Amid political deadlock in France, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu on Tuesday began the process of forcing through his overdue 2026 budget legislation without a vote by parliament, employing a controversial article of the French constitution, and which he originally pledged not to use. The move will trigger parliamentary motions of no-confidence in the government later in the week, which Lecornu hopes to survive due to the support of the socialists, who obtained concessions in the budget. It represents the second major U-turn in the months-long saga, with socialist leader Olivier Faure having previously insisted that any use of the constitution's Article 49 would be crossing a red line.

The European Union on Saturday signed a major free-trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur, promoted as creating the world’s largest free-trade zone, with a population of 700 million. The deal was signed despite France’s opposition to the treaty as it stands, in the latest example of the country’s waning influence within the EU. Fabien Escalona and Ilyes Ramdani analyse what is a significant defeat for President Emmanuel Macron, who’s final term in office draws to a close next year, and whose political credibility at home and abroad was already severely dented by the ongoing political paralysis caused by his miscalculated dissolution of parliament in 2024.

In a landmark ruling this week, the highest French appeal court, the Cour de Cassation, threw out a lower court’s finding that a parent has a right by customary law to discipline their children using corporal punishment, which has been banned in France since 2019. It overturned the decision of a court in eastern France last year which annulled the conviction of a police officer for repeated violence against his two sons on the assumption that his behaviour was proportionate, caused no harm, and was within his parenting rights.

In March 2025 Marine Le Pen was convicted at first instance of embezzling European parliamentary funds through a fake jobs scam involving her far-right party the Front National, now called Rassemblement National. She was immediately banned from seeking public office for five years, thus scuppering her chances of contesting the 2027 French presidential election. On Tuesday January 13th a court in Paris will start hearing her appeal, in which her aim is to get that immediate ban lifted.

On Friday a majority of European Union states voted to accept the Mercosur free trade deal despite opposition from France. Yet the climatic and environmental impacts of this agreement with the South American nations involved are profound: an increase in CO2 emissions, deforestation, higher sales of pesticides and chemical fertilisers, and more animal exploitation. All this represents a series of setbacks for the planet's ecology, writes Mediapart's environment editor.

In January 2021 the humanitarian vessel Ocean Viking docked in Italy. On board were 374 migrants who had been rescued while trying to make the perilous trip across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Europe. One of those plucked from the sea, Laureine from Cameroon, has lived in France ever since. But her two young daughters had stayed behind with a relative. They later took the huge risk of making the crossing themselves to rejoin their mother. Mediapart spent Christmas with them in their flat in Nice.

As the abduction of the Venezuelan president has shown, Donald Trump’s expansionist and neo-reactionary policy is an assault on every citizen of the planet, writes Mediapart's publishing editor in this op-ed article. As their leaders abandon them, the citizens of European societies have no choice but to rally to defend their principles of equality and social justice.

France's president Emmanuel Macron has endorsed - without the slightest reservation - the military operation carried out by Donald Trump to seize Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. In doing so, argues Mediapart's political correspondent in this op-ed article, he has trampled over every principle on which French diplomacy has historically been based. Chief among these is the country's attachment to international law. 

In a recent book, French historian Sabine Dullin argues that the way Vladimir Putin wields power - and his war of aggression in Ukraine – is rooted in methods of Russian rule developed over several centuries. The academic says with that the exception of some brief interludes, in Russia “autocracy and empire have fed off one another”. Mediapart looks at the lessons to be learnt from her analysis of Russia's past and present regimes.