In 2015 France came under a series of bloody terrorist attacks from jihadists. But at the same time an agent from France's domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI, was stealing money from a fund that had been set up to pay hackers who were discreetly infiltrating jihadist networks on the nation's behalf. Though the case did eventually go to court, the French secret services have been very reluctant to reveal details of this embarrassing episode. Matthieu Suc reports.

Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has been under huge political pressure after her appointment as education minister; firstly following Mediapart's revelations that she has educated her own children at a private school, and then after her subsequent comments about state schools. As part of her political fightback the minister has attacked what she sees as a campaign against her, and rejects suggestions that she belongs to a class of wealthy people disconnected from the reality of most people's daily lives. Yet as Mathias Thépot reports, her many links with companies on the French stock exchange, the CAC 40, from which she has pocketed hundreds of thousands of euros, do not help her case.

The main French farming unions have now called off their widespread tractor protests on the country's roads after the government promised more concessions to meet their demands. But their grievances still remain, including mounting unhappiness at the massive levels of red tape required in their work. This is because the vital subsidies that farmers receive from the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy are subject to numerous inspections and ever more complicated restrictions. Caroline Coq-Chodorge reports on the stories of two organic farmers from the south-west of the country.

Three weeks ago Philippe Vigier lost his job as France's minister for overseas territories when a new government was formed under prime minister Gabriel Attal. But according to Mediapart's information, the ex-minister has still been using his former ministerial official residence, car and driver despite his removal from office. He has also organised “private dinners” at his old ministry, a practice which has astonished former colleagues. Antton Rouget and Ellen Salvi report.

Amid the continuing protests by French farmers, political scientist Andy Smith, a director of research with France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and based at the University of Bordeaux, gives Mediapart his insight into the profound reasons behind the malaise within the country’s agricultural sector. In this interview with Fabien Escalona, he argues why the current model, developed in the 1960s, has become untenable, and proposes structural changes, including the wiping out of the debt of farmers conditional to a change in practices, notably by abandoning the “excessively productivist model”.

On January 22nd, state-owned French utilities group EDF announced new delays in the construction of two EPR nuclear reactors at the British plant of Hinkley Point. Originally planned to enter service in 2024, the first of the two reactors is now expected to be, at best, operational in 2029, or possibly “2030 or 2031”, while costs have soared above initial estimates. Seven years after the project was launched, all the warnings against EDF’s involvement in it made by the group’s staff have proved be right, writes Mediapart economics correspondent Martine Orange in this op-ed article. The state-owned group now finds itself in a fatal trap created by Emmanuel Macron.

Since the October 7th Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza, the German authorities and cultural institutions have embarked on a heavy-handed censorship against those who denounce the massive death toll of Palestinian civilians. Along with bans on demonstrations, there has been a wave of cancellations of cultural events involving artists, writers and thinkers who, because of their opposition to the war in Gaza, are accused of anti-Semitism, including Jewish critics of the Israeli government. As Mathieu Magnaudeix reports from Berlin, the gagging frenzy and staunch support for Israel across the German political class, regarded as a raison d’état, is rooted in the country’s shame of its Nazi past.

The roadblocks and demonstrations by French farmers protesting a series of grievances, including low incomes, fuel costs, bureaucracy and competition from cheap imports, entered a second week on Thursday amid escalation of the unrest. Farmers’ unions have announced they will block roads around Paris on Friday, when the government is due to announce measures it hopes will defuse the movement. Mathieu Dejean reports from the town of Guéret in central France, where he met with protesting farmers who blocked the streets in a massive turnout that even surprised union officials.

A snowballing protest movement by French farmers is the latest of a series of revolts by farmers across Europe, notably in the Netherlands, in Germany and in Spain. In France, where roadblocks and rallies began last week in the south-west of the country, the unrest is essentially over farmers’ dwindling incomes, squeezed by ever-tighter margins imposed by retail chains and energy costs, while some complain over what they argue are “punitive” environmental protection laws. As elsewhere on the continent, the far-right are attempting to make the most of the discontent, notably with an eye on European Parliament elections in early June. Ludovic Lamant reports.

The birth rate in France fell in 2023 by 6.6% year-on-year, according to figures released this week by France’s national institute for statistics and economic studies, INSEE. Just hours after the figures were released on January 16th, French President Emmanuel Macron raised the issue during a televised press conference, when he notably raised issues of appeal to a rightwing electorate, when he argued for a “demographic rearming”. In this interview with Mediapart's Youmni Kezzouf, the eminent and veteran French demographer and historian Hervé Le Bras, director of studies at the prestigious School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, gives his view of what he calls the “grotesque” comments by Macron, and the reasons behind the fall in births both in France, in Europe and beyond.