Laicity is a key principle of the modern French Republic but there has long been a debate over how far it should extend; sections of the Left fear that secularism is sometimes misused to discriminate against Muslims, for example. The recent commemoration of the 2015 terror attacks, particularly the massacre at the Paris offices of satirical weekly 'Charlie Hebdo', has highlighted a shift in rhetoric from France's self-proclaimed “secular activists”. These activists no longer just focus their attacks on members of the radical-left La France Insoumise and their founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who have been accused of so-called 'Islamo-Leftism'. They now also target other elements of the French Left, including the Socialist Party, whose leadership has been criticised for “betraying social democracy”. Mathieu Dejean reports on the fault lines between militant secularists and the Left.

The team responsible for the red handprints that were painted on the Holocaust memorial in Paris in 2024 also planned the propaganda stunt that involved coffins being placed in front of the Eiffel Tower. The men arrested by the French authorities over these incidents claim to be working in the service of peace, but are in fact mainly known for their connections to Russian spies. Some clearly also have neo-Nazi sympathies. Matthieu Suc reports in this second part of a Mediapart investigation into how France foiled a Russian destabilisation plot.

The death of France’s former far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was announced on Tuesday. The founder of the Front National, now renamed the Rassemblement National, died in a hospital close to Paris at the age of 96. French historian Nicolas Lebourg, specialised in research into the far-right in France and Europe, retraces here the marking moments in the life of Le Pen, an outspoken racist and anti-Semite, whose opponents and supporters, he writes, would at least agree that he succeeded in demonstrating it was possible to change France without governing the country.

On January 7th 2015, a terrorist attack on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris murdered 12 people, including its editor Stéphane Charbonnier. The weekly publication's legal affairs writer Sigolène Vinson was in the office during the bloody attack by brothers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi but her life was spared. Ten years and three trials later, she tells Mediapart's Matthieu Suc that what helps heal her is “sunshine, sea and silence”.

On January 6th Nicolas Sarkozy took centre stage at an historic trial in Paris. He and three former ministers face charges over claims that the former president's successful 2007 election campaign was part-funded by the Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. And that the North African country – whose leader was one of the most notorious dictators on the planet – received favours in exchange. The marathon trial, unprecedented in both the nature of the charges and the profiles of the defendants, who number 13 in all, is expected to last until April 10th. It marks the culmination of a ten-year judicial investigation that, in the words of the judges carrying out the probe, has “revealed both payments and reciprocal benefits”. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report on the background to this momentous court case.

Nicolas Sarkozy and some of his former ministers go on trial this Monday over claims that the former French president's successful 2007 election campaign was funded by the Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. In this, as in other criminal cases in which the former head of state has been implicated, his approach has been to disclaim any personal knowledge of events, even to the point of throwing his closest associates under the bus. In the current case the ex-head of state has had harsh words for his most loyal lieutenants, Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéant. “I had no way of knowing what the reality of their lives was,” he told judges investigating the affair. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.

In May 2024 graffiti appeared on the walls of the Holocaust museum in Paris. The 35 spray-painted red hand symbols were quickly condemned by politicians as an act of anti-Semitism. But who was responsible? After a swift investigation, detectives tracked down those responsible for defacing the Mémorial de la Shoah. Matthieu Suc reports on how investigators then quickly discovered that the vandalism was in fact part of a wider Russian attempt to destabilise France.

The French overseas territory of New Caledonia, situated in the south-west of the Pacific Ocean, was last year plunged into chaos over a move by Paris to introduce an electoral reform that weakened the political clout of parties of the indigenous, and largely pro-independence, Kanak population. Violent protests over the reform erupted last May, after which at least 14 people died in the clashes, which also left the archipelago’s economy reeling. Mediapart's Ellen Salvi returned to New Caledonia at the end of 2024 where she met with the Kanak population in Saint-Louis, a hotbed of the insurrection and subsequently the target of a repressive crackdown. She reports here on how the inhabitants, despite their anger, sadness and fatigue, remain determined to pursue the Kanak cause for independence.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and three of his ex-ministers will stand trial in Paris on January 6th on corruption charges related to the alleged illegal funding of his 2007 election campaign by the regime of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Part of the prosecution case is the alleged offer by Sarkozy’s entourage to overturn, in return for the funding, an international arrest warrant issued by France against Gaddafi’s brother-in-law Abdullah al-Senussi, who was found guilty in absentia of masterminding the mid-air bombing of a French airliner in which 170 people died. In this interview with Mediapart, the sister of one of the victims, and the daughter of another, recount their long quest for justice, and explain why they hope the trial will finally present the truth about the suspected ugly dealings over Senussi.

One year ago, US investment firm Cerberus Capital Management bought the French arm of British banking group HSBC for the symbolic sum of 1 euro. After pledging no job losses over its first 12 months of ownership, when the bank was given back its former name of CCF, the management has now announced a plan to axe 1,410 jobs and to close 85 of its 235 branches nationwide. The move represents the largest single redundancy plan currently underway in France. Khedidja Zerouali reports.