Dominique Simonnot in Paris, May 2022. © Photo Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

The French government has become embroiled in a dispute with the independent public body responsible for overseeing the rights of people held in custody or prison. That body, the Contrôleur Général des Lieux de Privation de Liberté, inspected custody conditions in nine Paris police stations during the height of the anti-pension reforms demonstration in March. In a subsequent report it has criticised what it calls “serious infringements” of the rights of those being held and the “repressive use” of custody by the police. The interior minister Gérald Darmanin has hit back, claiming the controller general has “exceeded her jurisdiction”, while the Paris police chief said he felt “insulted”. Mediapart's Célia Mebroukine spoke to the controller general, Dominique Simonnot, about the controversy.

Between 2018 and 2022 Delphine, Bernard and Antoine Arnault received 49,380 shares, representing a deferred profit of 30.7 million euros. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart avec AFP

French businessman Bernard Arnault, the boss of the luxury goods group LVMH, has reached the peak of the Mount Everest of wealth. He is now firmly ensconced as the richest person in the world, far outstripping his rivals below. And his family's fortune just looks set to keep on growing. Every year the income from the family's capital stake in the group alone can be counted in the billions – vast sums which in turn generate yet more profits. Martine Orange examines the figures of this colossal money-making system.

Marlène Schiappa arriving at the Ministry of the Interior January 4th 2023. © Photo Xose Bouzas / Hans Lucas via AFP

Months after the 2020 murder of history and geographer teacher Samuel Paty by a radicalised youth, junior minister Marlène Schiappa set up the Fonds Marianne to counter extremism and 'defend Republican values'. This government-funded body has since paid out just over two million euros to 17 different associations. But investigations by the media, including Mediapart, have raised question marks over two of the associations who received large sums from the fund and over the way this money was used. One in particular, Reconstruire le Commun, went on to publish videos attacking opponents of President Emmanuel Macron during the 2022 elections. And Mediapart can reveal that there are fresh questions today over the profile of some of those who took part in that charity's videos. Meanwhile, opposition politicians are calling for a Parliamentary inquiry into the affair, which has also been referred to the prosecution authorities. Antton Rouget and Ellen Salvi report.

A game of catch on the theme of retirement being played in the middle of the protest march in Paris on April 6th 2023. © Photo Bruno Arbesu / REA

After its deeply-unpopular pension reform was forced into law, the government of President Emmanuel Macron set itself a target of 100 days to calm the country and reduce the level of protest. But instead the tone and style of the protests have simply changed; from outright anger to one of mockery. As Mathieu Dejean writes, the government is right to worry about the new derision it faces. For mockery and ridicule have triumphed over inflexible governments in the past.

© Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet /Mediapart avec Sipa

How did a major French multinational company, through sheer greed, end up financing Islamic terrorism so that it could keep its expensive cement factory open in Syria? What did the French secret services know about this arrangement? With the help of previously-unseen documents, Mediapart has been able to piece together the background to the scandal involving Lafarge and the story of its massive cement plant close to the Syrian-Turkish border. Fabrice Arfi and Matthieu Suc report.

Soufou, a Comoran woman battling against the planned evictions from the Talus 2 shanty town, April 24th 2023. © Nejma Brahim / Mediapart

On the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, a French overseas territory and département (county), a police operation  launched by Paris and codenamed Wuambushu has begun a crackdown against Comoran "illegal immigrants" who face eviction from their shanty town homes and deportation back to the nearby Comoro islands. The decision to launch the roundup is a political monstrosity and the prolongation of a crime, argues Mediapart’s publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article. While maintaining its sovereignty over Mayotte in flagrant violation of international law, he writes, France is staging a massive expulsion of human beings on the pretext that they are foreigners, whereas they are of the same people as Mayotte’s native population.

Louis: "It didn’t come into my head that I could be one of ‘those people’." © Photo Rozenn Le Carboulec pour Mediapart

April 23rd marks the tenth anniversary of the French parliament’s approval of legislation allowing people of the same sex the rights of marriage and child adoption. In the run-up to that, the bill was fiercely opposed in mass demonstrations organised by a movement of Catholics, the Right and the far-right. Louis was just 11-years-old when his parents took him on the marches, which he remembers as being fun. Now aged 22 and gay, he looks back on the traumatic years since, growing up in a family of homophobic, traditional Catholics, and says that he hopes to benefit himself from the same-sex marriage law, “to show my parents that one can be homo and happy”. Rozenn Le Carboulec reports.

Emmanuel Macron pictured during a conference by video link with G7 leaders and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, February 24th 2023 © Photo Christophe Petit-Tesson / Pool / AFP

President Emmanuel Macron, according to his entourage, said he had “no scruples” about walking over the rights of Parliament by using an article of the French constitution to force his reform of the pensions system through the chamber, which was denied a vote on the legislation because he knew it would be rejected. In this op-ed article, Mediapart’s publishing editor Edwy Plenel argues that the move shines a clear light on a presidency which, far from acting as a barrage against the far-right, opens up a path for it by accustoming France to its anti-democratic violence and anti-egalitarian ideology.

In mainland France, about 10 % of all extracted water is used for agricultural purposes, principally for irrigation. © Photo Sébastien Bozon / AFP

The subject of water, or rather the lack of it, has become a major issue in France, where the dry winter and falling levels of water tables across much of the country are heightening fears of an impending record summer drought. A government-commissioned report published this month underlined that in the summer of 2022 “the worst” was narrowly avoided, and called for a “radical change in practices” in water management. But, as Floriane Louison reports, a “Water Plan” recently announced by President Emmanuel Macron is under fire for failing to properly address the practices aggravating the diminution of the precious resource.

Emmanuel Macron inspecting the restoration work on Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, April 14th 2023. “Give up on nothing, that’s my motto,” he said during the visit. © Photo Sarah Meysonnier / Pool / AFP

After France’s Constitutional Council on Friday approved nearly all of President Emmanuel Macron’s legislation to reform the pensions system, notably the raising of the retirement age on full pension rights to 64, the legislation was enacted as law in the early hours of Saturday. In this op-ed analysis of the move, Mediapart’s political affairs correspondent Ellen Salvi sets out why the social and political crisis created by the fiercely contested reform has now also become an institutional one, paving a path in France for future illiberal regimes.

© Photo Magali Cohen / Hans Lucas via AFP

While the overall inflation rate in France over the 12 months up to March this year was 5.6%, food prices over the same period rose by 15.8%, according to a provisional estimation by France's National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. In this interview with Mediapart, economist Florence Jany-Catrice sets out how inflation, beyond creating a fall in purchasing power, is also driving a further rise in social inequalities.

Actor Gérard Depardieu. © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart avec AFP

During an investigation lasting several months Mediapart has gathered numerous testimonies that accuse actor Gérard Depardieu of inappropriate words or gestures. The accusations come from actresses, make-up artists and production staff. Often taking place in public, the events are said to have occurred during the shooting of eleven films that came out between 2004 and 2022. The director Fabien Onteniente says that on one occasion he confronted the famous French actor over his behaviour. Depardieu himself denies any criminal behaviour. Meanwhile, one actress has just given her account to the French justice system. Marine Turchi reports.

Gérald Darmanin and Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony at Versailles on March 31st 2023 in honour of the gendarme Arnaud Blanc, who was killed during an operation against illegal gold prospectors in French Guiana. © Photo Ludovic Marin / Pool / AFP

Emmanuel Macron and his supporters – including interior minister Gérald Darmanin – have not learnt the lessons from the president's first term and the fact that, twice in a row, the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen made it through to the second round of a French presidential election, argues Ellen Salvi in this op-ed article. All the while, she says, the government continues to lower the level of public debate, with the far-right being the main beneficiaries.

The demonstrators protesting against the reservoir facing gendarmes at Saint-Soline in west France, March 25th 2023. © Photo Jérôme Gilles / NurPhoto via AFP

Environment student Lucas, aged 23, took part in the protest on March 25th against against plans to build an irrigation reservoir at Sainte-Soline in west France. It was the first demonstration of this type he had participated in, and he ended up hurling stones at the gendarmes. Here he tells Karl Laske about the reality of being in the middle of brutal clashes which left protestors seriously injured and which sparked controversy over police tactics and the subsequent reaction of interior minister Gérald Darmanin.

Sihem Souid has lobbied on behalf of Qatar in France since 2015. © Photo Jacques Demarthon / AFP

Former French police officer Sihem Souid, who now lobbies on behalf of Qatar, has made a formal legal complaint to the prosecution authorities in Paris after revelations by Mediapart and 'The New Yorker' magazine over alleged intelligence-gathering operations and attempts to gain influence in France carried out on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. As Mediapart has revealed, these operations were carried out for Qatar's regional rivals the UAE by a private Swiss agency called Alp Services. The legal complaint made by the lobbyist centres on photographs which suggest that her family home may have been the target of surveillance. Yann Philippin reports.