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Review: Laure Mandeville, Qui est vraiment Donald Trump? Paris: Équateurs/Le Figaro, 2016. Imagine we know nothing about Donald J. Trump beyond election day, 2016.  What would we think of him?  What would we think of him without the triple shocks of January 6, 2021, the …

Florian Philippot, who directed Marine Le Pen’s campaign for the presidency in 2017, recently praised  Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party presidential candidate in 2007.  Why?  Because Royal recently criticized Zelensky for faking Russian war crimes in Ukraine. [During her presidential run in 2007, Royal on …

The last few days in France were relatively quiet: the candidates were doing their final events, and the polls and news coverage stopped for a period lasting from Saturday midnight to 8 pm Sunday, as required by law.   The French voted on Sunday; by 8 …

He’s a left-wing Catholic who founded an interfaith coalition.  She’s an environmental activist who was reportedly brought to tears when she heard about the melting permafrost in Siberia.  Just a couple of crazy kids who got together after the covid lockdown and decided to put …

The first round of the French elections will take place tomorrow, on Sunday, April 10.  The results should be known by or a little after 8 pm French time, or about 2 pm in the eastern time zone of the US.  By the end of …

The Socialist Party candidate, Anne Hidalgo, twice elected as mayor of Paris, seems firmly fixed at about 2% in the polls.  That is where she started, and that is where she will apparently end.  And yet she has been a successful mayor known for shutting …

We are now on the eve of the first round of the French presidential elections (April 10), and Emmanuel Macron has come under fire for the excessive use of private consulting firms for matters involving  state policy.  The issue does not sound especially scandalous.  It …

Since Emmanuel Macron has refused a regular debate before the first round, TF1 came up with a substitute format–a succession of candidates, each alone on the stage, each giving a closing statement, and answering the questions put forward by two moderators.  The candidates took varying …

Emmanuel Macron has stated that he will not debate before the first round of elections, which will take place on April 10.  If he were to do so, he would be facing eleven other candidates who would devote much of their time to attacking him; …

One of the most destructive aspects of the Electoral College in the United States is that it locks the country into a two-party system.  If one of those parties is taken over by an unfit individual with authoritarian ambitions and doubtful loyalty to the country …