A criminal investigation was launched in France in 2021 over the sale of 36 Dassault Aviation Rafale fighter aircraft to India in a deal concluded in 2016 and worth 7.8 billion euros. The judge-led probe is examining the involvement of India's Reliance Group, owned and run by businessman Anil Ambani, who became Dassault's industrial partner in the massive contract signed by the French and Indian governments. Detectives are also looking into the funding by Anil Ambani's company at the same time of a film produced by actor and producer Julie Gayet, the partner of the then French president François Hollande. She has been questioned by detectives as part of the investigation. Will the former president himself now be interviewed? Karl Laske reports.
By the time of his death in January 2025 the founder of the far-right Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen, had been out of front-line politics for a few years. But right until the end this deeply divisive figure still had the ability to make waves. According to a new will drawn up in August 2023 and whose existence Mediapart can reveal, Jean-Marie Le Pen bequeathed to his wife Jany the right to continue to live at the family's manor in a wealthy suburb of Paris. This has hampered his daughter Marine Le Pen, who only found out about this will after her father’s death, in her efforts to sell the property. As Karl Laske and Marine Turchi report, the veteran far-right figure's final wishes are now the subject of intense family negotiations.
On Wednesday a parliamentary inquiry led by MPs published its reported on the scandal at the prestigious Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram private Catholic school in south-west France and the wider issue of the abuse of pupils in French schools. Prime minister François Bayrou, a former education minister and local politician whose own children attended that school, was criticised by the inquiry for “failing to act” in relation to the scandal. However, in their report, the MPs also refer to the “Pélussin affair”, which broke in 1995 at a Catholic boarding school in the south-east of France. According to documents uncovered by Mediapart, in that case, too, François Bayrou ignored whistleblowers, who have now attacked his “inaction”. Mathilde Mathieu and David Perrotin report.
The man, suspected of planning attacks against women, has been placed under investigation by France’s anti-terrorism prosecutors in the country’s first case to be exclusively linked to the “incel” movement.
For culture minister Rachida Dati the stakes this summer could not be much higher. She is overseeing legislation on the reform of public broadcasting – which got off to a bad start on Monday when the National Assembly voted not to discuss it - has been taking a close personal interest in impending moves to change the electoral system in Paris, and is facing her own legal troubles in an ongoing criminal investigation. Indeed, these next ten days will be critical for the culture minister as she seeks to fulfil her dream; that of being mayor of Paris. As Ilyes Ramdani and Ellen Salvi report, her intention to be a candidate for the high-profile position at next year's elections is as clear as it is feared within her own political camp, where her methods continue to divide opinion.
Socialist Party had brought forth the censure motion after retirement reform talks fell apart last week; prime minister now finds himself at mercy of far-right's Marine Le Pen.
Temperatures in France were expected to hit a peak on Tuesday, according to the Météo France weather agency, with the highest extreme heat warning in place in 16 départements across the country.
