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Natacha Polony, in an editorial in Marianne, began her criticism of Macron by quoting Michel Debré, who was responsible for guiding the constitution of the Fifth Republic into its final form.  A long-time associate of De Gaulle, he then became his first prime minister when …

The retirement bill in France, passed by Article 49-3 of the constitution, has become the law.  LIOT’s motion of censure, put forward on Monday, March 20, failed by nine votes.  It is not true, as Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne suggested, that the censure was a …

Charles de Courson, age 70, has been a member of the National Assembly since 1993, representing a district in the Marne department. He is an expert in finance, and serves on that Committee. From 1986 to 2017, he was mayor of Vanault-les-Dames (current population 417)[1], …

Much of the newspaper coverage since the forced passage of the retirement bill has concerned the demonstrations, tear gas, and violence.  But there have also been thoughtful pieces about the future of the government of Elisabeth Borne (not hopeful) and concerns about Macron’s next four …

By the time the National Assembly was called to order on March 16, 2023, the deputies knew that the government was going to use Article 49-3 to declare that the government would assume the responsibility for passing the retirement bill–meaning that they would declare it …

The woman in the red scarf is Mathilde Panot, head of the France Insoumise caucus in the National Assembly: The young man in a tricolor sash is Louis Boyard of LFI, at the age of 21 the youngest member of the National Assembly: The orange …

Paris is filling up with trash because the garbage workers are on strike; the media is featuring photos of epic piles, some garnished with rats. Mayor Anne Hidalgo has not intervened because she opposes the retirement bill before the Parliament, which is the cause of …

In November, 2021, Julien Bayou, the national secretary of EELV (Europe-Écologie-Les Verts) and eventually the co-chair of his caucus in the National Assembly, ended his relationship with his companion of several years.[1] According to Le Monde, rumors of “violence” circulated within the party. The first …

Pierre Bérégovoy was President François Mitterand’s Prime Minister from April 1992 to March 1993. He had been a party activist for decades, and was present at the Congrès d’Épinay in 1971, when Mitterrand brought together the different elements of the Left to found the current …

The 2002 presidential election in France saw the first appearance of Olivier Besancenot, a 27-year-old mailman and a member of the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Communist League), the French section of the Fourth International.  The party described itself as Trotskyist.  The LCR party meeting in …