France election

Women walk past campaign posters of French President and La Republique en Marche (LREM) party candidate for re-election Emmanuel Macron (L) and French far-right ...

“She has been among the first if not the only French candidate to recognize Crimea, the annexation of Crimea by Russia. So very, very clearly she will not be in favor of stronger sanctions. And of course a crisis with Brussels, with lots of uncertainties down the road,” Araud told VOA. And like in the U.S., France is facing a wave of inflation.” In order to reach that kind of agreement you would need to find other countries that are like-minded. The more we free ourselves from the Brussels straitjacket while remaining inside the EU, the more we will open ourselves up to the wider world. She has criticized the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine by NATO members and plans to weaken French links with the alliance. “If she is elected, basically it will be quite chaotic. None of us went to seek financing from a Russian bank, and especially not from one that is close to power in Russia.” Her approach to Russia is in stark contrast to that of most Western leaders. We want to reform the E.U. from the inside. What would a Le Pen presidency mean for Europe’s security at a time of conflict? “You don't speak to other leaders, you speak to your banker when you speak to Russia, that's the problem…

It's crunch time for voters in France as incumbent President Emmanuel Macron is meeting Marine Le Pen at the ballot box for Sunday's final presidential ...

She wants companies to increase salaries by 10%, and to raise teachers’ salaries over the next five years. She wants to raise the minimum pension, and end income tax for under-30s. A former economist and banker, Macron has championed startups and promises “full employment.” The jobless rate decreased during his 2017-2022 term to its lowest level in a generation. He wants companies to be able to give employees an untaxed bonus of up to (euro)6,000 and has spent billions capping energy bills. Le Pen has for years cultivated ties with Moscow, receiving a loan of 9 million euros from a Russian bank in 2014 and meeting with Putin in 2017. Macron’s government says it sent 100 million euros in weapons to Ukraine since the Russian invasion and Macron vows to continue this support and “significantly” reinforce European armed forces’ capacities and cooperation.

Five years after its last presidential election, France today opens its polling booths with the same two candidates on the ballot paper. Emmanuel Macron, the ...

And the other one will be rueing a missed chance, and wondering if their political career has come to an end. Ms Le Pen and Mr Macron are experienced, time-worn politicians, but their views on what to do with the presidency are very different. By the time Sunday ticks into Monday, one of them will have been given a five-year mandate to run this wealthy, powerful and influential country. In all those areas, there have been notable differences between Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen. Beyond that, new information will be released periodically, updating the overall result. A great deal of attention will be placed on the turnout this time around, with plenty of speculation that voters will stay away because they don't particularly like either candidate.

French citizens are heading to the polls Sunday in a presidential election set against the backdrop of war in Ukraine and a cost of living crisis.

If Macron is re-elected he will become the first incumbent in two decades to return for a second term. "Each of the two candidates need to try to correct their perceived weakness. Macron told Le Pen during the two-hour talks: "When you speak to Russia, you are speaking to your banker," according to a translation. "Le Pen, this time round, can play the card of change much more than Macron," he said. Back then, Macron crushed Le Pen's party (National Front which has since been rebranded National Rally) with 66.1% of the votes, to 33.9%. The last days of the campaign trail have seen Le Pen's old links with Russia and President Vladimir Putin resurface.

French President Emmanuel Macron is in the pole position to win reelection Sunday in the country's presidential runoff, yet his lead over far-right rival ...

Steve Wallis isn't most people. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are currently spending their days in a Fairfax, Virginia courthouse. Canadian 'Jeopardy!' champion Mattea Roach has found herself at the centre of an ownership dispute. Leslyn Lewis says that, in making her second attempt to become leader of the Conservative Party, she's confident that she can unify the party while promoting socially-conservative positions. 4 hr ago In several European newspapers on Thursday, the centre-left leaders of Germany, Spain and Portugal urged French voters to choose him over his nationalist rival. He says that's the only way to keep benefits flowing to retirees. Macron has vowed to change the French economy to make it more independent while still protecting social benefits. Political analyst Marc Lazar, head of the History Centre at Sciences Po, said even if Macron is reelected, "there is a big problem," he added. No campaigning is allowed through the weekend, and polling is banned. The question is a hard one, especially for leftist voters who dislike Macron but don't want to see Le Pen in power either. All opinion polls in recent days converge toward a win for the 44-year-old pro-European centrist -- yet the margin over his nationalist rival varies broadly, from 6 to 15 percentage points, depending on the poll.

Pierre Jouvet n'a pas beaucoup dormi, mais ce mercredi 20 avril, à midi, autour d'une assiette de charcuterie bio, le « monsieur élection » du PS affiche un ...

La candidate du Rassemblement national multiplie les signaux à l’égard de l’électorat féminin et se présente même comme la défenseure de ses droits. Pierre Jouvet n’a pas beaucoup dormi, mais ce mercredi 20 avril, à midi, autour d’une assiette de charcuterie bio, le « monsieur élection » du PS affiche un moral de tous les diables. Même si le jeu de poker menteur n’est jamais loin.

French voters will choose between two very different visions for their country during Sunday's presidential runoff election, as the centrist President ...

While Macron won 27.8% of the votes in the first round to take the top spot, the results indicated major voter discontent with the status quo. Macron's signature policy during the crisis -- requiring people to show proof of vaccination to go about their lives as normal -- helped increase vaccination rates but fired up a vocal minority against his presidency. Macron's handling of the yellow vest movement The former investment banker and economy minister must defend a mixed political record while also convincing voters that his platform, headlined by major investments in industry and fighting the climate crisis, won't simply mean more of the same. However, she has not abandoned some of her most controversial policies, like banning Muslim women from wearing headscarves in public. She also performed better in Wednesday's presidential debate

Emmanuel Macron easily defeated the far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the 2017 battle for president, but the race this time around is expected to be much ...

Ms. Le Pen, who wants to bar women from wearing them in public, called them “a uniform imposed by Islamists” that undermined French values of secularism and gender equality. The vote is being closely watched in part because a Le Pen victory, although improbable, appears possible. While she suffered through some difficult moments in the debate, appearing lost on the subject of the ballooning debt France incurred in battling Covid-19, she generally held her own. At a time when revived nationalism had produced Brexit and the Trump presidency, he bet on a strong commitment to the European Union — and swept aside his opponents with an incisive panache. Voters in France are deciding between the same two candidates as the last presidential election: Emmanuel Macron, the president and a polished centrist, and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally party. They openly courted voters on the left after Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a fiery leftist candidate, got 21.95 percent of the vote in the first round. She also tried to woo some supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leftist leader who finished just behind her in the first round, by continuing to promote economic policies that she said would help the working class. In 2017, Mr. Macron won handily with nearly two-thirds of the vote. France’s presidents have formidable powers at their disposal, set much of the country’s agenda and are elected directly by the people to five-year terms in a two-round voting system. On Sunday, a bruising gloves-off battle between Ms. Le Pen and Mr. Macron will come to a head as the French choose their president for a five-year term. It has split into three blocs: the hard-line left, an amorphous center gathered around Mr. Macron and the extreme right of Marine Le Pen. She regularly conflates Islam with violence in a country with the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.