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About Patrice de Beer

Patrice de Beer is former London and Washington correspondent for Le Monde

Articles by Patrice de Beer

Monday 6th February

France's election: looking for light

Patrice de Beer, 6 February 2012
France's disillusion extends beyond the country's president to its political class, economy and sense of social direction. The beneficiaries may include the far-right Marine Le Pen as well as the centre-left François Hollande, says Patrice de Beer.
Thursday 22nd December

2011, the two winners

Patrice de Beer, 22 December 2011
The hopes of liberation from dictatorship and penury shine less brightly at the end of this year of movement, says Patrice de Beer.
Wednesday 5th October

Nicolas Sarkozy: on the precipice

Patrice de Beer, 5 October 2011
An insipid economy, a tornado of scandal, anaemic support, an alienated core, internecine war on the right, a show of opposition unity - France’s president faces a perfect storm all of his making. But are these really Sarkozy’s last days, asks Patrice de Beer.
Wednesday 24th August

The French left and 2012

Patrice de Beer, 24 August 2011
The ending of the legal case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves France’s socialists still looking for a strategy - and a candidate - able to defeat Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012. They have a tough legacy to overcome, says Patrice de Beer.
Wednesday 8th June

The scandal of France: power and shame

Patrice de Beer, 8 June 2011
The arrest in New York of the head of the International Monetary Fund and leading French politician on charges of sexual misconduct is a confusing and revelatory moment in France's public life. Whatever the legal outcome of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s case some uncomfortable truths have to be faced, says Patrice de Beer.
Wednesday 4th May

Patrice de Beer

Patrice de Beer, 4 May 2011

What you are asking from me is even more difficult than predicting the past, a past which is ever rewritten by politicians and “thinkers” in search of self vindication.  

The shift I would imagine – and hope for – in 2050 would be that social

rules would become more equitable within nations AND among them in a world subjected to ever growing income and social inequalities between the haves, have less (i.e. the middle classes) and the have nots. The lessening of social inequalities and of the arrogance of those who want more and more at the cost of giving less and less IS the prerequisite to long term peace among nations and to stability – not to talk about happiness – within our own societies. And a crucial condition to the long term success of globalisation as a way towards fulfilling hopes of peoples and nations and not the greed of a few.

 

“I know my place”, The Frost Report,1966
Wednesday 9th March

France, Europe, and the Arab maelstrom

Patrice de Beer, 9 March 2011
An Arab world in transformation has found France’s elite shamed by its links with the old order. A control-freak president with base political instincts offers little hope for a better policy, says Patrice de Beer.
Thursday 9th December

WikiLeaks and democracy

Patrice de Beer, 9 December 2010
The Robin Hoods of the net challenge the culture of secrecy that has major states in its grip - and thus perform a service to democracy, says Patrice de Beer.
Wednesday 27th October

France’s pension reform: the bitter pill

Patrice de Beer, 27 October 2010
The popular rejection of Nicolas Sarkozy’s abrupt changes to France’s pension system is rooted in the institutional and ethical flaws that underlie the reform, says Patrice de Beer.
Tuesday 13th April

France: president’s defeat, polity’s crisis

Patrice de Beer, 13 April 2010
Nicolas Sarkozy’s buffeting and the left’s advance in regional elections are less important than France’s profound alienation from politics, says Patrice de Beer.
Wednesday 3rd March

France's other worlds: burqa and abyss

Patrice de Beer, 3 March 2010
The degrading realities of France’s survivalist economy put the country’s latest debate about Islamic apparel into perspective, says Patrice de Beer.
Friday 11th December

France: identity in question

Patrice de Beer, 11 December 2009
A "great debate" over French national identity is compromised by its politicised character and exclusionary discourse, says Patrice de Beer.
Tuesday 16th June

Sarkozyland: France's inward politics

Patrice de Beer, 16 June 2009
France's Euro vote reveals a rearmed right, lost left, and broken centre. But there's a green gleam
Wednesday 13th May

France’s lost and found ideals

Patrice de Beer, 13 May 2009
The noble principles on which modern France was founded are in trouble. But there is search for renewal
Thursday 9th April

Esther Duflo: the new French intellectual

Patrice de Beer, 9 April 2009
A scholar-activist's lesson: help the world’s poor by learning to do more for less
Friday 6th February

France’s politics of regicide

Patrice de Beer, 6 February 2009
A profound crisis drives many French citizens to embrace an “anti-capitalist” option
Wednesday 17th December

France’s socialist crack-up

Patrice de Beer, 17 December 2008
France's political "elephants" have blocked an effort to reinvent the left. But not for ever
Wednesday 12th November

Nicolas Sarkozy: world leader, local problem

Patrice de Beer, 12 November 2008
France’s president has wider ambitions. He may be reminded that all politics is local
Tuesday 9th September

France in Afghanistan: a wounded mission

Patrice de Beer, 9 September 2008
The burden of France's foreign-policy change under Nicolas Sarkozy may be too heavy to bear
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