France’s neofascist groups are on the rise, with a spate of recent attacks against their opponents. Their violence against migrants, left-wingers, and even state officials shows that the far-right advance isn’t just “populist” rhetoric — it’s a deadly danger.
Faced with uninspiring candidates, April’s French presidential election looks set to draw a historically low turnout. Jean-Luc Mélenchon insists he stands for a real alternative — but his task will be turning popular discontent into votes.
The recent mosque shooting in Bayonne was just the latest violent attack against France’s Muslims. The secularist left has long rejected the idea of “Islamophobia” — but as the far right goes mainstream, Muslims’ calls for solidarity have become impossible to ignore.
Ahead of June’s European elections, the French left is divided over Gaza. Rima Hassan, a Franco-Palestinian jurist and activist standing for France Insoumise, tells Jacobin why it's shameful for left-wingers to fail to defend Palestinians' rights.
The first round of France’s parliamentary elections saw left-wing coalition NUPES come first nationally. President Emmanuel Macron’s allies reacted by tarring the Left as extremists — but Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s coalition looks closer than ever to power.
The discourse of war is already upon us. But it must be resisted.
Marine Le Pen has taken the National Front into the French mainstream without shedding the party's far-right politics.
According to polls for France’s snap election, the far right’s main opponent isn’t Emmanuel Macron but the left-wing New Popular Front. It has to rally working-class voters and show that the social damage of Macron’s rule can be undone.
In the beginning of World War I, hundreds of French soldiers were executed by the French army “to set an example” and keep other soldiers in line. Only now, more than a century later, has France’s National Assembly voted for their rehabilitation.
Emmanuel Macron’s coalition, drawing on both center-left and center-right politicians, was a perfect embodiment of the neoliberal project. Unable to deliver prosperity for wider layers of French people, it has driven the political system into turmoil.
A stabbing at a southern French mosque last Friday sparked terror and protest among France’s Muslims. Yet many top politicians refuse to speak of “Islamophobia,” instead leaning into far-right narratives of the Islamic danger to France.
Emmanuel Macron famously spoke of “people who are nothing” — the working-class France who didn’t fit his neoliberal fantasy of a “start-up nation.” But social struggles throughout his term showed that the people he derided weren’t prepared to be ignored.
The manifesto launch for Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National showed how far the party has dropped its welfarist promises. The far right is vaunting its pro-business credentials — and part of France’s corporate elite is warming to its message.
Amid the collapse of France’s historical parties, Emmanuel Macron is presiding over the most unstable political climate in decades. As municipal elections loom in March, the forces of the Left are showing rare signs of unity — feeding hopes they can turn social revolt into a challenge for the presidency itself.
France’s elections in July handed a surprise first place to the New Popular Front, which is now demanding the right to govern. To really change the country, it needs to broaden its base of support among nonvoters and the working class.
After raising the pension age and cutting taxes on the rich, now Emmanuel Macron’s government wants to scrap the Easter Monday and VE Day bank holidays. The plan is sure to face stiff resistance, with French workers unwilling to swallow further austerity.
A new left-wing coalition is leading polls for June's French parliamentary elections. Its popularity shows that working-class France wants a government that resists Emmanuel Macron's destruction of the country's social welfare provisions.
The French election was meant to bring victory for Marine Le Pen’s far right. But the New Popular Front rallied around a left-wing program for social change — allowing it to become the biggest force in the new National Assembly.
Emmanuel Macron claimed that France was missing a “king figure” — then spent five years ruling it like a monarch. His record has fueled Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s pledge to get rid of the presidency entirely and rebuild French democracy from the bottom up.
Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich, a self-proclaimed fascist, is set to appear at a fundraising gala in Paris on Wednesday. Authorities have refused calls to block his visit — even as they silence public displays of solidarity with Palestine.