France needs to sort its political mess – or populist winds blowing from the US will strengthen
Contemplating the turmoil sown by the return of President Trump, nobody could deny that the results of leadership elections in major nations matter to the rest of the world.
Take just the members of the G7 – so-called rich, industrialised democracies. Italy elected Giorgia Meloni in 2022, confirming the rise of the far-right. She was not only Italy’s first female leader, she was also the first from a neo-fascist party since Mussolini.
The arrival of Donald Trump and Sir Keir Starmer changed the complexion of politics in the US and the UK last year. Germany elected a more hawkish chancellor in waiting this spring.
Barring accidents, the next potentially transformative election in what used to be called the “Western alliance” will not be for two years.
France is due to elect a new president to succeed Emmanuel Macron in the summer of 2027. The contest is already plagued by undercurrents of disruption, conflict between politicians and the law, and populism – similar to the fires burning elsewhere in the US and Europe.
This week French judges banned the frontrunner to win the presidency from running for office for the next five years. It looked as though they have knocked Marine Le Pen out of the race.
Nobody, least of all her, the leader of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), knows what is going to happen next in French politics.
In opinion polls just over half of the French population, between 54% and 57%, agreed that justice had run its course. “The law is the same for everyone,” President Macron declared.
After lengthy consideration by a tribunal of three judges, Le Pen and nine other former RN MEPs were found guilty of illegally siphoning off some €4.4m (£3.7m) of funds from the European Parliament for political operations in France, not for personal gain.
Le Pen was sentenced to a five-year ban and four years in prison, not to begin before the appeals process had been concluded. Even then that sentence in France would normally amount to two years’ house arrest wearing an ankle alarm.
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Marine Le Pen hits out at ban
French presidents, such as Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, have been convicted before. Controversy is flaring because Le Pen was given an extra punishment: the immediate ban on running for political office, starting this week.
Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, her second in command at RN, likened the ban to a “nuclear bomb” and a “political death penalty”. Speaking in L’Assemblee Nationale, of which she is still a member, Le Pen identified herself with Alexei Navalny, the dissident leader murdered in Russia, and Ekrem Imamoglu, the recently imprisoned Turkish opposition leader and mayor of Istanbul.
The ban was imposed at the discretion of the chief judge Benedicte de Perthuis, a former business consultant, Francois Bayrou, France’s Macronist prime minister admitted he was “troubled” by the verdict. Not surprisingly perhaps from him, since the prosecution is appealing against verdicts in a similar case of political embezzlement, in which Bayrou’s party was found guilty but he was acquitted, escaping any possibility of a ban.
Bayrou is expected to be a candidate for the presidency. Meanwhile, RN has the power to bring down his government since it is the largest party in the Assembly, with 37%, but was kept out of power by a coalition.
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella. File pic: AP
Populist forces on both sides of the Atlantic rushed to support Marine Le Pen. Matteo Salvini in Italy, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Vladimir Putin‘s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov all denounced what they saw as a “violation of democratic norms”. Hungary’s Viktor Orban said on X “Je suis Marine Le Pen”. Orban’s post came on the same platform Donald Trump Jr posted that “JD Vance was right about everything”, a reference to the US vice president’s speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he claimed Europe was silencing populist opposition.
President Trump weighed in: “The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech… it is the same ‘playbook’ that was used against me.”
Le Pen has called for bans and tough sentences for corrupt politicians from other parties. In France, mainstream commentators are accusing her of hypocrisy and “Trumpisme” for attacking the courts now.
They also allege, or rather hope, that RN’s anger is endangering Marine Le Pen’s drive to make her party respectable with her so-called “wear a neck-tie strategy”, designed to dispel the loutish, racist image of her father’s Front National.
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Le Pen leaves court after guilty verdict
For all the protests, justice and politics are now inextricably mixed in France. A ban from political campaigning would be pointless for most convicts, who have no political ambitions.
Any suggestion that Le Pen was just being treated like any other citizen was dispelled when it was announced that her appeal would be speeded up to take place next summer. The president of the court de cassation conceded: “Justice knows how to adjust to circumstances… an election deadline in this case.”
The ban could be lifted in time to give Le Pen a year to stand for the presidency. At this stage, a full acquittal seems unlikely, given the weight of evidence against RN. That is awkward for her and her party because, presumably, she would be campaigning while under house arrest.
The best course of action for 29-year-old Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s apparent successor, or “Dauphin”, would be to stick with her now. He would gain little if he split RN by insisting she is fatally wounded.
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If she loses her appeal in a year’s time, his loyalty and indignation would be likely to boost his candidacy. Conventional wisdom is that without a lift he may be slick, but is too callow and too square to stand a chance of becoming president in 2027.
The far right in France is no different from the far right elsewhere – prone to internal rivalries and in-fighting.
The craggy intellectual Eric Zemmour came fourth in the first round in the last presidential contest in 2022. Back then he had the support of Marion Marechal-Le Pen, Marine Le Pen’s flighty niece. The two have since fallen out and may separately bid to carry the far-right torch.
Macron is riding high as an international statesman but he is unpopular at home. Even if he wanted to, he cannot stand again because of term limits.
His attempts to spawn an heir apparent have failed. The 34-year-old prime minister Gabriel Attal led Ensemble to crushing defeat in last year’s parliamentary elections.
Current prime minister Bayrou, and former prime minister Edouard Philippe, will probably make a bid for the centre-right vote. Bruno Retailleau, the trenchantly hardline interior minister, looks a stronger candidate for the Gaullist Les Republicains.
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In the last presidential contest, Jean-Luc Melenchon of the hard-left La France Insoumise came third. He may fancy his chances of getting into the final two in 2027 against a right-wing candidate, unless the Socialists get it together. Or perhaps he may let through two finalists from the right and the extreme right.
It is a mess.
France and Europe need effective leadership from a French president. The unnecessary judicial suspension of Marine Le Pen’s candidacy has simply generated uncertainty. Her supporters are outraged and her foes no longer know who they are fighting against.
The French establishment thinks it will all blow over. Just as likely the controversy in France will strengthen the populist winds blowing across the continent and the US.
World
Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire – including people trying to access food
Hamas has said it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.
The militant group said it was issuing a statement “in response to media reports quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff, claiming [Hamas] has shown willingness to disarm”.
It continued: “We reaffirm that resistance and its arms are a legitimate national and legal right as long as the occupation continues.
“This right is recognised by international laws and norms, and it cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights – first and foremost, the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”
Hamas also condemned Mr Witkoff’s visit to an aid distribution centre in Gaza on Friday as “nothing more than a premeditated staged show”.
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Mr Witkoff and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, visited a centre run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
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Trump envoy Witkoff visits Gaza
Hamas said the trip was “designed to mislead public opinion, polish the image of the occupation, and provide it with political cover for its starvation campaign and continued systematic killing of defenceless children and civilians in the Gaza Strip”.
Mr Witkoff said he spent “over five hours in Gaza”. In a post on X on Friday, he said: “The purpose of the visit was to give [President Trump] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
Elidalis Burges, a critical care nurse in Gaza, told Sky News she saw the US visit as a “PR stunt” and that the American officials were “just being shown a small portion of what is actually happening”.
“I think the visit to the GHF site was just a controlled visit dictated by the Israeli military,” she said. “If they really wanted people to see what is happening here, they would allow international journalists from around the world to enter.
“They would allow the leaders of the world to come here and see.”
Hamas releases hostage video
It comes as Hamas released a video showing Israeli man, Evyatar David, being held hostage in what appears to be a tunnel.
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Video released of Israeli hostage
Mr David was taken from the Nova Music Festival on 7 October 2023.
His family have given permission for media outlets to show the video.
More than a dozen killed by Israeli fire
Gaza health officials have said 18 people, including eight who were trying to access food, were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday.
Witness Yahia Youssef told Reuters news agency he helped carry three people wounded by gunshots and saw others lying on the ground near a food distribution centre.
In response to questions about several eyewitness accounts of violence at one of its facilities, GHF said “nothing [happened] at or near our sites”.
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The US and Israel-backed GHF has been marred by controversy and fatal shootings ever since it was set up earlier this year.
According to the United Nations’ human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed “in the vicinity” of GHF aid sites since late May.
Dr Tom Adamkiewicz, who is working at a hospital in Gaza, has said Palestinian children, women and men are “being shot at, basically like rabbits”.
It is a “level of barbarity I don’t think the world has seen”, he told Sky News.
The Israel Defence Forces has repeatedly said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians” and has blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians.
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Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and abducted 251 others. Of those, they still hold around 50, with 20 believed to be alive, after most of the others were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count.
The world’s most secretive state is a mystery for billions of people – but not Anastasiya Samsonova.
She has returned from a week’s holiday in North Korea.
“We saw nothing terrible there, there is no danger there,” the 33-year-old HR manager tells me.
“Frankly speaking, we really liked it.”
She was part of a group of 15 Russian tourists who were the first foreign visitors to a new seaside resort, which was opened to great fanfare by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in June.
Her holiday snaps show a white sand beach, shimmering seas and high-rise hotels. But something’s missing – people.
Anastasiya Samsonova at the Wonsan-Kalma beach resort in North Korea. Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
There are rows of sun loungers, but not a soul sitting on them. A glittering banquet hall that’s devoid of diners.
That’s because, when it comes to international tourists, the Wonsan-Kalma resort is currently only open to Russians.
“The hotel was absolutely new,” Anastasiya enthuses, unfussed by the absence of others.
“Everything was done very beautifully, a good interior … very developed infrastructure.”
Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae on the beach in Wonsan at the resort’s opening. Pic: KCNA/Reuters
The North Korean watching a slide at the resort. Pic: KCNA/Reuters
But why not Turkey? Or Thailand?
I gently suggest that people in Britain might be shocked at the idea of a summer break in a country better known for famines and forced labour than parasols and pina coladas.
“We were interested in seeing how people live there,” Anastasiya explains.
“There were a lot of prejudices about what you can and can’t do in North Korea, how you can behave. But actually, we felt absolutely free.”
Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
Anastasiya is one of a growing number of Russians who are choosing to visit their reclusive neighbour as the two allies continue to forge closer ties following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last year, North Korean troops supplied military support in Russia’s Kursk region, and now there is economic cooperation too.
Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
North Korean produce, including apples and beer, has started appearing on supermarket shelves in Russia’s far east.
And last month, Moscow launched direct passenger flights to Pyongyang for the first time in decades.
But can this hermit nation really become a holiday hotspot?
The Moscow office of the Vostok Intur travel agency believes so. The company runs twice-weekly tours there, and I’m being given the hard sell.
Pic: Danil Biryukov / DVHAB.RU
“North Korea is an amazing country, unlike any other in the world,” director Irina Kobeleva gushes, before listing some unusual highlights.
“It is a country where you will not see any advertising on the streets. And it is very clean – even the asphalt is washed.”
She shows me the brochures, which present a glossy paradise. There are images of towering monuments, pristine golf greens and immaculate ski slopes. But again, no people.
‘There is a huge growing demand among young people,’ Irina Kobeleva says
Ms Kobeleva insists the company’s tours are increasingly popular, with 400 bookings a month.
“Our tourists are mostly older people who want to return to the USSR,” she says, “because there is a feeling that the real North Korea is very similar to what was once in the Soviet Union.
“But at the same time, there is a huge growing demand among young people.”
Sure enough, while we’re chatting, two customers walk in to book trips. The first is Pavel, a young blogger who likes to “collect” countries. North Korea will be number 89.
“The country has opened its doors to us, so I’m taking this chance,” he tells me when I ask why he wants to go.
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For pensioner Tatiana, the reason is sentimental.
“My husband wanted to go there, but now he’s gone. So I want his wish to come true,” she says.
It’ll certainly cost them. One week’s trip that takes in Pyongyang, a circus and the new beach resort, costs roughly £1,500 without flights.
At that price, I suspect most tourists will be content for this secretive state to remain hidden.
World
US manhunt for ‘dangerous’ murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead
A car has been found during the search for a man suspected of killing the parents, grandmother and uncle of a baby girl found abandoned in a US state.
Austin Robert Drummond, 28, is suspected of having murdered four relatives in Tennessee – James M Wilson, 21, Adrianna Williams, 20, Cortney Rose, 38, and Braydon Williams, 15, who were identified on Wednesday.
Mr Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the parents of the infant found alive in a car seat in a front yard on Tuesday afternoon.
Police say Drummond then dropped off the baby and made people aware of the child, in an act of “compassion”.
However, officers added Drummond remains on the run and should be considered “armed and dangerous”.
Ms Rose was Adrianna and Braydon Williams’ mother, according to District Attorney Danny Goodman.
No details have been given on how they were murdered.
Vehicles are seen being taken in Lake County, Tennessee on 30 July, near the area where four family members were found dead. Pic: WHBQ/AP
Drummond dropped off the seven-month-old infant and brought attention to people nearby to come get the child, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said during a news conference.
The baby is safe and being cared for, according to Stephen Sutton, a spokesperson for the Lake and Dyer county sheriffs.
“While this was an extremely tragic and violent event… there was a sign of compassion, if you will,” Mr Rausch said.
“That tells us that there’s a possibility that Austin may have a sense that there is hope for him to be able to come in and have a conversation about what happened.”
Mr Rausch said he believes it was a targeted attack by Drummond, who had a relationship with the victims and their family.
A relative of the victims posted on Facebook after the deaths, saying the suspect has “literally been nothing short of amazing to us and our kids”, according to our US partner network NBC News. “We all trusted him,” the relative added.
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The unoccupied car that police said Drummond had been driving was found on Friday in Jackson, Tennessee, about 70 miles from where the bodies were found and some 40 miles from where the baby was left in a car seat in a front yard.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said it obtained warrants for Drummond. He is wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, and weapons offences.
Authorities offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
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Drummond was convicted of one count of aggravated robbery in August 2014, according to public records. His sentence ended in September 2024, according to Tennessee Department of Correction records.
He was charged criminally for activities inside the prison, including attempted murder, after he completed the sentence that put him behind bars, District Attorney Mr Goodman said.
Drummond was out on bond on the other charges at the time of the killings, he added.
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