Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat (Dora Maar), a 1943 portrait by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso of his muse and lover Dora Maar, was apparently bought from Picasso at his wartime Paris studio in 1944, and was never again seen in public until very recently.
After days of delays due to legal challenges, the first of migrants chosen, under a bilateral treaty established in August, to be sent back to France from where they arrived in clandestine crossings of the Channel, in return for an equal number entering the UK by a legal route, was deported on Thursday.
Newly appointed French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu faces his first major test on Thursday when a nationwide turnout of 800,000 is expected in protests warning against expected budget cuts, a movement involving all the major trades unions.
A study published this week by two French health agencies details a well-above-average exposure to pesticides of residents who live close to vineyards, as illustrated in urine and hair samples, and others of ambient and household air, dust and home-grown vegetables. The study was originally prompted by an unusual cluster of child cancer cases discovered in a wine-growing area of south-west France, one of which concerned Lucas Rapin (pictured) when he was aged five, and who now lives with the debilitating side effects of his successful treatment for leukaemia. Amélie Poinssot reports on the findings of the study, and hears from Rapin and his mother about their arduous experience.
The first deportations of migrants to France from Britain under the so-called 'one in, one out' scheme agreed between London and Paris, whereby a rejected asylum seeker is returned to France in exchange for a candidate for asylum, were this week held up due to last-minute legal challenges.
Sébastien Lecornu, 39, was on Monday appointed by Emmanuel Macron as France’s new prime minister, tasked with pushing the president’s policy programme through France’s hung parliament – there where his predecessors failed and where his reputation as an expert in the art of political manoeuvring will face its sternest test yet. However, Lecornu, whose ideological convictions are unclear, and who is cited in a judicial investigation into favouritism, also has a mixed record of success as minister. Mediapart political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani dresses a portrait of he who is widely regarded as Macron’s last chance for avoiding fresh legislative elections, and the risk of the far-right obtaining a majority.
A French parliamentary commission looking into the effects of TikTok content on youngsters has recommended that children under the age of 15 should not be allowed to access social media, while 15-18-year-olds should be subject to an overnight ban on using social media.
Police investigating who was behind the dumping of pig heads outside several mosques around the French capital overnight on Monday say they have identified a Serbian-registered vehicle and a Croation mobile phone they suspect were used by two individuals behind the provocation.
Many observers agree that Emmanuel Macron's latest appointment as prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, represents his last chance before being forced to again dissolve the hung parliament for fresh elections, in which case the far-right has high hopes of finding a majority among an electorate struggling financially and disillusioned by the French president's pandering to the wealthy.
Insensitive to mounting anger in France over worsening social conditions and increasing demands made upon the less well-off, while obstinately turning his back on honouring the results of last year’s snap parliamentary elections, in which the broad Left triumphed, Emmanuel Macron is precipitating a major political crisis, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor Carine Fouteau in this op-ed article. Joined also by an economic crisis, and a blurring of political lines, she argues, the French president is opening up the final stretch of the road to power for the far-right.
Sébastien Lecornu, 39, who took over the post of prime minister on Wednesday, succeeding François Bayrou, 74, who was ousted by MPs in a confidence vote on Monday, has announced he will make a national address 'in the coming days' and pledged a different approach to government than his predecessors.
A nationwide day of action, dubbed 'let's block everything', launched online in protest at President Emmanuel Macron's policies and against the political establishment in general amid months of parliamentary paralysis, began on Wednesday morning, with roads blocked and clashes with police at key sites.
President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday appointed one of his most loyal political allies, Sébastien Lecornu, 39, who was previously serving as armed forces minister, as France's new prime minister, hours after François Bayrou, 74, handed in his resignation as PM after losing a confidence vote in the country's hung parliament.
France's prime minister François Bayrou is due to tender his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron in the coming hours after his government was heavily defeated on Monday evening in a vote of confidence at the National Assembly that he had himself called. In the end, just 194 MPs voted for the government and 364 MPs voted against as, at the end of a long parliamentary debate, and to little surprise, the Left and the far-right brought down the prime minister. In the corridors of the National Assembly there will be little regret at the administration's passing. Now all eyes will be on how President Macron reacts to what is for him yet another deeply damaging political reversal. Alexandre Berteau, Pauline Graulle and Youmni Kezzouf report.
