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France Tag

As a practicing Catholic who visited the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in 2015, watching the news reports covering the conflagration, the destruction of its roof, and the collapse of its iconic spire was gut-wrenching.

Earlier this week, Mary wrote about the chaos in Venezuela as Juan Guaido Proclaims Himself Interim President, [and the] Military Backs Maduro.  At that point, the U.S. and Canada recognized Guaido as Venezuela's leader. Since then, Britain, Germany, France, and Spain said that Venezuela must agree to hold elections or they will recognize Guaido as the country's leader.  These countries have given Venezuela eight days to call the elections.

Rioting has been taking place recently in France, but trying to get a clear idea of what's behind the demonstrations isn't easy. The first thing to say is that the riots certainly seem to be anti-Macron. But there are plenty of reasons to be anti-Macron, some emanating from the left and some from the right or from some other impulse or belief system.

If you have looked at Twitter or the news over the last two days, you may have seen the chaos unfolding on the streets of Paris. People are rioting over a tax increase on fuel which the Macron government claims it is imposing to reduce the nation's dependence on fossil fuels.

Marine Le Pen's right-wing National Rally has overtaken French President Emmanuel Macron's En Marche for the first time ahead of the next year's EU Parliament elections. The latest poll numbers place France's ruling centrist En Marche party at 19 percent, and the newly constituted National Rally -- formerly the Front National -- at 20 percent.

France's nationalist politician Marine Le Pen and Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini have announced plans to create a "Freedom Front" electoral coalition ahead of next year's European parliamentary vote. Speaking with Le Pen at a press conference on Monday, Salvini called for a "common sense revolution" to defeat EU's political elite in the May 2019 elections. "Europe's enemies are those cut off in the bunker of Brussels," Italy's League party leader Salvini told reporters. "The Junckers, the Moscovicis, who brought insecurity and fear to Europe and refuse to leave their armchairs."

As much as we complain about political correctness in the United States, it seems things are much worse in Europe. Marine Le Pen, who is frequently described in media reports as far right, recently shared some images on Twitter of people who had been slaughtered by ISIS. Now she is being ordered to see a psychiatrist.

Riots erupted in the French city of Nantes following the death of a 22-year-old man, who was shot after running over a police officer at a vehicle stop. Cars and buildings--including a local court--were set on fire in the city's Breil district, an area with "largely immigrant populations," media report say.