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The National Rally’s Jordan Bardella is debating on social media with France’s economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, about the far right’s plan to scrap nationality rights for children born and raised in France by foreign parents.
Gabriel Attal, the prime minister and a Macron ally, said that “from the first round, we made the choice in more than sixty constituencies not to present a candidate.”
Continue reading...Anne Hidalgo says Paris ‘stands up for freedom’ amid Marine Le Pen success in first round of voting
The Paris mayor has sought to reassure visitors that the festive mood at the Olympics will not be dampened by Marine Le Pen’s electoral successes in France’s snap parliamentary elections, with less than a month to go before the city hosts the Games.
“The party will not be spoilt,” Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo told broadcaster France 2 on Tuesday. “I say to visitors from the world over – come over! Because Paris is a city that stands up for freedom and is a city of resistance against the extreme right.”
Continue reading...PM says he ‘loves this party dearly’ and would always put himself at the service of it’
Rishi Sunak is speaking at a campaign event in Staffordshire. As the advance briefing predicted, he has just told his audience.
I tell you this: once you have handed Keir Starmer and Labour a blank cheque, you won’t be able to get it back.
We’ve had a strategy in place and we’ll try to keep to it, which is to carve out really protected time for the kids, so on a Friday – I’ve been doing this for years – I will not do a work-related thing after six o’clock, pretty well come what may.
There are a few exceptions, but that’s what we do.
[In politics] some people think, if you fill your diary 24/7 and don’t do anything else, that makes you a much better decision maker. I don’t agree with that, I think you’ve got to make space, so we do it …
Actually, it helps me, it takes me away from the pressure, it relaxes me, and I think, actually, not only is it what I want to do as a dad, it is better.
Continue reading...Labour leader hopes to gain closer economic ties with EU if he becomes PM and says he would work with ‘whoever’
Keir Starmer has said that a government in France led by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) party would not hamper a Labour government’s intention to negotiate a better EU deal.
The RN made historic gains in the first round of France’s snap elections on Sunday with 33% of the vote, bringing the possibility the party could emerge as the largest in the final round of voting next Sunday.
Continue reading...Marine Tondelier urges National Rally leader to take part in TV debate before second-round parliamentary election
Marine Tondelier, the head of the French Green party, has called on the far-right National Rally (RN) leader, Jordan Bardella, to take part in a TV debate with her before Sunday’s second-round parliamentary election, accusing him of only wanting to debate with men.
Tondelier, known for her trademark green jacket, has emerged as one of the main figures of the New Popular Front left alliance, which is positioning itself as a clear alternative to the far-right National Rally (RN) in many constituencies in the final runoff.
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Marine Le Pen’s victory has been applauded by other far-right leaders in Europe. Santiago Abascal, who heads the far-right Vox party across the border in Spain, called it a “victory of hope, freedom and security for the French people”, while André Ventura, leader of Portugal’s Chega party, hailed “a great victory”, adding: “Europe is waking up! Soon, it will be Portugal!”
Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and the leader of the far-right League party, accused Macron of undemocratic behaviour after the French president called for a united front to head off Le Pen’s National Rally in the second round.
Continue reading...RN has won about 34% of national vote, exit polls suggest, as Marine Le Pen targets absolute majority
Marine Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigration party is in reach of becoming the biggest political force in the French parliament after a historically high showing in the first round of snap parliament elections.
The left and centrists immediately began to call for tactical voting to try to stop the far-right before next Sunday’s final round runoff, after exit polls indicated the National Rally (RN) had won about 34% of the national vote share with the leftwing alliance in second place and Emmanuel Macron’s grouping trailing in a distant third.
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The far-right National Rally’s Marine Le Pen will soon address supporters after first estimates put her party in the lead.
With polls now closed, first estimates have been published.
Continue reading...Agustín Carstens says world economy on course for ‘smooth landing’ after inflation but political turmoil poses risk
Rising government debt levels could disturb global financial markets, the head of the body that advises central banks said on Sunday before France’s high-stakes parliamentary elections.
Agustín Carstens, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), said the world economy was on course for a “smooth landing” from the inflation crisis, but he warned that policymakers, especially politicians, needed to be careful.
Continue reading...Three people died when tree crushed car they were travelling in, while torrential rains triggered landslides
Ferocious storms and torrential rains that lashed France, Switzerland and Italy this weekend have left five people dead, local authorities said.
Three people in their 70s and 80s died in France’s north-eastern Aube region on Saturday when a tree crushed the car in which they were travelling during fierce winds, the local authority told Agence France-Presse.
Continue reading...Ballot could enable Marine Le Pen’s National Rally to form government as polls suggest support for party has grown
Voter turnout across France has surged to a near four-decade high as voters cast their ballots in the first round of high stakes, snap parliamentary elections that could lead to the far-right party of Marine Le Pen forming a government in a historic first.
While polls suggest support for Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) has strengthened in recent days, the outcome of the two-round election, called three weeks ago by the president, Emmanuel Macron, following the crushing defeat of his allies in the European parliamentary elections, remains highly uncertain.
Continue reading...Centrists are fighting for their survival in Sunday’s poll, amid fears the president’s snap election has unleashed chaos
Emmanuel Macron’s centrist grouping was fighting for survival this weekend before the first round of France’s high-stakes snap election, which could see the far-right National Rally (RN) become the biggest force in parliament.
Macron, who warned last week that France risked “civil war” if Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration RN, or the leftwing New Popular Front coalition, came to power, said at the European summit in Brussels that “uninhibited racism and antisemitism” had been unleashed in France.
Continue reading...Marine Le Pen’s party has pledged to boost spending power, slash immigration and restore law and order
The far-right National Rally (RN) has strengthened in final polls, including one suggesting it could be on course for a historic parliamentary majority, as candidates fought for votes on the last day of campaigning before the first-round ballot in France’s most momentous election for decades.
Two days before Sunday’s ballot, two polls on Friday showed Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, France-first party pulling steadily further ahead in a race it has led since President Emmanuel Macron called the shock ballot almost three weeks ago after the defeat of his centrists in the European parliamentary election.
Continue reading...Dominique Boutonnat to step down from French industry champion CNC, and will serve sentence at home
Dominique Boutonnat, the head of France’s powerful National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC), was on Friday given a three-year prison sentence, including two years suspended, after being convicted of sexually assaulting his godson in 2020.
In a statement released immediately after the ruling, Boutonnat announced he would step down as head of the CNC, a government agency whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.
Continue reading...Claimants, backed by composer’s estate, lose claim of co-authorship, described as ‘historical fiction’
A French court has ruled that Boléro, one of the best-known works of classical music in the world, was written by Maurice Ravel alone, in a verdict on a case with big financial stakes that could have taken the work out of the public domain.
Ravel first performed Boléro at the Paris Opera in 1928 and it was an immediate sensation. He died 10 years later and his heirs were paid millions of dollars until the copyright ran out in 2016.
Continue reading...With the first round of France’s snap election on Sunday, the president’s allies are desperate to shore up support
Standing in a courtyard framed by the white walls of one of Marseille’s Armenian churches, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, France’s secretary of state tasked with citizenship, took a deep breath, choosing her words carefully as she addressed a voter who had admitted she was considering switching allegiances to the far right.
Agresti-Roubache, born to a family with Algerian roots, led with the heart, describing how concerns over the snap parliamentary election results had left her elderly mother “in tears” daily. When the tactic proved futile, she changed tack. “When you don’t have power, you can say whatever people want to hear,” said Agresti-Roubache.
Continue reading...National Rally leader says Macron ‘won’t have choice’ but to appoint her protege as PM and he would make decisions on Ukraine support
Marine Le Pen has said she expects her far-right National Rally (RN) party to win an absolute majority in France’s general election, form a government and take over at least some defence and armed forces decision-making – including on Ukraine.
France’s constitution states that the president is head of the armed forces and chairs France’s national defence committees, but also that the prime minister is “responsible for national defence”, leaving the precise role of the premier open to interpretation.
Continue reading...Scores of highly qualified French citizens from Muslim backgrounds have left the country in recent years
Even as she climbed up the corporate ladder in France, Ophélie Rizki’s after-work routine remained unchanged. Each evening as she got into her car to drive home, she would make a beeline for her headscarf, feeling herself slowly becoming whole again as she covered her hair.
She had never been explicitly told that she couldn’t wear her hijab at work, nor had she asked. But as politicians in France continued to spar over headscarves, two decades after parliament voted to ban them in school, she worried about the impact that choosing to keep her hair covered would have on her career. “You don’t ask the question, you know it’s not something you can do,” she said.
Continue reading...Central bank raises concerns over newly elected governments as more than 80 countries go to polls this year
Uncertainty caused by a global wave of elections, starting this weekend in France, risks destabilising the UK’s financial system, the Bank of England has warned.
Officials are concerned about the kind of policies that newly elected governments may enforce in large economies, including the US, where Donald Trump is vying for another term as president in the run-up to the election in November.
Continue reading...Argument about a lemon- or orange-shaped planet highlights importance of international competition in science, curator says
It was a row that split scientists, launched globe-trotting expeditions and for one man, ended in murder: was the Earth shaped like an orange or a lemon?
The 18th-century debate – and the endeavours that settled it –can now be relived by visitors to this year’s Royal Society summer science exhibition, in a display called “Figuring the Earth”.
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