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Post by Admin on Feb 9, 2017 19:06:04 GMT
A daily opinion poll publication continued to show far-right leader Marine Le Pen losing the French presidential runoff on May 7. The Opinionway poll, published on its website shortly before 1100 GMT (6.00 a.m. ET), showed Le Pen scoring 25 percent in a first-round vote set for April 23, with independent Emmanuel Macron on 22 percent and conservative Francois Fillon on 20 - scores that would put Macron into the runoff against Le Pen. Macron would beat Le Pen 66 percent to 34 percent in the two-way runoff. Fillon, were he to make it instead of Macron, would beat Le Pen with a score of 62 percent versus her 38 percent.
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Post by Admin on Mar 4, 2017 18:57:59 GMT
On Thursday, the European Parliament voted to lift Marine Le Pen’s immunity from prosecution for tweeting violent images, a crime that in France can carry up to three years in prison. As Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front party, rises in the polls ahead of France’s presidential election next month, authorities will now be able to pursue a case against her. Speaking on French television Thursday morning, she was quick to condemn her European colleagues for what she called “a political inquiry.” In December 2015, Le Pen tweeted a picture of James Foley, the American journalist beheaded by the Islamic State in August 2014. “Daesh is THIS!” she wrote as a caption, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State.
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Post by Admin on Mar 22, 2017 18:56:31 GMT
The right-wing leader is expected to breeze through to the presidential election’s second and final round in May. The Front National (FN) leader would lead the first round of voting with 27 per cent of the vote, according to a Opinionway-Orpi poll of voting intentions. Mr Macron, a former economic minister and the leader of the political movement En Marche!, is on 23 per cent in the poll published on Monday. Conservative candidate François Fillon scored 18 per cent of first-round voting intentions in the poll, and would therefore be knocked out of the presidential race. However, the poll said Mr Marcon who, at 39, is a relative newcomer to politics, would win the second round run-off against Ms Le Pen with 63 per cent of the vote. A separate poll by Ifop-Fiducial for Paris Match, CNews and Sud Radio also published on Monday showed a similar trend for the first round, with Ms Le Pen on 26 per cent, just ahead of Mr Macron on 25 per cent and of Mr Fillon on 18 per cent.
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Post by Admin on Mar 26, 2017 18:46:58 GMT
Vladimir Putin has received Marine Le Pen in the Kremlin in a surprise move likely to reignite fears in Europe about Russian support for the European far right. Putin told Le Pen Russia had no intention of meddling in the French presidential elections, though the meeting is likely to send the opposite message. “We do not want to influence events in any way, but we retain the right to meet with all the different political forces, just like our European and American partners do,” said Putin. Le Pen travelled to Moscow at the invitation of an MP for meetings in the Russian parliament, and had not been expected to meet Putin. However, after the parliamentary meetings were over the Front National candidate soon appeared in televised pictures from inside the Kremlin. “Of course, it would be very interesting to share our opinions about how our bilateral relations are doing, and about the situation that is developing in Europe,” Putin told Le Pen. “I know that you represent a European political force that is growing quickly.”
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Post by Admin on Apr 4, 2017 18:49:46 GMT
When Marine Le Pen appeared in the Kremlin on 24 March, it was Vladimir Putin himself who gave voice to the thought that was surely on many people's minds: "I know that the presidential campaign is developing actively in France," the Russian president said, adding: "Of course, we do not want to influence events in any way." The Russian president appeared to be suppressing a grin as he spoke those words. Marine Le Pen appeared unperturbed. She repeated her support for Moscow's annexation of Crimea, and her opposition to the sanctions subsequently imposed by the EU. If elected to the Elysee Palace, she pledged: "I would envisage lifting the sanctions quite quickly." So the meeting was a win for both. Madame Le Pen looked like a world-leader-in-waiting; Mr Putin received assurances from a woman who might become president of France, and who, like him, opposes the EU and Nato.
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