How plans for US firm to buy makers of France's best-selling medicine sparked an outcry

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

Doliprane, a brand name for paracetomol, is France's most popular medicine and has become part of the social fabric of the country. So when it was revealed recently that French pharmaceutical company Sanofi plans to sell the subsidiary that makes the medicine to a private equity firm from the United States, there was public outcry. Yet despite earlier pledges over the need for health and medicine security - and about the need to reindustrialise the country - the Élysée has supported the move on the grounds that it shows that France is an attractive place for investors. Martine Orange reports.

The simplistic equation behind French government's budget plans to axe teaching jobs

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 © Photo Myriam Tirler / Hans Lucas via AFP © Photo Myriam Tirler / Hans Lucas via AFP

France's new government under prime minister Michel Barnier last week announced details of its proposed budget, which aims to make up to 60 billion euros in savings. Part of the plan involves cutting jobs in education. Here in this op-ed article, Mediapart's education correspondent Mathilde Goanec wonders how the government will try to persuade the public to accept the decision to axe another 4,000 teaching posts, especially after it promised to place education at the heart of its concerns. She says ministers will resort to a lot of clever PR and rely on the now well-worn line that fewer teachers are needed because of declining demographics. Even though this argument does not stand up to scrutiny.

The poetic novel that evokes France's damaged but still enduring rural world

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Juliette Rousseau with her latest work 'Péquenaude'. © Photomontage Mediapart Juliette Rousseau with her latest work 'Péquenaude'. © Photomontage Mediapart

Novelist Juliette Rousseau's latest work 'Péquenaude' is a book that is hard to categorise. It is a poetic and political narrative, rooted in a countryside that has been disfigured by agribusiness. As Amélie Poinssot notes, the author - who has returned to her native Brittany in western France after many years living in Paris – has written a work based around a rural world that is loved and damaged in equal measure.

Macron under pressure from all sides after his call to halt arms sales to Israel

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

France's president Emmanuel Macron recently called for an embargo on the sale of any weapons to Israel that could be used in Gaza. His statement, aimed at the international community, has drawn criticism from within his own political camp, angered Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and led to him being booed during a tribute in Paris to the victims of October 7th. Politicians on the Left, meanwhile, have welcomed his words but are now expecting action. Justine Brabant and lyes Ramdani report.

France's curious silence after murder of exiled Azerbaijani blogger

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Murdered Azerbaijani blogger Vidadi Isgandarli. © Capture d’écran YouTube Murdered Azerbaijani blogger Vidadi Isgandarli. © Capture d’écran YouTube

Vidadi Isgandarli, a fierce critic of the regime in Baku and a refugee in France since 2017, was stabbed fifteen times at his home in Mulhouse last month and died of his injuries two days later. Despite this attack bearing the possible hallmarks of what might have been a political assassination on French soil ordered by a foreign power, the authorities in Paris have remained mysteriously quiet. However, as Justine Brabant reports, the French government will have to take a stance on the killing  of the exiled blogger before next month's COP29 climate conference – which is being hosted by Azerbaijan.

The new French interior minister takes aim at the constitutional state

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Interior minister Bruno Retailleau (right) at the Élysée Palace on October 1st 2024. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP Interior minister Bruno Retailleau (right) at the Élysée Palace on October 1st 2024. © Photo Ludovic Marin / AFP

Bruno Retailleau, the new French interior minister in Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government, has, barely ten days into the job, prompted controversy over his outspoken views that “the sovereign people” should have primacy over the constitutional state which, he says, “is neither inviolable nor sacred”, while complaining that a “jungle of judicial regulations” prevent the authorities from being able to deal effectively with immigration. Jérôme Hourdeaux reports on the consternation of public law experts over Retailleau's comments.

Marathon trial opens into Marine Le Pen party 'embezzlement' of EU funds

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Marine Le Pen pictured at the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, September 15th 2024. © Photo Arnaud Paillard / Hans Lucas via AFP Marine Le Pen pictured at the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, September 15th 2024. © Photo Arnaud Paillard / Hans Lucas via AFP

The trial of France’s far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen along with 24 others from her Rassemblement National party on charges of embezzling European Parliament funds opened in Paris on Monday, at the start of what is programmed to be two months of hearings. The defendants are accused of operating a fraudulent system by which full-time party workers in Paris were remunerated as parliamentary assistants to the party’s MEPs. If found guilty, Le Pen, who is identified by the prosecution of playing the central role in the alleged scam, could be barred from holding public office, which would scupper her expected bid for the presidency in 2027. Michel Deléan reports.

The pesticides banned in France but sold as exports since

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A pesticide manufacturing plant at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, in Normandy, owned by Swiss firm Syngenta. © Photo Francis Cormon / Hemis via AFP A pesticide manufacturing plant at Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, in Normandy, owned by Swiss firm Syngenta. © Photo Francis Cormon / Hemis via AFP

Chemicals used in pesticides that are banned in France, some of them outlawed 20 years ago, have continued to be produced in the country and are sold abroad where environmental and public health legislation is less strict, according to a joint investigation by French public broadcaster France Télévisions and Swiss NGO Public Eye. The practice is perfectly legal thanks to a loophole in legislation which is still in place despite a government pledge two years ago to remove it. Amélie Poinssot reports.

The all-male club that spawned the new French government

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 © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart © Photomontage Armel Baudet / Mediapart

The composition of the new French government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier was decided during all-male meetings between political representatives of the conservative and centre-right parties. And it shows, write Mediapart’s co-editor Lénaïg Bredoux and political correspondent Ellen Salvi in this op-ed article. There are no women in charge of the most powerful ministries, namely those of the interior, defence, justice, economy and foreign affairs, while some members of Barnier’s government have opposed the inclusion of women’s right to abortion into the French Constitution, and are hostile towards LGBTQI+ rights. Meanwhile, the cause of promoting equality between men and women has been demoted from full-time ministerial status to that of a government department.   

French democracy enters the Bermuda Triangle

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 © Jerome Gilles / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP © Jerome Gilles / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP

The new French government is the most rightwing in France for more than a decade despite the fact that the leftwing alliance, the Nouveau Front Populaire, won more seats in July's parliamentary elections than any other political group. Mediapart's Fabien Escalona argues in this op-ed article that the creation of prime minister Michel Barnier's government is not in keeping either with the principles of France's Fifth Republic or those of a more traditional parliamentary system. The president and his new prime minister are heading dangerously towards a no man's land of legitimacy, he writes.

How Michel Barnier's new government has turned to the right – and into a dead end

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Michel Barnier with senior conservative figures Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau. © Photo Mourad Allili / Sipa Michel Barnier with senior conservative figures Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau. © Photo Mourad Allili / Sipa

On Saturday President Emmanuel Macron appointed France's most rightwing government in twelve years. All factions on the Right are represented in prime minister Michel Barnier's team, even if this has meant disregarding the results of the parliamentary elections held back on July 7th. The appointment of Didier Migaud, a former leftwing MP, to the justice ministry serves as a token gesture to the Left. Otherwise, the sharp shift to the Right is clear, as is the rickety appearance of the whole edifice. Mediapart's political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani gives his analysis of the new government team.

Protests in French Caribbean: why high cost of living is a relic of the colonial era

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A roadblock in Fort-de-France, Martinique. © Photo Thomas Thurar / AFP A roadblock in Fort-de-France, Martinique. © Photo Thomas Thurar / AFP

Demonstrations against the high cost of living that began at the start of September have been causing tensions in the French Caribbean département of Martinique. However, the issue of food prices and the cost of other consumer goods is not new, and nor is it confined just to this island. As Amandine Ascensio reports, it is a persistent reality as a result of the obsolete way the economy is organised, something which has its roots in colonial times.

The news is under threat in France – yet the mainstream media look the other way

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 © Photo Katrin Baumann / Cese © Photo Katrin Baumann / Cese

Last week a national conference on information, the 'États Généraux de l'Information', which was established by President Emmanuel Macron in 2023, published its proposals for the future of the news industry. But, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Carine Fouteau, its report revealed the media sector's inability to grasp the essential changes needed to defend independent, public-interest journalism. This is despite the fact that the need for strong counterbalances to the country's business and political powers is now greater than ever.

'What have we done to deserve this?' The suffering caused by France's deportations from Mayotte

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 © Photo Morgan Fache / AFP © Photo Morgan Fache / AFP

Nadia was born in the French overseas département of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean and is the mother of six French children. Recently she was separated from those children after being abruptly deported to the neighbouring country of Comoros, despise the fact that her expulsion order was riddled with errors. Hers is but one of many such cases as France continues to carry out mass indiscriminate deportations from Mayotte, employing hasty and often irregular procedures. In doing so the French authorities are ignoring repeated warnings, including from the Council of Europe. Grégoire Mérot reports from Mayotte's capital Mamoudzou.

French far-right party chairman accused of fake European Parliament job

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Rassemblement National party chairman Jordan Bardella at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, July 17th 2024. © Photo Frederick Florin / AFP Rassemblement National party chairman Jordan Bardella at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, July 17th 2024. © Photo Frederick Florin / AFP

The chairman of France’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party is alleged to have been fraudulently hired as a parliamentary assistant at the European Parliament, while his party stands accused of fabricating evidence to protect him from potential prosecution over the matter. The allegations against Jordan Bardella, who was the RN’s candidate for prime minister in recent legislative elections, are made in a book to be published on Friday. Meanwhile, RN figurehead Marine Le Pen will stand trial alongside 26 others – and the party itself – on September 30th, accused of involvement in a vast embezzlement of European Parliament funds allocated for parliamentary assistants but which, allegedly, were used to pay party staff. Marine Turchi reports.