Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at a prison in Paris on Tuesday to begin serving a 5-year sentence for a criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya — a historic moment that makes him the first ex-leader of modern France to be imprisoned.

    • biofaust@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      I am the downvote.

      Can we for once not talk about the US?

      You are even from the EU, what the fuck.

      If there is something I don’t miss from Reddit is circlejerking.

    • Balinares@pawb.social
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      2 days ago

      Alas, the same forces are at play in France too, they’re just meeting a less favorable pre-existing terrain. But the billionaire-owned media have been carpet bombing the country with the message that holding the executive accountable is dictatorship, and Sarkozy is innocent and basically a saint, and this is all a conspiracy by the far-left judiciary, etc

      And most people don’t know better because knowing better takes exhausting amounts of paying attention, and little by little, the messaging is working.

      • xyzzy@lemmy.today
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        2 days ago

        I wouldn’t be surprised if the Republicans ally themselves with Le Pen’s National Rally and sweep an RN candidate into the presidency and then they pardon Sarkozy. It seems to be the way of things.

      • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        That’s really discouraging to read… France has had me thinking it was far closer to a utopia than most countries. I guess I shouldn’t ever get my hopes up.

        • Balinares@pawb.social
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          2 days ago

          Sorry to disappoint. :) France really has had fashy inclinations for a long time, if we’re being honest. A lot more people were plenty happy to have the Germans over in the 40s than pop media created afterward tended to willingly show. For some reason.

          The food genuinely is great though.

          There’s no such thing as a utopia but there are definitely some countries that have their shit more closely together than others. So don’t lose hope!

          • nandeEbisu@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Hot take, but French people have an inflated opinion about their food. It’s good, but they’re in Europe surrounded by German and English fare so it seems mind blowing to them.

            Check out Asia, Vietnam did wonders with whatever the French introduced and that’s like a few decades of guys in street stalls while France has entire institutes dedicated to this stuff.

            • Balinares@pawb.social
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              21 hours ago

              There are a fair few countries with amazing food, yeah. Italy, to start with, without even leaving Europe, and yeah, I’m a huge fan of India and much of China in that respect too, particularly Sichuan cuisine.

              This thread was however about France specifically, and your comment reads like a fairly gauche non-sequitur.