The new French government is the most rightwing in France for more than a decade despite the fact that the leftwing alliance, the Nouveau Front Populaire, won more seats in July's parliamentary elections than any other political group. Mediapart's Fabien Escalona argues in this op-ed article that the creation of prime minister Michel Barnier's government is not in keeping either with the principles of France's Fifth Republic or those of a more traditional parliamentary system. The president and his new prime minister are heading dangerously towards a no man's land of legitimacy, he writes.

On Saturday President Emmanuel Macron appointed France's most rightwing government in twelve years. All factions on the Right are represented in prime minister Michel Barnier's team, even if this has meant disregarding the results of the parliamentary elections held back on July 7th. The appointment of Didier Migaud, a former leftwing MP, to the justice ministry serves as a token gesture to the Left. Otherwise, the sharp shift to the Right is clear, as is the rickety appearance of the whole edifice. Mediapart's political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani gives his analysis of the new government team.

Demonstrations against the high cost of living that began at the start of September have been causing tensions in the French Caribbean département of Martinique. However, the issue of food prices and the cost of other consumer goods is not new, and nor is it confined just to this island. As Amandine Ascensio reports, it is a persistent reality as a result of the obsolete way the economy is organised, something which has its roots in colonial times.

Last week a national conference on information, the 'États Généraux de l'Information', which was established by President Emmanuel Macron in 2023, published its proposals for the future of the news industry. But, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Carine Fouteau, its report revealed the media sector's inability to grasp the essential changes needed to defend independent, public-interest journalism. This is despite the fact that the need for strong counterbalances to the country's business and political powers is now greater than ever.

Nadia was born in the French overseas département of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean and is the mother of six French children. Recently she was separated from those children after being abruptly deported to the neighbouring country of Comoros, despise the fact that her expulsion order was riddled with errors. Hers is but one of many such cases as France continues to carry out mass indiscriminate deportations from Mayotte, employing hasty and often irregular procedures. In doing so the French authorities are ignoring repeated warnings, including from the Council of Europe. Grégoire Mérot reports from Mayotte's capital Mamoudzou.

The chairman of France’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party is alleged to have been fraudulently hired as a parliamentary assistant at the European Parliament, while his party stands accused of fabricating evidence to protect him from potential prosecution over the matter. The allegations against Jordan Bardella, who was the RN’s candidate for prime minister in recent legislative elections, are made in a book to be published on Friday. Meanwhile, RN figurehead Marine Le Pen will stand trial alongside 26 others – and the party itself – on September 30th, accused of involvement in a vast embezzlement of European Parliament funds allocated for parliamentary assistants but which, allegedly, were used to pay party staff. Marine Turchi reports.

The first attempt to start up the process of nuclear reaction in the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) at the Flamanville nuclear power plant, situated on France’s Channel Coast close to Jersey and Guernsey, was aborted by an automatic shutdown last week. The process was finally successfully re-engaged four days later, but the failure was just the latest in a catalogue of incidents and delays at the site, now 12 years overdue. For one specialist, the flaws in the design of the reactor, which is the same design as that planned for Hinkley Point in England, are such that it ‘will never function properly’. Jade Lindgaard reports. 

Two days after the appointment of the conservative veteran Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister, supporters of the leftwing coalition, the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), which came first in parliamentary elections this summer, are holding around 150 protest demonstrations around the country. Originally organised in August after President Emmanuel Macron’s rejection of the NFP candidate for prime minister, the appointment of Barnier, who relies on the support of the far-right for his government, has become the focus of the protests. Cécile Hautefeuille reports from Montpellier, southern France, where she spoke with leftwing activists and non-activists, all equally fired up by outrage at Macron's move.

Michel Barnier, 73, the former European Union commissioner and Brexit negotiator, a member of France’s conservative Les Républicains party, was on Thursday appointed by President Emmanuel Macron as the country's new prime minister. The move came after several days of discussions between Macron and the conservatives and the far-right, and two months after snap parliamentary elections produced a hung parliament, but in which the leftwing coalition, the Nouveau Front Populaire emerged as the largest single political force. Barnier’s appointment is a snub to the message of the urns, writes Mediapart political correspondent Ellen Salvi, and does nothing to resolve a situation which the French president is solely responsible for.

Following the arrest and placing under investigation in France of the boss of messaging app Telegram, Emmanuel Macron confirmed that he awarded French nationality to Pavel Durov using an exceptional and secretive process for naturalising foreigners. But a closer look at the case shows that Durov, who was also allowed to Frenchify his name to Paul du Rove, hardly meets the criteria for receiving what is called “citoyenneté émérite”. David Perrotin reports.