Jordan Bardella is France’s most popular politician. His ideas would set 🇫🇷 on a collision path with not only EU institutions but with France’s main partner, Germany. For the RN leader, this seems to be the point In @economist.com this week economist.com/europe/2025/...

Our cover this week “Europe should take heart and recognise its own strength. Its military budget is already four times larger than Russia’s; its economy is ten times larger. Far from shying away from a financial contest with the Kremlin, Europe should embrace it—and win the war”

Roland Lescure knows full well what outsiders make of France’s messy politics. The best way to reassure investors is to “show the world that we’re not just a bunch of Gauls in a village fighting tooth and nail”, he says

Suspending France’s pension reform has dismayed many centrists. In an interview with The Economist @rolandlescure.bsky.social, the new 🇫🇷 finance minister, argues that “It’s the price of compromise and it’s the price of political stability” economist.com/europe/2025/...

“An analysis of 40 museum thefts in 1990-2022 shows that the most common is a stealth raid: thieves make off with artworks without alerting security agents. “Smash-and-grab” raids, like that at the Louvre, are next. Less than half the stolen items are ever recovered” economist.com/culture/2025...

This morning France puts a former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, behind bars at the Prison de la Santé in Paris. Collaborators apart, no western European president or prime minister has ever been to jail in post-war times economist.com/europe/2025/... from @economist.com

“The belt-tightening needed to stabilise the debt-to-GDP ratio in 🇫🇷 is >3% of GDP….Of G7 economies only 🇨🇦 enjoys low debt, a small necessary adjustment and the space to raise taxes. 🇫🇷 looks bad by all 3 measures” Timely analysis of the risks of public debt by my colleague @curr.bsky.social

France’s Fifth Republic, shaped to de Gaulle’s towering persona, has failed to shield the country from the parliamentary turmoil it was designed to bring to an end economist.com/europe/2025/... from @economist.com

The new 🇫🇷 prime minister Lecornu survives his first censure motion, by just 18 votes, and thanks to the Socialists. The irony is that Macron always wanted to peel them away from Mélenchon’s hard left. But what circumstances, what fragility, and what a price Votes for censure: 271 Votes needed: 289

France’s new prime minister is…the very one who resigned on Monday, Sébastien Lecornu. It rounds off the most chaotic and absurdist week in French politics in modern times

Despite everything else going on, France last night honoured Robert Badinter, the former justice minister who ended the death penalty in 🇫🇷 in 1981. He entered the Panthéon in a moving moment of national tribute that the French do so well

Desperately seeking someone After the most chaotic week in modern political life France is still searching for a prime minister economist.com/europe/2025/...

For sure, Macron’s troubles are partly of his own making. But there is something immensely sad about a pro-European leader and standard-bearer for the democratic centre ending up with such a political mess

Exactly what you need to know when you need to know it-- no fuss no muss. Chapeau!

What next for France after it loses its fourth prime minister in little over a year economist.com/europe/2025/... from @economist.com

What an absolute mess. The new 🇫🇷 PM Sébastien Lecornu has resigned after less than four weeks in the job. This is the curt communiqué just issued by the presidency

The two most interesting appointments in a pretty unchanged new 🇫🇷 government (just unveiled) are @rolandlescure.bsky.social as new finance min and the return of Bruno Le Maire to govt, at defence. Otherwise most big jobs, including @jnbarrot.bsky.social at foreign, stay as they were under Bayrou…

Emmanuel Macron remains a vigorous figure in foreign affairs and one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders. Yet no amount of energetic diplomacy abroad can mask what is happening at home: the unravelling of his great centrist venture economist.com/europe/2025/... from @economist.com

French luxury firms supply the world with branded handbags and fine champagne, but the country seems to have a real problem with those rich enough to splash out on such things Why taxing the super rich may be the price of political stability economist.com/europe/2025/... from @economist.com

Say what you like about Macron but he can still give an impassioned speech, this one in defence of multilateralism “The United Nations is all of us We have no right to cynicism We have no right to fatigue We have no right to the spirit of defeat” youtu.be/FsMnFJtBBP0?...

How France’s hard-right National Rally is secretly courting the Paris elite—and how French bosses are quietly getting to know its leaders, one in particular economist.com/europe/2025/... from @economist.com

🚨Vous êtes étudiant(e) en journalisme ? 🚨Vous aimez la politique ? 🚨Vous avez besoin d'une aide financière ? l'APP lance sa bourse 2025 ! 2500 euros/an + un tutorat. Candidature à déposer avant le 2 octobre. Toutes les infos sur www.pressepresidentielle.fr/comment-post...

On today's show: - @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social on nat'l politics - NYS State Sen. James Skoufis on live events ticketing reforms - @sophiepedder.bsky.social on France news - How restaurant culture is changing w/tariffs, GLP-1s, etc. Tune in at 10AM, 93.9FM, AM820 & wnyc.org

France’s politics are messy and its luxury firms are struggling. But less visile to the public eye 🇫🇷 utilities, energy, materials, telecoms and other stodgy firms are doing surprisingly well In French business, boring beats sexy economist.com/business/202... from @economist.com

Why France’s new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, may have no choice but to compromise with the left if the country is to return to some form of political stability economist.com/europe/2025/... from @economist.com

‼️🇫🇷 Emmanuel Macron has picked his next PM, the fifth since 2022: Sébastien Lecornu, the 39-year-old current defence minister (and ex-Republican) and Macron loyalist

New: Crushing defeat for Bayrou’s government. He has lost his vote of confidence in the National Assembly by 194 votes to 364 against. France has now lost four prime ministers in under two years, a sorry reflection of the polarised state of French politics

After more than a century, Parisians can once again swim in the Seine, under the timeless gaze of the Eiffel Tower. Where once there was a highway along the riverbank, there is now life, joy, and water. A celebration of proximity, quality of life, and the Parisian joie de vivre 💫🌊🏊🏼‍♂️🏊🏼‍♀️

Bond vigilantes take aim at France economist.com/finance-and-...

The last time France went through five different prime ministers within two years was in the 1950s—nearly three-quarters of a century ago. Why the country is now on the brink of matching that unhappy record economist.com/europe/2025/...

Confirmed: Macron and Starmer will co-chair in Paris on Thursday morning September 4th a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine, with Président Zelensky present

Also goes vice-versa for Merz: the tight situation in France makes it even more urgent to empower a key European ally.

What political instability in France says about the weakness of the centre ground’s fact-based tools against the angry certitudes of populism, on the left and the right France’s government is on the brink of collapse, again economist.com/leaders/2025... from @economist.com

Time for some Merz-Macron magic on the Med Why political instability at home makes the need to tighten the link between Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz harder, but also more urgent economist.com/europe/2025/... from @Economist

Bayrou is right about the dismal state of French public finances. But being right may not be enough for his government’s survival. Why France’s PM called an unexpected confidence vote about the country’s debt France is in big trouble, again economist.com/europe/2025/... from @economist.com

🇫🇷 PM Bayrou has unexpectedly, and bravely, put his government’s survival on the line by calling a confidence vote in parliament on Sep 8. Unbelievably, it may fall because opposition parties can’t even agree that debt and deficit levels are putting France in grave danger

On August 25 1944, after General Leclerc led the 🇫🇷 2nd armoured division into Paris, the French capital was liberated. There was no negotiation. Choltitz, the commander of the German garrison, surrendered

Europe gets so much grief for division and weakness. But its recent handling of Trump, its unity (w/Starmer), smart coordination (w/Zelensky) and inclusivity (w/Meloni) show it at its best. Nobody in 🇫🇷 will credit Macron, but he has played no small part

This was a tough assignment. Provence is not just a destination. It’s a lifestyle brand economist.com/culture/2025... from @Economist

Le général français affirme que la Russie pourrait attaquer dans cinq ans Thierry Burkhard, le chef sortant des Forces armées, estime que l’Europe a du pain sur la planche @sophiepedder.bsky.social @theeconomistevents.bsky.social 31 juil. 2025 Paris www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

By 2030 “Russia will possess the means once again to pose a military threat to Western countries, and European countries in particular” The head of 🇫🇷 armed forces General Thierry Burkhard talks to me and @shashj.bsky.social in @economist.com this week economist.com/europe/2025/...

Why Emmanuel Macron has decided to recognise a Palestinian state French diplomats hope it will make peace more likely. America and Israel say it emboldens Hamas economist.com/europe/2025/... from @economist.com

Big news. Macron says France will recognise a Palestinian state. He will do this formally at the United Nations GA in New York in September

France faces an awkward truth. Macron was right about European strategic autonomy in defence. But his government does not have the budget to spend enough on it economist.com/europe/2025/... from @economist.com

The 🇫🇷 defence minister announces a new chief of the 🇫🇷 armed forces, air force General Fabien Mandon (left) to replace General Thierry Burkhard (right). Burkhard has served in this role since 2021 and Macron, who has always worked well with him, already extended his term by a year

Sad, delusional and dangerous from Johnson. What a contrast with George Osborne’s words to Starmer and Macron last week: “Congratulations for bringing some sanity and fraternity back to the relationship between 🇬🇧 and 🇫🇷. That’s exactly what we both and the world needs more of right now"

An excellent update and deepening of prior statements and undertakings (Chequers déclarations, Lancaster House treaties)

Big strategic moment for 🇫🇷 and 🇬🇧 (and Europe) at the summit in London today. The two countries are to state for the first time that their respective nuclear deterrents “can be co-ordinated”, and that “there is no extreme threat to Europe that would not prompt a response by both nations”

Macron is speaking shortly in the Royal Gallery at Westminster, a hall lined by two murals: one of the Death of Nelson, the other of the Battle of Waterloo 🇫🇷🇬🇧

London getting ready to celebrate 🇫🇷 and 🇬🇧 ! Macron arrives today for the state visit for a French president since 2008. So good to see after the dismal “friend or foe” years