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Sophie Pedder@sophiepedder.bsky.social |
2288 followers 168 following 76 posts
Paris Bureau Chief, The Economist. Author of “Revolution Française: Emmanuel Macron and the quest to reinvent a nation” (Bloomsbury)
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Ahead of European elections, France has uncovered a vast Russian disinformation campaign, targeting mainly 🇫🇷🇩🇪and 🇵🇱, based on a network of 193 websites which it codenames “Portal Kombat”
www.economist.com/europe/2024/...
1 replies 11 reposts 21 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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And the political implications of an appointment designed to revive Macron’s fortunes and reinforce the centre against the far right
The president appoints modern France’s youngest prime minister
www.economist.com/europe/2024/...
from The Economist
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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“The risk for Gabriel Attal, who enjoys far better poll ratings than his boss, is that he has been over-promoted. The risk for Macron is that his protégé outshines him.”
Weekend profile: Gabriel Attal, France’s new prime minister
espresso.economist.com/453129ee88ee...
from The Economist
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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More efficient and direct, as the aid France has already sent by road either gets held up at Rafah or just takes a long time
1 replies 1 reposts 3 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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This was pretty impressive. The French air force, for the first time, joined its Jordanian counterpart to air-drop seven tonnes of humanitarian medical aid into southern Gaza, for the Jordanian field hospital there
1 replies 25 reposts 53 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Europe is struggling to make its diplomacy matter over Israel and Gaza. The agony of inaudibility is particularly painful for France
www.economist.com/europe/2024/...
from The Economist
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Oh France!
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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”Maybe something is missing. Or maybe someone is missing. Someone who can talk about Ukraine as a defence of all of us.”
Zelensky’a plea to European leaders, in an interview with The Economist
www.economist.com/europe/2024/...
0 replies 3 reposts 12 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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The news is bleak, said the editors. Please help.
So here is a short meditation on why French women are giving up on stiletto heels
www.economist.com/europe/2023/...
from The Economist
2 replies 2 reposts 14 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Got to keep a vigilant eye on France. Three of the top five most popular French politicians in this Ipsos December poll (Le Pen, Bardella, Maréchal) come fron the far/hard right
0 replies 10 reposts 15 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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This is so important. For those who remain sceptical, Macron yesterday confirmed in a call to Zelensky that 🇫🇷will back the opening of EU membership negotiations with 🇺🇦 at the EU summit on December 14-15. If the decision is blocked, or postponed, it won’t be because of France
6 replies 49 reposts 196 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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When the French said they would rebuild Notre-Dame cathedral in 5 years after the devastating fire of 2019, it sounded improbably ambitious. Today, one year before its doors re-open, the main reconstruction project is on target. Behind the scaffolding, the spire is now in place
19 replies 100 reposts 346 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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It is a measure of how worried the French are that Hungary could derail the decision at the European Council next week to open EU membership talks with Ukraine that Macron has now invited Orbán to a one-on-one dinner at the Elysée palace tomorrow evening
2 replies 4 reposts 18 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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French fighter jets have taken over NATO Baltic air policing in Lithuania. In the past four months NATO intercepted 60 Russian aircraft approaching NATO air space. These included Russian fighter jets, bombers, intelligence-collection aircraft and transport aircraft
www.economist.com/europe/2023/...
1 replies 12 reposts 52 likes
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Gesine Weber
@gesineweber.bsky.social
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“It used to look as if NATO was a sideshow for France,” says an ex-alliance official; “Now it is one of the few allies present on the ground, air and sea from the Baltics to the Black Sea.”
www.economist.com/europe/2023/...
0 replies 10 reposts 25 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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One of those charts that makes people ask whether we have plotted the right numbers. (We have)
1 replies 11 reposts 15 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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We spoke to German bosses and found them heaping unexpected praise on 🇫🇷 for its industrial policy. Dirigisme 2.0 isn’t about the state doing it all 1970s-style. It’s a mix of aggressive soft power and getting private firms + entrepreneurs to do the job⬇️
www.economist.com/europe/2023/...
1 replies 3 reposts 14 likes
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Pierre Haski
@pierrehaski.bsky.social
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Israël a très brutalement réagi aux déclarations d’Emmanuel Macron à la BBC, critiquant les morts civiles à Gaza. Mais le président français a exprimé un sentiment très répandu, qu’Israel ne peut ignorer. Ma chronique géopolitique du 7/10 de France inter
0 replies 15 reposts 27 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Quite a photo. Two former French presidents, the heads of both houses of parliament, the head of the constitutional council, one prime minister, five former prime ministers, the mayor of Paris: the French republic marches against antisemitism
6 replies 28 reposts 95 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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“No tolerance for the intolerable”. Emmanuel Macron won’t take part in today’s march against antisemitism in Paris, but wrote this letter to the French. “A France where our Jewish fellow citizens are afraid is not France”
0 replies 5 reposts 13 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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“Each time there are antisemitic acts in France” says the mayor “there are always Jews who say ‘I’m going to live in Israel and I will be safe there” This no longer feels true. Sarcelles is both a test of locally cordial intercommunal ties, and a hub of dread⬇️
www.economist.com/europe/2023/...
0 replies 5 reposts 19 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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It’s hard to fault France for trying. Macron this morning hosts an international humanitarian aid conference for Gaza in Paris, and has called for a “humanitarian pause” to get aid to civilians ⬇️
espresso.economist.com/0496c088275cca…
2 replies 4 reposts 15 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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French prosecutors investigating two cases in which Stars of David were stencilled at night on to residential buildings in and near Paris are now looking into whether this was a Russian destabilisation operation
via @franceinfo ⬇️
www.francetvinfo.fr/societe/anti...
1 replies 28 reposts 26 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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France is
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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How the Middle East crisis and divisions over Israel and Hamas are pulling France's left-wing opposition alliance, NUPES, apart. Mélenchon's radical takeover is doing an impressive job of destroying the left's chances of returning to government
www.economist.com/europe/2023/...
1 replies 2 reposts 10 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Thank you for the tip. Still finding my way around here!
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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If you haven’t done so already I really recommend this week’s Economist interview with Gen Zakuzhny on the current stalemate, and what Ukraine needs to win the war. Interview by my colleague Arkady Ostrovsky 👇
www.economist.com/europe/2023/...
1 replies 5 reposts 12 likes
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Emmanuelle Chaze
@emmanuellechaze.bsky.social
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🇺🇦 If there is one voice to be listened to in Ukraine, it's that of the Commander-in-Chief, General Zaluzhny.
In The Economist, he doesn't shy away from saying that the war at this stage reminds him of WW1 and that it has reached a stalemate.
1/
www.economist.com/europe/2023/...
2 replies 13 reposts 34 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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This photo was taken this morning. In Paris. In 2023 by Anne Gindt
5 replies 18 reposts 20 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Also tested in the same poll as potential broadly centrist successors to Macron Darmanin 16%: Le Pen 33% Le Maire 18%: Le Pen 32% Attal 19%: Le Pen 33% (Aged 34, Attal will be dead chuffed with this poll) At this stage polls are partly nonsense, but can shape political dynamics so worth a glance
0 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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The next French presidential election isn’t until…2027, but already polls are testing hypothetical candidates. @IfopOpinion today gives Le Pen a big first-round lead in each of four different scenarios. Only @EPhilippe_LH comes close, with 25% to her 31%
2 replies 1 reposts 5 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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I also missed another 🇫🇷 political arrival here, @nathalieloiseau.bsky.social. Belated welcome!
0 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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The news is bleak, and the editors asked for some light relief. So I looked into a pressing question: is it possible to be left-wing in France and still eat steak?
Much at Stake, or why the French are debating the future of steak-frites
www.economist.com/europe/2023/...
2 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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😂 What this place lacks in scale it makes up for in civility
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Only just discovered that @pierrehaski.bsky.social is on here too. Another great 🇫🇷 arrival! I must be doing something wrong if I missed him landing here 🤔
1 replies 2 reposts 3 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Some clarification about Macron’s coalition suggestion, from the Elysée : his idea is to draw on the experience of the coalition against IS (not widen it), in ways that do not necessarily imply ground operations but could involve intelligence-sharing, training and other ways of fighting terrorism
0 replies 8 reposts 16 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Delayed by a terrorist attack at home, Emmamuel Macron has arrived In Israel, hoping to deliver a balanced message and adding his voice to the call for a “humanitarian pause”, according to an Elysée briefing last night
espresso.economist.com/befa5d34b240...
1 replies 10 reposts 20 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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France’s polarising politics are reaching a dangerous moment. Mélenchon accused the National Assembly Speaker, Yaël Braun-Pivet, of visiting Israel “to encourage the massacre”. Today she said she felt he had put a “target” on her back. Braun-Pivet’s grandparents fled Nazism to settle in France
4 replies 19 reposts 32 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Merci!
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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How’s that for a result: @fheisbourg.bsky.social has now made it over here !
3 replies 3 reposts 13 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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A very warm welcome to another 🇫🇷 arrival @fheisbourg.bsky.social ! Follow for all things 🇫🇷 and security related
0 replies 5 reposts 11 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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And now welcome @elietenenbaum.bsky.social ! Another 🇫🇷 defence and security arrival
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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It would be good to see François Heisbourg over here. As he points out the number of 🇫🇷citizens killed in the Hamas attack on Israel now stands at 30. This makes it the single most deadly terrorist attack for 🇫🇷 nationals since the Nice attack of 2016 in which 86 people were killed, 43 of them 🇫🇷
3 replies 28 reposts 46 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Enjoy the civilised exchanges! What this place lacks in scale it makes up for in civility
0 replies 1 reposts 18 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Welcome also to @lordrickettsp.bsky.social, an avid and insightful 🇫🇷-watcher!
0 replies 2 reposts 2 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Welcome to another great 🇫🇷 addition to Bluesky: @camillegrand.bsky.social !
0 replies 1 reposts 4 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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People keep asking whether Meloni’s record in office suggests that Le Pen may be less of a threat than some claim. The short answer is no. Le Pen poses a greater threat than Meloni, above all to the EU and the transatlantic alliance
economist.com/europe/2023/10… www.economist.com/europe/2023/...ni
1 replies 13 reposts 36 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Bienvenue!
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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Yes, and if the Polish result is confirmed this relationship will be one to watch 👇 Macron got in his Bratislava CEE comments just in time
1 replies 2 reposts 17 likes
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Sophie Pedder
@sophiepedder.bsky.social
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And welcome to another French joiner! @mathieugallard.bsky.social
1 replies 2 reposts 5 likes