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David Broder is Jacobin’s Europe editor and a historian of French and Italian communism.
French right-wingers don’t yet have a leader like Donald Trump. Yet the creation of Fox News–like TV channels, harsh culture wars, and the decline of class politics are pushing France along a path troublingly similar to the United States.
The activists aboard the Madleen aid ship couldn’t break the siege of Gaza. But Greta Thunberg and her colleagues have powerfully drawn attention to Israel’s blockade — and the West’s refusal to do anything about it.
Spain’s deputy premier Yolanda Díaz has enacted landmark reforms to strengthen workers’ rights. In an interview, she tells Jacobin that “there’s no more powerful force than the workers of the world.”
Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for office for five years. The sentence applies the law as written, but it turns her embezzlement conviction into a propaganda coup for her party.
A new conservative environmentalism that blends anti-modernism with nationalism and austerity is spreading across Europe.
On Sunday, Germany voted in a federal election that saw massive growth in support for the far-right AfD, resurgence of the socialist Die Linke party, and more losses of working-class votes for the Social Democrats. These ten graphs explain what happened.
At his life’s end, Jean-Marie Le Pen had been expelled from the party that he helped found. Yet this Holocaust denier and former torturer left behind an important legacy: making the far right into a major force in French political life.
Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government is riding roughshod over basic democratic standards. This isn’t just because of her party’s fascist roots; it’s the end point of a long-term process that has placed the key economic decisions beyond popular control.
In October, Die Linke elected new leadership, which promises to reconnect with working-class voters. With German elections planned for early 2025, they face a race against time to change the party’s culture.
The no-confidence vote in Michel Barnier’s government highlights the failure of Emmanuel Macron’s neoliberal project. Far from reviving the liberal center, the president has pitched France into a historic political crisis.
Ireland’s election saw little enthusiasm for the ruling parties — but also a weakened score for opposition force Sinn Féin. Its message on housing hardened its youth support, but it was unable to build out its base across Irish society.
Ukraine’s military position is worsening, and there are signs of fatigue on the home front. A tit-for-tat escalation between Washington and Moscow would be disastrous for Ukrainians and for us all.
Ines Schwerdtner is the newly elected cochair of German left-wing party Die Linke. In an interview with Jacobin, she explains how she wants to reconnect the party with a working-class base.
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans rioting in Amsterdam chanted slogans like “There are no schools in Gaza, as there are no children left.” Far from just extremist provocations, their slogans tell the truth about Israeli war aims.
The global left has moved away from social class as an organizing identity, allowing the Right to peddle a working-class identity politics untethered from the socialist vision.
In the name of constructive opposition, Marine Le Pen has issued her conditions for tolerating new prime minister Michel Barnier. Her party wants to show it’s ready for high office — but is vaguer about its stance on Barnier’s austerity plans.
Head of one of the biggest far-left groups in 1970s Britain, Gerry Healy was accused of rape and sexual abuse. A new biography reflects on the swamp from which he emerged — and how his group’s authoritarian model facilitated his crimes.
In Russia, signs of opposition to the war in Ukraine haven’t developed into a mass movement. State repression has closed off the avenues of mass politics, forcing dissidents into mainly symbolic protests.
Emmanuel Macron has appointed Michel Barnier as France’s prime minister, after securing Marine Le Pen’s agreement. The creation of a government reliant on her blessing is another step in the far right’s march toward power.
Emmanuel Macron has ruled out appointing a government led by the biggest force in parliament, the left-wing New Popular Front. His refusal confirms a case long made by the Left: it’s time to get rid of the French president’s monarchical powers.