France

République française

It's Paris under the spring sunshine. Couples stroll hand-in-hand, steal kisses while window shopping past chic boutiques, or whisper sweet-nothings over marble-topped tables at a ...(full article)

Old stereotypes die hard. When the British were asked in a survey to identify the people in Europe they considered to be the most arrogant, they did not have look very far. Just ac...(full article)

Southern Europeans have grown impatient with Germany's self-imposed role as Europe's iron fist in recent months, but their criticism seems to have left the majority of Germans unfa...(full article)

After eight months, many tough negotiations, and even tougher decisions, French President François Hollande has delivered on his promise of a White Book on Defense and Security. T...(full article)

The Bourbons, as Talleyrand once remarked, learned nothing and forgot nothing. What was true of the rulers of France some two centuries ago seems true of voters in some countries i...(full article)

Most Recent Articles

Foolish Hollande Attacks Private Enterprise - New York Times

President François Hollande of France has recently been on a campaign to change the widely held perception that his administration is hostile to business. He has sounded mor...

Francois Hollande: A Year of Living Dangerously - The Guardian

The problem is not that the French president has been inactive. It is that most of his activity has backfired on him....

French President Francois Hollande Is Pathetic - Anne Moutet, Telegraph

With hindsight, it seems as if François Hollande’s troubles started the day he was inaugurated, on May 15, 2012. First he was drenched by a surprise storm as his open ...

Are Franco-German Ties Rupturing? - Jacob Heilbrunn

For the Germans the crisis raises a host of older questions about the true nature of German identity. European? Or German? So far, the political elites have been firmly committed t...

Austerity with a Human Face - Patrick Smith, The Fiscal Times

It did not take long for those flying the flag of fiscal austerity in Europe to turn tail. A week ago in this space I asserted that it was the beginning of the end for the “auste...

Austerity Debate Misses Half the Point - Hugo Dixon, Reuters

Europe is over-dependent on a broken bank system. It should be emulating the United States which relies much more on capital markets to fund industry and households. But Brussels i...

Germany Isn't Stupid, It Has a French Nightmare - Marc Champion, Ticker

Clearly the wheels are starting to come off Europe's austerity train, as German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble unveils a bilateral investment plan for Spain later today and It...

France Is Broken - John Laughland, The Spectator

The disillusionment with Hollande is also acute because this socialist President is such an obvious copy of his conservative predecessor (just as all presidents since Giscard have ...

Is a Revolution Brewing in France? - Michel Gurfinkiel, PJ Media

Less than one year after the election and the stunning victory of his socialist supporters at the National Assembly, there is a widespread feeling in France that the Hollande admin...

Europe's Army? Guess What, It's the French - Brian Stewart, CBC News

I've always been interested in the French army's ability to speed elite forces into foreign operations with a unique blend of stylish panache and secrecy. You'll have seen the late...

Europe Becoming a Green-Energy Basket Case - Washington Post

For years, European leaders have flaunted their unwavering commitment to fighting climate change — and chastised the United States for lagging behind. But last week brought yet m...

France: The Next Sick Man of Europe? - Paul Ames, Global Post

Ever since last month's disclosure that ex-budget minister Jerome Cahuzac lied about stashing almost $800,000 in a secret Swiss bank account, the French have become obsessed by th...

Only a Miracle Can Save France's Hollande - Eric Pape, Foreign Policy

The current head of state is that rare, big-time French politician who does not ooze vanity. Unlike former President Nicolas Sarkozy, an exercise freak who wore lifts in his shoes ...

China's European Diplomacy - Zachary Keck, The Diplomat

Iceland is already proving critical to advancing China and other Asian powers’ interests in the Arctic. On the same day that Iceland’s PM was in Beijing signing the FTA, Icelan...

Politics of Apology: Hollande & Algeria - Camille Pecastaing, World Affairs

When newly elected French President François Hollande squarely denounced the brutality and injustice of the whole era of French colonialism before the Algerian Parliament on...

France: Politicians Unpacked - The Guardian

With one past president convicted of corruption and another under investigation, there is a new mood....

Outrage in the Western World - Der Spiegel

European leaders on Tuesday offered their condolences to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, expressing widespread outrage at the attacks. With a number of major sporting e...

Hollande Seeks Role as Apostle of Virtue - Stefan Simons, Der Spiegel

French President François Hollande is doing some moral spring cleaning. His recent demands that government ministers make public all their financial assets are part of an effort t...

A Crisis of Democracy Rocks the 5th Republic - Ullrich Fichtner, Der Spiegel

France had hoped that President François Hollande could lead the country out of the swamp of scandal left behind by his precedessor Sarkozy. But accusations against his campaign m...

Hollande Is Losing the Battle for Europe - Jonathan Fenby, The Guardian

The president's woes matter outside France. The failure of his anti-austerity pledge has left the balance of power with Germany....

Franco-German Left Mired in Difficulties - Charles Hawley, Der Spiegel

Germany's Social Democrats had hoped that François Hollande's victory last spring would provide them with some momentum. But Friday's visit to Paris by SPD candidate Peer St...

Down and Out in Paris - The Economist

François Hollande can still resuscitate his presidency -- but he must tell the French the truth....

China's French Fetish - Benjamin Carlson, The New Republic

As anyone who has visited Hong Kong lately can tell you, the city is teeming with Frenchy things. Certain areas of the island have become Little Frances, with French schools, wine ...

Hollande's Administration Is Crumbling - The Independent

Mr Hollande’s ratings, however, suggest an electorate already disenchanted with the president it elected just 10 months ago – with discouraging prospects for the rest of his pr...

Hollande Battles Growing Tax Scandal - Ames & Greenwood, Global Post

French president François Hollande has vehemently denied that his government covered for disgraced budget minister and tax tsar Jereome Cahuzac in an attempt to mitigate the damag...

Can a Staggering Hollande Save France? - Pierre Haski, The Guardian

France's president, François Hollande, went on TV for an hour last week, hoping to address his approval rate, which is at a historical low for a French leader so early in hi...

France Getting Sucked into Mali Quagmire - John Irish, Reuters

France wants to cut its forces in Mali sharply by the year-end and is urging its ex-colony to hold elections in July, but an Islamist insurgency is threatening that timetable. Man...

In Europe, Cameron Already Yesterday's Man - John Palmer, Guardian

Angela Merkel and François Hollande's have rejected David Cameron's invitation. He wanted them to take part in a government survey assessing the impact of European Union l...

What French Unhappiness Really Means - Konrad Yakabuski, Globe & Mail

When Thomas Jefferson identified the pursuit of happiness as one of Americans' unalienable rights, one suspects he didn’t mean fun. Capitalism and self-actualization are intimate...

Energetic Germany, Decadent France - Dominique Moisi, Project Syndicate

Young Berliners cannot ignore where they come from. Yet, perhaps because the past still rings like a warning – and is still physically visible in the topography and architecture ...

France Submits to Radical Islam - Guy Milliere, Gatestone Institute

Exactly one year ago, a killer entered the courtyard of a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, and shot in cold blood a rabbi and three children. He said he had wanted to kill more, ...

Will Karl Marx Have the Last Laugh? - Michael Schuman, Time

With the global economy in a protracted crisis, and workers around the world burdened by joblessness, debt and stagnant incomes, Marx’s biting critique of capitalism — that the...

Why Are the French Drinking Less Wine? - Hugh Schofield, BBC News

Does the seemingly perpetual decline in consumption of France's national drink symbolise a corresponding decline in French civilisation? The question worries a lot of people - oen...

French Can't Cope with the Modern World - Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph

For years we Britons were told that the French had it better than us. We were sold a myth of better weather, finer food and streets flowing with cheap wine. While the British were ...

How Do You Say Quagmire in French? - Leon Hadar, American Conservative

Substitute “Iraq” or “Syria” for “Vietnam,” and “American” for “French,” and the arguments that Logevall quotes from jou...

Saudi Arabia's Silent Revolution - Edouard Tetreau, Les Echos/Worldcrunch

Another Arab Spring, more discreet and more promising, is happening in Saudi Arabia. In the past two years, King Abdullah has taken many revolutionary measures. In 2011, he granted...

Francois Hollande: Mr. Normal Takes a Battering - The Guardian

The French president's promise to stabilise and reverse unemployment by the end of the year is looking like yet another broken election pledge. There are already quite a few of the...

Why Is America Acting Like France? - Jan Techau, Carnegie Endowment

"This is amazing. The Americans now sound French. And the French sound American." This was a comment often heard at this year's Brussels Forum, the splendid high-profile foreign po...

France Readies for Its Own Chavez - Fabio Rafael Fiallo, RealClearWorld

Opinion polls suggest that a growing number of French seem ready to jump into the unknown and place their confidence and hopes in a demagogue willing to redistribute income irresp...

Why Are the French Self-Immolating? - Robert Zaretsky, Atlantic

After years of record-high unemployment, the country has seen at least a dozen men and women who have either set, or tried to set, themselves on fire since 2011....

Hollande's Spectacular Fall from Grace - Mathieu von Rohr, Der Spiegel

On a recent trip by French President François Hollande to the eastern city of Dijon, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. The visit earlier this week was intended t...

France May Aid Syrian Rebels Unilaterally - Bruce Crumley, Time

France has significantly upped its efforts to unblock Western military support for rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by calling for the European ...

Why Jews Are Quietly Fleeing France - Maurizio Molinari, La Stampa

Every Saturday at around 12pm on the sidewalks of the Upper West Side you can hear French being spoken. It’s coming from groups of people who are coming out of the synagogues on ...

Europe's Unemployed a Force to Reckon With - George Friedman, Stratfor

Germany sees itself as virtuous for its frugality. Others see it as rapacious in its aggressive exporting, with the most important export now being unemployment. Which one is right...

Why the Euro Debt Crisis Never Really Ended - Michael Schuman, Time

The political upheaval in the Eurozone's third-largest economy in the wake of this week's national election shows us just how troubled the euro zone really is, and how dangerous it...

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