How French billionaire François-Henri Pinault hid his ecocidal use of private jet

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François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of the Kering group. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of the Kering group. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP

Billionaire French businessman François-Henri Pinault has a taste for jetting around in his private Bombardier plane. As a result, he became one of the happy few named and shamed for their disproportionate contribution to climate change by spewing thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from their private jets. Pinault, whose luxury group Kering boasts of its green credentials, changed the registration details of his aircraft to disappear from the public radar. But the French collective association Mémoire vive found the re-registered plane, and details of its journeys. Mickaël Correia reports.

 

Rules on French police use of rubber bullets loosened despite life-changing injuries

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A police officer aims an LBD rubber projectile gun at a ‘yellow vest’ demonstration in Paris in January 2019. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP A police officer aims an LBD rubber projectile gun at a ‘yellow vest’ demonstration in Paris in January 2019. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP

Over the past five years in France, one person has died and at least 35 others have been wounded, many seriously, by the hard rubber projectiles fired from supposedly non-lethal “defence” guns, called LBDs, used by police on crowd-control missions. While LBDs have left demonstrators and bystanders with shocking life-changing wounds, including the irreversible blinding of eyes and skull fractures, Mediapart has discovered that the rules surrounding the minimum distance between police officers using the weapon and their target have been loosened. Pascale Pascariello reports.

French teacher murder: the conundrum of making schools more secure against attacks

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 © Photo Franck Fernandes / Nice Matin / PhotoPQR via MaxPPP © Photo Franck Fernandes / Nice Matin / PhotoPQR via MaxPPP

The murder of a teacher, and the serious wounding of three other staff in an apparent terrorist knife attack at a secondary school the north-east French town of Arras on October 13th has prompted intense debate on how to improve security in schools in France. It has heightened concern over a series of violent incidents at schools in recent years, including the stabbing murder and decapitation in 2020 of a teacher in a Paris suburb, also in a terrorist attack. Teachers’ unions have warned against proposed measures that would turn schools into fortresses, while existing security arrangements, such as alarms and fencing, have for long been left in disrepair. Education correspondent Mathilde Goanec reports.        

How French schoolteacher killer went on attack despite anti-terror agency surveillance

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Police outside the Gambetta-Carnot secondary school in Arras, north-east France, on October 13th. © Photo Denis Charlet / AFP Police outside the Gambetta-Carnot secondary school in Arras, north-east France, on October 13th. © Photo Denis Charlet / AFP

Several thousand people gathered in the north-east French town of Arras on Sunday to pay tribute to the victims of the knife attack at a local school on Friday which left a schoolteacher dead and three of his colleagues seriously wounded. The attacker, a 20-year-old man originally from the Russian Federation’s Caucasus region who arrived in France with his family in 2008, had been the subject of surveillance by France’s domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI, who considered him a potential danger for his apparent affiliation with radical Islamism. But his intention to commit an imminent attack was not identified. Matthieu Suc reports on the reasons behind the failure, and several similar previous cases in France that highlight the difficulties of intelligence services in preventing terrorist attacks.

Predator Files: surveillance kit for dictatorships with the collusion of France's DGSE secret service

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 © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart

The Predator Files investigation has revealed how the French external intelligence agency, the DGSE, cooperated very closely with the surveillance equipment firm Nexa. This is despite the fact that the French group was suspected by French prosecutors of being complicit in torture by exporting its products to dictatorial regimes. Nexa's clients have also included several French ministries and a number of the country's intelligence agencies. Yann Philippin and Matthieu Suc report.

Predator Files: President Macron, Alexandre Benalla and a French firm's attempts to sell spyware to Saudi Arabia

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 © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart

Mediapart is part of an international investigation called 'Predator Files' which has revealed how French group Nexa sold the spy software 'Predator' to three autocratic regimes. The same media investigation shows that, after making direct contact with President Emmanuel Macron, the company used his former bodyguard and personal security adviser Alexandre Benalla to try to sell spyware to Saudi Arabia. This was despite the murder of Saudi regime critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Yet 18 months after these deeply embarrassing facts for the Élysée were unearthed, a judicial investigation has stalled. Yann Philippin and Antton Rouget report.

An impossible trial: French justice minister tried in a court where his judges are fellow politicians

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Getting ready for trial: justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti. © Photo Bertrand Guay / AFP Getting ready for trial: justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti. © Photo Bertrand Guay / AFP

France's justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti is due to stand trial this November over an alleged “unlawful conflict of interest”. He will appear before the Cour de Justice de la République (CJR), France's special court reserved for ministers being tried over acts they carried out as part of their official duties. Mediapart has spoken to judges, legal experts and politicians who are concerned about the nature of a trial in which the country's justice minister will confront prosecutors who are answerable to him in the workplace … and in a courtroom where most of those judging him are politicians. Fabrice Arfi and Michel Deléan report.

Macron’s defence of Depardieu: conspiracy theories and masculinism

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Emmanuel Macron (l) and Gérard Depardieu, who the French president says 'makes France proud'. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart Emmanuel Macron (l) and Gérard Depardieu, who the French president says 'makes France proud'. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

A total of 16 women have accused the actor Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault, including rape. While Depardieu has firmly denied the allegations, a French television documentary investigating the claims this month revealed hitherto unseen footage of his lewd behaviour. Amid the outrage sparked by the documentary, 56 showbiz stars this week signed an open letter denouncing the “lynching” of Depardieu. But the most notable of those who have leapt to the actor’s defence is Emmanuel Macron, who slammed what he called a “manhunt” against the actor, even wrongly suggesting the incriminating recording in the documentary had been doctored. In this op-ed article first published in French last week, Lénaïg Bredoux and Marine Turchi analyse the French president’s ill-judged intervention.

'You're waiting until I get killed': plight of France's domestic abuse victims refused refuge

By Audrey Guiller and Nolwenn Weiler
A demonstration by the collective 'Nous Toutes' in Paris, October 9th 2022. © Photo Amaury Cornu / Hans Lucas via AFP A demonstration by the collective 'Nous Toutes' in Paris, October 9th 2022. © Photo Amaury Cornu / Hans Lucas via AFP

In recent weeks voluntary groups who help victims of domestic violence in France have been obliged to refuse some women a place in safe accommodation. This follows directives issued by state prefectures around the country. These orders, which have been seen by Mediapart, instruct these help groups to cut back on the amount of emergency hotel accommodation that they can offer women in need. Audrey Guiller and Nolwenn Weiler report.

Le Pen's far-right party repays Russian loan – but questions remain over links to Putin regime

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Marine Le Pen and party treasurer Kévin Pfeffer at the National Assembly in Paris, October 11th 2022. © Photo Thomas Samson / AFP Marine Le Pen and party treasurer Kévin Pfeffer at the National Assembly in Paris, October 11th 2022. © Photo Thomas Samson / AFP

France's far-right Rassemblement National party recently announced that it has repaid the controversial loan it took out with Russian financial institutions. In doing so, Marine Le Pen's party is seeking both to portray itself as a good financial manager and remove what has become a political millstone around its neck since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yet the party's announcement came just five days after revelations by Mediapart raised fresh concerns over the close links between the the French party and the Putin regime at the time the loan was arranged. As Marine Turchi reports, questions still linger over exactly how the loan was obtained and the commissions that were paid to arrange it.

'Rafale Papers': India impedes French judicial probe into Dassault

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 © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart avec AFP et PTI © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart avec AFP et PTI

Though it has not said so officially, the Indian government of prime minister Narendra Modi is refusing to comply with a request for international cooperation made by French judges. The two investigating magistrates want access to key documents as part of their probe into alleged corruption over the sale of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter jets to India in 2016 for 7.8 billion euros. Yann Philippin investigates.

School bullying: the blatant mistrust that French education officials show towards parents

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 © Photo Christophe Archambault / AFP © Photo Christophe Archambault / AFP

A major controversy has erupted in France about the way an education authority responded to the parents of a 15-year-old boy who took his own life after being bullied. Officials claimed the pupil's parents had shown an “unacceptable” approach towards school staff and even threatened legal action for defamation. As Mediapart's Mathilde Goanec reports, this grim episode has raised questions over how the country's local education authorities deal with parental concerns over problems such as bullying. It also raises a wider issue about the role that parents are allowed to have in schools.

How Bordeaux's thriving public transport system could become a victim of its own success

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A regional express train entering Bordeaux Saint Jean station in 2017. © Photo Sébastien Ortola / REA A regional express train entering Bordeaux Saint Jean station in 2017. © Photo Sébastien Ortola / REA

In an effort to curb carbon dioxide emissions, the French government recently backed the extension of regional express transport networks or RERs in the country's major conurbations. New rail and bus routes have already been created around the major south-western city of Bordeaux and they have attracted many new passengers. But as Manuel Magrez reports, some of the city's new transport routes are now so popular and overcrowded they will soon require even more resources.

Macron’s immigration bill blocked by row over regularisation of undocumented workers

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Hardline interior minister Gérald Darmanin (left) and Macron party MP Sacha Houlié. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP Hardline interior minister Gérald Darmanin (left) and Macron party MP Sacha Houlié. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP

President Emmanuel Macron and his government locked in difficult negotiations over draft legislation aimed at toughening up immigration and asylum laws. Originally due to be presented in the spring, it was withdrawn after the government, without an absolute majority in parliament, failed to gain necessary support from the conservative opposition. They are vehemently opposed to an article in the bill which would allow undocumented migrants working in sectors suffering labour shortages to gain full legal status. The issue has caused a deep split among members of Macron’s centre-right party, some of who, led by MP Sacha Houlié, fear that hardline interior minister Gérald Darmanin, presenter of the bill, will bow to pressure from the conservatives to remove the regularisation measures. Mediapart’s parliamentary correspondent Pauline Graulle reports.

Major French food aid charity faces closure amid spiralling costs and demand

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A food bank run by the Restos du cœur in Paris. © Photo Pauline Gauer / Abaca A food bank run by the Restos du cœur in Paris. © Photo Pauline Gauer / Abaca

The Restos du cœur is a French charitable association which runs a nationwide network of tens of thousands of volunteers managing food banks and mobile street kitchens. While official figures estimate that about eight million people in France are currently unable to ensure alone their basic food requirements, the association has now announced it may have to shut down for lack of sufficient funds in face of spiralling costs. The news caused shock in France where for decades it has been regarded as a perennial lifebuoy for the destitute, and has prompted a rush of highly publicised donations by government, corporations and the wealthy. Zeina Kovacs and Manuel Magrez report on the crisis facing the association, and those who appear to be feeding off it.