BY ALEX STORY Macron, Merz and Starmer met on a train to Kiev, to discuss important matters pertaining to the war in the Ukraine. The threesome would hold talks with Zelensky. The aim: to push Russia to agree a reasonable ceasefire. With real prospects of further escalation, the stakes could hardly be higher. To capture the solemn occasion, Agence France Press (AFP), the reputed French … Continue reading On the Devil’s Dandruff?
BY MARK TAC As ever with La Belle France, nothing is really as it seems. The unpalatable truth for the French is they have never recovered from their Revolution which was a bloody disaster for the country as was the fact that Napoleon grabbed power, wrecked Europe, and left France exhausted. All they could do was give a Gallic shrug and carry on. Five years … Continue reading Notes from France
BY STEWART SLATER Find someone who loves you as much as The Economist loves Emmanuel Macron. The house journal of the technocracy told readers of its daily email to “Sigh with relief” for the recently re-elected Emmanuel Macron had been an “unusually good leader for France.” Well, up to a point Lord Copper. And, it turns out, that point is 41.5%, the proportion of voters … Continue reading Are the French Toast?
BY ALEX STORY The French Presidential elections are about to run their course. The two round election was introduced by General De Gaulle as the Fifth Republic was installed in 1958. It will be the eleventh such election since then. The first round would enable the populace to vote with their hearts. They would be able to vote for any and every party under the … Continue reading Boiling a Frog
BY DANIEL JUPP Mainstream: Russian security concerns are a paranoid fantasy. Putin is delusional. The idea that Ukraine could be used as a staging post for regime change in Russia is absurd. Johnson: Putin must fail! Biden: For God’s sake this man must go! The thing about the stupidity of the puppets selected to pretend to be leaders is that one of them is a … Continue reading Puppet Masters
BY EFFIE DEANS France is a rather odd place. It is not merely the chunk of the European continent across the Channel. It also includes two islands in the Caribbean, Guadeloupe and Martinique, a little bit of South America, French Guiana, and two islands in the Indian Ocean, Réunion and Mayotte. These are part of France in just the same way as Picardy and Normandy. … Continue reading Macron’s Geography Lesson
BY JAMIE FOSTER Boris Johnson certainly struck a nerve in Paris when he suggested that under his leadership the £39B divorce bill may be retained. President Macron said that if we were to not pay the bill it would be like a sovereign debt default and there would be ‘consequences’. This sinister, threatening tone conjures up images of being punished by international markets with a … Continue reading Little Macron’s Threats
BY PAUL NEWALL We should watch on with some interest the events in Paris and Brussels where the mainstream media is informing us that a movement known as the Gilets jaunes are protesting a hike in fuel taxes as part of French president Emmanuel Macron’s green taxation programme resultant from the Paris Climate Accord. (Macron has just folded to their demands.) Looking beneath the surface there are … Continue reading Yellow Macron Folds
CSM EDITORIAL From Anglophile Donald Trump’s seat at the Resolute Desk – a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, built from the English oak timbers of the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute – Britain does not seem so friendly after all. One would even forgive President Trump looking across the Atlantic these days and preferring Monsieur Macron to Mrs … Continue reading Resolute, Trump
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN As I write this piece from Biarritz on the French Atlantic coast, the September sun is shining and waves are crashing down onto the beach in front of the Hotel de la Plage. A dozen or so surfers attempt to gain traction from the occasionally useable waves. The terrace cafe in which I am sitting is much quieter than a month ago, … Continue reading A Postcard from Biarritz
