The composition of the new French government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier was decided during all-male meetings between political representatives of the conservative and centre-right parties. And it shows, write Mediapart’s co-editor Lénaïg Bredoux and political correspondent Ellen Salvi in this op-ed article. There are no women in charge of the most powerful ministries, namely those of the interior, defence, justice, economy and foreign affairs, while some members of Barnier’s government have opposed the inclusion of women’s right to abortion into the French Constitution, and are hostile towards LGBTQI+ rights. Meanwhile, the cause of promoting equality between men and women has been demoted from full-time ministerial status to that of a government department.
Tensions were running high on Tuesday in the France's Pacific Ocean territory of New Caledonia, where the pro-independence, indigenous Kanak people lament every September 24th which marks French annexation of the territory in 1853, and where unrest this year has claimed the lives of 13 people.
The new French government is the most rightwing in France for more than a decade despite the fact that the leftwing alliance, the Nouveau Front Populaire, won more seats in July's parliamentary elections than any other political group. Mediapart's Fabien Escalona argues in this op-ed article that the creation of prime minister Michel Barnier's government is not in keeping either with the principles of France's Fifth Republic or those of a more traditional parliamentary system. The president and his new prime minister are heading dangerously towards a no man's land of legitimacy, he writes.
On Saturday President Emmanuel Macron appointed France's most rightwing government in twelve years. All factions on the Right are represented in prime minister Michel Barnier's team, even if this has meant disregarding the results of the parliamentary elections held back on July 7th. The appointment of Didier Migaud, a former leftwing MP, to the justice ministry serves as a token gesture to the Left. Otherwise, the sharp shift to the Right is clear, as is the rickety appearance of the whole edifice. Mediapart's political correspondent Ilyes Ramdani gives his analysis of the new government team.
New PM has ended up with a government that includes a mix of holdovers from the last government and several conservative newcomers including Bruno Retailleau - a staunch conservative known for his hardline stance on immigration - as interior minister.
Demonstrations against the high cost of living that began at the start of September have been causing tensions in the French Caribbean département of Martinique. However, the issue of food prices and the cost of other consumer goods is not new, and nor is it confined just to this island. As Amandine Ascensio reports, it is a persistent reality as a result of the obsolete way the economy is organised, something which has its roots in colonial times.
Authorities are banning demonstrations in four municipalities after violent protests over rising living costs led to the imposition of a curfew earlier this week.
In a letter sent to his committee of top executives, the head of luxury group LVMH, French billionaire Bernard Arnault, has listed those media outlets to whom staff are forbidden to speak. Among them is Mediapart. Indeed, for several months now, the company has refused to respond to our requests for interview. In this op-ed article, Mediapart's Yunnes Abzouz and Khedidja Zerouali explain the background to this blacklisting by one of the world's most high-profile commercial groups.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy recently insisted that France was now politically a right-leaning country, probably more so than it has “ever been”. However, political scientist Vincent Tiberj disputes the widespread notion that there has been a rightwards shift “from the bottom up” in French society. Instead he prefers to point the finger of responsibility for recent voting patterns at media and political elites, against a backdrop of growing political disengagement among citizens. However, as Mediapart's Fabien Escalona writes, it would be unwise for the Left to seize on this as a reassuring counter-narrative.
Dominique Pelicot, accused of drugging his wife to sleep and recruiting dozens of men to abuse her for over 10 years, referred to the 50 co-defendants who are accused of raping his now ex-wife Gisèle, and said: "I am a rapist like the others in this room."
The French government on Wednesday announced the establishment of a state of emergency in the Pacific Ocean territory of New Caledonia, where four people, including a gendarme, have died and many others were injured after two nights of rioting. The troubles were prompted by anger at new legislation to change the electoral register which will have the effect of diminishing the political representation of the archipelago’s indigenous Kanak people. “We’ve entered a deadly spiral," said France's high commissioner for the territory, Louis Le Franc. Gilles Caprais reports from the New Caledonian capital Nouméa, after the second night of violence.
