French intelligence services have obtained evidence that Russia's presidential office approved a plan to target both the Jewish and Muslim communities in this country. The aim of these “active measures” operations is to sow division and discord within the heart of French society.
Large artificial reservoirs, built for farmers and filled from underground water sources in winter to irrigate crops during the summer, are bitterly opposed by environmentalists and have been a source of fierce debate and sometimes violent conflict in France. The company behind the most controversial reservoir, at Sainte-Soline in west France, has been hit by recent court rulings. But in any case, as a Mediapart investigation here shows, the entire economic model of these vast 'mega-basin' crop-watering systems is now looking increasingly unviable.
In October last year, an inflatable dinghy carrying an estimated total of 60-70 migrants left the north-east French coast hoping to cross the Channel to England. But shortly after leaving it took on water and sank. While 48 people on board were saved by French rescue services, an official toll announced three others died. But in reality, at least a dozen more people went missing. Thirteen bodies were soon found on French beaches and in the water but now, one year on, nine of them have still not been identified, despite the cooperation of families of the disappeared.
A Mediapart investigation has revealed that at least nine men convicted of, or awaiting trial for, far-right terrorism-related offences in France have either held positions of responsibility within Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National - or its predecessor the Front National - or have stood as party candidates in local and national elections. It is the only French political party with such links to these kinds of cases.
The well-known psychoanalyst and broadcaster Gérard Miller was formally placed under investigation on October 2nd, in connection with four allegations of rape – three involving minors – and two claims of sexual assault, committed between 2000 and 2020. He was also designated an assisted witness – an intermediate status in French law between that of a witness and a formal suspect - in connection with the alleged rape of a minor over the age of 15.
Gaël Perdriau, mayor of the city of Saint-Étienne in south-east France, stood trial on September 22nd for his role in a homophobic blackmail plot against his own deputy, who was secretly filmed with a male escort in an hotel room. In the dock alongside him are three former close associates of the rightwing mayor, who all turned on him during the judicial investigation that led to these proceedings. Antton Rouget reports on the background to an extraordinary trial that is expected to last a week.
Prime minister François Bayrou has approved the renovation of his office in Pau, the small city in south-west France where he is also still the serving mayor. The aim of the work is to “restore the original splendour” of that office, and the bill - to be paid from public funds - comes in at 40,000 euros, according to Mediapart's information. Such a move is politically explosive in the middle of a national austerity plan being pushed by the prime minister himself and against the backdrop of a city council whose public debt has soared since it came under Bayrou's control. Fabrice Arfi and Antton Rouget report.
Earlier this month a screening of the hit film 'Barbie' in the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Sec was cancelled after local protests. Yet the move to stop this film being shown was just the latest episode in a long list of cancel-culture attacks on the freedom to stage artistic performances across France. Many of these interventions have come from fundamentalist Catholic and nationalist groups, with some also emanating from the Left. Faced with such threats, some local elected representatives have felt obliged to yield to the pressure and cancel events. Laura Wojcik reports.
There has been outcry in France after Raphaël Graven, aka “Jean Pormanove”, or simply “JP”, died on Monday in front of the cameras of an online streaming channel whose viewers paid to watch him being subjected for 12 days to cruel physical and psychological abuse. After an autopsy found no external or internal injury to explain his death, toxicological tests have been ordered. Questions remain over the precise circumstances of his death, and others over the antics of his fellow streamers, the failure of relevant authorities to intervene beforehand, the laisser-faire attitude of the Australian platform Kick which hosted the channel, and why viewers watch the disturbing content.
Stories of the abuse of pupils at Notre-Dame-de-Bétharram private Catholic school in south-west France have grabbed the headlines in recent months, and have been the subject of parliamentary debate and a high-profile report by Members of Parliament. But how many pupils and former pupils have taken their own lives after suffering abuse at this and other such schools? That question has been notably absent from the many debates sparked by the Bétharram affair. Yet there are many such cases. Mediapart has spoken to witnesses and loved ones, who tell of lives and families that have been torn apart. Sarah Brethes and Mathilde Mathieu report.
