The high-rise housing blocks of Pissevin, on the outskirts of Nîmes. © Photo Prisca Borrel pour Mediapart

The fatal shooting of a ten-year-old boy last month in Pissevin, a run-down, high-rise quarter on the outskirts of Nîmes in southern France, made national headlines and prompted the sending of riot police to the neighbourhood to contain the spiralling violence of drug traffickers engaged in turf wars. Two days later, an 18-year-old man was shot dead, after which France’s interior minister made a high-profile visit to the quarter, promising further reinforcements. But the sudden attention given to the dilapidated neighbourhood, built as a model public housing scheme in the early 1960s but where around 70% of the population now live below the poverty line, has done little to appease inhabitants, who complain of being abandoned for years in a crumbling environment. Prisca Borrel reports from Pissevin.

Emmanuel Macron photographed in the classroom of a middle school in Jarnac in south-west France, February 28th 2023. © Photo Jean-Michel Nossant / Pool / Abaca

In a lengthy interview to mark the end of the political summer pause, the French president placed particular emphasis on the role of education. He sees this as the route by which he will accomplish his plan to “re-civilise” a “section of young people” following the recent unrest in the country. And he made clear that he regards education as his “exclusive preserve”, in which he will oversee and guide policy. However, as Mathilde Goanec argues in this op-ed article, the kind of policies that Emmanuel Macron wants to pursue are already outdated - and decidedly old school.

The three ministers, Brice Hortefeux, Éric Woerth, Claude Guéant, and former president Nicolas Sarkozy. © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart avec AFP

After ten years of investigation, judges have decided that there is sufficient evidence to send former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to stand trial in the affair concerning the alleged illegal Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign. The investigating judges are also sending three of the ex-president's ministers for trial in the same affair: Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux and Éric Woerth. As Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report, this is an unprecedented situation in French political and legal history.

Médine during a televised event hosted by Mediapart called 'You won't get me', in Paris, May 10th 2023. © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

The prominent French rapper Médine has been at the centre of a row after a Tweet aimed at essayist Rachel Khan – a Franco-Gambian woman whose Jewish maternal grandparents died in the Holocaust – was criticised as 'anti-Semitic'. The rapper himself has apologised and insisted he had not targeted Rachel Khan's Jewish heritage in any way. He also says that he accepts he has made errors in the past and that he fights “all forms of anti-Semitism”. But the row has continued and invitations for Médine to address the summer conferences of both the radical left La France Insoumise and France's green party Europe Écologie-Les Verts have caused a rift on the Left. Some prominent politicians have said they will not attend the events because of the controversy. Mathieu Dejean reports.

General Raoul Salan (arms raised) at the balcony of the offices of the governor-general in Algiers on May 15th 1958 (where he shouted 'Vive de Gaulle!') © AFP

In October the Fifth Republic will become France's longest-surviving regime since the 1789 Revolution, its 65th anniversary eclipsing the previous record held by the Third Republic. In this first part of a Mediapart series devoted to the issue, Fabien Escalona looks at the unwitting role played in the establishment of the new republic by the attempted coup d'état staged by members of the French military and some senior officials in May 1958. Though the Fifth Republic which emerged later that year was formed without their involvement, this presidential regime owes at least some of its creation to the dramatic political mood caused by the attempted putsch.

The town hall in Mamoudzou, the Mayotte capital on the island of Grande-Terre (pictured in 2018). © Photo Julien Helaine / Hans Lucas via AFP

In France’s overseas territories and départements, civil servants and other state employees continue to be paid vastly superior salaries compared to what they would receive on the mainland. It is a legacy of what was called the “supplément colonial”, a financial incentive to work in the country’s far-flung colonies. In modern times, the generous remunerations appear in stark contrast to the often dire social and economic conditions of local populations. In this report, one of a four-part series, Julien Sartre travelled to France’s poorest département (county), the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, where almost 80% of the population live in poverty, and where the salaries of the fonctionnaires from the mainland are bumped up by 43%.

The cité Lesage-Bullourde in the 1950s. © Service de topographie de l’Hôtel de Ville

Mediapart’s Paris offices, in the capital’s 11th arrondissement, sit above the former site of the cité Lesage-Bullourde, an insalubrious cluster of inhabited buildings and industrial workshops that were demolished in the early 1960s. That prompted Antoine Perraud to delve into the history of the Cité, the foundations of which date back to the end of the 18th century, in a four-part series of articles. Here he focuses on the period of the Second World War, and the German occupation of France, when the Cité’s Jewish population, many of whom had already fled persecution, were rounded up by French police and deported to Nazi death camps.

Pro-junta demonstrators attacking the French embassy in Niger’s capital Niamey, July 30th 2023. © AFP

The July putsch in Niger has placed France, the former colonial ruler, in an impasse with regard to its use of the country as a base for operations against armed jihadist insurgents in the Sahel region. With around 1,500 troops stationed in Niger, which Paris turned to last year as its principal West African ally after being forced to withdraw its military from neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, the outcome of the present standoff with the new junta is uncertain. Rémi Carayol reports on how the explosive situation follows a series of blunders in France’s strategy in West Africa, where its presence has become increasingly unpopular.

Turning points: Jacques Chirac with Yasser Arafat (left), and Nicolas Sarkozy with Ehud Olmert. © Photomontage Mediapart avec AFP

French journalist Alain Gresh is a veteran specialist in Middle East affairs, and notably the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A former editor of the monthly review Le Monde diplomatique, Gresh is now editor-in-chief of Orient XXI, an online magazine focussing on the Arab world. In an updated book re-published this month, amid the horrific events in Israel and Gaza, he recounts the history of France’s strategy towards the Israel-Palestine conflict over the past 50 years. In this interview with Mediapart, he analyses the decline of France’s diplomatic status in the Middle East, its realignment with the US approach to the region after decades as an independent broker, and warns of a now widening gulf between France and the Arab world.

Gnama Camara and Jean-Wilson Lacombe below the tower blocks on the Marcel-Paul estate at Île-Saint-Denis, July 2nd 2023. © Photo : Jade Lindgaard

In the northern suburbs of Paris the urban renovation of a rundown neighbourhood has been put under extra pressure by the construction of the nearby Olympic Village for the 2024 Games. Nearly 300 households, including families with children and the elderly, have to leave their high-rise social housing as soon as possible. And as Jade Lindgaard reports, to accelerate the process some of the offers of alternative housing for the unhappy tenants have not complied with the normal rules.

People in Gaza search for victims amid the debris of a building hit by an Israeli strike on Khan Younis in the Gaza, October 14th 2023. © Photo Yasser Qudih / Xinhua / Sipa

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict presents a moral issue of universal importance, that of the equality of rights, says Mediapart publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article. In parallel to Israel’s international legitimacy is a denial of the rights of Palestinians. Alarmed spectators, we discover the horror of the Hamas terrorist attack and the killing of Israeli civilians, and follow the slaughter, under the bombs of the Israeli military, of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. All these human lives have the same value, the same cost, he writes, and we cannot accept this escalade of terror in which the crimes of one camp supposedly justify the crimes of another.

Director Nicolas Bedos in Paris in 2022. © Photo Julien de Rosa / AFP

A preliminary investigation into rape and sexual assault allegations concerning the actor and director, who is perhaps best known for directing the 2019 film 'La Belle Époque', was opened on July 5th by Paris prosecutors. When approached, Nicolas Bedos, who benefits from a presumption of innocence, declined to comment. Four women have spoken to Mediapart about the film director. Marine Turchi reports.

Some of the new faces in prime minister Élisabeth Borne's government. © Photomontage Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

After considerable delays, French president Emmanuel Macron and his prime minister Élisabeth Borne, newly re-confirmed in her role, have carried out a government reshuffle. The main theme is the removal of ministers from a civic society background, who were considered too low-profile. They have instead been replaced by more political appointments in the form of Macron loyalists and Parliamentarians. The prime minister and her team hope this will make the government function more effectively. As for any new political impetus, that will have to wait. Political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani reports.

© Photo Laure Boyer / Hans Lucas via AFP

Many French media outlets continue to harbour clichéd views of life in working class areas and this in turn leads to bias in how events in the country's suburbs – often places of high immigration and poverty - are covered. Many newsroom journalists are unhappy at the persistence of such views, but say they choose to keep silent for fear of being mocked or being accused of a lack of neutrality. Yunnes Abzouz investigates.

Pages from the BNP Paribas guide to staff on how to respond to criticism of its financing of fossil fuel extraction. © Photomontage Mediapart avec AFP

French bank BNP Paribas is increasingly under fire from climate activists over its financing of oil and gas companies. In face of the high-profile campaigns, it has issued an advice manual for its staff on how to respond to criticism of its activities at the “family meal” table, such as explaining to a “cousin worried about climate-warming” that the bank in fact supports ending mass fossil fuel extraction. Mediapart has obtained a copy of the guide, which adopts a light-hearted culinary theme, beginning with a chapter entitled ‘appetizer’. But, as Mickaël Correia reports, its questionable claims are so brazen that some might lose their appetite.