Questions tagged [france]

Questions about politics and policy of the French Republic.

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What kind of government organization does Alain de Benoist seek?

Alain de Benoist's main focus is "identity". This article says that Alain de Benoist is both a "conservative and “socialist””. A wikipedia article says that he is also a radical ...
Starckman's user avatar
  • 879
-2 votes
2 answers
344 views

To what extent could India, Pakistan, China, France, and/or the UK individually destroy the U.S. and/or Russia with their nukes if it came to that? [closed]

Some of these match-ups are obviously highly implausible such as France vs. the U.S. (well, they did rename their fries once...). Others are not completely improbable, such as China vs. the U.S. or ...
Qwokker's user avatar
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8 votes
7 answers
6k views

Does this newly proposed French bill violate or go against the principles of international human right of free speech?

Just made aware of this newly proposed bill at the French senate, proposes punishment to who insults Israel Translation to item 3: Insult committed against the State of Israel, by one of the means ...
Mocas's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
123 views

Does the North American island of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon still hold a strategic advantage for France?

Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon has had strategic significance at various eras in its history, mostly as fishing grounds and a geographical bargaining chip between France and England[1]. It also played a ...
Qwokker's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
203 views

Have any countries besides France banned pro-Palestine demonstrations recently?

Reuters reports: French police used teargas and water cannon to break up a banned rally in support of the Palestinian people in Paris on Thursday, as President Emmanuel Macron urged the French to ...
Fizz's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
86 views

Can the Bank of France print as many Euros as it wants, what are the limitations, and how is it enforced? [duplicate]

The Bank of France contributes to the design of the monetary policy of the euro zone (through macroeconomic research and forecast and by taking part in the deliberations on ECB decisions) and ...
Sayaman's user avatar
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10 votes
6 answers
7k views

Why is the French embassy in Niger still considered an embassy?

As I see it, if the French ambassador to Niger has been effectively sacked and become persona non grata with no diplomatic immunity, then how can the building still be an embassy? Surely now it's ...
Katie Millington's user avatar
12 votes
5 answers
6k views

How can a country force an ambassador to leave?

Recently the coup leaders in Niger asked the French ambassador to leave. France declined the request and the ambassador is still in the embassy. The Nigerien coup's "government" considers ...
bouqbouq's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
401 views

What incentive is there for the French policy of escorting small boats across the channel?

According to recent reports (for instance in the Daily Mail on August 12, 2023) the French navy as of the last three years has embarked on a policy of escorting small migrant boats across the channel ...
Seeking answers's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
73 views

How successful was the French Initiative for Western Balkans? [closed]

I'm trying to write an essay about the "French Initiative for Western Balkans" and the consequent results of their new methodology. It has been 4 years since the process started and there is ...
Dusan Markovic's user avatar
1 vote
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Why was the recent "Nahel Marzouk Protest" more violent than the BLM protest?

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests began in 2013 as a response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager. The movement gained national attention ...
user366312's user avatar
19 votes
4 answers
4k views

Why did France oppose Fiona Scott Morton's nomination so strongly?

Fiona Scott Morton was recently appointed as chief economist in the Commission's Directorate-General (DG) for Competition by European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager. This started a ...
pinpon's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
1k views

What are the reasons for the French opposition to opening a NATO bureau in Japan?

It has been reported in the news that France vetoed the opening up of a NATO bureau in Tokyo (here, here, here). But it is not clear what all of the aspects of this situation are. Was there any ...
Starckman's user avatar
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2 votes
3 answers
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How does the logic work for no prosecution exceptions to the right to not self incriminate in the presence of different jurisdictions?

In many democratic countries there is some sort of a right for an accused to not have to answer police questions to prevent people being forced to incriminate themselves. In the USA this is in the ...
User65535's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
243 views

Are there famous examples of left-wing reforms blocked by the French Senate?

The French Senate is often described as a bulwark of the right and of the rural areas, due to the indirect way in which it is elected (more or less by local councilors, as I understand). I've looked ...
Fizz's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
1k views

What's the highest number of amendments submitted for a law proposal in France, since 1958?

According to the French press, back on Feb 2 The members of the Social Affairs commission had been meeting since Monday morning to examine the government’s proposed pension reform and the 7,000 ...
Fizz's user avatar
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2 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is increased retirement age really the reason for 2023 protests in France?

France has one of the world's highest working populations by percentage. Hence, the lack of jobs/unemployment is clearly not the root cause of this problem. Most protestors are relatively young (20-30 ...
tryst with freedom's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
824 views

How does France compare to other countries with respect to police brutality?

Recently France has seen some massive protests against Macron’s pension law. Most of these protests are peaceful, but unavoidably there was some violence, especially since Macron decided to bypass ...
Erwan's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
310 views

Pension reforms. Why is the debate constrained to raising the retirement age or not, with no intermediate solutions?

This question was inspired by the French pension reform, but also in other European countries the situation is not different. The debate seems framed between the two extremes. Increase or not the ...
FluidCode's user avatar
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1 answer
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Did Macron win any of the young left-wing voters in the 2nd round of the elections?

If one reads France24's vignettes of the young, left-wing voters before the 2nd round of the 2022 French presidential election, you could almost swear none were going to vote Macron: "Macron or ...
Fizz's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
499 views

What’s the Realpolitik reason for Macron to change the retirement age despite this being very unpopular?

President Macron recently invoked Article 49.3 of the French constitution, allowing him to bypass the normal legislative process. This measure is quite unpopular and might result in him getting voted ...
JonathanReez's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
269 views

How often is Article 49.3 of the French Constitution used?

According to recent news: On Thursday, French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced that the government was resorting to Article 49.3 of the Constitution to force the bill through parliament ...
JonathanReez's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
483 views

Why do industrial actions in France seem to happen more frequently, visibly, and intensely than in other EU states?

Obviously asking due to ongoing protests against pension reform in France. This might be just a perception issue, but it seems France has a reputation for having more frequent, visible, and intense ...
QuantumWalnut's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
322 views

Which NATO countries sided with France in the 2020 Courbet frigate incident?

Back in 2020, according to French sources: the relationship between Paris and Ankara was severely affected by a serious naval incident on June 10, in which a Turkish vessel threatened a French ...
Fizz's user avatar
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10 votes
4 answers
3k views

What are the options for a government facing massive protests over seemingly unsustainable economical measures?

Context France is currently facing nationwide strikes due to pension system reformation discussions. According to France24, there seems to be a debate over the opportunity of such a reform: French ...
Alexei's user avatar
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21 votes
4 answers
6k views

Why is there an official retirement age?

France strikes bid to halt Macron's rise in retirement age: President Macron's reform programme faces a make-or-break moment, as French unions stage a day of mass strikes and protests on Thursday ...
Alexei's user avatar
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5 votes
0 answers
309 views

Why does France public health system seem to have so many problems despite its rather big financing?

According to this article, France public health system problems became so big that French President Emmanuel Macron addressed to France’s health workers about them: French President Emmanuel Macron ...
Alexei's user avatar
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-1 votes
1 answer
95 views

Why do politicians get national honorary decorations?

On January first, in France, a few hundred people got the Légion d'Honneur, like M. Bayrou. While this is obviously a personnal opinion, I do not believe, for several reasons which are out of topic ...
Itération 122442's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

How did the UK race ahead of France in GDP

Source of data In 2019, GDP of the UK was 2,743.586 Billion USD, while that of France was 2,707.074 B. That is just a difference of 1.33 percent. Some might even dismiss it as noise. In 2022 however,...
whoisit's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
202 views

How much foreign currency gets injected into the French economy every year because of CFA Franc?

How much foreign currency gets injected into the French economy every year from Africa because of CFA Franc alone? How else is France profiting from this CFA arrangement?
user366312's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
70 views

Why was the number of seats that RN gained in the 2022 legislative elections so poorly predicted by pollsters in the runup?

A France24 article from June says RN’s performance at 90 seats is a “seismic event; an extraordinary result for them”, said Paul Smith, a professor of French politics at Nottingham University. “There ...
Fizz's user avatar
  • 145k
4 votes
0 answers
150 views

Does France consider an HVDC grid connection to French Guyana?

An aspect that seems to plague the idea of a European supergrid for electricity (i.e. the concept of a renewables-dominated electricity grid with continental or even intercontinental ...
Vergilius's user avatar
  • 141
11 votes
2 answers
582 views

Why does France resist the Midcat pipeline?

Earlier this month we read that the construction of a gas pipeline between Germany and the Iberian peninsula is strongly supported by Portugal, Germany and Spain. This pipeline should, at least in ...
discipulus's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
187 views

(Why) did the central French government deem the lifting of the burkini ban in Grenoble but not in Rennes an "unacceptable provocation"?

Unless the VOA is mistaken, Rennes lifted their public-swimming pools burkini ban a few years ago (seemingly in 2019) without causing much outcry. A few years ago, local authorities quietly changed ...
Fizz's user avatar
  • 145k
4 votes
0 answers
184 views

Did any high-level French politician come out against the burkini ban in public swimming pools?

As far as I can tell the Macron government and National Rally (Le Pen) have been against the burkini (thus calling for the ban). The high-profile left-wing candidates appear to have been very good at ...
Fizz's user avatar
  • 145k
7 votes
2 answers
482 views

Has Macron explained which outcomes/situations he thinks (or perhaps was even let on by Putin) would be "humiliating" for Russia?

A fair bit of commentary has been written about Macron saying that Russia must not be "humiliated" in this war. Zelensky, for instance, said he doesn't understand what Macron is talking ...
Fizz's user avatar
  • 145k
24 votes
2 answers
776 views

Do tiny communes in France have any practical significance?

The French commune of Rouchefourchat has exactly one inhabitant. I imagine that would make mayoral elections rather boring. Joking aside, do such tiny municipalities even have a mayor or local ...
gerrit's user avatar
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27 votes
5 answers
8k views

Why would far-left groups oppose Macron’s re-election?

As a background to this question, I know next-to-nothing about French politics other than briefly reading a few news articles about current events. In response to the re-election of Emmanuel Macron in ...
GendoIkari's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
204 views

Why does the French presidential election system use two first-past-the-post rounds instead of a single preference-based voting round? [duplicate]

France has a system where presidential elections are decided on a first past the post (FPTP) electoral arrangement, whereby if no candidate wins 50% in the first round (someone winning in the 1st ...
Treppich's user avatar
18 votes
5 answers
4k views

What is the point of Emmanuel Macron speaking so often with Vladimir Putin?

This article mentions the frequent discussions between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin: French President Emmanuel Macron continues to keep his hotline open with Russian President Vladimir Putin, ...
Alexei's user avatar
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3 votes
3 answers
367 views

Why does Zemmour score relatively well in Paris and with French living abroad, compared to Le Pen or his French nationwide scores?

The results for the first round of the French presidential election, 2022, overall: Candidate Score (%) Macron 27.84% Le Pen 23.15% Mélenchon 21.95% Zemmour 7.07 % Pécresse 4.78% The results ...
gerrit's user avatar
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3 votes
3 answers
1k views

How much natural gas does France import from Russia?

According to the BBC France, like many other European countries, imports much of its natural gas through pipelines from Russia, using it for residential and commercial energy. Of course, "much&...
Fizz's user avatar
  • 145k
5 votes
2 answers
3k views

"Not a France.. having exited Europe.." Is Macron just mud-slinging or is there real reason to believe that a president Le Pen could lead to a Frexit?

CNN's Results are in for first round in French Presidential election shows a snippet of current French president Emmanuel Macron's recent speech. The English translation provided in audio is widely ...
uhoh's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
125 views

Is there any modeling on who would be the Condorcet winner in the French Presidential election?

The French Presidential elections use FPTP with a run off round, so directly determining the Condorcet winner is obviously impossible. But I wonder if pollsters have done any modeling to determine the ...
JonathanReez's user avatar
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7 votes
6 answers
2k views

How could Le Pen be seeking Mélenchon votes?

I read that Le Pen is courting Mélenchon (the 3rd place finisher) voters for the upcoming runoff election against Macron. However, I thought Mélenchon was the socialist candidate, so won't all of his ...
Tyler Durden's user avatar
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36 votes
9 answers
6k views

What are the benefits for strong economies like Germany and France for being members of the European Union?

Recently I was reading things on the European debt crisis. It seems to me that when there is a financial crisis, strong economies in EU, like Germany and France, are supposed to help the countries in ...
No One's user avatar
  • 4,302
7 votes
2 answers
361 views

Have any French weapons been spotted on the ground in Ukraine?

France has refused to publicly disclose what "defensive military equipment" it's been sending to Ukraine, in order not to "provoke" Russia. But there are plenty of country-specific ...
Fizz's user avatar
  • 145k
3 votes
0 answers
68 views

Will there be any televised first-round presidential debates in France during the "equal airtime" period that starts on 28 March 2022?

The rule in France in 2022 is that the media must treat verified candidates for the presidency "equitably" until 28 March, and from then on it must treat them "equally". So before ...
user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
779 views

Why did France not want Russia to get Macron's DNA?

It is stated in this Guardian article (Macron was kept away from Putin in Kremlin for ‘refusing Russian Covid test’), that Macron refused a Russian Covid test because France did not want Russia to get ...
hkBst's user avatar
  • 504
19 votes
2 answers
2k views

Can an extra nomination in the French presidential election prevent a person's candidacy?

In order to be a candidate in a French presidential election, a person must obtain at least 500 "présentations" or "parrainages" from among tens of thousands of elected ...
user avatar