France on the edge
Two months into the battle over Macron’s pension reform, is the movement closer to victory?
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The pension reform was supposed to be the landmark measure of Emmanuel Macron’s second term. After failing in his first attempt in 2020 following two months of strikes and blocked debates in the National Assembly and then the arrival of COVID, the French President was determined to see this reform to the end. Fervently requested by the European Commission, this reform is of major political importance for ...
read more "Inside France’s Social and Political Explosion"
read more "Inside France’s Social and Political Explosion"
Macron’s deeply unpopular pension reform seems set to pass, but the fight isn’t over yetThe last few weeks have seen over 1 million French citizens take to the streets against the government’s planned pension reform. Most of the political parties and France’s trade union movement, not to mention over 90 percent of the active population, stand opposed to the reform, but French president Emmanuel Macron continues to press on with it. How did we get here, and what comes next?
Gala Kabbaj and Zakaria Bendali are both researchers with the collective Quantité Critique....
read more "One against All?"
read more "One against All?"
The French president’s deeply unpopular pension reform could make or break his administration
Thursday, 19 January 2023 was a historic day in France, with well over 1 million people turning out in the streets as part of a nationwide strike to protest proposed reforms to the country’s vaunted pension system. Sound familiar? It should, because a similar reform proposed by President Emmanuel Macron was blocked by popular protest just a few years ago.
The exact crowd numbers are disputed, as always, with the police estimating 1.12 million, while the Confédération...
read more "Macron Makes a Power Move"
read more "Macron Makes a Power Move"
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On Sunday 19 June, a long electoral sequence in France that began on 10 April during the first round of the presidential election ended. Although this first election only had one winner, Emmanuel Macron re-elected in the second round against Marine Le Pen, the tripartition that has worked the political field since 2017 was heavily reflected in the results and now structures a national assembly divided between the group Ensemble, the Nupes and the RN. Also, The Republicans were more resilient than in the ...
read more "The Re-Parlamentarization of French Politics"
read more "The Re-Parlamentarization of French Politics"
While the headiest dreams – of a radical left National Assembly with Jean-Luc Mélenchon as its Prime Minister – have been dashed, the Popular Union (NUPES) led by La France Insoumise (LFI) emerges from yesterday’s legislative elections as the principal opposition to a weakened President Macron.
There is no doubt as to the election night’s biggest loser. The only question is whether Macron should have considered actually campaigning, debating, putting forth a program, not ...
read more "Quick Take on the French Legislative Elections: Wins for the Far Right and Broad Left, Macron in Trouble"
read more "Quick Take on the French Legislative Elections: Wins for the Far Right and Broad Left, Macron in Trouble"
June legislative elections, which closely follow the presidential election, typically serve to rubber stamp an incoming president’s mandate. This year is different, with second-term President Macron facing a stiff challenge from a united left making a credible push to win a parliamentary majority and select Jean-Luc Mélenchon as the country’s prime minister. How did the famously fractious French left come together, and what does their alliance mean for the present and future of politics in the country?
“Aurélien, you have come back ...
read more "French Legislative Elections and the Next Left Hope"
read more "French Legislative Elections and the Next Left Hope"
On 10 of April at 20:00, the two faces of Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen appeared on French TV screens announcing their advance to the second round of the French presidential election. The incumbent president placed first with 27.8 percent of the vote, putting him slightly ahead of the far-right leader, who scored a record high of 23.1 percent. No matter what happens between now and 24 April, one of the two candidates will be the next President of France by the end of the month.
But for this picture to be accurate, it needs to include Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the ...
read more "Not Out of the Woods Yet"
read more "Not Out of the Woods Yet"
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For some fifteen years, the French left has been undergoing a period of spectacular reconfiguration. However, no force has managed to establish itself permanently as a new dominant player since the collapse of social democracy. The 2022 presidential and legislative elections will be crucial for two reasons: all these parties are seeking a better balance of power, and many of them are playing for their lives.
In the run-up to the French presidential election in April 2022, six ...
read more "The French left, between constant reconfiguration and a fight for survival"
read more "The French left, between constant reconfiguration and a fight for survival"
The French left ahead of presidential elections***Version française ci-dessous***
Less than one month ahead of the first round of French presidential elections, who are the left and progressive candidates, and how do their political projects compare? And more pointedly, do any of them stand a chance?
On the left, 6 candidates are running to become president of France. Neither Christiane Taubira, François Hollande's former justice minister, nor the Trotskyist Annasse Kazib, nor Hélène Thouy, of the Animalist Party, managed to obtain the 500 signatures from elected ...
read more "Who’s Who?"
read more "Who’s Who?"
The dangers of EU militarisation under French leadership***Version française ci-dessous***
In the shadow of Putin’s revanchist war in Ukraine and its multifold consequences for Europe’s security architecture, member states are developing the European Union’s first full-fledged military strategy. The “Strategic Compass” championed by French President Macron – whose government currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council – would substantially advance the militarisation of the European Union. Swept up by domestic political ...
read more "A Strategic Compass Leading Where?"
read more "A Strategic Compass Leading Where?"