Macron's self-made political crisis and its threat to democracy

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Newly appointed French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu (left) with Emmanuel Macron in May 2025. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP Newly appointed French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu (left) with Emmanuel Macron in May 2025. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP

Insensitive to mounting anger in France over worsening social conditions and increasing demands made upon the less well-off, while obstinately turning his back on honouring the results of last year’s snap parliamentary elections, in which the broad Left triumphed, Emmanuel Macron is precipitating a major political crisis, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Carine Fouteau in this op-ed article. Joined also by an economic crisis, and a blurring of political lines, she argues, the French president is opening up the final stretch of the road to power for the far-right.

Bayrou sunk and Macron damaged as National Assembly votes down French government

François Bayrou addressing the lower house, the National Assembly, on Monday. © Photo Jeanne Accorsini / Sipa François Bayrou addressing the lower house, the National Assembly, on Monday. © Photo Jeanne Accorsini / Sipa

France's prime minister François Bayrou is due to tender his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron in the coming hours after his government was heavily defeated on Monday evening in a vote of confidence at the National Assembly that he had himself called. In the end, just 194 MPs voted for the government and 364 MPs voted against as, at the end of a long parliamentary debate, and to little surprise,  the Left and the far-right brought down the prime minister. In the corridors of the National Assembly there will be little regret at the administration's passing. Now all eyes will be on how President Macron reacts to what is for him yet another deeply damaging political reversal. Alexandre Berteau, Pauline Graulle and Youmni Kezzouf report.

'We know who's first in line to benefit': why France's working-class districts are wary of September 10th protest

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 © Photo Laura Wojcik / Mediapart © Photo Laura Wojcik / Mediapart

A major nationwide protest to “block everything” is due to take place across France on September 10th. However, the reaction of working-class, multi-ethnic neighbourhoods to it remains a weak point of the protest movement. What often stops residents of these areas joining in such struggles is their own difficult living conditions, a fear that any backlash will hit them the hardest, and their wariness of a Left that shows little interest in “jointly constructing” a protest movement with them. Laura Wojcik reports on the views of residents and activists from working class districts in the Paris region and Marseille.

The record of Bayrou's short-lived government analysed on the eve of its likely demise

 © Photo Eric Tschaen / REA © Photo Eric Tschaen / REA

On September 8th the government of François Bayrou looks set to be toppled in a vote of confidence that the prime minister himself has called. Since his appointment at the end of December 2024, Bayrou’s government has obviously struggled because of its lack of an overall majority in the National Assembly, but it has nonetheless clearly pursued a liberal and conservative path. Here, members of Mediapart's editorial team look back at the nine months of an administration whose time in office has been marked by environmental setbacks and by its endorsement of the anti-immigration line espoused by the rightwing Les Républicains party.

Artificial Intelligence and the degradation of work

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 © Photomontage Mediapart © Photomontage Mediapart

In his latest book 'Un taylorisme augmenté' ('Enhanced Taylorism') the France-based sociologist Juan Sebastián Carbonell offers a fresh perspective on the likely impact of artificial intelligence on the labour market. Rather than seeing it as a boost for productivity on the one hand or as a destroyer of jobs on the other, the academic instead describes artificial intelligence as a capitalist tool for tighter control over already downgraded work. And he calls for a social struggle centred squarely on the issue of technology and its role in the workplace. Romaric Godin reviews the academic's book.

French PM François Bayrou restores his mayor's office - while preaching austerity to the nation

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 © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec AFP et document © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec AFP et document


Prime minister François Bayrou has approved the renovation of his office in Pau, the small city in south-west France where he is also still the serving mayor. The aim of the work is to “restore the original splendour” of that office, and the bill - to be paid from public funds - comes in at 40,000 euros, according to Mediapart's information. Such a move is politically explosive in the middle of a national austerity plan being pushed by the prime minister himself and against the backdrop of a city council whose public debt has soared since it came under Bayrou's control. Fabrice Arfi and Antton Rouget report.

Cancelling of 'Barbie' film screening is latest in series of assaults on cultural freedom in France

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 © Photomontage Mediapart avec captures d'écran et AFP © Photomontage Mediapart avec captures d'écran et AFP

Earlier this month a screening of the hit film 'Barbie' in the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Sec was cancelled after local protests. Yet the move to stop this film being shown was just the latest episode in a long list of cancel-culture attacks on the freedom to stage artistic performances across France. Many of these interventions have come from fundamentalist Catholic and nationalist groups, with some also emanating from the Left. Faced with such threats, some local elected representatives have felt obliged to yield to the pressure and cancel events. Laura Wojcik reports.

'We need to believe that it will work this time': French protestors plan nationwide blockade on September 10th

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 © Photo Cécile Hautefeuille / Mediapart © Photo Cécile Hautefeuille / Mediapart

There are plans to stage a major nationwide protest and 'block everything' in France on September 10th. Having begun on social media, this movement is a reaction against the austerity measures proposed in prime minister François Bayrou's 2026 budget. Last Tuesday evening Mediapart was present when at least 200 people gathered in the southern city of Montpellier to prepare for the September event. Those at the meeting included veterans from the nationwide 'Gilets jaunes' or 'Yellow Vests' protests of 2018 and 2019, trade unionists, students and pro-Palestine activists. They called for their various struggles to come together and for people to get out and protest, despite the likely fall of the current government in a vote of no confidence scheduled for September 8th. Cécile Hautefeuille reports.

As French PM's forced exit looms, political chaos deepens

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 © Photo Jeanne Accorsini / Sipa © Photo Jeanne Accorsini / Sipa

Following the surprise announcement by French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Monday (photo) that he will submit his government to a confidence vote in France’s hung parliament on September 8th, which several opposition parties have announced they will reject, his fate now appears sealed after less than nine months in office. As Pauline Graulle reports, the parties of the Left and Right are now preparing for the post-Bayrou period, with the looming possibility of new snap parliamentary elections amid the deepening political chaos.

Doctors Without Borders coordinator in Gaza details the horrors of the famine

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Dalya Mohammed al-Zuweidi, aged 5, pictured in Nuseirat Refugee Camp, suffers from severe malnutrition and a neurological condition caused by oxygen deprivation to the brain. © Photo Hassan Jedi / Anadolu via AFP Dalya Mohammed al-Zuweidi, aged 5, pictured in Nuseirat Refugee Camp, suffers from severe malnutrition and a neurological condition caused by oxygen deprivation to the brain. © Photo Hassan Jedi / Anadolu via AFP

A state of famine in the Gaza Strip was officially declared on Friday by a UN-affiliated body of experts, the IPC, that evaluate food insecurity around the world. The famine is declared in the Gaza Governorate, which includes Gaza City with a population of one million and which now faces a large-scale Israeli military offensive. Mediapart’s Gwenaëlle Lenoir interviewed Jérôme Grimaud, the emergency aid coordinator in Gaza for the French NGO Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), who told her of the horrific consequences of the famine, notably on hospital patients.

The questions surrounding the online death of French live-streamer

By and Mathilde Goanec, Cécile Hautefeuille, Youmni Kezzouf, Marie Turcan
Raphaël Graven, top left and bottom right, amid scenes from the 12-day marathon livestream. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart Raphaël Graven, top left and bottom right, amid scenes from the 12-day marathon livestream. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

There has been outcry in France after Raphaël Graven, aka “Jean Pormanove”, or simply “JP”, died on Monday in front of the cameras of an online streaming channel whose viewers paid to watch him being subjected for 12 days to cruel physical and psychological abuse. After an autopsy found no external or internal injury to explain his death, toxicological tests have been ordered. Questions remain over the precise circumstances of his death, and others over the antics of his fellow streamers, the failure of relevant authorities to intervene beforehand, the laisser-faire attitude of the Australian platform Kick which hosted the channel, and why viewers watch the disturbing content.

The marine heatwaves boiling Mediterranean ecosystems

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 © Photo Valentin Izzo / Hans Lucas via AFP © Photo Valentin Izzo / Hans Lucas via AFP

The heatwave that hung over much of France since early August, with temperatures exceeding 40°C in parts of the country, finally lifted this week. In parallel, and less talked about, a marine heatwave was in progress in the Mediterranean Sea, with water temperatures off the French coast reaching close to 30°C. It was the last of many recorded over recent years in the waters of the Mediterranean which, over the first half of 2025, reached their warmest-ever on record. The acceleration of the sea’s heatwaves is alarming scientists, and leave behind decimated ecosystems. Mickaël Correia reports.    

Lavander blues: French growers face an uncertain future

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 © Photo Anthony Micallef pour Mediapart © Photo Anthony Micallef pour Mediapart

France’s south-east region of Provence is famed for its production of lavender and hybrid lavender, called lavandin, a symbol of the summer when the blue and mauve flowers of the plants explode in colour and heady fragrance. But many of the century-old plantations are facing an increasing double threat to their existence, from over-production and climate change. Pierre Isnard-Dupuy reports on the crisis from France’s Valensole plateau, traditionally a major centre of the country's lavender trade, where some are turning to alternative, and notably organic, methods for growing the coveted aromatic plant.

Israel's slaughter of journalists in Gaza is an admission of its crimes

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 © Photo Omar Al-Qataa / AFP © Photo Omar Al-Qataa / AFP

Israel has claimed responsibility for the assassinations in Gaza on August 10th of a group of Gazan journalists working for the TV channel Al Jazeera, and alleged that one of them, reporter Anas al-Sharif, was "the head of a Hamas terrorist cell". The Israeli military have carried out an unprecedented number of executions of Palestinian journalists, writes Mediapart co-founder Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article. He argues that the slaughter of local reporters in Gaza, to where no international media can gain access, is in order to eliminate the evidence of the crimes being committed there. 

The lessons to be learnt from France's worst wildfire in decades

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Firefighters take a break on August 6th during the major wildfire that ripped through the Corbières region in southern France. © Photo Pascal Rodriguez / Sipa Firefighters take a break on August 6th during the major wildfire that ripped through the Corbières region in southern France. © Photo Pascal Rodriguez / Sipa

The gigantic wildfire which, in barely more than 48 hours, burnt through about 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of vegetation and forestland in southern France this week has finally been halted. For an explanation of the magnitude of this exceptional wildfire, the tactics employed to contain it, and the lessons to be learned from it, Mickaël Correia turned to Éric Brocardi, a senior firefighter and spokesman for France's National Federation of Firefighters, who described the events this week as a "turning point".