French Politiques for an Anglophone Audience
On May 16, a 50-year-old man killed himself with a gun in the hall of a pre-school in the 7th arrondissement of Paris in front of several children. Sources indicate that he had been kept from entering by several adults before apparently panicking and shooting himself in the head. Vincent Peillon, Minister of Education, returned from […]
May 17 was the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO), and also the day the French Constitutional Council approved the same-sex marriage bill that will give same-sex couples the right to marry and adopt children. On Friday, May 17, in the late afternoon, the “wise-men” of the Council released a statement, declaring that “the articles (…) […]
PARIS. – On March 17, François Hollande was in Toulouse for the first anniversary of Mohammed Merah’s murders in the French southern cities of Montauban and Toulouse. The French president delivered a speech that was not as conventional as expected, with many political implications. In Toulouse’s main square, mayor Pierre Cohen, and François Hollande delivered […]
On 12 December 2012, a report was published by a group of French senators who, “regularly questioned by families on the malfunctions” of the social security system for students (which provides health insurance, among other things), sought to “suggest emergency measures to simplify a system that suffers from a ludicrous complexity.” Beyond the short-term perspective, the […]
Immediately after the French Assembly deliberated over the same-sex marriage bill, the British followed suit. In Britain, same-sex civil unions are already feasible and surrogacy is an available option for every couple, as long as it is not paid. To no surprise, the bill passed quietly, since on the other side of the Channel the […]
On Tuesday, February 19, the French newspaper Les Echos triggered a clash between the French government and the tire company Titan with the publication of a polemical letter from its CEO, Maurice M. Taylor, Jr., known as “the Grizz.” In the letter, Taylor, former candidate for the Republican nomination in 1996, criticized the workers of […]
PARIS. – After many months of battle and 110 hours of discussion, the same-sex marriage debate came to an end on Saturday, February 9, in the French National Assembly. The official vote on the entire bill took place on February 12. While the debate is just beginning in the Senate, it seems for the French […]
PARIS. –On Sunday January 27, according to the police, 125,000 supporters of the same-sex marriage bill were part of the last demonstration before the debate begins in the National Assembly on Tuesday January 29 in Paris. The organizers of the protest claimed there were around 400,000 of them in the streets of Paris. Nevertheless, they […]
PARIS. – A couple weeks ago, a series of advertisements filled the Paris metro. Their motto is cheerful, positive and full of hope: “who wants everyone to succeed?” Meanwhile, in the French capital, the overwhelming majority of the teachers in the Parisian elementary schools were in the streets on January 22 to protest against the […]
In his New Year’s speech to the “wise men” of the Constitutional Council, François Hollande declared that he would put an end to the right held by former Presidents to be members of this institution. Hollande’s decision acknowledges one fact: the Constitutional Council has gone from a technical, marginal institution to a guardian of the […]
