Free Republic

A previously private poll found that in the event of a dissolution of the French parliament and snap elections were called, Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally party could win an outright majority in the National Assembly. In yet another demonstration of the growing popularity of the populist right in France, a survey commissioned by the centrist Les Républicains (LR) in December found that the National Rally (RN) of former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen could win between 243 and 305 seats in the National Assembly in the event snap elections were called.

Summary The funeral of a 17-year-old boy killed by a police officer on Tuesday has been taking place in the Paris suburb of Nanterre There are reports of large crowds at the funeral, but the family have asked the media to stay away French President Emmanuel Macron has cancelled his scheduled visit to Germany as a result of the unrest The mayor of Lyon has called for extra police reinforcements for tonight and authorities in Marseille have cancelled the city’s Pride festival Overnight, 1,300 people were arrested across France in a fourth night of rioting which saw widespread vandalism and...

The second round of French presidential elections opened this morning between incumbent President Emanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. According to recent polls, Macron leads by almost 10% over his rival. .....

"What's the point of shouting 'Macron Resign!' everywhere when you can fire him." Marine Le Pen Making A Campaign Speech Thursday 4/21/2022 Marine Le Pen made her pitch for votes trying to reach and unify the anti-Macron vote in France embodied in Yellow Vests protests demanding he leave office with many protesters coming from a left-wing perspective. Mewanwhile the leader of the "Left" in France Jean-Luc Melenchon trotted out before the cameras this week in France with mainstream media demanding he endorse Emmanuel Macron over Marine Le Pen. Melenchon denounced Le Pen but could not offer up praise for Macron,...

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials are anxiously watching the French presidential election, aware that the outcome of the vote on Sunday could scramble President Joe Biden’s relations with Europe and reveal dangerous fissures in Western democracy. President Emmanuel Macron of France has been a crucial partner as Biden has rebuilt relations with Europe, promoted democracy and forged a coalition in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But Macron is in a tight contest with Marine Le Pen, a far-right challenger. Le Pen is a populist agitator who, in the style of former President Donald Trump, scorns European Union “globalists,” criticizes NATO...

So just 15 minutes before the debate started, Zelensky was live talking to the debate presenters for the Macron-Le Pen debate and Zelensky said that the French voters should not vote for Le Pen and should vote for Macron instead, while the presenters were nodding in affirmation. You can watch the debate live here, though I don't see the option to go back, but I grabbed a screenshot while he was talking https://www.bfmtv.com/en-direct/

French bishops are not expected to direct worshippers on how to vote in the French presidential elections as more and more Roman Catholics have become supporters of populist challenger Marine Le Pen. French Roman Catholic bishops have a long history of advising their worshippers on how to vote in elections but, for the 2022 French presidential election, they are expected to remain silent. In 2002, when Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of presidential hopeful leader Marine Le Pen, challenged Jacques Chirac in the second round of that year;s presidential election, bishops were public in their opposition to him — but...

In the candid pictures, the French president bears a resemblance to Bond actor Sean Connery and star Burt Reynolds - both known for their bountiful chest hair. Social media users also compared the French premier to fuzzy-chested Roger Federer. Mr Macron is running hoping to beat far-Right politician Marine Le Pen in the election. To do so, he will need to galvanise some support from the young who has surprisingly warmed to Marine Le Pen compared to her previous runs. With 12 candidates in the first round whittled down to two, now they must seek to appeal to the circa...

Establishment gangs up on Le Pen.

Could France be facing its Trump moment? For US commentators, France’s presidential runoff between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen has raised the prospect of a fresh shakeup in transatlantic alliances, which could test Western unity against Putin’s Russia as war rages in Ukraine. As of late Sunday evening, Washington, DC time, the outcome of France’s first round of presidential voting was all but certain: incumbent Emmanuel Macron will face the far-right's Marine Le Pen in a rematch of their 2017 run-off election. And this time around, the numbers suggest that Le Pen is well within reach of the Élysée...

Top candidates Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen both improved their vote shares on Sunday night over their previous 2017 performances, and the pair will face off again in 13 days’ time to decide who will be the next President of France. While Sunday’s first-round vote for the Presidential election saw the lowest turnout in 20 years with over 25 per cent of registered French deciding to stay at home, the leading candidates all increased their vote shares at the expense of minor parties. With 97 per cent of the vote counted per the French interior ministry, globalist-centralist, former...

France faces a brutal two-week campaign over the country’s future, as the centrist incumbent, Emmanuel Macron, faces the far-right Marine Le Pen for the presidency, positioning himself as a pro-European “progressive” against what he calls her anti-Muslim, nationalist programme and “complacency” about Vladimir Putin. Macron topped Sunday’s first round of the French presidential election with 27.6% of the vote, ahead of Le Pen’s 23.4%, according to initial projected results by Ipsos for France Télévisions. He scored higher than his result in the first round five years ago, and clearly gained support in the final hours of the campaign after his...

Emmanuel Macron is said to want to face Marine Le Pen in the second round of this year's election because he can run against her as "racist" and "extreme" and "far-right" and draw the left into joining with his "centrist" voters. Marine Le Pen seems in a stronger position than she was five years ago when she lost the second round to Macron 66-34 percent. Le Pen focusing her message on economic issues as the economic threat has increased due to COVID and the sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine... Is Marine Le Pen on her way to "breaking the...

Emmanuel Macron has topped voting in this first round with 28.1 percent of the vote. Marine Le Pen is second with 23.3 percent. They are France's two finalists for the April 24 run-off.

Panic has set in. As the first round of the French presidential election approaches, Emmanuel Macron’s re-election has suddenly been thrown into doubt. A series of recent polls has put the hard-right Marine Le Pen within spitting distance of the Élysée Palace. This has rattled the Macron campaign, spooked the markets and will no doubt have set alarm bells ringing in Brussels, too. The Le Pen surge feels like it has come from nowhere. A month ago, she was trailing Macron by around 10 percentage points. Now she looks the most likely candidate to face Macron in the second round...

French President Emmanuel Macron once again referred to the criticism made by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. "The Polish prime minister is an extreme right-wing anti-Semite banning LGBT people," said the French president. He further pointed out that Morawiecki was "covered by the European procedure because he had arbitrarily dismissed many judges." "He supports Marine Le Pen, whom he has hosted several times. Let's not be naive, he wants to help her before the elections," Macron said. Earlier, in an interview with the French TV station TF1, he accused Morawiecki of "interfering in the French election campaign" being "supported by the...

A survey released by a Brazilian-based firm this week has revealed that populist leader Marine Le Pen may be pulling ahead of President Emmanuel Macron as France votes in the first round of its presidential elections this weekend. The poll, which is part of a broader survey around the French presidential elections, was released Thursday by the Brazil-based firm Atlas Intelligence and claims that in a second-round run-off vote, Marine Le Pen has pulled ahead of President Macron. While the survey expects President Macron to win the first round of voting this weekend with at least 27.8 per cent of...

Marine Le Pen, the hard-right leader making her third attempt to gain power, has surged over the past couple of weeks, as her patient focus on cost-of-living issues has resonated with the millions of French people struggling to make ends meet after an increase of more than 35 percent in gas prices over the past year. The most recent poll from the respected Ifop-Fiducial group showed Ms. Le Pen gaining 21.5 percent of the vote in the first round of voting next Sunday, almost double the vote share of the fading extreme-right upstart Éric Zemmour, with 11 percent, and closing...

President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday holds his first rally of the French election campaign, with far-right rival Marine Le Pen eating into what once seemed his unassailable lead barely a week ahead of the ballot. The centrist Macron threw his hat into the election ring at the last moment and has been distracted by the war in Ukraine, conducting diplomacy from the Elysee while Le Pen paces the country to discuss basic issues, including purchasing power......

Oct 14 (Reuters) - French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said on Thursday she would end all subsidies for renewable energy and take down France's wind turbines if she is elected next year. "Wind and solar, these energies are not renewable, they are intermittent. If I am elected, I will put a stop to all construction of new wind parks and I will launch a big project to dismantle them," She added that she would scrap the subsidies for wind and solar, which she said added up to six or seven billion euros per year. Le Pen also said...