Inside AFP
Crossroads France: an AFP documentary podcast on France’s identity crisis
As France heads into the 2022 presidential election, the fabric of a country that has at times been the envy of Europe is looking tattered.
The sands of society are shifting on an almost daily basis, the ‘traditional’ French way of life appears to be on the way out. Things that used to define France appear to have gone: the welfare state is losing steam, industry and agriculture are both suffering. The far-right claims that the country isn’t French enough and has become too multicultural. Even debating the place of Islam has become a dangerous no-go zone. France, it seems, is going through “a crise d’identité” -- an identity crisis.
Crossroads France, created by Antoine Boyer, Sarah-Lou Lepers and Camille Kauffmann and hosted by Barney Spender, is a road trip to five different regions, from the North-East to the South, the West and Paris, where people are trying to rebuild a new country, a 21st century France.
Three episodes are already available:
Episode #2 - Reinventing Industry
Episode #3 - Liberty, Equality, Diversity
One episode of this five-part story is published every day, starting April 4th.
Episode 1 looks at the ‘forgotten’ residents of the so-called “Empty Diagonal” where public services are dwindling while Episode 2 heads down south where heavy industry is declining but new industries are taking root. Episode 3 takes us to Paris to hear more about the far-right’s notion of ‘assimilation’ and the French Black Lives Matter movement. In Episode 4 we learn more about a row over Islam span out of control at a university in Grenoble. The question of Islamophobia has become so awkward in France that it is barely possible to debate it without tempers becoming frayed. And in Episode 5 we go west to see how climate change is affecting attitudes to farming and the countryside of France, a major agricultural power.
This is the English version of "Turbulences", an AFP podcast.
An AFP Audio podcast
