One week after the resignation of Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister, and the collapse of his government, President Emmanuel Macron has reappointed Lecornu to lead what is now the fourth minority government since snap elections last year created a hung parliament. As outlined here, its composition, far from being what the presidential office promised as a “rupture” with the past, is largely made up of Macron loyalists and revenants. The bets are already on it being overturned this week in parliament, its future hanging on a decision by the socialists whether or not to support a no-confidence vote.   

French President Emmanuel Macron has reappointed his close ally Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister, just five days after the latter resigned from the post. The future of his minority government, the fourth since the results of snap parliamentary elections called by Macron last year, already seems seriously compromised, with a no-confidence vote already expected in prliament. In this op-ed piece, Mediapart political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani argues that Macron’s dogged determination to repeatedly establish a government in his political image, to the exclusion of the leftwing alliance which emerged victorious in last year’s election, is leading France to the cliff face, and that even his own camp are questioning his intransigent behaviour.

A Mediapart investigation has revealed that at least nine men convicted of, or awaiting trial for, far-right terrorism-related offences in France have either held positions of responsibility within Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National - or its predecessor the Front National - or have stood as party candidates in local and national elections. It is the only French political party with such links to these kinds of cases.

In an interview with Mediapart, former Israeli prime minister and ex-chief of general staff of the country's military, Ehud Barak, details his view of the so-called Trump plan for an end to the war in Gaza, argues why Benjamin Netanyahu must go, why both sides in the conflict must compromise, and why the only conclusion to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in a two-state solution.

France's prime minister Sébastien Lecornu handed in his resignation on Monday morning just a few hours after announcing his team of government ministers. Caught off-guard by Lecornu's surprise action – he was only appointed as head of government by President Emmanuel Macron on September 9th - the country's various political parties have been holding crisis meetings to work out their strategy. Cornered politically, the president later gave Sébastien Lecornu two extra days to hold “final talks” with the Right and grant the executive a further reprieve. And to save his own presidency.

In July 1985, the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk in the New Zealand port of Aukland, when one of the NGO’s photographers was drowned, in an operation by France's forein intelligence agency, the DGSE, to prevent Greenpeace from campaigning against French nuclear tests in the South Pacific. Paris vehemently denied involvement, but was eventually forced to admit responsibility for the attack. Mediapart co-founder Edwy Plenel, who at the time worked for French daily Le Monde, whose revelations forced the resignations of the DGSE boss and his defence minister, reports here how the principal culprit, then French president François Mitterrand, got away with his crime.

The well-known psychoanalyst and broadcaster Gérard Miller was formally placed under investigation on October 2nd, in connection with four allegations of rape – three involving minors – and two claims of sexual assault, committed between 2000 and 2020. He was also designated an assisted witness – an intermediate status in French law between that of a witness and a formal suspect - in connection with the alleged rape of a minor over the age of 15.

A former investigating judge specializing in financial crime, Eva Joly also stood as the green candidate in the 2012 presidential election in France. Here she tells Mediapart of her concern at the attacks on judges after the recent conviction of Nicolas Sarkozy for conspiracy over the Libyan funding affair, and highlights the lack of effort by the media to help people understand the issues involved in that case. The ex-judge also expresses her dismay over the apathy of the French Left – and the Democrats in the United States - when it comes to issues of corruption and public probity.

In an interview with Mediapart, France's former human rights ombudsman Jacques Toubon has urged the president and his political allies to cede part of their power in order that a government with a working majority can be constructed. Himself a former politician of the Right, Toubon warns of the risk of a far-right victory if new snap parliamentary elections were to be held. And the ex-Défenseur des droits also regrets the fact that the Right has nothing left to offer but a long drawn-out contest with Marine Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National.

Mediapart has analysed the 400 pages of the court judgement that saw ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, his former senior aides Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux, middleman Alexandre Djouhri and others convicted in the Libyan funding case on September 25th. Once set out, the facts and the law show a clarity that has got lost amid the chaotic political and media reaction, which has been both false and overblown.