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Harrison Stetler is a freelance journalist and teacher based in Paris.
French premier François Bayrou survived a confidence vote in February after promising fresh talks over pension age rise. But no change has been forthcoming — and calls for increased defense spending are pressuring pensions even further.
The pending deportation of Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil has also had echoes in France. Both establishment and far-right politicians are calling for Rima Hassan, a French Palestinian member of the European Parliament, to be stripped of her citizenship.
Dissatisfaction at established green parties and environmental NGOs has fed the rise of more confrontational forms of activism. The task can’t just be to raise awareness but to mobilize millions of people in fighting for their own interests.
France’s Parti Socialiste abstained in a confidence vote this week, allowing Emmanuel Macron’s allies to push through an austerity budget. Even as the president’s popularity flounders, the establishment center left chose to prop up his rule.
During its genocidal campaign in Gaza, Israel has repeatedly flouted the rulings of international courts. While Western states indulge Israeli impunity, a coalition of states backed by left-wing parties is spearheading action to hold Israel to account.
France’s interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, was chosen as a sop to the far right — and now he is tightening rules on migrant regularization. Emmanuel Macron’s government is increasingly serving Marine Le Pen’s policy agenda before she even reaches power.
On Thursday, France’s Parti Socialiste refused to back a motion of no confidence in François Bayrou’s government. It sold out its left-wing allies for feeble concessions, renewing the party’s dismal record of tailing neoliberal centrists.
On Friday, veteran liberal François Bayrou was announced as Emmanuel Macron’s new prime minister. Macron has again formed a government without a majority in parliament — and its planned budget cuts seem likely to face fierce opposition.
Last week, France’s left-wing parties tabled the no-confidence vote that felled conservative premier Michel Barnier. Now the Parti Socialiste threatens to break from the left-wing alliance in favor of a coalition with Emmanuel Macron and the center right.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is embroiled in an embezzlement trial that could see her barred from public office. After long demanding such bans for corrupt politicians, she now casts herself as victim of a judicial conspiracy.
Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich, a self-proclaimed fascist, is set to appear at a fundraising gala in Paris on Wednesday. Authorities have refused calls to block his visit — even as they silence public displays of solidarity with Palestine.
Mario Draghi’s report on rebooting the European economy has excited supporters of a more integrated EU. The former central banker challenges past pro-austerity dogma — yet takes it for granted that scaled-up private corporations offer Europe’s path to success.
Now starting his 41st year in jail, Lebanese communist Georges Abdallah is Europe’s longest-held political prisoner. French authorities keep finding pretexts to deny his release, trampling on civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism.
After the New Popular Front won July’s French elections, it nominated Lucie Castets for prime minister — only for Emmanuel Macron to ignore the result. Castets told Jacobin how the left-wing coalition can build on its progress and stop the lurch to the right.
France’s new prime minister, Michel Barnier, has just unveiled a staunchly conservative cabinet. His coalition cobbles together parties who scored feebly in summer’s elections — and looks unlikely to revive Emmanuel Macron’s flagging administration.
New French prime minister Michel Barnier wants to cut the budget deficit, but the president and his allies are resisting all talk of tax increases. They’re dead set on spending cuts — and to pass them, they’ll likely need the far right’s support.
The French election saw the left-wing New Popular Front easily defeat Emmanuel Macron’s allies. But almost six weeks later, Macron still refuses the winners the chance to govern, as he tries to cobble together a minority coalition with conservatives.
Criminal defense lawyer Raphaël Kempf has repeatedly been counsel for defendants in French terrorism trials. He writes for Jacobin about how anti-terrorism cases from France to Israel have undermined the bases of due process.
The French election was meant to bring victory for Marine Le Pen’s far right. But the New Popular Front rallied around a left-wing program for social change — allowing it to become the biggest force in the new National Assembly.
France’s establishment increasingly presents “Islamo-leftists” as the number-one source of antisemitism while whitewashing the far right. A French Jewish activist explains why it is dangerous to counterpose the defense of Jews with that of other minorities.