First the orderly part: On the morning after the second round of the parliamentary elections, France's newly elected MPs came to the Palais Bourbon on the Seine, the seat of the National Assembly, and beamed for the cameras. The upholstery of the seats in the plenary chamber had been cleaned, new large screens had been installed, and each elected person was handed the insignia of his office: the blue, white and red sash that is worn proudly across the chest...
Earthquake, massacre, nightmare, hell: On Sunday evening, political France was looking for the most vivid terms possible to describe the outcome of the decisive second round of the parliamentary elections. It was just right for the media that there was thunder and lightning when Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne left the Élysée Palace after a crisis meeting lasting several hours. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire captured the situation most aptly in front of the cameras when he spoke of a "democratic...
The Ensemble party alliance failed to secure an absolute majority in France's parliamentary elections on Sunday. In Ensemble, the party of President Emmanuel Macron (formerly La République en Marche, today Renaissance) had joined forces with the center party MoDem and the moderately conservative Horizons party. According to the first projections, the ensemble deputies have 234 mandates, for an absolute majority 289 seats would be necessary. For President Macron, this result means a heavy defeat.During Macron's first term in office, his...
In the second round of parliamentary elections in France, President Emmanuel Macron's camp missed an absolute majority. According to the Inop Institute, Macron's "Ensemble" alliance only has 210 to 250 of the 577 seats. At least 289 seats are required for an absolute majority.Jean-Luc Mélenchon's left-wing alliance Nupes can be represented with 150 to 180 seats in parliament and thus become the strongest opposition force. The extreme right around Marine Le Pen was able to increase its result at least...
Following the Greens and the Communists, France's Socialists are now on the verge of forging an anti-President Emmanuel Macron electoral alliance with La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon's far-left party, for June's general election. It would be a historic step, a kind of reunification, 14 years after Mélenchon's separation from the Socialists. However, the party council of the Parti socialiste (PS) still had to decide on the agreement reached on Wednesday after several days of negotiations.A bitter argument was expected....
If you were to create a ranking based on the least original victims of everyday grumbling, television talk shows would probably come in second place after Deutsche Bahn. Too often the same people sit on the same beige armchairs, too rarely are they women, too often it's about the same topics, incidences and compulsory vaccination, for example. Everything has been heard before, just not by everyone - but that doesn't necessarily make it any less true.A point of criticism that...
France's political landscape is changing - once again. A week after the presidential election, a new left-wing alliance emerged. On the night of Monday, the currently largest forces - La France Insoumise (LFI) by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the Greens (Europe Écologie-Les Verts, EELV) - announced an agreement after several days of negotiations. Both parties will stand together in the general elections in June, with the goal of opposing the re-elected liberal President Emmanuel Macron with a left-wing majority.Macron would then...
In any case, Marcel Fratzscher is deeply relaxed. A national debt of almost 115 percent of the gross domestic product in France and planned billions in expenditure despite current global economic dangers from the Ukraine war and inflation? None of this fazes the head of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW)."In times of climate change, war, pandemics and digital transformation, budgetary discipline cannot mean less government spending, but requires a significant increase in future investments," he says. Only: What...
Politicians in Germany, Europe and worldwide reacted with relief to the re-election of Emmanuel Macron as French President. Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated the winner via Twitter: "Your voters have also sent a strong commitment to Europe today. I am pleased that we are continuing our good cooperation!."Other politicians in Germany made similar statements across party lines. President of the Bundestag Baerbel Bas (SPD) speaks in a tweet of "good news for Europe and for the continuation of the Franco-German friendship"....
In France there were protests in several cities after the outcome of the presidential election on Sunday evening. Clashes erupted in Lyon between left-wing groups, "yellow vest" protesters and the police, as the broadcaster BFMTV reported. First, the demonstrators shot at the municipal police with firecrackers, as could also be seen on video images. Later, the National Police intervened to stop the riots. The SZ editors have enriched this article with content from Twitter To protect your privacy, it has...
