On Saturday February 29th, during an emergency meeting of ministers called to discuss the Coronavirus crisis, the French government took the decision to force its bitterly-opposed pension reforms through Parliament without a vote. In adopting the “nuclear option” of invoking Article 49-3 of the French Constitution to do this, President Emmanuel Macron is hoping that public debate will now shift to other issues. But as Ellen Salvi writes, the move is likely to plunge the remaining two years of his presidency into greater political uncertainty and even undermine his chances of re-election in 2022.
Many travellers are reconsidering their holiday travel plans as unions stood united in their opposition to the government's plans to fuse the country's 42 pension schemes into a single, points-based system.
In May 2019 former Italian government minister Sandro Gozi was elected as a French MP for the European Parliament representing Emmanuel Macron's ruling party and then became an advisor on Europe to the French prime minister Édouard Philippe. But unbeknown to both his former campaign team and the prime minister's office, Gozi was also an advisor to the government of Malta. The official insists he resigned that advisory role just after his election as an MEP and before he began working for the French prime minister. But after details of the curious affair became public, Sandro Gozi quit his post. Antton Rouget and Ellen Salvi report.
A friend of French prime minister Édouard Philippe was arrested and placed in custody on Sunday June 23rd for having reportedly hit an off-duty police officer. According to legal sources he was, unusually, freed just a few hours later after having claimed – falsely - that he was the premier's diplomatic advisor. He is now due to face trial in November on charges that include passing himself off as a ministerial advisor. Fabrice Arfi, Antton Rouget and Matthieu Suc report
French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe on Tuesday anounced his government's raft of measures to overhaul the unemployment benefits system, which he claimed would lower the jobless rate and save 3.4 billion euros over three years, and which will include extending the period people have to work before being eligible for aid, a cut in indemnities for high-income earners, ensuring benefits are lower than job pay, and the penalizing of companies which repeatedly use short-term contracts.
Presenting the second stage of legislative reform of his goverment after two years in power, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe has told parliament that environmental issues and 'social justice' will be at the forefront of future policy-making over the remaining three years of its mandate, and also announced that it will end a ban on IVF for lesbian couples and single women.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Monday announced the closure of the 12-million-euro series of nationwide consultations of citizens' grievances with government policies, held in town hall meetings and online and prompted by the so-called 'yellow vest' protest movement over falling living standards, when he defined the principal demands as being a broad lowering of taxes, a halt to the decline in public services in some regions, greater democratic consultation and more positive action over environmental concerns.
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French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, reacting to sharp criticism of policing during Saturday's 'yellow vest' anti-government demonstrations in Paris which saw buildings, stores, restaurants and newsstands torched in the capital's centre, announced on Monday that the Paris police chief has been sacked, that future rallies in established trouble spots around the country may be banned, while he also approved wider use by police of the controversial LBD rubber bullet weapons which have left more than two hundred injured, many of them seriously, during the three months of rolling protests.
During a visit on Sunday to the Mali HQ of French military operations against jihadist insurgents in the Sahel, French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said 'durable stabilisation' in the region could not be assured without 'the backing of others'.
It was an intervention from the office of France's prime minister Édouard Philippe which caused the opening of an investigation into the source of secret recordings involving a former presidential aide, Mediapart can reveal. This investigation then led to an attempt by prosecutors to search Mediapart's office – which Mediapart prevented, citing laws designed to protect its sources. The prosecution authorities, meanwhile, are remaining silent about the information they received which caused them to start the probe. Fabrice Arfi, Antton Rouget, Matthieu Suc and Marine Turchi report.
