menu_open
John Keiger

John Keiger

The Spectator

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

The irony of Starmer’s Armistice Day visit to France

Yesterday morning, the British Prime Minister travelled to Paris at the invitation of the French President to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown...

12.11.2024 40

The Spectator

John Keiger

Was Germany to blame for the outbreak of the first world war?

Wars begin and end in controversy. The war that ended 106 years ago today with the armistice of 11 November 1918 carried the germ of controversy...

11.11.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

Lest we forget / What the First World War can teach us about the Third

It is our duty on Remembrance Sunday to honour the fallen. But to do justice to their sacrifice, we should also remember why the world descended into...

10.11.2024 9

The Spectator

John Keiger

Why France’s media is keeping quiet about Michel Barnier’s health

France’s 73-year-old prime minister, Michel Barnier, underwent surgery last weekend for a lesion on his upper neck. According to the government...

01.11.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

Does France need a government?

France has been without an official government for seven weeks, the longest in the history of the Fifth Republic. A caretaker prime minister and...

21.08.2024 8

The Spectator

John Keiger

Macron’s lavish spending is jeopardising French finances

In the last years of Louis XVI’s reign, French finances were in a parlous state. State debt had ballooned, its servicing became exorbitant, and...

02.08.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

Even the Olympics can’t unite France

Writing of the state of France in the twilight of the fateful Second Empire, the left-wing journalist Henri Rochefort observed: ‘France contains 36...

31.07.2024 20

The Spectator

John Keiger

Macron’s scheming could have disastrous consequences for France

French voters are looking on aghast at the state of their country’s democracy. Faced with stalemate in the French National Assembly since the 7 July...

23.07.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

Elections / Is France heading towards its Sixth Republic?

Against a backdrop of considerable tension – barricaded city centre shop-fronts and 30,000 police on standby – a radically divided France has...

08.07.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

Labour should be wary of Macron’s cooing

French president Emmanuel Macron has phoned Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his appointment as prime minister. Macron’s Twitter account...

06.07.2024 4

The Spectator

John Keiger

The plot to stop Marine Le Pen’s National Rally

This week France has drifted from surprise to confusion and panic as Sunday’s second round vote approaches. The bien-pensant centre-left...

04.07.2024 7

The Spectator

John Keiger

What the National Rally means for France’s foreign policy

The electoral turmoil in France threatens its status as a world power. Friendly nations are despairing; rivals and enemies are gloating, even...

04.07.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

The winners and losers of France’s exit poll

There is one big winner from this evening’s exit polls for the first round of the French legislative elections – and several big losers. Exit...

30.06.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

Cohabitation / Macron’s power in Europe is draining

In Brussels over the last two days EU heads of state and government have been carving up the ‘top jobs’. France is represented by President...

29.06.2024 20

The Spectator

John Keiger

Macron’s ‘civil war’ warning might be closer to reality than he realises

Of the 20 or so opinion polls since France’s president Emmanuel Macron announced a snap election this month, the vast majority put Marine Le Pen’s...

26.06.2024 5

The Spectator

John Keiger

Is France’s left-wing coalition more dangerous than Le Pen?

French and international media cannot break their fixation with the ‘extreme right’. They continue to target the Rassemblement National (RN) as...

16.06.2024 30

The Spectator

John Keiger

France’s future has never looked less certain

The much loved and quintessentially French singer, Françoise Hardy, born in 1944, died last night. French certainties are disappearing. The Fifth...

12.06.2024 5

The Spectator

John Keiger

The EU may struggle to find its way out of this particular crisis

It is said that the EU thrives on crises. These are what spurs it on to the ultimate goal of wider and deeper integration. But yesterday’s European...

10.06.2024 3

The Spectator

John Keiger

Macron is trying to scare French voters into rejecting Le Pen’s party

The French presidential list score in the European elections ‘is not a good result for the parties which defend Europe’. So declared president...

10.06.2024 30

The Spectator

John Keiger

Europe / Macron is to blame for France’s dismal economy

Standard & Poor’s downgrading of France’s credit rating on Friday is a hammer blow to President Macron’s reputation. The ratings agency has...

02.06.2024 30

The Spectator

John Keiger

Aukus is becoming a potent alliance

Compare and contrast the frenetic, largely unwanted and unnecessary manoeuvres to create a common EU defence union, with the methodical, steadfast...

06.05.2024 20

The Spectator

John Keiger

Why Macron wants to give nukes to the EU

Emmanuel Macron is thinking and saying the unthinkable for a French President of the Republic. This weekend he suggested that French nuclear weapons...

30.04.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

The plot to stop Marine Le Pen could backfire badly

At first, French elites haughtily dismissed the Rassemblement National (RN) and its voters. Then they were in denial about its rise. Now they are...

05.04.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

Keir Starmer should think twice before shunning Marine Le Pen

Riding high in the polls with a 20-point lead, the Labour party is preparing for government. Across the Channel with a 10-15 point poll lead in the...

25.03.2024 7

The Spectator

John Keiger

Why is Macron suddenly pro-Ukraine? Fear of Le Pen

Its an old ruse to deploy foreign policy for domestic purposes. France has a long history in that vein. General de Gaulle was adept at using popular...

10.03.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

Why France is a target for Russian spies

Last week was a good time to bury bad news in France. While French and international media were focused on president Macron’s Trump-like maverick...

04.03.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

Britain should resist French pressure for a joint defence plan

On Friday President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Volodymyr Zelensky to the Elysée with great fanfare. The Ukrainian president was in Paris to sign a...

18.02.2024 20

The Spectator

John Keiger

France is tiring of Macron’s gimmicks

President Emmanuel Macron and his freshly installed Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, appointed a new French cabinet this week. It is little more than a...

14.01.2024 4

The Spectator

John Keiger

Can ‘mini Macron’ rescue France’s president?

France’s Emmanuel Macron, the Fifth Republic’s youngest president, has just appointed its youngest prime minister, 34-year-old Gabriel Attal. The...

11.01.2024 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

Is Airbus a metaphor for Britain’s relationship with the EU?

A French member of the board of Airbus – the giant European aircraft and aerospace group – once told me that the French thought of it as their...

31.12.2023 10

The Spectator

John Keiger

The French elite have realised that Marine Le Pen might win

You can tell that French elections are in the air because legal proceedings are being taken against a leading figure of the French right. So it was...

10.12.2023 20

The Spectator

John Keiger

3a6e643c02f196a5713407604c7b1c16