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.
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 “revolution”, a “jolt” an “emancipation” … however one wants to describe this contemporary feminist period, the fact remains that five years after it began #MeToo is at a crossroads; weakened for internal reasons and opposed by those whom it challenges. In this article, the first in a series, Lénaïg Bredoux and Joseph Confavreux assess the current status of the #MeToo movement.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Earlier this year the lost remains of 27 infants were finally discovered in shallow graves close to a former French military camp used 60 years ago to intern Harkis, the Algerian auxiliaries who fought alongside France’s army in the Algerian war of Independence, and their families. The infants, whose parents were reluctantly admitted to France in 1962, were among 31 recorded to have died amid the harsh conditions at the isolated camp in southern France. But despite announcements of a future memorial cemetery for the children, their families are increasingly angry at the delays for a search to begin for the other missing remains, and call for the opening of an investigation into the many mysteries surrounding the events. Prisca Borrel reports.
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.
