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Euronews
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Far-right leaders join National Rally 'Victory Day' in French village
Thousands of supporters of the French National Rally party (RN) are converging in the village of Mormant-sur-Vernisson on Monday for a rural rally organised by the far-right party, exactly one year after its historic victory in the European elections. The celebration in the village of some 130 inhabitants in the Loiret region, dubbed "Victory Day", is meant to mark last year's record-breaking result for the RN, when the Jordan Bardella-led list won 31.37% of the vote on 9 June 2024. On Monday, more than 5,000 people were to gather amid food trucks and ice cream stands to celebrate the party's European success. In the ensuing French parliamentary elections, however, the far-right party did not achieve the significant victory it had hoped for, notably coming up against the New Popular Front left-wing alliance. The RN won 120 of the 577 seats in the French National Assembly, becoming the largest party in the chamber but failing to secure a majority that would have allowed Jordan Bardella to claim the Matignon premiership. With this meeting, the RN leaders also intend to close the ranks of the Patriots for Europe, one of the three far-right groups in the European Parliament, which currently has 85 of the 720 MEPs sitting in Strasbourg. Le Pen and Bardella invited Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a fervent opponent of the European Union whose anti-LGBTQ+ measures and Moscow-friendly stance have been roundly condemned by the EU. "The Brussels bureaucrats [want] submission and decline ... whether it's settling migrants, financing war or sharing the debt", Orbán said in a post on social media the day before the rally, while calling for "occupying Brussels". Other European far-right leaders expected to attend Monday's rally include Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and Lega party chief Matteo Salvini, the president of Spain's Vox party Santiago Abascal, and the leaders of parties allied with the RN in the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, and Belgium. A counter-demonstration is also planned in the neighbouring town of Montargis, which is expected to be attended by French lawmakers Philippe Brun and Chloé Ridel from the Socialist Party, Ian Brossat of the Communist Party, Manon Aubry and Louis Boyard from the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI), as well as trade union leaders. Monday's rally is also intended to demonstrate the unity between Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, three months after a court handed down a five-year ineligibility sentence to the former in connection with the corruption scandal involving European parliamentary assistants. While the polls had her well ahead in the polls for the 2027 presidential election, this sentence - which was accompanied by provisional execution, as requested by the prosecutors - will prevent Le Pen from running for president, unless the decision is overturned by the Court of Appeal hearing, scheduled for the summer of 2026. At the time, the leader of the RN denounced "a political decision" and described the immediate application of her ineligibility as a "violation of the rule of law". The party's president Bardella immediately echoed the criticism, referring to "a democratic scandal" and claiming that "part of the justice system" was trying to"prevent (Le Pen's) accession to the Elysée by any means necessary." While the 30-year-old has continued to show his support for Le Pen since the court ruling, the man who was seen as the RN's "Plan B" for the presidential election is now considered a serious candidate for 2027 by many of the party's supporters - particularly among young people - as well as by parts of the French press. According to a recent Ifop poll, Bardella would get 34% of the presidential vote if he faced Horizons president Édouard Philippe, compared with 36% for Le Pen if the latter were allowed to run. The Elabe personalities ranking for "Les Echos", published on Friday, also gives the RN president "35% positive image among the French as a whole, behind Édouard Philippe (39%) but still ahead of Marine Le Pen (34%)". Poland and NATO nations scrambled fighter jets early Monday to secure Polish airspace following Russian airstrikes near its border with western Ukraine, authorities said. The Polish armed forces stated on X that these measures were to ensure security in regions next to at-risk areas over concerns that Russian stray missiles might veer into Poland. "In connection with the intensive air attack of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, activity of Polish and allied aircraft in the Polish airspace began in the morning hours," the Polish Armed Forces Operational Command said on Monday. The Polish military activated "all available forces and means at his disposal (including) on-call fighter pairs ... and ground-based air defence." No violation of Poland's airspace has been reported. "The Polish military is continuously monitoring the situation on Ukrainian territory and remains on constant alert to ensure the safety of Polish airspace. We thank the NATO Air Force for its allied support," the army command press release said. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian drones targeted the Sumy, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr and Zaporizhzhia regions overnight on Monday.
Telegraph
16-02-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
France's Left-wing bloc in jeopardy as allies fall out
The leader of the far-Left party in France called his former political partners, the Socialists, 'toxic allies' as he severed ties with the party and put the Leftist bloc in jeopardy. Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Unbowed party was one of several Left-wing groups that united under the banner the New Popular Front to contest France's 2024 legislative election and stop the far-Right winning. Though they succeeded, the results led to a hung parliament, with no party obtaining an absolute majority. 'The Socialists are no longer our allies,' Mr Mélenchon said in an interview with the weekly news magazine La Tribune Dimanche. The coalition between France Unbowed, the Socialists, the Greens and the Communists was fragile from the start, with the parties divided over who should be their prime ministerial candidate and disagreements over party lines. After eight months of working together, Mr Mélenchon attacked his former ally for refusing to support the party's efforts to topple the government in several votes of no confidence, and for being receptive to the idea of a public discussion on national identity. 'I was seriously mistaken on one point. The Socialists never intended to be partners. They just wanted to take advantage of us,' Mr Mélenchon said. He also lashed out at Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist party, for being receptive to the government's proposal of opening up a national debate on French identity. Many on the Left criticised it as the discourse of the far-Right and of trying to pander to them. Mr Mélenchon called the proposal odious, and Mr Faure's position outdated and inappropriate. Mr Melenchon enjoyed a 32-year association with the Socialist Party before breaking with them in 2008. When asked if he plans to run for president in 2027, Mr Mélenchon, who has made three failed presidential bids, gave a vague reply. 'I said I want to be replaced, and I still do,' he said.
Yahoo
16-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
France's Left-wing bloc in jeopardy as allies fall out
The leader of the far-Left party in France called his former political partners, the Socialists, 'toxic allies' as he severed ties with the party and put the Leftist bloc in jeopardy. Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Unbowed party was one of several Left-wing groups that united under the banner the New Popular Front to contest France's 2024 legislative election and stop the far-Right winning. Though they succeeded, the results led to a hung parliament, with no party obtaining an absolute majority. 'The Socialists are no longer our allies,' Mr Mélenchon said in an interview with the weekly news magazine La Tribune Dimanche. The coalition between France Unbowed, the Socialists, the Greens and the Communists was fragile from the start, with the parties divided over who should be their prime ministerial candidate and disagreements over party lines. After eight months of working together, Mr Mélenchon attacked his former ally for refusing to support the party's efforts to topple the government in several votes of no confidence, and for being receptive to the idea of a public discussion on national identity. 'I was seriously mistaken on one point. The Socialists never intended to be partners. They just wanted to take advantage of us,' Mr Mélenchon said. He also lashed out at Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist party, for being receptive to the government's proposal of opening up a national debate on French identity. Many on the Left criticised it as the discourse of the far-Right and of trying to pander to them. Mr Mélenchon called the proposal odious, and Mr Faure's position outdated and inappropriate. Mr Melenchon enjoyed a 32-year association with the Socialist Party before breaking with them in 2008. When asked if he plans to run for president in 2027, Mr Mélenchon, who has made three failed presidential bids, gave a vague reply. 'I said I want to be replaced, and I still do,' he said. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
The Guardian
05-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
French PM François Bayrou expected to survive confidence vote
François Bayrou, the French prime minister, is almost certain to survive a vote of no confidence on Wednesday after the move that threatened to topple the government – for the second time in two months – lost the support of socialists and the far right. The decision by the Socialist party (PS) not to support the censure motion infuriated leftwing partners in the New Popular Front (NFP) and could torpedo the alliance that collectively won the most seats in the last general election. The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) submitted two no confidence motions on Monday immediately after Bayrou used a constitutional clause known as '49.3' to pass key budget bills in the Assemblée Nationale without a vote. On Tuesday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the LFI leader, said the PS decision to not support the motions spelled the end of the alliance. 'The New Popular Front has one party less,' Mélenchon said. Formed before last year's general election, the NFP was made up of LFI, the PS, the greens (EELV) and the communists (PCF). Éric Coquerel, an LFI MP and president of the assembly's finance commission, accused the PS of 'betrayal'. With one year to go before the municipal elections and two years to go before the next presidential election, political analysts believe the left has little choice but to remain united if it wishes to see off Marine Le Pen's far right. Leftwing MP Alexis Corbière, thrown out of LFI after disagreeing with Mélenchon before last year's general election, said the PS decision was 'a political and strategic error', but stopped short of criticising the socialists. 'Should we be insulting each other, calling each other traitors? I don't think so. If there have been alliances, it's because of the threat from the far right. We need this united front of a united and popular left,' he said. The far-right National Rally kept everyone guessing on Tuesday over whether it would support the no confidence motions, but party president Jordan Bardella hinted that it would probably not. 'It's a bad budget,' he told broadcaster Europe 1/CNews. But 'we need a budget', he added. 'We need to avoid uncertainty because many of our fellow citizens ... are extremely worried about possible long-term instability.' Without the support of the PS and RN, the no confidence motions will not gain the 289 votes necessary to pass, and the government's two bills will pass into law. Bayrou's travails, however, are not over. He will use the 49.3 to push through two more social security bills in the next week, sparking two more censure motions from LFI. The PS has said it intends to lodge its own no confidence motion – possibly next week – over Bayrou's comment, deemed xenophobic by many, that the French were 'feeling submerged by immigration'.
