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LeMonde
4 days ago
- Politics
- LeMonde
France's Constitutional Council partially blocks Duplomb Law, yet political battles continue
The Duplomb Law, which imposes new restrictions on agriculture, will be enacted – but without its key article. Article 2, which would have reauthorized three pesticides from the neonicotinoid family, was struck down on Thursday, August 7, by France's Constitutional Council (which rules on the constitutionality of laws), citing the right to live in a healthy environment. The Council emphasized that these products have "an impact on biodiversity (...), as well as consequences for water and soil quality, and pose risks to human health." One month after the final parliamentary vote, the Council's opinion was highly anticipated, especially since a petition launched by a student on July 10 gathered more than 2.1 million signatures on the Assemblée Nationale's website, calling for the legislation to be repealed. Following the Council's decision, President Emmanuel Macron announced he would enact the law "as soon as possible." This was a relief for Macron, who had remained silent while awaiting the judges' decision, fearing he would have to mediate the heated dispute between petitioners and agricultural unions, including the Fédération Nationale des Syndicats d'Exploitants Agricoles (FNSEA, France's main farmers' union).
LeMonde
28-06-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
'Being Jewish in France today means being alone'
The author of these lines is 47 years old. He is French and he is Jewish. For decades, this dual identity did not weigh on him in the slightest. He carried it with a discretion tinged by an awareness of history and a quiet sense of pride. Everything changed 18 months ago. Admitting this costs me: I have had to overcome a certain fear to publish this op-ed. The fear of isolation; the fear of being reduced to a condition I would have preferred not to have to justify. It is first and foremost this fear that I wish to express. Because the mere fact that it is uncontrollable says a great deal about our country and the direction it is taking. "It's not easy to be Jewish": What happened to make these words by Charles Péguy, written in 1910 in his essay Notre Jeunesse (Memories of Youth), applicable to France in 2025? Antisemitism has become part of the zeitgeist. It is present every day, almost unconsciously. It no longer emerges only on those rare occasions that a vigilant society once recognized and punished – as in 2014, when shows in which [antisemite comedian] Dieudonné insulted Jews and, mixing vulgarity with abjection, mocked their past suffering and present anxiety, were shut down. Today, thousands of little Dieudonnés thrive, from the Assemblée Nationale to university lecterns. Their calm hatred is becoming a dominant ideology. Words have lost their meaning This collapse, like all moral failures, began with a matter of vocabulary. Words have lost their meaning. Two in particular, whose misuse has greatly contributed to offending Jewish sensibilities in France: "genocide" and "Zionist." "Genocide": It was not as a reference, for example, to the Sudanese war in 2023, with its tens of thousands dead and millions displaced, that this term has become firmly established in public opinion. No, it was carefully turned, with a certain perverse sophistication, against the country created to serve as a refuge for the survivors of the extermination of three-quarters of Europe's Jews. And it has been hammered home until it produced the ultimate offense: equating Israel with the Nazis. Jews, who are, in their hearts and in their very being, orphans of the Holocaust, now find themselves cast as the heirs of their executioners. It is a dagger driven, day after day, into the wounded memory of the Jewish people.
LeMonde
27-06-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
Former French PM Gabriel Attal: 'I do not see a shared vision for society today between Les Républicains and us'
As secretary general of French President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance, and president of the Ensemble Pour La République group in the Assemblée Nationale, Gabriel Attal has caused unease within his own political family by defending positions – such as on Muslim girls wearing the veil – that have brought him closer to the right. With just under two years to go before the presidential election, the former prime minister (January to September 2024) clarifies his political stance. How would you describe the current political moment? French political life is creating more and more orphans. First, because it is no longer seen as a solution but as a problem, due to a terrible sense of widespread powerlessness. The risk is that democracy in crisis could turn, over time, into a "vetocracy," where nothing gets done because public action is blocked on all sides. This whole framework needs to be re-examined. Then, because the two so-called "governing parties" – the Parti Socialiste (PS, left) and Les Républicains (LR, right wing) – have in recent weeks chosen a path of radicalization. They have buried their ability to bring together a majority of French people. On one side, the left has chosen political submission to the La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left); on the other, the right is drifting into intellectual alignment with the Rassemblement National (RN, far right).
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
French lawmakers to vote on assisted dying bill
French lawmakers will today vote on a bill to legalize assisted dying, one of a number of similar legislative efforts across Europe. The Assemblée Nationale has debated the measure for a week, though even if it passes, it will need to be approved by France's upper house. Britain, too, is considering its own assisted dying bill, while various forms of the practice are now legal in at least six other European countries. France took an unusual approach to devising its bill, randomly selecting a diverse array of 184 citizens for a four-month nationwide convention: 'Rather than creating division, the range of backgrounds became a strength,' RFI noted.
Times
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Times
Big names, big calves and ‘Les eléphants' — France's end-of-term bunfight
Fans of promotion and relegation are in for a treat over the next month. France has commenced its end-of-season fête of play-offs: weekend after weekend of quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals and matchs d'accession. The fluidity has begun. Let us start where amateur meets professional. On Sunday, Niort triumphed over Langon to secure their place in Nationale, the third tier of French rugby. The Niortais are towards the west, just under an hour's drive from La Rochelle, and they will rise up a level with Rennes Étudiants Club (REC), who beat them in the Nationale 2 final. The restoration of REC to the third tier — they have a five-year plan to reach Pro D2 — adds a Breton accoutrement to the sport's upper echelons, following
