Marseille doctor, Didier Rauoult, who claimed he was successfully using an anti-malarial drug to fight the virus has turned out to be a controversial figure.

Online detractors point out that the drug’s efficacy against Covid-19 had not been independently tested or recognized by the relevant authorities. They accuse him of being an energetic self-publicist, who denied there would be a serious epidemic in January.

It also apparently has dangerous side-effects, especially for the elderly who are most at risk from Covid-19.

Still, Trump was impressed by his declarations.

France’s lockdown has not been officially extended yet, although everybody expects it to be. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced a tightening of restrictions yesterday but they weren’t exactly draconian. You can still go out for some exercise but only once a day and not for more than an hour – how will the police know how long you’ve been out? – and you must do so alone. Open-air markets are to close, although there can be exceptions for villages where they are the only source of food.

While we’re on the subject of food, the government has called on citizens who are laid off from their jobs to go and help bring in the crops. Is this wise? It may keep us fed but won’t it spread the virus? Philippe also called on supermarkets to buy French produce. Will buy local be a big lesion of this crisis?

At least we’re not India. Have you seen the pictures of the response to Modi’s call to bang pots and pans in honour of health-workers. People packed together on balconies and in the street, a guarantee that there will be many more patients for those hard-pressed and not very numerous people to try to heal as the virus zips around the crowds.

And then there’s the cow-piss drinking, advocated by Hindutva fanatics and causing one participant to make a legal complaint against a member of the fascistic RSS after he fell ill.

Manu Dibango has died of the effects of Covid-19. He was 86. Although he was originally from Cameroon he had become Champigny’s most famous resident.

Five doctors have died in France, confirming the scandal of the shortage of masks and tests, whose production should have been stepped up in January and should be augmented now by the requisition of companies capable of producing them.

Twenty people died in an old people’s home in the Vosges, possibly due to the virus.

The number of new cases in France went down the day of the lockdown but has risen again since, although unevenly, reaching a high point of 3,176 yesterday.

The recorded death toll since the start of the epidemic is now 860, with 2,082 in intensive care. There are 19,856 recorded cases, 6,211 in Ile de France (Paris and the surrounding region) and 4,526 in the north-eastern region that covers Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine.

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Coronavirus diary day 7 – force companies to make masks and tests, it’s urgent!

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Dr Jean-Jacques Razafindranazy has died as a result of Covid-19 at the age of 67. He is the first health worker in France to do so.

As the Le Pens and their admirers would say – in other circumstances – that’s not a very French family name.

Everybody knows there will be more such deaths, some of which could have been avoided if production of the right kind of masks and tests had been treated as an emergency in January, when warnings of an epidemic were already being made.

A grim story from China – in January a 17-year-old with cerebral palsy died alone when his father contracted the virus and was quarantined at a treatment facility along with his younger brother.

This is what I am most worried about with Mum – that I contract the virus and she is left alone, confused, unable to look after herself and wondering where I am.

That fear makes today’s planned trip to the supermarket – my first since lockdown started – feel a bit like going into a warzone. I woke up in the middle of the night worrying about the contagion being passed on by packaging.

The French authorities are so frustrated with people ignoring the lockdown that they have introduced a higher fine, of 1,500 euros, for being caught a second time outside without the necessary paperwork.

The lockdown is pretty much certain to be prolonged for another fortnight today.

A group of 573 health workers have written an open letter to Macron, calling on him to be “more explicit” in explaining that “staying at home is the only way to turn off the tap”.

Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure has also written to the president, calling for the requisition of all industries that can produce masks, tests, inhalers and hand cleanser. If we’re “at war” with the virus, as Macron said last week, why have these war measures not already been taken?

Faure also wants tighter restrictions on going out – close open-air markets and stop people jogging – and a plan for recovery when the nightmare is over.

Whatever one may think of his party’s record in government, this all seems both obvious and urgent.

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Coronavirus diary day 6 – a brief panic and an online apéritif

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This morning I was sitting downstairs happily noting that my 95-year-old mother was coughing less than on previous days when a groaning came from her room.

Thinking “Oh my God, she’s having difficulty breathing!”, I ran up the stairs only to find her complaining that a bit of her breakfast was stuck in her gullet.

So a bit of slapping on the back and panic over. She is, indeed, coughing less (a bit) and still no temperature.

Mum being partially sighted, we sometimes listen to audiobooks together; they come in very handy on long journeys. One was When I go to sleep, which is about a woman who forgets all her past life every night. Once she finds out what is happening, she writes it all down in a secret notebook (because, of course, there are suspicions of plots and manipulation).

Mum’s memory not being what it was, this story comes to mind when I am trying to persuade her to observe the anti-virus precautions. The gravity of the situation slips her mind and she is not keen on coughing into her sleeve, doing so into the elbow having been judged too difficult a manoeuvre, or washing her hands for any length of time.

Now we have a reminder session every morning. “What do we have to remember?” “Umm, don’t know, tell me.” “About the virus.” “Umm … cough into my sleeve.” “And?” “Umm …” “Wash you hands very regularly and for 20 seconds.”  

Last night we had our first ever aperitif à distance, with Ian Noble and Simone Slifman. Ian had been very proud of coming up with this wonderful idea. Then he went to Monoprix and found that they had special offers for this very activity. At least he can congratulate himself on being in tune with the zeitgeist.

They have come across a vulgarised version of Giorgio Agamben’s strong-state conspiracy theory – “I’m not going to fill those bloody forms out! It’s sliding towards a police state!” – which sounds like a left-wing cover for individualistic selfishness à la française to me.

An astonishing row has blown up between Labour Minister Murielle Pénicaud and the construction industry.

Madame la Ministre has accused building employers of “defeatism” and a “lack of civic-mindedness” because they want to close down sites for 10 days to adjust to the anti-virus requirements.

Yes, you read that right, the bosses want to stop work and the minister wants them to keep soldier on. The trade unions, unusually but unsurprisingly, agree with the bosses and one union leader has called on Pénicaud to resign.

She argues that building work is done in the open air, that the workers can keep at the necessary distance from each other and that they can go to work in cars rather than public transport. But, as some papers have pointed out, the prospect of providing lay-off pay to two million workers – 10% of the nation’s workforce – can’t help but be a consideration for her.

That said, I see that Italy has only just got round to ordering its building sites to close.

The latest statistics for France: 562 deaths (112 since Friday night), 14,459 recorded cases, 6,172 hospitalised, 1,525 in intensive care.

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Coronavirus day 5 – Don’t we all miss community?

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Coronavirus spring – alone with the neighbour’s cat

Yesterday afternoon someone from the council phoned to check on Mum. He spent quite some time listening to my worries. I found this demonstration of support really moving and shed a tear or two after ringing off.

They call to check on her during heatwaves as well because we use the council’s aide à domicile service for people of reduced mobility. It’s great to know that such social solidarity exists.

Giorgio Agamben has caused a stir in left-wing social media circles with a piece claiming that the “frenzied, irrational and totally unjustified” emergency measures are a plot to normalise a “state of exception”.

The hypothesis that the international bourgeoisie is deliberately tanking the economy so as to strengthen the surveillance state seems dubious to me. Isn’t the state there to serve the economy, so far as they’re concerned?

Agamben thinks that this crisis will leave people ready to accept permanent extreme restrictions on their liberty.

I think that many incumbent governments, especially the most reactionary ones, will come out of this discredited, as will the doctrine that has led to the smothering of the welfare state.

While some will see this as a justification to huddle behind reinforced borders, I believe the value of community and solidarity will be reinforced for most people. We might even be ready to pay our taxes to pay for it.

Because don’t we all miss our communities? It’s a much-abused word – the “intelligence community” is a euphemism for spies, isn’t it? Be honest, you spooks – but the communities we form in our normal daily lives keep us fed, watered and sane, and lockdown has cut us off from them.

I don’t want to get all blitz spirit but I believe that facing a crisis that affects us all will reaffirm the value of solidarity and the social services that governments have been slashing over the last few decades.

The magic money tree was shaken in a crisis. Resources we were assured didn’t exist were found and today most people are aware that huge wealth has been accumulated and syphoned off into private hands. When it comes to paying the bill, repairing worn-out health and social services and reviving the economy, there is likely to be fury if the rich don’t foot the bulk of the bill.

Apart from that, the trip to the bakery went well. I wasn’t stopped by a cop, just as well since I forgot to take the form with me. Some but not many people on the street. The young woman serving was singing through her mask. I paid in one of those machines that takes your money and gives you your change. That’s not a Coronavirus innovation but it comes in handy now.
I also dared to sit out in our courtyard in the spring sunshine. I think I’m allowed to do that, as long as we observe social distancing. Nobody else was around so the question didn’t arise.

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Coronavirus day 4 – Don’t go to the beach!

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A big day. I’m going to go and buy some bread. I have my form printed. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Emmanuel Macron says that “too many people” are not taking the lockdown seriously enough and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner rather colourfully criticises people “who think they are modern heroes by breaking the rules when they are really imbeciles”.

Since several local authorities have felt it necessary to close the beaches, it looks as if they may have a point.

A medical state of emergency has passed in the Senate and it looks as if the lockdown is going to be long.

One of the top health bosses, Geneviève Chêne, says that it will almost certainly be necessary to extend it. Two to four weeks are necessary just to see of the situation is getting better, she says, adding that, if China’s example is anything to go by, the curve of infections will not start descending before the middle or end of May.

While the government is scolding the people, three doctors have filed a case against former health minister Agnès Buzyn and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

The doctors point out that Buzyn recently told Le Monde that she had warned the government how serious the virus was in January and said that the local council elections should be postponed. That didn’t stop her quitting her post to head the Macron party’s list for the Paris city council after a solo sex tape of the previous mayoral candidate was posted online.

The shortage of FFP2 face masks reflects poorly on everyone who has been in power over the last decade. In 2005, after the avian flu outbreak, the then government (under president Jacques Chirac) decided to build up stocks in case of a future emergency. But in 2010 Nicolas Sarkozy’s government scrapped the orders, saying plenty were available in pharmacies.

Not enough for an emergency, however, and they’re all gone now. The authorities are assuring us that they are not necessary if you are not ill or a medical professional, but that doesn’t seem to be the opinion of officials in countries were there are enough face masks. Ministers have even suggested that people who aren’t ill take them to the pharmacies for use by medical professionals. Of course, nobody knows for sure that they are not ill because the symptoms may not have appeared yet.

Meanwile, 25 million masks are being distributed to some of those the government says need them and emergency production has been launched. They used to be imported from Wuhan.

Do you want to know how Mum is? She’s coughing less today, which leads me to believe that it is aggravated by pollution or pollen – a lot better than the virus. But she said she was getting out of breath, another recurring problem. Still no fever.

I still have to remind her continuously to cough into her elbow, or as near as she can get to it. I explained everything yesterday but it doesn’t stick.

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Coronavirus day 3 – Explaining the epidemic to a forgetful old woman

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I sat down with my mum – 95-years-old, in case you missed the earlier post – today and explained the epidemic to her in blunt terms.

We have long since reversed the parent-offspring role – I even tell her to turn the volume of her radio down from time to time, which brings back memories – so she’s used to me lecturing her. She seemed to take it all in but I fear she will have forgotten within a matter of hours if she hasn’t done so already.

She coughs a lot, especially at night and in the morning, which is worrying, but she has done so for some time. She shows no sign of fever, however, and says “It’s just a tickle”. At that age it’s difficult to tell what is normal and what is exceptional with this sort of thing.

People seem to be getting into the swing of confinement.

No singing from the balconies around here but yesterday afternoon I heard shouting coming from the road at the bottom of the courtyard. At first I thought it was someone arguing with the police but it turned out to be a couple of residents of a block of flats having a high-volume chat from their windows. I waved. They didn’t see me.

Our neighbour, Marianne, tells me that one of her friends has caught the virus. She’s 63 but did not have a severe attack, apparently she only felt really bad for one day. But she has to self-isolate, so Marianne had to go and collect her sick note – dropped out of the window – and send it to her employers.  I know French officialdom is really picky about paperwork, but I’m not sure that they would have insisted on les délais in this instance.

Marianne’s conclusion of her friend’s relatively easy ride is that she doesn’t have to worry too much but that I have to be careful because of Mum.

I can’t help thinking of nightmare scenarios if either or both of us catch it.

Have you been reading the helpful tips from newspapers, magazines etc on how to handle isolation?

Elle in French had an article explaining why we shouldn’t just eat pasta yesterday, which seems a little obvious. Today someone is telling us how to bake our own bread in an oven, which might prove more useful.

Today’s Coronavirus questions:

  • How many times a day can you wash your hand without actually rubbing away the skin?
  • Can you believe how many times you want to touch your face?
  • Is it better to be confined on an overcast day, when the grey sky adds to your isolated gloom, or a sunny day, which really makes you want to go outside and enjoy the spring?

Spring is here in France. It looks as if we’re going to miss it.

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Some Coronavirus questions

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The French lockdown has only been going on half a day and it already feels like a month, an exceptionally stressful month. Meanwhile, we’re all reading online and the French media are carrying Q+As about confinement. Some of the Qs are slightly surprising.

  • People seem very concerned about walking their dogs. It’s permitted as long as the walk is short and you are alone (apart from the dog, of course). Apparently, in Italy some people have borrowed their neighbours’ dogs to provide a pretext for going out. Not a good idea.
  • Someone asked Le Monde if they could have a party in their home. Not only is this stupid idea quite correctly forbidden, if you were planning to get married in the next fortnight, you have to postpone.
  • We all want to know how long this well go on. The present decree runs for a fortnight but can be renewed. It takes a fortnight to be sure that you’re clear of the symptoms apparently. It is quite likely to be prolonged for a further fortnight and there’s even talk of 45 days (Eek!).
  • Workers who cannot go to work are to be paid 80% pay. There’s a relief package for companies.

Further questions have occurred to me:

  • There are reports of Cuba having a treatment that has worked against Coronavirus in China. How seriously are governments around the world taking this and how much can be produced?
  • There are reports that an anti-malarial drug appears to have some effect in France, although there can be side-effects which can be serious for older people. Pharma giant Sanofi says it’s going to hand some over to the French authorities. Is the news and the formula being shared with other countries?
  • Is the disruption to the economy going to throw globalization into reverse?
  • Will xenophobia be reinforced among some people and, if so, how many in what age groups, classes and other categories?
  • The climate crisis has already discredited capitalism in the eyes of many people, especially the young. Will this further discredit it, or will criticism just be confined to austerity and its disastrous effects on health services and other vital services whose value is being proved at the moment?
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Coronavirus diary – France locked down

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After two days’ phoney war, the president has opened serious hostilities against the Coronavirus. From midday we are confined to our homes, at pain of a 135-euro fine for unjustified sorties.

Not much social-distancing – pre-lockdown queueing in a Champigny-sur-Marne supermarket on Monday

“We are at war,” Emmanuel Macron told the nation yesterday evening, in a sharp turnaround from the complacency that allowed voting in local council elections to go ahead on Sunday. There was, of course, a record low turnout and the second round has been postponed sine die.

I imagine there are millions of Coronavirus diaries, in a great many languages, since the epidemic has put most of the world in the same awful situation, even if governments’ reactions have varied (I’m looking at you, Boris Johnson!).

Here’s my two-euros worth, anyway.

I’m 66-years-old and my mother, who lives with me, is 95.

So we’re both high-risk, her more than me, I suppose.

That makes our relationship even more interdependent than it already was. If I catch the virus, which is more likely since she rarely goes out, I will probably pass it on to her. Should she catch it, she’s pretty much certain to pass it on to me, since she forgets the recommended precautions and doesn’t really understand what’s going on.

So we can kill each other if we’re not careful and, frankly, that’s very frightening.

I suppose that’s true of everybody at the moment, although the young are at less risk, and it should be a lesson in our responsibilities to each other. The whole crisis is an incitement both to solidarity – we must behave responsibly so as not to endanger each other – and selfishness – if someone catches it, how much should we put ourselves at risk to help them? – and I suspect we all react to it in both ways at different times.

How seriously are people taking it all in France?

Anticipating the lockdown, I went to the shops yesterday. I wasn’t the only panic-buyer. There were queues in both the chemists and the supermarket – not much social distancing but quite a few face masks and scarves over the mouth and nose.

Of course the chemists had no more gloves or masks and at first I was told there was no hand sanitiser. But then they said that, if I went home and got a bottle, I could have some. Which I duly did, to be informed that it was strictly rationed and be charged 3.80 euros for a very modest amount.

Like the pharmacists, the supermarket till-operators have face masks and plastic gloves. The queues were long, so we stood there and judged each others’ purchases as we waited – I did, anyway.

People are clearly anxious about being confined to their homes – even though they will be allowed out if they have the necessary paperwork to buy food, walk the dog and even do some exercise, which strikes me as a major loophole.

I think many people are taking the virus more seriously now, too.

Our neighbour, who last week was asking whether the authorities weren’t taking it all a bit too seriously, is now shut up in her house with two weeks’ supplies.

The election turnout may have been low last Sunday but, my brother tells me, people in Paris went out to enjoy the spring weather, many of them failing to keep at regulation distances from each other. There haven’t been many people in the streets of the town where I live these last two days, although it’s difficult to judge if there’s been a big change since Monday is always a quiet day.

As for me, last week I drove my mother down to the Jura to visit houses with a view to buying, staying in a hotel, eating in restaurants and, worst of all, shaking estate agents’ hands.

Now we’re locked in the house as if the zombie apocalypse were going on outside, although I will probably exercise my right to go out to buy bread at some point.

Meanwhile, workers in jobs judged indispensable and impossible to do from home are exposing themselves to risk for the common good – and to keep earning a living. Turns out that most of them are low-paid and that many of them are part of that “privileged” caste whose pension rights will be reduced by the reform that sparked a big strike movement last year.

And finally, the health service. It’s in crisis. The government cut 900 million euros from its budget in 2018.

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Macron minister in French farce after false May Day demo claim

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France’s minister for machismo, Christophe Castaner, has covered himself in ridicule by falsely claiming that a group of demonstrators attacked a hospital during this week’s May Day demonstration in Paris.

Police stop demonstrators by the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital

Castaner, a former Socialist who lobbied hard to become interior minister in the Macron government after another Socialist defector, Gérard Collomb, ducked out, has seized on any pretext to try to discredit protests against the government, whether they be the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests), the trade unions or the left.

On May Day they all marched together and Castaner’s twitter finger was clearly itching. Before the day was out he had announced that a group of demonstrators had “attacked” the famous Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, assaulted a member of the hospital staff and forced entry into the resuscitation unit.

Unfortunately for Monsieur le Ministre, hospital staff denied his version of events and video shot at the scene showed demonstrators fleeing teargas and stun grenades fired by the police. They had blocked a section of the demonstration from advancing towards the Place d’Italie, as their colleagues came to grips with demonstrators further up the road (see my account of those events here).

Thirty-four demonstrators were arrested and detained for nearly 30 hours but then released without charge.

On Sunday they presented a joint statement to the media, complaining of Castaner’s attempts to exploit their case for political purposes and thanking the hospital staff who came forward to give an accurate account of what had gone on.

Castaner is one of a long line of Socialist defectors who seem to believe they must prove some sort of political manhood by declaring their undying love for the police and all their works.

The now utterly unloved Manuel Valls, who was interior minister before becoming prime minister and is currently a soon-to-be unsuccessful mayoral candidate in Barcelona, suffered from the same syndrome.

By coincidence, today I read an account of German Social Democrat Gustav Noske’s suppression of the 1919 “Spartakist uprising” in Berlin.

“Someone must play the bloodhound I will not shirk my duty,” he declared as he led the Freikorps into the city to massacre over 1,000 rebels and assassinate Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.

Formally dissolved in 1921, the Freikorps were the soil from which the Nazi militias and the Waffen-SS grew.

The Nazis later booted Noske out of his minister’s position and he retired from politics after Hitler became German chancellor. He was arrested by the Nazis in 1937 but released after a few months, only to be detained again in 1944 after the attempt on Hitler’s life.

He was interned in Fürstenberg/Havel concentration camp, then in Ravensbrück, before being transferred to Berlin’s Lehrter Strasse priso, from which he was liberated by Soviet troops in May 1945.

Be careful what demons you unleash!

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