France has entered a pivotal period that will determine its future political trajectory as it begins its six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union while also being a few months out from the country’s presidential election in April. What can we expect in the upcoming months? Célia Belin and Tara Varma join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend to discuss the numerous opportunities and obstacles that the convergence of these two events poses for the future of France.

Célia Belin is a visiting fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. Her areas of expertise include transatlantic relations, U.S. foreign policy toward Europe, and French politics and foreign policy.

Tara Varma is a senior policy fellow and head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, where she follows French foreign policy and European security developments.