The modern French and American polities may have evolved quite differently, notably where the role of the state is concerned, but both emerged as highly codified, anti-clerical, secular republics.

ECONOMIST: French anti-Americanism

Shockingly, this statement got a lot of people quite angry (most notably women and those in the health and environmental sectors).

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Instead, he explained that actually European governments spend quite large sums on defence, they just spend it on the wrong things, notably on bloated payrolls, so that the bulk of their uniformed personnel are dentists, cooks, lorry drivers or paunchy clerks in camouflage, rather than combat troops.

ECONOMIST: European politics