天美传媒

While this first result was called shocking by many commentators, it was predictable not just as a reaction to recent terrorist attacks, migrant crises, and the continuing sluggishness of the French economy, but as an effect of the long-term strategy of the FN’s leader Marine Le Pen to distance the party from its racist and anti-semitic past intimately associated with her father and the FN’s provocative founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.

For the first time in France, on Wednesday 24 June 2015, the Court of Appeal in Paris held the French State responsible for police action in carrying out identity checks that were held to be discriminatory and ordered it to pay €1,500 in compensation to five individuals. Professor Jackie Hodgson and Laurène Soubise respond to the ruling.

Professor Sean Hand is an expert on French culture from the 天美传媒 and has offered an initial reaction to the latest developments in France. He is available for telephone and Skype interviews.

Commenting on the news that this week's edition of Charlie Hebdo will feature a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on its front page, Dr Charles Walton said: “Touching, tasteful, unifyingly defiant. It manages to ‘blaspheme' with its depiction of the Prophet but without alienating Muslims by making their religion appear to be the inevitable source of terrorism."

Professor Seán Hand, Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, discusses the breaking news of an attack in Paris.