France along with everywhere else is struggling with the social and economic travails of the pandemic with the financial hangover likely to cast a pall over the next few years.
The country has an exceptionally messy time ahead with a devastating and confused tr Pluto square their Neptune in 2022/23 leading into a perfect storm of difficulties in 2023 with a financially-blocked Solar Arc Pluto conjunct the France Venus; tr Pluto in a deprived/tough-conditions square to the Saturn. In 2023/24 as well tr Uranus will shake up the rebellious, disruptive Fixed T Square of Uranus opposition Pluto square Mars in Scorpio.
That last influence was around for the German Invasion in 1940 but also around in 1856/57 for the reign of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1852 to 1870) the last monarch of France who modernised the French economy, rebuilt the centre of Paris, with similar projects in other cities, modernized the banking system, expanded and consolidated the railway system, and made the French merchant marine the second largest in the world. He promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, which ended famines in France and made France an agricultural exporter. His social reforms included giving the right to strike. The first female students were admitted at the Sorbonne and educational opportunities for women were increased. He less helpfully over involved himself in wars overseas. In general he did a good deal to make France more progressive. So tr Uranus upending the Fixed T Square isn’t necessarily a disaster. Though clearly from the example of 1940 it can be.
This time round it will be a wobbly road forward initially with a lacklustre tr Neptune opposition the Virgo Sun in 2024; though there’ll be an upbeat tr Pluto square the Jupiter at the same time.
What is interesting are the relationship charts between France and the EU/Germany/Italy – and the UK in coming years. There’ll be tensions and outburst from this March onwards, building through 2022, with the worst of the aggravation and potential for splits coming in 2023. That’s when tr Uranus will oppose the composite Suns in the EU and Germany and UK relationship charts. Italy and France are in a state of disruption as well picking up in 2022. It won’t necessarily mean a collapse of the EU but it will be hugely disruptive with rolling upheavals, high tensions and significant differences.
The ‘living in interesting times’ theme is going to roll on uncomfortably for a few years yet.
Add ON: The next election is April/May 2022 with Marine Le Pen, the far-right, anti-immigration, anti-EU populist, returning to the fray and polling just below Macron.
Macron has tr Saturn moving through his lower profile, less successful First Quadrant (since December 2020) for several years ahead so not at his luckiest or most motivated. Tr Pluto will be sitting on his Ascendant for the election which comes in two parts, with a run off if there is no outright first round winner. This tends to go against the far right since the country is then faced with concerns about the national image and reverses towards the safer candidate. Macron does have tr Jupiter trine his Midheaven and tr Pluto sextile his Midheaven, both of which are supportive. But he’s also got the sudden change of tr Uranus exactly conjunct his Moon and opposition his Uranus. And Solar Arc Saturn within less than a degree to the conjunction with his Pluto, which is usually stuck.
Le Pen has tr Saturn conjunct her Solar Arc Moon for a discouraging mood; and later in May a catastrophic tr Saturn opposition her Mars/Pluto midpoint. And thereafter she’s heading for a totally trapped and scary tr Pluto opposition her 10th house Mars from early 2023 for two years.
There may well be a more palatable third option nearer the time.
Sarkozy has been sentenced to jail for corruption, so he won’t run.
Edouard Philippe would be a very unlikely president (very little charisma).
Barnier “Patriot and European”, an oxymoron ! Clément Beaune = En Marche, Macron’s party + « haut fonctionnaire », a technocrat = exactly what is killing France… DSK !!!
Right now Mélanchon and Xavier Bertrand (who played a leading role in Sarkozy’s presidential campaign) are presidential candidates and should be worth looking at. One of them may be the 3rd man.
Thank you for the addition of the update on Macron and Le Pen, Marjorie.
The most disheartening news I’d read recently about France was the increasing, significant support for Marine LePen’s right-wing Front National, as Macron, who isn’t exactly a leftist, has struggled, some of it self-inflicted. (I’d also learned that a right-wing presence was growing in Portugal, the last European country to have been relatively free of it, with its center-right government probably corresponding roughly to the US ‘center’). Both appear driven primarily by anti-immigration sentiments, on top of economic difficulties (which are understandably currently shared by most nations).
The right appears to continue growing all over the world; I can only hope that, if Trump’s election was a bellwether, so was his defeat.
I’d not get too disheartened by that news. Marine Le Pen and the Front National always had the support of about 20-25% of the French population in the recent past. However, France’s two-stage presidential election system means that the second round will essentially be a battle between Marine Le Pen and an anti-Le Pen candidate who will likely coalesce more than 50% of the votes in that round behind them.
The flip side is that you can see why the Front National and their supporters would dislike a system that seems designed to defeat them.
@Unmystic Mom, Front National also has an extremely messy history, with old Jean-Marie Le Pen fighting with other founders and ultimately his daughter. And now Marine has competition from her niece, among others. Founding date for the party is October 5th 1972, so Libra Sun, Virgo Moon, and most interestingly a very tight Libra Mars/Pluto conjunction squaring Capricorn Jupiter. Also, possibly (with a midday chart) a tight Saturn in Pisces opposition to Virgo Moon, but Virgo Venus trine Jupiter. So, I’d say, the party always looks more powerful to outsiders than it really is, the inner Mars/Pluto turmoil never really ends.
Right now, I can see Marine Le Pen’s very close relationship to Putin she hasn’t even hidden to be an issue for many members, and party finances to those “curious” but not entirely behind the choice of accepting help from any outside source.
@Unmystic Mom , It is not good to assume people will continue to rally behind the “other” candidate. Remember Brexit ;-). When times are tough and the mainstream politicians are bungling, people may take a chance.
Until I came to the last paragraph, I was going to comment that I think that it would be a testing time for Franco-German relations.
If one looks at the precedents, 1940 was obviously a bad time for Franco-German relations, with the German invasion of France and installing a puppet government (the Vichy Regime), while many French people across the globe also supporting the Free French and De Gaulle.
But if one looks at the 19th century as well, the reign of Napoleon III also ended with a catastrophic defeat to the Germans. Indeed, the 2nd Reich, the German Empire, was proclaimed to have come into existence in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, which is also why the French had the treaty ending WWI (weakening the very same German Empire) signed in the very same room!!!
The Franco-Prussian war that ended Napoleon III’s reign had also resulted in the fracturing of the loyalties of French citizens, between the imperialists, the monarchists (of both the Bourbons and the Orleanists), the moderate republicans and the supporters of the Paris Commune. Indeed, the Paris Commune also had Frenchmen fighting Frenchmen.
So, from those precedents, I would predict that (a) Franco-German relations will hit a low and (b) that French society will be deeply fractured internally.
The Cinquième République was established by Charles de Gaulle on 4th October 1958.
The last king of France was Louis-Philippe 1er, who followed Charles X (1824-1830). He did not called himself Roi de France but Roi des Francais. (1830-1848)
The last monarch of France was Napoléon III (Louis Napoléon Bonaparte), who had been elected Président de la Deuxième République des Francais (1848-1852). Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was then, thanks to a coup d’Etat, declared Empereur des Francais (1852-1870).
Thanks Marjorie. Food for thought in view of the Presidential election in France in 2022. At this point I imagine both left and right wing parties in France are looking at those.
Macron will have tr Uranus conjunct his Moon and Pluto on his ascendant at the time, which looks like an upheaval. Marine Le Pen will have Pluto opposing her natal Mars, with Uranus just passed the square to her Leo Sun, also an upheaval!The tr South Node hits her Neptune too, amongst other things. I don’t know about others at this election. Interesting too to see Andre’s quote about the French tearing down the house and rebuilding – potent fixed star Algol – creative and destructive – is on the IC.
Re the French tearing down of the house and rebuilding, since 1789, the French have had five republics, two monarchies (“King of France” (Bourbons) and “King of the French” (Orleanists)), two empires (Napoleon I & III) and one State/Etat (the Vichy Regime).
That is not counting the mess in the immediate aftermath of the first French revolution between 1789 and 1804, when the country lurched between a constitutional monarchy, the Committee of Public Safety, the Directory and the Consulate (which led to the first Napoleonic Empire).
The current Fifth Republic is the longest lasting so far (apart of course from the Ancien Regime), clocking in at 62 years as opposed to the 60 years of the Third Republic.
The Third Republic clocked in *70* years of existence, not 60 years as mentioned above and so is still the front runner, though the Fifth is catching up fast. Apologies for the error above.
Thanks Unmystic Mom, my easily accessed French history knowledge is quite patchy, after the first Revolution. But what you relate is certainly reflected by the 1792 chart. There is the odd mix of precise, stylish Virgo and the intensity and obstinacy of the fixed t square. And now, thanks to Andre, all I can think of is Burning Down the House by the Cardigans and Tom Jones…..this third lockdown is having some strange effects!
Marjorie, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was not a king but the emperor Napoleon III, which is a huge difference in French history. He was Napoleon the First’s nephew. He took the number three because Napoleon II was Napoleon the First’s son, better known in France as the King of Rome, a title his father gave him at birth. Napoleon divorced Josephine because she couldn’t provide a male heir. His son died at the age of 20 at the Viennese imperial court since his mother was an Austrian princess.
Napoleon III was first elected under false pretenses in 1850 as President of the Second Republic, then two later years committed a coup against himself to proclaim the Second Empire. The title of King is reserved for the traditional Bourbon dynasty, which was restored from 1815 to 1848 after Waterloo and Napoleon the First’s fall. During most of the 19th century, France lurched from being a republic to an empire to a monarchy, and back. The royals see the imperials as upstarts to this day. And there are very different aristocratic lineages descending from each one, as well as current pretenders to each throne. This situation famously brought a British amabassador to Paris to declare: “The French constantly throw their house down and rebuild from nothing. We British constantly renovate the old house we have and keep the same frontage.”
While progressive, liberal and good for the economy, Napoleon III shared his uncle’s megalomania, thought himself a major power in one person, and had a disastrous foreign policy. He imposed a distant French relative as Emperor of Mexico who was shot by the rebels there in 1867. He meddled in Italian politics to no good effect. And he declared war to the Prussians, who not only defeated him in 1870 but also took him prisoner. The shame of that battle of Sedan rivals that of the Vichy collaborators in WWII.That is when France lost Alsace and Lorraine, one of the causes of the 20th century world wars.
Napoleon III lost power, ended his life in exile in the UK where a friendly Queen Victoria gave him refuge, and the republic was definitively installed. The Third Republic, meaning the third republican constitution, lasted from 1870 to 1940, and the fourth only a dozen years from 1947 to 1959. De Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic, with its strong presidential executive and what he saw as a mix of the US and British constitutions (which is debatable in practice), that France has today.
Thank you, very interesting. Being European I learned a lot about French history in school but not in great depth.