The Union for a Popular Movement was a liberal-conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the Gaullist tradition. During its existence, the UMP was one of the two major parties in French politics along with the Socialist Party (PS). In May 2015, the party was succeeded by The Republicans.
Bernard-Henri Georges Lévy is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" movement in 1976. His opinions, political activism and publications have also been the subject of several controversies over the years.
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa is a French politician who served as the president of France and co-prince of Andorra from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information and spending beyond legal campaign funding limits during his 2012 re-election campaign.
Vincent Bolloré is a French billionaire businessman. He was the chairman and CEO of the investment group Bolloré until his retirement from the family business in 2022. In September 2023, his net worth was estimated at US$8.6 billion.
Marianne is a weekly Paris-based French news magazine founded in 1997 by Jean-François Kahn and Maurice Szafran.
Presidential elections were held in France on 21 and 22 April 2007 to elect the successor to Jacques Chirac as president of France for a five-year term. As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 5 and 6 May 2007 between the two leading candidates, Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal. Sarkozy was elected with 53% of the vote.
Éric Woerth is a French politician of Renaissance.
The presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy began on 16 May 2007 when Nicolas Sarkozy became the sixth President of the French Fifth Republic, following his victory in the 2007 presidential election. A candidate of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), he nominated François Fillon as Prime minister, who formed a composite government, a bit modified following the UMP's relative victory during the June legislative election. Although the UMP had not obtained a majority as large as expected, Nicolas Sarkozy could launch the reforms he had pledged as a candidate as soon as he was elected. However, he tried to open his government to the opposition party, appointing several politicians close to the opposition parties.
Franco-Libyan relations are the relations between Libya and France. For the most part, their historical relations are complicated. Libya maintains its embassy in Paris. France also has an embassy in Tripoli.
Gérard Edmond Jacques Longuet is a French politician who served as Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon from 2011 to 2012. A member of The Republicans (LR), he represented the Meuse department in the Senate from 2001 to 2011 and again from 2012 to 2023.
Marc-Philippe Daubresse is a French politician.
Presidential elections were held in France on 23 April and 7 May 2017. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held between the top two candidates, Emmanuel Macron of En Marche! (EM) and Marine Le Pen of the National Front (FN), which Macron won with a difference of more than 30% of the vote. The presidential election was followed by a legislative election to elect members of the National Assembly on 11 and 18 June. Incumbent president François Hollande of the Socialist Party (PS) was eligible to run for a second term, but declared on 1 December 2016 that he would not seek reelection in light of low approval ratings, making him the first incumbent head of state of the Fifth Republic not to seek reelection.
Franz-Olivier Giesbert is an American-born French journalist, author, and television presenter.
A Senate election was held for 165 of the 348 seats in the Senate of France on 25 September 2011. Senate members were primarily elected by municipal officials, and the number of senators was increased from 343 to 348, due to the growth of France's population since the previous election was held in 2008. The Socialist Party and other left-of-center parties gained a majority of seats in the upper house for the first time in the Fifth Republic.
Mediapart is an independent French investigative online newspaper created in 2008 by Edwy Plenel, former editor-in-chief of Le Monde. It is published in French, English, and Spanish, and has produced hundreds of investigations over the past 15 years, on political corruption, financial corruption, and environmental damage, as well as on social, sexual, and police violence. In March 2021, Mediapart reached more than 220,000 paid subscribers. According to euro|topics, a news aggregator published by the German federal government agency Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Mediapart's political orientation is left wing.
Bashir Saleh Bashir is a former aide of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He was head of the Libyan African Portfolio, a sovereign wealth fund that invested Libya's oil wealth mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, and served as an intermediary between Libya, Africa and France. Bashir was captured after the Battle of Tripoli during the Libyan Civil War, but later escaped. Libya demanded that he be extradited because it was believed he was in France. Bashir spent Libya's oil money solely for the Gaddafi family, buying up hotels, mineral resources and shares in companies, eventually becoming what some Libyan officials and financial experts describe as one of the largest single investors in Africa. Libyan authorities believe that finding him is the key to finding $7 billion in missing Libyan funds. He is a close associate of French businessman Jean-Yves Ollivier.
Ziad Takieddine is a Lebanese-French businessman, described by The Telegraph as an "arms broker".
The Republicans is a liberal conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed on 30 May 2015 as the re-incorporation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of then–President of France, Jacques Chirac.
Libya allegedly bankrolled the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy with up to €50 million in pay-outs. Sarkozy has denied wrongdoing and rejected suggestions he was a Libyan agent of influence during his tenure as president of France. He has since officially been convicted of corruption in 2021.
Nicolas Hénin is a French journalist who publishes in written media, radio and television. As a specialist of the Middle East, he has covered the Iraq War and the Syrian Civil War. He was captured by ISIS in Syria on 22 June 2013, along with three other Frenchmen, and held hostage until 18 April 2014. After his liberation, Hénin co-founded Action Résilience, a network promoting level-headedness in anti-terrorism, and had become a notable voice in the fight against hate speech.
