Tag Archives: Le Pen

Le Pen wins First Round in election campaign in Paris putting Macron in third place

Riots-in-Paris

Important Takeaways:

  • French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies this morning launched a fresh week of intense campaigning hours after their party was humiliated last night in the first round of parliamentary elections by the hard-right National Rally (RN).
  • Rioting engulfed the streets of Paris last night as thousands of enraged left-leaning voters set light to rubbish, smashed up shop windows and launched fireworks after Marine Le Pen’s RN steamed to victory with 33% of the first round vote.
  • Hordes of riot cops were dispatched across the city, particularly in the French capital’s Place de la République where the police clashed with flare-toting rioters into the early hours of the morning.
  • Macron’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is likely to be forced to resign after the second round, warned that the right was now at the ‘gates of power’ and implored voters to block the RN in the second round set for Sunday July 7.
  • But Macron’s centrist alliance is languishing in a distant third place with just 20% of the vote behind the left-wing New Popular Front alliance on 28%.
  • Le Pen late last night gleefully declared that Macron’s party had been ‘wiped out’ as she celebrated the victory, with the RN now targeting an absolute majority in the second round of elections this coming Sunday.
  • Such a victory would mark the first time a hard-right force has taken power in France since World War II amid the occupation by Nazi Germany – a fact not lost on left-wing politicians.

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France’s Le Pen to visit Moscow on Friday

Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, addresses supporters during a political rally in Metz, France, March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

MOSCOW/PARIS (Reuters) – French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen will visit Russia on Friday, a country whose leader she admires and which has been at the center of allegations of interference in the French election campaign via media outlets.

A spokesman for the National Front leader confirmed the trip to Moscow after Russian news agencies reported an invitation from Leonid Slutsky, head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, to meet Russian lawmakers.

“I confirm the visit to Moscow”, said a Le Pen spokesman by text message. He did not respond when asked whether she would meet President Vladimir Putin.

Last year Le Pen, one of the frontrunners in France’s presidential election, said she, U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin “would be good for world peace” and she has taken a foreign policy line strongly supportive of Moscow.

Her stance pre-dates the warm words of Trump for a man whom other world leaders mistrust and who is subject to economic sanctions by the European Union and the United States over his annexation of Crimea.

While most mainstream political groups in Europe have condemned Russia in connection with the Ukraine conflict, Le Pen has said the EU provoked the crisis by threatening Russia’s interests.

Le Pen’s ties to Russia have been subject to intense scrutiny. Her party took a 9-million-euro loan from a Moscow-based bank in 2014. Senior National Front figures have been frequent visitors to Moscow, according to diplomats.

A senior aide to centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron, Le Pen’s main opponent in the election and the favorite to win, has accused Russia of using its state media to spread fake news to discredit Macron and influence the outcome of the vote.

The Russian connections of the number three presidential contender, Francois Fillon, have also been a feature of the campaign ahead of the first-round vote in a month’s time.

The Kremlin has denied meddling in the campaign. It also said this week that a French media report alleging Fillon was paid to arrange introductions to Putin was “fake news”.

(Reporting by Denis Pinchuk and Simon Carraud; Writing by Alessandra Prentice and Andrew Callus; Editing by Christian Lowe and Richard Balmforth)