2026 in France

• President: Emmanuel Macron
• Prime Minister: Sébastien Lecornu

• 5 January – A court in Paris convicts ten people on charges of cyber-bullying first lady Brigitte Macron by spreading disinformation and "malicious remarks" over her gender, sexuality and personal life.^[1]
• 8 January – Laurent Vinatier, a French researcher imprisoned in Russia since 2024 on charges of failing to register as a "foreign agent", is released in a prisoner swap in exchange for Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin, who had been detained in France since 2025 on suspicion of involvement in cyberhacking.^[2]
• 15 January – President Macron announces the deployment of additional military forces to Greenland after a Defense Council meeting amid threats by the United States to annex the island.^[3]
• 18 January – The Piton de la Fournaise volcano in Réunion erupts.^[4]
• 23 January – Prime minister Lecornu survives two no-confidence motions filed against him by the LFI and RN over his efforts to pass the government's budget through rarely-invoked provisions of the constitution.^[5]
• 25 January – The French Navy intercepts an oil tanker suspected of being part of the Russian shadow fleet and tows it to Marseille for investigation.^[6]
• 27 January – Former senator Joël Guerriau is convicted of putting MDMA on a drink of MP Sandrine Josso in an attempt to sexually assault her in 2023 and is sentenced to four years' imprisonment.^[7]

• 2 February –
  • The Lecornu government passes the annual budget after surviving two no-confidence motions filed by the LFI and RN.^[8]
  • A French judge issues arrest warrants for two French-Israeli citizens, accusing them of "complicity and incitement to genocide" for blocking humanitarian aid trucks en route to Gaza.^[9][10]
• 3 February – A teacher is critically injured in a stabbing by a pupil inside a school in Toulon.^[11]
• 6 February – Greenland crisis: France announces that it will open a consulate in Greenland to reinforce support for Denmark against US president Donald Trump's threats to annex the territory.^[12]
• 7 February – Former culture minister Jack Lang resigns from the Institut du monde arabe after his name appears 670 times in the Epstein files.^[13]
• 8 February – Six people are arrested on suspicion of involvement in the abduction of a magistrate and her mother in Bourg-les-Valence, Drôme as part of a cryptocurrency ransom scheme.^[14]
• 10 February – Nine people are arrested as part of an investigation into the fraudulent reusage of admission tickets into the Louvre that resulted in at least 10 million euros ($11.8 million) in losses to the museum over the previous 10 years.^[15]
• 12 February – Far right activist Quentin Deranque is killed after being attacked during clashes between far left and far right activists in Lyon.^[16][17]
• 13 February –
  • Two people are reported killed due to Storm Nils in Landes and Tarn-et-Garonne.^[18]
  • A knife-wielding assailant is shot dead by police after attempting to attack gendarmes near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.^[19]
• 17 February – A canoe capsizes along the Loire in Chalonnes-sur-Loire amid heavy rainfall and flooding, leaving one person missing.^[20]
• 23 February – US ambassador Charles Kushner ignores a summons by the French foreign ministry over comments made regarding the killing of Quentin Deranque.^[21]
• 25 February – Laurence des Cars resigns as director of the Louvre amid criticism over recent incidents involving the museum. She is replaced by Christophe Leribault.^[22]

• 1 March – 2026 Israeli–United States strikes on Iran: Multiple Iranian Shahed drones strike the French naval air station at Camp de la Paix in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.^[23]
• 2 March –
  • President Macron announces that France will increase its stockpile of nuclear weapons for the first time in decades, citing global threats such as Russia's war on Ukraine, China's growing military power in Asia, and changing U.S. defense priorities.^[24]
  • Denmark and France make an agreement on strategic nuclear deterrence. However, French nuclear weapons are not to be located on Danish territory.^[25]
• 3 March – France deploys Rafale fighter jets to the UAE in response to Iranian attacks.^[26]
• 4 March – Air France announces the suspension of flights between Paris, and Havana, Cuba, from March 29 until at least June 15 due to a jet fuel shortage in Cuba.^[27]
• 12 March – A French soldier is killed while six others are injured in a drone attack on their base in Mala Qara, Iraq.^[28]
• 15 March – 2026 French municipal elections (first round)^[29]
• 20 March – The French Navy boards the suspected Russian shadow fleet vessel Deyna in the Mediterranean Sea.^[30]
• 22 March – 2026 French municipal elections (second round)^[29]
• 26 March – France and the Philippines sign a visiting forces agreement.^[31]
• 28 March – A man is detained and another is at large after trying to ignite an improvised explosive device near a Bank of America building in Paris.^[32]

• 7 April – A TGV train hits a military truck at a crossing between Béthune and Lens, killing the train driver and injuring 13 people.^[33]
• 23 April – France and the United Kingdom sign a three-year agreement to reduce irregular crossings by migrants in the English Channel.^[34]

• 7 July – The Paris appeals court is scheduled to rule on Marine Le Pen's appeal.^[35][36]
• 12 August – A total solar eclipse is predicted to occur at the Moon's descending node of the orbit in North America and Europe. The total eclipse will pass over the Arctic, Greenland, Iceland, the Atlantic Ocean, northern Spain and Biarritz, France.^[37][38]
• September – 2026 French Senate election^[39]

Source:^[40]

• 1 January – New Year's Day
• 3 April – Good Friday†
• 5 April – Easter
• 6 April – Easter Monday
• 1 May – International Workers' Day
• 8 May – Victory Day
• 14 May – Ascension Day
• 24 May – Whit Sunday
• 25 May – Whit Monday
• 14 July – Bastille Day
• 15 August – Assumption Day
• 1 November – All Saints' Day
• 11 November – Armistice Day
• 25 December – Christmas Day
• 26 December – Saint Stephen's Day†

†Good Friday and St Stephen's Day are observed in Alsace and Moselle only

• 4 January – Calbo, 52, rapper (Ärsenik).^[41]
• 6 January – Odette Bergoffen, 101, resistance fighter.^[42]
• 8 January – Sergio Goizauskas, 69, cartoonist.^[43]
• 12 January –
  • Rolland Courbis, 72, football player (Monaco) and manager (Bordeaux, Marseille).^[44]
  • Alain Orsoni, 71, politician, Corsican independence activist and president of AC Ajaccio.^[45]
• 17 January – Thierry Cazeneuve, 74, journalist and writer, director of Critérium du Dauphiné (1988–2009).^[46]
• 23 January – Maurice Le Coutour, 111, supercentenarian.^[47]
• 13 February – Brahim Bahrir, 47–48, convicted terrorist.^[48]
• 6 March – André Kabile, 87, footballer (Nîmes Olympique).^[49]
• 22 March – Lionel Jospin, 88, prime minister (1997–2002), minister of national education (1988–1992), and member of the Constitutional Council (2015–2019).^[50]
• 26 March – Jean-Pierre Faye, 100, philosopher (horseshoe theory) and writer.^[51]
• 17 April – Nathalie Baye, 77, actress (Every Man for Himself, Strange Affair, Catch Me If You Can).^[52]