“We are not ashamed of negotiating,” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure told lawmakers on Thursday before the vote. “We are and will remain in the opposition … but we’ve showed our openness to compromise.” The Socialists had previously signaled they might support Thursday’s no-confidence motion if they weren’t given assurances that the pensions debate would … Read more
It’s unclear to what part of the inauguration Zemmour and Knafo were invited or who exactly reached out to them. POLITICO has contacted the Trump transition team for comment. While it would appear at first glance that Trump and Le Pen were made from the same political mold, fusing old-fashioned protectionism with an anti-immigration, populist … Read more
Jean-Marie Le Pen, the longtime face of the far right in France notorious for his hate speech and Holocaust denial convictions, has died, his family told French newswire AFP. He was 96 years old. Le Pen had an extraordinary life and career — as a soldier, a far-right parliamentarian, a small publisher of military music and erotic … Read more
Flattery from Macron Musk hasn’t yet thrown his endorsement behind Marine Le Pen and the French far right. But President Macron — who, like Scholz in Germany, is politically fragile and facing domestic turbulence — is desperate to get him onside. He has been urging the tech entrepreneur, alongside Trump, to attend a major artificial … Read more
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Tuesday that the days of France’s new government are already numbered, predicting an early presidential election in a few months. Le Pen, 56, spoke a day after President Emmanuel Macron named a new government under Francois Bayrou, his fourth prime minister of the year, to drag the second-largest EU … Read more
The main difficulty is that Bayrou’s government, which he announced on Monday, looks a lot like that of his predecessor, Michel Barnier. It has mostly centrist and conservative lawmakers in key roles, even though the sum of its opposing forces — Marine Le Pen’s far right and a pan-leftwing alliance called the New Popular Front … Read more
Bayrou, a 73-year-old stalwart of French centrism and one of President Emmanuel Macron’s earliest supporters, strong-armed Macron into appointing him last week. With this, France’s fourth government in a year, he has promised to reconcile a divided country. But his first few days in office were marked by controversy and vain attempts at convincing opposition … Read more
Magdeburg police reported late Friday that the suspect was a man from Saudi Arabia, which fueled the far-right anger. (German authorities had neither confirmed the violence was terrorism nor tied the suspect to any terror groups at the time of publication.) Alice Weidel, chair of Germany’s anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, pointedly asked “When … Read more
He is due to remain in power until 2027. Macron has lost his grip on the international stage, she said. “He no longer has any influence in the European Union, and has been humiliated in the worst possible way by his ‘creature,’ [European Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen.” In early December, the EU signed … Read more
Like Barnier, Bayrou lacks majority support in France’s fragmented legislature. His challenge is to persuade enough parties to refrain from backing no-confidence motions in the name of stability, offering certain concessions in return. “As a matter of principle, he would like to have regular appointments with political parties,” Le Pen said. “I think that method … Read more
