Rumors of a Coup in the News and Internet to Unseat Hollande Government

Charles Bremner Paris

Published at 12:01AM, June 6 2013

Edit: the French Army hasn't been paid in months, and the sounds of discontent can be heard, bringing with them rumors that the Hollande government should be done away with. There have been several uprisings in France, in addition to May of 1968. Many Frenchmen feel that since that time, they have had enough of the Revolution and want stability.  Perhaps Catholic France wasn't as dead as many suppose?  Here are some of the highlights from La Voix de la Russie:


Movement Bloch. Addressing fellow citizens in a letter published on Francetvinfoin, a group of young officers who define themselves as such, have sworn oaths to belong to a different corps of the French army, pledged to defend their countrymen and the interests of France. Referring to Marc Bloch, these young officers rely on the spirit of resistance within the army, who has became their ideal today. For the record, we read in the letter that the Movement "Bloch denounced the maladministration of the army and the neglect of the French elite in the 1930s. Bloch was also an exemplary officer during two world wars, and part of the Resistance till when he was shot by the Nazis. We claim him because he was a true soldier and a lucid analyst through that precipitated the defeat in France." As a Dreyfusard, it's rather difficult, to say nothing of ironic, to link him to French Traditionalist Catholics, but that won't stop anyone from doing so. Still, it's easy to associate cries for the stability of the nation's defense with the reaction, and with legitimism in France.

Destruction of the French army. Already during 2011,we have read that 10,000 soldiers were deprived of their pay. "Premiums for dangerous missions are not paid, which represents a significant shortfall", complained the soldiers' families. In 2012, there are thousands of soldiers who have not yet received their salaries for the month of December, which could only tap into their savings to pay for Christmas. Regularly, many soldiers receive 150 euros a month to live. Debt, many people have been thrown into a catastrophic financial situation from bank overdrafts and having to live with their parents. The worst is that these civil servants are forbidden to give their personal opinion on the situation subject to disciplinary sanctions. Invideo posted on its website, which also evokes the secret defiance Lys Noir, General General Vincent Desportes explains that "in Mali, the Army fought with 40-year old equipment and with vehicles without air conditioning. Only 10% of the Army is up to standard. The French army is in the hands of the United States. That the United States will soon drop the need to save France and the French army because when you do not have defenses, you are attacked. The version of the White Paper in 2013 shows that the army will not be modernized."

Among the Spring demonstrators for France are the Veilleurs (Those keeping vigil, scroll down) who were arrested by the police, there are children of soldiers of the French army and many Catholics. These children of soldiers whose parents are responsible for sacrifice for France can not now accept and swallow that in their country they are treated like criminals. "The Veilleurs and 750 demonstrators were arrested during the French Spring" they say. Although the discourse in the online magazine Arsenal seems to go far in the hope of a military coup, it does not hide in how much of a deep malaise, the society is actually divided.