President Emmanuel Macron and his government locked in difficult negotiations over draft legislation aimed at toughening up immigration and asylum laws. Originally due to be presented in the spring, it was withdrawn after the government, without an absolute majority in parliament, failed to gain necessary support from the conservative opposition. They are vehemently opposed to an article in the bill which would allow undocumented migrants working in sectors suffering labour shortages to gain full legal status. The issue has caused a deep split among members of Macron’s centre-right party, some of who, led by MP Sacha Houlié, fear that hardline interior minister Gérald Darmanin, presenter of the bill, will bow to pressure from the conservatives to remove the regularisation measures. Mediapart’s parliamentary correspondent Pauline Graulle reports.
Cross-party talks on a proposition by French President Emmanuel Macron to introduce a series of referenda on major issues, in an attempt to unblock his party's predicament in parliament where it is without an absolute majority, ended in the early hours of Thursday after 12 hours of discussions and with opposition party leaders voicing their scepticism over the project.
In an increasingly tense standoff, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that France will not comply with the demand made last Friday by Niger's junta that its ambassador leave the West African country within 48 hours.
Speaking in Vanuatu on the first visit by a sitting French leader to an independent Pacific Island state, Macron sought to offer a French alternative in a region where the US and China are competing for influence.
A political row has broken out after the head of France's national police service, Frédéric Veaux, said that police officers should not be detained in custody even if they face serious accusations in the line of duty. His criticism of the legal system came after one of four police officers in Marseille facing an investigation for allegedly beating up a young man during the recent unrest was remanded in custody. Veaux's comments, which were supported by Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez, have attracted criticism from opposition politicians, though the government and its supporters have so far declined to condemn them. Mediapart's Fabien Escalona spoke to Sebastien Roché, director of research at the CNRS public research institute and a noted expert on police and security issues. He says that the unprecedented comments by France's two most senior cops highlight the political fragility of President Emmanuel Macron's government.
After considerable delays, French president Emmanuel Macron and his prime minister Élisabeth Borne, newly re-confirmed in her role, have carried out a government reshuffle. The main theme is the removal of ministers from a civic society background, who were considered too low-profile. They have instead been replaced by more political appointments in the form of Macron loyalists and Parliamentarians. The prime minister and her team hope this will make the government function more effectively. As for any new political impetus, that will have to wait. Political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani reports.
Highest-profile change saw the replacement of Pap Ndiaye, France's first black education minister, who despite a solid intellectual profile was seen as lacking political experience.
American economist Fiona Scott Morton says she will not take up job as the European Commission's chief competition economist after a political backlash.
France’s 7.8-billion-euro sale to India in 2016 of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter jets, the subject of an ongoing French judicial investigation, is mired by suspected corruption involving politicians and industrialists. As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who signed the deal, prepares to attend France’s Bastille Day celebrations as guest of honour, documents obtained by Mediapart reveal how Modi’s billionaire friend, Anil Ambani, boss of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Group, which was handed a lucrative contract as a condition of the Rafale sale, directly solicited the intervention of then economy minister Emmanuel Macron and finance minister Michel Sapin in a bid to escape a 151-million-euro tax claim against his French subsidiary. The tax adjustment was finally cut down to 6.6 million euros. Yann Philippin reports.
French President Emmanuel Macron, meeting on Tuesday with more than 200 mayors from areas afected by the rioting sparked last week after the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old during a police traffic stop, said he believed 'the peak we have experienced in recent days has passed'.
