Clawback Nation

Lo, the gentle “farmers” of France, such as they (and their attorneys are,) are fighting off a misappropriated malaprop of €500 000 000 that the government of Frankistan wants back.

The government, under pressure from Brussels, will require producers of fruits and vegetables reimbursement grant an undue amount of half a billion euros.

How they don’t think it’s already been spent is beyond me.

The french state will require producers of fruits and vegetables, according to a requirement of the European Union, the repayment of subsidies paid between 1992 and 2002, totaling around 500 million euros.

And from the “too polite to tell ourselves the truth” department:

Brussels considers that the aid has distorted competition.

Which (if you haven’t been paying attention to the decades of the passionate defense of subsidies for “cultural reasons”) was the idea.

- Thanks to Pat Patterson
(who is an evil genius.)