Ian Brossat, Interviewed by Harrison Stetler
Jacobin
As Paris’s deputy mayor, Ian Brossat massively expanded the French capital’s public housing stock. He spoke to Jacobin about the left-wing city hall’s record and what lessons it might have for Zohran Mamdani in New York.
Humiliated by a Nazi officer as a teenager, she joined the French Resistance. By the time she was 20, she had killed a German soldier, survived torture and captured a supply train.
After the New Popular Front won July’s French elections, it nominated Lucie Castets for prime minister. Emmanuel Macron ignored the result. Castets told Jacobin how the left-wing coalition can build on its progress and stop the lurch to the right.
With the left coalition NUPES rapidly disintegrating in France and the formation of a new party led by Sahra Wagenknecht in Germany, it’s been a dramatic recent period for Europe’s progressive forces.
Philippe Rio from Grigny, south of Paris, has been voted the world’s best mayor. He told Jacobin about the local social programs that have made his Communist administration a global success story
Divisions on France’s left have helped Macron and le Pen dominate the political terrain. In the country’s second city, grassroots pressure has forced them to put aside differences — ahead of March 2020’s elections, promising a “Marseille Spring.”
Interview with Elsa Faucillon and Éric Coquerel; b Fabien Escalona and Pauline Graulle; Translation by David Broder
Jacobin
French workers' top electoral choice isn't Marine Le Pen, but abstention. To mobilize their support, the Left needs to look beyond the workplace alone - and answer a deeper mood of alienation.
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