🇫🇷Week of October 26

Israel's Knesset election has produced no clear majority, with Benjamin Netanyahu's camp and rival Gadi Eisenkot's centrist bloc close together and neither able to form a government on the results alone. Netanyahu's Likud remains the largest single party, but the Arab parties emerged from the vote as potential kingmakers in coalition talks.123

Likud has accused the Arab parties of having "stolen the elections," a charge levelled after the Arab minority mobilised in large numbers and its parties posted a historic score. Libération reports that Palestinian citizens of the country turned out en masse to vote for the Arab parties in an effort to unseat Netanyahu.456

Gadi Eisenkot will have no choice but to move closer to the Arab parties if he is to carry weight in forming a government, Libération reports. Le Point quotes the view that "if you really want to form a government in Israel, you have to negotiate with the Arab parties."53

Le Monde writes that Netanyahu kept his party the largest in the country, but that his continued hold on power would considerably weaken democratic life. Le Nouvel Obs casts him as the winner for the moment, while Ouest-France reports that without a majority the parties must reach agreement to break the impasse.178

Arab states hold limited expectations of Israel after the vote, Le Monde reports. For the Arab minority inside Israel, Le Monde describes the electoral success as bitter-tasting.910

The French government has announced it will replace the Parcoursup university admissions platform and cap class sizes at 28 pupils, measures aimed at calming anger in the lycées. The concessions touch the two major education reforms of Emmanuel Macron's terms in office, the baccalauréat overhaul and Parcoursup. Student representatives said the concessions did not go far enough to satisfy them.123

Les Echos puts the cost of the measures for lycéens and students as limited for the 2027 budget. The government is preparing that budget with a focus on reducing public spending.4

Education minister Édouard Geffray said after the measures were announced that "the general interest today is that pupils go to class". Mobilisations are being organised from 2 November, with demonstrations, a strike at the start of term and blockades of lycées.56

Attributed claim: Mediapart writes that the government's concessions to the lycée movement reveal the extreme weakness of a power at the end of its course, forced to abandon its last flagship reforms along the way. Le Figaro asks why the baccalauréat reform and Parcoursup ended up sinking, quoting the criticism that "Macron is a Jupiter in words, not in deeds". Le Point, from the centre-right, argues that claiming every young person can be given the place in the course of their choice, where they want it, is "demagogy".327

Gabriel Attal, the president of Renaissance and a candidate in the 2027 presidential election, proposed on Wednesday a "great primary of democrats" running from Bruno Retailleau to Raphaël Glucksmann. He said the contest would "prevent" a second round between La France insoumise and the Rassemblement national.12

Bruno Retailleau, the LR candidate in the presidential election, called the idea "fantasist and ridiculous." The entourages of Édouard Philippe and Bruno Retailleau received the proposal very coldly, describing it as a "cafouilleux" project.13

Le Figaro reported that Attal is struggling in the polls and presented the primary as a way to avoid a duel between LFI and the RN. Le Monde reported that the primary would, in Attal's view, "prevent" a second round between Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen.42

Midi Libre asked whether the proposal by the former prime minister can succeed.5

The Senate adopted the so-called "rioters-pay" bill on Tuesday after substantially hardening it, following the unrest of 17 October. Under the text, the activity bonus can be seized, and damages and interest can reach up to 10,000 euros, with welfare allocations also subject to seizure. The bill was examined in the chamber that day.123

The text has drawn criticism from rights groups. Amnesty International asked the government to "renounce" the bill, calling it "a liberticidal bill." Actu.fr reported the objection that a person could be condemned without having committed any damage, describing a "liberticidal drift."4567

In Haute-Loire, the departmental council wants to suspend the RSA minimum income for rioters after the demonstrations, a separate local move that surfaced alongside the Senate debate.81

The Senate debate follows the 17 October mobilisation, when shops were pillaged and CNews premises were attacked in Paris. The Senate's version was described as reinforced, with supporters arguing it was urgent to restore order.632

The French Senate rejected the constitutional reform bill granting Corsica autonomy overnight from Monday to Tuesday, after amendments dropped recognition of a Corsican "community" and required the Collectivité de Corse to request case-by-case authorisation to issue its own norms. The vote ends the Beauvau process and opens a crisis with the autonomists.12

The Corsican delegation left the Senate chamber and withdrew from the negotiations. Paulu Santu Parigi said, "We are withdrawing from the Beauvau process," after the Senate removed the notion of a community, and the delegation called the outcome "a democratic denial."34

The rejection leaves the autonomy project dead in the upper house, with the Corsican representatives no longer taking part in the talks that had been conducted under the Beauvau framework.15

A gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon in Trappes and La Verrière in the Yvelines on Friday 23 October, killing one person and wounding five. The Parquet national antiterroriste took charge of the investigation, and the suspect was identified as Kevin T. Investigators have since confirmed the racist motive of the attack, and his garde à vue was suspended for a psychiatric observation.12

Four members of a group of friends of Kevin T. told Mediapart they saw a man in distress whose hatred had been fed for years by racist talk on television. One of them said: "For him, everything was because of Black people and Arabs." Le Monde reports that people close to the suspect described him as "racist".21

Searches turned up a copy of Mein Kampf at his home, along with cocaine and cannabis, and documents linked to the Rassemblement National, according to La Dépêche and BFM. The suspect has said he suffers from schizophrenia and is now under a period of psychiatric observation, Ouest-France reports. The gardes à vue of members of his entourage have been lifted.3456

The Rassemblement National rejected accusations from Dominique de Villepin after the attack, saying: "We target Islamists, not Muslims." Le Figaro asks whether the Parquet national antiterroriste moved too quickly to take the case, and reports that prosecutor Olivier Christen was to speak on Monday evening about the next steps in the investigation.78

Marine Le Pen used her first campaign speech for the 2027 presidential election to say she wants to preside over the "rebirth" of France, delivered at the Rassemblement National congress in Orléans. She struck a tone outlets described as mixing radicalism with "optimism", and said the party had "won the battle of ideas". The city was under heavy surveillance for the event, with shops and transport halted over the weekend and antifascist demonstrations held in the Loiret.123

A man in the crowd at the Orléans meeting appeared to give a Nazi salute, an incident reported from LCP-Assemblée nationale footage. Le Parisien identified him as a party activist and reported that the Rassemblement National said it "condemns" the gesture if it is confirmed. The party's response was quoted as: "If we had seen it, we would have thrown him out."456

Jordan Bardella's own speech in Orléans was disrupted, and he blamed the ultra-left for the disturbance. Le HuffPost reported that the accusation was wrong.6

Jean-Luc Mélenchon was booed and called RN activists "abrutis" (idiots), promising them a future "in spite of themselves". Around 200 activists trying to reach the demonstration against the RN were blocked by gendarmerie, with L'Humanité reporting they had wanted to bring undocumented migrants along.78

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that a meeting between Russians, Ukrainians and Americans will take place in November. The talks are being held under US mediation, and a further round of Moscow-Kyiv negotiations is also scheduled for November.123456

On Thursday a drone strike on the Dnipropetrovsk oblast killed one person and wounded seven, Le Monde reported.7

Attributed claim: Le Grand Continent argued that a Trump-brokered ceasefire would be a trap for Ukraine, publishing its analysis as the November talks were confirmed. The other outlets in the cluster reported the meeting and the prisoner exchange without disputing those facts.8

The French government plans to replace the Parcoursup university admissions platform and to limit classes to 28 pupils, measures presented as a response to the lycée protests. It also plans renovations of school buildings, according to Le Parisien's account of the announcements. The lycée movement has involved blockades over a lack of resources and in support of a public-sector strike.1234

Le HuffPost described Macron as trying to influence the social anger "between instructions and short-circuits", pointing to friction between the president's directions and the government's handling of the protests. The government's measures were aimed at calming the lycée anger, Le Parisien reported.53