While Russia steps up its offensive operations in the eastern Ukrainian province of Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine is struggling to replace its military losses through mobilization, placing its foot soldiers under greater pressure than ever. In this gritty report by Mediapart’s Ukrainian media partner, The Kyiv Independent, Francis Farrell recounts the long day he spent with the infantry in the frontline trenches near the Donetsk Oblast mining town of Toretsk, where little more than a hundred metres separates them from Russian troops.
A report published this week by France’s national audit body, the Cour des comptes, sounds the alarm over a leap in spending by the country’s presidential office, which left a budget deficit in 2023 of 8 million euros. The auditors target the costs of lavish entertainment, state banquets and travel in France and abroad. Top of the list of eye-watering dinner bills was a banquet organised at Versailles Palace in honour of King Charles III last September, and which came to just over 474,000 euros. Ilyes Ramdani and Antton Rouget report.
Idriss, who is originally from Sudan, has lived in Brittany in north-western France since 2016 and runs a market garden for an association which helps migrants interested in a career in agriculture. In early July, during the parliamentary election campaign which saw increased support for the far-right, this social enterprise was targeted by racist attacks on two successive nights. Idriss has reported both incidents to the authorities, and says he fears that someone could get hurt if there are similar episodes in the future. Nejma Brahim reports.
In order to host the 2024 Olympic Games, which were officially opened in Paris on Friday evening, the public authorities in France caved in to the demands of the International Olympic Committee. Yet, argues Mediapart's Antton Rouget in this op-ed article, the IOC is a clannish organisation that imposes its model and enriches itself without ever being accountable to anyone.
“That's not the issue,” the French president responded when asked about the prospect of nominating a prime minister from the Left. Speaking on France 2 television, Emmanuel Macron did finally acknowledge that he had lost the recent parliamentary elections but, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Carine Fouteau in this op-ed article, he still refuses to face up to the consequences, and instead imagines he can carry on with the policies that have led both him and France into a dead end. She argues that the president's continuing scheming to remain in power – which includes calling for a political 'truce' during the Paris Olympics - poses a threat to the rule of law.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy recently insisted that France was now politically a right-leaning country, probably more so than it has “ever been”. However, political scientist Vincent Tiberj disputes the widespread notion that there has been a rightwards shift “from the bottom up” in French society. Instead he prefers to point the finger of responsibility for recent voting patterns at media and political elites, against a backdrop of growing political disengagement among citizens. However, as Mediapart's Fabien Escalona writes, it would be unwise for the Left to seize on this as a reassuring counter-narrative.
Cross-country skier Stéphane Passeron, a former member of the French team and a Paralympic coach at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, argues that major sporting and cultural events are no longer compatible with the current climate crisis. As a campaign group asks for France's bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics to be scrapped, the veteran skier goes further and calls for an end to all major sporting events, such as the Olympics, the Tour de France and the football World Cup. Instead, argues Stéphane Passeron, we need to “make sport local”. Interview by Jade Lindgaard.
By revealing details of an internal investigation implicating their celebrated founder Abbé Pierre in sexual assault, the high-profile charities Emmaüs and the Abbé Pierre Foundation are now doing an exemplary job, despite past denials of any problem, argues Mediapart's joint editor-in-chief Lénaïg Bredoux in this op-ed article. The world of sport - notably football and rugby - is also experiencing similarly turbulent times, she says, amid signs that sections of French society are beginning to face up to the issue.
In an interview with Mediapart, French constitutional law specialist Jean-Marie Denquin analyses the implications of centrist MP Yaël Braun-Pivet's re-election as president of the National Assembly on Thursday, when she narrowly beat the Left's own candidate for this prestigious and important post. This was despite the fact that the Left had won more seats than anyone else in the recent elections, while Emmanuel Macron's centre-right alliance itself lost scores of MPs. The academic also outlines the broader challenges facing the Left with the advent of what he calls a “new system” - a parliamentary rather than the previous presidential one - that favours the concentration of power at the centre rather than the extremes. Interview by Fabien Escalona.
As the Paris Olympic Games get closer – the opening ceremony is on July 26th - France's Ministry of the Interior has been stepping up at an unprecedented rate the number of administrative control and surveillance measures on those they see as potential security threats. People's jobs and even their homes are under threat as house arrest orders are placed on individuals who have never been in trouble with the law before – or not for many years. Jérôme Hourdeaux reports.
