News about Marine Le Pen

Would-be French president Marine Le Pen appeared in the dock at her £5.6million corruption trial for the first time today and insisited: 'I've done nothing illegal'. The 56-year-old far-Right firebrand appeared confident but angry as she was cross-examined during a process that could see her imprisoned for 10 years and banned from standing in elections. She was on Monday at the Paris Correctional Court alongside 24 members and staff of her National Rally party in a case focusing on the EU. All are accused of stealing a total of €6.8m (£5.6m) of European taxpayers' money by setting up fake jobs in the European Parliament over a period of at least a decade.

French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen pleaded her innocence at the start of a £5.6million embezzlement trial today saying: 'We have not violated any rules'. The 56-year-old far-Right firebrand appeared confident and relaxed at the start of a process that could see her imprisoned for 10 years and banned from standing in elections. She was on Monday in the dock at the Paris Correctional Court alongside 24 members and staff of her National Rally party in a case focusing on the EU. All are accused of stealing a total of €6.8million (£5.6million) of European taxpayers' money by setting up fake jobs in the European Parliament over a period of at least 10 years. Wearing a light grey duster coat over a black jacket with white top, Ms Le Pen spoke to journalists as she went into the 11th chamber of the Paris Correctional Court, saying: 'I have confidence in justice. I am here to present our arguments. I am very calm.'

Herbert Kickl, the Freedom Party's leader, has helped to bring it from the fringes into the political mainstream over recent years, focusing his campaign on an anti-immigration message which appears to have resonated with voters. The FPOe promoted the controversial policy of 'remigration', calling for the forced return of 'uninvited foreigners' to their home countries and vowing to achieve a more 'homogenous' nation. Kickl's success, as with many of his allies across Europe, could also be down to his softer stance on Russia and attacks on the establishment in Austria and the EU more widely over freedom of movement and funding of the war in Ukraine. The seismic victory has been welcomed by fellow populist figures across the continent, who have hailed it as a success for their shared ideologies amid a 'tidal wave' of gains for nationalist forces. 'There has been a shift to the right almost all over Europe, and Austria is no exception,' one political analyst told MailOnline.

Herbert Kickl (left) and his party have received praise from populists across Europe, with France 's Marine Le Pen and The Netherlands ' Geert Wilders welcoming their victory as a win for nationalist interests. In line with the resurgence of hard-right parties elsewhere in Europe, the Freedom Party has seen its popularity soar, fed by voter anger over migration, inflation and Covid restrictions. Kickl, 55, has vowed to transform the country into 'Fortress Austria', slamming the current government's 'failed migration policy' as being to blame for the Islamist terror plot on a Taylor Swift concert. Chancellor Karl Nehammer (bottom right), whose conservatives came second in the elections, has already said he would not form a coalition government with Kickl. Other party leaders have also rejected him.

The body of the 19-year-old woman, named only as Philippine, was found buried in the Bois de Boulogne park in an affluent area in the west of Paris on Saturday. Philippine was studying economics at Paris-Dauphine university and was last seen a few hundred metres away from campus around midday on Friday. The suspect, named by French media as Taha O., is a 22-year-old from Moroccan who had been due to be expelled from France after serving five years in jail for raping a student in 2019, Le Monde newspaper and BFM TV said. The right National Rally (RN) has seized on Philippine's murder to push its agenda of toughening immigrations laws.

Bruno Retailleau said his objective was to 'put a stop to illegal entries and to increase exits, particularly for illegal immigrants, because one should not stay in France when one has broken in.'

The mainstream centre-Right is in crisis in much of the democratic world, but nowhere more so than in Britain. Either it embarks on a radical realignment to widen its appeal - or it faces certain oblivion. In Britain, the Tories were thumped as never before in July's general election , reduced almost to a rump. In the US, the Republican Party is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Donald Trump and his peculiar brand of populism. In France , the old Gaullist centre-Right has been replaced by Marine Le Pen 's National Rally (NR), a much more robust stew of Right-wing nationalism, even if it now rejects its neo-fascist roots. Its Italian equivalent, the Brothers of Italy , which has even nastier fascist antecedents than the NR, has been the lead part of a coalition government in Rome for almost two years, with its leader, Giorgia Meloni, the country's prime minister. Now comes perhaps the most scary development of all. Germany 's hard-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has won its first state election since it was created 11 years ago, taking 33 per cent of the vote in Thuringia, and scattering the mainstream parties of the Left, Right and centre to the wind in the process.

Sir Keir Starmer turned up in Berlin yesterday to tell German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that his Government wants to 'turn a corner on Brexit ' and seize a 'once-in-a-generation opportunity' to fix Britain's relations with the European Union . Who voted for that? Certainly not the 17.4 million citizens who put their X in the box marked 'Leave' in the 2016 referendum, which was billed as a 'once-in-a-generation' chance to 'take back control'. That's getting on for twice as many as the 9.7 million who voted Labour in July. Or, to put it another way, just 20 per cent of the electorate. None of those Labour voters were told they were opting to undo Brexit.

One of France's most influential and colourful media tycoons, Vincent Bollore, has chosen the London Stock Exchange to list his global TV arm, Canal+ , rather than stay in Paris. It's a great coup for the City - and a boost to the LSE, which has suffered an exodus of corporates recently. But it's a big loss for an already troubled Macron who counts Parisienne hegemony over London's capital markets as one of his many grand ambitions.

A hundred years have passed since the city last hosted the Games and organisers - who have lavished a reported ­£8billion on preparations - are predicting an influx of 15million visitors, with eight million spectators' tickets sold at the fastest rate in history. But for the 2.1 million who live here, discontent - and public negativity about the Olympics - is at an all-time high. A recent opinion poll found that 52 per cent of Parisians were considering leaving the city for the summer, joining the mass exodus from what many have taken to calling 'L'enfer' or 'Hell'.

A bespectacled elderly man in a black leather jacket stomps up the stairs to his office and confronts the bearded plain-clothes policeman guarding the door. Squaring up to the officer, his face within an inch of the other man's, he unleashes a spittle-laden rant. 'I'm telling you, you can't stop me from getting into my office,' he yells in fury. 'We aren't thugs or bandits. Go and do your job as a police officer! I am the republic! I'm a politician! Get out of my way and open this door!' The star of this epic tantrum, which erupted in 2018 when police officers searched his office over allegations of the improper use of political funds - and was preserved for posterity on YouTube - was Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of an ultra-Left party called France Unbowed.

Having emerged with a shock victory on Sunday, new MPs from the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance (top right) began visiting their new workplaces in parliament ahead of a first session on July 18. But the coalition of Greens, Socialists, Communists and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) is still debating who to put forward as a potential prime minister. And their most prominent figurehead, LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon (main), has been dismissed as a potential candidate not only by Macron's centrists but even by members of his own alliance (Macron bottom right). Meanwhile, France could face more economic turmoil if the NFP succeeds in implementing plans to roll back Macron's widely loathed 2023 pension reform amid threats from credit raters. The surprise victory of the NFP also set alarm bells ringing for the nation's wealthy over plans to roll out an eye-watering 90% income tax on high earners.

French criminal prosecutors today opened an investigation into 'illegal financing' by Marine Le Pen and her far-Right National Rally party. It followed them being beaten into third place in parliamentary elections held over the weekend. Judicial sources in Paris on Tuesday confirmed that the new criminal enquiry related to Ms Le Pen's attempt to become President of France in 2022.

France 's radical left-wing coalition has vowed to bring in a 90 per cent tax rate on the rich following their shock election triumph on Sunday. In a result that caught political commentators by surprise, the New Popular Front emerged as the biggest party in the second round of the elections which ended in a  deadlock, gaining 182 seats ahead of President Emmanuel Macron 's centrist Ensemble party, on 168. Marine Le Pen 's populist right National Rally, which won the first round of elections on June 30, performed poorly in the second round and only obtained 143 seats. The NPF appears to be heading for a power struggle with president Macron - as he wants to be free to pick the next Prime Minister himself - against the backdrop of tensions and uncertainty in a country with a long history of political violence. The NPF - a coalition put together just before the elections which include the socialists, the ecologists, the communists and the radical France Unbowed party - have not designated a candidate for French Prime Minister and the group's leaders met on Monday to try and agree upon who would be put forward for the job.

Emmanuel Macron was last night under increasing pressure to address the French public amid concerns a political deadlock will make the nation ungovernable. President Macron is yet to comment publicly after staving off the much-anticipated hard-Right surge in Sunday's National Assembly elections, although there was no overall winner. His silence comes despite fears a hung parliament of blocs with barely any ideological overlap will see uncertainty reign. The Left-wing New Popular Front unexpectedly won 188 seats, 27 ahead of Mr Macron's centrists, with Marine Le Pen 's National Rally (RN) further behind in third, after moderate candidates agreed to stand aside for one another so as not to split the anti-nationalist vote. Frederic-Pierre Vos, a former RN party lawyer elected in north Paris, said the hung parliament would mean an 'ungovernable France ', providing fresh opportunities for RN in 2027 when Mr Macron is due to stand down.

Don't believe what you've been told about the elections in France . It's true that the far-Left finished in a surprise first place through the New Popular Front (NFP) coalition with President Macron 's centrist party coming second. It's correct, also, that the insurgent National Rally (RN) party from the populist Right trailed behind. As I write, the horse trading has begun to form a new government in such extraordinary circumstances. Yet, despite the headline results, and for all the smug media reports of her demise, the real winner from the weekend is the 55-year-old RN leader Marine Le Pen , who survives to fight another day. Despite being hysterically demonised by her opponents as 'far-Right' - if not actually fascist - the poll saw RN consolidate its position in parliament.

The Cac 40 - the main benchmark on the stock market in Paris - fell sharply in early trading before rallying. But the gains fizzled out as the session wore on as the reality of a hung parliament and months more of uncertainty took its toll.It closed down 0.6%. The Left-wing New Popular Front emerged as the largest party and President Emmanuel Macron's Ensemble second.

MATT BARLOW IN MUNICH: Having cast his considerable influence across the French elections Kylian Mpabbe will for his next trick attempt to alter the direction of Euro 2024. Spain have been the outstanding team of the tournament, with the look of champions since a three-goal spree in the first half of their opening game against Croatia but such things can change. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party seemed set to dominate France's National Assembly until Mbappe and Co mobilised.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, the leader of the hard-left ' France Unbowed' (LFI) party, shares a number of things in common with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The comparison was drawn frequently in the run-up to the French parliamentary elections this past weekend. But it has become all the more pertinent since the shock victory of the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance - of which Melenchon's LFI is the largest constituent party - over Emmanuel Macron's centrists and Marine Le Pen's hard-right National Rally party yesterday. The Melenchon-Corbyn connection goes beyond shared ideology and adherence to hard-left politics - the two stalwarts of the European left wing have met on several occasions, and have spoken fondly of one another over the years.

The Real Madrid star, who left his home nation ten years ago to play for the Spanish giants, returned to Germany this summer to play for his country in Euro 2024. In an interview recorded before Germany lost 2-1 to Spain in the quarter finals last week - in what was his final professional match - Kroos said he welcomed migrants, but said Germany had not been successful in managing mass immigration. He compared Spain with Germany and, when pressed on the issue by the hosts of the conservative-leaning podcast he was speaking to, agreed that he felt there had been a 'loss of control' with regard to immigration to his country.

The call came just hours after the New Popular Front leftist coalition placed first in the second round of legislative elections, surprising many in France and abroad.

Emmanuel Macron has traded one nightmare for another, preventing Marine Le Pen's hard-right National Rally from winning France's parliamentary elections yesterday but instead paving the way for a hard-left alliance to emerge victorious. France's political landscape was plunged into turmoil after a stunning election race resulted in a hung parliament - and a man Macron sees as a left-wing extremist is now baying for his blood. Defying the predictions of political experts, French polls and the world's media, the New Popular Front alliance (NFP) - led by Jean-Luc Melenchon and his France Unbowed party (LFI) - came from behind to eke out a victory with 182 seats in parliament ahead of President Macron 's centrist 'Together' coalition on 168. The hard-right National Rally (RN) emerged from yesterday's elections in third place with just 143 seats, despite having led the race convincingly after the first round of elections just one week ago. This means the overwhelming majority of seats are now split between three factions, all of which harbour very different ideas about the future of France with little interest in forming a coalition. Such chaos is reflected on the streets of France where thousands upon thousands of protesters violently clashed with riot police, set fire to electric bikes, threw flares and smashed up property - a mere three weeks before Paris is set to host the Olympic Games.

With Macron's presidency coming to an end in 2027, three years of political paralysis in France could well give Marine Le Pen all the ammunition needed to fight her way to the top

Several members of France's Euro 2024 squad have been celebrating 'the people's victory' and have expressed their 'relief' after Marine Le Pen's far-right party, National Rally, suffered defeat in the country's snap election on Sunday. While Didier Deschamp's side have advanced to the semi-finals of Euro 2024, some of his players have been vocal on their political stance against Le Pen's party. Kylian Mbappe, Marcus Thuram and Jules Kounde have all previously called for young people to vote in the snap election to stop National Rally from gaining power. National Rally were pushed to third in the ballot, in what was a shocking defeat for Le Pen. New Popular Front alliance (NFP) - led by Jean-Luc Melenchon - claimed a majority victory, amassing 182 seats in the French Parliament while Emmanuel Macron's Ensemble 'Together' placed second with 168 seats.