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What does it mean by "Un coup de rouge" in this context?

English Language & Usage Asked by Bakebake on March 8, 2021

This is the subtitle for the subsequent paragraphs in the article. It means “a glass of red wine” in French, but I cannot understand why the author chose this subtitle. Is it related to the left represented by Mr Mélenchon?

Un coup de rouge
Whoever is president will inherit a discontented country. Unemployment has been stuck above 10% since 2012; for young people, it is still above 20%. The economy is growing slowly and does not yield enough tax to pay for the public services that voters believe are their right. Racial and religious tensions run high, exacerbated by jihadist attacks. Dislike of the EU is even stronger than it was in pre-referendum Britain.

The Economist, Apirl 22, The French election
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21721143-french-go-polls-they-are-angry-and-divided-consequential-choice-franceand

2 Answers

Most likely, this is a pun based on the po­lit­i­cal mean­ing of the word coup and the as­so­ci­a­tion be­tween the the color red and left-lean­ing Euro­pean pol­i­tics like those of com­mu­nism and so­cial­ism.

Orig­i­nat­ing from the French ex­pres­sion coup d’é­tat, which can per Dic­tionary.com be de­fined as

a sud­den and de­ci­sive ac­tion in pol­i­tics, es­pe­cially one re­sult­ing in a change of gov­ern­ment il­le­gally or by force.

Wiki­pedia ob­serves that in pol­i­tics, the color red is of­ten as­so­ci­ated with the far-left — ex­cept in the United States this mil­len­nium, where it has come to be as­so­ci­ated with the far-right in­stead.

So the author made a sub­tle joke, us­ing two po­lit­i­cal words to­gether to form a pun.

Answered by RaceYouAnytime on March 8, 2021

Part of the pun may be that in the United States, the color red is associated with politics of the right, and cou de rouge (without the -p but pronounced the same way coup is) can also be translated as “red neck.” Rednecks tend to vote for right-wing political candidates.

Answered by Joe on March 8, 2021

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