Focus on France w/ Nabila Ramdani

Join journalists and authors Nabila Ramdani and Simon Kuper for a timely discussion – ‘Focus on France’ – before the start of the Paris Olympic Games and in the wake of riveting parliamentary elections. All eyes are on France in light of these huge developments.

The snap parliamentary election has delivered more instability and a struggle to form a new government. Meanwhile French glamour and pride will be showcased during the Paris Olympics, while there’s already much discontent over the Games that mirrors the discontent over the state of France. More generally, all this puts the 2027 presidential election into perspective. The discussants will share their views about a fascinating country that seems to have it all but is nonetheless in perpetual turmoil.

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About the book

France—the romanticised, revolutionary land of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity for all—is failing. Reform is urgently needed. This book is a powerful indictment of the status quo, and a highly original perspective on the challenges to which the nation must rise.

Nabila Ramdani is not from the establishment elite: she is a marginalised insider, born and raised in a neglected Paris suburb. With unflinching clarity, she probes the fault lines of her struggling country, exposing the Fifth Republic as an archaic system which emerged from Algeria’s cataclysmic War of Independence.

Today, a monarchical President Macron shows little interest in democracy, while a far-right party founded by Nazi collaborators threatens to replace him. Segregation, institutionalised rioting, economic injustice, the debasement of women, a monolithic education system, deep-seated racial and religious discrimination, paramilitary policing, terrorism and extremism, and a duplicitous foreign policy all fuel the growing crisis.

Yet Ramdani offers real hope: the broken French Republic can, and must, be fixed.

About the author

Nabila Ramdani is a French author of Algerian descent who works as a journalist, academic and broadcaster. Nabila began her award-winning journalistic career in the BBC Paris Bureau. She has since 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. Educated at Paris VII University and the London School of Economics (LSE), Nabila has taught at the University of Oxford and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.