France

Former paratrooper led National Front party for decades and courted controversy, being repeatedly fined for contesting crimes against humanity

Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy goes on trial on Monday on charges he accepted some 50 million euros in illegal campaign financing from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy, who has been twice convicted for separate crimes since leaving office, has described the allegations as part of a conspiracy against him.

Christmas in France would not be complete without free-flowing champagne, oysters or a bûche de Noël. And the French holiday season is longer than most – stretching into the New Year with Epiphany (January 6) and its traditional galettes des rois into February with Chandeleur (Candlemas).  

Centrist François Bayrou had promised a ‘national interest government’ across the middle political ground but ended up leaning to the conservative right

France’s new Prime Minister was tasked with fixing the nation’s broken budget. Instead, he may have broken France.

The government in one European country is teetering on the brink of collapse after the PM made a very controversial move.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has joined French President Emmanuel Macron at a Paris ceremony marking the 106th anniversary of the Armistice

The French football league ordered the Paris club to pay its former star the sum, which Mbappé says he is owed for final three months of his salary and various bonuses. PSG say Mbappé previously agreed to waive the payment.

Under the terms of the deal, the holding company of luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, France's richest man, would take a controlling stake in the Ligue 2 club Paris FC, according to a source close to the matter who asked not to be named.

Emmanuel Macron’s long-running recruitment drive

France's leftist party France Unbowed (LFI) announced its plan to introduce legislation on Tuesday to repeal President Emmanuel Macron's contentious pension reform, which raised the legal retirement age from 62 to 64. The bill, according to LFI chief lawmaker Mathilde Panot, seeks to reverse changes that sparked widespread protests last year.

Riots have broken out in Paris with protesters seen burning bikes and setting off smoke bombs after an unexpected far right defeat.

French politicians and world leaders reacted to the results of parliamentary elections on Sunday after a coalition of the French left that quickly banded together to beat a surging far right won the most seats in parliament but not a majority. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he was "happy" and called the result a "disappointment" for Moscow.

France's New Popular Front has won the largest number of seats in the final round of snap parliamentary elections, leaving behind the remnants of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp and the far-right National Rally trailing in third place. It’s a staggering result for a closely fought election that has left the country without a clear candidate for prime minister – and the hastily assembled broad leftist coalition without an absolute majority that would allow it to push through its ambitious programme.

Whatever the outcome, Macron's 7-year political experiment with pro-business policies aimed at boosting the economy and reforming the bloated welfare state will be dented. He has ruled out resigning.

The “clarification” President Emmanuel Macron invoked as he called France’s snap elections has clarified this much: that French voters no longer want him to govern alone – or indeed at all. Exactly who he should share power with remains an open question after an inconclusive first round that has handed Marine Le Pen’s far right a commanding win, but not yet a decisive one.