Category Archives: France

‘Conservative values will impact EU policymaking like never before,’ says rightwing group

Posted on by

European Conservatives and Reformists party includes members such as Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Poland’s Law and Justice

Reaction to Emmanuel Macron’s shock election announcement continues to roll in.

Celine Bracq, director general of the Odoxa polling agency, told the AFP news agency it was a “poker move” at a time when there is a “strong desire on the part of the French to punish the president”.

It’s something extremely risky. In all likelihood, the National Rally, in the wake of the European elections, could have a majority in the National Assembly and why not an absolute majority?”

The most likely outcome is more fragmentation, more deadlock and chaos. A complete paralysis.”

Continue reading...

European elections’ main impact likely to be felt in national capitals

Posted on by

Mainstream groups hold on to majority in European parliament but far right gains weaken governments in France and Germany

So in the end, with a couple of alarming wobbles, the centre held. As polls predicted, the mainstream pro-EU alliance of centre-right, centre-left, liberal and Green parties in the European parliament hung on, quite comfortably, to its majority.

Europe’s national conservative and far-right forces made big gains, ending up with just under a quarter of MEPs in the 720-seat assembly – their highest tally ever. But they did not do uniformly well, and in some places fared worse than forecast.

Continue reading...

EU elections 2024 live: Macron dissolves French parliament and calls snap election; Meloni’s party leading in Italy, poll says

Posted on by

Emmanuel Macron makes shock decision as far-right make huge gains in France and across continent

Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking a second five-year term as head of the European Commission, has cast her vote and is urging others to do the same.

Much is at stake for the German centre-right politician, as the European parliament, which sits in Brussels and Strasbourg, will also have the final say on whether she gets a coveted second-term as European Commission president, one of the most powerful positions in European politics.

Continue reading...

Hundreds of millions head to polls on final day of European elections

Posted on by

Voters in most EU member states called to polls on Sunday, as far-right parties expected to gain record number of seats

Hundreds of millions of voters go to the polls on Sunday in European parliament elections that are expected to tilt the assembly further to the radical and far right, shaping the continent’s future course.

Voters in most EU member states, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland, are called to the polls on Sunday, the final day of a four-day election cycle that began in the Netherlands on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Five injured as police and activists clash at French motorway protest

Posted on by

Riot police use teargas to disperse demonstrators at site of A-69 near Puylaurens in southern France

Police and masked activists clashed at a protest over a motorway project in southern France on Saturday, leaving five people hurt, local officials said.

Thousands of demonstrators ignored a ban on the gathering to turn out for the protest at the site of the A-69 motorway between Castres and Toulouse in the south-west.

Continue reading...

US couple, 100 and 96, marry in Normandy, France: ‘We get butterflies’

Posted on by

Second world war veteran Harold Terens and Jeanne Swerlin enjoy wedding party – with Macron and Biden

Together, the collective age of the bride and groom was nearly 200. But second world war veteran Harold Terens and his sweetheart, Jeanne Swerlin, proved that love is eternal as they tied the knot Saturday inland of the D-Day beaches in Normandy, France.

Their respective ages – he’s 100, she’s 96 – made their nuptials an almost double-century celebration.

Continue reading...

European elections live: Hungary poll puts Orbán’s Fidesz on 50% with Magyar’s Tisza on 27%

Posted on by

Party of far-right populist predicted to take 11 seats against six for challenger who is building a centrist movement

Céline, a civil servant and administrator in several French government ministries, used to keep quiet about the fact that she voted for the far-right, anti-immigration party of Marine Le Pen. “I couldn’t talk about it at work; people would say: ‘You’re a fascist.’ It was frowned upon – it was almost a sackable offence,” said the 68-year-old, who retired three years ago.

But today, even in her hometown of Boulogne-Billancourt, west of Paris, where the largely well-off residents have been historically closed to the far right, and voted 83% for the centrist Emmanuel Macron in the 2022 presidential final round, Céline has noticed a shift in the public mood.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden apologises to Zelenskiy for delay in US military support

Posted on by

US president says sorry for ‘weeks of not knowing’, referring to members of Congress holding up $225m aid package

The US president, Joe Biden, has apologised publicly to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for the months of delay in American military assistance that allowed Russia to make gains on the battlefield, and announced a further $225m (£177m) in military aid to Ukraine.

Meeting Zelenskiy in Paris on Friday, Biden told him: “You haven’t bowed down, you haven’t yielded at all, you continue to fight in a way that is … just remarkable. We are not going to walk away from you.”

Continue reading...

Biden and Macron use D-day event to emphasise support for Ukraine

Posted on by

Leaders rally behind Zelenskiy to make clear to Putin that, as in 1944, freedom in Europe is worth fighting for

Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron have marked the 80th anniversary of D-day with a rallying cry for support for Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskiy was embraced by western leaders in Normandy.

The US president used his address at the American commemorative event to send a message to Moscow that the US and its allies “will not bow down” and will “stand for freedom”.

Continue reading...

D-day: Biden calls for supporting Ukraine in struggle against ‘dark forces’

Posted on by

President warns at 80th anniversary that democracy is under greater threat than at any time since second world war

Joe Biden has marked the 80th anniversary of the D-day landings in Normandy with an impassioned call to western allies to continue supporting Ukraine in the face of the “unending struggle between dictatorship and freedom”.

Speaking on Thursday at a ceremony at the Normandy American cemetery attended by his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and dozens of surviving veterans from the second world war, Biden drew parallels between the Allied troops who fought to free Europe and the alliance of nations that came together to defend Ukraine against Russian aggression.

Continue reading...

British paratroopers dropping in French field for D-day event asked for passports

Posted on by

French officials insist on checking paperwork of 400 troops landing in Normandy for 80th anniversary commemoration

Eyebrows were raised at the Ministry of Defence when French immigration and customs insisted on checking the paperwork of 400 British paratroopers immediately after they dropped into fields near Saneville, Normandy on Wednesday.

Some felt the French were trying to make a point in response to the UK’s decision to leave the EU and, while immigration checks for British troops on exercise abroad are routine, doing so at a public commemoration is deemed exceptional.

Continue reading...

French artist Ben dies aged 88, hours after wife’s death

Posted on by

Ben and Annie Vautier’s children say in statement their father killed himself just after their mother died of a stroke on Wednesday

French artist Ben, best known for his ironic painted slogans, has died aged 88, killing himself just hours after the death of his wife of 60 years, his family said Wednesday.

His wife, Annie, suffered a stroke on Monday evening and died on Wednesday, the couple’s two children, Eva and Francois, said in a statement.

Continue reading...

French terror inquiry after Ukrainian-Russian man detonates explosive materials in hotel

Posted on by

Man, 26, questioned under suspicion of participating in terrorist conspiracy after explosion in hotel north of Paris

French anti-terror prosecutors have launched an investigation after a Ukrainian-Russian man detonated explosive materials in a hotel room north of Paris.

A source at the French anti-terrorism prosecutors office (PNAT) said that on Monday night the 26-year-old man was given medical treatment by fire officers in a hotel in the Val-d’Oise, north of Paris, for “significant burns after an explosion”.

Continue reading...

Handwritten ‘draft’ of Albert Camus’s L’Étranger sold in Paris for €650,000

Posted on by

Text appears to have been copied out and backdated by Camus in 1944, possibly as a way to raise funds during Nazi occupation

A handwritten manuscript of the classic French novel L’Étranger by Albert Camus has sold for more than €650,000 (£553,000) at auction, despite bafflement over the reasons for which the Nobel prize-winning author appeared to have faked and backdated it.

The bound, 104-page draft of Camus’s novel about a French settler in Algeria who kills an unnamed Arab man went under the hammer in Paris on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

‘Courage and solidarity’: King Charles pays tribute to veterans of D-day

Posted on by

Royals, politicians and military leaders begin two days of events to mark 80th anniversary of Normandy landings

The king has paid tribute to D-day veterans at a commemorative event in Portsmouth marking the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

Charles said their “stories of courage, resilience and solidarity” move, inspire and “remind us of what we owe to that great wartime generation – now, tragically, dwindling to so few”.

Continue reading...

French military instructors in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate target’, Russia says

Posted on by

Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov makes statement after permission given by Kyiv for trainers to come from France to support its troops

Any French military instructors in Ukraine would be a “legitimate target” for Russian armed forces, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Tuesday during a tour of Africa, where frustration with the west has swayed several countries toward Moscow.

Lavrov made the remarks at joint news conference with the Republic of Congo’s foreign minister, Jean Claude Gakosso.

Continue reading...

Canadian D-day veteran, 100, dies day before return to France for anniversary

Posted on by

William Cameron was an anti-aircraft gunner on a ship protecting American barges during the largest amphibious invasion in history

A 100-year old Canadian second world war veteran has died one day before he was to return to France for the 80th anniversary of D-day and the Battle of Normandy.

William Cameron’s death on Sunday was announced on Twitter by Canada’s veterans affairs ministry. He had been scheduled to fly to France as part of a Canadian delegation attending ceremonies this week.

Continue reading...

Thousands of homeless people removed from Paris region in pre-Olympics ‘social cleansing’

Posted on by

Campaigners say operation to bus ‘undesirable’ people out of city and wider Île-de-France region has intensified

Thousands of homeless people have been removed from Paris and the surrounding area as part of a “clean-up” operation ahead of the Olympic Games, campaigners say.

Those moved on include asylum seekers, as well as families and children already in a precarious and vulnerable situation, the collective Le Revers de la Médaille, which represents 90 associations, said in a report released on Monday.

Continue reading...

Russian interference suspected after coffins draped with tricolour placed at Eiffel Tower

Posted on by

Three men charged after five coffins inscribed with ‘French soldiers in the Ukraine’ were left at tower

French police are investigating whether the placing of five full-sized coffins covered with the French tricolour at the Eiffel Tower at the weekend was another act of Russian interference.

Three men were formally put under investigation on Monday – the equivalent of being charged – in connection with the coffins, each of which was inscribed with “French soldiers in the Ukraine”.

Continue reading...

Climate activist defaces Monet painting in Paris

Posted on by

Woman from Riposte Alimentaire arrested after sticking poster on impressionist painter’s Coquelicots

A climate activist has been arrested for sticking an adhesive poster on a Monet painting at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to draw attention to global heating, a police source said.

The action by the woman, a member of Riposte Alimentaire (Food Response) – a group of environmental activists and defenders of sustainable food production – was seen in a video posted on X, placing a blood-red poster over Coquelicots (Poppies) by the French impressionist painter Claude Monet.

Continue reading...