5 reasons for the EU to be hopeful in 2022
Paul Taylor, a contributing editor at POLITICO, writes the “Europe At Large” column. PARIS — The dark cloud of the Omicron coronavirus variant may be plunging your plans for the New Year into...
View ArticleEU flag under the Arc de Triomphe comes down as culture war boils
Within just 48 hours, an EU flag went up — and then back down — under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, sparking a far-right culture war over national identity and leaving the French government insisting...
View ArticleEU flag is collateral damage as French presidential campaign heats up
PARIS — On the surface, the outrage that greeted the EU flag flying solo under the Arc de Triomphe at the weekend was a political storm in a teacup. But it also showed that Europe will be just one of...
View ArticleEuropean elections to watch in 2022
From EU reformer Emmanuel Macron to EU troublemaker Viktor Orbán, some of the Union’s most vocal supporters and critics are facing tough electoral challenges at home in 2022 that could in turn shake...
View ArticleEurope is ready to shed its fiscal straitjacket
Mujtaba Rahman is the head of Eurasia Group’s Europe practice and the author of POLITICO’s Beyond the Bubble column. He tweets at @Mij_Europe. There is little doubt that 2022 is going to be a very...
View ArticleIt’s the (French) economy, stupid. But whose economy?
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. There are 10 weeks to go until the first round of the presidential election and...
View ArticleMeet the French MEPs who shape the presidential race
Want to get a handle on the French presidential election? Then get yourself down to the European Parliament. The EU Parliament is no longer a retirement home for fading/disgraced French politicians,...
View ArticleFrance’s Pécresse blasts Berlin and Brussels in presidential bid
PARIS — French presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse isn’t just taking aim at Emmanuel Macron — she’s also firing potshots at Germany and the EU. Pécresse, the candidate of the conservative Les...
View ArticleFrance’s Pécresse comes under fire for reference to far-right conspiracy theory
PARIS — France’s conservative presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse was slammed on Monday for using far-right rhetoric and referring to the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory at her first big...
View ArticleTrump encouraged French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour in phone call,...
PARIS – Former U.S. President Donald Trump gave French presidential hopeful Eric Zemmour advice on how to win an election during a 40-minute phone call on Monday, according to the latter’s...
View ArticleWaiting for Sarko
Seventy years after the publication of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” the French presidential election campaign has thrown up a new drama of the absurd: “Waiting for Sarko.” With eight weeks to...
View ArticleBarking mad: Dog votes in French right-wing primary
Who let the dogs … vote?! Clovis, a lovely brown Shiba Inu from the southern city of Nice, allegedly cast a ballot in France’s right-wing primary last December, which saw Valérie Pécresse elected as...
View ArticleRussia’s Ukraine invasion disrupts French presidential campaign
PARIS — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is disrupting a highly anticipated event on Western Europe’s political calendar: France’s presidential campaign. Campaigns which were already sluggish because of...
View ArticleValérie Pécresse: Stuck between Macron and a hard right
SAINT-GILLES-CROIX-DE-VIE, France — In a small room in the city hall of the coastal town Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, Valérie Pécresse was furious. “Merde!” she told a group of reporters, slamming her...
View ArticleA moribund French election? Not really
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. CALVADOS, France — Below the becalmed, even moribund, surface of the French...
View ArticleLe Pen gets ahead of far-right rival amid soaring energy prices
PARIS — Marine Le Pen’s early campaign to protect consumers and cut fuel prices appears to be striking a chord as the war in Ukraine prompts money worries among voters in France. It has also forced...
View ArticleMacron’s Twitter account raises electoral questions
PARIS — Emmanuel Macron’s campaigning team wants the same rules to apply to the French president and his rivals on Twitter, according to local media. In mid-March, the National committee of electoral...
View Article5 charts to help you read the French presidential election
The countdown is on to the biggest election in Europe this year. On April 10, voters in France head to the polling stations to decide whether to give Emmanuel Macron a second five-year term as...
View Article‘McKinseygate’ dogs Macron’s reelection campaign
PARIS — Opponents of French President Emmanuel Macron have come up with a ruse to rile him over the final stretch of what he hopes will be his reelection campaign: For every idea he proposes, ask if...
View ArticleHow to watch the French presidential election like a pro
PARIS — Five years after a political newbie named Emmanuel Macron snatched the Elysée, the French president is facing no less than 11 challengers in a reelection bid overshadowed by the Ukraine war....
View ArticleAs it happened: First round of French presidential election
Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen are set to face off in the second ballot of the French presidential election after coming out on top in Sunday’s first round. The incumbent president...
View Article5 takeaways from the first round of France’s presidential election
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron took first place, ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, in the first round of France’s presidential election on Sunday, but he is on course for a far...
View ArticleFrench election losers appeal to voters to help repay campaign debts
PARIS — As if getting less than 5 percent of votes wasn’t humiliating enough! Eight of the 12 candidates in the first round of the presidential election failed to reach the 5 percent vote threshold...
View ArticleSarkozy calls on supporters to back Emmanuel Macron
PARIS — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday called on voters to “respond to Emmanuel Macron’s rallying call” and vote for him in the second round of France’s presidential election. “I...
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3 battles that will define the future of the French right
French electoral politics has supposedly entered a prolonged calm or hiatus; there are no national or local elections scheduled for 18 months. Calm? Hardly. Calm before the storm? That’s more like...
View ArticleParis’ Olympics headache is a wake-up call for Los Angeles mayor
PARIS — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass got a bracing reality check about preparing for the Olympics from her Parisian counterpart, who warned her that 2028 is sooner than it appears. During a recent...
View ArticleCampus protests: Top French university shuts as police remove pro-Palestinian...
Police forced out a pro-Palestinian group which staged an occupation overnight at Sciences Po in Paris, a top university known as a breeding ground for France’s political elite. The occupation follows...
View ArticleFrench conservative leader locks opponents out of party headquarters
PARIS — Éric Ciotti has found a way to save his job: lock everyone out. The leader of Les Républicains — France’s historical home for conservatives — closed his party’s headquarters on Wednesday...
View ArticleFrench conservative party ousts leader over alliance with far right
PARIS — It’s been a frenetic 24 hours for the French right. The leaders of Les Républicains — the historical party of French conservatism — voted on Wednesday to expel their own president, Éric...
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French prime minister hopefuls line up for post-Olympics race
PARIS —Now that French Olympic stars like swimmer Léon Marchand, judoka Teddy Riner and fencer Manon Apithy-Brunet are heading home with gold medals, the focus in Paris is turning to another contest:...
View ArticleToo fast, too furious: Paris speed limit crashes into right-wing opposition
PARIS — France’s new transport minister hadn’t even been on the job for a week when he sat down with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo in a last-ditch effort to get her to reconsider a controversial policy:...
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