The vote by the French Parliament to enshrine the right to abortion in the French Constitution is a world first, and carries with it considerable symbolic importance. But this historic decision cannot hide the difficulties faced by women today in actually getting an abortion, nor can it disguise Emmanuel Macron's political exploitation of the issue for his own purposes, argues Mediapart's joint editor-in-chief Lénaïg Bredoux in this op-ed article.

French president Emmanuel Macron provoked a controversy last week when he said he did not rule out Western 'troops on the ground' in Ukraine. The remarks were quickly and widely rejected, both by allies in Washington, London and Berlin and by domestic political opponents too. But the president's comments did not just spark an outcry, they have also caused confusion. Did the French head of state's remarks refer to a few spies, who are already there, 50 or so demining experts - something that has been discussed - or was he instead talking about 2,000 infantry combat ready troops? As Justine Brabant reports, it seems no one really knows what the president was talking about.

The emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, made a two-day state visit to Paris earlier this week. French government documents drawn up to prepare for the trip – seen by Mediapart - show the concessions that the French presidency was prepared to grant in order to curry favour with the head of the gas-rich emirate. The visit also came against the backdrop of the crisis in Gaza in which Qatar is playing a major mediation role. France was rewarded with the announcement that Qatar, which already has substantial interests in the country including the ownership of Paris Saint-Germain football club, will now invest a further ten billion euros here. Yann Philippin and Yunnes Abzouz report.

Tensions are running high in the small village of Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier, situated within the Monts d’Ardèche natural park in southern France. The deep divisions among its population of around 440 are over a project by a local traditionalist Catholic community, the Missionary Family of Our Lady, to build a giant complex – variously described as a basilica or spiritual centre – capable of welcoming 3,500 pilgrims, situated in an area which hosts dozens of protected species of plants and creatures. But beyond environmental concerns is alarm at the infiltration of the religious community into local life, including the influence it apparently wields over the village council, the expansion of its properties in the village, and alleged intimidation of opponents of the scheme, including from far-right militants. Prisca Borrel reports from Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier.  

The anti-terrorism branch of the French prosecution services this month recommended that the cement manufacturer Lafarge, and several of its former directors, be sent for trial on charges of “financing terrorism” and the “non-respect of international financial sanctions” over payments made between 2013 and 2014 to several terrorist groups, including Islamic State, to maintain the activities of its cement production plant in Syria. Mediapart has studied the 275-page document issued by the prosecution services, in which it dismisses the claims of several of the accused that France’s secret services and foreign affairs ministry were complicit in the deals made with the terrorist organisations. Fabrice Arfi reports.

The remains of the Communist wartime Resistance members Missak and Mélinée Manouchian were transferred to the Panthéon mausoleum in Paris on Wednesday, amid an official ceremony of homage led by President Emmanuel Macron. Prior to the event, he called on members of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party to abstain from attending, adding in an interview that they were not part of France’s “republican arc”. But that was simply tactical, argues Mediapart political correspondent Ellen Salvi in this op-ed article, for Macron’s positions in face of the far-right, which he has helped normalise, resemble shifting sands.

Senior French civil servant Fabrice Leggeri, who was executive director of the European Union’s border policing agency, Frontex, from 2015 to 2022, has announced he will stand as a candidate for France’s far-right, anti-immigration Rassemblement National (RN) party in this year’s European Parliament elections. Leggeri was forced to resign his post as Frontex boss amid leaked investigations that would confirm the agency he oversaw was involved in, and covered up, the dangerous practice of pushbacks of migrant boats in EU waters, in blatant violation of human rights. In an interview published at the weekend, he said he and the RN are “determined to combat the migratory submersion” which he claimed the European Commission promotes. Youmni Kezzouf and Camille Polloni report.

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday led a national ceremony of homage to Robert Badinter who, when justice minister, led the abolition of capital punishment in France and decriminalised homosexuality. Since his death on February 9th at the age of 95, there has been apparent unanimity in the cross-party tributes paid to Badinter, but they cannot hide the violence of the attacks he received from the far-right over his championing of rights and his combat against injustices, writes Mediapart publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this profile of the reformist.

Over the last six years in France the story of the #MeToo movement – which highlights and denounces sexist and sexual violence - has been one of both advances and staunch resistance. But the latest developments, involving cases which yet again have emerged from the world of French cinema, could mark a turning point. Lénaïg Bredoux and Marine Turchi report on the current state of the #MeToo movement in the country.

Paris-based photographer Martin Barzilai went in search of the history of his father’s family, who until the outbreak of World War II all lived in the Greek port city of Thessaloniki, once known as “the Jerusalem of the Balkans” for its centuries-old Jewish population. His quest took him to Greece and the story of how that population, including members of his family, was wiped out during the German occupation of Thessaloniki, when even the tombstones from the Jewish cemetery, razed in 1942, were used as building material, still visible on the city’s streets today. His investigations are now told in words and photos in a book, 'Cimetière fantôme : Thessalonique', with contributions from two historians, and reviewed here by Amélie Poinssot.