What's the situation in France? It seems that most of the French priests do not want a deal but most of the faithful want it. True?
I hope so but can't judge the French situation. I know the situation of the German zone better which I shortly described here:
Fr. Schmidberger prepares the SSPX Sellout, Sounds more like FSSP now than SSPXDescription from priests attending Fr Schmidberger's German district meeting in Stuttgart in autumn 2011 with approx 50+ priests attending (can't remember the exact number anymore, sorry) :
At the end of Fr Pfluger's hours-long propaganda for a Newrome sellout, the elder former German district superior Fr Franz-Joseph Maeßen stood up and in about four minutes wiped away Fr Pfluger's nonsense with the help of Archbishop Lefebvre's logic. During his short speech
most of the attending priests applauded him
several times. Fr Pfluger couldn't reply anything. (A little later there was another Waterloo for Bp Fellay and his team
at the SSPX superior meeting in Albano.)
So indeed most German priests oppose a sellout to Newrome
but don't dare to protest themselves, when there's no leader to lead. Because of his sickness Fr Maeßen can't physically lead anymore.
We've to consider a few points however:
*) For the sellout to Newrome Fr Schmidbeger is on alignment with Bp Fellay and his team (the father thinks he's still superior general, so often there's tensions between Stuttgart and Menzingen).
*) The depressive Fr Schmidberger rules the FRG-German and Austrian-German district with an iron fist instead of a catholic one. His Prussian sabre-rattling is so that most middle aged and younger priests fear the man. If we read Bp Fellay's leaked letter to the three bishops (14 April 2012), we see many similarities again.
*) The SSPX is hierarchical like the Church. In the end those at the top will make the course. As the saying knows: A fish rots from the head down. So we're at Archbishop's favorite topic named catholic obedience versus false obedience... The devil's coup named Vaticanum II succeeded because of the catholics' false obedience. Sadly the same wrong principle seem to happen again now inside the SSPX (despite the Archbishop's pathbreaking work. They broke with him).
When the going gets tough I'm afraid that too many German and other continental European priests will feel obligated to show a false obedience i.e. follow the superior general despite the latter's liberal delusion. So for most continental European districts I'm pessimistic. I hope I am wrong. Also it depends whether the three good bishops remain steadfast and united. I've no doubt that Bishop Williamson will, but I can't judge the other two aside their good joint letter.
Of course the Almighty will have the last word!