Frances

PARIS — French voters headed to the polls Sunday to elect mayors and municipal councillors across 35,000 communes in a two-round contest seen as a crucial barometer of the nation’s political mood ahead of next year’s presidential race, when centrist President Emmanuel Macron is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term. The stakes are high for Marine Le Pen’s ascendant far-right National Rally (RN), which views 2027 as its strongest chance yet to take power. While nearly 90% of France’s communes are…

Macron urges calm as France braces for rallies over killing of far-right activist Quentin Deranque French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm ahead of nationwide rallies planned in memory of Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old far-right activist whose killing last week, captured on video, has shocked France and inflamed political tensions ahead of the 2027 presidential election. Speaking at a farming trade fair in Paris, Macron urged “everyone to remain calm” before a high-security march in Lyon, where authorities expect…

French prime minister resigns hours after naming new cabinet, deepening political turmoil What happened France's newly appointed prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, abruptly resigned on Thursday morning just hours after unveiling his cabinet, throwing President Emmanuel Macron's government into fresh and immediate uncertainty. The Élysée confirmed the move in a brief statement: "Mr Sébastien Lecornu has submitted the resignation of his Government to the President of the Republic, who has accepted it." Lecornu, a close ally…

France has added Morocco and Algeria to its list of countries considered to be areas at high risk for Covid-19. The measure means that from Saturday, people arriving from either country will be subject to more stringent protocols, including self-isolation. A recent increase in the number of…

More than 60 years since France launched its nuclear test in Algeria, their legacy continues to poison the relations between the North African nation and its former colonial rulers. The issue has resurfaced after President Emmanuel Macron said in French Polynesia on Tuesday that Paris owed "a debt" to the South Pacific over nuclear tests there between 1966 and…

Several associations have taken a stand to warn of a number of restrictions regarding the so-called sensitive archives for the role of the French army in Rwanda in the early 1990s. For some historians, access to these archives is only a problem for the Duclert Commission. , especially since they treat a painful substance. The…