Paris-based minerals multinational Imerys wants to open a lithium mine near the village of Échassières in the centre of France where they have been holding consultations with local residents. If it goes ahead the mine would produce enough lithium for 663,000 electric car batteries each year. But as Nicolas Cheviron reports, people in the area are worried about the environmental impact of this major scheme as the debate continues over the best way to carry out energy transition.
In recent days, a false video purporting to be from news channel BFMTV has stoked paranoia about the prevalence of bedbugs in France. This is just one more item of pro-Russian propaganda among countless other examples of fake news that have been circulating lately. Justine Brabant and Matthieu Suc investigate the hidden workings of France's daily fight against Moscow's online influence.
Showing solidarity with Palestine has been made into an offence in France, writes Mediapart co-founder Edwy Plenel. To express it in speech, in writing or by demonstrating is liable to lead to a police summons, a criminal sentence or, beforehand, a ban. Every democrat should be concerned about this situation.
European Union countries head for the polls in June to elect, country by country, their future members of the European Parliament. In France, the elections coincide with the mid-term point in Emmanuel Macron’s presidency and that of parliament, where no party has an absolute majority, and the poll in June represents the first nationwide test of political opinion since 2022. While they are of a so-called “second order”, they are also typically the stage for voters to cast aside strategic choices and display their true preferences. Fabien Escalona reports.
Carlos Tavares, the CEO of carmaking group Stellantis, has been awarded a total remuneration for 2023 amounting to 36.5 million euros. While the extraordinary sum has prompted a wave of indignation, like on every occasion that such massive payouts are made, the indecent amount above all reveals important truths about the organisation of our economic and social systems, writes Mediapart’s economic affairs correspondent Romaric Godin.
After six months of Israeli bombardments the Gaza Strip is now just rubble and the war against Hamas has turned into a massacre of Palestinians, says Mediapart's publishing editor Carine Fouteau in this op-ed article. And by not opposing the destruction of an entire people, she argues, we become accomplices to it.
A judge close to justice minister Éric Dupond-Moretti, and who is suspected of having been compromised by the Corsican mafia and of having misused more than 100,000 euros of public money, was remanded in custody in the early hours of Saturday April 6th. Hélène Gerhards – who denies any wrongdoing - had earlier been formally placed under investigation for some ten alleged offences as the judicial probe into the case continues. As Fabrice Arfi reports, it is unprecedented for a serving French judge to be remanded in custody in this way.
Prince Albert II of Monaco is facing the biggest internal crisis this city-state has known for many years, against a backdrop of endemic corruption and a merciless war between rival clans. Fabrice Arfi and Antton Rouget report on the claims and counterclaims being made inside this tiny but ultra-wealthy principality.
The nationwide protest movement by French farmers that began earlier this year erupted from long-simmering unrest over falling incomes and rising costs. But among other key grievances they expressed are the constraints of environmental regulations, which are enforced by the inspectors of the French Office for Biodiversity, the OFB. The inspectors have become a main focus of the anger, whipped up by the largest farmers union, the FNSEA, and entertained by the centre-right government keen to appease the revolt ahead of European Parliament elections in June. Many inspectors have received instructions to suspend their policing of farmland, while their powers and practices are now the subject of review. “We’ve been thrown to the wolves,” said one OFB union official.
The headteacher of Maurice-Ravel high school in the French capital recently resigned after receiving death threats following an incident with a female pupil about a headscarf. The French prime minister Gabriel Attal has since announced the government is taking legal action against the student in question. As Prisca Borrel reports, the consequences of this controversial affair are dramatic and underline just how hard it is for teaching staff to peacefully apply the law banning the wearing of overtly religious symbols in state schools.
