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Le Pen also wants to end immigration, slash crime, eradicate Islamism, pull France out of the EU with its emphasis on open borders for all EU citizens I predict that contrary to all the French polls, Marine Le Pen, the charismatic right wing leader of the French National Front Party, will ultimately win the French presidency. I see some of the same signs, both global and local, that led me to successfully predict the Brexit win and the election of Donald Trump several months before the actual American election.

Turnout in the first round of France's hotly contest presidential elections was higher than expected at midday, after recent polls suggested that more than a third may stay away from polling booths. At midday, the interior ministry said that 28.54 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballot, compared with 28.29 percent in 2012. Around 67,000 polling stations opened early Sunday for some 47 million eligible voters, who will choose between 11 candidates. Sunday's vote is the most unpredictable election in generations. Polls suggest far-Right Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, an independent centrist and former economy minister, were in...

Today is the scheduled date for the French election. Darned if I or anyone can say how it will turn out, though I think our President is right -- the attack on three policemen on the Champs-Élysées would certainly seem to boost the chances of Marine le Pen. Of course, I could be wrong, and Barack Obama’s apparent favorite Emmanuel Macron, who says terrorism will “be a fact of daily life” that his countrymen will just have to get used to, will appeal to enough suicidal Frenchmen to carry the day. March for ScienceOn Saturday, crowds at the laughably titled...

French voters will finally be able to vote for a new president today. They've suffered for years under the less than inspiring leadership of socialist Francois Hollande, but today they take the first step to replacing him with someone else -- someone better. Or not, of course. After all, although two candidates -- Francois Fillon and Marine Le Pen -- are considered to be "conservative," they are not exactly the favorites to win the election. In Fillon's case, even proceeding to the second round may prove impossible. The first round of France's presidential election only serves to separate the top...

France goes to the polls on Sunday for the first round of a bitterly fought presidential election, crucial to the future of Europe and a closely-watched test of voters' anger with the political establishment. Nearly 47 million voters will decide, under tight security, whether to back a pro-EU centrist newcomer, a scandal-ridden veteran conservative who wants to slash public spending, a far-left eurosceptic admirer of Fidel Castro or appoint France's first woman president, to shut borders and ditch the euro.

Amar Salhi is still amazed at how his scruffy cafe bar north of Paris sparked an election scandal after it featured on national television in December during a report about Islam and women. In footage shot with hidden cameras and broadcast during prime-time by state media giant France 2, two women activists were seen facing a hostile welcome as they tried to go for a drink in the Jockey Club. “There’s no mixing in this bar,” one client was heard saying. “You’re not in Paris here… it’s a different mentality, it’s like the village back home (in north Africa),” said...

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has denounced radical Islam as “a monstrous totalitarian ideology that has declared war on our nation, on reason, on civilisation,” after a deadly Kalashnikov attack on police officers in Paris. “Hate preachers must be expelled, the Islamist mosques closed,” the Front National leader declared, lambasting the Socialist Party government as “notoriously feeble”. “We cannot afford to lose this war … for the past ten years, Left-wing and Right-wing governments have done everything they can for us to lose it. We need a presidency which acts and protects us,” she declared, calling on outgoing president...

Nigel Farage, the leader of the Brexit movement in England, told his radio audience Friday that if Marine Le Pen wins the French election it will mean the end of the European Union. A last-minute Odoxa poll taken in France after the ISIS attack, that left one police officer dead and two others injured, suggested that Mr Emmanuel Macron was still on course to come first in Sunday’s first round, with Marine Le Pen gaining ground just behind and through to the May 7 runoff. https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/855363242339688448

Donald Trump has said the Paris terrorist attack would boost Marine Le Pen's presidential chances after a last-minute poll gave her a modest increase in support. The US president said the shooting would "probably help" Ms Le Pen in Sunday's election, because she is "strongest on borders, and she's the strongest on what's been going on in France." "Whoever is the toughest on radical Islamic terrorism, and whoever is the toughest at the borders, will do well in the election," he said.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the joint candidate of the French Communist Party and the Unbowed France political movement, is surging in the polls following his pledge to "raise taxes on the rich to 100% and gut the goose that lays the golden eggs for the benefit of the working class." "The idea that anyone has the right to withhold anything from the people and their representative, the state, is a pernicious doctrine we must exterminate," Mélenchon said. "For too long progressives have held back from this obvious truth and solution to society's problems. When everything is thrown into the common pot and...

Just days before France's hotly contested elections, the country was rocked by yet another high profile and tragic terror attack, this time right on the famous Champs-Élysées. A lone gunman, armed with an assault rifle, opened fire on bystanders and police officers, killing one and wounding numerous others. He was gunned down while trying to flee on foot. The shooter, 39-year-old Karim Cheurfi, also known as Abu Yusuf al-Baljiki, was known by French authorities and had recently been let out of jail after serving nearly 20 years for trying to kill police officers in 2001. ISIS has claimed responsibility for...

A financial analyst who correctly forecasted the election of President Donald Trump now believes far-right candidate Marine Le Pen will emerge victorious in France. "Le Pen's momentum is a slow-moving reaction against the men of Davos -- as we have seen with Brexit and Trump -- but markets don’t want to believe it," Charles Gave told Bloomberg News. Gave, founder of Hong-Kong based GaveKal Research, cautioned investors that the financial markets are underestimating the likelihood of Le Pen winning. France will hold its first round of elections on Sunday, followed by a runoff between the top two vote-getters on May...

The two phase French election system dooms Marine Le Pen, just like it doomed her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002. Their are five main parties contending, the top four are getting roughly 19-23% each, and only the top two finishers will go to the second round runoff. * Leading at 23.8% the so called “Centrist”, Marcon, who was the protege of the current President, Hollande, who is a Socialist. For various reasons Marcon is running as an independent, but in France “Centrist” means “Socialist”, and that’s not Obama style Socialism, that’s “let’s nationalize the 100 biggest companies in France”...

All 11 French presidential candidates have made their final pitches in the last set-piece TV encounter ahead of Sunday's first round of voting. Both far-right leader Marine Le Pen and radical leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon voiced sharp criticism of the EU in the early part of the program. The TV encounter was then overshadowed by a deadly shooting in central Paris. Centrist Emmanuel Macron and center-right Francois Fillon both paid tribute to the police targeted by a gunman..... Mr. Fillon said he was cancelling all his campaign events on Friday, the final day of the campaign. Ms Le Pen said she...

A new study by the Paris Region Planning and Development Agency (IAU) has found that 56 per cent of women are afraid to use public transport due to concerns over sex attacks and theft. Le Parisien reports respondents’ insecurity as a “legitimate fear”, noting that 37-per-cent of robberies without violence and 39-per-cent of sexual assaults against women are carried out on public transport and at train stations. “Amongst female respondents, the fear of being attacked or robbed is so strong it prevents them from using public transport,” the IAU said. “Women are four times more likely (6.2 per cent) to...

A POLICEMAN has died and another is injured after at least one gunman opened fire “with an AK47” in central Paris. Cops have said the shooting, which took place at the central boulevard of the Champs-Élysée at around 9pm local time, could be a “terror attack”.

Two policemen have been wounded in a shooting on the Champs Elysees in Paris, French media say. Some reports say the gunman who fired on them has been killed by police. The Champs Elysees has been sealed off. France goes to the polls on Sunday in the first round of the presidential election. There is no word on the identity of the gunman. Jihadism is a major issue in the vote after attacks claimed by so-called Islamic State.

Former President Barack Obama spoke to French Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, but “an endorsement was not the purpose of the call,” Obama’s spokesman said in a statement. However, “President Obama remains deeply committed” to France “as a close ally of the United States, and as a leader on behalf of liberal values in Europe and around the world,” Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said. ... A spokesperson for Macron confirmed the call, saying, “Obama talked about his strong links with France and the importance of the ties between the two countries.” “They also discussed about the future of Europe...

Labelled a “surging dark horse” candidate in France’s presidential election, communist Jean-Luc Mélenchon has a new proposal that he hopes will maintain his momentum: a 100% tax on the rich. Mélenchon is running as the candidate of the “Unbowed France political movement, in an alliance with the French Communist Party.” Mélenchon is a colorful character whose repertoire includes showing up at rallies via hologram, enabling him to “appear” at seven rallies at once.

PARIS -- On Sunday, France will head to the polls to vote in the first of two rounds of its presidential election. Barring the unlikely event of any candidate winning more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff on May 7 will determine the winner. One of the most remarkable aspects of this race is the stunning implosion of the French Socialist Party. You might be tempted to ask: Does this mean French socialism is in its final throes? Well, not exactly. Based on current polls, Socialist Party candidate Benoit Hamon is struggling to crack the single digits, currently...