I wrote a piece for Damage Magazine on why Bayrou's centrist gamble did not succeed. It lacked a fundamental ingredient of politics: imagination; and it lacked the ability to convince the French people to make this vision happen. You can read the full text here: damagemag.com/2025/09/17/t...

As the holidays come to an end, I reflect on the meaning of the vacances for the French - and say "bye-bye Bayrou" after he committed political harakiri: charlesdevellennes.substack.com/p/bye-bayrou

I have a piece in Compact Magazine on the raids against RN offices last week, but also more widely on opposition politics in France. The dangers of Bonapartism: www.compactmag.com/article/how-...

JOBS! Two post-doctoral Research Fellowships with this Leverhulme-funded project on 'the impacts of New Labour on the lives and life-courses of those born around the year 2000'. I'm on the steering committee, and it's going to be great: jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

I have a short piece on hope as part of a series on emotions and freedom in the Green European Journal you can read here: www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/snapshots-gr...

📣 Come join us! 📣 A two-year postdoc in Enlightenment Studies @voltaire.ox.ac.uk and Oxford's lively community of researchers working on the long 18thC @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social, Modern Languages, and beyond. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... Applications welcome by 30 May.

My Positive Atheism book was reviewed recently by Ruggero Sciuto in French Studies. I wrote a short reply to the review, along with other thoughts, here: open.substack.com/pub/charlesd...

Important read on the political reach of the French oligarchy

Speaking tomorrow at this conference in Vercelli on ‘Diderot in Tahiti’.

I wrote a short piece about Le Pen’s ineligibility and the problem of democracy here: open.substack.com/pub/charlesd...

My book, ‘The Gilets Jaunes and the New Social Contract’, is now available in Korean! With a new preface for the translation. Thrilled to have received my copy, with a cracking new cover. @brisunipress.bsky.social

Parisiennes, Parisiens, un rappel pour vous. 20 mars, 19h30, Musée du Quai Branly, pour parler de la poussée souverainiste en Afrique de l'Ouest

Hit the nail on the head. A perverse incentives structure that needs to go.

NEW from me in the FT today... The UK's university 'system' is now in freefall. How on Earth did the disaster unfold? Read all about it: www.ft.com/content/0ec7...

This is a sad day for democracy. That one must defend the right of everyone to stand up for their beliefs, however distasteful we might find them, is a fundamental principle worth preserving. Democracy is stronger than its liberal critics allow.

We're hiring a Fellow in Political Theory! @lsegovernment.bsky.social : jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Timely analysis from Corey Robin in @jacobinmag.bsky.social on the dangers of presidential power (kindly drawing on my book) jacobin.com/2025/02/marx...

Bayrou is accused of lying to MPs over a sexual scandal in his local Catholic school. What does this mean for laïcité and post-truth? I explore the latest here: open.substack.com/pub/charlesd...

I will be in Sciences Po Lille as professeur invité on the following three Mondays - 24/2, 3/3 and 10/3. If you're in Lille and want to grab a coffee, let me know!