Section:GDN 1N PaGe:36 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 18:51 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Friday 6 September 2019
(^36) World
▼ Maurice the cock was at the centre
of a long court case over the noise of
his crowing at 6.30 in the morning
PHOTOGRAPH: RÉGIS DUVIGNAU/REUTERS
Salvini circling
as Italy’s new
coalition of
old enemies
is sworn in
Lorenzo Tondo
Palermo
Italy’s new coalition government
between the centre-left Democratic
party and the anti-establishment Five
Star Movement was sworn in yester-
day , with many analysts casting doubt
on how long it would last.
The two parties are longstanding
enemies. Should the government col-
lapse , new elections might lead to both
of them being punished and open the
way for a comeback by Matteo Salvini,
leader of the far-right League.
Italy was plunged into chaos last
month when Salvini withdrew the
League from its fractious alliance with
the Five Star Movement (M5S), as he
sought to exploit his party’s popular-
ity to force a snap election and become
prime minister.
But the former interior minister,
whose tactics have dented his popu-
larity in recent weeks, had not banked
on M5S teaming up with the Demo-
cratic party ( PD).
Roberto Gualtieri , an infl uential PD
member of the European parliament,
will be economy minister in the new
government. The M5S leader, Luigi
Di Maio, will be foreign minister. And
Luciana Lamorgese , a veteran of the
interior ministry, who has overseen
planning refugee and migrant recep-
tion centres in northern Italy, has
succeeded Salvini as interior minister.
Franco Pavoncello, politics pro-
fessor and president of John Cabot
University i n Rome, said: “ It is diffi -
cult to predict how long it will last, but
certainly the prospect of M5S and PD
together in the opposition with Salvini
as prime minister is one of the reasons
they will stay together.”
However, Pavoncello added: “Now
there is an opportunity for a more
reasoned politics, far from acrimo-
nious language and propagandistic
showmanship.”
As the new cabinet was sworn in,
Salvini claimed that “strong powers”
within Europe had been behind the
new coalition.
“It won’t last long,” he wrote on
Twitter. “Opposition in parliament,
in town halls and in the squares, then
fi nally we will vote and win.”
German city
joins in joke by
off ering €1m
for proof that it
doesn’t exist
Kate Connolly
Berlin
It started off as a throwaway remark by
a student who expressed faux incre-
dulity at meeting someone from the
western German town of Bielefeld.
“ Das gibt’s doch gar nicht” or “that
simply cannot be,” Achim Held , an IT
student, said at a party in 1994, giving
birth to what became known as the
Bielefeld conspiracy.
The jokey theory that Held con-
cocted and shared with friends was
initially something akin to a parlour
game in which participants had to
use their skills of persuasion to argue
that Bielefeld, Germany’s 20th larg-
est city , was actually a fi gment of the
imagination.
Twenty-fi ve years later, it has a cult
following, helped in large part by the
internet. Now about 2,000 people have
taken up the city authorities’ off er to
enter a competition promising a €1m
(£ 900,000) reward to anyone who can
present solid proof that Bielefeld really
is made up. Launched last month, it
invited participants to “by all means
be infi nitely creative”, but to “deliver
incontrovertible evidence”.
conspiracy, using Bielefeld as a cover
for what has even been suggested
might be the entrance to Atlantis,
the submerged island mentioned by
Plato. Cars with licence plates indicat-
ing they come from the city are sent
across the country to keep up appear-
ances, according to one theory.
Even Angela Merkel, the German
chancellor, has entered the realm of
the Bielefeld Conspiracy, referring in
2012 to a town hall meeting she had
attended in the city, “... if it exists at
all”. She added: “I had the impression
that I was there ... I do hope I’ll be able
to return.”
Cock-a-hoop!
Maurice can keep
crowing, says court
Kim Willsher
Paris
At last Maurice the cock has some-
thing to crow about. A court has ruled
that France’s most famous rooster
can continue with his dawn chorus,
in a legal case that has pitted town
against country.
Yesterday, a tribunal rejected a
couple’s complaint about the bird’s
early-morning crowing and ordered
them to pay €1,000 (£ 900) in damages
to Maurice’s owner, Corinne Fesseau.
“I’m speechless. We certainly ruf-
fled their feathers,” Fesseau said
outside the hearing. “It’s a victory
for all those who are in my situation.
I hope this will be a precedent for the
others. Everyone will now be pro-
tected: the church bells, the frogs ...
why not a Maurice law to protect all
rural noises?”
Julien Papineau, the defence law-
yer for Fesseau and Maurice, said they
had won because “ under French law
you have to prove there is a nuisance,
and this was not done”.
The dispute between Fesseau and
her neighbours on the Île d’Oléron ,
western France, has taken two years
to resolve. Two retired farmers with a
second home on the island complained
that Maurice was making an abnormal
racket when he crowed , disturbing the
peace during their holidays.
They wanted the bird removed from
his home or made to shut up , which
triggered an “I am Maurice” support
campaign on social media.
During a hearing in July , the plain-
tiff s were described as quiet people,
aged 65 and 70, of modest income. The
pair had bought a second home on the
island in 2004, long before Maurice
hatched in 2017. They were not in court
- because of the media interest in the
case, their lawyer said – but they asked
for a ruling that the noise had to stop.
The case was seen as symbolic
of the clash between those living in
rural areas who have long kept ani-
mals or rung church bells, and those
from urban areas of France or abroad
who have bought second homes in the
countryside.
On Tuesday, a court in Dax, south-
west France – traditionally a duck- and
geese-rearing region – heard a com-
plaint about noise from a fl ock of 50
birds being raised in a neighbour’s gar-
den. In the Dordogne, a couple faces
legal action because of the croaking
of frogs in their garden pond, and in
Le Beausset in the Var, holiday makers
have angered the local mayor by sug-
gesting he exterminate the cicadas
because they make too much noise.
In 1995, faced with a similar case
that led to a death notice being served
on another cock , a French appeal court
declared it was impossible to stop the
species from crowing. “The chicken
is a harmless animal, so stupid that
nobody has succeeded in training
it, not even the Chinese circus,” the
judgment read.
Defence lawyers argued Maurice’s
crowing was not “abnormal noise”.
Legal arguments focu sed on whether
Saint-Pierre d’Oléron , where Maurice
lives and where the 7,000-strong local
population swells to 35,000 in sum-
mer, could be described as “rural”.
Vincent Huberdeau , a lawyer for
the plaintiff s, rejected the idea that
Maurice was a “town v country” issue.
“The rooster, the dog, the car horn, the
music ... it’s about noise,” he said dur-
ing the hearing. “It’s not a row between
bourgeois and rural dwellers .”
Bruno Dionis du S éjour , the mayor
of Gajac in south-west France, has pro-
posed a solution to animal noises – he
has asked the government to declare
them part of France’s heritage , giving
them state protection.ce,nd
on ,
ars
h a
ned
mal
theom
ich
ortin-den. In the Dordogne, a couple faces Saint-Pie
lives and w
populatio
mer, coul
Vincen
the plain
Maurice w
“The roos
music ... i
ing the he
bbourgeois
Bruno
of Gajac in
posed a so
has askedCorinne Fesseau,
Maurice’s owner2,000
Number of people who have entered
the contest to prove Bielefeld is not
real – a popular joke in GermanyFollowing Wednesday night’s dead-
line for entries, the city’s marketing
chiefs are poring over the answers, 300
of which have come from abroad, and
will announce the winning result on
17 September. “We are having lots of
laughs,” a spokesman said.
The CIA, Mossad or aliens are
variously cited as being behind theRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws