Veteran candidate Mélenchon battles to show he is best-placed on Left to win French presidency

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Jean-Luc Mélenchon speaking at his rally in the La Défense district of Paris, December 5th 2021. © Photo Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP Jean-Luc Mélenchon speaking at his rally in the La Défense district of Paris, December 5th 2021. © Photo Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP

At his first major political rally ahead of next year's presidential elections, radical left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon positioned himself as a bastion of the Left against the Right and far right in France.  The veteran founder of La France Insoumise also showed at the gathering in Paris that he was able to pull together a diverse range of figures from across the left of the political spectrum. Pauline Graulle reports.

Why new Omicron variant highlights the urgent need to lift vaccine patents

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The Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine being deployed in front of a voting booth in Soweto, November 1st 2021, during local elections in South Africa. © Photo Michèle Spatari / AFP The Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine being deployed in front of a voting booth in Soweto, November 1st 2021, during local elections in South Africa. © Photo Michèle Spatari / AFP

The emergence of the new variant of Covid-19 called Omicron should serve as a wakeup call to rich countries that unless the whole world is given access to vaccines the pandemic is doomed to continue. Instead, the new variant was given as the reason why a key meeting at the World Trade Organisation to debate the temporary lifting of intellectual property rights on vaccines was postponed indefinitely. Rozenn Le Saint reports on the anger of French activists at the lack of progress on what they see as a key issue in tacking the pandemic in poorer countries.

Repression and death: how French-made weapons are being used in global conflicts

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A French-made Rafale fighter jet at Athens, September 5th 2021. © Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto via AFP A French-made Rafale fighter jet at Athens, September 5th 2021. © Nicolas Economou / NurPhoto via AFP

Despite this country's proclaimed values and its international commitments, French-made weapons are being used to carry out repression and kill civilians in some of the worst conflicts on the planet, including in the Middle East. On the eve of President Emmanuel Macron's tour of Gulf states on 3rd and 4th December, in which further arms deals may be clinched, Mediapart lists some of the conflicts where exported French armaments are being deployed. Rachida El Azzouzi reports.

Voting against Le Pen: a painful necessity to ward off the horror of the far-right

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The demonstration against the far-right in Paris, April 16th 2022. © Photo Ana Ferrer / Mediapart The demonstration against the far-right in Paris, April 16th 2022. © Photo Ana Ferrer / Mediapart

The far-right has never been so close to power. And given that it is the worst enemy of equality, rights and freedom, voting against its candidate on Sunday April 24th is the only anti-fascist option in the French presidential election, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article. But, he says, it will be a painful act, because the other name on the ballot paper is that of the person who is chiefly responsible for this catastrophe: Emmanuel Macron.

Up to seven million people in France rely on food banks, reports leading charity

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At a food bank distribution point in Paris, May 31st 2021. © Fiora Garenzi / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP At a food bank distribution point in Paris, May 31st 2021. © Fiora Garenzi / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP

Up to seven million people in France, or around 10 percent of the population, had need of free handouts of food in 2020, a situation unprecedented in peacetime. That was just one of the shocking conclusions of the latest annual report on poverty in France published by one of the country’s principal social and humanitarian aid associations, the Secours Catholique. Faïza Zerouala reports.

French elections: the confirmed collapse of France's old parties of government

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Voting in this year’s first round of presidential elections confirmed a profound change in French politics. © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart Voting in this year’s first round of presidential elections confirmed a profound change in French politics. © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

The results of the first round of France’s presidential elections on Sunday have demonstrated that the political earthquake of the elections in 2017, when Emmanuel Macron arrived in office, was no passing aberration. Instead, the voting last weekend confirmed the endurance of a new electoral landscape in France, with the old mainstream socialist and conservative parties of government left in tatters, replaced by a centre-right behind Macron, a strengthened far-right and a Left dominated by its ‘Green-and-red’ movements. This analysis by Fabien Escalona and Donatien Huet.

French scientist who championed anti-malaria drug for Covid-19 accused of falsifying test results

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Le professeur Didier Raoult, IHU de Marseille. © Christophe Simon/ AFP Le professeur Didier Raoult, IHU de Marseille. © Christophe Simon/ AFP

Staff working under French microbiologist Didier Raoult, who last year attracted worldwide attention, and notably from Donald Trump, with his claims that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was an effective medication for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19, have accused him of falsifying biological test results to support his assertions. Pascale Pascariello reports.

How Macron has made his 'grand coalition' even bigger for 2022 election

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Emmanuel Macron  meets members of the public at Fouras on France's Atlantic coast March 31st 2022. © Ludovic Marin / AFP Emmanuel Macron meets members of the public at Fouras on France's Atlantic coast March 31st 2022. © Ludovic Marin / AFP

What do former supporters of Nicolas Sarkozy, the left-wing nationalist Jean-Pierre Chevènement, and the right-wing ex-minister Éric Woerth have in common? They are all supporting current president Emmanuel Macron in his bid for re-election. Backing for the incumbent from such disparate groups is a clear sign of how the old forces of government in France – the traditional Right and Left - have run out of steam. It also highlights the extent to which social democrats have effectively abandoned the political field. With the first round of the presidential election taking place on Sunday April 10th, Fabien Escalona looks at how Macron's 'big tent' politics has got even bigger, and examines some of the resulting dangers for French politics.

Innovative French cooperative launches railroad revival

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Railcoop’s first freight convoy at Capdenac railway station, November 15th 2021. © Photo Nicolas Cheviron pour Mediapart Railcoop’s first freight convoy at Capdenac railway station, November 15th 2021. © Photo Nicolas Cheviron pour Mediapart

Railcoop, a small French cooperative railways company this week inaugurated its first service, carrying freight for small businesses in the south-west of the country. The cooperative is the first of its kind in Europe, and it has big plans ahead, beginning with the opening next year of a passenger service across central France linking the cities of Bordeaux and Lyon and, along the way, dozens of small towns previously abandoned by France’s historic railways operator, the SNCF. As Nicolas Cheviron reports, for the cooperative's staff and stakeholders the launch this week was a two-year dream come true.

Witnesses detail Mali town massacre by army and suspected Russian mercenaries

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Malian troops on patrol in the centre of the West African country, February 2020. © Photo Michele Cattani / AFP Malian troops on patrol in the centre of the West African country, February 2020. © Photo Michele Cattani / AFP

A Malian army unit accompanied by foreign mercenaries, who from witness accounts appear to be members of Russia's paramilitary Wagner Group, last week carried out summary executions of hundreds of people in the town of Moura, in the centre of Mali, in an operation officially described as a crackdown on jihadist insurgents, according to a report by NGO Human Rights Watch. Mediapart’s West Africa correspondent Rémi Carayol has spoken to survivors of the massacre and with various sources including local rights activists, who say the dead, variously estimated to number between 300 and 600, were mostly non-jihadist civilians.

Suitcases of cash, threats and violence; the fallout from the Sarkozy-Takieddine affair

Top right Nicolas Sarkozy; centre-right Ziad Takieddine. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart Top right Nicolas Sarkozy; centre-right Ziad Takieddine. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

Two people have been remanded in custody in the aftermath of the operation in which Ziad Takieddine, a key witness in the Nicolas Sarkozy-Libyan funding affair, made a false retraction of his evidence. One of the men in detention is the wealthy businessman Pierre Reynaud. As Mediapart can reveal, aspects of the saga have taken on the appearance of a Martin Scorsese crime movie. Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget report.

Why France's 'climate generation' is wary of the Left ahead of presidential election

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Demonstrators at the March for the Climate in Paris, March 28th 2021. © Photo Thomas Dévényi / Hans Lucas via AFP Demonstrators at the March for the Climate in Paris, March 28th 2021. © Photo Thomas Dévényi / Hans Lucas via AFP

As the 2022 presidential election edges closer there are signs that the swathe of young people who have become radicalised over the climate in France since 2018 are now starting to take a closer interest in politics and the need to vote. But as Mathieu Dejean explains in this analysis, the fragmentation on the Left ahead of next April's poll leaves many young 'climate generation' voters distinctly unimpressed.

'Rafale Papers': the 'bogus invoices' used to help French firm clinch sale of jets to India

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Dassault Aviation's CEO Eric Trappier, left, with the group's middleman in India, Sushen Gupta. © Sebastien Calvet / Mediapart, avec AFP et PTI. Dassault Aviation's CEO Eric Trappier, left, with the group's middleman in India, Sushen Gupta. © Sebastien Calvet / Mediapart, avec AFP et PTI.

Mediapart is today publishing the alleged false invoices that enabled French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation to pay at least 7.5 million euros in secret commissions to a middleman to help secure the sale of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft to India. Yet despite the existence of these documents, the Indian federal police has decided not to pursue the affair and has not begun an investigation. Yann Philippin reports.

How France's postal service has failed to deliver on cutting CO2 emissions

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The graph shows the performance of La Poste's mail transport in terms of C02 emissions over 15 years. © Mediapart The graph shows the performance of La Poste's mail transport in terms of C02 emissions over 15 years. © Mediapart

In its public utterances France's portal service La Poste makes great play of its “carbon neutrality”. Yet an analysis shows that over the last decade and a half the publicly-owned postal group has been emitting more and more carbon dioxide each year transporting letters and parcels. The reason for this is the operator's complete reliance on using the most polluting forms of transport – air and road – to carry the mail. Mediapart's environment correspondent Jade Lindgaard reports.

The appalling greed of French companies over Russia

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Dozens of people protested against at Gdansk in Poland against French company Leroy-Merlin on March 22nd 2022. © Michal Fludra / NurPhoto via AFP Dozens of people protested against at Gdansk in Poland against French company Leroy-Merlin on March 22nd 2022. © Michal Fludra / NurPhoto via AFP

On Wednesday Match 23rd the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called on French companies to quit their involvement with Russia, but without much success. This can largely can be put down to the greed of the business world. But as Mediapart co-founder Laurent Mauduit argues in this op-ed article, the lack of solidarity by businesses can also be explained by the French government's ambiguous stance on the issue.