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This Explainer by Lisa Thomas-Darbois shows how the National Assembly is elected and how it works with the president and their respective powers under the Fifth Republic set up in 1958 during the Algiers Crisis and decolonization by Charles De Gaulle. In 1962 a constitutional amendment led to direct popular election of the president. De Gaulle was elected in 1965. Though De Gaulle resigned in 1968 much of the work of modernizing French agriculture from a backward local regional basis to a national technological basis was done by De Gaulle, and French infrastructure postwar rebuilding started. This was continued through the 5 year presidency of DeGaulle's assistants Pompidou and seven year presidency of Giscard Destaing till 1981, modernizing France over 2 decades. To get elected to the National Assembly one has to get 50% of the vote in the first round and 25% of eligible voters. In the second round only the top two parties and parties with more than 12.5% of vote participate. A change was made to make the president's term 5 years and have the election of the National Assembly after the presidential election. Under this change Macron was able to get a majority in the Assembly after his election as president in 2017. In the event the opposition parties get a majority in the National Assembly cohabitation happens and the prime minister is from the opposition ranks as is likely in 2024. This transfer authority on domestic policy to the majority in the Assembly with foreign policy run by the president. It happened twice under presidetn Mitterand and once under president Chirac. ...

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France and Britain support president Biden in removing vaccine patent barriers so that vaccine production can be ramped up.

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Europe is importing natural gas for heating homes and industry like never before as it shifts imports from Russia to the US, says this report in WSJ. Shown here is the import of LNG from tankers at the LNG terminal in Cherniere, France. Between 2021 and 2022 imports of US LNG to Europe more than doubled. The WSJ shows how drilling for gas takes place in Texas and Louisiana. That gas finds its way through pipelines to places where it is converted into LNG by freezing and transported by tankers across the high seas to European LNG terminals like Cherniere in France. The shale gas comes from the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico and a basin in Texas and Louisiana. Technological advances enable drilling 2 miles vertically and then two miles horizontally to reach into shale rock containing gas. Impurities are taken out to get gas that can be sent through pipelines to liquefied natural gas storage locations on the Gulf coast of America. Tankers take the LNG to LNG terminals in Europe that distribute the gas to homes. ...

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France's Mbappe, Argentina's Messi and Brazil's Neymar provide the star players for the World Cup Soccer in Qatar.

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Pensions reform is being proposed by president Macron in France retaining the age of 62 as a concession, yet consolidating disparate pension schemes into a national pension plan. Transport workers and professional service workers such as lawyers are hurt by the change because of generous benefits. A general strike is bringing workers across France in protest. Earlier protests by yellow vest protesters about inequality showed rising dissatisfaction in France with the way the economic system is working.. 

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A look at one year of lockdown in France in pictures from FR24.

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The steep decline in popularity of French president Emmanuel Macron in the period of one year. With the yellow vest protests on the economic insecurity of struggling families, Macron's efforts to bring in business friendly policies as a change agent are itself out of step with the times and with France in the provinces and small towns, as pointed out in the New York Times and Times of London analysis of the situation in France today.

As pointed out in the analysis Macron's base itself is small and its anti-institutional posture rejecting conventional politics itself has given momentum to the current yellow vest protests about economic insecurity of struggling families. The support for this comes from all parts of society and single political party, without nationalism, race or migration as factors at all, and comes so soon in one year from the time that Macron emerged with his own movement rejecting the institutional structure.  

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As daily cases come close to the 5000 mark in France August 24, Health minister Olivier Veran says that it is happening 4 times more for the 20 to 40 years younger population than for over 65 years population. Cross contamination is also increasing. Another total lockdown in France was ruled out.

The WSJ reports new thinking about total lockdowns and says it may not be the best way to respond today.

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It shows that Brexit promised cutting migrant flow but its action did just the opposite by removing cooperation with France on fighting migrant trafficking. Could doing away with EU bureaucracy and getting a special degree of autonomy have been accomplished in other ways than Brexit. Was this also the fault of French and German governments under Hollande/Macron and Merkel. The failures to accomplish Brexit goal to cut migrants of Conservatives and now continued failure in 2025 under a Labour government shows the need for European nations to work together. This is what president Macron and prime minister Starmer agreed to on Macron's visit to England on the invitation of King Charles, a pilot program that aims at breaking the migrant boats trafficking model. It will return boat migrants crossing the English Channel from France back to France.  Starmer says- "This is groundbreaking, because this is a scheme intended to break the model, and to make it clear that if you cross in a small boat, then you'll end up where you started. In exchange for every return, a different individual will be allowed to come here safely." The scheme will start in coming weeks.    ...

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France's finance minister Bruno Le Maire announces a $45 billion effort to cap energy price increases for electricity and gas to 15% increase. Earlier efforts had capped the increase to 4% till the end of 2022 in a tariff shield (bouclier tarifaire). France's public accounts minister says the budget being presented is "a budget to protect." Windfall taxes on energy companies will reduce the cost of the $45 billion to $12 billion. Other protection is offered in the form of increasing income tax brackets by 5% to lower the tax burden. In the absence of this effort the energy prices could have increased by more than 60%, says the Finance Ministry.

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Italy and France have implemented vaccine passes. The health pass in France has helped to reverse the trend of waning vaccinations. In the two weeks after the vaccine health pass was made mandatory in France for cafes, transport and restaurants, the vaccinations for second dose increased by 6 million and the vaccination for first dose increased by 5 million. In Italy vaccinations increased by 200%.

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The hidden costs of pollution are shown by the Forever Pollution Project in France. Le Monde and partners estimate the cost at euros 12 billion a year for cleaning up PFAS, with the smallest particles TFA widely present in water to be treated. The cost of cleanup in the US for PFAS must be vastly higher in the US and has not been estimated.

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Where do you place a winner of the Democratic primary in Maine, Graham Plattner, an oyster farmer who dropped out of college at George Washington University, served briefly in the Middle East wars of Bush and Obama, and had PTSD. Is he working class, middle working class or is he from a downwardly mobile professional class considering he has parents who are well educated and father a prominent lawyer in Maine? Plattner easily defeated a 3 term governor of Maine with his average working class demeanor and language. He is for universal health care, (Medicare for All) universal child care, affordable housing, affordable college. Politics in the US has been moving away from the simple divisions before 1950 created by the Industrial Revolution- the workers in factories and the owners of capital allied with the professional middle class. The few owners of capital mostly college educated allied with people from the non college educated workers in factories who are conservative in their values and beliefs and on the other side the college educated professional middle class now downwardly mobile because of the many recessions and high unemployment from frequent financial crises, with college costing $80,000 a year putting them in deep debt. There is today in the WSJ a story of a professional worker who at $194,000 a year salary is not able to payoff $15000 debt which owners of capital have set at 26% interest and is in downward spiral. Some of this comes from large college and other debt. There is says WSJ Analysis $1.25 trillion in credit card debt alone with highest delinquency rates in decades in 2026. Cost of living has only made things worse and some of this happened as Biden poured money into the economy to help people hurt by the pandemic, yet with some short run consequences with demand strong businesses including hotels, restaurants and grocery stores, auto dealers, jacking up their prices by over 20% in 1 year and Biden failing to respond, getting overwhelmed by open borders migrants under Mayorkas and Harris (also hit by a sudden Venezuelan migrant influx). This is the America one has today- a confusing mix. This in reality means Democrats may take issue with Democrats, Republicans take issue with Republicans, and Democrats join with Republicans on issue by issue basis. It might actually be rational than irrational. On cultural issues if the country has gone over its head and moved too fast on some issues that are not for the general public good, people of different backgrounds can come together to get the best path. On economic issues things are never so straightforward, there are unpredictable consequences and the rules of economics are really not so straightforward either.  Providing relief can mean the government shouldering the burden as during the pandemic which it should, yet with caution as businesses can use the excess demand to raise prices and one is back to square one with everybody worse off as happened with Biden. Migrant flows and fears of insecurity in public spaces can lead to a severe public "discomfort that can waylay the best intentions of a Harris or Biden, leading to public "backlash." In fact the title of a recent book is "Whiplash." Current books include Floridan Marco Rubio's "Decade's of Decadence- How our Spoiled Elites Blew America's Inheritance of Liberty, Security and Prosperity." Rubio means it. Its authentic because as Rubio says repeatedly, his parents could make a living in the 1960's working in a factory with decent wages, low cost of living and low cost of college, the arithmetic between salaries and what you needed for decent home in suburbs and sending children to good public schools, then to college, all adding up. The result is that Rubio could go to college and serve in the Florida legislature. Rubio says in 2026, after the elites under Bush and Obama and faulty economic theory shipped all of our factories to China, that the story of his parents and his education would simply be impossible. This is what he told people in India on his first visit last week. His parents were Cuban immigrants, yet he identifies with Spain and with western civilization, a devout Roman Catholic. Rubio is a Republican, and is in large contrast with Alejandro Mayorkas, also from Cuba, and Biden's Head of Homeland Security. This is the mix of people and representatives in Congress,  business people, small business owners, professionals, that we have today in 2026 in the US. Plattner and Rubio, one a Democrat and one a Republican- both have something in common. Plattner also has general disdain for "the corporate interests, the billionaires, the Washington DC elites, and the establishment politicians."  The winds are blowing in the direction of getting things right- remembering that Eisenhower continued the work of the Kennedy and LBJ administrations (Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System for instance, and LBJ gave America Social Security and Medicare). Before that Franklin Roosevelt a Democrat built on the work of his uncle Republican Theodore Roosevelt (TR gave America the idea of good governance and built the US Navy, FDR fought the Depression and stabilized a faltering economy after mistakes made by Republican Herbert Hoover could have happened even if Hoover was a Democrat. FDR was himself from a wealthy New York family and when he first met fellow New Yorker Frances Perkins before his struggle with polio, a haughty New York gentleman. That was before Frances Perkins as FDR's Labor Secretary joined forces with Roosevelt to give New York a modernized administration governance structure by 1940 that was applied to all 51 states after 1950. It allied labor with capital with fairness for all, and was the first such modern structure of this size the world had ever seen, which was the fundamental strength of the United States of America. It was imitated in Asia, first in the Shanghai region then China, and first in the Ahmedabad region and now India. The US is faced with the challenge of recreating and rebuilding this today, as first China, then India remind America of its roots which they have followed in their own style and culture.  First good governance, then good institutional structures, alligning labor and capital with fairness for all, strong affordable + accessible educational and healthcare systems, and investments of capital and labor for infrastructure + industrial development. ...

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France moves to a mandatory health pass for most activities as cases rise 150% from 7000 last week to 18,000 week of July 20.

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Slovenian cyclist Pogacar decides to go for it in the Haute Pyrenees in Tour de France to win Stage 14 over Danish defending champion Jonas Vinegaard.

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WSJ reporters Chow, Schechner and Kostov provide this exceptional report from the 11th Arondissement in France, scene of the terrorist attacks in Nov. 2015, describing the conflicting visions of French society- one secular and the other in other parts of the country anti-immigrant. The National Front of Marie Le Pen sees immigration as "a mortal threat to France" and won about 25% of the vote in France in the 2014 European parliament elections, a first for a anti-immigrant party in Europe. It did very well in rural areas and small towns of northwest France and southern France. The debate on immigration is now dominating headlines in Europe, including Denmark, Norway, Germany, France, Rumania, Hungary, and other countries. The Syrian refugee crisis has exacerbated the situation.

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Slovenian Pogacar says he knew every turn on this stage of the Tour De France before the final stage, and knew exactly where to accelerate as he takes the lead from Roglic. Roglic looked ragged and dejected at the end as he struggled to find his rhythm on the climb in the Alps after leading for 13 days. 

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Fears in France about multiculturalism presumably of the Anglo-Saxon type with ethnic communities living separately side by side. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy, says in his recent book that the French are not like Anglo-Saxons with communities of ethnic people living next to each other but not mixing. This is not true of London and New York, or Melbourne, say people on the other side. Comments by prime minister Valls similiar to Sarkozy's are interpreted by experts in French history as reflecting France's predominant political language of Republicanism and fear of fragmentation. These issues have come up as immigrants issues have led to movements such as for Brexit, and the Trump campaign in the U.S. with anti-immigrant sentiment. The French like to see themselves in a different light though the banlieus are as much a fact of life in France as segregated communities in the U.S. and Britain, say observers.

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France on August 29 is now at just about the level of 7500 new cases daily reached on March 31. President Macron is not considering another lockdown. This happens just when schools are about to reopen. Hospitalizations are at new lows which makes the situation different now from what it was then.

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A terrorist attack on july 15, 2016, by a Tunisian born delivery truck driver using a large delivery truck to crush people on a Nice promenade. The death toll is about 85 with 50 people badly injured. The delivery truck driver is Bouhlel, 31, born in Tunisia and from Msaken, Tunisia, who moved to France in 2005. President Hollande extended a nationwide state of emergency for 3 months. The Euro 2016 soccer games in France went without any incidents, only to be followed by this attack.  Georges Fenech who headed a parliamentary inquiry into intelligence and terrorism said about the attack - "it is a predictable tragedy." He said France "is clearly not equiped to fight against Islamic terrorism," in an interview with news channel iTele. This was one of the conclusions of the parliamentary inquiry which called for a new agency to be setup, and merging of existing intelligence agencies. The president of the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region told BFM-TV about the Hollande administration: "I don't want to hear the usual "we are going to do an investigation." He questioned the Interior Minister Cazeneuve for how a single person could have breached the security line at the Bastille Day clebrations in Nice on a prominent promenade, Promenade des Anglais. ...

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Germany's goalie Neuer would stay outside his goal box so much of the time that it has become the norm for goalies to move out of their box to tackle incoming balls. In this World Cup Soccer the winning team goalies have stayed inside their box to make saves. Particularly true for France, Croatia's Subasic and goalies for Belgium and France. Most of the game depended on goalie saves for Croatia and France. Subasic and Lloris stayed inside the goalie's six yard box and made sensational saves. France's coach also wanted his goalie inside the box and to play the game the way it used to be played 20 years ago.

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Nirmala Sitharaman brings together France, Japan, and India to bring attention to resolution of debt issues of Sri Lanka, Ghana and other countries during the annual spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington D.C.

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Slovenian Pogacar leads in Tour de France 2025 including an effort up the Pyrenees mountains.