Fixing France

Description

France, the romanticised, revolutionary nation with an enlightened historical mission—Liberty, Equality, Fraternity for all—is failing its own citizens and its admirers around the world.

A makeshift Fifth Republic, born out of the cataclysmic Algerian War of Independence, has produced extremism. Constitutional reform is urgently needed: an all-powerful monarchical president displays little interest in democracy, while a mainstream far-right party founded by Nazi collaborators threatens to deliver the next head of state. Segregated suburbs, institutionalised rioting, economic injustice, a monolithic education system, the debasement of women, deep-seated racial and religious discrimination, paramilitary policing, terrorism, and a duplicitous foreign policy all contribute to the growing crisis.

In Fixing France, Nabila Ramdani assesses the fault lines in her struggling nation with unflinching clarity and originality. As a French-Algerian, born and brought up in a neglected Paris suburb, her compelling perspective is very different from that of establishment elites.

Ramdani’s critique is stark but offers real hope: the broken French Republic can, and must, be fixed.

Author(s)

Nabila Ramdani is a French-Algerian writer from Paris who works as an academic, journalist and broadcaster, mainly covering France and the Arab and Muslim World. She holds an MPhil in British and American History and Literature from Paris VII University, and an MPhil in International History from the London School of Economics, specialising in the Middle East and North Africa. Nabila began her award-winning journalistic career in the BBC's Paris Bureau. She has broadcast for outlets including Sky News, Al Jazeera and CNN, and has written extensively for The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Washington Post and others.