The Economist - USA (2019-11-30)

The EconomistNovember 30th 2019 Europe 49

A

urélie, aged 50; Justine, 20; Martine,
64; Safia, 35; Denise, 58; Monique, 72;
Aminata, 31. The names on the placards,
carried by tens of thousands of protesters
through the streets of Paris and other cities
on November 23rd, were those of women
murdered by their partners in France so far
this year. Strangled, stabbed, suffocated,
shot or beaten to death, the victims now to-
tal 138. The grim phenomenon, which cam-
paigners call féminicide, has long been un-
der-reported and poorly handled in France.
The government now recognises the coun-
try’s “collective failure” on the matter.
France has one of the worst records in
the eufor the toll of women murdered by
their partners. In 2017, the most recent year
for which comparative data exist, 108 wom-
en were killed in such circumstances in
France, up from 92 two years previously.
Germany saw worse, with 153 such murders
in 2017, but the record in both countries is
far worse than in Britain (75) or Italy (56). In
France they constitute over 10% of all mur-
ders each year. In the past, as if to excuse
them, such killings were often treated as
crimes passionnels. Today, campaign groups
want it known that these are in reality un-
speakable cold-blooded murders.
Although Frenchwomen did not get the
vote until 1944, France has since come a
long way on women’s rights. More recently
it has passed legislation to promote more
women into the boardroom and elected of-

fice. In the wake of the #MeToo movement,

France has become more attuned to what

constitutes sexual harassment and aggres-

sion. Yet the country has had a blind spot

when it comes to handling complaints

about domestic violence. On March 3rd this

year, for example, Julie Douib, aged 35 and a

mother of two small children, was shot

dead by her partner. (He is now awaiting

trial for her murder.) Before her death, she

had filed five complaints of domestic vio-

lence to the police, according to Lucien

Douib, her father, who has since become a

campaigner against féminicide. Her case is

not atypical.

Pushed by such activists and by a vigor-

ous junior minister for equality, Marlène

Schiappa, the government has just fin-

ished a consultation on domestic violence.

On November 25th Edouard Philippe, the

prime minister, concluded that this has

helped “break this chain of silence”, and ex-

pose the “indifference”, “major dysfunc-

tion” and “systematic underestimation” of

the problem in France. A damning report

commissioned by the justice ministry re-

veals that two-thirds of the murdered

women were victims of previous acts of do-

mestic violence. In September President

Emmanuel Macron overheard the dysfunc-

tion at first hand when he sat in, anony-

mously, on a call to an emergency helpline.

Mr Philippe has now promised a series

of measures to try to ensure better detec-

tion and prevention of domestic violence

in France. They include training the police

in handling complaints, opening more

women’s shelters, making different bits of

the judicial system liaise better, and possi-

bly loosening the rules on medical confi-

dentiality in certain cases. “Silence kills,”

declared Mr Philippe this week, adding that

“The attitude of an entire society must be

changed.” 7

PARIS
There is nothing passionate about the
killings of French women

France

In cold blood

Breaking the chain

I

n the distance, Orvieto’scathedral

sits majestically on the massive out-

crop over which the city spreads. Nearby,

at the edge of the Alfina plateau, stands a

castle encircled by fields—part of the

landscape, between Orvieto and Lake

Bolsena, in which Alice Rohrwacher, an

Italian director, set her prize-winning

film “The Wonders”. After a long absence,

Ms Rohrwacher returned to find it trans-

formed. “Fields, hedges and trees [had

vanished] to make way for hazel planta-

tions as far as the eye could see,” she

wrote to the regional governors of Um-

bria and neighbouring Lazio.

Around the castle, 200 hectares are

earmarked for intensive hazelnut culti-

vation, says Vittorio Fagioli, a local envi-

ronmentalist. This is largely to satisfy

the world’s appetite for Nutella, the

sugary nut-and-chocolate gloop that has

helped transform the producer, Ferrero,

into a multinational with turnover of

more than €10bn ($11bn) last year. Under

a deal signed with a local farming con-

sortium, 700 hectares are to be given

over by 2023 to the growing of hazelnuts.

It is part of a plan to boost the area in Italy

devoted to hazelnuts from 70,000 to

90,000 hectares, extending it for the first

time to Umbria and other regions.

On the Alfina plateau, however, the

firm’s strategy is meeting vigorous oppo-

sition. According to Mr Fagioli, each tree

will need 30 litres of water a day, pesti-

cides to deter insects and fertilisers to

boost yields. Campaigners fear that all

those chemicals will drain into Lake

Bolsena, since it receives most of its

water from the plateau. They look appre-

hensively at Lake Vico in Lazio, ringed for

decades by hazel plantations, where in

2009 a build-up of chemicals produced

carcinogenic algae that required the

installation of a costly water-treatment

plant. Ferrero disagrees, saying that

hazelnut cultivation around Lake Bolse-

na is “marginal” and that crops such as

olives, grapes and apples need even more

chemicals. Nuts to you, in short.

Thenutsofwrath

Italy

SAN QUIRICO

Locals in Umbria are worried by Nutella