The French body responsible for scrutinising election campaign funding has this week for a second time refused Mediapart’s request for an explanation of its decision to reject Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2012 presidential election campaign accounts, despite a ruling in Mediapart’s favour by an official freedom of information watchdog. Mathilde Mathieu reports.

Amidst the heated debate over the French government’s plan to further reform the French pension system, a cross-party parliamentary committee will next month deliver its recommendations on remedying what one of its members describes as the “scandalous” plight of hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers who enter retirement with little rights and in conditions of dire poverty. Carine Fouteau reports on a shameful social issue that has hitherto been swept under the carpet by successive governments, and  hears from the committee’s rapporteur, Alexis Bachelay, what reforms he and his colleagues are due to propose in June.

© Reuters

Former French budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac (pictured) last month finally confessed to holding a secret foreign bank account over a period of some 20 years, but he has not publicly disclosed the sums that were paid into it, nor from where they came. However, there has been widespread speculation that the account was used to cash fees paid to Cahuzac for his services, during the 1990s, as a consultant for the pharmaceutical industry. Mediapart has now established that Cahuzac began a lucrative role as lobbyist for a drugs firm just months after leaving his senior post at the French health ministry where he was responsible for the market authorisations of medicines. Mathilde Mathieu and Michaël Hajdenberg report on an extraordinary conflict of interest that also raises serious questions over the conduct of Cahuzac’s former ministerial colleagues who allowed a drug he was lobbying for to continue to be subsidised by the social security system for several years after it was first earmarked to lose its status as a refundable medicine.

One year on, and the Hollande presidency is widely regarded as having almost completely failed. Right through the corridors of power the same question is being asked: why isn't it working? In a bid to find the answer, Mediapart provides a guided tour of each of the separate institutions that makes up the socialist administration which took office on 15th May 2012. Lénaïg Bredoux and Mathieu Magnaudeix report.

The prosecution authorities say that former budget minister Eric Woerth has no case to answer over claims that he awarded Liliane Bettencourt's wealth manager a state honour in return for hiring his wife. Though as Mediapart's legal affairs expert Michel Deléan says, that does not necessarily mean that this is the end of the affair for a man who was one of Nicolas Sarkozy's closest political allies.

Sold: the Golden Hall shopping centre.© dr

Has Greece become the new El Dorado for foreign investors? The country is currently busily selling off state-run enterprises, lucrative concessions in state monopolies and coastal resort sites, and has slashed labour costs. The result is that numerous overseas businesses and funds, including some from China, Russia and Qatar, are eager to pour cash into the crisis-stricken country despite local opposition to many of the sell-offs. Amélie Poinssot reports.

The official body that scrutinises election funding has refused to publish its reasons for rejecting Nicolas Sarkozy's accounts for the presidential campaign last year. Now Mediapart has obtained a ruling that the organisation must reveal the reasons behind its decision or risk flouting the law. Mathilde Mathieu explains the background to an obscure administrative wrangle with potentially wide-ranging consequences.

France's Fifth Republic is reeling after the impact of the Cahuzac scandal. As François Hollande becomes isolated and shuts himself away inside an out-of-date presidential system that has always been fatal for the Left, the Right has been underlining its drift towards extremism, calling for a 'new 1958'. In other words, a coup d'état. Mediapart's Editor-in-Chief Edwy Plenel says it is now up to the people to produce the boldness that the country's leaders lack; to force a much-needed and democratic refounding of the Republic.

A year ago on 6th May 2012 François Hollande won the French presidential election and took office nine days later. Having won the election partly because of his 'Mr Normal' image, the president’s method of governing the country has since attracted heavy criticism from all quarters, including from inside his own party. To mark the anniversary of Hollande's victory Stéphane Alliès analyses the powerful influences that have shaped the president’s approach to power and finds that they can be traced back to the day he was voted in as Socialist Party boss at Dijon a decade ago.

Nicolas Sarkozy's close political ally Claude Guéant has been at the centre of a major political controversy after it was revealed that he received a transfer of 500,000 euros. The former interior minister has angrily denied that the transfer, unearthed by detectives investigating the alleged Libyan funding of Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign, relates to money from the former regime of Colonel Gaddafi. He insists the money came from the sale of two oil paintings by a 17th century Dutch artist. Yet art experts say the two paintings are worth nowhere near 500,000 euros. And if he did sell them abroad as suggested, Guéant appears not to have got the obligatory authorisation from the ministry of culture. In another twist, the former civil servant claims other cash payments are explained by undeclared work bonuses he received from 2002 – yet this system of bonuses was abolished in 2001. Dan Israel reports on the tangled web surrounding Sarkozy's former right-hand man.

Every year the French education ministry sends a small number of teachers to begin work in Rabat. Their mission: to educate the heir to the Moroccan throne and a select handful of that country's elite. Lénaïg Bredoux reports on an exclusive college that is shrouded in mystery and which few in either France or Morocco are willing to talk about.

In 2011 the possibility of exploiting France's underground shale gas reserves seemed to be over with the passing of a new law banning the so-called hydraulic fracturing method of extracting it. Yet just two years later that ban is under challenge from an American energy company which claims it is unconstitutional. Jade Lindgaard reports on a legal counter attack by one small association to protect a law it believes is saving the environment from grave potential harm.

© Reuters

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (pictured), who once decried "a financial capitalism" which had "imposed its logic on the whole economy and contributed to perverting it", has joined the ranks of star conference speakers for the investment banking behemoth Goldman Sachs for whom he is to address a conference in London on June 3rd, described by the bank as "an exclusive forum that will bring together institutional investors and risk managers". Since leaving office last year, Sarkozy, who is keeping open his future return to politics, has clocked up a number of speaking engagements for investment banks. As Martine Orange reports, the former president's sudden enthusiasm for a sector where nothing passes for free raises a number of questions, not least that of conflict of interest both past and present.

Earlier this week the French Senate held the first of two parliamentary consultative debates to explore how to make France a more attractive destination for skilled foreign professionals and students, an issue that has long been neglected and submerged under the anti-immigration policies and political rhetoric of the government’s predecessors. In a move to catch up with initiatives launched by other countries, the government plans to present a bill of law this summer to reform its immigration legislation to attempt to facilitate and encourage professional immigration. Carine Fouteau reports on how what was once a political taboo is now the subject of an open and aggressive competition for an ever-growing and increasingly-needed pool of talent worldwide.

While the number of people living in poverty in France rises, and the standard of living for the vast majority of the population has either fallen or stagnated, a minority of the richest income earners have become better off, according to the latest study of ‘Household income and wealth’ published this week by the French national institute of statistics and economic studies, INSEE. Martine Orange analyses the grim figures.

France is set to become the 14th country worldwide - and the ninth in Europe - to open up marriage to homosexual couples after its parliament on Tuesday voted in favour of a bill of law to give marriage and adoption rights to couples of the same sex. It now remains for the socialist government to enact the law, while a group of conservative opposition MPs, whose UMP party has campaigned against the bill, have promised to contest it before France’s Constitutional Council. The vote on an issue that has divided public opinion comes after six months of demonstrations for and against amid sometimes hysterical rhetoric from politicians. Mediapart reporters joined separate rallies in Paris held by opponents and supporters of the marriage reform. The opinions expressed reveal apparently irreconcilable views over the issue, while many gays spoke of their indignation and fear over the upsurge in insults and violence they have personally witnessed since last autumn.

© Reuters

An independent judicial investigation has been opened into the suspected illegal funding of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign by the former Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Paris public prosecutor’s office confirmed Friday. The investigation into “money laundering, aiding and abetting money laundering and handling of the proceeds”, “influence peddling”, “active and passive corruption”, “fraud and use of the proceeds of fraud” and “misappropriation of company assets” by “unidentified persons” follows evidence uncovered during a preliminary investigation by the public prosecutor’s office, prompted by Mediapart's exclusive revelations published last year.

© Reuters

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde (pictured) is to be questioned next month by French judges investigating a case of 'misappropriation of public funds' and 'aiding and abetting falsification' concerning an award from public funds of 403 million euros paid to controversial French tycoon Bernard Tapie when Lagarde was French finance minister, Mediapart can reveal. According to well-informed sources contacted by Mediapart she wil be interrogated on May 23rd, when Lagarde faces being formally placed under investigation - a status one step short of being charged – by the magistrates from the Court of Justice of the Republic, a special French court which is designated to investigate suspected malpractice by government members in the course of their duties. Laurent Mauduit reports.

© Reuters

The still-unfolding scandal surrounding the secret foreign account of former budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac, first revealed by Mediapart last December, has rocked the French political establishment to its core. But it may not be the last such explosive revelation. For the private Geneva-based financial institution that Cahuzac used to manage his funds hidden abroad, Reyl & Cie, is alleged by several sources contacted by Mediapart to have provided its discreet services to other French personalities - including senior political figures. Dan Israel pieces together a secret and complex financial puzzle, with the help of insiders from the world of finance and banking in Geneva and Paris.

Pierre Moscovici© Reuters

French finance minister Pierre Moscovici is at the centre of allegations that the government was involved in a cover-up to support Jérôme Cahuzac after Mediapart revealed last December that the then-budget minister, leading a crackdown on tax fraud, held a secret bank account abroad. In this lengthy interview with Mediapart’s Laurent Mauduit and Martine Orange, Moscovici defends his role during the four months in which he stood by Cahuzac, despite the mounting evidence presented by Mediapart that his junior minister and one-time friend consistently lied about holding hidden funds abroad. Moscovici reveals that the former budget minister, who finally confessed earlier this month, after repeated denials, to holding the account, declined to provide a written statement requested by tax authorities last December as to whether he held or not a secret account. But surprisingly that did not cause alarm among his colleagues. “Faced with the firmness and the number of his denials,” Moscovici says, “I had the tendency and the wish to believe Jérôme Cahuzac.”  

There was an outcry in France when an appeal court sided with a woman who was fired by a private crèche for wearing a headscarf at work. Interior minister Manuel Valls says he now favours a new law to extend the ban on wearing religious symbols, while opponents argue that new measures simply risk stigmatising French Muslims still further. As Carine Fouteau reports, it looks as if the government has come on the side of the interior minister and is preparing new legislation.

President François Hollande has announced tough new measures to help 'clean up' public life in France following the Cahuzac affair. There will be a new body to oversee politicians' financial assets, more staff to tackle tax fraud and a promised war on international tax havens. However, as Lénaïg Bredoux reports, the proposals have been met not just with predictable disapproval from the opposition, but with dismay from some sections of his own Socialist Party too.

Anti same-sex marriage protests have grown increasingly radical in France in recent weeks as the government's bill on the issue goes through Parliament. The organisation responsible for stoking up the political temperature – which has led to some violent attacks - is a small group known as 'Printemps français' or 'French Spring', whose name is a deliberate echo of the 'Arab Spring' revolutions of North Africa and the Middle East. And behind this group, Mediapart can reveal, is a 52-year-old former paratrooper. Karl Laske, Marine Turchi and Mathieu Magnaudeix report.

First panic then a state of limbo overtook the French government after the shock confession of former budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac over his Swiss bank account. Now president François Hollande, under great pressure from all sides of the political debate and amid growing public disenchantment, looks set to announce major new measures in a bid to improve the 'morals' of French politics. Lénaïg Bredoux and Mathieu Magnaudeix report.

The world of French horse racing is undergoing a revolution. Money is pouring in from Qatar and other Gulf states, while deregulation of the sector is encouraging more and more online betting – at the risk of encouraging more problems of gambling addiction. Few outside the racing industry have taken much notice of the transformation. But, as Laurent Mauduit argues, it is a reflection of the wider changes that are also affecting the world of French capitalism.

The latest twists in the Cahuzac affair show that money, when it becomes an end in itself, is like crime in its desire to escape the law. Here Mediapart republishes an article by Editor-in-Chief Edwy Plenel in which he sets out how tax evasion has become a colossal and institutionalised business at the centre of the economy. Fighting it has never been more urgent, he argues, yet little effort - if any - is being made to prevent it or to sanction those who are bleeding society of vital resources.

© (T.C.)

As Mali begins its slow process of reconstruction, the country's political elites are already preparing for a presidential election in July. Western observers say this election is an essential step in Mali's attempts to find stability. But, as Thomas Cantaloube reports from the capital Bamako, those same observers also fear that the elections will come too soon for the new and younger breed of emerging politicians that the country so desperately needs. And that the old self-serving elites may find themselves back in power.

In a brief pre-recorded television appearance President François Hollande sought to regain the political initiative after the damaging and hugely embarrassing admission by his former budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac that he did have a secret Swiss bank account. However, two of the three policy proposals unveiled by the president to prevent further scandals had already been announced and the third may face constitutional obstacles. Meanwhile the opposition says the president failed to answer key questions about his own role in the Cahuzac affair, as pressure also mounted on another key government figure, finance minister Pierre Moscovici.

While Jérôme Cahuzac has admitted to holding secret foreign bank accounts, after four months of vehement denials, there remain many unanswered questions. Just how many foreign accounts did he hold and where? How many other people, and who, were helped in tax avoidance by Cahuzac's personal financial advisors? Why did the tax authorities refuse to investigate Cahuzac? Fabrice Arfi reports.

Jérôme Cahuzac© Reuters

Former French budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac has made a startling confession that he did indeed have an undisclosed foreign bank account, as originally revealed by Mediapart four months ago. Cahuzac, who resigned last month after a judicial investigation was launched into the affair, used his own blog to admit that he has held a foreign bank account “for some 20 years” and that it latterly contained 600,000 euros. In his statement, Cahuzac, who had earlier confessed to the two judges leading the investigation into what was until today suspicions that he had a secret foreign account, said he had been trapped in a 'spiral of lies' and begged the French public to forgive him. The former minister was immediately placed under investigation on Tuesday, a legal status that precedes charges, for "laundering the procedes of tax fraud" and for "laundering funds originating from advantages provided by a company whose services or products are reimbursed by the Social Security [welfare system]”.

President François Hollande (l) with Jérôme Cahuzac.© Reuters

President François Hollande has condemned the former budget minister’s 'unforgivable fault' after the latter's confession about having an undisclosed Swiss bank account. But now questions are being raised about the French head of state's own handling of the affair. Did the president fail to act despite reportedly being given information months ago which suggested that Jérôme Cahuzac was lying?

How it all began, and how it all ended: Mediapart's first article revealing that budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac, while leading a crackdown on tax fraud, had, for many years, held a secret bank account in Switzerland which was, according to information gained by Mediapart, now transferred to Singapore, was published on December 4th 2012. After months of denials and lies before parliament and the press, Cahuzac finally confessed to holding a foreign bank account on April 2nd, vindicating Mediapart's investigative reports, which are listed in one complete dossier here.

The long-running judicial investigations into suspected criminal activity surrounding the affairs of L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, centred on money-laundering, illegal political funding, fraud, tax evasion, influence peddling and profiteering from the billionaire’s frail mental condition, finally came to a close on March 28th, exactly one week after former president Nicolas Sarkozy was placed under investigation in the case on the basis of “grave or concordant” evidence that he “abused” Bettencourt’s diminished mental faculties. Michel Deléan reports on the winding up of an investigation that will in all probability lead to one of the most spectacular corruption trials in recent French history, set against a backdrop of high-society drama and deep political intrigue.

Late on Friday, the French Prime Minister’s office announced it was sacking its two public relations directors and the creation of a new “communications pole”, to be headed by a high-flying executive from the multinational advertising and PR group Publicis. The move revealed a growing malaise within government at Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault’s failure to impose himself on the public stage, and came less than 24 hours after President François Hollande held a lengthy television interview in which Ayrault's name was not once mentioned. Mathieu Magnaudeix reports.

Magistrates investigating a secret prostitution ring that allegedly staged orgies in luxury hotels and apartments in France and the US for the benefit of former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn this month announced the completion of their two years of enquiries. The bringing of formal charges and the setting of a trial date will be decided this summer. Mediapart has gained access to a court document that details the case against Strauss-Kahn and others placed under investigation alongside him, extracts of which are published here. The investigating magistrates conclude that Strauss-Kahn was the kingpin in the organisation of the orgies which were paid for by a group of associates based in the city of Lille in northern France, and who included businessmen, a ranking police officer and a lawyer. Michel Deléan reports.

Street scene in Bamako, Mali.© Thomas Cantaloube

The French military intervention against Islamist forces in Mali has been widely welcomed by the country’s population, and has produced a radical change in what were often strained relations between the two countries. While the Islamist rebels have been pushed back to the far north of Mali, Operation Serval is now due to begin winding down next month, leaving a series of new and major challenges ahead. Many in the country are hoping France, the former colonial ruler, will play an important part in meeting them. For beyond securing the country from further Jihadist attacks, Mali needs to be rebuilt, from its vital infrastructures to its political institutions, discredited by an aging and corrupt elite. Could the country now find itself under the trusteeship of France?  Thomas Cantaloube reports from the Malian capital Bamako, where the ghost of colonialism haunts the path to a brighter future.

A grim and disturbing report has revealed how a law aimed at tackling street prostitution and people trafficking, introduced ten years ago, has not only largely failed in its main aims but in some cases has produced disastrous results, making prostitutes more vulnerable to attacks and leading to numerous abuses by police officers. The controversial law is now due to be scrapped. Michel Deléan reports.

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy has been dramatically placed under formal investigation for allegedly abusing the mental frailty of billionaire L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. It followed a second round of questioning by judges in Bordeaux investigating the Bettencourt affair, which involves claims of political corruption and abuse of power. The news has caused fury on the Right, however, who insist that it is a politically-motivated decision coming just days after the resignation of budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac, who is also facing an investigation.

© Reuters

The resignation of budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac after a full judicial investigation was launched over his Swiss bank account sent shock waves through the ruling Socialist Party. Many MPs refuse to believe that their colleague has lied over the affair. Others want to turn the page as quickly as possible and put the matter behind them. But as Mathieu Magnaudeix, Stéphane Alliès and Lénaïg Bredoux report, one thing that is certain is that the resignation has not improved the mood in the ruling party, where one MP likened the current situation to a football match in which his side is being hammered...

The Socialist Party candidate was eliminated in the first round of a parliamentary by-election, the president is at historic lows in the opinion polls and government is weak. At the same time President Hollande is confusing his message and his priorities. All this adds up, says Mediapart editor François Bonnet, to a looming major crisis between the government and its voters on the Left.

© Reuters

French budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac (pictured) has resigned after it was announced on Tuesday that a full-blown independent judicial investigation has been opened into evidence he held an undisclosed bank account in Switzerland. The events follow the authentication by forensic police of a tape, first revealed by Mediapart, on which he is heard discussing the account, which he has hitherto denied holding. Announcing the opening of a judicial investigation, the Paris public prosecutor's office said an examining magistrate will now seek the cooperation of the authorities in Switzerland and in Singapore, to where funds from the account were allegedly transferred. It also revealed the investigation will pursue claims that money paid into Cahuzac's account came from pharmaceutical companies.

© Jordan Pouille

The pollution that dominates the skies above the Chinese capital Beijing has been blamed on many things – too many cars, too many building sites, not enough wind. But for some locals the real cause is corruption. Payments by polluting firms ensure that the inspectors simply do not inspect them. Indeed, the issue of so-called 'grey' or undeclared income has become a huge one across the country. Anyone who is able to get involved does so; secretaries ordering takeaway meals for their bosses, minor civil servants who rent out their homes a slum landlords, even teachers at music schools. As Jordan Pouille reports from Beijing, there are now growing calls for the public to have a say in stamping out corruption.

Olivier Metzner had one of the most glittering legal careers in France, and was involved in famous cases such as Clearstream and the ongoing Bettencourt saga. But the man from a modest farming family is dead. His body was discovered floating off the private island he owned off Brittany and an apparent suicide note was in his pocket. Mediapart's legal affair specialist Michel Deléan pays tribute to this hard-working loner who in his rare leisure time enjoyed cigars, sailing and opera.

The position of Budget Minister Jérôme Cahuzac in President Hollande's government looks increasingly under pressure after a preliminary formal investigation has revealed that a key element in the allegations surrounding his undisclosed Swiss bank account has been authenticated. Technicians and witnesses have confirmed that a tape recording in which Cahuzac is heard discussing his bank account at UBS in Geneva is genuine, and that the voice indeed belongs to the socialist politician. Cahuzac has always denied having the account. Investigators now believe the affair should be handed over to an independent examining magistrate. Fabrice Arfi reports.

When he was a candidate for the presidency, François Hollande promised to create a French system of government that would be beyond reproach. Earlier this week the president took his first steps to achieve that with the announcement of four laws to change the French Constitution. Yet there has been as much attention on the measures left out of the reforms as on what has been included. For example, there is no end to the president's immunity from prosecution while in office. Lénaïg Bredoux and Michel Deléan explain that the president has only backed those laws he is sure will get passed.

This Wednesday members of the European Parliament will gather in Strasbourg to vote on the austerity budget that was negotiated by the 27 EU member states last month. According to their public utterances the Euro MPs are set to reject it decisively, triggering a bruising series of negotiations between the powers-that-be in Brussels. But will enough members be won over by domestic pressures to put the no vote in jeopardy? As Ludovic Lamant reports, just one year before the next European elections, this is a crucial test of authority for a group of politicians who often struggle to make their voice heard.

Video available in article page.© Patrick Artinian

French double-bassist Hélène Labarrière (pictured), a composer of jazz and free improvisation music, has carved herself a singular place on the French music scene. Using influences that range from Breton folk songs to West African rhythms, her music is an indefinable, eclectic mix that has evolved from her initial groundings in jazz when, in her early  20s, her first recording was made with the celebrated American alto saxophonist Lee Konitz. Last month she and her quartet took to the stage at the Sons d’hiver (Winter sounds) festival in the Paris suburb of Saint-Mandé to present their latest work, Désordre. Patrick Artinian filmed their performance and interviewed Labarrière, who says she sees "something political" in the joyous non-order of their music.

The investment activities of the oil-rich Gulf state of Qatar are seemingly never out of the news in France, where its purchases include businesses, property, the media and, notably, the Paris Saint-Germain football club where its deep pockets allowed the high-profile signings of Zlatan Ibrahimović and David Beckham. But while PSG fans are happy, Qatar’s mooted scheme to set up an investment fund for France’s deprived urban zones prompted a call by members of the conservative opposition for a parliamentary enquiry. Just what is Qatar’s political aim in what often appears to be a high-spending PR campaign, what is the reality of its relationship with the West and France in particular, and what lies behind the authoritarian state's support for regime change elsewhere in the Arab world? Pierre Puchot debates these and other issues with two specialists on Qatari affairs, Nabil Ennasri and Karim Sade.

The French cinema industry has some of the world’s highest-paid stars and largest film budgets, but is losing money hand over fist. The paradox is explained by a system of public subsidies paid to make films whatever their box office appeal. Even for those which prove a popular success, the enormous production costs are hardly ever recovered. The subsidies paid to the French film industry are part of a complex system that its supporters say has allowed it, over many decades, to maintain a rich production while other national cinema industries in Europe have faded. Its critics argue it is a perverse and outdated economic model. In this interview with Joseph Confavreux, the sociologist Olivier Alexandre, a specialist in the history of modern French cinema, analyses how the system works and weighs up the arguments for and against.

The death was announced this week of celebrated French theatre director and actor Jérôme Savary (pictured), who was aged 70. One of the most influential stage directors of post-war France, Savary, who was born in Argentina, is credited with having widened the popular appeal of theatre, notably with the colourful and hilarious performances of his Grand Magic Circus company. In his latter life, he headed the prestigious Théâtre national de Chaillot and the Opéra-Comique. Here, Mediapart’s cultural affairs writer Antoine Perraud pays his own tribute to a prolific icon of French theatre.

© Michel Le Moine

The Paris suburb of Le Blanc-Mesnil is typical of dozens of socially-deprived agglomerations that surround the capital’s northern perimeter, characterized by zones of high-rise public housing estates, higher than average unemployment, especially among the young, and a significant population of North and West African origin who complain of being stigmatized and discriminated against. While the stereotypes of those who live in what are commonly called les banlieues are reinforced by regular incidents of violence, drug dealing and social unrest, local inhabitants are rarely offered a public stage to challenge the narrow perceptions that ignore the broader realities of their community. But now, in a rare and insightful book published last month, a group of women residents of Le Blanc-Mesnil recount with frankness and simplicity their everyday experiences, both positive and negative, of life amid the troubled suburbs. Carine Fouteau reports.

The controversial introduction last year in France of citizen jurors to assist magistrates in trials of crimes which carry a punishment of between five and ten years is to be abandoned after an official report found the scheme, launched under former president Nicolas Sarkozy, to be ill-conceived, unmanageable and too costly,  Mediapart can reveal. Michel Deléan reports.

© Voix de l'Enfant/Indigène éditions

The outspoken French social and political campaigner Stéphane Hessel (pictured), whose recent best-selling manifesto Time for Outrage became an inspiration for social protest movements worldwide, died during the night of February 26th, aged 95. Born German, Hessel was seven years’ old when he arrived in France, becoming a naturalised citizen after which, at the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Resistance movement. He was eventually arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp from where he escaped during transfer to Bergen-Belsen. After the war, he helped draft the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and was appointed as an honorary ‘Ambassador of France' for special government missions abroad. Hessel detailed his extraordinary life, his political engagement and his cultural influences in this revealing interview with Sylvain Bourmeau, first published by Mediapart in 2011. He began by explaining how his escape from execution in Germany in 1944 left him with a purpose he had to fulfil.

(Videos in the article pages)

Stéphane Hessel and Edgar Morin (pictured) formed a formidable couple when they launched, here on Mediapart, a joint appeal to candidates in France’s 2012 presidential elections. The pair, then aged 90 and 94 respectively, had lived through similar experiences: Hessel was a German naturalised French, former WWII Resistance fighter, survivor of Nazi concentration camps, while Morin, widely acclaimed as one of Europe's greatest 20th-century thinkers, was born to immigrant parents and also fought in the Resistance movement. In this tribute to Hessel, who died overnight on Tuesday, Mediapart republishes the text and video of their outline for a "path of hope" for a new society that shuns "the futile, the disposable, and the wasteful”, an end to economic policies "driving us to disaster", and for a return to values of social responsibility.

© (dr)

The US detention camp of Guantánamo Bay in Cuba continues to hold 166 prisoners, of which some 100 are officially regarded as ready for release. But many of these remain trapped within the camp because returning them to their countries of origin is considered by the US as too risky either for security reasons or for their personal safety. Algerian national Nabil Hadjarab, 32, (pictured) is one of those. His situation could be resolved if he were released to France, where he was raised and where his family reside and are ready to look after him. But, writes Mediapart international affairs specialist Thomas Cantaloube, Hadjarab’s freedom is blocked by the French authorities who continue to ignore appeals for his transfer and who, by doing so, contribute to the status quo at the highly controversial camp that President Barack Obama promised, in vain, he would close.    

François Hollande has acknowledged economic reality by accepting that France can no longer meet its goal of cutting its budget deficit to 3% of GDP this year. In doing so he is abandoning one of his key campaign pledges, and he is now preparing to bring his economic policy squarely into line with that of most other European countries, which inevitably raises the spectre of the infamous 'structural reforms'. Are their parallels with President Mitterrand's notorious economic U-turn in 1983? Martine Orange reports.

© Ernest Pignon Ernest

Michèle Audin was just three years old when her mathematician father Maurice was tortured and killed by the French army in Algiers in 1957. Today Michèle, herself a celebrated mathematician, has published a book which does not recount the tragic circumstances of her father's death, but instead celebrates his life in a style that is both concise and deeply moving. Dominique Conil reviews A brief life.

The so-called Twitter Affair in which anti-Semitic and other racist comments were Tweeted has provoked a major outcry in France over the use and abuse of the internet. The government has promised to take action and a senator is currently overseeing plans for new legislation to 'supervise' the web in France. But many internet rights campaigners fear that freedom of speech could become the first casualty of this war on racist, sexist and homophobic language on the internet. Jérôme Hourdeaux reports.

Hafed Benotman

Last week the French Ministry of Justice organised a key-note conference on reoffending. Mediapart has spoken to former inmates who told us how they got into crime and explained why prison doesn't stop people from reoffending - and how it can even sow the seeds of further crime. Prisoners often complain that no one listens to them, so we have decided to publish what they have to say, in their own words. What follows is an uncompromising account by 52-year-old Hafed Benotman, who still describes himself as a thief and who served three prison sentences and spent 18 years behind bars. He is now an author and scriptwriter and co-founded a newspaper which gives prisoners a voice.

The French government has revealed that it will almost certainly not be able to meet its objective of trimming the public spending deficit to 3% of GDP by 2013. But where did this slavishly-followed rule – now enshrined in European treaties - come from in the first place? And does it have any economic validity today? Lénaïg Bredoux explores how and why this crucial figure was first created and discovers it dates back more than 30 years...

After Mediapart broke a series of stories in 2010 about the Bettencourt Affair that appeared to implicate a government minister, the then-ruling UMP party's general secretary Xavier Bertrand attacked what he called the website's 'fascist methods'. Mediapart responded by taking the unusual step of launching a defamation action against the politician. This week the case finally came to trial. Jérôme Hourdeaux reports on the proceedings.

Christine Lagarde.© Reuters

The head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde is to appear soon before senior French judges over an investigation into allegations that as French finance minister she was involved in 'aiding and abetting falsification', Mediapart can reveal. The IMF boss is also facing claims that she was involved in the 'misappropriation of public funds'. The affair concerns the controversial decision to use an arbitration process that in 2008 awarded French businessman Bernard Tapie a 403 million-euro payout from the public purse. Lagarde's lawyer is due to learn later this week whether she will be heard as an 'assisted witness'- or be formally placed under investigation. Laurent Mauduit reports.

The famous Printemps department store on the boulevard Haussmann in Paris (pictured) is up for sale. On the surface it is just another routine high-end Paris property transaction. But behind the scenes, reveals Mediapart, one of the current owners is preparing a 'predatory' financial deal that would see a handful of its top executives walk away with up to 500 million euros. Meanwhile the real cost of the sale will fall on the department store's staff, who could be left without a job or put on less secure work contracts. Martine Orange reports.

The mayors of several towns in the southern suburbs of Paris at the centre of a suspected corruption scam involving allegations of the fixing of public procurement contracts, bribes and influence peddling have still not been questioned by police who opened an official investigation into the graft claims more than five years ago. The allegations, including threats of violence, mystery gifts of luxury vehicles, holidays between mayors and those they award contracts to, paint a disturbing picture of connivance and graft, and raise serious questions about why the official investigation has stalled. Karl Laske reports.

French budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac is being investigated by the tax authorities over suspected irregularities in his tax statements, notably undeclared and under-declared assets, Mediapart can reveal with the publication here of a confidential document listing their queries. The tax inspectors’ enquiry is being led in parallel to a separate preliminary judicial investigation, launched last month, into Cahuzac's suspected 'laundering of the proceeds of tax fraud' relating to evidence that he held a secret Swiss bank account before entering government. Fabrice Arfi reports.

As in many recent conflicts involving Western intervention in other countries, France’s decision to wage war against Islamist militants in Mali has been accused by some as furthering its energy interests and economic investments, a suggestion that President François Hollande has unequivocally denied. Mediapart’s international affairs specialist Thomas Cantaloube finds the truth lies in between as he examines here just what are France's interests in the region. While Mali has quasi-inexistent mineral or energy resources, in the wider Sahel area, comprising the north of Mali, the east of Mauretania, Niger and parts of Algeria and Libya, the energy issue is significant.

Eric Schmidt and François Hollande.© Elysée

There was all the atmosphere of a joint press conference between heads of state when French President François Hollande and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt this month announced an agreement had been reached between the US search engine giant and the French press over Google’s use of article contents. Google will make a one-off payment of 60 million euros to fund development of the publishers' presence on the internet, while it will also offer to increase their online revenues using Google’s advertising platforms. However, as Dan Israel and Jérôme Hourdeaux report, what was presented as a "historic" compromise is in reality a long-term victory for Google over an ailing, cash-strapped press, while the details of the deal are, curiously, to remain secret.   

French fighter jets began bombing missions over northern Mali on Sunday, where they are targeting Jihadist bases and supply depots, in the second - and what President François Hollande hopes will be the final – stage of France’s military campaign to oust the rebels from the West African country, and which began on January 11th. But while the war has so far been a political triumph for Hollande, the future is clouded by both the continuing delays in forming an adequate pan-African force to allow for a French withdrawal, and the new military challenges of fighting the rebels in mountainous terrain with which they are especially familiar. Lénaïg Bredoux reports.

The Fondation Abbé Pierre, one of France’s leading charitable foundations dedicated to eradicating bad housing conditions endured by the country’s poorest social categories, today released its 18th annual report on the state of the French housing crisis. It estimates that 3.6 million people in France live in rotten housing conditions, ranging from the dilapidated to the thoroughly insalubrious.  Most of these properties are situated in major towns and cities, but the report also sounds the alarm at the overlooked situation in France’s economically declining rural and semi-rural regions, where increasing numbers of the nearby urban population are fleeing to escape the housing crisis. Renaud Ceccotti reports from a rural area close to Paris where he met with a family whose descent into semi-slum living conditions is typical of many.

The latest unemployment figures for France reveal that in December the number of jobless rose for the 20th consecutive month to reach a total of 3,132,900, bringing the number of people made unemployed during 2012 to 284,600. The socialist government has announced a barrage of measures to alleviate the trend, which it underlines began well before it came to power last May. But, as Rachida El Azzouzi reports, the initiatives have come under fire from labour unions and economists as being superficial and incapable of reversing the rise in unemployment that is expected this year to reach a historic high.

Anne Lauvergeon.

The nominations last weekend of Anne Lauvergeon and Jean-Claude Trichet as France’s representatives on the re-vamped board of European aerospace and defence group EADS was anything but a surprise, argues Mediapart’s finance and economy specialist Martine Orange. Both are from an elite composed of graduates of France’s grandes écoles and former senior civil servants who are on a life-long merry-go-round of top jobs and fat salaries, and whose purportedly immeasurable talents have overseen the break-up and bankruptcy of the French economy.

© Reuters

Nicolas Sarkozy is secretly attempting to set up a 1 billion-euro private equity fund, with plans for it to be based in London, and has begun prospecting wealthy individuals and institutions to back the scheme, financial and business sources have told Mediapart. According to concordant sources, the former French President (pictured) has made discreet contact with potential backers based in France, the Middle East and South-East Asia. Laurent Mauduit reports.

The French ‘military intervention’ that began in Mali on January 11th is also a war of words in which the socialist government has adopted semantics akin to neo-conservative rhetoric, argues Mediapart political correspondent Stéphane Alliès, who presents here some choice examples of ministerial sleight of tongue.

French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Berlin on Tuesday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, a milestone reconciliation and cooperation agreement that gave birth to a longstanding diplomatic and cultural alliance. The celebrations on Tuesday included a cabinet meeting between French and German governments, and a joint session of both countries’ parliaments, hosted by the Bundestag. But the alliance, often referred to in France as the ‘Franco-German couple’, has been placed under strain in recent years, and notably since the election last year of Hollande who has repeatedly clashed with Merkel over European policies. In this interview with Thomas Schnee, Étienne François, a historian and a recognized expert on the history of modern relations between France and Germany, a co-founder and former director of the Berlin-based Marc Bloch social sciences research centre, analyses the state of the current relationship between the two countries and the wider consequences of their fundamental differences in political culture.

Xavier Niel earned significant amounts of cash in his early business career through investing in sex shops. But the billionaire’s real money was made in the telecommunications industry through his development and ownership of internet service provider Free. Here, in the second part of Mediapart's investigation into the influential businessman, Laurent Mauduit examines the crucial day on which Niel consolidated his control over the company that was to make his name and his fortune.

France's police anti-crime squads were set up to help combat street crime. But have they themselves become part of the problem? Driven by a target-setting culture, coming into contact with large-scale drug trafficking, co-opting their own members and subject to only limited management oversight, they seem almost programmed to crash out of control. Even before the emergence of a recent anti-crime squad corruption scandal in Marseille involving drugs, the positive impact of these police units in France's run-down estates was far from clear. Louise Fessard reports.

President François Hollande has just become involved in a large-scale war in Mali. Already some 800 French troops are on the ground in the African country, with the number expected to increase to 2,500 in the coming days and weeks. Meanwhile French aircraft have been carrying out strikes across the country. President Hollande sent in the troops last Friday, January 11th, after Mali's interim president made an urgent plea for help as Islamic rebels headed towards the country's capital. However, argues Mediapart's editor François Bonnet, the intervention has taken place in an impromptu manner, with shifting objectives, an unclear timetable and after having deliberately ignored the complex processes of political negotiations. As a result, he says, France finds itself alone without its European allies in a country that has completely fallen apart.

He is one of the most powerful and influential men in France today. Not only is Xavier Niel the founder and main shareholder of the country's second biggest internet service provider, Free, the billionaire businessman is also part-owner of the nation's best-known newspaper Le Monde. Such is his power – and personality – that he is not afraid to take on Google, while he is friends with some of the most prominent families who make up France's wealthy business elite. Yet in the late 1980s Niel was a 'brilliant but penniless' youth with no formal qualifications working as a technician in the twilight world of sex chatlines and dating in central Paris. In an investigation Mediapart charts Niel's career from his lucrative ownership of sex shops in Paris and Strasbourg to the day he seized total control of the company that would ultimately make him France’s 12th wealthiest man. Laurent Mauduit and Dan Israel report.

Islam is the second religion in France yet Muslims often feel discriminated against and misunderstood. And because the French state outlaws the gathering of data on religious or ethnic grounds it is difficult to know exactly how Muslims view their faith, how many are being radicalised – or even how many Muslims there are in the country. Here Mediapart publishes the results of a major new study attempting to overcome this lack of data. It confirms that a small proportion of Muslim youths are being radicalised. But it also shows how the way in which they are depicted in society has led to an increased religious sentiment among Muslims anxious to assert their identity. Carine Fouteau reports.

On the face of it, the incident looked like yet another regrettable but sadly all-too common attack on a bus company employee. But in the middle of the assault on the 35-year-old in central Paris, one of the two assailants pulled out his warrant card and told onlookers he was a police officer. The police complaints authority is now investigating. However, as Louise Fessard reports, despite the attack being captured on video surveillance cameras and the fact that the attackers are readily identifiable, no arrests have yet been made.

A major urban renovation project called ‘le Grand Paris’ was launched in 2007 to modernise the Greater Paris Region with the development of new centres for economic activity, the construction of more than a million new homes and a major new inter-linking transport system. Amid soaring costs and fierce criticism from environmentalists, the plan, now estimated at 30 billion euros, is under government review. In this interview with Mediapart, Jean-Pierre Orfeuil, a specialist in mobility issues and professor at the Paris Institute of Urbanism, says the project is yet another example of how the elite ignore the real social and economic needs of the public, and argues why only a radical and visionary new approach to the transport infrastructure in and around the capital will solve its current problems.

For weeks it has been an issue that has divided not just public opinion but also the ruling Socialist Party. Should lesbians who want children should get access to medically-assisted procreation - by in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination? After changes of stance and tactics, the government has finally announced that the measure will now included in new family legislation later in 2013. But some critics fear that time is being lost – while others say that it has simply opened up a second front for opponents. Mathieu Magnaudeix reports.

Cahuzac at the Elysée, January 3rd.© Reuters

A month after the publication of revelations that budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac held an undisclosed Swiss bank account until 2010, a formal investigation has been opened into the affair, Mediapart can reveal. The prosecution authorities have started a preliminary inquiry into the alleged 'laundering of the proceeds of tax fraud'. The investigation is being carried out by detectives from the national financial and tax investigation unit the Division nationale d’investigations financières et fiscales. Fabrice Arfi and Michel Deléan report.

French car manufacturers PSA Peugeot Citroën and Renault are facing a grave crisis, and figures just released for new car sales in France in 2012 underline the bleak prospects for the immediate future, with the lowest number of units sold since 1997. Dan Israel reports on the plight of an industry that is estimated to employ 700,000 people in France, and which must urgently find a strategy for survival amid what has become a Europe-wide 'carmageddon'.

The French government’s proposed top 75% income tax rate, applicable to individuals annually earning more than 1 million euros, was struck down by the country’s Constitutional Council last weekend after it ruled that it breached a fundamental principle of equality for taxpayers. This was the application of income tax per individual instead of the usual method of per household. How could the government, now accused of amateurism, and especially the budget and finance ministries, have ignored a technicality to which they had been previously alerted by the parliamentary finance commission? While President François Hollande has promised to redraft the terms of the tax, there is every indication that, if it is revived, it will return severely watered-down. Mediapart business and finance specialist Martine Orange analyses a fiasco that begs the question of whether the tax was scuppered from the inside.

Mediapart’s revelations that French budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac held for many years a secret Swiss bank account has met with either hostile reaction or embarrassed silence among his colleagues in the Socialist Party. While it is inflexible and demanding in its approach to scandals involving the Right, the Left has often demonstrated an unwillingness to face up to those other scandals in its own midst, argues here Mediapart legal affairs specialist Michel Deléan, who catalogues a (non-exhaustive) history of scams that have undermined previous socialist governments.

French budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac earlier this month announced he was suing Mediapart for defamation after this website published an investigation revealing that he had held for a number of years, before he became a member of the government, a secret Swiss bank account. Since its first report, Mediapart has published further information including a tape recording in which a voice identified by witnesses in the affair as that of Cahuzac can be heard discussing the account. While the government stands by its budget minister, who denies ever holding a bank account abroad, the justice authorities have made no move to investigate the case, prompting Mediapart’s Editor-in-Chief Edwy Plenel to write to the Paris public prosecutor’s office demanding an independent judicial enquiry. In this interview, Mediapart’s lawyer, Jean-Pierre Mignard, argues that the judicial inertia is the result of the submissive hierarchical relationship between the prosecutor’s office and the executive political powers, one which President François Hollande has previously pledged to bring to an end.

The French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, INSEE, last week published its economic forecast for the first half of 2013, predicting France will remain on the edge of recession with zero growth, ever-rising unemployment, a collapse of purchasing power and consumption in tatters. Mediapart's economics and finance specialist Laurent Mauduit argues here that the INSEE study provides a damning appraisal of the French socialist government’s austerity policies and its obedience to the fiscal compact.

The Ecole Bilingue Active Jeannine-Manuel is a semi-private Paris school specialised in teaching in both French and English, where its 2,200 pupils are offered a complete lower education cycle from age 3 to 18. It has become the school of choice for parents among the capital’s political, business and showbiz elite, as well as others from the expat community, and boasts exceptional educational standards and means that provide a 100% pass rate for the school-leaving Baccalauréat exam. But, as Lucie Delaporte reports, a significant part of the funding of this high-performing school for the offspring of the rich and famous is met through a generous system of tax breaks.

© Reuters

Jérôme Cahuzac, the budget minister accused of having an undisclosed Swiss bank account until 2010, has withheld the truth surrounding the affair from the highest offices of state, Mediapart can reveal. Mediapart can disclose that the person who possesses the key recording on which Cahuzac (pictured) is heard discussing his bank account has himself approached the office of French President François Hollande to confirm it is genuine. Meanwhile email correspondence between the minister and friends shows that he himself does not deny the authenticity of the recording. And Mediapart can also reveal that the tax authorities have started to carry out thorough checks of the budget minister’s recent tax declarations, which appear to show numerous discrepancies. All of which, says Fabrice Arfi, is proof that Jérôme Cahuzac is in an untenable political situation.

During his election campaign and his first few weeks in office, François Hollande promised to take a different line in Europe, expressing the desire to “reshape” the European Union and promote growth to provide an alternative to German-imposed austerity and structural reforms. But since then the German agenda has re-emerged as the dominant force in the EU, threatening to leave France isolated. Lénaïg Bredoux and Ludovic Lamant wonder what happened to the president’s reformist zeal.

Budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac has adopted a fresh strategy as he tries to defend himself against Mediapart's investigation that shows he had an undisclosed Swiss bank account until 2010. Cahuzac is trying to get the bank to waive its banking secrecy rules to confirm he held no such account – something the bank has so far refused to do. But as François Bonnet and Dan Israel point out, behind this apparent delaying tactic there is a clear conflict of interest between Cahuzac the budget minister and Cahuzac the private bank customer. Which is why, they argue, only an independent judicial investigation can get to the heart of the affair.

© (dr)

Town after town looks on in horror and dismay as the furnaces close down in the Fensch Valley in Lorraine in north-east France. The only lifeline left to the locals is the nearby Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in the shape of its banks and its factories. Nearly 80,000 workers from the Lorraine region now make the daily commute to tap the growth and higher pay on the other side of the border. Rachida El Azzouzi reports.