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‘Who can save France now?’

AnyFans 2025-09-11

By Justin Klawans

'Who can save France now?'

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‘Who can save France now?’

Opinion, comment and editorials of the day

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French Parliament prior to a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Francois Bayrou

(Image credit: Bertrand Guay / AFP / Getty Images)

Justin Klawans, The Week US

9 September 2025

‘Who can save France now?’
The Wall Street Journal editorial board

Can “anyone else save France? That’s the $1.1 trillion question after another administration collapsed,” says The Wall Street Journal editorial board. What “happens next is anyone’s guess.” Maybe President Emmanuel Macron “will try to soldier on, tapping some other hapless soul to manage an unmanageably divided legislature.” Voters “risk finding themselves short of options, in part because they refuse to reward politicians who tell the truth about France’s fiscal mess and economic malaise.”

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‘Challenging narratives and reshaping action — protecting education under attack’
Maleiha Malik and Siraj Khan at Newsweek

This has been a “devastating year for many reasons — not least the impact of displacement due to war, starvation and domestic conflicts,” say Maleiha Malik and Siraj Khan. Schools are “increasingly being turned into battlegrounds, or bombarded to rubble,” and “every classroom that is destroyed or bombed tells a woeful human story: the confident arrogation by some of the destruction of the lives of others, with absolute impunity.” This “simply cannot be. Accountability must take place.”

‘Memo to the CEO: office romance is also the board’s business’
Financial Times editorial board

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The “problem of how, or even whether, to regulate a natural human instinct persists. The evidence suggests codes of conduct are not working,” says the Financial Times editorial board. The “problems for companies and their boards arise when an imbalance of power leads to conflicts of interest.” The “temptation to leave consensual office romances alone is still strong,” but CEOs “operate at a different level.” The “boss should have to declare any close workplace relationships to the board.”

‘From Washington to Westminster, the populist right needs to erase history to succeed. It’s up to us to resist.’
Kojo Koram at The Guardian
It “might seem absurd for a president juggling a global trade war caused by his avalanche of tariffs” to be “fretting over museum artifacts,” says Kojo Koram. But “these attacks are not just distractions from the major issues; they provide the ideological justification for real material and legislative changes that will impact people’s day-to-day lives.” Trump can “use these conversations as the narrative doorway through which laws can be passed that erode rights for poor and vulnerable communities.”

Justin Klawans, The Week US

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Justin Klawans has worked as a staff writer at The Week since 2022. He began his career covering local news before joining Newsweek as a breaking news reporter, where he wrote about politics, national and global affairs, business, crime, sports, film, television and other news. Justin has also freelanced for outlets including Collider and United Press International.

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