While the violence may have calmed down for now, writes Richard Ogier, the country must make fundamental changes to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past
Protests, riots: is France still a good place to live?
A joke on social media currently is that, if you can avoid the civilian unrest, France is still a great place to live: for the food, for the wine, and for the retirement at 64. Millions of Europeans plan to emigrate.
If you’ve seen images this week of black-clad young men running poles into Paris shop windows, and sworn you heard that the trigger was a plan to raise the retirement age to 64, you heard right. It is currently 62 in France. But economists say the reform, in stages to 2030, won’t balance the pension budget by that target date anyway …
In Germany, the Greens are now a mainstream political force – and they will shape Europe’s future
The passion of old green radicalism and the pragmatism of contemporary, inclusive German politics could help Europe find a way to face the problem of climate change.
This is the real reason the German far-right could triumph at this weekend’s elections
The growing success of Alternative for Germany is not only a result of Angela Merkel’s compassionate response to the migrant crisis, but old east-west wounds that are yet to heal