All posts tagged: Frances

So what does the future look like now? | Anywhere but Westminster – video | John Harris, John Domokos, Noah Payne-Frank Frances Rankin, Jem Talbot, Katie Lamborn and Christian Bennett

So what does the future look like now? | Anywhere but Westminster – video | John Harris, John Domokos, Noah Payne-Frank Frances Rankin, Jem Talbot, Katie Lamborn and Christian Bennett

Published by skeptic

On a non-stop road and rail trip, John Harris and John Domokos go from Rishi Sunak’s well to-do seat in Yorkshire via County Durham and Lanarkshire to arrive amidst the new-town community spirit of Milton Keynes on election day. Everywhere people are holding places together: will a victorious Labour party soak up those vibes? Source link

Why are the Tories collapsing? These true-blue towns know the answers – video | John Harris, John Domokos, Frances Rankin, Noah Payne-Frank, Katie Lamborn and Christian Bennett

Why are the Tories collapsing? These true-blue towns know the answers – video | John Harris, John Domokos, Frances Rankin, Noah Payne-Frank, Katie Lamborn and Christian Bennett

Published by skeptic

In the latest episode of Anywhere but Westminster, John Harris and John Domokos go to Woking, Guildford and Aldershot. Most of England’s south-east used to be loyally Conservative – now, however, people in the “blue wall” are struggling, cuts are biting, and Toryism today is leaving younger voters behind. Source link

How Jordan Bardella became France’s far-right poster boy

How Jordan Bardella became France’s far-right poster boy

Published by Sam

With a charismatic blend of youthful vigour and strategic communication, far-right leader Jordan Bardella has captivated millions on social media, a sign of the “Bardella mania” that has swept through France’s younger demographic. At just 28, Bardella’s ascent to the top of the National Rally party formerly led by Marine Le Pen and Macron’s call for snap legislative elections may well pave the road to the prime minister’s office.  Source link

How France’s far right changed the debate on immigration

How France’s far right changed the debate on immigration

Published by Sam

For the first time since its founding, France’s anti-immigration National Rally (RN) party has clawed its way to within arm’s reach of governing. The far-right party’s rise has fundamentally changed France’s immigration debate, dragging besieged President Emmanuel Macron’s once-liberal coalition far to the right while bringing together a bloc of left-wing parties united by the desire to give undocumented migrants a pathway to legal work. Source link

Can France’s New Popular Front overcome electoral threat from far right? | France

Can France’s New Popular Front overcome electoral threat from far right? | France

Published by skeptic

France’s four main left-leaning and green parties, aiming to block the advance of the far right, have formed an alliance to run a single list of candidates in snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron for later this month. Who is in the New Popular Front (NFP), what is its platform, how well is it likely to perform – and, given the major policy disagreements between its members and the personal animosity among its leaders, will it survive? Why has the left united? Voting in French presidential and parliamentary elections takes place over two rounds. A candidate can win in the first round if they garner more than 50% of the total ballots cast, representing at least 25% of registered voters, but this is rare. In the majority of France’s 577 constituencies, the two leading candidates from the first round, plus any others who collected at least 12.5% of registered voters, go through to the second. Joining forces hugely increases the chances of leftist candidates advancing. The name of the alliance is a nod to …

Homage to fromage: France’s first cheese museum opens in Paris | France

Homage to fromage: France’s first cheese museum opens in Paris | France

Published by skeptic

Say “cheese” and Pierre Brisson is a happy man. The founder of France’s first cheese museum is passionate about the subject – and not just eating it but passing on the traditional skills of cheesemaking to future generations. “It’s not an easy job but a marvellous one and there is a real risk that it could disappear,” he said. “I wanted to do something so people understand at what point there is an ancestral savoir faire in making cheese. “We hear a lot about wines and how they are made and the subtleties of taste and how they are produced and nothing about cheese. Although people like eating it and the demand for cheese is still high, fewer youngsters want to make a career of it.” Last week Brisson’s team was rushing to complete the Musée du Fromage, due to open on Friday in a 17th-century stone building on Île Saint-Louis in Paris, a short stroll from Notre Dame Cathedral. The exterior of the newly-opened Musee du Fromage in Paris. Photograph: Capucine Gillier/Musée du Fromage …

A ‘non’ for Mélenchon? France’s left seeks unifying figure ahead of legislative elections

A ‘non’ for Mélenchon? France’s left seeks unifying figure ahead of legislative elections

Published by Sam

Three-time French presidential candidate and hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Wednesday said he is “capable” of becoming the country’s next prime minister should a leftwing union win a majority in the snap legislative elections set for June 30 and July 7. His statement was met with a cool response from some coalition allies amid concerns that Mélenchon is too divisive to lead the left. “I don’t rule myself out but I don’t impose myself,” Mélenchon, the founder of the hard-left La France insoumise (France Unbowed or LFI) party, said about the possibility of becoming prime minister during an appearance on France 2 television. France’s president selects its prime minister, but the premier usually hails from the party with a majority in the National Assembly. His statement comes amid an ongoing whirlwind in French politics. President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced the dissolution of the National Assembly and called legislative polls after the far right’s historic success in European elections. Leaders in the Socialist Party, the Greens, the French Communist Party (PCF) and LFI on Monday agreed to form …

France’s rightwing Les Républicains vote out leader Éric Ciotti over election pact with far right

France’s rightwing Les Républicains vote out leader Éric Ciotti over election pact with far right

Published by Sam

French conservatives on Wednesday said they had removed their leader Eric Ciotti for trying to strike an electoral alliance with the far-right National Rally (RN), although he insisted he was still in the post. Issued on: 12/06/2024 – 17:02Modified: 12/06/2024 – 17:41 2 min The Republicans’ political committee had voted unanimously to oust Ciotti, MP Annie Genevard said, adding that the party “will present candidates to the French public with clarity and independence” at snap polls called by President Emmanuel Macron for June 30 and July 7. “I am and remain the president” of the party, Ciotti retorted in a post on X, formerly Twitter, calling the committee’s decision “a flagrant violation of our statutes” that was illegal and void. La réunion organisée cet après-midi a été mise en œuvre en violation flagrante de nos statuts @lesRepublicains. Aucune des décisions prises à cette réunion n’emporte de conséquence légale. Elle peut avoir des conséquences pénales. Je suis et reste le président de notre… pic.twitter.com/8cSoosTdK3 — Eric Ciotti (@ECiotti) June 12, 2024 A mass revolt broke out …

Battered by far right, France’s Macron bets big on risky snap election

Battered by far right, France’s Macron bets big on risky snap election

Published by Sam

BRUSSELS — Preparing to host the world for the Olympics, facing threats of terrorist attacks and a war of words with Russia, France is now also shaping up as an epic battleground between the West’s political center and its far right. In European Parliament elections Sunday night, the far right surged in nations including Germany and Austria, but nowhere with more impact than in France. The National Rally there clobbered the ruling centrist coalition so badly that President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the French National Assembly and called snap legislative elections. His bet: that voters might be angry at him, but they’re not prepared to allow the pick of Marine Le Pen — the fiery doyenne of French nationalist, Euroskeptic, anti-immigration politics — to head a new French government. It’s a bet that carries a high risk. French President Emmanuel Macron called for a surprise early election, after far-right parties surged in the European Parliament elections on June 9. (Video: Naomi Schanen/The Washington Post) Already, the uncertainty was reflected in the French stock market on Monday. …

Jordan Bardella, the New Face of France’s Right

Jordan Bardella, the New Face of France’s Right

Published by Sam

France has a taste for revolutions, and in the 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, it has found a mild-mannered, impeccably dressed insurgent who vows to upend the politics of the country in order to save it from “disappearance.” Mr. Bardella, the president of the National Rally, is the cherished disciple of Marine Le Pen, 55, the perennial far-right presidential candidate. She once called him the “lion cub”; now she calls him “the lion.” A clean-cut, strong-jawed TikTok star, known for his love of candy, he has certainly shown a sure hand in the French political jungle. As European Parliament elections approach on Sunday, Mr. Bardella, who led his party’s campaign, seems poised for a victory that could reshape French politics. An Ipsos poll published this past week gave the National Rally some 33 percent of the vote, more than double the 16 percent of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party. Even if the effective power of the European Union’s only directly elected body is limited, this would be a stark repudiation of the French leader. As elsewhere …