# France **France** enters this vault along three lines: as the birthplace of the counter-revolutionary tradition the [[Burke vs Paine Timeline]] tracks; as a colonial power whose withdrawals, Algeria above all, supplied the modern European far right with its founding grievance and several of its founding figures; and, now, as the large Western democracy where the far right is closest to winning the presidency. > [!note] Canonical country record > This page owns the bare name **France** and is the default target for `[[France]]`. > Its history is at [[French History Hub]]. > A page covering its influence operations directed at the United States, if one is built, belongs in /Foreign Influence/ under an adjectival title and does **not** claim this name. ## Politics now (October 2026) France is a semi-presidential republic under the 1958 constitution of the [[French Fifth Republic]]. Since [[Emmanuel Macron]]'s snap legislative election in 2024 produced a parliament with no majority, governments have fallen in quick succession. - **Prime minister: Sébastien Lecornu**, appointed September 9, 2025, resigned October 6 hours after naming his cabinet, and reappointed October 10. He got the 2026 budget through parliament in February 2026 only with Socialist support, bought by suspending Macron's pension reform, and survived censure motions from the [[National Rally]] and the hard left. On October 1, 2026 he presented a 2027 budget built on frozen wages and new taxes. - **President:** Macron's second and final term ends **May 13, 2027**. The election is set for **April 18 and May 2, 2027**. ## The far right's moment The [[National Rally]] has led national polling for most of the past two years. Its leader, [[Marine Le Pen]], was convicted of embezzling EU parliamentary funds in March 2025 and barred from office with immediate effect. On **July 7, 2026** the Paris Court of Appeal upheld the conviction but cut the ineligibility period to 45 months, 30 of them suspended. Credited with the time already served under the immediate ban since March 31, 2025, she had completed it, which leaves her free to run in 2027. Her protégé [[Jordan Bardella]] remains the party's alternative candidate. To their right sit [[Éric Zemmour]] and [[Marion Maréchal]], and the ideas of [[Renaud Camus]], whose *[[The Great Replacement]]* gave the global far right its name for its central conspiracy theory. ## Abroad France has been pushed out of its old sphere in the Sahel: its forces were expelled from Mali in 2022 and from Burkina Faso and Niger in 2023, replaced by Russia's [[Africa Corps]] (see [[Alliance of Sahel States]]). It hosted the G7 at Évian in June 2026. U.S.–French relations run through ambassador [[Charles Kushner]], and its counter-disinformation agency [[VIGINUM]] tracks Russian operations aimed at French elections. ## Why it appears in this vault - [[Algerian War]]: the decolonization trauma the French far right was built on - [[National Rally]] and [[Marine Le Pen]]: the electoral vehicle - [[Laïcité]]: the secularism fight that frames France's immigration politics - [[French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon]]: the Middle East borders France drew ## See Also - [[French History Hub]] · [[World History Hub]] · [[Emmanuel Macron]] · [[Charles de Gaulle]] - [[National Rally]] · [[Marine Le Pen]] · [[Jordan Bardella]] · [[Génération Identitaire]]