After environmentalists protested over plans by farmers in western France to build a large irrigation reservoir, interior minister Gérald Darmanin likened some of the demonstrators to “ecoterrorists”. In doing so, say Mathieu Dejean and Fabien Escalona in this op-ed article, the minister was spouting paranoid fantasies while ignoring warnings about whether the planet can remain habitable. At the same time, they write, the country's main green party – which should be setting the political agenda - remains bogged down in internal squabbles.

President Emmanuel Macron's key aide in the Élysée, his chief of staff Alexis Kohler, has faced two investigations into an alleged unlawful acquisition of an interest and “influence peddling” over his family links with major shipping line MSC. The first was dropped back in 2018 but another was launched in 2020 and is still ongoing. The current investigation has unearthed some troubling documents for Alexis Kohler, whose official title is secretary-general of the Élysée. Not only do they show him to have been far more involved than thought with issues involving MSC while working as a civil servant, some potentially important documents and emails have also vanished from certain locations - though they have been retrieved elsewhere – in what appears to have been an attempt to remove the paper trail of his interventions. Martine Orange reports on the continuing investigation into President Macron's right-hand man.

A French judge has unexpectedly decided to reopen an investigation into the massacre at Bisesero in Rwanda in June 1994 and the actions of the French military in relation to it. This bloody event, part of the Hutu genocide against the Tutsi people, is seen as one of the most embarrassing episodes for France during the entire genocide. The investigating judge is reopening the case following an independent commission's report on the Rwandan genocide that was delivered to President Emmanuel Macron in March 2021. That commission, led by historian Vincent Duclert, said France bore “serious and overwhelming responsibilities” for events in Rwanda. Fabrice Arfi reports.

On July 6th, a French court ruled against the state over its attempted search of Mediapart’s premises on February 4th 2019, which it found was “neither necessary in a democratic society, nor proportionate to the objective sought”. The ruling, which was notably severe for the Paris public prosecution services, further enshrines the freedom to inform and the protection of sources, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this analysis of the case.

A new French government was announced on Monday, replacing the smaller interim government formed following Emmanuel Macron’s re-election as president in April. It also follows the stinging losses of Macron’s centre-right party in June’s legislative elections, after which the president pledged to honour what he called “the will for change that the country has clearly expressed”. But instead, writes Ilyes Ramdani in this presentation and analysis of the new government, the 41-strong ministerial line-up is simply a larger helping of more of the same.  

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.

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”.

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”.

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.

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.