"French Politics" - 5 new articles
Together Again!Daniel Cohn-Bendit and François ("T'es minable") Bayrou have buried the hatchet and shaken hands for the sake of the climate. Dany even ironized that he hoped Ségolène Royal might crash their meeting.  IncentivesAs any economist will tell you, some incentives are invitations to forget about fair play.  "Dream Team of Mediocrity"Jean Quatremer doesn't mince words:
La responsabilité des gouvernements socialistes dans la nomination du trio Van Rompuy/Barroso/Asthon, une véritable « dream team » de la médiocrité, est historique. Ce sont les six premiers ministres socialistes (Grande-Bretagne, Espagne, Portugal, Grèce, Hongrie et Slovénie) qui ont, en effet, choisi, hier après-midi, la commissaire au commerce, la Britannique Catherine Asthon, comme ministre européenne des affaires étrangères, ce poste leur revenant. Un choix catastrophique : cette apparatchik travailliste n’a absolument aucune expérience internationale et, de l’avis de plusieurs personnes qui ont travaillé avec elle à la Commission, elle a été particulièrement mauvaise depuis sa prise de fonction le 3 octobre 2008 : absence de travail, mauvaise connaissance des dossiers, sens diplomatique réduit. Lovely. More from Quatremer here on the selection process. And here he is on Van Rompuy, with yet another pronunciation (prononcez « vane rompeuille ») and another devastating characterization: "Plus simple et plus cliché belge, tu meurs." And then there is the indispensable Henry Farrell on the two big stories in Europe, the EU and football.  My LectureFor readers in the Boston area, a reminder that I will be lecturing on "The Future of French Culture" on Monday, 4:15-6, at the Harvard Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland St., Cambridge, in the Lower Level Conference Room. The discussant will be Michèle Lamont. The lecture is open to the public, so please come! In fact, I will be talking mainly about the past, which is the only way I know to say anything about the future without a crystal ball. So if you're interested in French culture in the 20th century and how it has been affected by a variety of factors ranging from political and economic upheaval to educational reform, you might not find it a total waste of your time. (And even if you do, there will be a PowerPoint with pretty pictures to look at.) I will post the text on the Net after the talk.  Nick and Carla on the SimpsonsMore here.  More Recent Articles |
