Europe's and North America's claims to support the universality of human rights are constantly contradicted by their actions. As they stand by and do nothing while the state of Israel destroys Palestine, it is instead South Africa that is today defending these universal values, argues Mediapart's publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article.
Emmanuel Macron has chosen the current director of the French Treasury to take up the strategically-vital position of chief of staff to the new prime minister Gabriel Attal. Like Attal himself, the new chief of staff Emmanuel Moulin represents 'Macronism' in his own style. He has a network of contacts that includes supporters of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, has moved seamlessly between the public and private sectors, and has a distinctly pro-business vision of the economy. Ilyes Ramdan and Mathias Thépot report on the career of this key behind-the-scenes figure who will help shape the new government.
On Tuesday French president Emmanuel Macron chose Gabriel Attal to replace prime minister Élisabeth Borne, who had been dismissed the day before. At the age of 34, the former socialist activist becomes the youngest head of government in France since the start of the Fifth Republic in 1958. Yet as Mediapart's political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani reports, though former education minister Attal is popular with the public, unless there is a change of direction or style in the government his future political path could turn out to be just as impossible as that of his predecessor.
The food nutrition labelling system known as Nutri-Score was first introduced in France in 2017 and later adopted by Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Holland and Luxembourg. The aim of the five-coloured label scheme is to help guide consumers towards eating healthier produce. But on the pretext of defending Italian food, Giorgia Meloni's government and the Italian far right have so far prevented this system from being rolled out across the rest of the European Union. Karl Laske reports.
New legislation adopted by the French parliament in December toughens up existing laws on immigration, including a significant reduction of the rights of non-EU foreign nationals for access to welfare benefits despite paying social security contributions. Faïza Zerouala reports on the fears expressed by NGOs and charitable associations that many families targeted by the law will be plunged into poverty conditions. They now pin their hopes that the most restrictive measures will be rejected by the Constitutional Council, which has yet to rule on the legality of the legislation before it can be promulgated.
This week, the French justice minister announced provisional figures that suggest the number of femicides – the killing of a female because of her gender – had fallen year-on-year in 2023 by around 20 percent, a claim which is hotly contested by feminist associations. For the recorded numbers of femicides and crimes of domestic violence against women in France have remained on average largely stable over recent years, despite the increased attention given to the problem. In this interview with Mediapart, the historian Christelle Taraud gives her view on why femicides continue at an appalling level, and why women often suffer greater violence in the wake of high-profile feminist mobilisations.
The French liberal and conservative Right has increasingly adopted the xenophobic terms of language employed by the far-right, to the point where the once-distinct lines separating the two camps have become blurred, if not dissolved. The latest example is a comment by Emmanuel Macron’s former prime minister Édouard Philippe, a centre-right presidential hopeful, who placed “anti-white racism” on a par with other forms of racism. Mediapart’s Fabien Escalona turned to political scientist Émilien Houard-Vial, a specialist of the contemporary French Right, for his analysis of why and how what was taboo has become normalized.
France’s new legislation “to control immigration”, approved by a vote in parliament on Tuesday, transforms the xenophobic programme of the far-right into law, making the foreigner a public enemy and attacking the universal principle of the equality of rights, argues Mediapart publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article. History, he writes, will record that the person responsible for this disgrace is the very president who was elected by voters who took to the urns to prevent his far-right rival from gaining power.
On Monday, the French government's new immigration bill was rejected by the National Assembly before it was even debated by MPs. Caught on the back foot by this resounding political defeat, supporters of President Emmanuel Macron cried foul, saying the vote was a “denial of democracy” and attacking the “petty politics” of the opposition parties. This is, to say the least, a bold argument, writes Ellen Salvi in this op-ed article, coming as it does from a government that has constantly forced through legislation and schemed in back corridors, including with the far-right.
The recording of the intervention by the emergency services is damming.
When 13-year-old Aïcha fell ill at the family home in Paris her mother called the emergency services and three fire officers – who are often the first responders for medical emergencies in France – arrived at the scene. After thirty minutes the trio left, saying the teenager was faking her suffering, even though she was semi-conscious when they went. Twelve days later Aïcha died in hospital as the result of a brain haemorrhage. Her parents wonder whether their daughter may have lived had the fire officers taken her to hospital, and whether they would have taken her illness more seriously had she not been black. They have now deposed a formal legal complaint for manslaughter. Meanwhile one of fire officers has been disciplined. David Perrotin reports.
