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.
François Bayrou may be forced out of the role he has only held since December if, as expected, he loses today's vote, a scenario that could have dire consequences for the French economy and President Emmanuel Macron.
As 10 September nears, the emerging movement 'Bloquons Tout' – “Let’s Block Everything” – is calling to bring France to a standstill in protest at economic policies.
On September 8th the government of François Bayrou looks set to be toppled in a vote of confidence that the prime minister himself has called. Since his appointment at the end of December 2024, Bayrou’s government has obviously struggled because of its lack of an overall majority in the National Assembly, but it has nonetheless clearly pursued a liberal and conservative path. Here, members of Mediapart's editorial team look back at the nine months of an administration whose time in office has been marked by environmental setbacks and by its endorsement of the anti-immigration line espoused by the rightwing Les Républicains party.
Move against Google risks provoking ire of President Trump who has threatened huge tariffs against countries that impose “discriminatory” regulations on American tech companies.
In his latest book 'Un taylorisme augmenté' ('Enhanced Taylorism') the France-based sociologist Juan Sebastián Carbonell offers a fresh perspective on the likely impact of artificial intelligence on the labour market. Rather than seeing it as a boost for productivity on the one hand or as a destroyer of jobs on the other, the academic instead describes artificial intelligence as a capitalist tool for tighter control over already downgraded work. And he calls for a social struggle centred squarely on the issue of technology and its role in the workplace. Romaric Godin reviews the academic's book.
