This coming Sunday the French Socialist party will hold a rare nationwide primary -the second time they hold a primary as the party’s leadership used to choose its own candidate- to decide who will challenge President Nicolas Sarkozy in the coming spring elections. Read the rest of this entry »

With national elections looming in just over half a year, France held indirect elections last Sunday to choose the senators. The results were not very good for Sarkozy’s party: the left wrested the Senate from the right. Read the rest of this entry »

The French presidential election will take place on 22 April with a run-off on 6 May were it to be necessary. As in the US there are two main parties contending, in the French case the Socialists and the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP ). Read the rest of this entry »

Today, as every year on July 14, France celebrates Bastille Day also known as Fête Nationale -national holiday. This year the parade in Paris has set the spotlight on the units from overseas which came down the Champs-Elysées in front of some 7,000 soldiers. Read the rest of this entry »

Being so involved on both sides of the Atlantic with the economic woes, some of the many and violent political problems, some of which have been there for years and others surprising the world some months ago, seem almost to be ignored. And yet, they are still there, unresolved. Read the rest of this entry »

If many French were proud of having Christine Lagarde chosen as head of the IMF, today they are feeling specially happy and relieved after Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier, the two French television journalists held hostage in Afghanistan since December 2009, were freed unhurt. Read the rest of this entry »

Not everybody is going to be happy with the appointment of the current French Finance and Economics Minister Christine Lagarde as the next leader of the International Monetary Fund. An appointment that it is perceived by some as a loss to the developing world where it was expected the top position at the IMF would not go again to an European as up to now it has always been. Read the rest of this entry »