European Union finance ministers announced unexpected advances towards a banking union designed to prevent the excesses that transformed Europe’s sovereign debt problem into the fearsome euro crisis.
François Hollande
A Deeply Divided European Union Faces Its Own Budgetary Cliff
France, Germany and Britain become central antagonists in more general discord over a multiyear E.U. budget — and risk preventing Europe from fulfilling one of its most basic operational tasks
France’s Right-Wing Civil War: Leadership Vote Plunges UMP into Chaos
Allegations of voter fraud add further bile to the leadership race for France’s main conservative party, as it chooses between its neo-Gaullist roots or drifting towards the far right of Marine Le Pen
France Recognizes Syria’s Opposition—Will the West Follow Suit?
French President François Hollande becomes the first Western leader to recognize the newly-formed coalition leadership of Syrian rebel forces, and ups pressure on other nations to follow his lead.
France ‘Biggest Problem’ in Euro Crisis, Say German Officials
France smarts at German comments despairing French economic response to the euro crisis, and media reports contending Berlin is preparing a To-Do reform list for sluggish leaders in Paris.
Is Gay Marriage Too Progressive for the French?
The leftist government of French President François Hollande tables legislation to legalize same-sex marriages and adoptions amid rising opposition and public hesitation
France’s Benghazi: Was the Case of Mohammed Merah Bungled?
New investigations into how French authorities handled Toulouse terrorist Mohammed Merah stoke suspicions of an intelligence failure
Why a Cop Is France’s Favorite Politician
French Interior Minister Manual Valls law-and-order drive has made him the darling of opinion polls, while approval ratings of President François Hollande and other leaders plummet amid the hardening economic crisis.
Algeria’s Ghosts: France Acknowledges a 1961 Police Massacre
French President François Hollande reverses 51 years of official denial about the violent deaths of perhaps 200 people killed during a 1961 demonstration against the Algerian war
French Anti-Terror Raids Leave Extremist Suspect Dead
Multiple French sweeps leave a Salafist suspect dead after gunfight with police, and mark a return to France’s multi-discipline counter-terror system over the all-intelligence model of former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Must-Reads from Around the World
On deck for Thursday: Two Coptic Christian boys accused of profaning Koran in Egypt, Argentine police take the streets to protest against pay cuts, France plans to make the wealthy pay more taxes, Turkey retaliates against Syrian …
After Sarkozy, Will France’s Conservatives Turn to the Far Right?
Warnings of “antiwhite racism” by one of two contenders for the leadership of France’s main conservative party spark controversy
In Autumn’s Challenges, a Series of Existential Crises for the Euro
The fate of the euro will be repeatedly tested in coming weeks, as the European Central Bank, markets, legal experts and politicians all weigh in from opposing sides in the struggle to preserve the tormented common currency