Category Archives: France

Louvre heist: hunt on for thieves after eight ‘priceless’ jewellery pieces stolen

Posted on by

Necklace given by Napoleon to his wife among items taken from Paris museum in highly professional daylight robbery

French police are hunting four thieves who carried out a highly professional daylight robbery on the Louvre, breaking into one of the museum’s most ornate rooms and escaping with eight pieces of “priceless” historic jewellery, including a necklace given by Napoleon to his wife.

The world’s most-visited museum was suddenly closed for the day on Sunday after the break-in targeted pieces in two glass cases in its Apollon gallery, where the French crown jewels are held.

Continue reading...

Nicolas Sarkozy to enter prison for criminal conspiracy over Libyan funding

Posted on by

Former French president set to start five-year sentence for scheme to obtain campaign funds from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime

The former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will go to prison on Tuesday after a court sentenced him to five years for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy, who was the rightwing president of France between 2007 and 2012, will become the first former head of an EU country to serve time in prison, and the first French postwar leader to be jailed.

Continue reading...

French customs reject British shellfish shipments after UK ‘reset’ deal with EU

Posted on by

One of the largest mussel exporters in Britain lose £150,000 after three lorries were prevented from entering the EU

One of Britain’s largest mussel exporters has suffered a £150,000 loss, after three of its shipments to the EU were rejected in recent weeks by French customs.

Family-run business Offshore Shellfish, based in Devon, has continued exporting blue mussels to its European customers since Brexit, despite the administrative burden and onerous paperwork requirements.

Continue reading...

Broken promises and political crises: how Emmanuel Macron fell from French favour

Posted on by

The president is seen to have accelerated the financial crisis, social inequalities and the rise of the far right

Three French governments have collapsed in less than a year, and the political crisis looks likely to continue, overshadowing Emmanuel Macron’s last 18 months in power and his domestic legacy.

This week, the latest minority government narrowly survived its first vote of no-confidence. But it remains the weakest cabinet in decades and could be toppled at any moment if opposition parties join together to oust it. France now faces a brutal two-month battle in parliament to achieve what once seemed the most basic element of governance: passing a budget.

Continue reading...

Woman alleged to have tortured and killed 12-year-old to stand trial in France

Posted on by

Killing of Lola Daviet three years ago led to outcry after far right was accused of exploiting her death for political gain

A woman who allegedly abused and tortured a 12-year-old girl before leaving her to suffocate will go on trial for murder on Friday in a case that has shocked France and caused political waves.

Lola Daviet’s body was found stuffed into a plastic trunk that had been dumped on the street near her home.

Continue reading...

French Socialist party to fight for wealth tax as it seeks to capitalise on crisis

Posted on by

Party has promised to stand back as weakened prime minister prepares for crucial no-confidence vote

The French Socialist party says it will fight to introduce a flagship wealth tax to raise revenue by targeting France’s richest people, as the divided parliament prepares to begin debating next year’s budget.

Boris Vallaud, the head of the Socialist party grouping in parliament, said on Wednesday that taxing very high-wealth individuals in France was “one of our principal battles and we’re going to put all our energy into it”.

Continue reading...

France’s parliamentary permacrisis is the dawning of a new political reality

Posted on by

Sébastien Lecornu may have lived to see another day, but this crise de régime could yet prove terminal for the Fifth Republic

• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up here

In October 2022, when Rishi Sunak moved into 10 Downing St, he became the fifth British prime minister to take up the office in six years.

Unleashed on the UK by Brexit, this was unprecedented political turmoil. So how might we describe what is happening in France, now on its fifth (or sixth, depending how you count) premier in two years – three of them in the past 10 months?

Continue reading...

French PM suspends Macron’s pension plan before no-confidence vote

Posted on by

Sébastien Lecornu hopes delaying changes until after 2027 election will win him enough support to survive

France’s prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has suspended Emmanuel Macron’s flagship 2023 pension overhaul until after the 2027 presidential election in the hope of winning over enough Socialist deputies to survive a no-confidence vote.

In a welcome respite for the embattled French president, the left-leaning party, which holds the balance of power in a deeply divided parliament, suggested in response on Tuesday that it would not back any of the no-confidence motions to be voted on later this week.

Continue reading...

Right to protest is under sustained attack in the west, report finds

Posted on by

Counter-terror laws being ‘weaponised’ against pro-Palestine groups in UK, US, France and Germany, says FIDH

The right to protest has come under sustained attack in the west, according to a report highlighting the growing criminalisation of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

The study by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) pays particular attention to the UK, the US, France and Germany, where it says governments have “weaponised” counter-terrorism legislation as well as the fight against antisemitism to suppress dissent and support for Palestinian rights in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Continue reading...

Human rights groups call for France to suspend ‘one in, one out’ treaty with UK

Posted on by

UK and French organisations file legal challenge against July agreement to swap asylum seekers

Fifteen French and UK human rights organisations are calling for the suspension of the controversial “one in, one out” treaty in a legal challenge that has been launched in France.

The deal, signed by the UK and France in July, involves one asylum seeker who arrives in the UK from France in a small boat being sent back there in exchange for another selected in France to come to the UK.

Continue reading...

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy ordered to go to jail next week

Posted on by

Sarkozy must go to La Santé prison in Paris after conviction over scheme to obtain election funds from Gaddafi regime

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been ordered to go to jail in Paris next week after a court last month sentenced him to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy, who was the rightwing president of France between 2007 and 2012, was summoned to meet state prosecutors on Monday. They told him he must present himself at the entrance of La Santé prison in the south of Paris on 21 October to begin his sentence.

Continue reading...

Macron accuses rivals of fuelling instability as he dismisses calls to resign

Posted on by

French president says opposition has not ‘risen to the moment’ after reappointment of Sébastien Lecornu as PM

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has accused rival political parties of fuelling instability as he brushed aside calls by the opposition for him to resign amid France’s worst political crisis in decades.

“Many of those who have fuelled division and speculation have not risen to the moment,” Macron said of French opposition parties, as he arrived in Egypt on Monday to attend a summit on Gaza. He said rival “political forces” were “solely responsible for this chaos” after they “instigated the destabilisation” of the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu.

Continue reading...

Madagascar president says he fled country in fear for his life

Posted on by

Andry Rajoelina does not announce resignation in speech broadcast on social media after military rebellion

Madagascar’s president, Andry Rajoelina, said he had fled the country in fear for his life after a military rebellion but did not announce his resignation in a speech broadcast on social media late on Monday from an undisclosed location.

The 51-year-old has faced weeks of gen Z-led anti-government protests, which reached a pivotal point on Saturday when an elite military unit joined the protests and called for the president and other ministers to step down. That prompted Rajoelina to say that an illegal attempt to seize power was under way in the Indian Ocean island and to leave the country.

Continue reading...

Macron reappoints Sébastien Lecornu as French prime minister

Posted on by

Lecornu, who resigned as PM on Monday, is tasked with urgently delivering a budget to parliament

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has reappointed his centrist ally Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister – days after Lecornu dramatically resigned and his new government collapsed after only 14 hours.

Lecornu said he accepted returning to the role “out of duty” and would do “everything possible to provide France with a budget by the end of the year and to address the daily life issues of our fellow citizens”.

Continue reading...

Macron summons parties for crunch meeting in frantic effort to appoint PM

Posted on by

All parties except National Rally and La France Insoumise called on by president to show ‘collective responsibility’

Emmanuel Macron has summoned the leaders of several political parties to his office to demand they show “collective responsibility” as he attempts to appoint a new prime minister amid a deepening political crisis.

All political parties except Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, which is the biggest single opposition party, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s leftwing La France Insoumise were called to the meeting at the presidential palace before Macron’s self-imposed deadline to name a new prime minister by Friday night.

Continue reading...

Outgoing French PM says ‘path still exists’ to avoid snap elections

Posted on by

Sébastien Lecornu says majority of MPs willing to seek agreement on budget and avoid further instability

France’s caretaker prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has said a majority of MPs “rejects the idea” of snap elections and that “a path still exists” that should allow Emmanuel Macron to appoint a new premier within 48 hours.

“Several groups are willing to seek agreement on a budget” for 2026, Lecornu told France 2 public television on Wednesday, and were making clear their “conditions”. Talks would be difficult, he said, but “the prospect of a dissolution [of parliament] is fading”.

Continue reading...

Macron under pressure to call snap parliamentary elections or resign

Posted on by

French president’s former allies join opponents in demanding he act to end a spiralling political crisis

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, is under intense pressure to call snap parliamentary elections or resign as former allies join his opponents in demanding he act to end a spiralling political crisis in the EU’s second biggest economy.

Macron’s first prime minister on Tuesday urged the president to step down amid mounting frustration even within the president’s own camp over one of the worst spells of political chaos in France since the foundation of its Fifth Republic in 1958.

Continue reading...

George Clooney says his children have a ‘much better life’ being raised in France than LA

Posted on by

The actor said that their French farm will be free of paparazzi, teach them self-sufficiency and let them see his handyman skills, such as fixing the coffee machine

George Clooney has said that his decision to base himself in France was informed by the desire to give his children a better start in life than if they had remained in the US.

The actor, 64, who has eight-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander, with his wife, the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, gave a lengthy interview to US Esquire magazine while staying at his Italian villa on Lake Como.

Continue reading...

France is in crisis but bond markets leave other governments at risk of meltdown too

Posted on by

Investors rattled by resignation of French PM but country is not alone in trying to grapple with political maths

Sébastien Lecornu’s abrupt resignation as the French prime minister on Monday after less than a month in the role marked the latest clash between France’s stretched public finances and its polarised politics.

Lecornu was the latest prime minister to try and fail to cobble together a package of spending cuts and tax rises that would pass muster in a parliament without a clear majority, and contain mounting bond market pressures.

Continue reading...

Lecornu bemoans lack of compromise across political spectrum as he resigns as French PM – Europe live

Posted on by

Departure after less than a month follows fierce criticism of Macron’s new cabinet

Lecornu’s resignation means that Macron has three possible courses of action and all of them are hazardous, notes Mujtaba Rahman, the managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group.

In an analyst note, Rahman writes:

He can appoint a new prime minister, possibly a senior non-political figure or technocrat, to try to push through a budget for next year to cut France’s ballooning budget deficit.

He can call a new parliamentary election.

Continue reading...