Emmanuel Macron

In his rush to participate in geopolitics, has the president forgotten about strife-torn France itself?

Activism is a normal part of the French experience. In Britain? Not so much

In Algeria and Polynesia, the shadow of French atomic and nuclear experiments in the 1950s and 60s still causes suffering and anger

The protests about pension reform in Paris recently started calmly and cheerfully, but by nightfall the mood had shifted

Emmanuel Macron refuses to realise people did not vote for his pension reforms – they voted against Marine Le Pen. Now France is on the verge of explosion

A recent visit to Algeria was part of efforts to write a new chapter in diplomacy - but the ghosts of France's exploitative colonial past linger on

The comic actor said he’d never join a club that would admit him. Will Liz Truss apply the same rule to Macron’s new European forum?

It’s impossible to understand France and Macron without understanding the General

Sunday’s parliamentary elections reshaped France’s political landscape, with big wins for the far left and right

The president’s achievements have been underplayed - and they contain lessons for Labour and the Lib Dems

If and when Labour takes power, they must likewise focus public money on disadvantaged regions

Marine Le Putin lost, Emmanuel Macron won - France will remain Germany's closest ally in Europe

Emmanuel Macron may have beaten Marine Le Pen in the presidential election, but France has not yet banished fascism

The spectre of Marine Le Pen has been banished - at least for now - but there is plenty for the re-elected president to focus on

French presidential polls show the incumbent with a narrow lead, but he has done himself few favours against his reshaped rival

After winning the first round of voting in the presidential elections by only a small margin, Emmanuel Macron has just two weeks to pull voters back from the brink of extremism

Polls show Emmanuel Macron heading for a repeat run-off and victory against Marine Le Pen. But France’s longer-term future looks bleak

The presidential campaign takes on an apocalyptic tone as a fearful, angry electorate confronts the evidence of a country in decline

As former president Nicola Sarkozy is sentenced to house arrest for illegal campaign financing, JOHN KAMPFNER wonders why French politics seems so susceptible to financial scandal.

EU leaders have failed to agree on the proposal of holding a summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the near future.  It is not yet clear whether this proposed summit would include all 27 leaders or only Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s chief executive, and Charles Michel, its chairman.  Leaders’ decision to reject […]

Has Marine Le Pen changed her politics, or is it that France has shifted to the right? Respectable France is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, again. In less than a year the country could have a far-right government. The fear is not new. The Le Pen family –Jean Marie and then more his user-friendly […]

French president Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen have both faced a crushing defeat in the nation’s regional elections. Their respective parties, Macron’s centrist La République en Marche (LREM) and Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN), secured fewer votes than hoped and instead saw incumbent conservatives surge ahead in the first round. An IPSOS […]

As it faces its latest crisis, triggered by Belarus, a looming leadership vacuum threatens to condemn the EU to years of stagnation behind other global powers

Often seen as serious to the point of greyness, former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has surprised many with his incendiary comments on immigration. So what lies behind them? He seemed to be everything Brexiteers disliked about the EU. A serious-minded bureaucrat steeped in the smooth workings of Europe’s capitals and chancelleries and adept at relentlessly channelling the orthodoxies of […]

Dark threats about a looming civil war and a coup involving senior military figures have electrified France and made the race for the Élysée Palace all the more febrile. An intemperate and inaccurate open letter was published last month by 20 retired French generals and 100 other officers, some of them still serving. It was apocalyptic in tone. It […]

Michel Barnier has told a French broadcaster the country must suspend all non-EU immigration for up to five years, in what is being seen as a tilt at the French presidency. Barnier told public broadcaster France 2 that the EU’s external borders had become a “sieve”. “I think we have to take the time for three or five years […]

Marine Le Pen is successfully convincing French voters that Emmanuel Macron is out of touch… could she succeed in 2022? Earlier this month thousands of people joined the May Day protests across France. Trade unionists and workers marched to demonstrate against coronavirus restrictions and their impacts, particularly on the working class. This comes less than […]

Diplomatic efforts with France will be stepped up to prevent a repeat of the Jersey fishing dispute. The Royal Navy will continue to keep a watch on events but the two vessels deployed to the Channel Island were ordered back to port after the French protest ended. The UK government will now work with France […]

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has the profile and ambition to run against Emmanuel Macron for the French presidency. But her greatest strengths might also be what prevents this ‘Queen of the Bobos’ from reviving the country’s moribund Socialists Despite not yet having declared her candidacy for next year’s presidential elections, mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo […]

The European Commission president has warned AstraZeneca that it must “honour” its vaccine contract with the bloc before exporting doses elsewhere in the world. Ursula von der Leyen urged “transparency” from other countries, but did not confirm if the EU would bring in tougher export restrictions on coronavirus jabs, amid a row over supplies with […]

Conspiracy theories abound, but what does explain the EU’s seemingly baffling attitude to the AstraZeneca jab? The precautionary principle has longstanding European roots and modern international credibility. It is a scientific idea that grew out of an older German concept. Properly applied, it is difficult to argue against it. An international academic conference in 1998 defined […]