After 50 days without a government, France is losing her head. What began as a historical curiosity has descended into a crisis. Not only is the current caretaker government unable to manage anything more than “ongoing affairs”, but the deadline …
Macron’s Olympic truce is over
“Paris became a place of celebration once more, and France found itself again.” Tony Estanguet, the president of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games organising committee, could be forgiven for indulging himself during his speech at the weekend’s closing ceremony. Even …
France has already won the Olympics
French happiness is an uncanny sight these days but there is no denying it: the Paris Games has brought France’s joie de vivre back. It won’t last, of course, but the memory will linger on. Will it translate politically? One …
France has scorned globalisation
Although French voters rejected the far-Right National Rally in last weekend’s election, in giving most of their support to either the RN or the Left, they still repudiated Emmanuel Macron’s liberal internationalism. In doing so, France joined the rising tide …
The French Left is celebrating too soon
Contrary to those punching the air and heaving enormous sighs of relief, it is difficult to draw any definitive conclusions about the recent legislative election in France. The ecstasy felt by many at seeing the National Rally (RN) fall far …
Macron has dynamited French politics
“Live dangerously!” was Nietzsche’s advice to his followers, those “good Europeans”, the “legislators of the future”. He wanted them to send their “ships into uncharted seas”, to “live at war” with their peers and themselves. That was the secret, as …
Marine Le Pen’s favourite far-Right philosopher
For Dominique Venner, the time had come to die. The 78-year-old man entered Notre-Dame de Paris. He walked intently; every step brought him closer to the end. He knew there was no going back. “A successful death is one of …
Is Macron’s gamble actually working?
A 10-second clip from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi has been doing the rounds on French social media. In it, a hooded, decaying Emperor Palpatine arrives on the “fully operational” Second Death Star, cackling “Everything is proceeding as I …
Jordan Bardella is no radical
It’s been a long time coming, but after a triumphant showing at the European elections, and then such a strong result in the first round of the French parliamentary elections, it looks like National Rally, a Le Pen party, is …
The fall of Macron’s personality cult
With only days to go before the first round of the snap legislative elections called by President Emmanuel Macron, French politics remains as dramatically volatile as at any moment since the massive protests of 1968. A hung parliament, with the …
The faux radicalism of the Popular Front
Interviewed on French television last Friday, a prominent parliamentarian from the far-Left La France Insoumise, Matilde Panot, defended a claim made by her leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, about the relative inexperience of Léon Blum when he became head of the French …
The EU’s economic war on Le Pen
With France bracing itself for the first round of its snap parliamentary election this Sunday, the near-certain prospect of victory for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) has sent French and EU elites to their panic stations. Reeling from their …
California has surrendered its streets to assholes
I have always felt a white-hot hatred for those Harley clowns, in their clown costumes, who gratuitously rev their stone-age V-twin engines as you sit outdoors trying to have a conversation. The only proper response, I believe, would be for …
Emmanuel Macron, destroyer of worlds
A much-shared video, recorded on Tuesday in the European Parliament corridors by Tomio Okamura, a right-wing Czech party leader, shows him with Dutch BVV leader Geert Wilders, Italian La Lega’s Matteo Salvini and Marine Le Pen, all colleagues in the …
Can France’s dauphin hold his nerve?
In 1792, the last Frenchman to be honoured with the title of dauphin was thrown in Paris’s Le Temple prison. The young Louis XVII was never freed; he died aged just 10.
More than two centuries later, the nickname had …
