Macron’s pensions reform: promulgated but not legitimized

By
Emmanuel Macron inspecting the restoration work on Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, April 14th 2023. “Give up on nothing, that’s my motto,” he said during the visit. © Photo Sarah Meysonnier / Pool / AFP Emmanuel Macron inspecting the restoration work on Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, April 14th 2023. “Give up on nothing, that’s my motto,” he said during the visit. © Photo Sarah Meysonnier / Pool / AFP

After France’s Constitutional Council on Friday approved nearly all of President Emmanuel Macron’s legislation to reform the pensions system, notably the raising of the retirement age on full pension rights to 64, the legislation was enacted as law in the early hours of Saturday. In this op-ed analysis of the move, Mediapart’s political affairs correspondent Ellen Salvi sets out why the social and political crisis created by the fiercely contested reform has now also become an institutional one, paving a path in France for future illiberal regimes.

How inflation is driving a rise in social inequalities in France

By
 © Photo Magali Cohen / Hans Lucas via AFP © Photo Magali Cohen / Hans Lucas via AFP

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.

French actor Gérard Depardieu accused of sexual violence by 13 women

By
Actor Gérard Depardieu. © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart avec AFP Actor Gérard Depardieu. © Illustration Simon Toupet / Mediapart avec AFP

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.

How Macron's government debases public debate and aids the far-right

By
Gérald Darmanin and Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony at Versailles on March 31st 2023  in honour of the gendarme Arnaud Blanc, who was killed during an operation against illegal gold prospectors in French Guiana. © Photo Ludovic Marin / Pool / AFP Gérald Darmanin and Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony at Versailles on March 31st 2023 in honour of the gendarme Arnaud Blanc, who was killed during an operation against illegal gold prospectors in French Guiana. © Photo Ludovic Marin / Pool / AFP

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.

'It was carnage': one young demonstrator's story from France's water protests

By
The demonstrators protesting against the reservoir facing gendarmes at Saint-Soline in west France, March 25th 2023. © Photo Jérôme Gilles / NurPhoto via AFP The demonstrators protesting against the reservoir facing gendarmes at Saint-Soline in west France, March 25th 2023. © Photo Jérôme Gilles / NurPhoto via AFP

Environment student Lucas, aged 23, took part in the protest on March 25th against against plans to build an irrigation reservoir at Sainte-Soline in west France. It was the first demonstration of this type he had participated in, and he ended up hurling stones at the gendarmes. Here he tells Karl Laske about the reality of being in the middle of brutal clashes which left protestors seriously injured and which sparked controversy over police tactics and the subsequent reaction of interior minister Gérald Darmanin.

Qatari lobbyist takes legal action after revelations of alleged UAE meddling in France

By
Sihem Souid has lobbied on behalf of Qatar in France since 2015. © Photo Jacques Demarthon / AFP Sihem Souid has lobbied on behalf of Qatar in France since 2015. © Photo Jacques Demarthon / AFP

Former French police officer Sihem Souid, who now lobbies on behalf of Qatar, has made a formal legal complaint to the prosecution authorities in Paris after revelations by Mediapart and 'The New Yorker' magazine over alleged intelligence-gathering operations and attempts to gain influence in France carried out on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. As Mediapart has revealed, these operations were carried out for Qatar's regional rivals the UAE by a private Swiss agency called Alp Services. The legal complaint made by the lobbyist centres on photographs which suggest that her family home may have been the target of surveillance. Yann Philippin reports.

Minister of lies: French law and order chief Gérald Darmanin's false claims about protests

By
Under the spotlight over his comments: France's interior minister Gérald Darmanin. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart avec Sipa et AFP Under the spotlight over his comments: France's interior minister Gérald Darmanin. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart avec Sipa et AFP

In the space of one week France's high-profile minister of the interior issued a series of bold but false declarations. These assertions concerned the typical profile of the “troublemakers” present at France's recent demonstrations, the police's controversial BRAV-M motorbike unit, the type of ammunition fired at the water protests at Sainte-Soline in west France and the obstacles that prevented the emergency services from reaching people who had been badly injured at the same demonstrations. France's top administrative body the Conseil d'État described one of Gérald Darmanin's pronouncements as “false”. Matthieu Suc reports.

The new clinic trying to tackle France's hidden prescription drug addiction problem

By
Patient Jean-Marie with Benjamin Rolland at the CERLAM centre, February 2023. © Photo Rozenn Le Saint pour Mediapart Patient Jean-Marie with Benjamin Rolland at the CERLAM centre, February 2023. © Photo Rozenn Le Saint pour Mediapart

Addiction to medicines that are prescribed to ease pain, anxiety or to help someone sleep is a major and very public problem in the United States. But in France the scale of the problem is significantly underestimated. Mediapart has had access to a unique clinical service in the eastern city of Lyon that specialises in dealing with patients who have become hooked on prescription drugs. Health correspondent Rozenn Le Saint reports.

The martyrs of France's environment movement - and those who want to bury it

By
Mobile gendarme units during the demonstration against the agricultural reservoirs at Sainte-Soline in west France, March 25th 2023. © Photo Yohan Bonnet / AFP Mobile gendarme units during the demonstration against the agricultural reservoirs at Sainte-Soline in west France, March 25th 2023. © Photo Yohan Bonnet / AFP

If one single proof were needed of the justness of the environmental cause, then this is provided by the frenzied repression regularly deployed against it, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Edwy Plenel in this op-ed article. From the anti-nuclear protests at Creys-Malville on the Franco-Swiss border in the 1970s to the recent demonstrations against agricultural water reservoirs at Sainte-Soline in west France, and including the sinking of the 'Rainbow Warrior' in Auckland harbour in 1985 and the anti-dam protests at Sivens in south-west France in 2014, the movement's martyrs have stood up against its opponents in France. These opponents are, he argues, proponents of a calamitous capitalism that is now paving the way for carbo-fascism.

French pensions reform battle: the mounting calls for a tax on the super-rich

By
At the 2014 Snow Polo World Cup in Saint-Moritz, Switzerland. © Photo Andrea Gjestvang / Panos / REA At the 2014 Snow Polo World Cup in Saint-Moritz, Switzerland. © Photo Andrea Gjestvang / Panos / REA

Nationwide demonstrations against French President Emmanuel Macron’s reform of the pensions system continued on Tuesday, in the tenth separate day of action called by trade unions. The protests are chiefly over the reform’s raising of the age of retirement on full pension rights by two years to 64, which the government argues is necessary to fund the system. But one of the recurrent demands voiced by the marchers is for a tax on the super-rich instead, a proposition, resolutely opposed by Macron, that is also surprisingly gaining ground among elite economic circles. Mathias Thépot reports.

The story of the rise and likely fall of the French ‘pavillon’

By
A typical row of ‘pavillons’ in the suburbs of Rouen, northern France. © Sébastien Calvet A typical row of ‘pavillons’ in the suburbs of Rouen, northern France. © Sébastien Calvet

Over the past 60 years they have spread across France, mushrooming around towns and cities to now number close to 20 million. Their generic name in French is le pavillon, the individual houses in suburban estates which share a same aesthetic model, and which began life as the key to house ownership for the lower middle classes. Lucie Delaporte reviews a book published last month by French sociologists Hervé Marchal and Jean-Marc Stébé, Le Pavillon, une passion française, in which they detail the chequered history of the popular pavillon, whose continued expansion appears doomed for environmental reasons.

PSG and BeIN Sports boss Nasser al-Khelaifi in second illegal employment complaint

By
Nasser al-Khelaifi (left) with his former major-domo Hicham Karmoussi. © Document Mediapart Nasser al-Khelaifi (left) with his former major-domo Hicham Karmoussi. © Document Mediapart

The Paris public prosecution services are investigating two formal complaints, the latest filed on March 23rd, alleging that Nasser al-Khelaifi, president of the Paris Saint-Germain football club and also chairman of Qatari broadcaster BeIN Sports, illegally employed in France his former major-domo and an advisor by paying them through fake contracts as coaches with his Smash Tennis Academy in Doha. Khelaifi, one of the most powerful figures in world football, denies the accusations. Yann Philippin reports.

The Russian mathematician relentlessly persecuted by Putin's henchmen

By
Azat Miftakhov pictured during his trial last year. © miftakhov.org Azat Miftakhov pictured during his trial last year. © miftakhov.org

Russian mathematician Azat Miftakhov, serving a six-year sentence in a penal colony for supposed vandalism, is in principle eligible for release in September. But Russia’s security services, the FSB, are preparing a new case against him, using the false testimony of individuals under torture, this time for supposed terrorist activities. In this report by Antoine Perraud, two Russian anarchists exiled in France recount their ordeals at the hands of the Kremlin regime.

The beginning of the end for Macron’s presidency?

By
In a deepening crisis: French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and President Emmanuel Macron. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart avec AFP In a deepening crisis: French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and President Emmanuel Macron. © Photo illustration Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart avec AFP

The French government on Thursday announced it will use an article of the constitution that allows it to adopt as legislation its proposed and hotly contested reform of the pensions system without a vote in Parliament. In this op-ed analysis of the move, Mediapart political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani argues that it is not only the latest manifestation of President Emmanuel Macron’s top-down exercise of power, but it may also represent one too many, opening up a profound crisis into which his second and final term in office is now plunged.

Opinion polls ordered by Macron belie claim he was elected on pension reform platform

Demonstrators in Paris march in protest at Emmanuel Macron’s proposed reform of the pension system, March 15th 2023. © Alain JOCARD / AFP Demonstrators in Paris march in protest at Emmanuel Macron’s proposed reform of the pension system, March 15th 2023. © Alain JOCARD / AFP

The strong opposition to Emmanuel Macron’s proposed reform of the pension system, notably raising for most people the age of retirement on full pension rights from 62 to 64, continued on Wednesday, with another day of nationwide protests, the eighth in succession. As the reform reaches its final passage in parliament, the French president and his government insist that the reform was at the centre of his manifesto for re-election last year, and was therefore supported and legitimized by the electorate. But Mediapart can reveal that a series of opinion polls commissioned by Macron’s election campaign team belie the claim. Christophe Gueugneau and Antton Rouget report.