France’s place in Europe has taken centre stage in the presidential election race as far-right leader Marine Le Pen denied suggestions from Emmanuel Macron’s camp that she would steer the country out of the European Union.
Allies of the president said Ms Le Pen’s policies would amount to a “Frexit” in all but name by restoring border checks, reversing economic integration and cutting France’s payments into EU coffers.
They sought to rally support behind the pro-European Mr Macron as the two candidates scramble for votes in the April 24 run-off, with 17 million ballots up for grabs from voters who supported other candidates in the first round.
Ms Le Pen denied a hidden agenda to leave the EU but says she wants to turn the 27-member bloc into a looser alliance and a “Europe of free and sovereign nations”.
Whoever wins the April 24 run-off will take on a leading role in guiding the EU’s response to the war in Ukraine, especially because France holds the rotating presidency of the European Council until July.
Mr Macron’s camp has seized on a record of Kremlin-friendly remarks by Ms Le Pen to portray her as unfit to take on such a prominent international role at a time of hostility with Russia.
Ms Le Pen, an ally of other Eurosceptic leaders such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has sought to distance herself from Russian President Vladimir Putin since the war broke out.
Although Ms Le Pen has backed away from seeking a referendum on France’s EU membership, as she did in a previous presidential campaign, Mr Macron said on Wednesday that “the true face of the far right” remained unchanged.
Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, a spokesman for Mr Macron’s party in parliament, said Ms Le Pen, who has spoken approvingly of Britain's withdrawal from the EU had a “hidden project of leaving Europe”.
“She doesn’t tell the truth to the French,” Mr Anglade said. “I don’t know any club where you can take part without paying your contributions.”
Another pro-Macron figure, Foreign Trade Minister Franck Riester, said Ms Le Pen’s policies would amount to the end of the EU’s single market.
Ms Le Pen, the nominee of the National Rally party, insisted she had “no hidden project “and told voters to read her 36-page election manifesto.
The manifesto does not propose a unilateral Frexit but says the EU should be “gradually substituted” with a looser alliance of nations, “bringing an end” to the idea of a federal Europe.
It calls for a referendum on an immigration overhaul proposed by Ms Le Pen in which new arrivals would be curbed, migrants more easily deported and foreign countries pressured to repatriate their nationals.
Ms Le Pen also wants to renegotiate the visa-free Schengen agreement, reverse integration into a common European electricity market and, separately from the EU’s institutions, pull France out of Nato’s joint military command.
Mr Macron also wants to reform Schengen but has championed France’s voice in Brussels and used his European Council presidency to project leadership on the international stage.
His pro-European stance helped win him an endorsement from former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who said Mr Macron’s experience was needed at a time of international crisis.
The president’s “European commitment is clear and unambiguous,” said Mr Sarkozy, from the centre-right Republican party whose candidate Valerie Pecresse was eliminated in the first round.
Mr Macron dismissed suggestions on Wednesday that the endorsement from Mr Sarkozy, an influential figure on the right despite his legal troubles, was part of any wider political agreement.
French media had speculated that Mr Sarkozy might have offered support to the president before legislative elections in June that could lead to Mr Macron’s party losing its majority in parliament.
But Mr Macron told France 2 television that although he would try to rally the support of political forces that don't “totally share my views”, there was no agreement with Mr Sarkozy.
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
'Nope'
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
ICC T20 Team of 2021
Jos Buttler, Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, David Miller, Tabraiz Shamsi, Josh Hazlewood, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mustafizur Rahman, Shaheen Afridi
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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7.
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Singapore
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8.
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Australia
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9.
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Saudi Arabia
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10.
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South Korea
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Six pitfalls to avoid when trading company stocks
Following fashion
Investing is cyclical, buying last year's winners often means holding this year's losers.
Losing your balance
You end up with too much exposure to an individual company or sector that has taken your fancy.
Being over active
If you chop and change your portfolio too often, dealing charges will eat up your gains.
Running your losers
Investors hate admitting mistakes and hold onto bad stocks hoping they will come good.
Selling in a panic
If you sell up when the market drops, you have locked yourself out of the recovery.
Timing the market
Even the best investor in the world cannot consistently call market movements.
