Gavin Mortimer

Emmanuel Macron arrived in Morocco on Monday for a three day State visit, during which time he will discuss trade and security. Among his entourage is Yassine Belattar, a light entertainer with a controversial past. In September last year, the 42-year-old Franco-Moroccan was found guilty by a Paris court of making death threats against the

Three more migrants drowned off the French coast this week when their overcrowded and flimsy boat sank. In response to this latest tragedy, a French refugee organisation Utopia 56 posted a message on social media stating that ‘since July, there have been fatal incidents almost every week, causing at least 39 victims. It’s the result

When the 27 leaders of the European Union met in Brussels this week, the migrant crisis was high on the agenda. In her opening remarks at the summit, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen drew attention to the deals agreed in the last 12 months between the bloc and countries such as Tunisia and

Emmanuel Macron is said to be appalled by his new right-wing government. A confidant of the French president conveyed to AFP the depth of his despair. ‘I did not choose this government,’ Macron reportedly told his inner circle. ‘They make me feel ashamed.’ Macron’s approval rating has fallen to its lowest level of his second

In the same week that over 1,000 migrants arrived in England, the head of MI5 admitted his agency had ‘one hell of a job’ on its hands. Ken McCallum said that while there is a threat from Russia, China and Iran, it was Islamist terrorism ‘that concerns me most’. In particular, al-Qaida and the Islamic

France’s Interior Minister is the tough-talking Bruno Retailleau. In his inaugural declaration a fortnight ago, he hammered out his three priorities: ‘The first is to re-establish order, the second is to re-establish order, and the third is to re-establish order.’ Standing behind Retailleau was Gerald Darmanin, the man he was replacing as France’s ‘top cop’.

It is a year almost to the day since a French schoolteacher was killed by a young Islamist. Dominque Bernard, a high school teacher in Arras, died almost exactly three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty, was slain in similar circumstances and by the same ideology. A memorial service this week will remember Bernard; on

Emmanuel Macron has chosen to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’ murderous attack on Israel on 7 October by criticising their response. In a radio interview, the president of France announced that ‘the priority today is to return to a political solution, to stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza’. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,

Prime Minister Michel Barnier addressed parliament on Tuesday afternoon as he outlined his government’s policy programme. The priority, explained Barnier, was to tackle France’s ‘colossal’ debt of 3.2 trillion (£2.7 trillion) euros, which has left the Republic with the ‘sword of Damocles hanging over the head of France and every French person’.  The gravity of

In a country that has become accustomed to atrocities in the last decade, the brutal murder of a 19-year-old student has outraged France. The body of the young woman, named only as Philippine, was discovered last Saturday in the Bois de Boulogne, a famous park in the west of Paris. She had gone missing on

There was a vigorous interview on Tuesday morning on a prominent French radio station. The guest was Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a senior MP in Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, and the last question put to him concerned his leader’s impending trial on charges of financial impropriety. Tanguy had on two occasions to remind the presenter to

Emmanuel Macron’s new government marks, in the words of the BBC, ‘a decisive shift to the right’. That is also the view of Le Monde, the newspaper of the French left, which quotes Socialist party chairman Oliver Faure’s description of it as ‘a reactionary government that gives democracy the finger’. This government is not right