What is a French prime ministerโs job anyway?
The answer depends on when you ask.
Jacques Chirac
French prime minister hopefuls line up for post-Olympics race
On your marks, get set, go: The Olympics respite is over and France now has to fix its political crisis.
Poised for victory, Germanyโs center right dithers
The country’s ascendant Christian Democratic Union remains utterly baffled as to how it might wield power.
Macron hopes glitzy Olympics can deliver political breather
The French president wants a summer timeout from politics, but it will be back with a vengeance.
The end of Le Pen?
The far-right leader, while not down and out, faces an uphill task in the 2027 presidential election.
Cohabitation government begins in France โ archive, 1986
In March 1986, Socialist President Francois Mitterrand appointed centre-right leader Jacques Chirac as prime minister after losing the parliamentary electionsBy Campbell Page and Paul Webster
17 March 1986 Continue reading…
The Brief โ Cordon sanitaire, uncordoned
The cordon sanitaire was once a non-negotiable electoral strategy that parties across the French political aisles implemented to block the far right from getting to power, but it is now shattered almost to the point of irrelevance.
Macron is history, Le Pen is triumphant. What do โreasonableโ French voters like me do now? | Pierre Haski
France can look in the mirror and ask what went wrong โ or vote for the left to limit the National Rallyโs grip on powerFor all of my adult life, the Le Pen family has felt like a shadow hanging over my head. Jean-Marie, the father, used to make jokes …
Far right charts irresistible rise in Franceโs conservative heartlands
Political boundaries are shifting in Sarthe, a traditional bastion of the French conservatives.
What if Macron is enemies with his next prime minister?
A liberal president constantly fighting a far-right prime minister would be a recipe for political catastrophe.
What to expect from a Lepenist government
It’s far less important to know how Le Pen exorcised her party’s past demons than how a National Rally government will exercise power.
French election: Your guide to a vote that is set to shake the EU and NATO
Global strategic and financial consequences hang on the outcome of the June 30 and July 7 ballot โ a complex, two-round process that needs some explanation.
How Emmanuel Macron Turned France Into America
Franceโs leader has changed his country and Europe โ and not in ways that he necessarily intended.
French election descends into madcap reality TV
The French political class is tearing itself apart with feuding and backbiting ahead of this month’s vote.
EU election: Not enough will change โ and thatโs the real problem
The Parliament election is one more shrill alarm bell that needs to be heeded seriously by Europeโs mainstream establishment, and one that should prompt considerable soul-searching.
Franceโs conservative Republicans party divided over alliance with far right
France’s conservative Republicans party was fraying on Wednesday after its leader called for an alliance between his party’s candidates and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) in a snap parliamentary election. Eric Ciotti’s call to ditch a d…
Bid to unite the right against Macron hits the rocks
The leader of France’s center right Les Rรฉpublicains triggered a firestorm with his suggestion of an alliance with the far right.
5 furious reactions to French conservativesโ talks with far right
“Chirac died a second time.”
Follow Chirac and Farage, not angry farmers, when it comes to music as a political weapon
Europe’s farmers are taking a stand โ and ruining it by playing “Barbie Girl.”
Emmanuel Macron (and all of Paris) dans la merde
Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column. Inside a planning meeting for the Paris Olympics, sometime in late 2017โฆ Marketing: โHey guys, Iโve got this great idea! Why donโt we have the opening ceremony for the Olympics along the river Seine?โ Security: โYouโre joking, right? Itโll be a terroristโs dream. Are we making โbeing picked [โฆ]
Macronโs explosive home front in the Gaza war
France’s Gaza diplomacy is also about about navigating France’s internal political and religious divisions, which have been a frequent source of domestic tensions.
Macron blames far right for chaotic farmersโ fair in Paris
Police and protesters clashed as French president visited the annual agricultural show in a tense atmosphere.
Les 30 couples de pouvoir qui comptent en 2024
ร lโoccasion de la Saint-Valentin, POLITICO a listรฉ les couples les plus influents de lโannรฉe en politique.
Bernadette review โ Catherine Deneuve warms up French first lady biopic
The French icon is the most stylish thing about this underpowered tale of the wife of President Chirac attempting a new public imageCatherine Deneuve makes a stately but good-humoured procession through a bland, underpowered true-life political dramedy…
Macron makes enemies defendingย rape-accusedย star
Actors, writers and celebs have lined up in defense of Gรฉrard Depardieu, alongside the French president.
Christmas season fights: Man vs. Frog (and pigeons and geese)
The French love eating frog legs at this time of year โย but should they?
The comeback kids: 13 best political resurrections ever
You thought David Cameronโs return was sensational. Check out these guys.
โI donโt think we can escapeโ: Veteran Lebanese politician fears Israel-Hamas war will spread
Walid Jumblatt blames the US for stoking the Middle East crisis by neglecting Palestinian aspirations of statehood.
The Schemer: Inside French commissioner Thierry Bretonโs plot to run Europe
The commissioner has recently been playing politics โ insiders say it could be part of a bid for Europe’s most powerful position.
From Napolรฉon to Macron: How France learned to love Big Brother
The 2024 Summer Olympics will spotlight a surveillance state which Paris has spent 200 years building.
French rejection of top American economist is a blow to liberal Europe
Emmanuel Macron’s effective veto of the hiring of Fiona Scott Morton shows just how much France rules the roost in Brussels.
Seine to open for public swimming after Paris Olympics, mayor says
Three monitored river bathing zones in the French capital will open in 2025, said the mayor, Anne HidalgoA quarter of a century after the late president Jacques Chirac promised Parisians they would be able to swim in the Seine within three years, the F…
Catherine Deneuve to play Bernadette Chirac, first among first ladies
Grande dame of French cinema says she admired former first ladyโs โstrength and freedomโBernadette Chirac was Franceโs answer to Hillary Clinton; the first French presidentโs wife to come out of the shadows and make her own political splash.Seen as dow…