The French political system features vibrant democratic processes and generally strong protections for civil liberties and political rights. However, successive governments have responded to terrorist attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic, and various protests and demonstrations by curtailing constitutional protections and empowering law enforcement to infringe on personal freedoms. The government has also imposed states of emergency, enabling it to curtail the rights to privacy, assembly, and movement.

• In June, after President Emmanuel Macron’s center-right Together for the Republic coalition lost to the far-right National Rally (RN) in European Parliament elections, he dissolved and triggered snap elections for the National Assembly, the lower house of France’s Parliament. The left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP) led the two rounds of voting in June and July and emerged with 180 of 577 seats, followed by Together for the Republic with 159, the RN and its allies with 142, and the conservative Republicans with 39. Smaller groups divided the remainder. In a sign of growing political tension and polarization in society, the government reported more than 50 physical attacks on candidates or party activists in the period between the first and second rounds. Despite the NFP victory, Macron named Michel Barnier of the Republicans as prime minister of a center-right minority government in September.
• In December, the Barnier government forced passage of an unpopular legislative package of tax increases and spending cuts, using special constitutional powers that require the government to withstand a confidence vote. His government then lost the confidence vote in the National Assembly, leading Macron to appoint another center-right minority government headed by François Bayrou of the small Democratic Movement party.
• Protests and violent civil unrest broke out in May in the French overseas collectivity of New Caledonia in response to legal reforms that would have expanded voting rights to more residents from outside New Caledonia, diluting the political power of the Indigenous Kanak population. French authorities declared a state of emergency and blocked the social media platform TikTok for two weeks in a bid to control the violence, in which several people were killed. Macron also suspended the controversial reforms and pledged further dialogue; the state of emergency had been lifted by the end of May, and a nighttime curfew was removed in December, but restrictions on public demonstrations remained in place in some locations. In Martinique, another French overseas collectivity, protests and related violence erupted in September over the high cost of living, with incidents of arson and gunfire injuring both police and civilians. The authorities imposed curfews and restrictions on assembly, and antiriot police were deployed from France, though largely peaceful mass protests continued. As tensions eased, the remaining curfews were lifted in November.
• Macron signed a restrictive new immigration law in January, and although the Constitutional Council struck down many of its original provisions, the final version included measures that would allow residency permits to be denied or revoked based on vague grounds like threats to public order or failure to respect the symbols and principles of the French Republic, empower a single judge rather than a panel to rule on asylum applications, and ease deportations for people with established family and other ties to France. Separately during the year, France drew international criticism for banning its athletes from wearing a hijab as the country hosted the Summer Olympics from July to September. Human rights activists also raised concerns about special surveillance measures that were put in place ahead of the games, including video monitoring by experimental artificial intelligence systems.
• In the context of the conflict between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, in which tens of thousands of Palestinians had been killed, public authorities and educational institutions—generally citing security concerns—imposed restrictions on certain conferences, demonstrations, and events that were organized to express support for Palestinians and call for a ceasefire. The bans prompted widespread concerns about civil liberties, though many other such assemblies were allowed to proceed. In addition, a number of individuals who spoke out about the conflict were investigated or punished with fines or short jail terms for alleged violations of a law against condoning terrorism, as Hamas is a designated terrorist organization whose attack on Israel in October 2023 touched off the ongoing war.

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For additional background information, see last year’s full report.