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Observers weren’t expecting much from the mini-summit Thursday in Strasbourg, France, where French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Italian leader Mario Monti met to discuss Europe’s dire debt crisis. Such lowered expectations proved well-founded. Because even as the situation threatening the …
It might be inviting to react to the death of former French first lady Danielle Mitterrand as the closing of the historical book on the legacy of her husband, France’s late president François Mitterrand. That reading, however, would unfairly short-change both the impact that Madame Mitterrand herself had on public affairs, and her …
The seamless partnership France and Germany forged in past weeks now shows signs of fraying as both countries spar over the role of the European Central Bank (ECB) and proposals to mutualize euro zone debt. By pooling financial liabilities and assets across the 17-nation euro zone, stronger nations like Germany and France could back …
Is significantly greater integration the surest way to prevent both the euro and even the entire European Union from blowing apart? Or is EU federation–and the basic powers national governments now wield being weakened in the process–exactly the kind of radical fusion certain to send countries jealous of their sovereignty fleeing …
There are occasions when even the scariest of movies will push the atmosphere of dread, danger, and doom a bit too far, and leave the scenario of improbable horror and panic feeling just stupid. That moment has arrived in Nightmare On Euro Street, as people who watched Europe’s escalating crisis through their fingers in terror begin …
French Prime Minister François Fillon unveiled another batch of debt-reduction measures Monday—and in so doing officially removed the word “austerity” from the blacklist of political correctness to which it had been banished. Instead Fillon rehabilitated the term as the weapon capable of preventing contagion of the euro zone …
They may be clichés, but the phrases “life isn’t always fair”, and “things don’t necessarily work out the way you’d like” are cruel realities that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has to be ruefully mulling over just now. Rather than basking in the sunlight of a France-presided G20 summit meant to usher in major …
An excellent story by Reuters just went up today describing why it is a people known to be as siege-prone, strike-happy, and demonstration-loving as the French have not followed Greek, Spanish, American, British, Indian, and other protestors staging relatively successful Occupy movements these days. The piece notes how that docility …
As predicted, the relief and relative calm produced by the Oct. 27 agreement between European Union leaders battling the tightening euro zone debt crisis didn’t last long. Markets just aren’t ready to do with the fruits of optimism when there’s still so much to be made from low-hanging pessimism. Less expected, however, were …
The European debt crisis has reached its chiche moment—or what should be its chiche moment. That’s chiche, the French for “I dare you”, “I’m calling your bluff”, or even “make my day”—something often used in situations that somehow seem too formidable or fearsome to simply give in to without an audacious (albeit …
Wanted to weigh in with an additional post on the good BBC News piece by Gavin Hewitt that I flagged yesterday. Its main thrust is French Socialist candidate François Hollande—and the European left in general—needs to come up with new solutions to the current economic crisis (and more broadly, compelling visions for the future) if …
For anyone who hasn’t done so yet, I suggest having a read of a very well-focused and evenly-argued story by Gavin Hewitt, Europe editor for BBC News, on the opportunities and challenges for power-seeking European leftist parties at the very moment when French Socialist candidate François Hollande looks like a decent bet to unseat …
