France is starting to own its role in the slave trade. Now it needs to repair its Caribbean legacy | Marie-Annick Gournet

“Vive la République, et vive la France.” Emmanuel Macron closed his 21 May speech marking the 25th anniversary of the passing of the Taubira law, which recognised slavery as a crime against humanity, with the customary patriotic slogan. As applause rippled around the reception room of the Elysée Palace, whose construction was financed by a … Read more

The Guardian view on the French presidential election campaign: only the far right will profit from division | Editorial

Less than a year before the most important French presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic, the phoney war is almost over. On 7 July, a court will decide whether to uphold Marine Le Pen’s appeal against a fraud conviction and a five-year ban from public office. Should she lose, her party’s 30‑year‑old president, Jordan … Read more

The Africa exception: the slavery reparations debate was once ‘unthinkable’. Now it is unavoidable | Race

Last month, at commemorations marking the 25th anniversary of France’s Taubira law recognising the trafficking of enslaved Africans as a crime against humanity, Emmanuel Macron did the unthinkable: he became the first French president to publicly utter the word “reparations”. Since 1825, when France punished Haiti for daring to declare itself the western world’s first … Read more

Orbán’s media slop spread poison beyond Hungary. Luckily, fearless, fact-based reporting endures | Beata Balogová

For 16 years, Viktor Orbán’s government poured millions of euros of public money into thinktanks, institutions and media outlets sympathetic to its illiberal views – not only in Hungary but beyond its borders. In Slovakia, for instance, where a sizeable Hungarian minority lives, Budapest is alleged to have sent millions of euros to favoured media … Read more

A good life for the 99% isn’t a pipe dream: it can be done. Here’s how | Thomas Piketty, Lucas Chancel, Cornelia Mohren, Rowaida Moshrif, Moritz Odersky and Anmol Somanchi

Imagine a future in which everyone enjoys high levels of wellbeing; where 90% of the world’s population doubles their income but works half the hours we work today. A world in which the bottom half of humanity sees its share of global wealth rise from just 2% today to 30%; a world where we consume … Read more