The New Yorker
THE FRENCH RIGHT SCORES A HISTORIC VICTORY, New Yorker, March 31, 2014
Sunday’s municipal elections in France offer at least three historical firsts: a historically poor result for the socialist party of President François Hollande; the best-ever results for the right-wing National Front party of Marine Le Pen; and a national record for low voter turnout. The left lost mainly because its own electorate—discouraged by the disappointing…
Continue readingAN ANTI-GAY-MARRIAGE TEA PARTY, FRENCH STYLE? New Yorker, March 18, 2014
Last month, marchers filled the streets of Paris and Lyon to protest same-sex marriage, which became legal in France last year. The day after the demonstrations, François Hollande’s Socialist government announced that it would not be putting forward new legislation to make it easier for gay couples to adopt children or have them with the…
Continue readingITALY’S YOUNG PRIME MINISTER IN A HURRY, New Yorker, March 6, 2014
Sixty-three governments in sixty-eight years, with twenty-seven different Prime Ministers—so why should we care that Italy has a new government, with yet another Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi? It is understandable if observers find the dizzying nature of Italian politics exhausting and pointless. It can seem like a merry-go-round: the people on the painted horses change,…
Continue readingHOW AMERICAN IS THE FRENCH PRESIDENT’S AFFAIR? New Yorker, Jan. 15, 2014
In the 1988 movie “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” Steve Martin’s character tries to talk his way out of a French jail by claiming that was framed by a jealous woman. “She caught me with another woman,” he says. “C’mon, you’re French, you understand that!” The police inspector, unimpressed, replies, “To be with another woman, that is French….
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