Marlon Ettinger

5 days ago | jacobin.com | Marlon Ettinger

Right from his inauguration, Donald Trump unleashed slash-and-burn austerity on the federal government — with even deeper cuts planned for coming months. As part of a breakneck eighteen-month agenda to maximize “governmental efficiency and productivity,” Trump has advanced a wide-ranging attack on the way the US government has hitherto functioned, including internationally.

2 months ago | jacobin.com | Marlon Ettinger

“We’re not, but we should be.”That was French economy minister Éric Lombard’s response to a question on March 1 asking if France is now in a war economy. In June 2022, French president Emmanuel Macron addressed the country’s defense industry, four months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Everything has changed,” Macron said, arguing that a war economy would be necessary to ensure Europe’s collective defense against Russia.

Mar 7, 2025 | jacobin.com | Marlon Ettinger

Since early February, France’s prime minister François Bayrou has been the subject of a damning series of articles by the investigative outlet Mediapart detailing allegations that he turned a blind eye to decades of allegations of physical violence, sexual abuse, and rape at Notre-Dame de Bétharram, a private Catholic school. It is located just outside of Pau, where Bayrou is mayor, and where he’s built his political career for the past forty-five years.

Jan 14, 2025 | jacobin.com | Marlon Ettinger

President Emmanuel Macron picked François Bayrou as France’s new prime minister earlier this month, despite his lack of any parliamentary majority. Bayrou’s appointment on December 13 came just over a week after his predecessor Michel Barnier’s government was felled by a no-confidence vote proposed by the Left and joined by the far right, after Barnier tried to force through his budget without having the numbers in the National Assembly.

Jan 7, 2025 | jacobin.com | Marlon Ettinger

Just before Christmas in the Loiret, at a quiet farmhouse by the edge of the woods about a two-hour drive southwest of Paris, there was a break-in at the country home of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The police said that the December 16 intrusion was organized by several individuals, reported Europe 1 the morning after the incident.