Latest France government News

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech as he visits a plant of British-Swedish pharmaceutical group Astrazeneca in Dunkirk, northern France, Monday, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting 180 international business leaders at the Palace of Versailles in a bid to promote France's economic attractiveness despite over six weeks of crippling strikes over his government's planned pension changes.(Denis Charlet/Pool Photo via AP)

Changing tack, French strikers turn off power to press govt

Jan. 21, 2020 9:09 AM EST

PARIS (AP) — Opening another front in their battle against the French government, protesting workers cut power to thousands of Parisians on Tuesday, plunging homes into darkness and shutting down trains to one of the capital's main airports. The deliberate outage lasted around two hours. It hit users in...

Pigeons fly by the Louvre pyramid as striking employees demonstrate outside the museum Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 in Paris. Paris' Louvre museum was closed Friday as dozens of protesters blocked the entrance to denounce the French government's plans to overhaul the pension system. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Paris transit strike eases; commuters, tourists relieved

Jan. 20, 2020 11:05 AM EST

PARIS (AP) — Paris commuters who have battled through six weeks of misery-inducing transport strikes found their smiles again Monday as some subway workers ended their walkouts against a contested overhaul of France's pension system. A weekend announcement by the UNSA union's subway wing of a return to...

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech as he visits a plant of British-Swedish pharmaceutical group Astrazeneca in Dunkirk, northern France, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting 180 international business leaders later today at the Palace of Versailles in a bid to promote France's economic attractiveness despite over six weeks of crippling strikes over his government's planned pension changes.(Denis Charlet/Pool Photo via AP)

France's Macron tells global CEOs: we're open for business

Jan. 20, 2020 10:01 AM EST

PARIS (AP) — France's president is taking on the role of salesman in chief for his strike-battered country. Emmanuel Macron used the splendor of the Palace of Versailles to woo international business leaders on Monday, insisting that his reforms are attracting investors despite six weeks of crippling...

Michel Dietlin, center, stands with musicians of the orchestra outside the Palais Garnier opera house after performing Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020 in Paris. As some strikers return to work, with notable improvements for train services that have been severely disrupted for weeks, more radical protesters are trying to keep the movement going. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

Splits in France's strike movement trigger fears of violence

Jan. 18, 2020 12:47 PM EST

PARIS (AP) — A French government minister warned that seditious groups bent on violence were hijacking the protest movement against pension reform that has gripped the country, after a fire Saturday damaged a renowned Paris restaurant patronized by President Emmanuel Macron. The Paris fire service said...

Striking employees demonstrate outside the Louvre museum Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 in Paris. Paris' Louvre museum was closed Friday as dozens of protesters blocked the entrance to denounce the French government's plans to overhaul the pension system. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Protests close Louvre museum in Paris amid pension strikes

Jan. 17, 2020 7:34 PM EST

PARIS (AP) — Dozens of protesters blocked the entrance to the Louvre museum and forced the famous Paris landmark to close Friday while they denounced the French government's plans to overhaul the pension system. Protesters later chased down President Emmanuel Macron at an evening theater performance in...

Protesters shout during a demonstration Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020 in Paris. Protesters denounce French President Emmanuel Macron's plans to overhaul the pension system. (AP Photo/Kamil Zihnioglu)

New street protests in France amid pension strikes

Jan. 16, 2020 3:34 PM EST

PARIS (AP) — Opponents of President Emmanuel Macron's proposed overhaul of France's pension system marched in Paris and other French cities Thursday on what is the 43rd day of strike action that has hobbled trains and public transport. At the call of trade unions, train and metro workers, teachers and...

French far-right leader lays out plan to run for president

Jan. 16, 2020 1:10 PM EST

PARIS (AP) — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen isn’t wasting time. She announced her intention to stand in France’s 2022 presidential elections. “My decision is made,” Le Pen said Thursday as she presented her New Year’s wishes. Le Pen said she is proposing a...

FILE - In this Sept.2, 2019 file photo, shepherd Romain Jaurigueberry brings dead sheep to sub-prefecture of Bayonne, southwestern France, to protests against the rising bear attacks on sheep herds in Pyrenees mountains. Farmers who raise sheep for milk and meat high in the Pyrenees mountains are rejoicing after French President Emmanuel Macron promises them that he'll not authorize the release into the wild of any more bears responsible for increasingly deadly attacks on herders' flocks. (AP Photo Bob Edme, File)

Grrrrr! Angry herders secure bear ban from France's Macron

Jan. 15, 2020 1:23 PM EST

PARIS (AP) — The bears have cute names — Bubble, Feather, Snowflake and the like — and look so soft and huggable when caught on video by remote cameras that study their habits. But to herders high in the Pyrenees mountains of southwest France, the animals are stone-cold killers, ravaging...

In this photograph taken Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020, protesters hold flowers as tear gas fired by police rises at a demonstration in front of Amir Kabir University in Tehran, Iran, to remember victims of a Ukrainian airplane shot down by an Iranian missile. On Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, online videos purported to show that Iranian security forces fired both live ammunition and tear gas to disperse demonstrators protesting against the Islamic Republic's initial denial that it shot down a Ukrainian jetliner. (AP Photo)

Video: 20 seconds of terror between missiles in Iran crash

Jan. 15, 2020 12:10 PM EST

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's top diplomat acknowledged Wednesday that Iranians “were lied to" for days after the Islamic Republic accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jetliner. The admission came as new surveillance footage purported to show two surface-to-air missiles 20 seconds apart...

FILE- In this Monday, May 27, 2019 file photo, NATO forces attend the graduation ceremony of Afghan National Army soldiers from a 3-month training program at the Afghan Military Academy in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)

Iran warning puts thousands of European troops in spotlight

Jan. 15, 2020 9:09 AM EST

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A warning by Iran's president that European forces in the Middle East could be at risk if their nations join the U.S. pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic puts a focus on thousands of foreign troops in the region. Britain, France, and Germany have spent months...

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