As Hollande marks one year in office, would Dominique Strauss-Kahn have been better for France?

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Today is the one-year anniversary of François Hollande’s inauguration as the new president of France, having swept to the Elysée Palace with a mandate for a more subdued presidential administration and a leftward turn after the ‘bling bling’ administration of center-right president Nicolas Sarkozy. Hollande won’t face voters again for four more years, and by 2017, [...]

Filed under: France | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

What Iceland’s election tells us about post-crisis European politics

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Iceland was supposed to be different. In allowing its banks to fail, neo-Keynesian economists have argued, Iceland avoided the fate of Ireland, which nationalized its banks and now faces a future with a very large public debt.  By devaluing its currency, the krónur, Iceland avoided the fate of countries like Estonia and others in southern Europe [...]

Filed under: Bulgaria, Cyprus, European Union, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Why is the opposition to same-sex marriage so strong in France?

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Kevin Lees

To the rest of the world, France is a virtual billboard for sexual freedom and sophistication. Sex, of course, made an entire generation or two of French and European cinema — from Les enfants terribles to Jules et Jim to Last Tango in Paris.  Paris, for nearly a century, has been the world’s premier city of romance, and its [...]

Filed under: France | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

British, French governments poised to pass gay marriage into law

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Amid a flurry of parliamentary action in the United Kingdom and France, two of the largest countries in Europe and, indeed, two of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, are set to legalize gay marriage in the coming months. The joint result gives an incredibly burst of global momentum for the [...]

Filed under: France, United Kingdom | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

François Hollande’s triumphant visit to Timbuktu — and next steps for Mali

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Earlier this weekend, French president François Hollande flew to Timbuktu in Mali, where French forces have only in the last week cleared the historic city of Islamist control. I was quick to argue that the intervention in Mali wasn’t some neocolonial retreat to Françafrique, and for a three-week military campaign, I’ll be the first to [...]

Filed under: France, Mali | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

M. Hollande’s little war — and what it means for French-African politics

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Kevin Lees

Over the weekend, France found itself engaged in a new, if limited, war — and a new theater of Western intervention against radical Islam. French president François Hollande confirmed that French troops had assisted Mali’s army in liberating the city of Konna — in recent weeks, Islamist-backed rebels that control the northern two-thirds of the country [...]

Filed under: France, Mali | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Four reasons why Cope’s narrow Sunday win of France’s UMP leadership could be ruinous

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Kevin Lees

After a tense Monday during which both candidates declared victory and accused the other of fraud, it appears that Jean-François Copé (pictured above) has emerged as the presumptive leader of the French right. With just a 98-vote margin, Copé won the election for general secretary of the center-right Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP, Union for [...]

Filed under: France | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The French right prepares to choose Sarkozy’s successor (maybe)

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Kevin Lees

France’s center-right Union pour un mouvement populaire (UMP, Union for a popular movement) will vote on Sunday, November 18 to choose its next general secretary in what’s widely seen as a fight to get the upper hand on the UMP’s presidential nomination in 2017.  The UMP will choose between two key figures — former prime minister François [...]

Filed under: France | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Samaras ‘negotiations’ with Berlin not going so swell

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Kevin Lees

It didn’t go so well for Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras on his visits with European Union leaders in Berlin.  His plea for more time to come up with cuts to the Greek budget is being met with stony nonchalance from both German chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured above right, with Samaras) and French president François [...]

Filed under: Germany, Greece | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Rutte and Roemer hope to consolidate support in Dutch election, as Europe watches nervously

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Kevin Lees

As Dutch voters and the wider international world begin to pay attention to the Sept. 12 election, it’s becoming clear that ‘anti-austerity’ and ‘pro-austerity’ forces are coalescing behind the party of prime minister Mark Rutte (pictured above, top) and the Socialistische Partij (SP, the Socialist Party) of Emile Roemer (pictured above, below), leaving both newer [...]

Filed under: The Netherlands | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Final thoughts on French parliamentary runoff results

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Kevin Lees

As noted in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s parliament elections, the French left looked likely to take a narrow absolute majority of seats in the Assemblée nationale. As it turns out, the Parti socialiste of François Hollande did even better — it and its allies took 314 seats, not including the 17 seats that its electoral partner, France’s Green [...]

Filed under: France | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Big weekend for France, Greece and Egypt

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Kevin Lees

It’s another big weekend for elections! Voters in Egypt go to the polls today and tomorrow to choose a president in the final runoff between the Muslim brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq, a former Air Force commander and the final prime minister of former president Hosni Mubarak, in what is seen as a Hobson’s choice [...]

Filed under: Egypt, France, Greece | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Tweet sets off ‘battle Royal’ between first lady and Hollande’s former partner

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Kevin Lees

At first, everyone thought her Twitter account must have been hacked. But no: here was the new first lady of France, Valérie Trierweiler, the companion of President François Hollande, tweeting her apparent opposition to Hollande’s previous partner and mother of Hollande’s four children, Ségolène Royal, who was also the Parti socialiste‘s 2007 presidential candidate.  Royal is [...]

Filed under: France | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Final French parliamentary election results for first round

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Kevin Lees

France has now had a full day since learning the results of Sunday’s first round of the French parliamentary elections (France votes again in the second round this coming Sunday), and there’s really not much surprise in the aggregate result. Much as predicted: the Parti socialiste of newly inaugurated François Hollande narrowly led the first round [...]

Filed under: France | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Le Pen and Mélenchon battle in Hénin-Beaumont precinct highlights four-way French campaign

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Kevin Lees

The most interesting contest in Sunday’s first round of the French parliamentary election may well be the most irrelevant to determining whether President François Hollande’s center-left or the center-right will control the Assemblée nationale — but it also showcases that the far-left and far-right are both playing the strongest role in over a decade in any [...]

Filed under: France | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Next Page »