Paris
To be prime minister of France is “absolute hell,” seven former holders of the office complained to Le Monde this week. In France, the prime minister is appointed by the president, and tends to get all the blame for policy failures and none of the credit for successes. The president gets to speak with kings at state dinners; the prime minister gets to talk to angry striking workers. Edith Cresson said that during her term, the press was “incredibly violent” toward her, “with its slander and its cowardice.” Raymond Barre called the job “a continual harassment,” while Michel Rocard blamed it for his divorce.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Citizenship: Trump order blocked againFeature After the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions, a federal judge turned to a class action suit to block Trump's order to end birthright citizenship
-
Loyalty tests: The purge at the FBIFeature Kash Patel is conducting polygraph tests on FBI agents to weed out anyone speaking badly about him
-
The all-seeing tech giantFeature Palantir's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?
