Speaking from Allianz Tower in Milan, Oliver Bäte reflects on what it means for Allianz to be a worldwide Olympic partner in today’s political context. In conversation with Monocle’s chairman, Tyler Brûlé, the Allianz CEO shares his thoughts ranging from sport’s ability to unite and motivate to how he views society’s approach to work. The discussion offers a frank view on leadership, responsibility and the pressures facing governments and businesses alike.

Listen to the full conversation on The Chiefs from Monocle Radio. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

What does it mean for Allianz to support the Olympics at this moment?
The Olympic Movement represents so much. When there is such chaos in the world, finding two weeks to focus on something different is important. That’s the power of sport – people from all over the world vie to do the impossible and beat the best. It’s an enormous [source of motivation] for everyone watching, with more than a billion people expected to tune in. Finally, it is great encouragement for our customer base and employees. People are ecstatic about participating in the torch relays and volunteering at the Games. It’s a positive incentive for a world that needs it.

Is there a sense of rallying at Allianz because [employees] think, ‘I see my company’s name with the Olympic rings’?
There are only 11 companies that are allowed to carry the rings. Being in the inner circle, we see what we can add and how we can bolster European ingenuity. After all, we’re not just providing insurance. For example, we’re helping the bobsledding association to create safer bobsleds for athletes. It’s about being part of something exceptional, pushing the boundaries and innovating.

Looking ahead to the Munich Security Conference [this month], let’s talk about Brand Munich. Where are we? Does Brand Germany understand its power?
We have a very successful ecosystem in Munich with an amazing airport and great, technical universities. When people think about Germany and what’s good about the country, they often think of Bavaria. It remains a real innovation centre and functions extremely well. Brand Munich is very strong. Take the Security Conference: if you ask people what destination is having serious conversations about where the world is going, few say Davos – and more answer Munich. We have amazing assets but we need to use them.

Everyone says that Germany is coming back. What’s your take? 
We have been very fortunate at Allianz. The forecasts from the market are very good and we have something that gives me hope every day, which is the trust that customers have in the company. It has never been higher in our 136 years. In terms of Germany, there are good companies [that are] doing really well – just look at Siemens. It is overshadowed by the problems that we have in sectors that have not invested properly in the future or were mismanaged by European regulation. We still have debates on working less rather than more, even though we know that we cannot afford the [current] health care and the social systems. Europe has [about] 5 per cent of the global population but [approximately] 50 per cent of the social spending. It’s unaffordable. The problem is that politicians do not want to address this because they say that they will get booted out of office. People do not want to be told to work more – but someone has to do it.

How much of a role can the private sector have on influencing the state of Bavaria as much as Berlin? 
The problem is in the public. The vast majority of our publicised opinions [come from] special-interest people that dominate the debate. Rage [drives] the clicks and therefore a lot of my peers are very careful to go into the public. I don’t think it’s a sustainable model. We just need to call a spade a spade and say, ‘Guys, this is what we need.’

We’re talking about human capital – you still have to deliver customer service. 
Today, if you wanted to make a call to a person, you need to have a lot of contextual know-how to respond to a question [that a machine couldn’t provide]. In the next few years, we’ll have [machine] agents who not only talk agent to agent but can talk to humans in a highly professional way and make fewer errors than a human would. We are trying to free up the time of qualified humans with the help of machines that actually can answer the question that we never get to answering. 

Let’s take a look at the host of the Games. What is Allianz’s relationship to Italy?
After Germany, Italy is our second most important market. We have the strongest brand here, even stronger than the local ones. We see it trying to help the country. We also see the challenges. If you think more about distributing wealth than creating it, you end up in a problem eventually. Reputation and success were solidified in those beautiful years when everyone wanted to drive an Audi in Lombardy – there was a trust in Germany at that point.

Finally, what’s your favourite sport to watch during the Winter Games?
Bobsledding. I just did it last year. I now know what it means to go down something at 130km/h with three plus Gs on your neck. It’s quite stunning what these people have to do well.

As we enter the second half of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, the event’s ability to inspire a deep passion for lesser-known sports has reached fever pitch. Who among us could have anticipated screaming at ice being polished or knowledgably referring to triple axels with unearned confidence? Well, all of us. Because that is the uniting guarantee of the event: it turns us into rabid fans whose enthusiasm will dissipate as quickly as it appeared.

But if the thought of next weekend’s closing ceremony fills you with ennui, fear not. There’s a remedy to keep that Olympic torch flickering in your heart just a bit longer. Monocle has compiled a list of winter-sports films to keep your appetite for skiing, bobsleighing and hockey sated long after the ice has melted and the skates have been hung up.

1.
‘Cool Runnings’ (1993) directed by Jon Turteltaub
This quintessential winter-sports comedy is the ultimate underdog tale. Cool Runnings is loosely based on the true story of the first Jamaican bobsleigh team, which competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics and uproariously stars Leon Robinson, Doug E Doug and John Candy.

2.
‘I, Tonya’ (2017) directed by Craig Gillespie
‘The Price of Gold’ (2014) directed by Nanette Burstein
The essential figure-skating double bill. Both tell the story of Tonya Harding, the first American woman to land a triple axel in the short programme, whose Olympic dreams were dashed by her dubious involvement in an assault on her rival, Nancy Kerrigan. The films assess how the challenges of Harding’s upbringing and the prejudices of the figure-skating world contributed to her choices. In The Price of Gold, we hear from Harding herself and, in I, Tonya, we’re treated to Margot Robbie’s portrayal of the surprisingly sympathetic anti-hero. Both are compelling and entertaining in equal measure.

3.
‘Miracle’ (2004) directed by Gavin O’Connor
Miracle is based on the 1980 Winter Olympics ice-hockey game dubbed the “miracle on ice”, in which the US men’s team beat the Soviet Union’s – the favoured group and Cold War rival. The film’s real surprise is in its depiction of the Russian players not as villains but simply as the other team.

4.
‘Force Majeure’ (2014) directed by Ruben Östlund
Force Majeure is a black comedy that artfully orchestrates a Swedish family’s emotional implosion over a skiing holiday, after the patriarch makes a questionable decision during a freak accident on the slopes. While the dramatic build-up is delicious, the real pleasure lies in getting an inside look at Les Arcs, the luxury French ski resort where the family stays.

5.
‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977) directed by Lewis Gilbert
We’re stretching the winter-sports theme as far as it will go. In addition to being widely regarded as one of the best in the Bond franchise, The Spy Who Loved Me opens with a rip-roaring chase down the Austrian Alps, which concludes in a pleasingly patriotic ski jump off a cliff – two ski events for the price of one.

There’s something refreshing about a country admitting that it has overdone it. Of course, Saudi Arabia has not phrased it in so many words but the scaling back of its Giga-Projects – most conspicuously The Line, part of Neom – amounts to an acknowledgment that Vision 2030 had promised more than any nation could actually deliver.

For the better part of a decade, the kingdom has been selling the future in kilometre-long instalments: mirrored cities, ski resorts in the mountains, a building the size of a downtown area and, at the centre of it all, a 170km linear metropolis that sought to slice through sand and scepticism alike. The Line was supposed to rise 500 metres into the sky and stretch from coast to desert by 2030. The renderings were pristine and the rhetoric was epic – civilisation, we were told, would be reinvented.

But satellite images show little visible change since mid-2025: a vast scraped corridor in the desert but not quite the stainless-steel canyon once promised. The government has now confirmed that, rather than 170km of parallel skyscrapers, the focus is now on a far shorter coastal segment known as Hidden Marina.

The tone has shifted too. The language is no longer about rewriting urbanism but about “phasing” and “prioritisation”. Reworking The Line could end up as something considerably less cinematic. Rumours suggest a data hub – server racks instead of sky gardens and fibreoptic cables rather than flying taxis. There’s a certain poetry in that downgrade.

This might not be the death of Vision 2030 but it is undeniably the end of its most operatic chapter. Other Giga-Projects have also been slowed, resequenced or discreetly paused. Riyadh’s vast Mukaab cube has been shelved. Mountain developments to the north face similar scrutiny. The Public Investment Fund is preparing a refreshed strategy that places emphasis on sectors with clearer and quicker returns, such as advanced manufacturing, mining, AI and logistics.

And then there’s the small matter of the 2034 Fifa World Cup. Saudi Arabia is orienting its infrastructure priorities around hosting football’s grandest tournament. One of the proposed stadiums is still slated to sit atop The Line’s structure – a vertiginous arena suspended above a city that, as of today, barely has foundations. Even when scaled back, the country’s ambitions seemingly retain a taste for altitude.

Vision 2030 has achieved things. Social reforms have been rapid and tangible. Tourism is no longer theoretical. Women’s participation in the workforce has significantly increased. The non-oil economy has expanded faster than many predicted. In important respects, the kingdom has changed at a remarkable speed.

But the Giga-Projects became both billboard and burden. They were designed to shock the system into believing that transformation was inevitable. Instead, they risked turning Vision 2030 into a spectacle: a parade of holographic master plans competing for attention and capital in an increasingly expensive world. What we are witnessing is not collapse but correction. Oil revenues are no longer a limitless accelerant and construction costs have surged globally. Foreign investors, once dazzled by scale, are asking harder questions about returns and governance. This week the kingdom’s investment minister, Khalid al-Falih, was replaced by veteran banker Fahad al-Saif as part of the largest government overhaul since 2022. The timing is notable and the message subtle but clear: if the era of spectacle is ending, that of persuasion is beginning. Selling sovereign bonds is one thing; persuading foreign investors to commit patiently to a recalibrated Saudi future might prove rather more delicate.

Saudi Arabia has entered a more sober phase. Ambition is being trimmed to fit what is realistically deliverable. Grand visions can galvanise a nation while attracting talent, tourism and headlines. But it takes institutions, regulation, private-sector confidence and time to grow cities. Steel and glass are the easy part; ecosystems are not. The desert is still dotted with cranes but fewer miracles are being promised and, in the long run, this might prove to be the kingdom’s most grown-up pivot yet.

Inzamam Rashid is Monocle’s Gulf correspondent. Want to read more on Saudi Arabia?

– Beyond the Giga-Projects, a new generation of Saudi Arabian architects is getting introspective

– Saudi Arabia’s latest alcohol policy shift lowers the bar for raising a glass

– Missing in action: A rift emerges as the UAE skips Riyadh’s World Defense Show

In his opening address to the Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Friday morning, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, described the event as a “seismograph for relations between the United States and Europe”. Since its inception, this talking shop, attended by the world’s highest-ranking political, military and business leaders, has usually been a weekend of hearty feasts and even heartier agreement. Indeed, if anything was likely to show up on Merz’s seismograph it would probably be as a result of an overenthusiastic post-schnapps backslap. But last year, US vice president JD Vance sent tremors through the main hall of the five-star Hotel Bayerischer Hof – the aftershocks of which are still being felt. Vance, whose position essentially made him the guest of honour, stood up at the lectern on the opening morning with the intention of taking down his hosts. He called out Europe’s leaders for being undemocratic, degenerate and complicit in their own cultural demise, in a speech that set the tone for a dizzying 12 months of transatlantic rupture. This year’s event, following a few weeks after the Greenland crisis pushed the alliance to the brink, felt like a very public way of processing some of the continent’s grief.

On the eve of the conference, the event’s organisers published their annual report assessing the state of international relations. Its title was “Under Destruction” and it made no bones about where it believed the main source of our present instability comes from. “The world has entered a period of wrecking-ball politics,” reads the report’s first line. “At the forefront of those who promise to free their countries from the existing order’s constraints and rebuild stronger, more prosperous nations is the current US administration.” Such directness, it was thought, would set the tone for an MSC during which Europe’s leaders would begin the rhetorical fightback against Washington. 

Merz’s speech, brought forward on request from the traditional Saturday slot reserved for the incumbent German leader, began with an unsparing assessment of the present world order. “If there had been a unipolar moment after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a unipolar moment in history, it has long passed,” said Merz, who always seems to be looking over the top of his glasses like a long-suffering accountant going through your receipts. “The United States’ claim to leadership has been challenged and possibly lost.” He went on to explain – to anyone without a firm grasp of German history – why his country cannot “go it alone” and would always seek to move as one with its allies. All of this felt like the build-up to, at the very least, a forthright repudiation of recent American behaviour. But instead, mindful perhaps of the decorum expected of him as host, Merz reverted to MSC-standard, insisting on the primacy of the western alliance. 

After an underwhelming first round, the Europeans that I spoke to still seemed up for a fight, or at least a bit of light cussing. At an event featuring the preposterously folksy South Carolina Republican, Lindsey Graham, the US senator exclaimed: “Who gives a shit who owns Greenland?” Someone behind me scoffed, “I think Denmark does”. If Merz wouldn’t give the people back some fighting pride, then it was up to zany Uncle Manu to speak for a continent. The French president, whose sideburns seem to grow longer as his own influence wanes, was his usual boisterous self. He touted Europe’s response to Trump’s threats to annex Greenland as “politely declining unjustified claims on European territory”, without quite managing to shake the half-smirk he always appears to have on his face. In the end, Macron’s speech passed fairly uneventfully.  

As the attendees retired to their evening’s bratwurst, there was a feeling of bathos that only the pulling of punches can bring. Still, perhaps the upside of this would be a repentant US secretary of state Marco Rubio mending ties in the weekend’s showpiece speech. America’s chief diplomat has sometimes appeared sullen and shrunken since taking up the role. But on Saturday morning he delivered the most articulate expression of the current US administration’s thinking that has been made yet. He declared an intention to renew the western alliance, an endeavour in which he said it was hoped Europe would be closely involved. Rubio called his country a “child” of the continent while praising it as the birthplace of Western civilisation. “Ultimately our destiny is and always will be intertwined with yours,” Rubio said. Then, like all middle-aged Americans of European stock, he revealed himself as an amateur genealogist, invoking 18th-century forebears from Sardinia and Spain. The speech, which also mentioned Mozart, Shakespeare and The Beatles, was intended to flatter Europe’s cultural sensitivities – but since it also derided the continent for being weak, in hock to a “climate cult” and ashamed of its own heritage, it had the same scolding flavour as Vance’s, and was perhaps more unsettling for being delivered soothingly. It also failed to mention Ukraine, an omission compounded by Rubio’s skipping a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky the night before. 

So as the MSC circus packs up its lanyards and Heckler & Koch UMPs, where does this leave the transatlantic alliance? Although Mark Rutte, Ursula von der Leyen and UK prime minister Keir Starmer were quick to characterise Rubio’s speech as a much-needed olive branch, outside of the keynotes and fireside chats, there was a more unguarded sense of how bad US-Europe relations have become. The firmest rebuke to US rhetoric came from the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, who joked on Sunday morning that, “contrary to what some say, woke decadent Europe is not facing civilisational erasure.” For those still keening for a return to the status quo ante, hope was offered by the large Democratic Party contingent in attendance, including California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both of whom insisted that current US foreign policy was an aberration rather than the new normal. An alternative vision was offered by Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, who, with a smile slightly more restrained than Macron’s, said, “multilateralism should always be promoted and strengthened. It must not happen that some countries dominate others.” You don’t need a seismograph to work out who he was referring to.

Lisa Murkowski is the senior US senator representing Alaska, a seat she has held for the Republicans since 2002 – despite repeated efforts by her own party to oust her Murkowski did not endorse – or by her own account vote for – US president Donald Trump in any of his three election campaigns, and she was one of seven Republican senators who voted to remove Trump from office at his second impeachment trial in 2021.

Senator Murkowski spoke to The Foreign Desk at the Munich Security Conference; she had just visited Greenland in the wake of Trump’s threats to seize the territory from the Kingdom of Denmark, by force if necessary.

How much damage has Trump’s Greenland fixation done to the transatlantic alliance?
Relationships matter. How we treat our friends matters. The trust that has built up over decades and generations matters. And so when words like ‘occupy’ or ‘take over’ or ‘buy’ or ‘acquire’ are used that disrespect a sovereign territory, and disrespect the autonomy of the people of Greenland, that’s a problem. But it’s something that can be reconciled through honest dialogue and openness about what is being sought. If we’re talking about shared security interests in the Arctic space, let’s think about it.

Was the welcome in Greenland to a Republican senator at all equivocal?
I didn’t feel that at all. There was an appreciation for the fact that there was a bipartisan delegation from the US that was there to share a message: we want to engage in a co-operative dialogue. 

You’ve spoken to spoken to Monocle before about the US not taking the security of its own patch of the Arctic seriously enough, ie the state you represent. While Trump was talking about taking Greenland, were you sitting in Juneau wondering: how did we get here?
We need to recognise that the Arctic has been under-appreciated, not just by the US but around Nato. Investment in the Arctic has been limited at best. There’s a great deal of focus right now on Greenland and what we need to do for security on that eastern side of the continent. But I maintain that just as important is ensuring that on the western side, where Alaska sits right smack next to Russia. We need investment in everything from communications to defence. We’ve got work to do in the Arctic. So when you [Trump] suggest that the way to address that is to occupy Greenland, that creates division and dissension, rather than a focus on: what are we going to do jointly, co-operatively, to protect this vast area of the globe that is pretty wide open.

And are you hoping that secretary of state Marco Rubio spent some of his flight to Munich rereading ‘How To Win Friends And Influence People’, as vice president JD Vance clearly didn’t last year?
I’ve known Secretary Rubio for a long time, and he is a man with quick wit and a lot of charm. So I’m hoping that this is going to be a great conversation.

As we’re already halfway through Q1, it’s perhaps a good moment to take stock, pull out the diary and do a bit of forward planning and general housekeeping. While the Monocle crew can spontaneously show up anywhere and host a little party, there are three essential dates to keep in mind for the coming months.

On 28 March our Zürich outpost will host its annual Hanami Market to celebrate the arrival of spring. If you’ve not paid a visit, it’s an all-day celebration of the best of Japan with excellent bites, specialist retailers, emerging brands, good tunes and, of course, exceptional drinks. If you’re looking for a little weekend escape, our team will be happy to offer up some hotel and restaurant recommendations but, better yet, you can get all our updated City Guides (Tokyo, Kyoto and many more) by signing up for a subscription. Subscribers will also be able to reserve a spot at our special Ginza-style lounge evenings at Dufourstrasse on 27 and 28 March.

Off the back of Salone del Mobile in Milan there will be a special edition of The Entrepreneurs broadcast live from the heart of Shanghai. Kicking off at a civilised hour on 29 April (I’m sure you’ll find a few of us up for a drink the night before), we are bringing some of China and the region’s sharpest business owners to the stage to introduce their projects, ambitions and insights. Hosted by some of your favourite voices from Monocle Radio, the conference will be a pacy mix of one-on-one interviews and punchy panels with plenty of time for audience participation and, as ever, prizes for the best questions. The day will wrap with a cocktail reception, elegant dinner, night on the town and, if you’re game, it will be a straight-to-plane (STP) affair with a few editors as we head to Bahrain for the 2026 edition of The Chiefs.

On 6 and 7 May our annual conference devoted to leadership and building better brands will be doing a twirl for our first-ever conference in the Gulf. If you’ve not been to Bahrain, it’s high time to make an appearance. I’ve been three times over the past year and have been seduced by the narrow lanes, shopfront typography, 1970s logos and the very good coffee shops in Manama Souq. We get under way with a cocktail on the 6th and pack in a full day on the 7th with speakers from around the world focusing on retail, security, hospitality, media and much more besides. For more information you can go here or drop Hannah Grundy a note at hg@monocle.com if you want to discuss corporate or group rates.

I’ll be on hand for all of these events and, if you just happen to be in St Moritz today and have caught this email before 10.00 CET, please swing by the Monocle Shop at Hotel Steffani for a special art-focused edition of Monocle on Sunday. Of course, if you’re not up here in the lovely Engadine Valley then please tune in and hopefully I’ll see you in Zürich, Shanghai or Bahrain over the coming months. 

Enjoying life in ‘The Faster Lane’? Click here to browse all of Tyler’s past columns.

Paris’s 2020 municipal elections were a muted affair. Voters headed to the polls for the first round on 15 March and, two days later, the coronavirus pandemic sent France into lockdown. When the next round was finally held in June, there were no surprises: the incumbent mayor, Anne Hidalgo, won her second term. It’s often said that in moments of crisis, people stick to the status quo. But this year that’s not an option.

In November 2024, after two consecutive terms in office, Hidalgo announced that she would not seek a third term in 2026. She will leave a mixed legacy. Her environmental initiatives have garnered international acclaim: an additional 500km of cycle lanes have contributed to a 44 per cent reduction in traffic-related air pollution in parts of the city, while the Seine has returned to just-about-swimmable conditions for the first time in a century. Domestically, however, the picture is different. Parisians resent her top-down approach to governance and the rest of the country sees her as out of touch. Her presidential bid in 2022 won her just 1.75 per cent of the vote – the worst result in the Parti Socialiste’s (PS) history.

With her preferred successor knocked out of the running in the PS primaries last summer, Paris is set to move away from the Hidalgo era. But France’s wider democratic crisis might lead to a larger disruption of the status quo. While the left has held the city for a quarter of a century, this year’s vote is less predicated on issues than personalities, underpinned by complex alliances and machinations, and inflected by the now-ubiquitous scourge of social media. 

Paris remains a liberal holdout in the face of the far-right’s rise across France – recent polling by Verian for Le Monde indicated a near-even split across the country between those who support Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National and those who reject it. But with next year’s presidential elections looming, the result in Paris this March is likely to resonate far beyond Hôtel de Ville. So let’s meet the candidates standing this year’s elections.

The capital’s likely pick: Parti Socialiste nominee Emmanuel Grégoire 

Anne Hidalgo might have backed political unknown Rémi Féraud as her successor but it was her former deputy, Emmanuel Grégoire, who won the PS nomination. He has become the frontman for a historic coalition with Les Écologistes (France’s Green Party) as well as the French Communist Party (PCF), with both groups supporting his bid for mayor. 

To the left of him, Sophia Chikirou is standing for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (LFI). The LFI has joined forces with PS before, notably in 2024 when the New Popular Front alliance united to counter the far-right in that year’s legislative elections. Grégoire, however, sees a path to Hôtel de Ville without them.

Despite his record of 10 years working alongside Hidalgo – or perhaps because of it – the outgoing mayor is not a fan of the PS hopeful, blaming him for a lack of support following her abysmal presidential bid in 2022. 

The populist pick: Rachida Dati

If anyone is sucking the oxygen out of the room in this election, it’s Rachida Dati. A longtime player in French politics, who earned her stripes under Nicholas Sarkozy, Dati is famed for her aggressive approach (though she says that her threat to turn former prime minister Gabriel Attal’s dog into a kebab was “just a joke”).

This is her second run for the mayoralty and this time she is taking a leaf out of the populist playbook. Inspired by the UK’s Nigel Farage, Dati’s campaign leans heavily on Tiktok; videos of her joining the bin men of Paris on their morning round have attracted nearly three million views. 

In protest against Dati remaining in her post as culture minister, actress Dominique Blanc recently handed back her Légion d’honeur, the highest distinction that the French state can give its citizens. Dati is also facing corruption charges, with a trial set for September. If she loses, she could be disqualified from public office. 

Dati has been a longtime agitator for reform of the Paris municipal elections. This year’s vote will see the end of the previous electoral college system and the implementation of a direct election approach. Despite the controversy, polls put her at 28 per cent, so this might work in her favour.

Macron and the centre-right’s pick: Pierre-Yves Bournazel

Despite Dati’s position in Macron’s cabinet, the president’s faction, Renaissance, is throwing its support behind someone else: Pierre-Yves Bournazel. It’s here, perhaps, that the macro-crisis engulfing French politics is most clearly on display.

In fine French tradition, Bournazel has written a book ahead of the election. Published last month, La Bataille pour Paris (The Battle for Paris) capitalises on Bournazel’s relationship with Dati, who he worked under when she was Sarkozy’s minister of justice, painting her as “a person in a state of narcissistic intoxication”. In attacking what he perceives to be Dati’s “pro-car policy”, he highlights what is likely to be a significant issue come election day: many celebrate the effect of Hidalgo’s environmental initiatives but the debate around motor traffic has become fraught. Responsibility for Greater Paris’s roads is – quelle surprise – mired in bureaucracy, with a growing number of drivers feeling alienated by a wholesale cars-are-bad approach. Bournazel claims to have a plan but with his polls at about 14 per cent, he will unlikely to be able to implement it. The real question, then, is who he will support in the runoff if he loses in the first round. With his obvious distaste for Dati, he might yet cross the line to come down in Grégoire’s corner.

The far-right pick: Sarah Knafo

When Sarah Knafo, political and romantic partner to conservative pundit turned extreme-right presidential candidate, Éric Zemmour, joined the hosts on TF1’s popular evening news programme to discuss her mayoral bid, a reported one million people switched off. 

Knafo, vice-president of Zemmour’s nationalist party Reconquête, is a media-savvy millennial with a very dim view on immigration. She will, unsurprisingly, be running on a platform centred around security. A regular at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the US, her public profile and name recognition may put her in a better position than her far-right competitor, Thierry Mariani.

Mariani, the Rassemblement National’s (RN) candidate, has distanced himself from his party’s position on the war in Ukraine, which it views as an illegal war of aggression by Russia, to make regular appearances on Russian military television. 

With neither candidate polling in double-digits, they’re unlikely to play much of a role; still, the far-right’s popularity is on the rise and the platform offered by this campaign might serve in other ways. The next presidential election is around the corner and incremental gains at a local level could add up to a seismic change when France heads to the polls.

It seems as though Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights has been reimagined as many times as it has been misunderstood. The official trailer for Emerald Fennell’s adaptation claimed that the film was “inspired by the greatest love story of all time”. Released just in time for Valentine’s Day, it promises an extravagant, erotically charged take on the classic.

The novel’s reputation as a tempestuous romance sits uneasily alongside a book that is, at heart, a Gothic tale of desire, class, race and intergenerational trauma. Fennell’s highly anticipated film has already drawn controversy from critics and audiences, not just for its focus on romance but particularly for casting a white actor, Jacob Elordi, to play a character described in the original text as a “dark-skinned gypsy in aspect”.

Any adaptation will inevitably reveal much about the moment in which it is made, and while we are seeing a return to more conservative values in global politics, Fennell’s hedonistic version of this 19th-century work is a somewhat controversial rebellion against those values.

To unpack the Saltburn director’s take on Wuthering Heights, as well as the role of decadence in the novel and why it is so misunderstood, Georgina Godwin was joined on Monocle on Saturday by Dr Jessica Gossling and Dr Alice Condé of the Decadence Research Centre at Goldsmiths, University of London.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What is decadence?
Alice Condé (AC): The way we conceptualise it at Goldsmiths is as a literary, artistic tradition that emerged out of the 19th century; a rebellious countercurrent that’s running alongside a lot of progress and technology. It is a morose response to modernity. It emerges at times of social and political crisis as well, and responds to those. We’re living in a decadent age now. So we’re trying to unyoke it from the 19th century and consider ways in which our culture is decadent, along with artistic responses to that.

How true is the film to the book? And does it matter?
Jessica Gossling (JG): Adaptations are really interesting because of what they tell us about their cultural moment, and so what Fennell has decided to leave out or keep in is quite fascinating. If you’re going to watch this film because you love the novel, you’ll be disappointed. But if you want to watch it because you love the vibes and the essence of what we think of as Victorian – this kind of oversexed, bodice-ripping lusciousness – then I think it’s a great film.

AC: I agree. It’s not a faithful adaptation, and I don’t think Fennell has claimed it is such. But she says that she was trying to adapt the novel to correspond with her first reading of it at age 14. It’s a complex, nuanced novel, which actually at its heart is not a romance. It’s incredibly harrowing to read. Every page you turn, something more horrible happens to the characters. But what Fennell has done is take forward the enduring romantic appeal of Heathcliff and Cathy’s doomed relationship, and that is something that many younger people might respond to on first reading.

Do you think the novel is capable of doing psychological damage to little girls or teenagers who found Heathcliff incredibly sexy and the story just compelling?
AC: That trope has persisted. Personally, that wasn’t what I took from it at all. What endured with me was the ghost scene at the very beginning of the novel, where what we see is Heathcliff’s outpouring of emotion. For a century very much known for its [particular] kind of emotional restraint, it’s incredibly groundbreaking and quite sensitively done on Brontë’s part. 

What about the controversial race-blind casting?
JG: It’s so different to the novel that the casting decision is the easiest thing to latch on to in terms of what’s problematic about this adaptation. But also, Fennell strips out the sibling rivalry, incest and animal abuse, so there are lots of other important topics that are also removed. The only thing that remains [of the novel] in the film are some Sparknotes quotes and everything else is very much about how we feel Wuthering Heights should be. For example, there are references to Kate Bush in there. Fennell’s Heathcliff is completely chastised; he’s not the wolfish creature that Brontë describes at all.

Gothic novels often feature gloomy manor settings, eerie, sometimes supernatural elements and characters haunted by a dark past. Was it sexy? Did we get a lot of Yorkshire scenery?
JG: The movie has predominantly been filmed on a set, so it is like an old Hollywood movie in that way. They could control the weather, the lighting, everything, so it doesn’t have that wild naturalness that I would associate with Gothic fiction. It’s very staged. It reminded us of Beetlejuice in a way, with these very strange, anachronistic houses against an almost plastic background.

I’ve been running through preceding periods of decadence in my mind. The roaring 1920s, Weimar Germany. We know what came out of these periods, and, if we’re in another period of decadence now, do you see history repeating itself? What triggers the arrival and departure of such periods?
AC: Yes, absolutely. Those examples that you mentioned are transitional moments on the threshold of decline. The 19th century decadent period is quite interesting because there were these fears of decline and cultural degeneration. That’s why there were such attacks on writers such as Oscar Wilde for his perceived degeneracy, his queerness, his effeminacy. When we tipped into the 20th century, we did end up in these moments of collapse but not quite in the way that the critics of decadence in the 19th century imagined.

To hear the full interview, tune in to ‘Monocle on Saturday’.

Gildo Zegna is weighing the parallels between sport and running a global fashion business. “Sport, for me, is about self-improvement and being competitive in a fair way,” he says. “It’s about preparing your mind and body to reach new records.” It’s a neat way of summing up what the executive director of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group is looking to do as he grows a family business – now in its fourth generation – that comprises his eponymous label, as well as the more recent additions of Thom Browne and Tom Ford. 

An avid tennis player and skier (his wife jokes that when they’re in the Alps, he insists on setting the alarm for 07.00), 70-year-old Gildo believes that the secret to making sure the group reaches new peaks is being attentive to clients, whose brand loyalty isn’t a given. That might explain why a group of what Zegna calls its top customers is assembled in Oasi Zegna – a sprawling mountain parkland where the company has planted hundreds of thousands of trees over decades. An hour-and-a-half’s drive from Milan, it’s also where Gildo’s grandfather started the business and where its original wool mill from 1910 still operates. Many of them can trace their relationship to Zegna, a menswear label renowned for its tailored look and high-end fabrics, back decades.

A lot is made in fashion circles of very important customers (VICs) – and for good reason. According to Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore, there are currently about 600,000 VICs globally who are prepared to spend €50,000 a year on luxury goods. And while they might only represent 1 per cent of the market today, they generate 21 per cent of its spending. Moreover, their numbers are rising by an average of 10 per cent year-on-year, making them vital to the future growth of the high-fashion sector. Zegna has its own name for its top-spenders (“Zegna Friends”) but points out that its VICs are not necessarily one and the same. 

Regardless, what is clear after spending several days with Zegna’s inner circle is that they’re more than simple numbers to the brand. Gildo is convinced that putting on a special event isn’t just about good food and unique experiences. It’s also a chance for guests to absorb what Zegna stands for. That is precisely why Gildo talks about the strength that comes from “playing at home” in a place such as Oasi Zegna. “We have an incredible world here,” he says. “We can do something that nobody else in fashion can do.” Indeed, as the group is guided around Casa Zegna and the mountain mill, it’s hard not to be seduced by the history. “In some ways you will be the guest of our founder,” says Simone Ubertino Rosso, Zegna’s patrimony and culture director, as he walks with the guests. 

The visit, timed just before the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics kick off, allows guests to see the milling machinery, learn about the raw materials and the work that goes into quality control, making it about as far from fast fashion as you can get. “We [let guests] experience the importance of ingredients, [which include] traceable material and the local [soft] water,” says Gildo. “It’s a very complicated process to create yarn, then fabric and then clothes. It’s essential for customers to understand that Zegna is costly but not expensive.” The visit clearly rubs off on one of the guests, Riccardo from Lugano in Switzerland, who tells Monocle that the tour has given him a new understanding of the work involved and, therefore, the price point. 

Still, the VICs’ visit to Oasi Zegna is about more than seeing the production process. With the Winter Olympics in the air, the group also has a chance to head up to the ski slopes after a heavy dumping of snow has left perfect pistes under blue skies. What’s more, they’re accompanied by two former Italian ski champions: downhill specialist Kristian Ghedina and ex-Olympic ski competitor Paolo de Chiesa – both of whom had regaled their audience with tales from their careers the night before. On the slopes, De Chiesa looks impeccable in a brown corduroy Zegna ski jacket; as does Ghedina, dressed in a black cashmere jacket. They’re not the only ones. Madrid-based Mexican customer, Armando, who traces his relationship with the brand back to 1985, is also sporting Zegna outerwear with a removable gilet underneath.

Gildo recently switched roles, becoming executive chairman after two decades as CEO. He remains across every facet of the business, from personally testing pieces to ensuring the quality of customer service. When it comes to the latter, he says that Zegna is evolving with the direction that fashion and retail are heading. “In the past, if you asked me what sort of business Zegna was, I would have said that we were in the textile business, then the fashion business and more recently the luxury business,” he says. “Now I would say that we’re in the business of luxury hospitality because the customer is on our mind.”

Every VIC that Monocle chats with mentions their relationship with their local Zegna shop. In Madrid, for instance, the staff have learned exactly what Armando likes and know to “set the pieces aside and arrange an appointment”. That close relationship explains why Armando had bespoke Zegna suits made when his son got married in Mexico City and why Riccardo goes shopping at the brand with his children. 

A trip that started in the mountains culminates at sea level, in the hospitality section of Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. As flashing wristbands worn by the thousands of people make the mass pulse and sparkle, one of the invited Germans remarks that being here is “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” – and it’s hard to disagree. With music echoing throughout the stadium, Gildo gets to the crux of how he feels. “We’re very proud that Zegna is part of our top customers’ lives,” he says. As for his guests? They look rather happy about it too.

Judging by the success of The Ned, Nomad, The Line and Freehand, Andrew Zobler appears to have mastered the art of transforming hotels into community anchors. The founder and CEO of New York-based Sydell Group has found a way to weave the worlds of art, design and food into compelling destinations for travellers and locals alike. Known for his attention to detail – from crafting rooms with residential qualities to creating buzzy playlists – Zobler has been the driving force behind a number of neighbourhood revivals, most notably in the area north of New York’s Madison Square Park.

But even with his string of accomplishments, the entrepreneur shows no signs of slowing down. In 2024, Hilton acquired a majority controlling interest in the Sydell Group, setting into motion an international expansion plan for Nomad. Sydell will continue to manage Nomad’s design, branding and management while Hilton oversees development. 

This “joint venture”, according to Zobler, has enabled him to deliver the Nomad spirit to various hubs around the world, all rooted in the belief that a hotel should feel like a great home. Despite ambitious plans for global growth (Hilton’s long-term goal is 100 Nomad properties), Zobler is confident that the brand will be able to preserve its character while integrating into the individual locales in fresh ways. 

Nomad will break into the Asia-Pacific region with a Singapore outpost in autumn 2026. Zobler sat down with Monocle in the sunny island nation to talk about his involvement in the brand and how a boutique hotel can scale up without losing its soul. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

How did the partnership with Hilton come about?
I met Chris Nassetta, the CEO of Hilton, many years ago. He was always interested in us and we were interested in him. He wanted to get into the luxury lifestyle space and he knew that we were good at it. But most importantly, he recognised that entering a joint venture and keeping the founder and creatives behind it was just as important as buying a brand. If you look at our competitors, the principals are not necessarily involved anymore and that differentiates us in a material way. They tend to duplicate a model rather than do the extra work in creating something that is idiosyncratic and location specific. We now have the benefits of Hilton’s balance sheet, its global distribution and its relationship with [property] owners around the globe but I’m still running the company the same way as I have for the past 15 years.

What makes the Nomad brand special?
The way that we think about the brand is more intellectual than it appears. There are certain principles that are important to us and those can be manifested in different ways. For example, we want the hotel to feel residential, not commercial. We want it to be a melange of cultures, like Paris meets New York meets Singapore. The food experience is also central to the heart of the brand and we create an environment that is welcoming to the community. You won’t just see travellers – you’ll see locals too – and that’s one of the reasons why we’re successful. 

A lot of luxury operators want to be more lifestyle but wonder why they can’t achieve it. The reasons are straightforward: their restaurants are very expensive and all their rooms are large [with] five-fixture baths, so they are also very expensive. Your typical 30-year-old cannot afford to stay there. At Nomad, we have a certain percentage of rooms that are large and luxurious but we also have entry-level rooms because this [chemistry] between the young and the old is important to us.

How do you keep the charm of a boutique hotel while thinking about scale?
Our company is run in a very familial way and a lot of our people have been involved from the beginning. What we do is borrow the best things from Hilton but keep the service, culture and design close [to what we had]. When we open Nomad Singapore, we’re going to send employees from London to transfer the culture. I’ll be here to immerse people in our history and [share] what we’re trying to achieve, and then [we want] them to be themselves. We don’t believe in scripting people.

One of Nomad’s hallmarks is the high number of repeat guests – it’s all about creating relationships with them. We Google everyone who comes into the restaurant, so that we know a little about who they are. For regulars, we always figure out a way to get them a table. Another thing that’s important in creating a restaurant for the community is humility. To be sustainable in the long run, we’ve got to treat everyone with a great deal of respect, make them feel comfortable and not act like we’re the coolest kids on the block.

How did you decide on Singapore? 
It’s one of the gateway cities of Asia and we want to be in all of [the cities]. Hilton’s Asia headquarters is also here, which means that it is an easy place for us to start and receive support. We also liked the location on Orchard Road, the architecture and [Singapore-based property and hospitality company] UOL Group, so it all worked out.

What can we expect from the Singapore outpost?
Many of the lifestyle hotels here were not custom-crafted for Singapore. We’re going to deliver a hotel that will speak to Singaporeans. The public spaces have double-height ceilings and what we like to call “aspirational aspects”. The restaurants will have that strong New York-meets-Singapore duality. What’s particularly Singaporean is the design of the building, such as the open-air lobby and hallways, which have a real connection to nature. The biggest challenge was to take a brand that has been set in great, old buildings and make it work in a new build. And we’ve done that successfully through the art programme, which will bridge the classic Nomad look with the contemporary architecture. 

What would you say to travellers who are sceptical now that Nomad is under a big brand?
I would ask them to come and judge for themselves. The Hilton relationship is taking us towards a global direction and it has introduced us to extremely interesting people in places that we otherwise wouldn’t have had access to. The relationship is entirely accretive: Hilton has been very smart about letting us do our own thing without diluting the brand.