Taking power in a crisis: France’s green cities
In June 2020, after a drawn-out process punctuated by the peak of the health crisis, Green lists excelled in France’s municipal elections. They are now at the head of the executive in some of France’s largest cities, including Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Tours. In…
Interview with Ethan Earle about the Gilets Jaunes and French democracy
New focus of protest has clearly emerged in France in these past years—bringing together Nuit Debout and the Gilets Jaunes, hospital and health care workers, pensioners and trade unionists, climate justice activists, Black Lives Matter activists. This locus has the attention of Macron, and of…
A green wave and a citizen slap in the face
The results of the French municipal elections are a call on our elected representatives, civil society and citizens to mobilize in favour of the necessary democratic, ecological and social transformation of our societies. Because our representative democracy has never been so out of breath. Because…
Leaving water privatisation behind. Paris, Grenoble and the advent of the water remunicipalisation movement in France
How did France, a pioneer of water privatisation, become a hotbed for remunicipalisation? Cities like Paris and Grenoble not only ended the domination of corporate heavyweights like Veolia and Suez over the sector, but also played a key role in inventing a new generation of…
Loos-en-Gohelle, from coal to renewables. Is there a future for a small town without resources?
A former coal mining town in the North of France, Loos-en-Gohelle shows how a town can free itself from fossil fuel dependence through democratic participation, beginning with the real needs of locals. Photo: Pawel Blazewicz
In the wake of Sunday’s “green wave”
On Sunday the 28th of June, voters across France went to the polls to decide the municipal governments of 4.820 communes, including all of the country’s largest cities. Looking beneath the surface, all these victories were undergirded by widely differing political constellations. Despite a few…
What happens if you treat healthy school meals as a public service?
Nearly four billion meals are dished out every year in France’s school cafeterias and childcare kitchens. Catering companies such as Sodexo currently dominate this market, but, more often than not, the meals have little nutritional value and the companies fail to factor in environmental concerns….
In Grenoble, local government and civil society organizations address the issue of the right to the city and the ecological transition
From 7 to 12 March 2017, the Biennale des Villes en Transition (Biennale of Cities in Transition) took place in Grenoble, organized by its City Council. Issues such as the Right to Housing, the management of common goods and public spaces as well as the…
The commune of communes in Commercy: French municipalist movements coming together
On January 18–19, 2020 the first gathering of free municipalities and municipal initiatives took place in the city of madeleines, situated in eastern France and organised by the Citizens’ Assembly of Commercy. This first-person piece exposes what’s at stake behind the democratic citizen movements active…