A study published this week by two French health agencies details a well-above-average exposure to pesticides of residents who live close to vineyards, as illustrated in urine and hair samples, and others of ambient and household air, dust and home-grown vegetables. The study was originally prompted by an unusual cluster of child cancer cases discovered in a wine-growing area of south-west France, one of which concerned Lucas Rapin (pictured) when he was aged five, and who now lives with the debilitating side effects of his successful treatment for leukaemia. Amélie Poinssot reports on the findings of the study, and hears from Rapin and his mother about their arduous experience.
A major nationwide protest to “block everything” is due to take place across France on September 10th. However, the reaction of working-class, multi-ethnic neighbourhoods to it remains a weak point of the protest movement. What often stops residents of these areas joining in such struggles is their own difficult living conditions, a fear that any backlash will hit them the hardest, and their wariness of a Left that shows little interest in “jointly constructing” a protest movement with them. Laura Wojcik reports on the views of residents and activists from working class districts in the Paris region and Marseille.
There are plans to stage a major nationwide protest and 'block everything' in France on September 10th. Having begun on social media, this movement is a reaction against the austerity measures proposed in prime minister François Bayrou's 2026 budget. Last Tuesday evening Mediapart was present when at least 200 people gathered in the southern city of Montpellier to prepare for the September event. Those at the meeting included veterans from the nationwide 'Gilets jaunes' or 'Yellow Vests' protests of 2018 and 2019, trade unionists, students and pro-Palestine activists. They called for their various struggles to come together and for people to get out and protest, despite the likely fall of the current government in a vote of no confidence scheduled for September 8th. Cécile Hautefeuille reports.
As one of a series of reports looking into the rise of support for the far-right in France, Mediapart chose to visit the small town of Gaillon, in southern Normandy, about 100 kilometres north of Paris, with a population of around 6,500. Nejma Brahim travelled to Gaillon to interview inhabitants of an apartment building in the centre of the town, after they agreed to talk about their hopes and fears and political choices, shedding light on the tensions and dissatisfaction that may well drive a far-right victory in nationwide municipal elections next year, and presidential and parliamentary elections due in 2027.
General Marcel Bigeard was a highly-decorated officer in the French Army who later became a politician. But in recent years his name has been closely linked with the widespread use of torture that some French soldiers carried out on prisoners during the Algerian War of Independence. In October 2024 the local council at Toul in north-east France where Bigeard was born erected a statue in his honour. Aggrieved at having a man associated with torture honoured in this way, some residents in the town are now seeking to get the monument removed and have just taken their case to the administrative court. They describe the statue's presence as a “slap in the face” for the victims of torture in Algeria. Laura Wojcik reports.
The trial in north-west France of retired surgeon Joël Le Scouarnec, 74, on charges of raping and sexually assaulting 299 people, of whom 296 were his patients, most of them children, has been examining the horrific history of the surgeon’s vast catalogue of attacks, and how he was able to find employment caring for children despite a conviction for possession of child pornography. It has also been hearing the testimonies of the victims, nearly all now adults, some of who were joined on the witness stand by their parents. Their stories tell of how the consequences of sexual crimes can destroy family relationships. Hugo Lemonier was in court in Vannes to hear one very poignant case.
The inhabitants of Syrian Kurdistan are surrounded by urgent threats and challenges: attacks from Turkish troops, the enduring threat from jihadists, the refusal by the new regime in Damascus to consider any form of confederate status for their region and now the historic pronouncement by Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has called on his militant group PKK to lay down its weapons after a long armed struggle. Yet the Kurds in Rojava, as this area of north and east Syria is also known, are determined to defend the de facto autonomy they have secured since 2013 – along with the extraordinary women’s revolution that this independence has made possible. Mediapart's Rachida El Azzouzi reports from the region.
Last month gendarmes in north-east France arrived at a school during morning break in order to escort a 14-year-old pupil off the premises and deport her and her family to Belgium. Since then, both the local state prefecture and the gendarmes have been forced to admit that in doing so they committed “errors”. And despite the toxic political climate in France, the immediate reaction from teachers, parents and some local politicians to the “scandalous” incident has managed to transform the debate on how migrants - and especially migrant children - are treated in the country. Mathilde Goanec reports.
The planned Seine-Nord Europe Canal will be 107 kilometres or 66 miles long, and will link the Paris region with the waterway network in northern France, ultimately ensuring navigation between the French capital and the inland waters of Belgium and the Netherlands. This new canal will start at Compiègne north of Paris and end near Cambrai in the north of the country. Mediapart's Margaux Houcine met opponents of the scheme who took to the treetops at Compiègne – before being removed by the police - to highlight what they see as both a pointless and environmentally-unfriendly project.
The French overseas territory of New Caledonia, situated in the south-west of the Pacific Ocean, was last year plunged into chaos over a move by Paris to introduce an electoral reform that weakened the political clout of parties of the indigenous, and largely pro-independence, Kanak population. Violent protests over the reform erupted last May, after which at least 14 people died in the clashes, which also left the archipelago’s economy reeling. Mediapart's Ellen Salvi returned to New Caledonia at the end of 2024 where she met with the Kanak population in Saint-Louis, a hotbed of the insurrection and subsequently the target of a repressive crackdown. She reports here on how the inhabitants, despite their anger, sadness and fatigue, remain determined to pursue the Kanak cause for independence.
