How should we analyze the new wave of trade tensions that gripped the world in 2025?
By opposing the 2% minimum wealth tax on the 1,800 French people whose net worth exceeds €100 million, after the measure was adopted by France's Assemblée nationale , the upper house, the Sénat, has shown just how disconnected it is from the issues of our time. This is nothing new.
Two centuries ago, in 1825, the French state imposed a tribute on Haiti to compensate slave owners for their loss of property. This debt, which the fragile Haitian state had to struggle to repay until the 1950s, heavily crippled the country's development, and it is, today, one of the poorest in the world.
Condemning atrocities or expressing abstract support for a 'two-state solution' is no longer sufficient, argues an international group of 121 academics and intellectuals. The European Union must urgently support a political shift toward a just and equal future for Palestinians and Israelis through a confederation of two sovereign states.
The United States is no longer a reliable country. For some, this is nothing new. The Iraq War, launched in 2003 – resulting in over 100,000 deaths, lasting regional destabilization, and the return of Russian influence – had already shown the world the wrondoings of American military hubris.
In the face of the Trumpian onslaught, Europe urgently needs to regain its self-confidence and propose a different development model to its citizens and the world. To achieve this, it must start by overcoming the permanent self-denigration that too often stands in for public debate on our continent.
For anyone in doubt, Donald Trump has at least made things clear: the right exists and it speaks loudly. As has often been the case in the past, it takes the form of a mixture of violent nationalism, social conservatism and unbridled economic liberalism. We could call Trumpism national-liberalism, or more accurately, national-capitalism.
A few days ahead of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and tech executives aligned with the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement coming to power, Joe Biden delivered a forceful warning about the emergence of a new "tech industrial complex" threatening the US's democratic ideal.