France

PARIS, April 8 (Reuters) - France's rising far-right is playing on the fears of the people, President Emmanuel Macron said in his last scheduled interview before Sunday's first-round presidential vote while his forecast lead over far-right candidate Marine Le Pen further evaporated.

The race appeared to be coming down to the two finalists of the 2017 election. Macron entered the race as a clear favourite but appears to have lost ground in opinion polls while Le Pen trends upward. 

06 April 2022; MEMO: French-Palestinian human rights defender, Salah Hamouri, yesterday filed a complaint in France against notorious Israeli spyware maker Pegasus for spying on his mobile phone, Amnesty International revealed.

Hamouri filed the complaint together with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Human Rights League (LDH).

SPEZET, France, April 5 (Reuters) - Strolling around a small town in northwestern France, beaming to crowds shouting "Macron President!," Emmanuel Macron sought to revive a lacklustre campaign whose increasingly uncertain outcome rattled markets on Tuesday.

Macron is still ahead in opinion polls but his far-right, eurosceptic rival Marine Le Pen has been closing the gap, and a poll on Monday put victory within the margin of error, unnerving investors ahead of Sunday's first round.

ALLONNES, France, April 5 (Reuters) - For three years, Karim Daoud ran the mosque in this small town in northwest France. He also coached kids’ soccer teams and for more than two decades has worked for the local council's youth services.

Daoud was among those who visited a nearby Catholic church to express solidarity following a deadly Islamist extremist attack at a church in southern France in 2020.

Last October, the interior ministry’s local office gave the 46-year old a medal to recognise his long service as a public employee.

PARIS, April 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — UN climate experts are set to release what is expected to be the definitive guide to halting global warming on Monday, in a report that lays out how societies and economies must transform to ensure a “liveable” future.

   With war in Ukraine spurring an urgent energy rethink in the West, analysts say the latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will also be an important resource for nations seeking a rapid
transition away from Russian oil and gas.

PARIS, April 4 (Reuters) - French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, whose presidential campaign has gained momentum in recent days, on Monday captured 48.5% of voter intentions in an opinion poll of a likely runoff against Emmanuel Macron, the highest score she has ever notched.

Harris Interactive in a poll for business weekly Challenges said that a victory by Macron - which pollsters considered almost a foregone conclusion in past months - was now within the margin of error.

PARIS (AP) — French nationalist leader Marine Le Pen has softened her rhetoric and her image to broaden her appeal in next week’s presidential election — but is under threat from a provocative rival who has broken her monopoly as the watchdog of the country’s identity that they claim is under threat.

For more than a decade, Le Pen has been known for her fierce anti-immigration stance, seeing herself as standing guard at the parapets of French civilization. Now she is honing in on consumers’ buying power, the top concern for voters.

PARIS, April 2 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron warned of the risk of a Brexit-style election upset in his only campaign rally before the first round of the presidential election, in a bid to convince dispirited voters and re-energise a lacklustre campaign.

A week or so before the April 10 vote, Macron finds himself on the defensive, with far-right leader Marine Le Pen staging a comeback in the polls and the race tightening between the two frontrunners for the crucial April 24 runoff. 

PARIS (AP) — As French President Emmanuel Macron prepares to hold his first big rally Saturday in his race for reelection, his campaign has hit a roadbump.

It’s been dubbed “the McKinsey Affair,” named after an American consulting company hired to advise the French government on its COVID-19 vaccination campaign and other policy. A new French Senate report questions the government’s use of private consultants, and accuses McKinsey of tax dodging. The issue is mobilizing Macron’s rivals and dogging him at campaign stops ahead of the April 10 first-round vote.

PARIS, March 27 (Reuters) - Protesters jeered and swarmed around far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, streaming into a hotel in the overseas territory of Guadeloupe where she was recording a television program, BFM TV reported on Sunday.

Protestors chanted “out Le Pen” and “racist Le Pen,” as they surrounded the candidate on Saturday while she was escorted out of the room and through the hotel.

Her campaign intends to file a complaint, her spokesman Julien Odoul told Franceinfo.