PARIS — He was the boy wonder of Western politics in 2017, soaring above outmoded cleavages between left and right. He was the whip-smart former banker who was going to turn a tradition-bound society into a start-up nation. He was the liberal bulwark against rising populism in Europe — an […]
Read Time : 9 Minutes
As France Shifts Right, a Hard-Line Minister Proves Indispensable to Macron
PARIS — He has declared war on the Islamist “enemy within” and halal food shelves in supermarkets. He launched what he described as a “massive” operation against 76 of France’s mosques, and sought to criminalize the filming of police officers. And he announced that he “can’t breathe” when he hears […]
Read Time : 3 Minutes
Macron Seeks an Enlightened Islam
Emmanuel Macron has resolved to be the president who finally eases tensions over France’s young and growing Muslim population. Every president since Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in the 1970s has resolved to do that. None succeeded, and the stakes have risen with each failure. On Oct. 16, a Chechen-born 18-year-old living […]
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Macron condemns ‘racist’ police brutality as shameful for France
President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that images showing Paris police beating up a Black music producer were shameful for France, and that the government would have to find a way to restore public confidence in the force. Prosecutors are investigating the violent arrest of Michel Zecler, who said he […]
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Macron accused of double standards by muzzling press with new law
President Emmanuel Macron faced accusations of double standards on Friday as he launched plans for a government crackdown on press freedoms in France while styling himself as a paragon of free expression abroad. After the gruesome beheading last month of Samuel Paty, a high-school teacher who showed caricatures of the […]
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Macron Scrambling to Salvage Liberal Reputation Worldwide After Targeting Islam
JEAN-FRANCOIS BADIAS PARIS—On October 16, French history teacher Samuel Paty was walking home after a day at school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine when he was attacked by an 18-year-old, who beheaded him in broad daylight and posted a photo of his body online. The attacker, Abdullakh Anzarov, a […]