Anti-Semitism, racism and homophobia: Jean-Marie Le Pen's hate-filled outbursts

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Jean-Marie Le Pen on the campaign trail in Lyon, April 1988. © Photo Chris Harris / The Times / News Licensing / Abaca Jean-Marie Le Pen on the campaign trail in Lyon, April 1988. © Photo Chris Harris / The Times / News Licensing / Abaca

Five days after his private funeral, hundreds of admirers turned out on Thursday in homage to the French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen at a ceremony held at the Paris church of Notre-Dame du Val-de-Grâce, including political figures from the hard- and far-right. The event capped numerous homages already paid to Le Pen, who died on January 7th at the age of 96, including from Emannuel Macron and his prime minister François Bayrou, and which have skirted the reality of the ideology behind Le Pen’s hate-filled outbursts, jibes and speeches throughout his long political career. Youmni Kezzouf dresses a list.

Sarkozy loses final appeal against corruption conviction, ordered to wear electronic tag

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Nicolas Sarkozy attending a ceremony in Cassis, southern France, on November 22nd 2024. © Photo Alain Robert / Sipa Nicolas Sarkozy attending a ceremony in Cassis, southern France, on November 22nd 2024. © Photo Alain Robert / Sipa

Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday lost his ultimate appeal against his conviction in 2021 for “active corruption” and “influence peddling”. France’s highest appeal court also upheld the sentence he was handed of three years in prison, two of them suspended, and a three-year ban on holding public office and voting. Sarkozy, 69, will serve his prison sentence at home wearing and electronic tag. Michel Deléan reports.

Mediapart quits Musk's X in stand against disinformation

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 © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec AFP © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec AFP

With Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House, billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X, the former Twitter, has become transformed into a weapon of mass disinformation. Mediapart refuses to serve the cause of the enemies of journalism and the public general interest, explains publishing editor Carine Fouteau.

'Fast food medicine': how remote GP consultations have become a lucrative industry in France

 © Justine Vernier © Justine Vernier

Since the Covid-19 crisis, the use by patients of companies who provide telephone and online health consultations with doctors has soared in France. Financial groups are now investing in what has become a fast-growing sector. However, these services are becoming increasingly expensive for the state health insurance system, which has to reimburse the cost of them. Caroline Coq-Chodorge and Manuel Magrez report on the growing role of remote healthcare providers in the country.

 

The bizarre request to get French billionaire Bernard Arnault's tax file classified as 'top secret'

 © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart avec AFP © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart avec AFP

In the summer of 2022, France's richest man Bernard Arnault was panicking at the prospect of an MP from the radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party taking charge of the Finance Committee at the National Assembly. The boss of the LVMH luxury goods group apparently feared that as chair of the influential committee the politician would be able to get access to his tax details. Representatives for the billionaire then requested that his personal tax records be classified as a state secret. But as Fabrice Arfi, Yann Philippin, Antton Rouget and Ellen Salvi report, the authorities balked at this extraordinary request and ultimately rejected it.

Corruption in France: a daily affair but no one cares

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 © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec captures d'écran © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec captures d'écran

Even though concern about corruption looms large in the very opinion polls that the worlds of politics and journalism  hold so dear, no one seems to want to tackle this issue head on. This was shown again recently when a new survey suggested that 63% of people in France think that “most politicians are corrupt”; yet subsequent public discussion of the findings focussed on other matters. To highlight the issue Mediapart has painstakingly compiled daily cases involving corruption from the last few weeks. As Antton Rouget reports, the list speaks for itself.

French Army suffers 'irreplaceable loss' as Senegal and Chad say its troops are no longer welcome

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 © Photo Thomas Coex / AFP © Photo Thomas Coex / AFP

At the end of last month the authorities in the Senegalese capital of Dakar and in N’Djamena in Chad both announced that they want the French military to pack up and leave their countries. These decisions – which in Chad's case came as a shock - undermine Paris's ongoing plans to restructure its troops' deployment in Africa. More broadly they also challenge a French military presence on the continent that is a hangover from colonial days. Rémi Carayol reports.

How fall of government is proof that France's Fifth Republic 'no longer works'

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 © Photo Eric Tschaen / REA © Photo Eric Tschaen / REA

The downfall of prime minister Michel Barnier's government on Wednesday night was only the second time under France's Fifth Republic that an administration has been toppled by MPs in a no-confidence vote. In an interview with Mediapart's Fabien Escalona, law professor Bruno Daugeron examines the similarities and differences with the current situation and that of 1962, when prime minister Georges Pompidou's administration was also brought down. According to the academic, France is now paying the price for decades of what he terms “majoritarian presidentialism” that no longer works.

Barnier government ousted: how EU will now have to deal with France’s ‘jump into the void’

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 © Photo Pignatelli / EUC / ROPI / REA © Photo Pignatelli / EUC / ROPI / REA

The collapse of Michel Barnier's administration on Wednesday night after a no-confidence vote has repercussions that spread beyond France itself. For example, the political crisis in Paris further complicates the European Union’s efforts to formulate a response to Donald Trump’s imminent return to power in the United States. And it also comes as negotiations on the EU-Mercosur trade agreement – which is deeply unpopular with French farmers – look as if they could be concluded by the end of this week. Mediapart's Brussels correspondent Ludovic Lamant reports.

Why President Macron has no plans to change course despite fall of Michel Barnier’s government

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Continuing the same course: Emmanuel Macron. © Photo Ludovic Marin / Pool / AFP Continuing the same course: Emmanuel Macron. © Photo Ludovic Marin / Pool / AFP

A vote of no confidence brought down prime minister Michel Barnier’s short-lived administration last night, something that has only happened once before under France' Fifth Republic, and that was in 1962. Yet the vote – backed by 331 French MPs - will not persuade President Emmanuel Macron to change course. On the contrary, says Mediapart's political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani, the head of state is now actively seeking solutions from among his most loyal supporters about how to hold on until the summer when fresh parliamentary elections can be held.

The hidden links between a giant of investigative journalism and the US government

By and Stefan Candea
Drew Sullivan, co-founder and publisher of the OCCRP. © Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart Drew Sullivan, co-founder and publisher of the OCCRP. © Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

The OCCRP, the largest organised network of investigative media in the world, hid the extent of its links with the US government, this investigation can reveal. Washington supplies half of its budget, has a right to veto its senior staff, and funds investigations focussing on Russia and Venezuela. Yann Philippin and Stefan Candea report.

A painful but necessary investigation

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 © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

By hiding the closeness of its relationship with the US government, the world’s largest consortium of investigative journalism, the OCCRP, has played into the hands of the planet’s worst dictators, like Vladimir Putin, who sees a foreign agent behind any journalist who disturbs his regime’s status quo, writes Fabrice Arfi in this op-ed article.

German broadcaster NDR censored own investigation into world’s largest consortium of investigative media

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Left to right: Andreas Cichowicz and Adrian Feuerbacher, joint editors in chief of NDR’s TV operations, and Juliane von Schwerin, deputy head of programming. © Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart Left to right: Andreas Cichowicz and Adrian Feuerbacher, joint editors in chief of NDR’s TV operations, and Juliane von Schwerin, deputy head of programming. © Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

After launching an investigation into the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and after subsequently inviting Mediapart and three other outlets to join the project, German public broadcaster NDR finally decided to shelve the report after senior editorial managers came under pressure from the OCCRP. Yann Philippin reports.

Flore Benguigui, former singer of L'Impératrice: “I suddenly lost my voice”

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 © Capture d’écran Mediapart © Capture d’écran Mediapart

Singer, songwriter and composer Flore Benguigui reveals the reasons behind her departure from the band L'Impératrice. And breaks a taboo: in an environment she describes as one of ordinary sexism and humiliation, she lost her voice.

The Russian-language Latvian news outlet battling Kremlin propaganda

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Latvian journalist Inna Plavoka runs the Chayka news website. © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec documents Latvian journalist Inna Plavoka runs the Chayka news website. © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart avec documents

With the Baltic state seeking to enforce the use of the Latvian language in public media, the need to ensure that the sizeable Russian-speaking population in the country still has access to reliable information has become a critical issue. This is now the mission of Latvian journalist Inna Plavoka, the founder of an independent Russian-language local media outlet that is growing in popularity despite some hostility and suspicion after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Estelle Levresse reports.