france

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.

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.

Friday 18th June

Charles de Gaulle remembered

Neal Ascherson, 18 June 2010

A London radio broadcast on 18 June 1940 by an unknown French officer altered history’s course. It was also the first act in Charles de Gaulle’s extraordinary thirty-year role as national-political leader and embodiment of “a certain idea of France”. Neal Ascherson traverses a landscape of memory - from Greenock to Paris, Algiers to Warsaw - to recall his encounters with a colossus of French and European history.

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.

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 20th May

Le Pen. La fin.

Jerome di Costanzo, 20 May 2009

The French extreme right is splintering as Le Pen, charismatic leader, fails to pass on his mantle

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

Monday 9th March

France's Obama fixation

Daniel Nichanian, 9 March 2009

Enthusiasm for Obama's success provides a window into the glaring shortfalls of French society

Wednesday 18th February

La grève: republican spirit

Hugh Cleary, 18 February 2009

France's readiness to strike is a reminder that republicanism survives even as its structures fail

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

Friday 28th November

Claude Lévi-Strauss at 100: echo of the future

Dan Sperber, 28 November 2008

The pioneering anthropologist's ideas still inform understanding of the human mind and its cultures

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

Thursday 7th August

China and the Olympics: a view from France

Patrice de Beer, 7 August 2008

The failure of judgment towards China among the French political class is all the more reason to reaffirm universal standards of human rights, says Patrice de Beer.

Monday 28th July