Spanish strawberries, mostly produced in Huelva, have flooded French supermarkets for decades. Their price is clearly lower than French varieties. But little by little, strawberries produced in France have been gaining ground. According to the sector, for the first time, 50% of this fruit consumed in France has been grown in the country. The rest is imported, mainly from Spain. "It hasn't happened suddenly. Over 15 years, we have gained 10% of the market share from Spanish strawberries. It hasn't been a sudden change," explains Emeline Vanespen, director of the main French association of strawberry producers (AOPn Fraises et Framboises de France).

Like someone watching an animal documentary, I have observed with interest three things that have happened in recent months in the French literary market, a traditionally protectionist market that has managed to defend itself, in part, from Anglo-Saxon cultural colonizations and which, for this reason, I furiously envy.The first noteworthy news is that at the beginning of March this year it was announced that Amazon would be a "partner" of the Paris Book Fair; by partner they obviously meant that it would put a lot of money into it. For a while now, our neighbors have had a tug-of-war with Amazon: since 2023, a law has imposed a minimum shipping fee of three euros for book shipments (I read that Urtasun recently said they are studying doing something similar in our country). The fact is that Amazon interprets, very conveniently, that if the book is delivered to a locker, this fee does not need to be applied. The discussion is served, of course. That Amazon is a threat to bookstores is nothing new (I agree with what Oriol Soler said recently on this, although thinking that Amazon is our only problem seems reductive and a bit misleading); what is new is that following the announcement of Amazon's sponsorship, the French Booksellers Association decided to stand up and withdraw from the Fair on the grounds that Amazon has predatory and hegemonic aspirations that are a danger to everyone in the sector: authors, publishers, and booksellers. I am pleased to see the fighting spirit of the French and I wonder what would happen if this had taken place in our country. I get the impression that we would have swallowed it whole, because we are always short on audacity and full of fears, and perhaps also because the links in our system are weaker than the French ones. The fact is that following the controversy, Amazon decided to withdraw from the Book Fair. Sometimes, standing up yields results: let's tattoo it on ourselves so we don't forget it.The second noteworthy fact is that this year the Paris Fair has not counted on the main imprints of Hachette, which I would say is the French publisher with the largest market share (similar or higher than that of the Planeta group in Spain, if AI does not deceive me). Not only has it not gone, but it set up a small alternative festival on its own during the month of March. This confirms that we must not only fear the big international groups but also the national ones, as the predatory and hegemonic will affects us all. The controversy at Grasset publishing house

The third event that interested me is what happened with the Grasset imprint, which is precisely one of Hachette's most important. There they publish (they used to publish) authors like Virginie Despentes, Vanessa Springora, Sorj Chalandon, Bernard-Henri Lévy or Pascal Bruckner; they and 110 more authors made public an open letter in Libération announcing that, following the dismissal of Olivier Nora (the historic editor of Grasset for twenty-six years), they would no longer sign with Grasset. 115 authors, oh my god!, and another fifty have since joined the protest. I am almost convinced that the authors from here would have resigned ourselves to it and moved on, although, of course, in private we would have complained to exhaustion: that's how we are, in private we say everything (praise and blame) but in public we keep quiet like no one else. All of Grasset's mess has its trigger in the owner, Vincent Bolloré, a magnate who with his millions dedicates himself to promoting far-right ideas, for example, through Europe 1, the most important private radio in France which – oh, what a coincidence – decided to buy shortly before the French elections. We can already imagine that the billionaire has not ruffled a single hair over the departure of this hundred or so authors who consider Nora's departure an "unacceptable attack on editorial independence and creative freedom" and who refuse to "be hostages of an ideological war that seeks to impose authoritarianism on culture and the media"; Bolloré has not been moved because we can deduce that literature, in fact, doesn't give a damn about it. All of this is, without a doubt, very sad and discouraging news. And what do we do with all this? On the one hand, we should look at it closely and follow it with attention, because as that saying goes about the neighbor's beard, perhaps we should start soaking ours. On the other hand, it would be advisable to become aware that keeping quiet and swallowing is not always the best strategy, that resistance is sometimes not only necessary but also useful, that the collective has a strength that the individual does not have, etcetera. Well, perhaps it would be useless and it would be better to stay on the couch sprawled out watching documentaries, because there are plenty for all tastes: in some the zebra always succumbs to the lion, in others a buffalo charges a predator with a horn thrust, and in some there are even fish that join together forming a swirl to confuse and save themselves from the worst of their predators.

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“Midnight will soon strike in the century”. These are the words of Edgar Morin who, at 104 years old, continues to show his lucidity in a long interview with Le Monde. Concerned “about the neo-authoritarian regression that is spreading across the world” and which favors “one of the two Frances: the one that was for a long time monarchical, aristocratic and religious, a Petainist France, as opposed to the republican, secular and social one”, he regrets that humanists find it difficult to unite at a time when “a conscious regenerationism of the original identity and the common destiny of all humans” is essential. And all this in “a catastrophic process underway. And although Trump and Netanyahu are not eternal, right now there is no option for salvation. We can only bear witness to impotence. The only hope is the improbable. Let's resist”.

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The inhabitants of the French village of Hagenbach, with only 800 residents, cannot come to terms with it. In this Alsatian municipality, a father locked his son inside a van parked in front of the family home for almost a year and a half, forcing him to relieve himself in bags and bringing him food only twice a day. He did not go to school, had not showered, nor had he had contact with anyone during all this time. The French gendarmerie rescued him after a complaint last week from a neighbor who had heard a child's voice inside the vehicle. The officers found the boy, who is now nine years old, naked, in a fetal position, and malnourished. He was unable to walk.

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Just a month ago, Juan Carlos I decided to postpone the trip he had planned to Sanxenxo – to return to the regattas – and stay in Abu Dhabi after the outbreak of the war in Iran. Thirty days later, the conflict in the Middle East has not ended, but the emeritus king has decided to leave the Arab country where he has resided since 2020 to receive an award for his memoir book, Reconciliation. The recognition is from the French association Lire la Société, but it is still surprising that the emeritus king receives an award from a country like France, a republic that values the figure and trajectory of Juan Carlos I when the Spanish state has condemned him to ostracism.

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The Mossos d'Esquadra have located in Lloret de Mar a six-year-old minor who was registered as stolen by the French judicial authorities and who had been missing for months with her mother and maternal grandmother. The investigation began a year ago. The search was activated following the issuance of two European Arrest and Surrender Warrants (EASO) by the French authorities against the mother and grandmother, for an alleged crime of child abduction reported by the girl's father.

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When he had only been in office for a few weeks, the US ambassador in Paris, Charles Kushner, sent a letter to the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, to reproach him that he was not doing enough to curb antisemitic acts in the country. "Not a day goes by in the country without Jews being attacked in the streets, synagogues and schools being desecrated, and Jewish-owned businesses being vandalized," Kushner stated in the rather undiplomatic letter, sent at the end of August last year. Macron had announced just a few days earlier that France would recognize Palestine.

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1. French politics is gripped by the threat of the far right, a threat that is spreading throughout Europe in the form of fears of a widespread rise in neo-fascism. This anxiety is in keeping with the logic of times in which the right seems to accept the drift towards post-democratic authoritarianism, and neo-fascists capitalize on it with the classic game of copycats. For some time now, the names of Marine Le Pen—given her pending criminal case—and Jordan Bardella have been mentioned as potential presidential candidates. However, this weekend's municipal and regional elections, while not decisive, have highlighted the gap between rhetoric and reality, giving France signs that might suggest the reactionary movement is not as potent as it seems, provided the right doesn't lend it a hand.

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The leader of the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, He made no comment on the election results on Sunday night.Only the party president, Jordan Bardella, spoke—very briefly—to celebrate the increase in the number of mayoralties. "It's the biggest gain" in the party's history. "Never before have the RN and its allies held so many elected positions in France," stated Bardella, the party's future presidential candidate if the courts uphold Le Pen's disqualification. Despite his words, neither Bardella's lackluster tone, nor Le Pen's silence, nor the overall atmosphere suggested a night of electoral victory. While the advance of the far right is undeniable, especially in the southeast of the country, the situation remains somewhat different. (Northern Catalonia and Occitania are the new fiefdoms of the RN) And in some northern areas, the majority of the municipalities it has won are in rural areas, in towns or small cities. National Rally only managed to win in one city with more than 100,000 inhabitants, Perpignan, where it already governed. And it secured Nice, where Éric Ciotti, leader of the UDR (Union of the Right), Le Pen's ally, won.

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The French municipal elections this Sunday These were the last electoral test before the presidential elections scheduled for 2027, where the support base of the far right and the resilience of the main parties were tested in a fragmented political landscape marked by parliamentary instability. We've compiled some charts to help understand the results:

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The day after the municipal elections, French socialism lost one of its leading figures. Lionel Jospin, former Socialist prime minister, died on Monday at the age of 88, his family announced. Jospin was Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002 in a coalition government with the conservative Jacques Chirac as President of the Republic, and he was the driving force behind the 35-hour workweek and the recognition of civil partnerships, including same-sex partnerships. A key figure for French socialists in the Fifth Republic, Jospin was among the first to advocate for the unity of left-wing parties to confront the right electorally, an issue that 24 years later remains one of the most current—and controversial—debates within the progressive spectrum. He himself was a victim of vote splitting when, in 2002, he ran for president but was eliminated in the first round by Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen. "We couldn't win the elections with five candidates" from the left, he stated in an interview years later.

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The far right is not making as much progress as it would like across France, but it is gaining new municipalities and strengthening its position in Northern Catalonia. National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen's party, already secured the mayorship of Perpignan a week ago with an absolute majority in the first round, and this Sunday it won in the second round of the municipal elections In Ribesaltes and Cañoses, in Roussillon. The far-right politician Steve Fortel also won in Elna, and Gilles Foxonet, another far-right politician, retained his position in Baixàs. "It's a lesson for the future of Catalonia and Spain: simply calling them fascists isn't enough," former mayor of Elna Nicolas Garcia told ARA. "We Catalans can't win," added Forques councilor Jordi Vera, who emphasized that 60% of the population comes from outside Northern Catalonia.

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The left—despite party divisions—is holding its ground in major cities, while Marine Le Pen's far right has faltered. The French municipal elections have resulted in a map with more far-right mayoralties than ever before, but the National Rally (RN) has not achieved the electoral success it had hoped for. In many municipalities where the far-right candidate had managed to advance to the second round, it ultimately failed to win. The results—still provisional—show that the far right, with some exceptions, is struggling to surpass the 50% threshold and continues to struggle to gain traction in major cities. This is a setback for Le Pen, who had aimed to win in Marseille. According to the initial results, the RN has not won in either Nîmes or Toulon, two cities that were within its reach and which it had expected to win. In large and medium-sized cities, the far right is securing few victories. He retained the mayoralty in Perpignan (Louis Aliot had already won in the first round) and won in Carcassonne and Nice, although the Nice candidate, Éric Ciotti, is not from Marine Le Pen's party, only an ally.

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Bertrand Richet is a leading expert in School evaluation council, The French School Assessment Council. He was the Inspector General of the French Ministry of Education for almost a decade. His main task on the assessment council has been to design the new framework for evaluating schools and institutes. He is visiting Catalonia at the invitation of the Catalan Government through an Erasmus+ grant.

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The United Kingdom faces a decisive decade for its energy future at a time when most of its nuclear fleet is nearing the end of its lifespan due to aging. Currently, the country generates approximately 15% of its electricity from nuclear power, thanks to an installed capacity of around 6.5 gigawatts, generated by nine reactors at four plants. But all but one must be decommissioned by 2030. This has forced the British government to accelerate a political and financial commitment to a new generation of power plants, a commitment that is fraught with controversy and challenges. Currently, the UK is building two major projects: Hinkley Point C in Somerset and Sizewell C in Suffolk. Both, the first new plants built since 1988, symbolize both the ambition and the difficulties of the British nuclear model. With estimated costs reaching €54.57 billion for the first and €43.23 billion for the second, these plants have become some of the most expensive energy infrastructure projects in the world, as the Working Group on Nuclear Regulation, established by Keir Starmer the previous February, warned at the end of November of last year. The cost overruns and delays have been so significant that EDF, the French state-owned company in charge of building Sizewell C, has accumulated multimillion-euro losses and has demanded that the British government assume almost all the financial risk for the project to move forward. Hinkley Point C is expected to come online between 2030 and 2031; Sizewell C, in 2035-36. The Working Group also warned that the UK has become the most expensive country in the world to build a nuclear power plant, not so much because of the technology used, but because of an accumulation of environmental, safety, and administrative processes that, according to the report, often do not provide real benefits in terms of public health or environmental protection. The document denounced a regulatory culture that is excessively risk-averse, which has resulted in thousands of pages of environmental impact assessments and increasingly lengthy and unpredictable planning processes.

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As they said at the end of Hell or High WaterSometimes we do crazy things for our children. In the last year, in fact, two of the most talked-about films feature a father on an epic quest to find his lost daughter: Sirado and One battle after another, with a classic narrative structure that comes from Desert Centaurs, clear. A daughter in Tokyo It has less of a sense of adventure and more of injustice, but it's also about a father who does strange things to find his daughter. In this case, working as a taxi driver in Tokyo for nine years (a Frenchman in Japan: a curious and unusual approach to immigration issues) hoping to stumble across her someday, perhaps hailing a fare on a street corner in the Japanese capital.

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The first round of the municipal elections in FranceThe elections held on Sunday left a good number of city halls within reach of left-wing parties, mainly thanks to the strong showing of the left-wing coalitions—comprised primarily of Socialists and Greens—and the advance of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon's radical left-wing party, which until now had a very strong local presence. However, these positive results could turn into failure in the second and final round, to be held next Sunday. Tensions between La France Insoumise and the other left-wing parties, especially the Socialist Party, could lead to important cities like Paris and Marseille, where the left could govern, falling into the hands of the right or the far right. In a two-round political system, if voters must choose between two left-wing parties in the second round, the progressive vote is split. That's why, in the last legislative elections, the main left-wing parties, including the insubordinate ones, presented joint candidacies under the name of the New Popular Front (NFP). However, this alliance is long since defunct, and the leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, warned this Monday that there will be no national pact with LFI for the second round of the municipal elections, although he is open to local agreements.

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The first round of municipal elections held this Sunday in France confirms the advance of the far right. Final results will not be known until next Sunday, but Marine Le Pen's party, the National Rally (RN), has managed to advance to the second round in the vast majority of municipalities where it ran and will compete to win in city halls where it has not yet governed, such as Marseille, France's second-largest city, Nice, and Toulon. "It is a huge victory for our movement," Le Pen declared in a message to X.

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The French return to the polls this Sunday to elect their local representatives. France is holding the first round of municipal elections, votes that don't usually carry national weight. However, this time, the proximity of the presidential elections—scheduled for spring 2027—will mean that the results will be interpreted through the lens of national politics. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), a party that has traditionally had a weak local presence, wants the municipal elections to be its springboard to the Élysée Palace. Le Pen and her right-hand man—and likely presidential candidate if she is definitively barred from running—Jordan Bardella, want to translate their strong showing in the recent legislative and European elections into more mayoralties. This won't be easy because the RN's limited local presence means it can't field candidates in a significant number of municipalities. There's an anecdote that perfectly illustrates the situation: Bardella won't be able to vote for a candidate from the party he leads because Garches, the municipality of 17,000 inhabitants where he lives on the outskirts of Paris, doesn't have a candidate from Réagrupament Nacional.

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How difficult it is to externalize certain intimate feelings and thoughts. And how difficult it is also to translate these inner processes to the screen. It's not enough to simply show a character occasionally sitting on a bed in a bedroom, staring out the window with a questioning expression. For images to resonate with the viewers watching them (and those of The little daughter They have been a phenomenon in France, where they have dominated conversations beyond film circles) and must portray fragments of a life in which everyone feels represented. Is this the case with the life of Fatima Daas, the protagonist and author of the book on which this film is based?

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