Macron seeks African reset with new view of France’s troubled history on continent

Honest examination of French colonial record in Africa and responsibilty in Rwanda key to new strategy, though critics say little has changed

With the golden winter sun slanting across the palm trees and yellow sandstone, the scene was perfect. Emmanuel Macron and his host, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, walked down the red carpet of the Union buildings in Pretoria as the Marseillaise resonated through the clean, crisp air.

The historic setting was apt. Since taking power in 2017, the French president has sought a broad reset of national strategy, relations and intervention in Africa. He has chosen a very contemporary way to do this: by re-examining the past.

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Kagame the winner as Macron gives genocide speech in Rwanda

French president says his country bears a responsibility for hundreds of thousands of deaths, but was not complicit

France bears a “terrible responsibility” for the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, President Emmanuel Macron has said, in a long-anticipated speech in Kigali, the capital of the east African country.

Speaking at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where 250,000 victims of the massacres are buried, Macron said that France had not been complicit in the tragedy but had made errors of judgment that had appalling consequences.

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Emmanuel Macron: Covid highlights need to ‘beef up’ EU powers

French president speaks of difficulties in coordinating efforts during pandemic due to lack of central powers in health

Emmanuel Macron has said national divisions during the Covid-19 pandemic have highlighted the need to “beef up” EU powers, as he opened a consultation on Europe’s future at an event that was almost cancelled due to internal squabbling.

Speaking from a TV studio set up in the middle of the hemicycle of the European parliament in Strasbourg, the French president said he hoped the Future of Europe conference, a rolling series of events and online public opinion surveys, would strengthen EU level decision-making.

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US must export doses before waiving Covid vaccine patents, say EU leaders

Frustration expressed at what several leaders see as the US president’s attempt to claim the moral high ground

EU leaders have given short shrift to a proposal by Joe Biden and backed by the pope to waive Covid-19 vaccine patents as a way to increase supply, insisting that the White House should instead allow the export of doses and the key ingredients.

At a summit in Porto, a series of European leaders, including those who had previously appeared open to suspending intellectual property rights, said Biden’s idea was not a priority and expressed frustration at the US president’s attempt to claim the moral high ground.

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France still split over Napoleon as it marks bicentenary of death

President to tread fine line as he lays a wreath to ‘commemorate rather than celebrate’ anniversary

On 5 May 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in a surprisingly small bed surrounded by his French coterie in exile in a damp and reportedly rat-infested house on the British island of Saint Helena.

His last words, uttered shortly before he expired around 5.59pm local time were relayed back: “La France, l’armée, tête d’armée, Joséphine …” (France, the army, head of the army, Joséphine). He was 51.

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Could Marine Le Pen finally triumph with her third tilt at French presidency?

Next year’s Élysée race looks like a battle between a fading Emmanuel Macron and the far-right leader. And some believe she might win this time

In Paris’s symbolic Place de la République, under the watchful gaze of France’s allegorical figurehead Marianne, the skateboarders are not in the mood to discuss politics.

For the young here, as everywhere, life has been paused during a pandemic that has halted studies, jobs, socialising and parties. What they want is their lives back, not to talk about an election.

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France to ban some domestic flights where train available

MPs vote to suspend internal flights if the trip can be completed by train within two and a half hours instead

French MPs have voted to suspend domestic airline flights that can be made by direct train in less than two and a half hours, as part of a series of climate and environmental measures.

After a heated debate in the Assemblée Nationale at the weekend, the ban, a watered-down version of a key recommendation from President Emmanuel Macron’s citizens’ climate convention, was adopted.

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Macron to close elite school that hothouses French leaders

Institution has been pathway to power for country’s elite, including four French presidents

Emmanuel Macron is expected to officially announce on Thursday the closure of the École Nationale d’Administration, the elite French finishing school for the country’s leaders where he studied.

Known as ENA, the grande école has been the hothouse for France’s top civil service and a pathway to power in the public and private sectors. Four French presidents, including Macron, have passed through its doors as have dozens of ministers and business leaders.

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Global treaty needed to protect states from pandemics, say world leaders

Joint letter signed by Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and others warns ‘nobody is safe until everyone is safe’

The world needs a global treaty for pandemics to protect states in the wake of Covid-19, akin to the settlement forged after the second world war, Boris Johnson and other world leaders have urged.

In a joint article published in newspapers across the world, leaders including the UK prime minister, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, warn that a future global pandemic is an inevitability and that Covid has served as “a stark and painful reminder that nobody is safe until everyone is safe”.

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France not complicit in Rwanda genocide, says Macron commission

Report says France did not do enough to halt the 1994 killings but found no evidence of complicity

France bears the burden of “heavy and damning responsibilities” in the Rwandan genocide but was not complicit in the slaughter, according to the findings of an official commission set up by Emmanuel Macron.

As many as 800,000 people, mainly from Rwanda’s minority Tutsi ethnic population, were massacred in a wave of killings in 1994. The report released on Friday confirmed long and persistent accusations that France did not do enough to halt the killings, but said there was no evidence of complicity in the massacres.

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France to declassify files on Algerian war

Opening up of defence files from more than 50 years ago may also shed light on 1968 Air France crash

Emmanuel Macron is to allow access to classified national defence documents from more than 50 years ago, covering France’s war in Algeria and other files previously deemed to contain state secrets.

The Élysée said the move, a week after the admission that French troops tortured and killed the Algerian independence activist Ali Boumendjel in 1957, sought to balance “historical truth” with legitimate “national defence issues”.

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French billionaire politician Olivier Dassault dies in helicopter crash

Emmanuel Macron pays tribute to tycoon, 69, who represented conservative Les Républicains party

The French billionaire and politician Olivier Dassault has died in a helicopter crash in Normandy. The 69-year-old rightwing MP was the grandson of Marcel Dassault, who founded the aircraft manufacturing company Dassault Aviation.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to Dassault, tweeting that he “loved France”. “As a business leader, MP, local councillor, a reserve commander in the air force, throughout his life he never ceased to serve our country, to promote what was great about it. His brutal death is a great loss. Our thoughts go to his family and his friends,” Macron wrote.

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Macron proposes vaccine sharing plan as UK prepares to host G7

French proposal comes after accusations wealthier nations have ordered more than they need

As Britain prepares to host the G7 club of wealthy nations on Friday under the chairmanship of Boris Johnson, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has proposed that 5% of its vaccines are sent to poorer countries, especially in Africa.

Johnson is expected to advance a parallel plan to cut the amount of time it takes to create vaccines, and may be unimpressed it has been upstaged by Macron.

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Tens of thousands protest against new French security bill

Demonstrators, including gilet jaunes activists, also protested against Covid restrictions

Tens of thousands of protesters turned out in dozens of French cities on Saturday to oppose a security bill they say will restrict the filming and publicising of images of police brutality.

Demonstrators also protested against the restrictions imposed to halt the spread of coronavirus and to stand up for the cultural sector, which has been especially hard-hit by the measures.

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‘Half-friends is not a concept’: UK should decide who its allies are, says Macron

‘History and geography don’t change – I don’t think British destiny is different to ours,’ says French president

Emmanuel Macron has warned that Boris Johnson’s government has to decide who its allies are, insisting that “half-friends is not a concept”.

“What politics does Great Britain wish to choose? It cannot be the best ally of the US, the best ally of the EU and the new Singapore … It has to choose a model,” the French president said, in an interview with the Guardian and a small group of other media.

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‘We will go after aggressors’: France to tighten incest laws, vows Macron

President promises legislative changes after book accuses top commentator of abusing stepson

France will tighten its laws on incest, the president, Emmanuel Macron, said in a series of tweets on Saturday, after the publication of a book accusing a top French political commentator of abusing his stepson sparked outrage across the country.

Macron said on his Twitter account that France needed to adapt its laws to better protect children from sexual violence and that he had asked the justice minister to chair a consultation aimed at quickly making legislative proposals. “We will go after the aggressors,” Macron said.

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Rimbaud’s remains will not be moved to Panthéon, rules Macron

President decides against relocating remains of French poet to Parisian memorial

The remains of the famed French poet Arthur Rimbaud will not be moved to the Panthéon mausoleum despite a campaign to honour him as an artist and symbol of gay rights, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has decided.

A petition last year backed by a number of celebrities as well as the culture minister, Roselyne Bachelot, called for Rimbaud to be reinterred alongside his lover and fellow poet Paul Verlaine at the monument in central Paris.

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Macron tells Idris Elba he will invite young Africans to summit, not leaders

French president vows to overhaul France-Africa event to help mobilise Africa’s young people

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has pledged to invite young Africans rather than their political leaders to a key France-Africa summit in a video call with the actor Idris Elba.

The Élysée Palace said Elba, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations’ international fund for agricultural development, had asked to speak to the French leader. The Guardian was the only newspaper invited to attend the discussion at the Élysée, which marked the start of the One Planet biodiversity summit in Paris.

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2021 – the story of a year in 12 leaders

In 2021, the world will slowly begin to fight back against Covid. But what else will change as the vaccines are administered? Here are the figures who will shape a vital year

Joe Biden United States

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‘It can affect anyone’: Macron urges French to follow rules after contracting Covid – video

Emmanuel Macron has blamed his coronavirus infection on a combination of negligence and bad luck and urged his compatriots to stay safe in a self-shot video. The French president was isolating with symptoms that included headaches, fatigue and a dry cough. 'Despite everything I caught this virus,' Macron said. 'Perhaps, doubtless, a moment of negligence, a moment of bad luck too.'

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