Trump praised Alito as “a great justice” and said that he is prepared to appoint a replacement, should Alito retire.
Trump added, “In theory, it’s two – you just read the statistics – it could be two, could be three, could be one.”
Trump didn’t say who the other potential retiring justices are. Speculation from pundits is that he is referring to Justice Clarence Thomas, 77, another solidconservative vote. Thomas, appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1991, is the court’s oldest justice and longest-serving member.
If Democrats were to take over the Senate following the midterms, it is very unlikely they would confirm a Trump-appointed Supreme Court nominee. Instead, they would probably follow the precedent set by Republicans in 2020 and block a Trump pick.
The clock is ticking on November’s midterm elections, and Democrats’ chances of taking back the Senate are improving. Assuming a current Supreme Court justice retires, here’s what has to happen for Trump and Senate Republicans to successfully confirm a successor.
The Supreme Court confirmation process
The Constitution says that the Senate provides “advice and consent” on presidential appointments to the Supreme Court. Over the course of the nation’s history, this has developed into a complex process.
Once the Senate receives a nomination from the president, it goes to the Judiciary Committee.
This is where the most public part of the confirmation process takes place: confirmation hearings. These typically last three to four days and feature a high stakes question-and-answer session with the nominee.
Prior to the hearings, senators and the nominee engage in a substantial amount of preparation.
Senators, with their staffs, do extensive background research on the nominee, which helps inform their questioning. Some of this is accomplished through the Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, to which nominees provide written answers. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s 2022 questionnaire was 149 pages long. It included questions about organizational memberships, public speeches and judicial opinions authored.
Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson listens to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee members on Capitol Hill on March 21, 2022. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, Pool
Meanwhile, the nominee makes courtesy calls to senators to build support for confirmation.
At roughly the same time, the nominee takes part in hearing preparation, known as “murder boards.” Here, the nominee’s allies play the roles of members of the Judiciary Committee, anticipating the type of tough questions the nominee will face from skeptical senators from the opposition party of the appointing president.
During Jackson’s murder boards, for instance, the focus was on expected Republican attacks that Jackson was soft on crime.
Within a few days of the end of the confirmation hearings, the Judiciary Committee votes on its recommendation to the full Senate. Then the nomination goes back to the full Senate for more discussion and a final confirmation vote. A simple majority is needed to confirm a Supreme Court nominee.
For the nine members of the court, it has taken an average of 70 days between presidential appointment and Senate confirmation, according to data from The U.S. Supreme Court Database. But this number has decreased recently, with Barrett and Jackson taking 30 and 41 days, respectively, to be confirmed.
So, as long as there is roughly a month before the November midterms, it is likely that there is enough time for the Republican Senate to confirm a Trump nominee.
Democrats have limited options
In 2017, Senate Republicans ended the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. It was a move to secure the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch.
This reduced the threshold for confirmation from 60 votes to 51 votes. Perhaps most importantly, it also severely limited the options available to the minority party to block a Supreme Court confirmation.
With a 53-47 Republican majority in the Senate, so long as Republicans stick together, it will be very difficult for Senate Democrats to block a Trump nominee.
There are some delay tactics available to Democrats – they can perhaps even grind the entire Senate to a halt – but they may pay a political price for these tactics. Republicans, for instance, may try to paint Democrats as obstructionist, potentially motivating a voter backlash against the Democratic Party in the midterm elections.
Paul M. Collins Jr. does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took this selfie in 2020, after drilling a rock sample from a spot nicknamed “Mary Anning.” After years of extensive analysis, the sample has revealed the greatest diversity of organic molecules ever found on Mars. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
It’s not yet possible to determine whether it was delivered by a meteor (or comet or interplanetary dust particles), was formed through geological processes or may be linked to potential ancient life on Mars.
This begs a few questions: What exactly is life? How do we know what to look for? Why is it so hard to determine if an organic compound came from life or not?
The study of extreme environments on Earth, along with exploration of the lifeless surface of the moon, can help us understand what life can look like. It can also help us understand the other potential non-biological processes that can form organic compounds like ones that have been found on Mars.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield dives into Pavilion Lake, B.C., as part of an international, multidisciplinary project to explore the origin of rare freshwater carbonate rock formations (microbialites). Similar processes possibly occurred on other planets. (CSA/Donnie Reid)
Life in extreme environments on Earth
On Earth, scientists study life in extreme environments that we might also expect to find on early Earth or other planets such as Mars. We call these “analogue” environments.
The author (left) collects water samples from Lake Untersee for a biosignature study. This is one of Antarctica’s largest and deepest surface lakes, known for its distinctive water chemistry. (Klemens Weisleitner)
As astrobiologists, we can use these analogue environments to test equipment and concepts of operation that may be used to plan life-detection missions on other planets. They also help us better understand how life can survive in extreme environments.
Importantly, these environments help us recognize what kinds of evidence life can leave behind. Identifying biosignatures, or unambiguous signs of life, that can be targeted when looking for life elsewhere is critically important.
On Earth, it’s not hard to find evidence of life. Simply look around you. We are also constantly discovering the existence of life in places where it may have once seemed impossible, such as these microbes buried deep in ocean mud.
Marine microbiologist Karen Lloyd introduces deep-subsurface microbes: tiny organisms that live buried deep in ocean mud.
In fact, finding locations where there is no life is often more challenging.
The moon is a valuable study site for astrobiology because it offers clues about what is not a sign of life. The moon is constantly being hit by objects such as meteorites and asteroids, objects that would have also hit early Earth and Mars, leaving visible craters on the surface.
Meteorites can contain organic molecules such as amino acids and hydrocarbons that look very much like ones we would expect to be left behind by living organisms.
Micro-organisms, just like your own cells, contain lipids, proteins and nucleic acids. When they die, their organic molecules can become trapped in material such as sediments or minerals, and in some cases, preserved over long periods of time. Even if somewhat degraded, they might survive over millions or even billions of years in a recognizable form even if life itself is no longer present.
A closeup view taken by the Artemis II crew of Vavilov Crater, on the rim of the older and larger Hertzsprung basin, on the surface of the moon. (NASA)
Analysis of samples brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu in 2023 found organics such as sugars, including ribose, for example. Ribose is a component of RNA. This does not mean that there is life on Bennu, instead it shows that these biologically important molecules may be widely distributed in the solar system.
These kinds of investigations tell us that there are some organics that may not make good biosignatures because there is an alternative non-biological explanation.
From the moon to Mars
Exploration of the moon helps create an inventory of organic molecules that, while often associated with life, also have another explanation. They may have been delivered by a meteorite and been preserved all this time.
For example, studies of lunar regolith — the dusty moon version of soil — brought back from the Apollo missions and from recent Chinese-led missions have identified organic molecules such as amino acids, ketones and amines. If these same organics are found on other planets, it means that they are not necessarily signs of life. At least, not on their own.
Artemis II crew Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen configure their camera equipment shortly before beginning their lunar flyby observations, April 2026. (NASA)
These geological features might play a role in the preservation of organics, possibly shielding them from high temperatures and destructive radiation, sort of like a fridge. Similar features on Mars may then be good targets for astrobiology investigations.
With a 2028 moon landing planned for NASA’s Artemis IV mission, we will soon have even more lunar material to study. These missions are critical for helping astrobiologists fine-tune those unambiguous signs of life that we can then search for when we get to Mars.
As NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers continue exploring Mars, and new missions are planned, in the future we may be able to more confidently answer the question of is it life?
Allyson Brady receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and has been supported by the Canadian Space Agency in the past.
Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Richard B. (Ricky) Rood, Professor Emeritus of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan
In many areas, the damage has been exacerbated by a culture of building homes and cabins on the shores of inland lakes and along riverine lakes behind small, often privately owned dams. Many of these dams were built over 100 years ago, with some long forgotten.
Michigan State Police captured scenes of stressed dams and flooding across Cheboygan County, near the tip of the Lower Peninsula, including the century-old dam in the city of Cheboygan that was nearly overwhelmed by flood water.
I am a professor emeritus of meteorology at the University of Michigan whose work focuses on helping communities adapt to climate change. The warming climate is worsening the flood risk, and disasters like the one Michigan is experiencing are setting higher benchmarks for safety as communities plan future infrastructure.
Where is all the water coming from?
For much of Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as northern Illinois, 2026 has been the wettest March and April on record.
In March, much of that precipitation fell as snow, including in an enormous blizzard that brought 3 feet of snow to parts of Michigan. In mid-April, persistent rains began. The rain, on top of all that snow, sent floodwaters running into rivers, streets and homes. The water carries large amounts of ice that damages shores, infrastructure and homes.
The moisture for much of these storms has been funneled northward from the warm Gulf of Mexico, thanks in part to a high pressure system sitting over the southeastern U.S.
Extreme downpours are becoming intense across the United states. This map shows the percentage change in total precipitation falling on the heaviest 1% of rainy days from 1958 to 2021. NOAA/adapted from Fifth National Climate Assessment
The problem of warming winters
The kind of flooding Michigan and Wisconsin are experiencing in 2026 is what forecasters expect to see more of as global temperatures rise.
Winters have been warming faster than other seasons across the U.S. In Michigan and Wisconsin, winter months used to be reliably below freezing, but that’s changing. In the Cheboygan area, near the tip of Lower Michigan, March temperatures used to be below freezing on all but a few days. By the 1991-2020 period, the region averaged 10 days above or close to the freezing point – about twice as many as the 1951-1980 period.
March is warming, as a comparison of daily high temperatures in the Cheboygan area in 1991-2020 and 1951-1980 shows. The bar chart comparison shows that the number days above freezing is rising. GLISA
The air coming in from the south is also warmer than in the past. Nationally, 2026 was the warmest March on record in 132 years of record-keeping in the contiguous U.S., with an average temperature more than 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) higher than the 30-year average. So, in addition to snowmelt starting earlier, melting is happening faster.
A few aspects of a warming climate can lead to flooding.
First, temperatures are increasing. In higher temperatures, moisture evaporates faster from the ground, plants and surface water. That moisture, once in the atmosphere, eventually falls again as precipitation. However, for each degree Celsius that temperatures increase, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture, resulting in more heavy downpours.
A warmer winter also means more melting snow and more rain-on-snow events that can quickly increase the amount of runoff into rivers.
Since March 1, 2026, most of Michigan and Wisconsin have experienced their wettest stretch in the 134 years that the region’s precipitation has been recorded. Iowa Environmental Mesonet
The Great Lakes region and much of the Northeast already experience more precipitation than in the past. Winters with more persistent wetness – not just snow but also rain – prime the region for floods. With continued warming in the coming decades, 2026 might be among the least disruptive in the future.
All of this means communities across the region will have to pay closer attention to the growing risks facing their vital infrastructure – particularly dams.
After that disaster, a state task force issued recommendations for fixing the state’s water control infrastructure to meet the growing risks. But a member of the task force told The Detroit News in April 2026 that little had been done to address those recommendations.
Because warming will continue for the coming decades, the 2026 flooding should be considered at the lower end of capacity for stormwater infrastructure and dams. Rather than relying on the statistics that described floods in the past, planners will have to anticipate the floods of the future.
Michigan is often touted as a climate haven because it is relatively cool and has plenty of water. The state is not, however, immune to the amped-up weather of a warming climate. Environmental security in the future requires improved and more adaptive infrastructure.
Richard B. (Ricky) Rood receives funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Erectile disorder (ED) refers to a persistent difficulty achieving or maintaining an erection sufficient for satisfying sexual activity. It affects millions of men worldwide, including up to one in four in the United States. Beyond physical functioning, erectile difficulties can impact sexual confidence, self-esteem, relationship satisfaction and quality of life.
Although prevalence increases with age, age alone does not explain ED. Medical conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and the after-effects of surgery (prostate surgery particularly) can disrupt erectile functioning.
Psychological contributors are also common. Performance anxiety, stress and relational concerns frequently cause ED or interact with biological factors, making ED a complex condition, not a single, isolated problem.
Treatment for erectile dysfunction
Currently, most treatment approaches include medication, sex therapy or a combination of both. Phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors, such as Viagra and Cialis, are widely prescribed and increase blood flow to the penis in response to sexual stimulation.
Their on-demand dosing and ease of oral use make them appealing. However, they are not appropriate for everyone. Certain medical conditions, side-effects, concerns about reduced spontaneity, lack of efficacy or cost can limit their usefulness.
Sex therapy offers another well-established treatment option. It can help individuals and couples reduce performance anxiety, improve communication and sexual satisfaction and rebuild sexual confidence. Yet access is uneven. Cost, waitlists, geographic limitations and stigma prevent many people from receiving timely care.
At the same time, technology is transforming how ED is assessed and treated. From app-connected devices to immersive virtual-reality environments, new tools are expanding both research and clinical possibilities.
At the EROS Research Chair, we study how innovations can be integrated into ED treatment. Several promising directions are already emerging.
Monitoring erectile health: Anytime, anywhere
Smart penile rings are transforming assessment. These wearable devices are placed around the penis during sleep or sexual activity and collect continuous data on erection strength and duration. The data are stored online, accessible through the user’s app, and can be shared with specialists.
The data are more objective than patient recall and offer more information than a clinic visit can provide, making it possible to assess whether difficulties are consistent or situational, or if they are improving with treatment.
Devices such as the Techring connect to a smartphone app and can be used independently at home, providing greater privacy, convenience and patient engagement.
Virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) creates immersive, computer-generated environments that simulate real-life experiences. In sexual health research, VR allows arousal and erectile responses to be examined in controlled, yet realistic contexts.
Recent studies show men with ED display different responses to VR sexual scenarios compared to men without the condition. In 2024, our team found reduced arousal levels, while other researchers observed weaker and shorter-lasting erections during scenarios such as masturbation, oral sex and penetrative intercourse.
Beyond diagnosis, VR may help identify which situations are most challenging for a given individual: specific activities, partner contexts or environmental factors. This information can guide more personalized treatment planning rather than relying solely on generalized recommendations.
The promise of regenerative medicine
Most existing treatments manage symptoms rather than address underlying tissue damage. Regenerative approaches, including platelet-rich plasma, stem cell therapies and low intensity shock-wave therapy aim to stimulate blood vessel and tissue growth and repair.
Pre-clinical studies, largely in animal models, suggest potential improvements in erectile function and acceptable short-term safety. Early human findings for shock-wave therapy indicate possible benefits for penile blood flow.
However, these interventions remain experimental. Protocols are not standardized and long-term effectiveness and safety are still unclear. Larger, high-quality human trials are needed.
Vacuum devices: A low-tech option, reimagined
Vacuum erection devices have existed for decades. They create negative pressure around the penis to draw blood in, then a constriction ring helps maintain the erection.
Older models use a physical pump to create that negative pressure. Newer models are battery-operated, quieter and can be app-connected, reducing awkwardness and required physical effort of older models.
Although not new, vacuum devices remain a valuable option, particularly for people who cannot use medications or prefer non-pharmacologic approaches. They may also be combined with medication for additive effect.
A new era for erectile health
For decades, ED treatment relied heavily on self-reporting and a narrow set of treatment options. Now, wearable technologies offer objective, real-time data, VR provides insight into situational and contextual factors and regenerative therapies seek to rectify damaged tissue. Even established tools like vacuum devices continue to evolve.
Together, these advances support an increasingly personalized, data-driven and patient-centred care model. Although many technologies are still emerging, they promise a future in which ED is understood and treated with greater precision, nuance and compassion.
This article was co-authored by Elisabeth Gordon, MD, CST. She is a psychiatrist and certified sex therapist and a fellow at the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health.
David Lafortune receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Franklin Calazana and Éliane Dussault do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The report found the reduction in study permit approvals was driven by a decline in applications and lower-than-projected approval rates, with smaller provinces disproportionately affected.
The report also highlights how the reforms failed to meaningfully improve oversight and program integrity. Instead, they emphasized surveillance and monitoring.
But solutions to address these conditions are notably absent from its recommendations. Instead, it reinforces claims that position international students as contributing to housing costs, health-care wait times and youth unemployment.
In the 2025 budget, the federal government signalled yet another shift in its approach and language around international students.
This approach repositions certain international students as highly desirable. It privileges those with high levels of cultural and economic capital. At the same time, it signals a desire to further cut the number of study permits available generally.
A racialized group facing racist backlash
As the volatility of the past few years makes clear, policy efforts remain focused on managing the scale and composition of international student populations.
International students are also under-supported by campus support services that often lack cultural awareness and sensitivity. Such conditions contribute to a sense of conditional belonging and inclusion.
Yet, despite these structural and interpersonal challenges, many international students from Asia build deep connections and communities, often through online networks or in spaces comprised of multiple ethnic communities. Many continue to hold long-term aspirations to stay in Canada.
Shift in buzzwords
The shift in federal language, which now names selected “exceptional” international students as a source of “global talent,” is not new.
It echoes earlier innovation strategies of the 2000s, which sought to recruit international students as skilled migrants and “highly qualified personnel” for a knowledge economy.
If our project teaches us anything, it’s that the shift from scapegoating international students to now selectively welcoming “global talent” will not change broader structural conditions. New recruits will still face challenges around racism and integration.
Our research has made clear that recent policy shifts risk reproducing long-standing assumptions — that international students are welcome only to the extent that they are useful. We call this “transactional integration” in our book. Previously, international students were useful for their revenue and future labour, but now Canada needs them for its competitiveness agenda.
Yet again, this transactional and conditional approach to inclusion means Canadian may never get to know the international students who come to study, with their full and complex lives and their distinctive needs.
These are people who will be our neighbours, classmates and friends — if we are willing to see student migrants defined by qualities other than their visa status.
Elizabeth Buckner receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Government of Canada.
Ashley Manuel, Eun Gi (Cathy) Kim, and Sophie Xiaoyi Liu do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Erin Leigh Courtice, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University
A positive emoji appended to a positive or neutral message is fine, but using one to sugarcoat bad news may detract from competence. (Unsplash/Tim Witzdam)
You’ve typed it, deleted it and typed it again. You need to let your colleague know there’s a problem with a project at work. Should you use a grinning face — 😄 — in that Slack message to soften the blow, or an angry face — 😠 — to show your distress?
If you’ve experienced this type of internal debate, you’re not alone. Instant messaging now dominates workplace communication, with 91 per cent of businesses using two or more chat platforms. But when we instant message, we can’t see our colleagues’ facial expressions. We try to compensate with emojis, using them as stand-ins for non-verbal cues.
But do emojis actually help, or can they backfire?
My recent study, conducted with colleagues at the University of Ottawa and published in Collabra: Psychology, reveals that emoji choice matters. The emoji you pick, and whether it matches the tone of your message, may impact both how competent your co-workers think you are, and how appropriate your message is for the workplace.
The research project
We asked 243 research participants to read short workplace instant messages from a hypothetical co-worker.
The messages varied on three dimensions: the emotional tone (positive, negative or neutral), the emoji attached (a grinning face 😀, an angry face 😠 or none) and whether the sender was described as a woman or a man.
Participants rated how competent they thought the message sender was. They also rated how appropriate the message felt for a professional setting.
Add a grinning face emoji to a negative message, and you may come across as passive-aggressive or insincere. (Unsplash/Arlington Research)
No emoji is often the safest bet
Overall, messages with no emoji received the highest ratings for competence and appropriateness. A neutral “Can I have Tuesday off?” read as perfectly professional. So did a more positive: “Just attended another super-effective presentation.”
When the sender added a 😀 to either message, the ratings held steady. This is likely a reassuring finding if you’re someone who likes using emojis to sprinkle warmth into your messages.
On the other hand, when the sender added a 😠, competence and appropriateness ratings dropped.
This finding was remarkably consistent: across positive, neutral and negative sentence content, the no-emoji version was either the top-rated option or statistically tied for first place.
Match emoji and message tone
But the real story is that emojis need to match the tone of your message. A grinning face 😀 attached to “Someone broke the printer again” came across as less competent and less appropriate than either a negative emoji or no emoji at all.
Here, the mismatch may have created the impression that the message was passive-aggressive or insincere.
Notably, an angry face 😠 paired with a negative message fared better than one tacked onto a positive or neutral one. However, sending that same negative message with no emoji still outperformed the congruent but angry version.
For negative messages, emojis that fit the emotional tone of the text don’t really help. Those that clash actively hurt.
Many remote workers rely on instant messaging for workplace communication. (Unsplash)
One possibility is that text-based communication mutes the impact of gender enough to blunt that bias. When gender cues are reduced to a name or profile picture at the top of a chat window, rather than continuously signalled through appearance or voice, recipients may simply process them less.
For appropriateness, we found a small but significant effect: women rated negative emojis from women senders as less appropriate than men did. It’s a modest finding, but it aligns with research suggesting that women sometimes hold other women to stricter professional standards — an interesting thread worth pulling on in future work.
Small choices carry weight
The key takeaway for emojis at work is this: match, don’t mask. A positive emoji appended to a positive or neutral message is fine, but using one to sugarcoat bad news may detract from perceptions of competence.
Negative emojis are generally riskier than their positive counterparts, but if you’re going to use one, at least make sure the message underneath is genuinely negative. And when in doubt, the plainest option — no emoji — almost never hurts.
We’re still collectively figuring out the norms of digital professional communication. Of course, a controlled study with undergraduates reading hypothetical messages can only tell us so much about your workplace messaging thread. Workplaces will all have their own norms to navigate, and most of us run private experiments every day in our chat apps.
Studies like this one suggest that the small choices — a grinning face here, or an angry face there — may carry more weight than we think. The good news is that the underlying principle is pretty intuitive: say what you mean, and let the emoji agree with you.
The current study was supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The plan for a new Rays stadium looks promising. But will it deliver for Tampa taxpayers?Tampa Bay Rays
When the Atlanta Braves opened Truist Park in 2017, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred called it a “watershed” moment.
What drew so much attention to the new Braves’ stadium in suburban Cobb County, Georgia, at the time was its construction within a mixed-use development, known as The Battery Atlanta. Truist Park anchors a live-work-play campus that includes restaurants, shops, hotels, offices and residences. The idea was to create a year-round attraction rather than build a standalone stadium that serves only as a game-day destination.
Manfred declared that this sort of mixed-used district “provides a road map for clubs to get new stadiums built.” And he’s not alone in that belief.
But what do mixed-use projects like The Battery mean for host communities?
As an economist – and lifelong Braves fan – who lives a few miles from the complex, I’ve had the unique opportunity to experience The Battery as a community member, as well as study it as a scholar. I’ve attended many games, visited on off-days and examined its impact on surrounding businesses, county property values, sales tax receipts and tourism. My forthcoming book, “This One Will Be Different: False Promises and Fiscal Realities of Publicly Funded Stadiums,” looks at the history and economics of public stadium projects, including my hometown Truist Park.
Tampa as a public partner
Critical to Zalupski’s proposal to build a new US$2.3 billion ballpark is a hefty contribution from taxpayers. He is asking the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County to fund at least $1 billion of the cost.
That’s more than triple the $300 million Cobb County devoted to build Truist Park in Georgia, which was funded by a combination of property, hotel and rental car taxes.
In addition to that $1 billion, the state of Florida is offering $180 million for transportation improvements and rebuilding Hillsborough College, whose land would be donated to host the new development.
Rays CEO Ken Babby insists that the immense public outlay is worth it. He described it as “a generational opportunity” for the community that “will strengthen the region by creating jobs, encouraging economic investment and supporting long-term growth.”
It may seem counterintuitive that stadium events fail to boost local economies, because fans clearly do spend vast sums of money attending games. But most of the spectators in the crowd are locals, who reallocate their spending from other area merchants, rather than generating new commercial activity.
Mixed-use to the rescue?
When the Braves and Cobb County leaders announced their stadium vision, they confidently predicted that The Battery was the key that would unlock the economic potential of the stadium. Truist Park’s complementary development was touted as a game changer that would propel its economic success.
Knowing that past stadium deals had been unprofitable for surrounding communities, the team acknowledged that a standalone venue was unlikely to pay off financially. But with The Battery, president of the Braves Development Company Mike Plant promised, “We’re going to build a city, and we’re going to create tons of jobs, tons of density and year-round tax revenues.”
Now that Truist Park is entering its 10th season, we can assess what the stadium development has meant for the local economy using historical data.
The Braves’ mixed-use development has indeed boosted the team’s bottom line. In 2025, for example, Atlanta Braves Holdings reported that the mixed-use component added $97 million in revenue – primarily from rent, parking and advertising – on top of $635 million from baseball operations.
With those numbers, it’s no wonder the Rays want to follow the Braves’ blueprint.
On the left, fans walk through The Battery to Truist Park on game day, April 11, 2022. On the right, The Battery during the off-season, Feb. 22, 2022. J.C. Bradbury
Unfortunately, the Battery hasn’t been a boon for taxpayers. My research shows that the relocation of the Braves did attract some new spending into Cobb County. But the gains have been far too small to cover the county’s debt service and other funding obligations, generating an annual loss of around $15 million.
And what spending may be imported into Cobb happens during the baseball season. In other words, The Battery has not been a year-round attraction.
Why didn’t Truist Park’s ancillary development strategy work?
Just as spending inside the ballpark mostly represents a reshuffling of local commerce, purchases within the surrounding district largely come at the expense of other off-campus area businesses. And though nearly $100 million in revenue from the mixed-use development may seem impressive, it’s trivial in comparison to Cobb County’s $80 billion economy.
A new gold standard or fool’s gold?
If the Braves’ mixed-use development hasn’t been able to pay off Cobb’s much smaller $300 million subsidy, it casts serious doubt on Tampa’s ballpark-village strategy to cover its billion-dollar ask of taxpayers.
The evidence shows that stadiums aren’t capable of funding themselves, even with a mixed-use component. The public funding has to come from someone, and it’s local taxpayers who ultimately pick up the tab.
I believe the Rays’ plan and similar stadium developments being discussed in Kansas City, Chicago, Denver and elsewhere should be viewed as risky bets rather than sound public investments.
J.C Bradbury is a faculty affiliate of KSU’s Bagwell Center for the Study of Markets and Economic Opportunity, which has previously provided him with a summer research support (last received in 2022).
Empirical research in the behavioural sciences shows that the Trump administration has not, to date, adopted an efficient strategy to negotiate with Iran. Negotiations between the US and Iran on April 11-12 in Islamabad, Pakistan were deemed the last attempt at ending a war that’s on the verge of causing a global economic crisis.
To explain why the first round of negotiations between the US and Iran failed, US Vice President Vance said Iran did not agree to terms about its nuclear efforts and that the US gave Tehran its “final and best offer”. Vance put an end to the 21-hour long talks and the US delegation made a swift exit after it had stayed less than 24 hours in the country.
The US’s “final and best offer” has shown a deep misunderstanding of the dynamics and the psychology of negotiations. It would be laughable if world peace, looming world hunger, and a catastrophic economic crisis weren’t at stake.
What led to the breakdown in talks?
Contrary to what Vance claimed, putting an offer in the early stage of a negotiation is quite counter-productive to solving a conflict.
It often escalates into a war of positions where negotiators mostly seek to defend and argue about their positions, thus becoming cognitively rigid rather than trying to understand what drives the other party’s behaviour. In contrast, an offer in the later stages of negotiations enables everyone to first understand the underlying (unpublicised) interests, motivations, needs and concerns of the different parties.
When an offer is made later rather than earlier, negotiators have more leeway to exchange information and explore creative solutions that meet the different parties’ underlying interests; they are less likely to engage in positional, competitive bargaining early in the process (which then colours the entire subsequent interaction). What this means in plain terms is a key measure of negotiators’ effectiveness is their ability to seek information and ask questions rather than solely making claims.
Even when both parties are willing to reach painful compromises, a lot of time is required to explore underlying interests, discuss thorny issues, disclose sensitive information, and look for solutions that are mutually acceptable. In fact, research has shown that discussing multiple simultaneous offers, that is, discussing several potential scenarios and options for compromise at the same time, is more efficient than making a single unilateral offer.
It takes time to build trust and at the beginning the parties interpret every move from the other side through the lens of the distrust they experience themselves. For example, people reject an offer that comes from the other side just because it comes from the other side: they evaluate an offer based on who makes it, regardless of how interesting it is intrinsically; this phenomenon characterises negotiation and has been termed reactive devaluation. This is because we construe that another person’s offer must be solely driven by their interests, and we construe our interests as antagonistic to theirs.
Second, the “psychological cost” of walking away from a negotiation evolves over time.
At the beginning of a negotiation, walking away and reaching an impasse bears little psychological cost because little energy or effort have been invested whereas at the end of a negotiation, walking away and reaching an impasse is far more costly: an impasse would mean that all the time spent was for nothing. This is an application of a bias that is well-known by psychologists, namely escalation of commitment. The more (the less) we invest time and pursue a certain course of action, the more (the less) we want it to succeed.
Thus, results from empirical research converge to demonstrate that negotiation is a game with different phases or sequences: open discussions first; bargaining at the end. Using aggressive tactics early in negotiations makes finding out about interests and uncovering cooperative solutions very unlikely. The ability not to close one’s mind too early in the process and keep things open throughout as much as possible is critical. This is why patience is key in negotiations.
Managing the timing dimension in negotiations is clearly essential for success. The same behaviour put at the end rather than at the beginning of negotiations will yield completely different results.
In negotiations, it’s often a question of when to make a move rather than whether to make a move.
In this way, empirical research on negotiations suggests that negotiation is like a dance. One needs to proceed by trial and error before constructing compromises that are mutually acceptable. It takes time to understand someone else and build a relationship – exactly as is the case in a romantic relationship.
Needless to say, the aforementioned research has mostly been published in US academic journals dedicated to the behavioural sciences. It is well known to negotiation scholars and experts in the US.
Dissecting the telltale signs of amateurism
Vance’s position that the US gave Iran its “final and best offer” was, thus, that of an amateur. This is all the more apparent given that negotiations between the US and Iran are quite complex and include multiple issues: reopening the strait of Ormuz, implementation of steps to limit and control Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic missiles, access to a civil nuclear program, the lifting of economic sanctions, guarantees that war will not resume, etc.
Wanting to reach an agreement on such difficult issues in such little time denoted a lack of negotiation experience that was simply astonishing.
Negotiations that led to an agreement with Iran on nuclear matters under the Obama administration took more than 20 months, whereas those led by Vance in Pakistan earlier this month took 21 hours.
In this respect, the failure of the US versus Iran talks in Pakistan was in no way surprising. It was fully consistent with, and predicted by, empirical research on the psychology of negotiation.
Making an early offer is very ineffective in solving conflict. For instance, the very same error explained why negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians failed in Camp David in 2000, even though the two parties wanted to reach a compromise at that time – the consequences of this failure have been catastrophic. As a close observer recalled, the parties made their initial offers early in the negotiation process, well before “neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians had been prepared to fully own up to the fears and needs of the other”.
All of this has denoted a major flaw by the Trump administration in how to handle negotiations with Iranians (among others) since the start of the war till now. Negotiating is not about imposing terms unilaterally on the other party. Nor is it about making the other party capitulate and accept an unconditional surrender. That strategy works in negotiations where there is only one variable to negotiate upon (typically, a competitive issue such as price), or when you undoubtedly are in a position of power – as would be the case if you were a wealthy real estate developer in New York city. But that strategy does not work in negotiations where there are multiple variables to negotiate upon and where meeting complex, underlying interests and discovering creative solutions is necessary to achieve a good deal, or when the balance of power is uncertain.
To paraphrase yet another Republican US President Eisenhower, negotiation is:
“The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”
On all counts, what happened between the US and Iranian delegations on April 11-12 in Pakistan did not look like real negotiations.
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Marwan SINACEUR a reçu des financements de ESSEC Research Center, Fondation ESSEC, Fondation INSEAD, Stanford University.
Who counts as an intellectual? In many traditions, the figure of the intellectual is tied to the search for truth, social critique and public engagement. From the Dreyfus Affair (a political scandal in 1894 in France that mobilised writers and thinkers to defend justice) to postcolonial debates, intellectuals are those who intervene in society, not just to interpret the world, but to challenge it.
In the African context, this role takes on particular urgency. Intellectuals on the continent and in the diaspora have long navigated a complex terrain shaped by colonial legacies, political constraints and global inequalities. They are not simply producers of knowledge. They are mediators between worlds, engaged in a struggle over meaning, identity and historical narrative.
As a scholar of cultural studies and postcolonial thought, I’ve sought, in a new French book, to analyse their paths not as isolated figures, but as part of a broader constellation of what we’ve called “African intellectual sensibilities”.
These are ways of thinking that are at once critical, situated and globally engaged. This approach highlights how African thinkers contribute not only to debates about Africa, but also to the redefinition of knowledge production itself.
So, identifying African thinkers is not just an exercise in recognition. It’s part of a broader effort to rebalance an intellectual history that has too often marginalised or misrepresented African contributions. As Congolese philosopher Valentin-Yves Mudimbe famously argued, Africa has often been constructed as an object of knowledge rather than a subject producing it.
From this perspective, here are six intellectuals whose work helps us rethink Africa and the world.
The famous
1. Valentin-Yves Mudimbe (1941-2025)
Mudimbe is one of the most influential African philosophers of the late 20th century. His seminal work The Invention of Africa dismantles what he calls the “colonial library”, the body of western knowledge that has historically defined Africa from the outside.
Rather than simply rejecting western thought, Mudimbe proposes a critical archaeology of knowledge. His work invites us to rethink how Africa can be known and, crucially, how it can speak for itself. He shifts the question from what Africa is to who has the power to define it.
His contribution goes further. By drawing on thinkers like Michel Foucault from France, he shows that knowledge is never neutral. It’s embedded in structures of power. This allows Mudimbe to expose how academic disciplines, from anthropology to history, have participated in constructing a distorted image of Africa.
His work opened the way for a generation of scholars who now seek to produce knowledge from within African perspectives rather than about Africa as an external object.
2. Achille Mbembe (born 1957)
A major voice in contemporary global theory, Cameroonian historian Mbembe explores how power operates in postcolonial societies. In works such as On the Postcolony and Critique of Black Reason, he analyses the afterlives of colonial violence and their impact on subjectivity.
Mbembe: thinking about power, violence and the postcolonial condition. Wikimedia Commons/Heike Huslage-Koch, CC BY-SA
Mbembe also emphasises the need for Africa to produce its own narratives. For him, intellectual work is inseparable from historical trauma, but also from the possibility of reinvention.
One of his key contributions is the concept of “necropolitics”, which examines how modern forms of power determine who may live and who must die. This framework has been widely used to analyse conflicts, borders and inequalities far beyond the continent.
At the same time, Mbembe insists on moving beyond victimhood. His work points toward what he sees as an emerging African future, shaped by mobility, creativity and new forms of belonging in a globalised world.
The fascinating
3. George Ayittey (1945–2022)
Ghanaian economist and thinker Ayittey stands out for his uncompromising critique of postcolonial African elites. While acknowledging the impact of colonialism, he argues that many of Africa’s problems today stem from internal governance failures such as corruption, authoritarianism and institutional decay.
Ayittey: rethinking governance and postcolonial elites. Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA
One of his most influential ideas is the distinction between “cheetahs” and “hippos”. Cheetahs are a new generation of reform minded Africans, hippos are entrenched elites resistant to change. This captures a broader critique of political stagnation and elite capture.
Ayittey also insists on the importance of indigenous African institutions as resources for political renewal. His work is therefore not only critical, it is also programmatic, calling for a reconstruction of governance.
4. Kwasi Wiredu (1931-2022)
Ghanaian philosopher Wiredu is one of the most important figures in African philosophy. His central project, conceptual decolonisation, aims to free African thought from uncritically adopting western philosophical categories.
For Wiredu, language plays a crucial role. Philosophical problems are often shaped by the language they’re formulated in. By returning to African languages, he shows that debates about truth, personhood or political organisation can be reframed in very different ways.
His work on consensus-based political systems, inspired by Akan traditions, is particularly influential. Rather than relying on majoritarian democracy, Wiredu explores forms of deliberation that include agreement and social cohesion. In the process, he does not reject universality. He redefines it from within African intellectual traditions.
5. Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí (born 1957)
Nigerian sociologist and gender scholar Oyěwùmí’s work offers a powerful critique of western ideas being applied to the rest of the world. In The Invention of Women, she argues that gender, as understood in western societies, was imposed on Yoruba social structures through colonialism.
Oyěwùmí: rethinking gender. Wikimedia Commons/O Oyěwùmí, CC BY-SA
Her research demonstrates that social organisation in Yoruba society was not originally structured around gender in the same way.
Rather than gender serving as the main axis of social difference, other markers such as age and status played a more central role. This challenges the assumption that categories such as man and woman are universally foundational.
More broadly, her work invites us to question how knowledge travels and how it can distort the realities it claims to describe.
He criticises the global division of intellectual labour, where African scholars are often confined to producing data while the theory is developed elsewhere. For him, the issue is about who has the authority to produce knowledge.
His work calls for African perspectives to be put in the centre of global debates and for a transformation of the structures that continue to marginalise them.
Beyond a list
African intellectuals are not a uniform group. They operate across disciplines such as philosophy, history, economics, sociology and literature, and across spaces around the world.
What unites them is a shared engagement with a central question. How can Africa be thought critically in a world still marked by unequal power relations?
There are, of course, many other prominent African thinkers whose work deserves attention. The figures here have been chosen because they are particularly representative of different ways of thinking from and about Africa.
Each of them opens a distinct intellectual pathway, whether through the critique of knowledge, the analysis of power, the rethinking of social categories or the transformation of political and philosophical frameworks.
Christophe Premat is a professor in Francophone cultural studies at the Department of Romance and Classical Studies at Stockholm University. He co-authored in 2025, with Buata B. Malela, the book Sensibilités intellectuelles africaines (Éditions Hermann).
Moins connue du grand public que le Medef, l’Association française des entreprises privées, ou Afep, est-elle moins influente ? Cette discrète organisation exerce pourtant un travail de lobbyisme. Alors que s’approche la prochaine élection présidentielle, quel rôle jouera-t-elle ?
Après une absence totale de présence en ligne, l’Association française des entreprises privées (Afep), est désormais sélectionnée par les algorithmes comme prioritaire, par rapport aux deux autres associations partageant le même acronyme• : l’Association française des enfants précoces ou l’Association française d’économie politique.
Elle reste pourtant toujours aussi discrète que méconnue. Il suffit de prononcer ce sigle auprès d’amis ou de collègues pour constater la très faible connaissance de cette organisation qui ne suscite que peu d’articles dans la presse. Son siège se trouve dans le VIIIᵉ arrondissement de Paris, et aucun manifestant n’est jamais venu y battre le pavé.
Et cependant, il s’agit bien là d’un archétype à partir duquel on pourrait décliner un ensemble de notions de science politique, et de questions politiques intéressées, autour des problématiques de « l’influence », de la « pression », des « groupes de veto », voire, de manière plus caricaturale, de l’emprise du « grand capital » sur le pouvoir politique).
Pour comprendre l’Afep, il faut d’abord comprendre le couple qu’elle forme avec le Medef, le Mouvement des entreprises de France. L’Afep a été créée en 1982 par Ambroise Roux, alors ex-président directeur général de la Compagnie générale des eaux, ancien président omnipotent de la commission économique du Conseil national du patronat français (CNPF, devenu Medef en 1998) et réputé « parrain du capitalisme français ». En créant l’Afep, il refonde l’Association des grandes entreprises françaises faisant appel à l’épargne (Agref), créée en 1969. Les nationalisations de 1982 avaient clairsemé les rangs de l’association, et les oppositions entre le nouveau président du CNPF Yvon Gattaz et Ambroise Roux expliquent cette refondation qui compte alors 36 affiliés.
« Il s’agit de proposer aux pouvoirs publics des études touchant aux problèmes des entreprises, démontrant la nécessité d’importantes réformes, et qui, ayant analysé cette conclusion, la transformerait en un document comprenant un exposé des motifs, le texte de loi et un certain nombre de décrets d’application », aurait-il déclaré alors selon sa biographe.
L’Afep n’est pas une organisation patronale représentative, comme le CNPF puis le Medef. N’étant pas un partenaire social, l’Afep ne négocie pas. En outre, ce ne sont pas des fédérations ou des unions territoriales qui y adhérent, comme dans la principale confédération patronale, mais des entreprises individuelles.
N’y entre pas qui veut, et le nombre des cooptés est actuellement de 117, dont une bonne trentaine de très grandes entreprises familiales, ce qui peut aussi expliquer l’engagement très fort sur certaines questions fiscales patrimoniales les concernant.
Certaines entreprises multinationales y restent, même si leur chiffre d’affaires réalisé en France est minoritaire, quand d’autres préfèrent ne pas en être, considérant l’Afep comme trop hexagonale (Essilor). Elle affiche une part du produit intérieur brut (PIB) marchand français de 13• % et déclare salarier 2,1 millions de personnes en France, selon son rapport annuel.
Sept présidents et une présidente
Elle a eu huit président·es, désigné·es par consensus, depuis sa création• : souvent, au XXᵉ siècle, des « •patrons d’État• ».
Patricia Barbizet est la première présidente. Sortante et bien que contestée car jugée peu audible, elle devrait voir son mandat reconduit en mai 2026, mais pour un an seulement. En attendant la recherche d’une personnalité apte à gérer la conjoncture post-élection présidentielle…
« Ma ligne directrice a toujours été d’éviter de représenter officiellement une organisation patronale, parce que je tiens à ma liberté de parole sur tous les sujets qui concernent la vie de la cité. » (Entretien avec Michel Offerlé.)
Transactions délicates
La cooptation du président donne lieu à des transactions délicates entre équilibre économique et anticipation politique. L’Afep garde par ailleurs un droit de regard sur l’élection du président du Medef et aussi un droit d’évocation sur tout ce qui peut concerner « la cause patronale », vis-à-vis du Medef qu’elle peut cornaquer, si besoin, par le canal des grandes fédérations et des grandes entreprises.
Il s’agit donc d’un club coopté, où la cotisation est élevée, 70 000 euros. Avec un budget de 9,3 millions d’euros, cela permet de salarier 17 personnes dont 8 femmes, directeurs et directrices réputé·es très pointu·es dans les domaines fiscal, environnemental et juridique, souvent recrutés par la revolving door (ces chiffres m’ont été communiqués par l’Afep par courriel. L’Afep, par ailleurs, ne souhaite pas informer sur le montant des cotisations. Le rapport financier n’est pas communicable. Les salariés sont au total 27 en incluant « l’équipe d’assistantes et des services généraux »).
Cette expertise « maison » est adossée à une autre expertise qui est fournie gratuitement par les grandes entreprises qui y délèguent, pour des travaux de commissions, plus d’un millier de leurs cadres supérieurs. Le budget de 9,3 millions devrait donc être considérablement réévalué en fonction de cette expertise mise à disposition par les entreprises.
Maîtriser l’agenda
Cette organisation agit à plusieurs niveaux dans la construction des problèmes publics qui peuvent impacter directement ou indirectement sa « raison d’être » : il s’agit de mettre à l’agenda des mesures et de les cadrer, d’éviter la mise à l’ordre du jour de celles qu’elle juge néfastes, ou même de s’approprier un problème qui ne deviendra pas public. L’échelle bruxelloise (Commission européenne, ndlr) peut aussi être importante, en agissant, comme tous les lobbies, ou en contournant, ici aussi, par le haut (accès direct à des commissaires) et par le bas (cocktail avec des assistants parlementaires). Ses activités les plus visibles sont recensées sur son site (avec des dirigeants de la DGFIP ou du Trésor, de l’Autorité des marchés financiers ou AMF, de la Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés ou CNIL, de la direction générale de la Commission de Bruxelles, du Conseil international des normes de durabilité ou ISSB, ou bien encore des représentants des gouvernements hongrois ou polonais lors de leur présidence de l’UE [rapport 2024]). Si l’Afep exerce une influence, elle intervient rarement publiquement dans le débat public.
Fondamentalement, les dirigeants de l’Afep ne partagent ni les formes de l’action de celui qui était parfois surnommé le « •Baron• », ni certaines de ses orientations, ni la confiance dans le bilan du chantier de la refondation sociale. Son projet d’intégrer l’Afep dans le Medef n’avait pas eu de suites. De façon inhabituelle, un « Appel de 56 patrons », du 24 octobre 2001, contre la loi de modernisation sociale visait aussi le Medef.
« C’est assez dépolitisé… d’être presque être un partenaire technique au sens de l’élaboration du corpus législatif et réglementaire, et pas du tout sur le débat d’idées, et même peu sur l’argumentaire fort (…) on ne fait pas de grands développements, de grands argumentaires, de grands discours, et pas de communication à la presse, on est dans l’idée qu’il ne faut pas exister médiatiquement et donc, en revanche, on essaie de développer quelque chose qui est une compétence technique, (…) c’est central la compétitivité comparée de l’économie française… on va aller à la solution, elle est là, c’est propre, c’est bien et, du coup, ça va progressivement créer une réputation d’organisation qui est assez agréable pour les pouvoirs public » (un ancien permanent de l’Afep in Offerlé 2013).
« On agit avec des argumentaires chiffrés et par la culture des “tricolonnes” : texte du gouvernement / nos commentaires / nos amendements » (Entretien Michel Offerlé avec un ancien président de l’Afep en 2010.)
La période plus médiatique de Maurice Lévy, président de 2010 à 2012, publicitaire, a été dépassée. Et sans être la grande muette qu’elle avait été auparavant, l’Afep est redevenue discrète et plus abstinente ; sacrifiant cependant à l’air du temps, par quelques interventions publiques, tels les Top AFEP et Top Jeunes qui se déroulent annuellement au Conseil économique, sociale et environnemental.
On ne quémande pas
Le cœur du métier de l’Afep, c’est l’influence, non la pression « vulgaire », mais la capacité à se rendre souvent indispensable eu égard à sa réputation – incontournable ? – de maîtrise des dossiers bons pour l’entreprise et bons pour la France. Contrairement à beaucoup de groupes d’intérêts, l’Afep ne quémande pas, mais elle est consultée et on la sollicite.
Elle distille, instille, fournit du prêt-à-penser ou plutôt du prêt-à-légiférer ou, mieux, du prêt-à-réglementer (car la réglementation de niche peut être particulièrement importante). Des réunions périodiques entre secrétaires généraux des grandes entreprises, des déjeuners de travail ou des dîners avec des politiques, et une présence requise des grands patrons en personne aux réunions du CA de l’Afep : on convoque, on auditionne ou on informe et l’on instruit ses interlocuteurs sélectionnés.
C’est ainsi que l’Afep promeut le plus souvent l’autorégulation, comme, par exemple, en matière de gouvernement des entreprises. Elle est, avec le Medef, le dépositaire du code de gouvernement d’entreprise des sociétés cotées, qui n’est pas simplement un outil de gestion.
La crise du Covid a été toutefois l’occasion pour l’Afep et ses membres de plaider plus ouvertement, pour un allégement des normes environnementales. La période récente, post-macronisme de 2017 triomphant dans le pro-business, et post-dissolution, a perturbé le savant équilibre antérieur. Elle sort de son habituelle réserve et publie un communiqué après la dissolution, le 17 juin 2024.
BFM, 2026.
Et l’Afep s’est davantage montrée ces derniers mois. Elle intervient dans le débat fiscal par une conférence de presse pour présenter « La contribution économique et sociale des grandes entreprises françaises à l’économie nationale en 2024 ». Début 2026, un proche de l’Afep revient sur la question fiscale, « On ne grandit pas un pays en attaquant ses champions » (AFP, 19 janvier 2026) et sa présidente lance un appel au sursaut, « contre les renoncements et la fuite en avant budgétaire – davantage de dépenses et davantage de taxes – qui mènent inexorablement au décrochage ».
Il y a désormais une incitation forte à la prise de parole individuelle et collective grand-patronale.
Mesurer l’influence ?
Une approche sociologique des organisations patronales doit toutefois éviter de lui prêter trop d’influence (non, les patrons ne gagnent pas à tous les coups tout le temps ; non, l’Afep ne « fait pas la politique du gouvernement »…) ou de lui en concéder insuffisamment (oui, l’Afep n’est pas un groupe d’intérêts comme les autres), pour la bonne et simple raison que les intérêts qu’elle exprime et pour lesquels elle agit ne sont pas des intérêts comme les autres, puisque les gouvernants se doivent d’être particulièrement attentifs à « l’économie » et aux principaux indicateurs de prospérité économique. Et qu’elle entend en être la propriétaire. Au point qu’on lui prête des victoires (elle s’en attribue aussi parfois la maternité) qui peuvent être plus collectives qu’il n’y paraît.
Mais l’Afep est bien, à côté d’autres lieux dont Le Siècle, un espace de coordination des élites françaises du capitalisme. La question de savoir si l’Afep va recevoir Jordan Bardella « to eat or not to eat »), qui agite actuellement toutes les rédactions, apparaît bien anecdotique (sauf pour Bardella qui veut ce trophée pour « arrimer une partie des élites au bloc populaire »).
Le réseau Entreprise et Cité, autre lieu élitaire discret vient de sauter le pas avec Marine Le Pen, en l’invitant chez Drouant. Le bureau du conseil exécutif du Medef suit. L’Afep recevra le ou la présidentiable du Rassemblement national, en juillet, après la décision en appel du procès des assistants parlementaires du RN. Pour quoi faire ? Connaître enfin le programme du RN ? Lui enseigner l’économie ? L’instrumentaliser ? En tous les cas, elle le fera de manière plus discrète, comme à son habitude.
Michel Offerlé ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.
