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“We are facing a crisis of human civilisation. And we are going to win.” A defiant Jean-Luc Mélenchon was in fighting mood today as he presented his presidential manifesto at Le Bourget, north of Paris. It is his fourth bid for the French presidency, and he has chosen a venue steeped in left-wing campaign history: the site of François Hollande's famous 2012 rally.
According to a recent survey, 85% of French respondents believe that their purchasing power has deteriorated in ten years. Are they actually working to live less well than before? We asked economist Philippe Trainar the question.
François Picard is pleased to welcome Craig Copetas, Greek-American author, international affairs columnist and editor at Türkiye Today and French Senator Hélène Conway-Mouret. "What you have is a tormented and unstable president who's desperate for immortality." With this arresting assessment, Copetas captures what he considers the defining paradox of Donald Trump's presidency in the aftermath of the US midterm elections: a leader politically neutered at home but potentially emboldened on the international stage.
Facing the hundreds of thousands of French people on the streets on Thursday to demand an increase in their purchasing power, Sébastien Lecornu announced a social conference Monday with trade unions and employers.
The purchasing power and the precariousness are also the struggles brought on this Thursday 5 November, day of inter-union strike. In France, according to INSEE, 9.8% of French people are below the poverty line (2024). Social justice is called for, in solution, the demonstrators propose the taxation of the ultra-rich. The Secours populaire, claims that 26 per cent of French people feel they are in a precarious situation.
As Americans head to the polls for the midterm elections, François Picard welcomes historian Timothy Snyder, professor at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs, for a conversation about the future of American democracy, the growing political influence of technology billionaires and the dangers of a new Gilded Age. Who really holds power in Donald Trump's America: the president or the billionaires surrounding him?
This week, we bring you a special programme dedicated to theatre. Valérie Fayolle takes us to the Renaissance Theatre, where François-Xavier Demaison takes us behind the scenes of "Laponie". The fiesty comedy shows how a family's holiday gathering can quickly turn into a settling of scores. "Theatre is one of our last collective experiences. It's magnificent, we're in a bubble," he tells us.
