France

Macron may well win. But Macronism is dead

14 October 2021 3:19 pm

President Emmanuel Macron was in an expansive mood this week as he commandeered the splendid beaux arts Grand Palais in…

France's political elite created Eric Zemmour

9 October 2021 10:04 am

Love him or loathe him, Eric Zemmour is a breath of fresh air in French politics. Before he appeared as…

The downfall of the French middle class

9 October 2021 9:00 am

The chesty Corsican taxi driver was giving me his earnest appraisal of the way things were headed in France politically.…

Power fail: French tantrum diplomacy is wearing thin

6 October 2021 8:01 am

It’s hard for tabloid journalists to engage in mad hyperbole when politicians seem all too willing to do it for…

Macron's selective defence of free speech

5 October 2021 5:12 am

In the early years of his presidency, Emmanuel Macron became known as Monsieur ‘En Meme Temps’. The president of France…

Eric Zemmour is eating Marine Le Pen alive

29 September 2021 8:59 am

French opinion polls are best taken with a generous bucket of sel de Guérande but this evening’s drop of a…

Von der Leyen is the real winner of the German elections

29 September 2021 5:00 am

The bald guy who leads the Social Democrats. The earnest looking Green lady. Or perhaps the guy in the charcoal-grey…

Emmanuel Macron and the art of tantrum diplomacy

26 September 2021 9:47 am

France’s fit of pique following Australia’s cancelled submarine contract – and the signing of the Aukus pact – is a…

The Bataclan trial is forcing France to confront some difficult questions

25 September 2021 10:17 am

It’s a stroke of good fortune for France that Salah Abdeslam is a coward. Had he not been he would…

The case against Aukus

25 September 2021 9:00 am

The case against Aukus

The beauty of the Normandy memorial

25 September 2021 9:00 am

As the cross-Channel ferry noses into Ouistreham, I have a perfect view westward along the D-Day beaches. The excitement of…

The EU should keep out of France's spat with Australia

22 September 2021 6:46 am

Ursula von der Leyen has demanded a full investigation. EU officials are considering pulling out of technology talks with the…

Biden is losing Nato

19 September 2021 4:00 pm

The forming of the Australia-UK-US (Aukus) military alliance in the Pacific shows how everything Trump can say, Biden can do.…

The real reason France was excluded from Aukus

19 September 2021 6:30 am

The fallout from Australia’s cancellation of its submarine contract with France and the new trilateral Indo-Pacific security pact between Australia,…

Aukus is a disaster for the EU

18 September 2021 10:05 am

It is hard to overstate the importance of the so-called Aukus alliance between the US, the UK and Australia —…

I rather enjoy my chemotherapy sessions

18 September 2021 9:00 am

With a French health card everything is free for us cancer patients, even taxis to and from the hospital. ‘This…

Macron's ambitions have been torpedoed by Aukus

17 September 2021 6:50 am

Today France is outraged. First, explicitly because Australia has broken a large contract to have a French company design their…

Macron is playing Eric Zemmour’s tune

16 September 2021 3:10 am

In a big speech yesterday, Macron presented himself in almost Nixonian terms as guardian of law and order. He said…

Hidalgo has trashed Paris. Can she do the same for France?

14 September 2021 4:00 am

Anne Hidalgo, the socialist mayor of Paris, whose reign has submerged the city in debt and rubbish, is the latest…

A tale of refugees from ‘Brexit Britain’

11 September 2021 9:00 am

In the New Year I was introduced to a couple who had fled Britain impulsively on New Year’s Eve with…

The West's Islamist capitulation

9 September 2021 8:12 am

On Monday, Tony Blair addressed a military think tank in London and stated that the West should continue to intervene…

Was I the picture of evil incarnate?

4 September 2021 9:00 am

Not long after Catriona and I first met, her husband painted my head and shoulders portrait in oils as I…

France's provocateur is coming to London

3 September 2021 7:34 am

Five years ago, London’s affluent French poured their dosh into the campaign of Emmanuel Macron. This time around, supporters of…

Is the EU trying to hamstring the French military?

1 September 2021 4:30 pm

Much recent discussion has focussed on the collapse of Afghanistan and the decline of the West. The humiliating American-led Western…

Anne Hidalgo’s socialist reign of error in Paris

30 August 2021 3:31 am

A photograph, taken in June 2014, has become emblematic of Anne Hidalgo’s Socialist rule of Paris. In the picture stands…