French elections
France's Macron under fire after aide caught beating protester
Opposition parties condemned the presidency's handling of the matter, arguing the punishment was too lenient and that the incident should have been referred...
Macron pledged during the campaign to put forward a draft law on ethics in public life before the mid-June parliamentary elections.
Emmanuel Macron’s centre-right ally Francois Bayrou signalled he was not happy with the list of candidates.
Emmanuel Macron must unite the country after one of the most divisive and polarising elections in recent French history.
Emmanuel Macron was elected French president with a business-friendly vision of European integration, defeating Marine Le Pen, a far-right nationalist who threatened to take France out of the European Union.
With virtually all votes counted, Macron had topped 66% against just under 34% for Le Pen - a gap wider than the 20 or so percentage points.
The French Independent centrist is seen getting 62% of the votes in the second round compared to 38% for Le Pen, an increase of three points for the centrist candidate.
Emmanuel Macron’s party has previously complained that his campaign had been the target of ‘fake news’ put out by Russian media.
In a final put-down, when Le Pen attempted to interrupt his summing-up, Macron told Le Pen: “You stay on TV. I want to be president of the country.”
Opinion polls still show Macron, 39, holding a strong lead of 20 points over the National Front’s Le Pen with just four days to go to the final vote.
Two opinion polls showed Macron winning what is widely seen as France’s most important election in decades with between 59 & 61% of the vote.
This year’s May Day came less than a week ahead of the final round of a presidential election.
Polls predict that Macron, a former economy minister, will win the 7 May run-off with about 59-60%.
According to the Ifop poll, 45% of voters believe the two finalists would not put an end to unemployment and 36% say neither candidate is able to protect France from attacks.
A top aide of far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen raised doubts about a French intelligence report accusing Syria’s leadership of a toxic gas attack.
Macron said that if elected president, the firm’s redundancy plan would not be accepted if it was not good enough.
Macron and Le Pen, leader of the National Front (FN), go head-to-head on 7 May after taking the top two places in Sunday’s first round.
Macron and Le Pen, leader of the National Front (FN), go head-to-head on 7 May after taking the top two places in Sunday’s first round.
Sunday’s outcome is a huge defeat for the two centre-right and centre-left groupings that have dominated French politics for 60 years.