French president condemns “false information” as Pavel Durov’s detention in Paris triggers global outcry.
  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    3 months ago

    President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that the French government was not involved in the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov.

    Just to be clear for anyone else who did a double take, there is a language issue here.

    In the US, “government” is typically used to refer to a much broader chunk of institutions than the term is in the UK.

    In the UK, the “government” is the figures selected by Parliament to run the executive portion of state’s institutions and the people those people appoint – basically, the prime minister, and the cabinet. So, currently, the UK has the Starmer government.

    In the US, this is referred to as the “administration”. Currently, the US has the Biden administration.

    In the US, “the government” refers to not just a small handful of elected figures at the top of the executive, but the entire shebang – the executive, legislative, and judicial branches are all part of the government. All of the state institutions belong to the government.

    So in the American sense of the term “government”, saying that “the French government was not involved” is kind of nonsensical. Law enforcement and the judiciary – who would indeed be involved in arrests – are all part of the government. The author here is using the term in the British sense of the word – he’s saying that the elected officials at the top portion of the executive part of the state institutions were not involved. In the US, the equivalent statement would be “the Macron administration was not involved”.