Regarding French ‘Liberté’

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/opinion/regarding-french-liberte.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Whatever Happened to France’s Famed ‘Liberté’?” (Opinion, March 31):

I tend to agree that the normalization of the state of emergency in France has been surprisingly frictionless. It is, after all, not like French people to stay in and privately harbor their disagreement about something — especially when it comes to a favorite theme: societal decline.

And they haven’t lost their mojo either; the labor law certainly mobilized people to get out, shout, strike, draft clever chants and break stuff. But it’s just plainly false to suggest that it “hasn’t provoked an outcry,” and downright absurd to state that the prospect of Marine Le Pen in the Elysée “does not seem to worry anyone.”

Ms. Le Pen may have the support of a quarter or as much as a third of France, but it is common knowledge that she repulses the rest. If one were to play a game of word association with most French people, the top match with “Marine” would most likely be “facho” (fascist). Like you-know-who, her support is troublingly high, but there is no lack of resistance.

So yes, France is currently living with a bizarre ambivalence wherein “liberté” and Dick Cheney have to share a bunk bed. But no, you are not the first to point this out. Plenty of us are very, very concerned.

GEORGE OVERTON

SAINT OUEN, FRANCE