The 38-year-old former French economy minister, who left the socialist government in August and who claims his politics are anchored neither on the Left nor Right, announced Wednesday that he will stand in next spring's presidential elections.
France has joined the US in condemning controversial proposed legislation to be submitted to the Israeli parliament which would allow settlers in the occupied West Bank to stay in homes built on private Palestinian land, warning 'it would once again jeopardize a two-state solution'.
French President François Hollande who, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was attending a meeting of almost 200 nations in Morocco on ways to slow global warming, said US 'must respect the commitments it has undertaken' with last year's UN pact to combat climate change, which president-elect Donald Trump has called into question.
A spokesman for the conservative frontrunner candidate for the 2017 presidential elections, Alain Juppé, has said the UK border post in Calais will, if he becomes president, be closed as an 'uncomfortable consequence' of Brexit.
Charities report hunger strikes and absconding among the 1,600 children and young people evacuated from the Calais 'jungle' camp to centres across France where many are kept unaware of the progress of their applications to join relatives in Britain.
French finance minister Michel Sapin said he was 'not ruling out' a lower public deficit than the 3.3% of gross domestic product target he has confirmed will be reached at the least.
In an interview with the BBC, French Prime minister Manuel Valls has hinted that state of emergency powers, introduced after last year's Paris terrorist attacks, would be prolonged to next spring when the country holds presidential and parliamentary elections.
President François Hollande on Sunday unveiled plaques at sites across the capital where 130 people died and hundreds of others were wounded on the evening of November 13th 2015 during gun and suicide bomb attacks by the Islamic State jihadist group, including at the Bataclan music hall which reopened on Saturday with a concert by Sting.
Members of Parliament from the French conservative opposition party Les Républicains have signed a motion for the impeachment of socialist president François Hollande over comments he made in a recent book of conversations with two journalists in which the MPs allege he 'seriously violated defence secrecy'.
As France prepares to mark the date when 130 people were killed by jihadist terrorists in gun and suicide bomb attacks in and around Paris on November 13th 2015, the survivors have spoken of their continuing battle to overcome the physical and mental wounds they incurred.
