We are seeing similar trends across borders and local contexts: third places have been progressively lost and the far right has sprouted up in their absence, capitalising on atomisation, disaffection and a sense of being left behind. In the US, the decline of true third places has been so drastic that (in perhaps typical American fashion) Starbucks – very much a for-profit megachain – publicly claimed that it could fill the void. The UK has lost 37% of its pubs since 1992, depriving rural areas of vital social focal points.

France has experienced much of the same, with 18,000 bars-tabac closing their doors from 2002 to 2022, taking the"public living room" with them and, as one study found, contributing to an increase in vote share for the National Rally (RN) in the (largely rural) areas left behind by their closures. In the first round of France’s municipal elections, the RN made further inroads; but it also performed less well than feared in key cities such as Marseille, Lyon and Paris, all of which were retained by the left in Sunday’s second round of municipal elections.