David Broder is Jacobin’s Europe editor and a historian of French and Italian communism.
Emmanuel Macron has appointed 34-year-old Gabriel Attal as France’s new prime minister. The bid to give his government a new progressive face suffers one big problem: French people haven’t forgotten its deeply anti-social record.
Giorgia Meloni and Rishi Sunak’s extremist views on immigration are quickly finding foothold among European centrists, in a desperate, xenophobic attempt to create political blocs ahead of the European elections in June.
Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National claims to be a “shield for Jews,” even though the party promotes antisemitic theories. Dividing Jews into “good” Israeli nationalists and “bad” cosmopolitans produces a modern revival of an old antisemitism.
The French monarchy was abolished this day in 1792. Left-wing MP Antoine Léaument explains why the values of the French Revolution can still be an inspiration for the Republic — and why Maximilien Robespierre has been wrongly cast as a violent monster.
For decades after 1945, the victims of Nazism’s crimes had less of a voice in West German society than the perpetrators. Germany’s much-credited reckoning with the Nazi past was a long time coming — but most of the criminals were never brought to justice.
Emmanuel Macron’s party has accused an “incendiary” left of stirring up violent protests after the police murder of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk. For left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the problem is the government’s failure to rein in unaccountable police.
France’s left has often failed to speak up for marginalized minorities. But after the backlash over the police murder of 17-year-old Nahel, left-wing parties have taken a clear stance, refusing to condemn rioters and insisting their anger is justified.
Silvio Berlusconi, who died today at age 86, centered Italian politics on his TV empire and brought the far right to power. A predecessor to Donald Trump, he remains the ultimate icon of the sidelining of democracy by media power.
Ahead of Greece’s general election on Sunday, the business press claims that the country is bouncing back from its years of austerity. Yanis Varoufakis tells Jacobin why, for ordinary Greeks, the situation is only getting worse.
Italy’s far-right government has driven a wave of historical falsification. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s call to turn today’s anti-fascist resistance anniversary into a generic celebration of “freedom” shows how it is trying to erase opposition to fascism from history.
Emmanuel Macron says it’s time to “pacify” tensions over his pension reform — yet today’s mobilization looks to be the biggest yet. France Insoumise’s Manon Aubry told Jacobin how the movement is challenging Macron’s antidemocratic way of governing.
France’s right wing claims “Islamo-leftism” is subverting their national culture. But “Frenchness” has always been in flux.
The fascist-inspired government in Italy, like the far-right government in Hungary, is part of European neoliberalism, not an alternative to it.
Across Western countries, the decline in class-based voting isn’t inevitable: it results from political choices.
New Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson comes from a party called the Moderates. But his majority relies on the votes of the far-right Sweden Democrats — and their pressure is already visible in his plans for government.
This week, French writer Annie Ernaux was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In an interview, she explains how her class background and the reality of class divides shape her writing.
Yesterday’s Italian election brought victory for Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Fratelli d’Italia — and record-low turnout. The opposition between technocrats and the far right is the symptom of a deeper decline.
Postwar Italy’s “escalator” system kept wages ahead of price hikes. In the 1980s, a socialist government brought it grinding to a halt — sending workers’ incomes on a decades-long downward trend.
Hillary Clinton has claimed that Giorgia Meloni becoming Italy’s first woman prime minister will “open doors” for women. Yet Meloni’s far-right agenda closes doors for women who want well-paid jobs, sexual autonomy, and reproductive rights.
For three decades, revisionists have systematically turned Italy’s discussion of World War II away from Fascist crimes and toward the Italians killed by anti-fascist partisans. The effect has been to trivialize the Fascist past — and legitimize a new far right.