French President François Hollande will face judicial problems over the ban on the cultivation of genetically modified plants, and this has widespread implications for science-based risk assessment in the EU, argue Marcel Kuntz, John Davison and Agnès E. Ricroch. [...] If this new French ban on MON810 cultivation is again overturned by judicial authorities, it remains to be seen whether the Hollande government will also produce its own ”parallel science” to prolong the ban.