GeofCoxI often joke that Brittany is the most left-wing region in France - and has the highest number of cafés and bars per capita... but perhaps the two aspects are more closely linked than I thought.
This article - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/27/progressive-paris-far-right-french-capital-food-culture-community-extremists - links the increasing number of car-free and non-commercial social spaces in Paris with its continuing extraordinary left voting record - and suggests that the well documented disappearance of such spaces in the US and elsewhere may be a factor in the rise of the extreme right.
Progressive Paris has many weapons to fight the far right, but the best? Spaces where you can simply hang out
Drop into any of the French capital’s ‘third places’ and you’ll find food, culture, community – and an antidote to the disaffection extremists feed on, says Paris-based writer Alexander Hurst
Benjamin Balder Bach