🚨 This podcast was recorded on March 24th, 2024, but is posted now for the first time, in light of recent events.
In less complicated times, this headline would be about the upcoming Paris Olympics. But it is instead about the earthquake that has taken place in French politics since the results of last week’s European elections. The populist-right, or far-right, Rassemblement National (RN) had a strong showing, a surprise that led President Macron to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale (France’s lower house of parliament) and to call for new legislative elections.
The word “surprise” should be in quote marks because not everyone was surprised. Among those who saw it coming was Axel Gyldén, a senior reporter at France’s L’Express. In a March 24th podcast, two and a half months before the European elections, Axel shared with me his predictions of the RN’s big victory and Macron’s subsequent quandary.
Here is Axel speaking on March 24th about the (then upcoming) June European elections (at 14…
