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On Thursday the 2027 French budget proposal put on the table. The new budget seeking to reach a five percent of GDP deficit target but not expected to get there. That is being projected to materialize in 2028. Mainstream was spinning the seriousness of France's budget and debt situation in the months leading up to Thursday's announcement. The need to freeze government employees' salaries stirring up a Tuesday strike action by some government workers... Teachers and students shutting down hundreds of schools across France this week to protest crowded conditions and lack of funding. Authorities cracking down with thousands of...

This week Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu calling for extensions of fuel subsidies for construction, farmers and fishermen until the end of the year. With fishermen staging blockades in protest this week Lecornu calling for their subsidy of 25 cents per litre to be upped to 35 cents. The 15 cents a litre for farmers and 20 cents a litre for construction... This week Marine Le Pen interviewed by French news channel "LCI" taking on the issues including the Ukraine War, the Iran War and domestic matters. Le Pen said she is ready to become President of France following the 2027...

Two wars have cut France off from supplies of natural gas. First the Ukraine War shutting off the flow of Russian gas in 2022 now Middle East gas supplies disrupted by the Iran War. On October 1st the price of natural gas in France will rise on average 6.3 percent. This follows a 5.6 percent rise on September 1st... France joined the UK and Canada along with nine other countries in imposing sanctions on Israeli nationalist settlements this week. Israel bristled at the decision with immediate retaliation against the UK... France has also weighed in on the tensions between Israel...

New polling last weekend put Marine Le Pen in a very favorable position to win the Presidential Election next spring. The National Rally (RN) candidate well ahead in a first round of voting at 35-38 percent of the vote. Her closet rival leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon of La France Insoumise (LFI) at 16-17 percent. If the two moved into a second-round Marine Le Pen would easily defeat Mr. Melenchon 64-36 percent... New polling out this weekend done for BFM-TV confirming the strength of Marine Le Pen. She beats all potential second round opponents including the best-positioned centrist Edouard Philippe... Seven presidential...

🚨BREAKING: Marine Le Pen now has largest poll lead EVER France will be saved 🇫🇷 Le Pen (RN-PfE): 38% (+2) Mélenchon (LFI-LEFT): 17% (+1) Attal (RE-RE): 14% (-2) Retailleau (LR-EPP): 9% (+1) Hollande (PS-S&D): 8% Zemmour (REC-ESN): 4% (-1) Tondelier (LÉ-Greens/EFA): 4% (-1) Roussel (PCF-LEFT): 3% Dupont-Aignan (DLF→ECR): 2%

In less than six months the first round of France's Presidential Election will be held on April 18th with the second-round set for May 2nd if no candidate gains a majority. The leading candidate in polling right now is Marine Le Pen of the National Rally (RN). Her likely opponent in the second round would be a centrist candidate in the mold of current President Emmanuel Macron either Edouard Philippe or Gabriel Attal former Prime Ministers for Mr. Macron. Leftist candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon likely to fall short in a first round if recent polling is accurate. Marine LePen envisions a...

On Friday France's Constitutional Council upheld the new assisted death law and ruled against the social media ban law for those under the age of 15... The Russian interference narrative synonymous with some recent US elections is front and center in France's presidential election now six months away. At a Monday campaign stop one of the leading centrist presidential candidates and one of Emmanuel Macron's prime minister Gabriel Attal driving home that message. He said the government reporting linking online criticism of himself and other candidates to Russia is proof that Russia has a favorites in the 2027 Presidential Election...

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen will be able to run in France’s presidential election next year, though her involvement remained in doubt Tuesday after a Paris appeals court upheld her conviction for misusing European Union funds. The court shortened her ban on running for elected office, potentially reopening the path for her to run. However it ruled she must wear an electronic ankle tag for a year, making a campaign both logistically and politically difficult. Le Pen herself appeared to rule out a run if she was forced to wear a tag. “If I’m allowed to be a candidate but...

Marine Le Pen is about to find out whether or not she can run for the French presidency in next year's elections, when a Paris appeal court decides at 13:30 (12:30 BST) whether to uphold an embezzlement conviction against her. She has already run for president three times and came second to Emmanuel Macron in 2022 and 2017, but this time she tops the polls with 10 months to go before the vote. If she does not run, her young lieutenant Jordan Bardella will stand in her place, so the verdict could have far-reaching consequences for France.

This week both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pushed rapid European economic development. They spoke at a European industrial conference in Antwerp, Belgium. Macron and Merz citing the competition of the United States and China linking the need for rapid development to a notion of European sovereignty... It is already well-known that Europe is committed to massive increases in defense spending. This seems to be a pathway towards European participation in future conflicts with Russia and or China alongside the United States. But the military buildup can also be clearly seen as a demand by the...

This week the appeal trial of Marine Le Pen and her co-defendants accused of misusing European Parliament funds. Last year Le Pen convicted and sentenced to four years in prison with a five-year ban on running for public office. That effectively prevents her from running for President next year... On Wednesday there were attempts to censure the government of President Emmanuel Macron following the EU approval of the free trade deal with MERCOSEUR that angered French farmers. The proposals of La France Insoumise on the Left and the National Rally on the Right fell short...

After last week's shock speech from France's Chief of Staff speaking about France faltering if it is not willing to 'accept the loss of its children' President Emmanuel Macron appearing at a military base Thursday to announce phased-in military service for French youth... Political polling this week showing Jordan Bardella the man to beat in the April 2027 Presidential Election. The President of the National Rally (RN) and European Parliament member is the back-up candidate of the RN since the conviction of Marine Le Pen for misusing European Parliament funds disqualifies her from being a candidate for President. Bardella is...

France's Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has resigned, less than a day after his cabinet was unveiled. "The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry on as prime minister," Lecornu said on Monday morning, and criticised the unwillingness by political parties to reach compromises. The Elysée palace made the announcement after Lecornu met President Emmanuel Macron for an hour on Monday morning. The shock move comes only 26 days after Lecornu was appointed prime minister following the collapse of the previous government of François Bayrou. Parties across the board in the National Assembly had fiercely criticised the composition of Lecornu's...

The appeal trial is set to last five weeks, with the verdict expected before next summer, ahead of the high-stakes presidential election in 2027. A Paris court has set dates for far-right leader Marine Le Pen's appeal trial, in a case that will determine whether the far-right leader can run for president in 2027 after being barred from office for embezzling EU funds. The Paris court announced the hearings will run from 13 January to 12 February 2026. Le Pen, leader of the National Rally (RN, formerly Front National or FN), is currently barred from holding office after being handed...

"This display of force has only one purpose: to provide a spectacle for the news channels, to rummage through the private correspondence of the leading opposition party, to seize all our internal documents" National Rally (RN) President And Back Up Presidential Candidate Jordan Bardella... ...There could be legislative elections in France on short notice with the government lacking a majority in the National Assembly and the 2027 presidential election is drawing closer. Polling data points to the strength of the National Rally (RN) leading polling for the first round of legislative elections and the first round of presidential elections. Two...

France's Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu revealing that France shot down about 10 Iranian drones during the recent conflict between Israel and Iran. Lecornu telling the parliamentary debate on the war... "real impact" President Emmanuel Macron describing the US attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities last weekend as successful backing the views of President Donald Trump and the Pentagon... "We're going to burn your Palestine" Those words from two people who confronted the Leftist European Parliament member Rima Hassan outside a Paris real estate office... In Paris this afternoon the "Historic Yellow Vests"... Will there be a sudden dissolution of the National...

India signing a deal with France to receive 26 French Rafale fighter jets for use by India's navy. India already using Rafale fighters... May Day a day of protest and events on the streets of France. The CGT trade union saying 300,000 participated with 157,000 involved according to the ministry of the interior... The suspect in the killing caught in Italy and awaiting extradition to France... The father apologizing to the family of Aboubacar Cissi. A judicial investigation is underway to determine if Cissi's murder was based on race or religion. On Friday evening the prosecutor handling the case describing...

After President Emmanuel Macron met with Egyptian and Jordanian leaders regarding a ceasefire in Gaza and all three leaders held a conversation by phone with US President Donald Trump, Mr. Macron pointed to possible French recognition of a Palestinian state in the coming months. But that recognition is linked to some Arab countries recognizing Israel with the mutual recognition to take place in connection with a conference at the United Nations in New York in June... It appears that Mr. Macron is a silent partner in events that could involve military action against Iran in the coming months that may...

The big news story this week the conviction of the leading presidential candidate in the 2027 election Marine Le Pen of the National Rally (RN). Her conviction alongside two dozen other RN defendants accused of using European Parliament funds for political purposes roundly denounced as 'political' by many in France. Le Pen herself describing what happened as an 'atomic bomb'. Many in the ranks of nationalistic European parties with ties to Israel... On Friday Mr. Trump himself weighed in on social media saying in part: "The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists... The notion...

The controversial move to ban National Rally leader Marine Le Pen from standing in the French presidential election has been accused of demonstrating double standards, with reports claiming that over a hundred other European politicians violated the same rules without facing prosecution. A Paris court enacted a five-year ban from running in any election against populist firebrand Marine Le Pen after finding her, and other members of her National Rally party ... one in five members at the time, had been found to have broken the same rules, the Times of London noted on Tuesday. ... BBC journalist Michael Crick...