Jean-Pascal van Ypersele is a climatologist at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL). Accustomed to climate negotiations, he represented the Federal Public Scientific Policy Service in the Belgian delegation in Nairobi.
The first round of the local elections took place against a backdrop of widespread creeping fascism in France and comes after a brutal offensive by the far right, during which the traditional ‘Republican’ right has decisively broken from much of its historical framework and values.