Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) party increased its lead in the polls as campaigning reached its final stages in France’s snap election on Friday.
It is a pivotal and polarising vote called by president Emmanuel Macron, with his centrist government risking a potentially fatal beating at the hands of the far right.
With pollsters indicating that the far right RN could greatly increase its number of politicians in the National Assembly, the election could radically alter the trajectory of the European Union’s largest country and hamstring Mr Macron – who has been a driving force in EU decision-making – for the remainder of his second and last presidential term.
RN sat at 37 per cent, according to a survey by OpinionWay published in the newspaper Les Echos, up two percentage points on a week ago.
President Macron‘s centrist bloc, Together, is predicted to recieve 20 per cent of the popular vote, down two points from the previous poll.
The survey also found the New Popular Front left-wing alliance could win 28 per cent of the vote, a level unchanged compared with a week ago.
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The Russian government has perpetual imperial ambitions and cannot simply be beaten back behind their borders.
The fact I have to spell this out is beyond fucking pathetic, and the fact I'm being downvoted for making a fucking OBVIOUS observation is even more pathetic.
Putin and his regime. I'm not an angry 12 year old that fails to understand a populace doesn't support every action the powerful do. May as well blame random US citizens for the ills of Hollywood if you believe in collective punishment like Israel does...
Putin MADE DEALS to leave Ukraine alone. Ukraine gave up nukes under the premise that Russia wouldn't invade. The Russian government as led by Putin literally cannot be trusted, and the fact I get downvoted for stating the obvious is beyond sad.
This world is doomed because obstensibly "good" people completely and utterly fail to realize just how shitty the shitty people are, and it's fucking pathetic.
Who's to say the next "strong man" out of Russia doesn't have the same ideas of glory for the empire? I say "Russia" to imply it WILL have to go further than one person.
To what degree, you'd have to take it case by case. Ideally, with all of them on trial at the Hague, but we both know how pathetic world powers are on ACTUALLY being beholden to morals...
Perched on the open ramp at the rear of a British Chinook helicopter, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas flew home from the annual Spring Storm military exercises, pleased to see NATO allies cooperating.
That could lead to unintended deaths and injuries, Estonian officials and security experts say, citing a trend of Russia is outsourcing attacks to locals, sometimes recruited relatively cheaply on video gaming platforms and social media.
Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev, who exposed Russian intelligence involvement in poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal in 2018 in Britain and the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020, was a victim of such outsourcing.
Grozev said nations need to enforce intelligence sharing between their own security services and police and prosecutors and create a “proactive international working task force” to combat foreign influence operations.
Kallas says Russia uses spies in the guise of diplomats “all the time,” and senior Estonian officials support a Czech initiative limiting visas for Russian envoys to the country where they are posted.
Although many Russian intelligence agents already are sanctioned, these could dissuade some “intermediaries” -- local organized crime figures, disillusioned youth and potential spies and collaborators -- from working for Moscow, said Jonatan Vseviov, secretary general of Estonia’s Foreign Ministry.
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She is a legend and I hope she knows it. I love how she sticks up to what’s right and doesn’t limit her activism to climate change alone. It goes to show how climate activism is all about human rights and dignity which makes her activism against the genocide in Gaza not that surprising to me.
Greta Thunberg has accused Israel of “artwashing” its reputation at the Eurovision Song Contest after she joined pro-Palestinian protesters calling for a boycott of the event.
Israeli act Eden Golan, whose emotional song Hurricane was reworked from a previous track called October Rain, thought to be a reference to the Hamas attacks on Israel, will take part in the final on Saturday evening.
Thunberg said: “People from all over Sweden are gathering in Malmo this week, where Eurovision is taking place, to protest against Israel’s participation in the competition.
Israel has denied any accusations of genocide, which is a specific crime when certain acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
The demonstrators, who were condemning Israel taking part in Eurovision amid the conflict in Gaza, walked through the streets of Malmo from Stortorget to Molleplatsen.
The event’s organiser said it would not censor the audience and encouraged the crowd to “attend in the spirit of the contest, embracing its values of inclusivity, celebrating diversity and being united by music”.
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The event’s organiser said it would not censor the audience
And then deployed anti-boo filters and artificial applause to censor the audience booing and shouting "free Palestine" as the representative of the fascist apartheid regime was performing.
Partially, but it is also that due to wage and PPP differences a single person with a mediocre job in the EU can support an entire extended family back in their home country. Changing that is not so easy, especially when it largely comes down to PPP and lifestyle differences.
IMHO as much as I agree that it would be great for people to not feel a lot of pressure to leave their home countries to look for a better life, maybe the more realistic option is to try and find a way to make this migration more beneficial for both sides (which it already largely is, but we could do better).
European migration laws forces these people to conduct this dangerous voyage because you can't get asylum without crossing the border. These operations are stimulating people to set out on the dangerous journey. It's the cobra effect.
Migration laws should allow people to apply for asylum in their respective country without risking their lives on a makeshift raft over ocean. Volunteers searching for these boats off shore are stimulating more trafficking of migrants.
These migrants are transported by people making money of their missery. There is no safety measures or care if they make it or not. It's a machine making money. Not humanitarian intents.
This is one of these "maybe true in theory" but counter productive arguments.
Irregular migration has been on the rise for many years and the ratio of success is high enough that people risk it regardless of whether or not there are planes looking for ships in distress.
But there is another reason why the Italian government doesn't want these planes flying: they are unwelcome witnesses to illegal pushback operations that the Italians and Maltese (and Frontex) are doing in cooperation with Libyanese Mafia militia.
European migration laws forces these people to conduct this dangerous voyage because you can’t get asylum without crossing the border.
Offshore resettlement programs exist in Europe and around the world. The problem is that there exists little incentive for people to remain in a refugee camp for what could be years when the option of travelling directly to their country of choice is an available option.
A solution is for countries to relocate all asylum seekers back to these refugee camps where they have no option but to wait with everyone else for resettlement. There would be no incentive to risk your life to cross a border if you're just going to end up back in a refugee camp along with other people who are waiting.
Currently, in my country at least, there is an onshore humanitarian program and an offshore humanitarian program. Most of the people granted refugee visas in the offshore program are from war-torn countries like Afghanistan or Syria who escaped to a third country. The top five countries of origin for those that apply for onshore protection are from tourist destinations that haven't seen war in decades. Hosting asylum seekers in UN refugee camps also helps prioritise those most in need.
independent.co.uk
Heiß