Dr Oliver Hartwich: Drowning in €3.5 trillion of debt, France faces a new revolution

When France celebrates its national holiday today, it will look much the same as always. There will be the usual aircraft flyover and the cavalry parading past the president.

The only visible difference will be the absence of fireworks. Paris held them last night instead, leaving July 14 for commemorations of the 10th anniversary of the Nice terrorist attack.

Melanie Phillips: The fantasy state of "Palestine"

Time for the US and the Jewish world to start holding their supposed champions’ feet to the fire

In his barnstorming speech this week at the United Nations General Assembly, in which he lobbed one uncomfortable home truth after another at member states, US President Donald Trump told the world body itself that it was useless. Instead of stopping wars and saving lives, he said, it produced only empty words.

The problem with the UN is rather more acute than that. Supposedly the guardian of peace and justice in the world, it has become instead an avatar of evil.

DTNZ: French government collapses

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has been ousted by the National Assembly in a no-confidence vote.

The French government has fallen after Prime Minister Francois Bayrou lost a crucial confidence vote in parliament on Monday. Bayrou is the second consecutive prime minister under President Emmanuel Macron to be ousted, throwing the nation into political and economic turmoil.

Point of Order: Much more than a minerals deal

Full credit to European politicians: they know how to brief.

Latest in London’s Daily Telegraph is that “Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have together pulled off a remarkable feat of high statecraft” in shaping the US – Ukraine minerals deal signed a few days ago. There are even some nice words for Boris Johnson’s contribution.

Who knows, it could even be true. But it’s perhaps more important that they’re thinking that way.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Macron stuck in a constitutional dead end

Last week, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier faced parliament defiantly. Despite lacking a majority, he tried to push through controversial reforms using Article 49.3 of the Constitution – a mechanism allowing the government to bypass parliamentary votes.

He paid a heavy price for his defiance. In an unprecedented move, an unlikely coalition of left and right-wing parties united to pass a vote of no confidence, bringing down his government and plunging France into a constitutional crisis.

Tarik Cyril Amar: France is a perfect example of centrist elites wrecking the West

Political crises seem to be taking down Western nations one by one, their leaders clinging to hubris and showing a disdain for democracy.

It is almost as if some EU capitals have a tenacious death wish. After Berlin’s amazing and ongoing self-Morgenthauing act of industrial suicide for the greater glory of America’s NATO and Zelensky’s Ukraine, Paris is now self-Waterlooing. As France’s newly-discharged prime minister Michel Barnier almost correctly noted, the “country is going through a profound crisis.”

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Macron's electoral gamble to see off the far-right

“How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese?”, asked Charles de Gaulle in 1962. Well, after its forthcoming elections, a plethora of cheese varieties may be the least of France’s problems. Risks abound for both France and Europe.

President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call snap legislative elections for 30 June and 7 July was a high-stakes gamble. His centrist alliance suffered a crushing defeat by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally in the European Parliament elections. Macron hopes the early election will catch his opponents off guard and secure him a fresh mandate.

Chris Trotter: Dangerous Generations?

ON SATURDAY (1/4/23) SHAMUBEEL EAQUB came out swinging against the Baby Boom Generation on TV3’s The Nation. The Gen-X economist was adamant that the New Zealanders born between 1946 and 1965 had guaranteed themselves a universal retirement income, which they were now enjoying, regardless of the economic impact on subsequent generations. Outraged that the Boomers, not having saved for their retirement, continue to live on “welfare”, Eaqub made it clear that he regarded NZ Superannuation as a form of intergenerational theft. It was unaffordable, unsustainable, and it had to stop.