This month, the news was marked in France by the inclusion of voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) in the Constitution a few days after a solemn vote by parliamentarians meeting in Congress in Versailles. Internationally, the continuation of the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the prospect of a possible major operation in Rafah continued to dominate the agenda, while in Russia, Vladimir Putin was re-elected unsurprisingly for a fifth presidential term against a backdrop of suspicions of massive fraud. In thirteen drawings, “La Matinale” looks back at the highlights of the past month.
The prospect of an Israeli army operation in Rafah, a town located in the south of the Gaza Strip where more than 1 million people have sought refuge in recent weeks, ultimately seems inevitable.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the Hebrew State, reaffirmed, Thursday March 28, his intention to launch a vast offensive on Rafah despite warnings from several countries, including the United States.
Benjamin Netanyahu reached a new level, Monday March 25, in his diplomatic confrontation with the United States by denouncing Washington's lack of veto of the first resolution of the United Nations Security Council calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The American media Axios reported that Israeli and American officials did not consider an offensive possible before mid-April, i.e. after the end of Ramadan.
At least 139 people were killed and several hundred injured on Friday, March 22, in a terrorist attack carried out by gunmen at a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow. This attack, the deadliest in the country in almost twenty years, was claimed by the Islamic State in Khorasan (EI-K) organization, the Afghan subsidiary of the jihadist group. Russian President Vladimir Putin nevertheless tried to implicate kyiv by claiming that the attackers had tried to reach Ukraine after the killing.
The inclusion of the right to abortion in the French Constitution was voted favorably (780 parliamentarians in favor, out of a total of 852) by the Congress, meeting on March 4 in Versailles. This vote makes France the first country to include this right in its Basic Law. “French pride, universal message,” welcomed the head of state, Emmanuel Macron, on X, shortly after the vote of deputies and senators.
After three days of voting, Russian President Vladimir Putin, 71, was re-elected on Sunday, March 17, with an exceptionally high score of 87.28% of the vote, and with a turnout of 77.49%. , according to the Russian Central Election Commission.
Independent Russian media have noted massive falsifications: according to them, the number of stolen votes fluctuates between 22 million and 36 million, out of a total of 76 million voters. Vladimir Putin amended the Constitution in 2020, allowing him to stay in the Kremlin until 2036.
A new report from the World Meteorological Organization confirmed in mid-March that 2023 was the hottest year on Earth's record, with an average global surface temperature of 1.45°C above of the reference level of the pre-industrial era. The United Nations agency further estimated that 2023 concluded the hottest decade on record, pushing the planet “to the brink”.
A New York appeals court gave Donald Trump ten days on Monday March 25 to pay his bail, after his conviction in February for overvaluing the assets of his empire, while significantly reducing it. Instead of having to immediately pay $454 million (€419 million), the former president and Republican candidate in the November 5 presidential election will only have to pay $175 million. Justice, on the other hand, refused to further postpone its historic criminal trial, linked to payments made to former pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, which will begin on April 15.
At the beginning of March, the European Court of Human Rights rejected an appeal filed against the French state by opponents of the A69 motorway – whose environmental impact is denounced by several associations – who were protesting against the methods used by forces of law and order to dislodge them from the trees they occupied in the Tarn.
On Sunday March 24, three opponents of the project finally voluntarily came down from the trees where they had camped for nearly forty days, on the route of the future highway linking Toulouse to Castres, after having obtained guarantees on their preservation.
Called to the polls to renew their Parliament on Sunday March 10, the Portuguese elected 50 deputies from the Chega (“Enough”) party, allowing this far-right party to make a breakthrough in the country’s political life with 18% of the votes. votes, 11 points more than in 2022. On Wednesday March 20, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, entrusted the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD, center right), Luis Montenegro, 51, with the responsibility to form an executive and turn the page on eight years of the socialist government of Antonio Costa.
The LegCo, the Parliament of the Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong), unanimously adopted the new national security law on Tuesday March 19. This text, which supplements the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 following major pro-democracy demonstrations, lists five new categories of offenses, which can be punished with life imprisonment: treason, insurrection, espionage, sabotage and foreign interference. Furthermore, a person may be detained without charge for up to sixteen days, with no access to a lawyer.
Clashes between police and demonstrators punctuated a day of demonstrations for the “food emergency” and against austerity in Argentina, Monday March 18, coinciding with President Javier Milei’s hundred days in power. This ultraliberal implements a severe budgetary austerity program to tame inflation, which, coupled with a devaluation of more than 50% of the peso and a liberalization of prices, severely affects low and middle incomes.
On March 18, in Tours, the Michelin guide promoted no less than sixty-two restaurants to the star, a third of which are less than a year old and more than half are run by chefs under 40 years. Emblematic of this renewal, Fabien Ferré, at only 35 years old, saw his Table du Castellet (Var) obtain the highest distinction, three stars, by sublimating Provence and its terroir.
