Free Republic

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...

On Thursday evening European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen cancelled today's planned signing in Brazil of a trade deal between the European Union and five South American MERCOSEUR countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay). The deal will now be signed next month. It's a deal farmers in Europe see as a direct threat to their livelihood. Several months ago US ranchers bristled when President Donald Trump... French farmers have been protesting the MERCOSEUR trade deal for months with various demonstrations that sometimes include the dumping of manure and trash at government buildings. Protests continued in France this week... Meanwhile...

Bush Won't Call for Special Session From the Department of Unsurprising News comes this dispatch: President Bush will not call Congress back into session in August to hold a vote on opening more land to oil drilling. As they have been giving speeches on the House floor during The Phantom Session (come on, wouldn't you buy this T-shirt?), House Republicans have also called on Bush to use his constitutional authority to bring the chamber back into session to confront the drilling issue. But White House spokesman Tony Fratto says that's not happening; he points out that even if Bush brought...