Families of jihadists in the Syrian Democratic Forces’ camp of al-Hol, in north-east Syria, March 8th 2019. © Photo Laurence Geai / Myop

Three young orphans of French jihadist parents killed in Syria after joining the ranks of the so-called Islamic State group have been held in orphanages in Damascus since November 2019. The aunt of two of them has been campaigning for their return to France, but the French authorities have told her they cannot help. “It’s a political question, but it is these children who suffer the consequences,” says their aunt. “They have already paid for the choices made by their parents.” Céline Martelet reports.

Georges Salines pictured in Paris in June 2021. © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

At the end of an almost ten-month trial, the sentencing of 20 individuals accused of perpetrating or helping to perpetrate the November 13th 2015 terrorist attacks in and around Paris was pronounced on Wednesday, including a 30-year jail term without possibility of parole for one of the terrorists, Salah Abdeslam. Throughout the trial, Mediapart has been publishing the reactions to the proceedings from seven direct and indirect victims of the attacks. One of them is Georges Salines, whose daughter Lola, 28, was among the 90 people murdered at the Bataclan concert hall. In his latest contribution, written shortly before the verdicts were announced, he questions the sense behind severe jail sentences, and notably that, widely expected, handed to Abdeslam, which he says “abandons the idea of any possibility of remorse, of making amends, of redemption”.

Ukrainian soldiers operating a French Caesar cannon in the Donbas region of Ukraine on June 15th 2022. © Photo Aris Messinis / AFP

On Monday October 10th the Élysée announced “new measures to support Ukraine militarily”. Two days later President Emmanuel Macron said France would be sending air-defence systems to the country after the recent Russian missile attacks. Up to now the French government has concealed exactly how much military support it has given to Kyiv since Russia's invasion in February, justifying this on the grounds of operational secrecy. However, a think tank has now detailed the military aid that all countries have given to Ukraine, and these figures show that France trails behind other key allies. Justine Brabant and Donatien Huet report.

Aurélia Gilbert pictured in Paris in September 2021. © Photo Sébastien Calvet /Mediapart

The verdicts and sentencing at the end of a nine-month trial in Paris of 20 individuals accused of taking part in the November 13th 2015 terrorist attacks in the French capital, which claimed the lives of 130 people, are due to be announced late on Wednesday. Mediapart has been publishing first-hand reactions from seven victims of the massacres as they took part in the court proceedings. Aurélia Gilbert, 48, emerged physically unscathed from the shooting massacre that night at the Bataclan music hall, but has suffered significant psychological effects since. Here, at the close of the trial, she gives her account of how she has finally been relieved of “this burden that had lasted almost seven years”.

Christophe Naudin, June 2021. © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

The trial of 20 individuals variously accused of perpetrating or helping to carry out the November 13th 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, in which 130 people died, is due to end this coming week with verdicts expected on Wednesday June 29th. Throughout the trial, which began in September 2021, Mediapart has been publishing first-hand reactions from seven victims of the massacres as they have taken part in, and followed, the court proceedings. Here, schoolteacher Christophe Naudin, who survived the shooting massacre at the Bataclan concert hall in which one of his closest friends died, describes his emotions as the trial comes to a close and reveals how for a long period he stopped following news of the proceedings.

Catherine Colonna when she was French ambassador to Italy, in her office in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome on December 12th 2014. © Photo Eric Vandeville / Abaca

Alerts concerning the new French foreign minister's behaviour were sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' dedicated 'zero tolerance' anti-bullying unit at the start of 2022, a few months before she was appointed, according to Mediapart's information. An inspection by the ministry's internal inspectorate was due to be carried out at the French embassy in London where Catherine Colonna was ambassador at the time. That review has since been postponed. Ellen Salvi reports.

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen at the Élysée, November 21st 2017. © Photo Denis Allard / REA

By playing at being the sorcerer's apprentice and pitching himself as the only acceptable option between the radical Left and the far-right, Emmanuel Macron has allowed Rassemblement National to become a major force within the National Assembly, argues Ellen Salvi in this opinion article. Rather than fighting against the racist and xenophobic ideas of Marine Le Pen's party, she writes, he ended up giving them a helping hand out of sheer political cynicism. Following Sunday's legislative elections the far-right party will have 89 MPs in the new National Assembly.

Emmanuel Macron and Élisabeth Borne during a ceremony at the Mont-Valérien war memorial at Suresnes, in the western suburbs of Paris, on June 18th 2022. © Photo Gonzalo Fuentes / Pool / AFP

Having been repudiated at the ballot box in the second round of France's legislative elections on Sunday, Presidential Emmanuel Macron is now faced with an unprecedented political and institutional crisis. Without a working majority in the National Assembly, there looks to be no obvious solutions for him at the start of his second term, unless there is a major but improbable realignment of political groups. Analysis by political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani.

French voters have delivered a major setback to Emmanuel Macron and his  centre-right Ensemble coalition, which has failed to achieve an overall majority in the National Assembly in today's decisive second round legislative elections. This  is a huge blow for President Macron who cannot now be assured of Parliamentary backing for his planned reforms. His centre-right coalition has so far picked up 245 of the 577 seats, with 289 being the magic number to achieve an overall majority. This is well down on the number of seats it won in 2017 and means that for the government to have a working parliamentary majority it will have to seek the help of another party. That could be the rightwing Les Républicains who have 61 seats. Meanwhile the broad left and environmental alliance NUPES will be the main opposition party in the new Assembly, with  it and its allies winning 147 seats. This is a major achievement for the driving force behind NUPES, veteran leftwinger Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose La France Insoumise party only won 17 seats in the last parliament. But one of the biggest winners of the night is the far-right Rassemblement National who have won 89 seats. These dramatic results are now set to usher in a period of political uncertainty. Our live coverage of the second round results and reactions was by Graham Tearse and Michael Streeter.

The NUPES convention at Aubervilliers in the northern suburbs of Paris, May 7th 2022. © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

In the decisive second round of voting in France's legislative elections this Sunday June 19th, a vote for the NUPES alliance of the Left and environmentalists is both ethically essential and a political necessity, argues Mediapart's publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this opinion article. To vote in this way, he writes, is to reject the duplicity of a divisive presidency and to embrace political change via a parliamentary route.

A worker from ENEDIS, the company that looks after the power grid for domestic users, in 2014. © Photo Jean-Sébastien Evard / AFP

A number of European governments introduced detailed energy conservation plans in the spring to tackle the energy crisis. In contrast, the French government has been happy simply to talk about the need for 'restraint' combined with vague calls for people to cut energy use, argues Martine Orange in this op-ed article. She says it has now taken the country's electricity grid operator RTE to spell out just how urgent the situation is.

The election night gathering of Macron's Ensemble movement in Paris, June 12th 2022. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP

In next Sunday's decisive second round in France's legislative elections there will be nearly sixty constituencies where candidates from the broad left alliance known as NUPES will be in a head-to-head contest with far-right candidates. Yet rather than telling its voters to back the leftwing candidates against the far-right Rassemblement National, senior figures in Emmanuel Macron's ruling party have labelled both those on the right and many on the left as extremists. And they say they will advise their voters whom to back on a case by case basis. Mediapart's Ellen Salvi argues in this opinion article that this cynical approach amounts to bad faith on the part of the president's political movement. She says it goes against both political principles and political history – and also flies in the face of everything that the president claimed to be defending in his recent presidential campaign.

Emmanuel Macron voting in the first round at Le Touquet in northern France, June 12th 2022. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP

Shortly after winning the presidential election in 2017 Emmanuel Macron won a thumping majority at elections for the National Assembly, enabling him to push through his programme of reforms. Now, two months after his re-election as president in April, the head of state has suffered his first electoral setback at a national level. In the first round of voting in legislative elections on Sunday Macron's coalition of parties attracted only a handful more votes than the united left alliance known as NUPES. Though the head of state's centre-right Ensemble alliance is well-placed to win the support of other voters in the decisive second round next Sunday June 19th, his supporters are nonetheless worried he could lose his overall majority in the National Assembly. Ilyes Ramdani reports.

The Banque nationale d’Haïti (National Bank of Haiti) in Port-au-Prince, pictured in 1910. © Archives

In its recent powerful investigation into the exploitation of Haiti by France in the colonial past, The New York Times highlighted the predatory role played by the bank Crédit Industriel et Commercial. In fact, reports Laurent Mauduit, all French colonial banks practiced this same pillaging system of exploitation in Asia, Africa and the Antilles.

Mediapart has published a series of investigations into the circumstances of the 7.8-billion-euro sale by France to India of 36 Rafale fighter jets, which is clouded by suspicions of large-scale corruption. In this short video with English subtitles, Yann Philippin explains the key revelations and background of Mediapart’s investigations into this most complex story.