Our benchmarks for 2026
JANUARY 1, 2026 – Bulgaria joins the Eurozone
A year after joining the Shengen area, this country of 6.5 million inhabitants adopts the single currency.
JANUARY 31, 2026 – Commercial closure of ADSL in France
The copper network, which provided access to telephone, Internet and television for more than twenty years, is gradually being abandoned in favor of more efficient optical fiber.
FEBRUARY 21, 2026 – Opening of the Agricultural Show
Just before the municipal elections, an edition under high tension between health concerns and tensions around Mercosur.
FROM FEBRUARY 6 TO 22, 2026 – Winter Olympic Games
Bobsleigh, alpine skiing, figure skating… The Winter Olympic Games are held in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, in Italy. The next edition will take place in the French Alps in 2030.
MARCH 15 AND 22, 2026 – First and second rounds of municipal elections
One year before the presidential election, the local vote will be closely scrutinized nationally: breakthrough for the National Rally? Possible alternation at Paris town hall? Reappointment of environmentalists at the head of large cities?
MARCH 16, 2026 – Nicolas Sarkozy returns to the Paris court
The former head of state is being tried on appeal in the Libyan financing affair which earned him, at first instance, five years in prison for criminal conspiracy, and twenty days of pre-trial detention.
We believe in it: good supervision of end-of-life law
While the deputies had adopted a text in 2024 providing for the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide, it got bogged down in the political turmoil following the dissolution of the National Assembly.
However, things should accelerate, the government having included the bill providing for these measures on the Senate agenda for January 2026. The debates are likely to be hectic, with the majority senatorial right not hiding its disapproval, especially since the deputies have provided for a rather extensive right to “assisted dying”.
Touching the deepest convictions, the subject nevertheless needs consensus and must not become the object of a political confrontation which would shock sick people, their families and caregivers.
Xavier Le Normand
JULY 1, 2026 – Implementation of birth leave
In addition to maternity and paternity leave, each parent will be able to take up to two additional months after the arrival of a child, or four months per couple. Welcome support for family life, which will take effect retroactively from January 1.
AUGUST 11, 2026 – Ban on cold calling
End of calls to change internet boxes or propose renovation work: no commercial canvassing will now be authorized by telephone, landline or mobile, without explicit consent. A measure aimed at protecting the tranquility of everyday life.
We believe it: the emergence of Leo XIV
Elected last May, Leo
By closing the Holy Year on January 6, the Pope should truly launch his pontificate with the major orientations that he will want to highlight. And he intends to get to work immediately: he has summoned the entire College of Cardinals to Rome on January 7 and 8 for an extraordinary consistory.
“These moments will aim to promote common discernment and to offer support and advice to the Holy Father in the exercise of his high and heavy responsibility at the head of the universal Church,” the Vatican said. We can sense here the desire to move away from the “verticality” of power as exercised by Francis.
Xavier Le Normand
SEPTEMBER 1, 2026 – Smartphone ban in high school
This measure promised by Emmanuel Macron must come into force at the start of the school year. Already supposed to be applied to middle school, it aims to fight against addiction to social networks and school bullying.
SEPTEMBER 2026 – Retirement three months earlier for 3.5 million French people
The suspension of the reform, conceded by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, allows departures from 62 years and 9 months, pending a new debate on pensions.
OCTOBER 2026 – Legislative elections in Israel
In a context of war and deep political crisis, this election could return Benjamin Netanyahu to his post as much as it could open a new chapter: in both cases, it will say a lot about the state of Israeli society.
We believe it: for peace in Ukraine and Gaza
As shells rain from the Ukrainian skies, leaving behind gutted cities, displaced families and constant terror, hope persists. As in Gaza and Israel, after three long years of murderous reprisals and almost permanent chaos, the prospect of dialogue resurfaced in October.
A ceasefire agreement, under the aegis of the United States, reopened the way to diplomatic negotiations. American voluntarism, certainly brutal and imperfect, made it possible, at the end of the year, to bring Ukraine and Russia together around the same table.
Although we must remain attentive to the negotiations and the conditions for lasting peace, in Europe as in the Middle East, these initiatives represent a boon for the people and remind us that peace remains a promise in which we must continue to believe.
Hugo Lallier
