Happier times: France team players in Qatar earlier in December 2022. © Photo Franck Fife / AFP.

The French national football team, les Bleus, lost to Argentina in the World Cup final in Qatar on Sunday, in a thrilling game that ended in breathless manner. But while the young squad may have the blues at losing their bid for world football's ultimate crown, the new "Mbappé generation" have already surpassed their elders in the matter of popping the apolitical bubble surrounding French football, and in challenging its conservative governing federation. Ilyes Ramdani reports.  

Syrians in Gaziantep, February 25th 2021. © Photo Ozan Kose/AFP

With next June's Turkish presidential election fast approaching, the issue of Syrian refugees in the country has become a major topic for political parties. Politicians' speeches on the subject, repeated at every opportunity, are contributing to the growing wave of racism shown by many Turkish citizens towards immigrants in general - and Syrians in particular. Mediapart correspondent Hussam Hammoud reports from Gaziantep in southern Turkey on the plight of his fellow Syrians in the country.

Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel in a selfie he took on July 14th 2016 on the Promenade des Anglais hours before committing the massacre. © Document Mediapart

On July 14th 2016, in the French Riviera city of Nice, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel ran a heavy truck into and over crowds celebrating Bastille Day, taking the lives of 86 people and injuring hundreds of others, before he was shot dead by police. The 31-year-old Tunisian had a history of mental problems and violence, raising the question of whether his act was solely that of a deranged individual. As the trial begins in Paris of eight people accused of helping him prepare the attack, Matthieu Suc details how the judicial investigation established beyond doubt that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's hideous crime was that of a terrorist, long drawn to jihadism.

The truck used by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, pictured the day after the massacre on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. © DR

The trial opened in Paris on Monday of eight people accused of involvement in a terrorist attack in the Riviera city of Nice in July 2016, when Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove a heavy truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day, causing the deaths of 86 people and injuring hundreds of others. But, as Matthieu Suc reports, the more than 850 civil parties – including direct and indirect victims – are likely to be left frustrated by the hearings, not only because of the absence of Bouhlel who died in a firefight with police, but also because of the weakness of the cases against the accused.

Left-to-right: Jordan Bardella, Marine Le Pen and Louis Aliot. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart avec AFP

France’s far-right Rassemblement National party, the former Front National, is to choose its next president in November, replacing Marine Le Pen who is standing down after 11 years at the helm of the party founded by her father. The two candidates for her succession are her former partner and mayor of Perpignan, Louis Aliot, 52, and the caretaker party president, Jordan Bardella, 27, who officialised his bid this week. Both have been keen to reassure the party of their loyalty to Le Pen and, as Christophe Gueugneau reports, whichever one the party chooses, it will remain firmly under her grip.

Hassan Iquioussen, pictured at his home in Lourches, north-east France, in 2019. © Photo Pierre Rouanet / La Voix du Nord / PhotoPQR via MaxPPP

France’s Council of State has ruled against a lower court’s suspension of an expulsion order against imam Hassan Iquioussen for propagating anti-Semitism and misogyny and being an apologist for terrorism. Immediately after the ruling, which capped a month-long legal battle, police were sent to arrest Iquioussen at his home in north-east France but the 58-year-old imam had already disappeared. Camille Polloni reports.

Gérald Darmanin (foreground) after his victory in municipal elections in Tourcoing, March 31st 2014. © Photo Franck Crusiaux / REA

In a legal battle that began in July, France’s Council of State is to rule early next week on the legality of interior minister Gérald Darmanin’s order for the expulsion to Morocco of imam Hassan Iquioussen, accused of promoting anti-Semitism and opposition to gender equality, and acting as an apologist for terrorism. Mediapart can reveal that the high-profile, hardline interior minister in fact once enjoyed cordial relations with the imam when he sought to woo Muslim voters while campaigning for election as mayor of the town of Tourcoing, and when Iquioussen’s anti-Semitic diatribes were already known. Lou Syrah reports.

Migrants setting off to cross the Channel to England from northern France on October 16th 2021. © Photo Marc Sanye / AFP

On August 22nd, a total of 1,295 migrants landed on the shores of southern England from France, a record daily figure, bringing the number of people who have made the same perilous crossing of the Channel so far this year to more than 22,500. Migrant smuggling gangs typically demand 3,000 euros per person for a place on the flimsy dinghies and key to the logistics of these networks are ‘mules’ who transport the boats and equipment, often from Germany, to the French coast. Camille Polloni travelled to the northern French city of Lille to follow the trial last week of one of them, whose lawyer said he was a “Mister average who works every day”.

Journalist Atanas Chobanov investigates corruption in Bulgaria from his base in France. © Illustration Justine Vernier / Mediapart

France-based journalist Atanas Chobanov has been described as a 'bête noire' of Bulgaria’s oligarchs over his dogged investigations into high-level corruption in the Balkan country. French economic intelligence and cybersecurity firm Avisa Partners, whose clients include major corporations and dictatorial regimes and which is accused of manipulating online information, has confirmed to Mediapart it was commissioned by an agency it did not name to compile a report on the Bulgarian journalist. The firm insisted it later abandoned its enquiries and kept its “internal analysis report” in-house. Fabrice Arfi and Antton Rouget report.

A German soldier returns after the Bundeswehr left Afghanistan. © Hauke-Christian Dittrich / AFP

The German military or 'Bundeswehr' is under-equipped, used only for deployment in other parts of the world and is currently incapable of defending its own territory. In essence, the army in post-reunification Germany was designed for peace - not war. Now the conflict in Ukraine and the threat from Russia have changed all that and authorities in Berlin are planning to build the “biggest conventional European army within NATO”. Thomas Schnee reports from Berlin about Germany's shift away from pacifism.

Migrants saved by rescuers from SOS Méditerranée in February 2021. © Nejma Brahim / Mediapart.

From the north of France to the Aegean Sea, from the Mediterranean to Mexico, the number of deaths at our borders is rising.  More than 24,000 people are officially known to have perished on the perilous Mediterranean sea route alone since 2014. Yet these recurring tragedies produce no reaction from our political leaders. In this opinion article Mediapart's Nejma Brahim says this casual acceptance of migrant deaths cannot continue.

Golfers at Rochefort-en-Yvelines, near Paris, August 5th 2022. © Photo Alain Jocard / AFP

Thousands of French householders are having to be evacuated because of wildfires, others are being deprived of drinking water from their taps while some are even dying at work because of the heat. Yet meanwhile the ultra-rich are jetting around in private planes, benefiting from exemptions to be able to continue to play golf and racking up profits thanks to rocketing fossil fuel prices. In this opinion article Mediapart's Mickaël Correia argues that the French government is itself giving a stamp of approval to the rich elite's climate 'separatism' through its approach to environmental policy.

Thousands of jobs in France’s glass-making industry are now under threat. © Photo Denis Charlet / AFP

Soaring energy costs have thrown the once flourishing glass-making industry in France into a crisis, and this has notably hit the small- and medium-sized businesses that account for an important part of its estimated 22,000-strong workforce. As glass-makers report a year-on-year quadrupling of their energy bills amid a parallel economic slowdown, some have been forced to shut down their ovens and to place staff on short-time working, and many now face the chilling prospect of not being able to survive the winter. Mathias Thépot reports.

Former weavers Zohra Fournier and her sister Habiba Kechout © Photo Prisca Borrel pour Mediapart

In 1964 around 60 Harki families – the Algerians who had fought on France's side in the recently-ended Algerian War of Independence – were shunted off to a housing estate at Lodève in the south of France. The women from the families, all skilled weavers, were put to work in what was to become a small offshoot factory for the manufacture of high-quality rugs and carpets in Paris, and in a bid to revive the local textile industry. But as Prisca Borrel reports, the shadow of French colonial attitudes in Algeria was to loom over this initiative for years to come.

Beijing August 4th, 2022. © Photo Noel Celis/AFP

The broad leftwing alliances NUPES became a major force in France's National Assembly following legislative elections in June. However, several leading figures in the alliance have voiced their strong disagreement with its main architect, the veteran radical left politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, over the latter's stance on China and Taiwan. As François Bougon and Mathieu Dejean argue here in this opinion article, Mélenchon's rehashing of Chinese state propaganda stems from deep-seated anti-Americanism.