Senate

For the last three years France's upper chamber of parliament, the Senate, has been under the political control of the Left, a rarity in the history of the Fifth Republic. On Sunday that brief interlude ended when, as expected, the Right regained control of the chamber during partial elections, with the centre-right faring especially well. And for the first time the far-right Front National gained entry to the Senate, picking up two seats. Meanwhile the ruling Socialist Party took comfort from the fact that a number of its candidates fared better than expected, though there were some symbolic defeats for key allies of President François Hollande. Mathieu Magnaudeix analyses the significance of the weekend's elections.

The Front National won two seats in Sunday's senatorial elections, when the socialists and their allies lost their majority in favour of the Right. 

The law is inspired by the case a French man whose colleagues donated 170 days paid leave while his son battled with cancer.

A week after his parliamentary immunity was lifted, French senator is being questioned by detectives as part of a long-running vote-buying inquiry.

The 88 year-old right-wing Senator and industrialist allegedly paid out millions of euros to buy votes when he was mayor of a town near Paris.

France's upper chamber has approved a bill that would ban online book retailers - such as Amazon - from offering free delivery.

Furious wine makers launch campaign against tax hike and tighter advertising rules they claim would be 'very bad for the image of France'.

Former IMF boss seized controversial first appearance in parliament since his disgrace over string of sex scandals to mock President Hollande.

The bill, which has sparked protests across the country, still faces a second reading in the National Assembly and a final reading in the upper house.

Senate paves way for new law after voting to redefine marriage as a union between “two individuals of different sex or of the same sex”.

France's upper chamber of parliament has begun examining bill which gives homosexual couples the right to marry and adopt children.

Members of the French Senate have recently begun publishing their outside business affairs on a new online register of members' interests. The aim is to prevent conflicts of interest between a senator’s public and private lives. The first register has thrown up a fascinating array of outside activities. But senators are under no obligation to make the declarations and there is no provision for them to publish details of how much they earn from other sources. So will self-regulation work? Mathilde Mathieu reports.

Early December, the Left majority in the French Senate passed a bill to give non-EU nationals the right to vote and to stand as candidates for the position of councilor in local, municipal elections. The bill stands no chance of becoming law before the 2012 presidential and legislative elections, as it would require adoption by the current Right-majority in parliament's lower house, and the approval of President Nicolas Sarkozy. But a Socialist Party victory in next year's polls could see the bill finally introduced as law, ending several decades of campaigning, notably by representatives of France's large North African immigrant community. Carine Fouteau met with Hocine Taleb, a 32 year-old Algerian who runs a youth association in a Paris suburb, who explains his anger and frustration at being excluded from local decision-making.