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France on the edge
Nearly 150 years after French poet Arthur Rimbaud’s masterwork, contemporary France is roiled by its own Season in Hell, a deeply fractured and unsettled political moment in which dark phantasms grow large and the path to a better world is anything but clear.
Introducing a new series of political analysis from the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brussels Office.
The Left
Version française ci-dessous
The forward march of extremist forces in Europe continued apace in the 2024 super election year, with far-right parties watching their election results surge in country after country. Their recent instalment into leadership positions within the European Commission — a historic first ... read more "Europe Needs an Action-Oriented Left"
IMAGO/Starface
On the evening of Sunday, 7 July 2024, the Place de la République in Paris was once again filled with a compact crowd, but this time it was joy and shouts of victory that dominated the gathering immediately after the election results were announced.
read more "A Hopeful Surprise in France"
read more "A Hopeful Surprise in France"
IMAGO/Le Pictorium
When Emmanuel Macron was elected President of France in 2017, he vowed in his first public speech that the far right would be erased before of the end of his mandate. Seven years later, Marine Le Pen’ Rassemblement National (RN) is on the verge of power, set to walk through a door that was left wide open by ... read more "France between Fascism and the Popular Front"
IMAGO/ABACAPRESS
****Version française ci-dessous****With only a few days to go before election day, the foundation’s Nessim Achouche spoke to Clémence Guetté, a member of the French National Assembly for La France insoumise (LFI) and co-president of the movement’s think tank, Institut La Boétie, about LFI’s electoral strategy and how Institut La Boétie helps to ... read more "The Struggle for Hegemony Is a Struggle for Ideas"
IMAGO/ABACAPRESS
How French voters turn out in the European elections next month could have major domestic implications
Do the French care about the European elections? Thus far, the European electoral campaign has failed to stir up much popular enthusiasm. Of course, it is only just getting underway, and headlines have focused primarily on the new ... read more "A Test Run for 2027?"
An analysis of the perspectives for the French left and the NUPES in the 2024 European Parliament elections***Version française ci-dessous***
This study aims to provide a brief analysis of the current state of affairs in the European Union in order to analyse the perspectives of the French left in the 2024 European Parliament ... read more "Unity Makes Strength?"
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Due to dwindling membership and internal divisions, the decline of French trade unions long seemed inevitable. Against this backdrop, the unity demonstrated by the so-called intersydicale since the beginning of the massive protests against the pension reform, as well as internal renewal... read more "The Paradox of French Labour"
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 ... read more "Inside France’s Social and Political Explosion"