Category Archives: France

As UK households feel pressure, how are other European countries tackling energy crisis?

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Many European countries are a step ahead of the British government, which has yet to announce plans to help homes facing annual bills of almost £2,000

In the next week Great Britain’s energy regulator will announce the steepest rise ever in its energy price cap, effectively saddling millions of households with an annual energy bill of close to £2,000.

The blow to household finances follows almost six months of record high energy market prices because of the global gas crisis. Despite the deepening gloom facing bill payers, ministers are yet to agree a package of measures to prevent a national energy crisis.

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‘Killed by indifference’: France shocked by death on busy Paris street

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Swiss photographer René Robert died from hypothermia after falling and being ignored for nine hours

The death of an 85-year-old man who reportedly succumbed to hypothermia after falling and spending nine hours sprawled and ignored on a bitterly cold street in central Paris has prompted grief, anger and incredulity in France and beyond.

René Robert, a Swiss photographer known for his shots of some of Spain’s most famous flamenco stars, died last week after slipping while on one of his nightly walks around the busy Paris neighbourhood where he lived.

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Le Pen feud deepens as French far-right leader’s niece withdraws support

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Marine Le Pen calls Marion Maréchal’s decision not to back presidential bid ‘brutal, violent and painful’

France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen has described her niece’s decision not to support her presidential campaign as “brutal, violent and painful”.

Marion Maréchal, who dropped Le Pen from her name in 2018, said she was considering whether to transfer her allegiance to Éric Zemmour, who is even further to the right.

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Macron meets Algerian-born French citizens with one eye on election

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French president seeks to address France’s colonial legacy in north Africa

Emmanuel Macron is to meet representatives of the Pieds Noirs – the Algerian-born French citizens who fled to France after Algerian independence in 1962 – as he seeks to address France’s colonial legacy in north Africa ahead of a bid for re-election this spring.

The Elysée said the aim was to continue Macron’s drive to build a “calm, shared memory, common to all” of the Algerian conflict.

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Ukraine tensions: what is the Normandy format and has it achieved anything?

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French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats are meeting in Paris in the latest effort to de-escalate the crisis

The Normandy format is an informal forum that was set up by French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats in 2014, after Russia kickstarted a separatist conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. It takes its name from the Normandy landings in the second world war. The first meeting took place in Normandy on the margins of the ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the allied landings.

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Netherlands lifts toughest Covid curbs with Denmark and France set to follow

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Many EU countries opt to reopen despite record infections as WHO suggests Omicron may signal more manageable phase of pandemic

The Netherlands has lifted its toughest Covid controls, Denmark is to remove all restrictions within days and France will begin easing curbs next week, as many – but not all – EU countries opt to reopen despite record infection numbers.

The moves come as data shows hospital and intensive care admissions are not surging in line with cases, and after the World Health Organization suggested the Omicron variant – which studies show is more contagious but usually less severe for vaccinated people – may signal a new, more manageable phase in the pandemic.

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Why are Germany and France at odds with the Anglosphere over how to handle Russia?

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Analysis: Differing views over Russia within Nato alliance resurface in Ukraine crisis

Can the western alliance against Russia over its buildup of troops on the Ukrainian border hold together? It is a question that politicians and diplomats are increasingly grappling with amid fears that Germany and, to a lesser extent, France are in danger of dividing from the US and the UK, not only over how to respond to any future Russian act of aggression in Ukraine, but also in their assessment of the imminence of the threat.

Every effort is being made to minimise the differences within the Nato alliance, including through regular calls such as the one led by Joe Biden on Monday, but they may be impossible to avoid since they reflect not just different short-term assessments on intelligence, but a deep fissure going back decades about what Germany and France, as opposed to the Anglosphere, regard as the best way to handle Russia.

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Surgeon faces legal action for trying to sell Bataclan victim X-ray as NFT

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Surgeon said attempted sale of image showing forearm containing a Kalashnikov bullet without patient consent was ‘an error’

A senior French surgeon faces legal action and a possible disciplinary charge after attempting to sell an X-ray of a concert-goer who was shot during the 2015 attack on the Bataclan music hall in Paris.

Emmanuel Masmejean, an orthopaedic surgeon who practises at the Georges Pompidou public hospital in south-west Paris, was first reported by the Mediapart website on Saturday to be selling an image of the X-ray as a digital artwork, without the patient’s consent.

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French fashion designer Thierry Mugler dies aged 73

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Mugler’s daring collections came to define 1980s power dressing, while he later dressed Beyoncé and Lady Gaga

French designer Manfred Thierry Mugler, known for the powerful-shouldered, cinch-waisted silhouettes that reigned over fashion in the 1980s, died on Sunday at the age of 73 of “natural causes”, according to his agent.

A former ballet dancer, Mugler’s bold collections – presented at highly stylised, themed runway shows – were at the forefront of the structured, decadent style that came to be known as “power dressing”.

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French adventurer, 75, dies in attempt to row across the Atlantic

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Jean-Jacques Savin, a former paratrooper, wanted ‘to laugh at old age’ but got into difficulties off the Azores

A 75-year-old Frenchman attempting to row across the Atlantic “to laugh at old age” has been found dead in his cabin at sea, his support team said.

Portuguese coast guards found Jean-Jacques Savin’s overturned boat off the archipelago of the Azores on Friday.

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Macron says EU must start own dialogue with Russia over Ukraine

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France’s president hopes to restart four-ways talks between Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine

The EU must open its own talks with Russia rather than rely on Washington, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has said as he warned of the prospect of the “most tragic thing of all – war”.

In a wide-ranging speech in Strasbourg, Macron said it was not sufficient for the US to negotiate with the Kremlin over its threats to peace but that Europe needed to have its voice heard.

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French actor Gaspard Ulliel dies at 37 after skiing accident

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Cesar-winning star of A Very Long Engagement and Hannibal Rising involved in accident in the Alps

The French actor Gaspard Ulliel has died at the age of 37 after a skiing accident.

The star of A Very Long Engagement and Hannibal Rising was hospitalised after the accident in the Alps. Ulliel was transported via helicopter on Tuesday to Grenoble but did not survive his injuries, according to the actor’s family and agent.

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Paris goes in search of its lost looks with ‘manifesto for beauty’

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City leaders concede ‘trashed Paris’ campaign has a point and commit to beautification

Paris city authorities have published a “manifesto for beauty” containing plans to spruce up the City of Lights, where an online campaign highlighting ugliness and filth has piled pressure on mayor Anne Hidalgo.

Deputy mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said that several recent initiatives from the Socialist-Green alliance that runs the capital would be scrapped, including allowing Parisians to plant their own gardens on public space.

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Djokovic’s French Open title defence in doubt after Covid pass ruling

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  • France rules all athletes will have to be vaccinated for events
  • French MP says Novak Djokovic’s behaviour is ‘irresponsible’

Novak Djokovic may not be allowed to defend his French Open title in May after the French government ruled that all athletes will have to be vaccinated in order to attend and compete in sporting events in France.

The French sports minister, Roxana Maracineanu, has announced that athletes would not be exempt from France’s Covid pass, which will soon come into effect for over 16s. “The vaccination pass has been adopted. As soon as the law is promulgated, it will become mandatory to enter public buildings already subject to the health pass (stadium, theatre or lounge) for all spectators, practitioners, French or foreign professionals,” she wrote on twitter.

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Far-right French presidential candidate found guilty of racist hate speech

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Éric Zemmour drew widespread outrage in September 2020 after a tirade against child migrants

A French court has found the far-right presidential candidate Éric Zemmour guilty of racist hate speech for a tirade against unaccompanied child migrants.

Zemmour drew widespread outrage in September 2020 when he told the CNews channel that child migrants were “thieves, killers, they’re rapists. That’s all they are. We should send them back.”

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French parliament approves vaccine pass law to tackle Covid

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Law will require people to have a certificate to enter public places such as restaurants and cinemas

France’s parliament has given final approval to the government’s latest measures to tackle Covid-19, including a vaccine pass contested by anti-vaccine protesters.

Lawmakers in the lower house of parliament voted 215 in favour to 58 against on Sunday, paving the way for the law to enter force in the coming days.

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Five-year-old British girl dies after being hit by skier in French Alps

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Man in his 40s held on suspicion of manslaughter after accident in region of Flaine, Haute-Savoie

A five-year-old British girl has died after being hit by a skier in the French Alps, according to French media.

A man in his 40s was being held on suspicion of manslaughter on Sunday after the accident in the resort of Flaine, Haute-Savoie, at about 11am on Saturday, Le Dauphine reported. The girl was said to have been taking part in a group ski lesson run by ESF (Ecole du Ski Français) with four other children on a blue (intermediate) piste.

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France’s divided leftwing candidates called on to back ‘people’s primary’

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Activists are gaining support for move to hold popular vote to decide who stands in presidential election

A group of political activists will make one desperate last attempt this month to save the bitterly divided French left from an electoral catastrophe in the presidential election with a “people’s primary” to designate a single candidate.

The Primaire Populaire was initiated by young people dismayed by the fractures that could mean no leftwing or socialist figure will reach the second round of the election in April.

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Election battle lines set as Macron pits himself against France’s unvaccinated

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Growing political divisions over Covid rules have emerged in run-up to presidential election in April

Emmanuel Macron is facing growing political divisions over Covid rules in the run-up to the spring presidential election, after his proposed vaccine pass was delayed and teachers took strike action, amid ongoing street demonstrations and a rise in violent threats against politicians.

With an increasing mood of fatigue among French voters after two years of the pandemic and a significant mistrust of the political class, the president –– who is likely to hold off declaring his re-election bid for several weeks as the coronavirus health crisis continues –– wants to be seen as reliable but firm.

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