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François Hollande, former French president: ‘Macron has no deep convictions. He acts according to circumstances’

Daniel Verdú — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 16:18:15 GMT

Some wounds never fully heal. However, the passage of time — and witnessing the decay of the person who caused those wounds — can often help us put things in perspective.

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Ex-French PM Michel Barnier: ‘Trump would like to make separate deals with each EU country, to divide and conquer’

Daniel Verdú — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:27:41 GMT

France has become increasingly unstable, and the political life expectancy of a prime minister may no longer exceed three months. This is what happened to Michel Barnier, 74, who held office from September to December 2024. The list grows longer if you look back. Even so, it’s still unusual for two of them to meet by chance in a restaurant. “How are you? Everything okay? I’ll call you one of these days,” Barnier says, seated at a table in a central Parisian restaurant, to fellow former prime minister François Fillon. “I lasted a little less than him,” he jokes in an interview with journalists from the European alliance Lena, which includes EL PAÍS.

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Will opening new bistrots revitalize France’s dying countryside?

Raquel Villaécija — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 13:09:18 GMT

In France, there are 20,000 villages without a single store, not even a bar, which “are often the last survivors” in the gradual emptying out of the countryside, explains Guillaume Kasbarian, the member of the National Assembly who sponsored a bill seeking to streamline the procedures for obtaining a license to open a bistrot or café in communities with fewer than 3,500 residents and almost no services.

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France: A crisis of faith in secularism, 10 years after the ‘Charlie Hebdo’ attack

Daniel Verdú — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 04:30:00 GMT

On January 16, 2015 — nine days after the Kouachi brothers, two French-born Islamist terrorists, entered the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and murdered nine of its employees — a turning point in history occurred. Charb, a charismatic cartoonist who directed the publication, was one of the victims. His funeral was held in Pontoise, northeast of Paris. Among the friends who spoke was Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI).

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Marine Le Pen: ‘I am deeply Euroskeptic; the way the EU works is anti-democratic and anti-national’

Daniel Verdú — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 12:18:44 GMT

Marine Le Pen’s life accelerated in June with the unexpected dissolution of the National Assembly decreed by French President Emmanuel Macron. Six months later — following a snap election, the appointment and fall of a prime minister, Michel Barnier, and his replacement by François Bayrou — the leader of the National Rally (RN) still has the Government of France in her hands. No matter how hard the president of the Republic may try, without the support of the leftist New Popular Front, and without a candidate designated by the progressive flank, which has a majority in Parliament, the government’s fate will continue to be bound by the will of the far right. But the cold war between the two is also decided outside of politics.

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France’s leftist leader Mélenchon: ‘Macron cannot endure 30 months of appointing governments every three months’

Daniel Verdú — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 11:24:52 GMT

France is in crisis and without a government. And if one starts from the end of this story, one of the main explanations can be found in the headquarters of La France Insoumise (LFI), one of the left-wing parties that make up the New Popular Front (NFP), the progressive alliance that won the last legislative elections and drafted the no-confidence vote that ended Michel Barnier’s government last week with help from the votes of the far right. Why? Because the result of the election, they claimed, was ignored and the president of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, insisted on building a conservative executive. Its leader, 73-year-old Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leading and the most radical voice of this alliance, has not stopped asking for the resignation of the head of state since then. And he will continue to do so until it happens, he warns.

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Video | The moment Paris knew the left was set to win the French elections

EL PAÍS — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 08:03:44 GMT

With cries of joy and tears of relief. This is how the people gathered in Stalingrad Square in Paris received the preliminary results of the second round of the French legislative elections on Sunday, which forecast the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition as the winner. The results were later confirmed: France was able to stop Marine Le Pen’s far-right party National Rally (RN) from controlling the National Assembly. Some polls predicted that the RN would win an absolute majority: instead it came in third place.

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France stops the far right

Marc Bassets — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 07:45:16 GMT

France has said no to the far right. The cordon sanitaire put in place by the left and the center of French President Emmanuel Macron made it possible for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) to be decisively defeated in Sunday’s snap election, in which the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP) was the surprise winner.

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The abaya triggers a new battle for secularism in France

Marc Bassets — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 15:28:17 GMT

Noise in the political sphere, calm in the classroom. The ban on the abaya, the traditional tunic in some Muslim countries, considered an indication of religious or cultural identity, has come into force this week in French schools amid an intense debate on secularism and its application in the education system. The Council of State must decide by September 7 whether the measure is legal and respects fundamental freedoms.

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Dark blue, almost black: Europe and the rise of the far right

Andrea Rizzi — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 19:47:12 GMT

Cooperation between the right and the far right is advancing apace in Europe. In October last year, an executive made up of conservative parties took office in Sweden with the external support of a far right party. In Italy, another government of the far right with Giorgia Meloni at the helm was elected with conservatives sitting in the executive. In June, a coalition government was also formed in Finland that includes extreme right-wingers in ministerial posts. Polls point to a coalition of the popular right and far right as a likely coalition in the next Spanish government, and it is already a reality in several of the country’s autonomous regions. The leader of the Spanish Popular Party said in an interview with the newspaper El Mundo that “it would be good for the EU if Meloni ended up in the EPP” (European People’s Party).

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