French Politiques for an Anglophone Audience
François Hollande has been in power for almost a year. He was elected on a platform containing three main themes: fight unregulated finance, do politics differently, and solve the chronic deficit of the national budget. He was elected by a wide coalition of voters, ranging from a traditional – now seen as radical and old […]
Last Thursday, March 28, the President of the French Republic François Hollande spent seventy-five minutes on primetime television explaining his actions. The program, which was supposed to boost (or at least stabilize) the President’s popularity, had overall little effect as no announcement was made to correct the country’s rising unemployment. Instead, Hollande stuck to the […]
Simply speaking, it was an exciting week in French politics. In less than seven days, the majority didn’t qualify for the second round of a by-election, the Budget Minister was forced to resign, and a motion of no confidence, rejected by the Parliament and the former President of the Republic, was put under formal investigation […]
On March 11 and 12, the President of the Republic François Hollande was in Dijon, in Burgundy, to meet with the French people. Unofficially, the maneuver had another goal: try to redress the declining popularity of the President. In Dijon, the President did meet with French people, but his communication strategy failed as it was […]
Last Tuesday, March 5, the President of the Republic of Venezuela Hugo Chavez died after battling cancer for months. In Venezuela, the announcement of his death provoked scenes of despair, as Chavez was revered by many in his country. Meanwhile, some argued that no one should cry over the loss of the Venezuelan President who […]
There is almost a tradition in France for elected officials to hold several offices at the same time: it is called the ‘cumul des mandats’, and it has been the subject of recurring debate and controversy in the country for several years now. Last spring, for the first time, the French elected a President who […]
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 […]
Last Saturday, in the National Center for Arts and Crafts, Terra Nova held its first Winter Congress. The organization is a think tank close to the Parti Socialiste (PS) and aims at bringing new ideas and methods into the French social-democrat political sphere. To give one example, they were the promoters of the successful primaries organized […]
This article is the last in a series of three about the place of the Nation-state in a globalized world. The first part dealt with the risks of patriotism and the second part pointed out the danger of governance over government. There is no chance whatsoever of cosmopolitanism becoming a main idea in world politics […]
Democracy has changed. Gone is the time when our representatives really held the political power. In early representative democracy, there was a nation and its people. The people held the power, but in order to be governed, they accepted to give up their power to regularly elected representatives. Those representatives were given authorization by being […]
