Royal Palace Podcast

Less than two hours ago, the French National Assembly passed a motion of no-confidence against the right-wing Barnier Government. How did it happen? What does this mean for France and President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron's political project? Who stands to benefit -- the far-right or the leftist New Popular Front? What does it say about French democracy and the future of the Fifth Republic? Join us as we discuss these questions and more on our first "emergency episode" of the Royal Palace Podcast.

Minitel, launched by France's Ministry of Post, Telegraphs, and Telephone (PTT), brought the networked age to the French public nearly a decade before Americans encountered the commercial web in the early 1990s. Offering services like online directories, messaging, shopping, and access to news, Minitel’s innovative pay-by-minute kiosk system ensured that payments were divided between the PTT and the service providers, enabling publications like Le Monde and Libération to thrive in the emerging online landscape. Minitel terminals were handed out for free at Post Offices, and existing telephone customers enjoyed access with no monthly service fees. The Minitel experience suggests that the flaws of today’s internet—dominated by advertising and data capitalism—were not inevitable. At once a testament to the centralized ambition of the postwar welfare state and a product of the shift toward neoliberalism in the 1970s, Minitel embodied both the promise of public infrastructure and the forces that would ultimately undermine it through privatization and austerity.

Our credits to Julien Mailland and Kevin Driscoll for their book Minitel: Welcome to the Internet, published by MIT Press, which provided invaluable insights into Minitel's history, as well as the examples of Minitel services and their modern equivalents.

As war breaks out across the continent, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium fall in quick succession, while France—once confident—stumbles due to its military's outdated doctrine, strategic blunders, and insufficient materiel and communications equipment. The victorious left of the late 1930s disintegrates after the Soviet Union orders the French Communist Party (PCF) to oppose the war, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Hitler and Stalin.

As the war rages on, some on the right grow eager to surrender, realizing their beliefs were not so different from Hitler's. Meanwhile, Churchill, despite failing to sufficiently support the French war effort, urges the French to resort to urban warfare—a strategy that would likely reduce Paris to rubble. As the government flees Paris, moving southward to Orléans, then Tours, and eventually Bordeaux, the newly appointed right-wing Prime Minister, Marshal Philippe Pétain, announces to the French people that an agreement has been reached with Nazi Germany.

This marks the beginning of what would become known as Vichy France—a collaborationist, authoritarian regime. In October 1940, Vichy France codifies anti-Semitism into law, under the so-called "Decree-law on the status of Jews". Stay tuned for our eventual series on Vichy France.

We would like to thank Sam for joining us these past few episodes and encourage you to check out his Substack: Political Risk Dispatches (turnbaugh.substack.com).

If you like the show, please share it with your friends and collegues!

As we predicted in our coverage leading up to the election, Donald Trump will once again be President of the United States. How did Pod Save America get it so wrong? What are some of the reasons Harris and the Democratic party seemingly handed the election over to the Republican Party? And what might a second Trump administration look like?

We trace how France, despite emerging victorious from World War I, was left weakened by economic struggles, a decimated workforce, and a neglected military. As Germany rearmed in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, France’s attempts to counter the Nazi threat were thwarted by political divisions, including anti-Semitic opposition to Prime Minister Léon Blum, and by British foreign policy focused on containing the Soviet Union rather than confronting fascism. At key junctures—such as the remilitarization of the Rhineland and the appeasement at Munich—France and its allies hesitated, missing crucial chances to halt Hitler’s aggression. We’ll discuss how these decisions, alongside strategic miscalculations like the flawed reliance on the Maginot Line and the poorly timed deployment of reserves, led not only to France’s swift fall in 1940 but also to the spread of Nazi atrocities across Europe.

France left World War I victorious and was reputed as having the greatest military in the world. Nevertheless, the war cost France an entire generation of manpower, a landscape riddled in destruction and diminished industrial capacity vis-a-vis Germany. Having sustained two invasions by German forces in recent memory, France knew that it wouldn't be long before the Germans would try again - leading France to begin construction of the Maginot Line in 1928. As reactionary and antisemitic politics gained an unwavering momentum during the 1930s, the victory of France's left-wing Popular Front and formation of a Léon Blum's government offered hope to the working masses and a veritable alternative to Adolf Hitler. Still, the the leftist government faced an uphill battle owing to the chronic neglect of France's armed forces by previous governments, the superior state of German industry, political instability at home and an industrial class that would put their own interests ahead of the French Republic.

We want to thank our guest Sam for bringing us this amazing series. We encourage our listeners to check out his substack for his latest analysis on international affairs: turnbaugh.substack.com

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Stay tuned for our upcoming series on the Fall of France, where our first-ever guest Sam will be walking us through the interwar period through the installation of a Nazi puppet-state - Part 1 drops Monday!

What does the upcoming election mean for Europe? What is it like to vote from abroad in blue states where elections are uncontested and the presidential outcome predetermined? What is the Orphans' Court? Why is the Harris campaign not talking enough about abortion rights? Why has the Biden administration allowed the Republicans to dominate the courts and overturn Roe v. Wade with impunity? What do Donald Trump and Benyamin Netanyahou have in common? Why is Elon Musk building a data center to train an AI-model named "grok" while the company is just days away from receivership? Why do older generations of progressives not see the writing on the wall despite having lived through Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden? We answer some of these questions to varying degrees with our guest Sam on this more casual episode of the Royal Palace Podcast.

Europeans enjoy a faster, cheaper and more private internet compared to their American counterparts. We talk about how the French were buying train tickets and streaming video through Minitel in the 1980s, how EU managed privatization has created a competitive (if imperfect) telecommunications market, and how in recent years the EU has started to take on privacy, "gatekeepers" and artificial intelligence.

Following the relative victory of France's left-wing coalition in summer's snap elections, President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron nominates Michel Barnier as Prime Minister. From the right-wing "Republicans" party, Barnier is expected to pursue far-right wing policies on immigration in collaboration with the National Rally, while accelerating the usual policies of economic liberalism.

Decided by the Tribunal of Conflicts in 1921, the Eloka Ferry case is a story of French colonial rule in West Africa and the important distinction between judicial and administrative jurisdiction in French law.