The scandals hanging over this spring’s French presidential elections highlight the endemic problems of corruption across the French political class which has been steeped in sleaze for decades. In this interview with Mediapart, two veteran and emblematic figures of the fight against corruption, former investigating magistrate Eva Joly and former public prosecutor Éric de Montgolfier, set out why they believe the problem has flourished for so long and what measures must be taken to effectively tackle it.
The influential Civil Liberties committee of MPs at the European Parliament has just agreed on a draft counter-terrorism directive for the European Union. Mediapart can reveal that the content of the text has been considerably influenced by Paris, which has been keen to include measures already adopted in France in recent years. These include a new crime of glorifying or praising terrorism, blocking access to websites and boosting the number of surveillance tools. Jérôme Hourdeaux reports.
Campaign managers for Eva Joly (pictured), the mainstream Green candidate in next year's French presidential elections, have hit on a novel idea to protect their party, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, from potentially disastrous financial losses if she fails to score 5% of the vote. They are seeking an insurance policy, notably with British or US companies, costed against her performance in current opinion polls. Mathilde Mathieu and Michaël Hajdenberg report.
After tortuous negotiations, France's Green party last weekend finally ratified an electoral pact drawn up with the Socialist Party which centres on a steep reduction in nuclear power production and the development of renewable energy sources. The agreement, which has triggered alarm bells in the French nuclear industry, seals an alliance between both parties for the legislative elections that will immediately follow next year's presidential poll. Jade Lindgaard examines the facts and figures behind the programme to reduce nuclear energy production, and reports on the last-minute political high drama that came close to leaving it stillborn.
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