5 h. ago Marine Le Pen exploring various routes to clear path to presidential run – despite electoral ban

‘Amnesty bill’ or constitutional appeal against ban on standing being mulled by her party, reports suggest

Politics

3 d. ago Macron played with fire by razing the political middle ground. Now France is burning | Jules Darmanin

He promised to break the mould, but with his hubristic disdain for left and right – and for voters – the president has entrenched instabilityIn his 2016 manifesto Revolution, the then-presidential candidate, Emmanuel Macron, accused France’s “fossilised political apparatus” of dangerously paving the way for Marine Le Pen’s rise to power. “The political class and the media are a band of sleepwalkers who refuse to see what is coming their way,” he wrote, “so we see the same faces and we hear the same speeches.” He pledged to throw away the old playbook and gather behind him “progressive reformers who believe that the destiny of France is to embrace modernity.”The fresh face of pro-EU liberalism swept to power the following year on a promise of radical change to bring France into the 21st century.Jules Darmanin is a French journalist Continue reading...

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4 d. ago France is the 'sick man of Europe' declares Marine Le Pen in scathing attack on Macron

Marine Le Pen has called for new parliamentary elections to break the deadlock

Politics

5 d. ago The French government is on the brink – and Le Pen is the only winner | Paul Taylor

Saddled with a financial crisis and unpopular reforms, the prime minister, François Bayrou, seems doomed. Will he take Macron with him?François Bayrou may have thought it was a smart pre-emptive move to call a parliamentary vote of confidence in his minority government ahead of a planned national protest day on 10 September and the start of a fraught parliamentary budget season.Determined not to meet the same fate as his predecessor who was toppled by parliament last December, the French prime minister appears to have chosen political hara-kiri instead. His near-certain ejection by a hung parliament on Monday (8 September) is set to turn a smouldering political deadlock into a blazing crise de régime. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago A weekend break in Northern Ireland: what to do, see and eat

Explore Belfast, drive the scenic Causeway coastal route and visit the Giant’s Causeway on this three-day Northern Ireland itinerary

Politics

2 w. ago Voices: Mon dieu, France – this is no time for un political meltdown!

Next month’s surprise confidence vote could bring down an already crisis-hit minority government, test the country’s governability and end with a drastic power shift – it might also be bad news for Keir Starmer and his coalition of the willing, says Mary Dejevsky

Politics

2 w. ago The Guardian view on France’s latest political crisis: François Bayrou’s gamble on austerity does not deserve to pay off | Editorial

The likely fall of another prime minister is a further blow to Emmanuel Macron’s becalmed presidency. A change in priorities is neededFollowing a startling victory for Marine Le Pen in European elections last June, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, foolishly called a snap legislative poll. The idea was to give voters a salutary wake-up call, daring them to repeat their embrace of Ms Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party in a domestic election. The unanticipated result was a suddenly deadlocked parliament, in which the influence of the National Rally and the left significantly increased, and a lame-duck status for Mr Macron’s second term.That failed gamble has now led to another, which appears equally doomed. This week, Mr Macron’s fourth prime minister in two years put the future of his minority government on the line, in an attempt to pass a deeply unpopular budget this autumn. François Bayrou, intending to deliver his own wake-up call to MPs, has unexpectedly called a confi...

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