BBC - Cool French - politics | Текст песни

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POLITICS
The French love politics and are often very passionate about it. This could be due to France's centuries-old tradition of philosophical and political thought, with the likes of Rousseau, Robespierre, Napoléon, Charles de Gaulle or Jean-Paul Sartre enjoying international renown. On the other hand, it could be down to the natural tendency of the French to argue about anything... or both.
In France, everything you do, from shopping to reading, has a political meaning. But strangely this French obsession with politics and political ideas is matched by a real hatred of politicians... another of those French paradoxes. For various reasons, in the last few years French politicians have managed to gain a terrible reputation. Deservedly or not, they are now often characterised as a bunch of liars, parasites and control freaks. Ironically this hasn't prevented the French from voting for them.
Political affiliations
Un anar (*) An anarchist. Short for un anarchiste.

Un coco (*) A communist. Short for un communiste.

Un socialo (*) A socialist. Short for un socialiste.

Un écolo (*) An ecologist. Short for un écologiste.

Un réac (*) A reactionary. Short for un réactionnaire.

Un facho (*) A fascist. Short for un fasciste.

Un politicard (*) A politician. The suffix -ard gives the original word politicien a rather pejorative connotation.

Un éléphant (*) An old member of a political party. No matter which political party they belong to, elephants are often accused of being conservative and against reform.
Politics as usual
La langue de bois (*) Lit. the wooden language.
This old expression refers to the clichés politicians come out with, which they sometimes use when they don't want to answer a journalist's tricky questions.

Des promesses, toujours des promesses ! (*) Promises, promises!
Before an election, you get to hear this expression a lot amongst voters. No matter what promises political candidates may make, people are usually sceptical about them.

Bidon (*) Phoney.
Originally, the word bidon is a noun meaning "bottle" or "can". Although it is still used as a noun (with its original meaning) it also has become an invariable adjective meaning "phoney" or "fake". This probably comes from the fact that when you look at a bottle or a can, you can't always tell whether it's full or empty. Appearances are sometimes deceptive.
C'est une promesse bidon (*) This is a phoney promise.

Du vent (*) Hot air. Lit. wind.
Sometimes when politicians speak, all they actually manage to come out with is a lot of hot air...
Ce discours, c'est que du vent (*) This speech is just hot air.

Un pipeau (*) A fib, a lie. Lit. pipe, flute.
Same meaning as above. The flute is the instrument snake charmers use to hypnotise snakes.

Un baratin, baratiner (*) Flannel, to flannel.
This word comes from Old French but is still needed.

Faux jeton (*) Lit. False token.
Two-faced, hypocritical. Unfortunately, politicians don't always tell the truth.

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