Posts tagged: french-politics

Communism tomorrow? On Daniel Bensaïd

Daniel Bensaïd died 14 years ago today. In this essay, Victor Cartan explores Bensaïd's communism and what we, on the Left, can learn from it in the 21st century.
Thirteen theses and some comments on politics today

The current conjuncture demands rigorous analysis if we are to understand the political moment and develop a strategy to respond to it. Alain Badiou undertakes this task, offering thirteen theses on global politics today and suggesting an organizing strategy for the Left given those conditions.
The Critique of the School in Post-’68 French Thought (2): Interview with Anne Querrien

In this extensive interview, Anne Querrien discusses the Guattarian research group CERFI and her research into the history of mutual education in France.
In the light of the current hypercrisis, the Constitution of the Fifth Republic appears obsolete, from another age.

Christian Salmon, author of Storytelling: Bewitching the Modern Mind, on France's national myths.
The Unexpected Chance of a Union of the Left

Edwy Plenel, author of For the Muslims, on the opportunity for an alliance of the main left-wing parties in the 2022 French legislative election.
Electoral fraud

What is left for the left after the reelection of Emmanuel Macron in France? According to Frédéric Lordon, the French election of 2022 will not have been totally in vain if it at least allows us to disengage ourselves from electoral belief. In relation to its purpose, which is to ‘bring politics to life’, election is a fraud.
The End of the Republican Front

Much has been made since Emmanuel Macron's victory over far right candidate Marine Le Pen on April 24th of the scale of his victory. But as Marlon Ettinger writes, with the two previously dominant parties on their last legs, the latest French election represents merely another breakdown in the country's conventional political scene, one that could provide openings for both the left and the right.
‘Mélenchon has mobilised an electorate that had stopped voting’

Didier Eribon, sociologist and supporter of Jean-Luc Melenchon's campaign, on the causes of the rise of the far right, and the challenges facing La France Insoumise in durably re-establishing left ideas.
‘It’s time for a general riposte’: Pierre Chaillan, Interview with Alain Badiou

Alain Badiou on the disorientation of the world.
Seven rules to help spread racist ideas in France

This text, written by Jacques Ranciere more than 20 years ago, seems particularly relevant in the run-up to a presidential election that is already saturated with racist ideas, nonstop polemics and the obsessions of a far right that is guaranteed media coverage whether benevolent or pseudo-indignant.
Neoliberal hegemony Is not undone in the space of a single election: Interview with Stefano Palombarini

Back in February, Stefano Palombarini, co-author of The Last Neoliberal, dreamt of a second round debate between Macron and Melenchon staging a confrontation between two opposing political visions. Melenchon did not make it to the second round of the 2022 French presidential elections, but is there still hope for the anti-neoliberal left?
Éric Zemmour, ‘anti-Semitic Jew’?

According to Esther Benbassa and Jean-Christophe Attias, Éric Zemmour is a far-right politician who, by playing on his status as a Jew, gives the far right, which is traditionally anti-Semitic, a veneer of respectability.