Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen upstaged her centrist opponent Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday by making a surprise campaign stop to a home appliance factory that's the latest hot-button symbol of French job losses to plants overseas.
Asian stocks are mostly higher amid thin volumes as Australian and New Zealand markets remain closed for the Anzac Day holiday.
In the twenty-four hours following the announcement confirming the final two candidates, Le Pen accounted for 61.5% of bets placed through Oddschecker, however the majority of money (77%) was placed on Macron.
A win for Le Pen would also signify a greater tidal wave of nationalist thought, joining Trump's election and Brexit as indicators that citizens around the world are exhausted of prioritizing global teamwork. Very few voters who backed Mélenchon and conservative François Fillon, the other candidate Le Pen needs to pull voters from, have said they would back Le Pen over Macron in the second round.
Macron's victory speech and a high-profile celebration, after winning Sunday's polls with 24.1 percent to Le Pen's 21.3 percent, drew criticism from some.
In the first round, those voters mostly came out in droves for Mélenchon, who shot up in the polls recently to take fourth place, and won 19.64% of first-round votes (just shy of what Le Pen would need to win the presidency). French Israelis turned out in droves to cast absentee ballots for Sunday's vote, presumably against the far-right candidate. Nine other candidates were eliminated.
Freedom Day protests call for Zuma's resignation
"We are calling on our government to listen to our voices", Ndileka Mandela said amid loud cheers from the audience. Freedom Day on 27 April is an annual celebration of South Africa's first non-racial democratic elections of 1994.
French judges have asked European lawmakers to remove immunity of the National Front candidate, who is a member of the EU legislature, to allow further investigation into allegations she abuse of funds to pay for party assistants. She had stated that France bears no responsibility for implementing a German-ordered roundup of 13,000 Jews for deportation to Auschwitz in 1942.
Ms. Marine Le Pen's decision to take a leave of absence from the day-to-day management of the party appeared to be an attempt to portray herself as being above the narrow world of National Front politics and broaden her appeal to the wider electorate ahead of the crucial run-off vote. He incensed French Jews when he stated in 2016 that France's Jewish schools must de-emphasize Talmudic studies in their curriculum. "I am the only one who can guarantee the French's protection", she added.
Voicing support for Macron, the statement said the group called on the centrist candidate to strengthen his program, especially with regard to social justice and the ecological transformation of Europe.
He reached the second round of the presidential election in 2002, but was crushed in the runoff by Jacques Chirac. At the same time... "Now I'll continue to fight".
Macron has condemned the BDS movement, calling anti-Israel boycotts "profoundly antisemitic" and stating that anti-Zionism "leads directly to antisemitism".
Comments