At any traffic light in Paris at 8 a.m., a crowd of bicycles gathers in the front row. On some streets, like Rue Rivoli, in front of the Tuileries Garden, the enormous number of bikes at any time of day is surprising. They far exceed the number of cars. The fight against private vehicles and the promotion of sustainable transport methods have been one of the pillars – and, surely, the most visible one – of the twelve years of socialist Anne Hidalgo as mayor of Paris, the first woman to hold the position. "It is essential to transform the city to adapt it to climate change," she argued in the early years of her mandate.

When he had only been in office for a few weeks, the US ambassador in Paris, Charles Kushner, sent a letter to the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, to reproach him that he was not doing enough to curb antisemitic acts in the country. "Not a day goes by in the country without Jews being attacked in the streets, synagogues and schools being desecrated, and Jewish-owned businesses being vandalized," Kushner stated in the rather undiplomatic letter, sent at the end of August last year. Macron had announced just a few days earlier that France would recognize Palestine.

The leader of the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, He made no comment on the election results on Sunday night.Only the party president, Jordan Bardella, spoke—very briefly—to celebrate the increase in the number of mayoralties. "It's the biggest gain" in the party's history. "Never before have the RN and its allies held so many elected positions in France," stated Bardella, the party's future presidential candidate if the courts uphold Le Pen's disqualification. Despite his words, neither Bardella's lackluster tone, nor Le Pen's silence, nor the overall atmosphere suggested a night of electoral victory. While the advance of the far right is undeniable, especially in the southeast of the country, the situation remains somewhat different. (Northern Catalonia and Occitania are the new fiefdoms of the RN) And in some northern areas, the majority of the municipalities it has won are in rural areas, in towns or small cities. National Rally only managed to win in one city with more than 100,000 inhabitants, Perpignan, where it already governed. And it secured Nice, where Éric Ciotti, leader of the UDR (Union of the Right), Le Pen's ally, won.

The day after the municipal elections, French socialism lost one of its leading figures. Lionel Jospin, former Socialist prime minister, died on Monday at the age of 88, his family announced. Jospin was Prime Minister of France from 1997 to 2002 in a coalition government with the conservative Jacques Chirac as President of the Republic, and he was the driving force behind the 35-hour workweek and the recognition of civil partnerships, including same-sex partnerships. A key figure for French socialists in the Fifth Republic, Jospin was among the first to advocate for the unity of left-wing parties to confront the right electorally, an issue that 24 years later remains one of the most current—and controversial—debates within the progressive spectrum. He himself was a victim of vote splitting when, in 2002, he ran for president but was eliminated in the first round by Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen. "We couldn't win the elections with five candidates" from the left, he stated in an interview years later.

The left—despite party divisions—is holding its ground in major cities, while Marine Le Pen's far right has faltered. The French municipal elections have resulted in a map with more far-right mayoralties than ever before, but the National Rally (RN) has not achieved the electoral success it had hoped for. In many municipalities where the far-right candidate had managed to advance to the second round, it ultimately failed to win. The results—still provisional—show that the far right, with some exceptions, is struggling to surpass the 50% threshold and continues to struggle to gain traction in major cities. This is a setback for Le Pen, who had aimed to win in Marseille. According to the initial results, the RN has not won in either Nîmes or Toulon, two cities that were within its reach and which it had expected to win. In large and medium-sized cities, the far right is securing few victories. He retained the mayoralty in Perpignan (Louis Aliot had already won in the first round) and won in Carcassonne and Nice, although the Nice candidate, Éric Ciotti, is not from Marine Le Pen's party, only an ally.

The first round of the municipal elections in FranceThe elections held on Sunday left a good number of city halls within reach of left-wing parties, mainly thanks to the strong showing of the left-wing coalitions—comprised primarily of Socialists and Greens—and the advance of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon's radical left-wing party, which until now had a very strong local presence. However, these positive results could turn into failure in the second and final round, to be held next Sunday. Tensions between La France Insoumise and the other left-wing parties, especially the Socialist Party, could lead to important cities like Paris and Marseille, where the left could govern, falling into the hands of the right or the far right. In a two-round political system, if voters must choose between two left-wing parties in the second round, the progressive vote is split. That's why, in the last legislative elections, the main left-wing parties, including the insubordinate ones, presented joint candidacies under the name of the New Popular Front (NFP). However, this alliance is long since defunct, and the leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, warned this Monday that there will be no national pact with LFI for the second round of the municipal elections, although he is open to local agreements.

The first round of municipal elections held this Sunday in France confirms the advance of the far right. Final results will not be known until next Sunday, but Marine Le Pen's party, the National Rally (RN), has managed to advance to the second round in the vast majority of municipalities where it ran and will compete to win in city halls where it has not yet governed, such as Marseille, France's second-largest city, Nice, and Toulon. "It is a huge victory for our movement," Le Pen declared in a message to X.

The French return to the polls this Sunday to elect their local representatives. France is holding the first round of municipal elections, votes that don't usually carry national weight. However, this time, the proximity of the presidential elections—scheduled for spring 2027—will mean that the results will be interpreted through the lens of national politics. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN), a party that has traditionally had a weak local presence, wants the municipal elections to be its springboard to the Élysée Palace. Le Pen and her right-hand man—and likely presidential candidate if she is definitively barred from running—Jordan Bardella, want to translate their strong showing in the recent legislative and European elections into more mayoralties. This won't be easy because the RN's limited local presence means it can't field candidates in a significant number of municipalities. There's an anecdote that perfectly illustrates the situation: Bardella won't be able to vote for a candidate from the party he leads because Garches, the municipality of 17,000 inhabitants where he lives on the outskirts of Paris, doesn't have a candidate from Réagrupament Nacional.

Faced with soaring oil prices and supply problems in some countries due to the war in the Middle East, the 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) unanimously decided on Wednesday to release 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves, an unprecedented figure. This is the largest release in the agency's history and doubles the amount of barrels used from reserves for the war in Ukraine (182 million barrels were released at that time). Governments hope the measure will calm the markets and curb the rise in crude oil prices, which is already being felt at gas stations.

Fifteen years after the Fukushima accident, Europe is once again betting on nuclear energyUntil now, only a few member states—especially France, the European Union's leading nuclear power—had advocated for increased nuclear energy production and investment in the sector. Brussels had remained largely neutral, although in 2022 it yielded to French pressure to include nuclear power as a non-polluting energy source, classifying it almost as green energy. Now, however, the European Commission has fully aligned itself with France and believes that nuclear power must be expanded. "Europe made a strategic error by turning its back on a reliable, economical, and low-emission energy source," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her address at the nuclear energy summit held this Tuesday in Paris. The head of the EU executive and French President Emmanuel Macron have demonstrated their unwavering support for nuclear energy. Macron has called for more investment in the sector, especially now that the international geopolitical context is complex and dependence on hydrocarbons "can be an instrument of pressure and destabilization." The wars in Ukraine and Iran have made the vulnerability and energy dependence of many countries more evident, exposing them to escalating oil and gas prices. Nuclear energy accounts for 10% of the world's electricity production, with some 450 reactors spread across about thirty countries; France alone has 56.

The number of women on the boards of directors of large French companies has steadily increased in recent years. In the case of CAC 40 companies—the French equivalent of the IBEX 35—the progress is remarkable: while 6.3% of executive committee members were women in 2008, this figure rose to 28.81% in 2025, according to a study by the Skema business school. However, women's presence in senior management positions remains a minority, and parity is still a long way off. The increase in female executives is explained by the quotas imposed by the French government. On March 1st, it became mandatory for companies with more than 1,000 employees to have at least 30% women on their management and executive committees. The so-called Rixain Law—which, according to experts cited by the French press, has no equivalent in Western countries—also establishes that by 2029 the percentage of female directors must reach 40%. In Spain, the parity law will also require large companies to have 40% female representation on their boards of directors by June of this year, but the regulation only affects companies listed on the IBEX 35. The French law goes further, affecting all large companies (around 1,500) and stipulating fines of up to 1% of their payroll for companies that do not comply. The French government has not yet released data on compliance with the regulation, but according to the barometer of the French Institute of Directors (IFA), the 120 largest listed French companies will have 30% female directors by 2025. In 2021, female representation was only 22%. No data is available for the other companies.

Faced with a turbulent geopolitical landscape, France is embarking on a nuclear rearmament program. President Emmanuel Macron has announced that the country will increase its nuclear commanders—Macron clarified that the number will not be made public—and will acquire a new, state-of-the-art nuclear submarine. The announcement is not directly linked to the new war in the Middle East: the French president has been preparing France's rearmament for months. the desire to protect themselves from countries like Russia in a new global environment full of "risks and threats," where the United States is no longer a reliable partner."An increase in our arsenal is indispensable," the President of the Republic declared on Monday in a speech from Île Longue (Finistère), the secret military base where France has its four submarines capable of launching nuclear weapons. For the President, the key is deterrence: "The essential thing is that no adversary can even consider the possibility of an attack against France without the certainty of suffering damage from which it could not recover." However, Macron warned that he would use his nuclear arsenal if the country is attacked. "I will never hesitate to take the necessary decisions to protect our vital interests. No state, however powerful, could escape. No country could recover," the President of the Republic stated. Today's speech was one of the harshest and most bellicose that Macron has ever delivered. He did it in the middle of the nuclear military base, with a large, real submarine as a backdrop. "Just one of our submarines, like the one behind me, carries an attack power equivalent to the sum of all the bombs that fell on Europe during World War II," he boasted. It was one of the French nuclear submarines, which have a power equivalent to about a thousand times the power of the first nuclear bombs.

She wields the baton with equal parts energy and delicacy. With passion and elegance. She always smiles at the musicians. Or perhaps she smiles at the music. When Noemí Pasquina (Cardona, 1987) began her career as a cellist, she never dared to imagine that she would become a conductor. "There were no role models. I had never seen a woman conducting an orchestra," she recalls. But years later, she traded the cello for the baton. This native of Cardona is one of the few female conductors in Catalonia and is fighting to make her mark in a world still dominated by men. Pasquina, who trained in Barcelona, ​​Manresa, Madrid, and The Hague, has so far conducted orchestras in Spain, France, and Romania.

Is La France Insoumise (LFI) a far-left party? In a country where the government officially classifies parties into different political blocs, the answer is not innocuous. It could shape France's political future. The party, founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon in 2016, has always been labeled radical left—a label the party embraces—and was already classified within the left-wing bloc. However, a circular published by the Interior Ministry on February 2nd, in anticipation of the municipal elections in March, places the party in the far-left bloc. "I don't make the classifications, but there's no mystery that they are far-left," Emmanuel Macron asserted. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez—formerly the head of the Paris Police—justified the decision by citing criticism from the insubordinate to the police forces or the "systematic" use of motions of no confidence.

French police have arrested eleven people between yesterday and today in connection with the death on Saturday in Lyon of 23-year-old far-right activist Quentin Deranque, in a mass brawl between an ultra-right-wing group and an anti-fascist group that took place after a conference by Rima Has, a member of the European Parliament from the radical left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI). Left-wing parties, including La France Insoumise (LFI), have strongly condemned the young extremist's death, while right-wing and far-right parties point to the radical left as responsible. The investigation into voluntary manslaughter has not yet determined which group the young anti-fascists who allegedly kicked Deranque at least six times, causing his death, belong to, but all indications point to them being from Jeune Garde, an anti-fascist group founded by the MP and dissolved by the French government last year. unsubmissive Raphaël Arnault. In fact, two of those arrested are Arnault's parliamentary assistants.

After a trial that made headlines around the world and sentenced her ex-husband to 20 years for drugging her and handing her over to a hundred men to be raped, Gisèle Pelicot publishes her memoirs this Tuesday. A hymn in life (Now Books). The book, originally written in French, is being published simultaneously in more than twenty countries and has been translated into 22 languages, a rare feat in the publishing world. "I have rarely been the first editor of a book translated into 22 languages. It is also unique in that it is a book with a significant social impact," explained Sophie de Closets, the book's editor and president of Flammarion, the French publishing house that has put 150,000 copies on sale, on BFMTV.

Gisèle Pelicot, The French woman whose husband drugged her with medication so that at least a hundred men could rape her while she was unconsciousShe breaks her silence more than a year after the trial that sentenced Dominique Pelicot to the maximum penalty of twenty years in prison. The woman has not given any interviews or participated in any public events since the trial. It made her a role model for feminismBut he is about to publish his memoir, A hymn in life (Ara Llibres), in which she recounts her love story with Pelicot, the shock of discovering the truth, and everything that followed.

France has uncovered a new case of a serial rapist targeting children and teenagers. The public prosecutor's office announced on Tuesday that a 79-year-old man has confessed to sexually assaulting 89 minors, all boys, between the ages of 13 and 17 at the time of the crimes, which he allegedly committed between 1967 and 2022 in various countries. The pedophile, born in Annecy, was arrested more than two years ago, but the case had not been made public until now. The Grenoble prosecutor's office decided to release the information—without providing details of the case. modus operandi of the rapist—to try to find all the victims. So far, only half have been identified.

Three months later of his appointment as French Prime MinisterSébastien Lecornu has achieved what the two previous prime ministers failed to do: pass the budget and provide a degree of political stability in France. His arrival as prime minister It was very controversialBut he has been able—against all odds—to provide the country with a budget essential for its economic stability and to avoid a vote of no confidence. The two motions rejected Monday night by the National Assembly were the final obstacle for the budget. "We can turn the page," summarized a Macronist deputy.

The French judicial investigation into the social network X, owned by American magnate Elon Musk, is progressing a year after it began. The cybercrime unit of the Paris Prosecutor's Office searched the platform's French headquarters—formerly Twitter—on Tuesday, along with the French Gendarmerie's national cybersecurity unit and Europol, as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 into the alleged bias of some of its algorithms. Months later, the investigation expanded to include alleged crimes related to the artificial intelligence program used by X, Grok. The program is accused of facilitating the dissemination of AI-generated videos of a sexual nature—so-called deepfakes- using images of real people - mostly women - without consent, including images of minors. French authorities are also investigating Grok for the alleged dissemination of Holocaust denial ideas.