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French PM Attal promises new law on prices to appease angry farmers

Attal promised to elevate agriculture “to the status of a fundamental national interest”, outlining an agriculture bill designed to address farmers’ grievances.

Already last month, farmers had staged crippling nationwide protests before their unions called for them to be…[Read more]

Paris court halves ex-French president Sarkozy’s 2012 campaign financing sentence

But while lighter than the original sentence, Wednesday’s ruling was still harsher than the one-year suspended sentence that prosecutors called for.

The Paris court of appeal confirmed a lower court’s guilty verdict for Sarkozy, who was convicted of hiding illegal…[Read more]

French skipper Clarisse Crémer denies cheating in Vendée Globe solo race

“We never cheated,” Clarisse Crémer insisted on Thursday in a joint statement with her husband Tanguy Le Turquais.

They were responding to an anonymous e-mail sent to the French Sailing Federation (FFVoile) last Sunday.

In it Crémer was accused of using information rel…[Read more]

‘Wind of revolt’ sweeps French cinema in belated #MeToo reckoning

French cinema’s #MeToo breakthrough has been heralded, and pushed back, often enough to warrant caution – but there are signs the ground is finally shifting, more than six years after cinema’s feminist revolution kicked off across the Atlantic.

In 2017, at the dawn of the #MeTo…[Read more]

Climate activist Greta Thunberg joins protest against new French motorway

Thunberg came as part of a delegation of French, Belgian, Swedish and Spanish activists to the site near the southwestern city of Toulouse.

“We are here to stand in solidarity with the people who are resisting this project and this madness,” Thunberg told reporters,…[Read more]

‘It’s non-negotiable’: French MPs angry at move to restrict citizenship on Mayotte

Emmanuel Macron has been accused of walking a dangerous legal and political tightrope with a proposal to restrict access to French nationality for people born on the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte to immigrant parents.

The far right has welcomed the move, which…[Read more]

Robert Badinter, French ex-minister who fought to abolish death penalty, dies at 95

The soft-spoken attorney, who said he could not abide by a “killer justice system”, was widely vilified for pushing through legislation banning the death penalty at a time when most French people still supported the practice.

He said later he had “never felt so…[Read more]

‘They’re drowning us in regulations’: how Europe’s furious farmers took on Brussels and won

On the outskirts of the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, a green, red and blue stream of New Holland, John Deere, Massey Ferguson, Fendt and Deutz-Fahr tractors trundled forwards, horns honking and orange lights flashing.

Under drizzly grey skies a…[Read more]

Fighting the smartphone ‘invasion’: the French village that voted to ban scrolling in public

picture of a smartphone with a red line through it serves as a warning in the window of a hairdresser’s shop in a French village that has voted to ban people scrolling on their phones in public. “Everyone is struggling with too much screen time,”…[Read more]

Paris mayor faces pushback over plans for car-free Eiffel Tower zone

Thousands of tourists jostle every day to snap the Eiffel Tower from across the River Seine on the hill at Trocadero, with its magnificent gardens and a modernist palace housing museums.

Walking to Trocadero is less romantic, however, requiring the crossing of two major…[Read more]

Macron administration formalises tougher immigration law

The law’s promulgation comes after France’s Constitutional Council censured 35 of its 86 articles, including contentious additions insisted on by the right, such as measures restricting access to social benefits and the introduction of immigration quotas.

While the bill was seen as one of…[Read more]

Climate activists hurl soup at the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum in Paris

In a video posted on social media, two women with the words “FOOD RIPOSTE” written on their T-shirts can be seen throwing soup at the glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece and passing under a security barrier to get closer to the painting.

“What’s the most impo…[Read more]

French govt prepares to head off ‘siege’ of Paris planned by agricultural unions

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Sunday tasked law enforcement officials with putting into place “extensive security measures” to prevent farmers from blocking Paris area airports or its Rungis market and “to prohibit any entry into Paris”.

The leaders of two o…[Read more]

Traffic jams as French farmers block highway near Paris to protest low prices

Unions have called for the roadblocks in and around Paris to increase pressure on Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s government, which the farmers accuse of not doing enough to help them.

“We will go right into Paris to highlight our rage, our grievances,” said farme…[Read more]

France Rejects Russia’s ‘Mercenary’ Claims, Doubles Down on Support for Ukraine

Paris has rejected claims by Moscow that dozens of French “mercenaries” were killed in a recent Russian strike on a facility in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

“France helps Ukraine with supplies of military material and military training in full compliance…[Read more]

France Gets Ready to Say ‘Merci’ to World War II Veterans for D-day’s 80th Anniversary This Year

France is getting ready to show its gratitude toward World War II veterans who will return, many for the last time, to Normandy beaches this year for 80th anniversary commemorations of D-Day to mark the defeat of the Nazis.

A ceremony at Omaha Beach…[Read more]

France temporarily bans Bay of Biscay fishing to protect dolphins

The month-long ban off the country’s West coast – the first since the end of World War II – is set to begin Monday and applies to both French and foreign fishermen. It follows calls by environmental activists to protect the marine mammals, pointing to a surge in dolphin deaths on…[Read more]

Macron urges French defence firms to boost production to support Ukraine

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Macron has pushed the defence industry to switch to “war economy mode”, reiterating his call during a visit to the Cherbourg naval base in northwestern France.

“We must amplify the transformation we have begun” to respond…[Read more]

French farmers threaten to intensify protests over taxes, regulation

France’s largest farm union FNSEA is considering nationwide protests in the coming weeks, a spokesperson said on Friday, potentially expanding action by farmers in the southwest who have blocked a highway and dumped manure on public buildings.

Like their German counterparts w…[Read more]

French court annuls extradition of Italian mafia hitman-turned-pizza chef

In April 2023, the Lyon Court of Appeal had backed Greco’s extradition but the decision was suspended by an appeal to the Cour de Cassation.

The Cour de Cassation, basing its decision on a procedural flaw tied to the composition of the investigating chamber of the Lyon…[Read more]