Who Will Win French Election

Voters across France are choosing between independent Emmanuel Macron and far-right populist Marine Le Pen in a presidential runoff that could decide Europe's future

French independent centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron gives a thumbs up as he leaves the polling station after casting his ballot in the presidential runoff election in Le Touquet, France, Sunday, May 7, 2017. Voters across France are choosing a new president in an unusually tense and important election that could decide Europe's future, making a stark choice between pro-business progressive candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right populist Marine Le Pen. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

By ANGELA CHARLTON and SAMUEL PETREQUIN - Associated Press

Sunday, May 7th 2017, 13:30 pm EDT

PARIS (AP) — French voters decided Sunday whether to back pro-business independent Emmanuel Macron or far-right populist Marine Le Pen as their next president, casting ballots in an unusually tense and important presidential election that also could decide Europe's future.

With Macron the pollsters' favorite, voting stations opened across mainland France at 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) under the watch of 50,000 security forces guarding against extremist attacks. A security scare caused by a suspicious bag prompted the brief evacuation of the Louvre museum courtyard where Macron plans to celebrate election night.

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France's Interior Ministry said voter turnout at midday was running slightly lower than during the last presidential runoff in 2012. The ministry said 28 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots, compared with a half-day tally of 31 percent five years ago.

Commentators think a low turnout would benefit Le Pen, whose supporters are seen as more committed and therefore more likely to show up to vote.

Macron voted in the seaside resort of Le Touquet in northern France alongside his wife, Brigitte Macron. Le Pen cast her ballot just a hundred kilometers away in Henin-Beaumont, a small town controlled by her National Front party.

Macron, 39, a former Socialist economy minister and one-time banker who ran as an independent, was all smiles and petted a black dog as he stepped out of his vacation home. For security reasons, he was driven to his polling station nearby.

Le Pen, 48, was able to vote without any incident after feminist activists were briefly detained a couple of hours earlier Sunday for hanging a big anti-Le Pen banner from a church in the northern town.

Meanwhile, police and soldiers worked to secure the symbolic Paris venues where the next president will celebrate victory.

The grand internal courtyard of the renowned palace-turned-museum Macron picked for his celebration party reopened after several hundred journalists preparing for the election event had to leave because of the security alert over the suspicious bag.

The museum itself was not evacuated, and tourists continued entering and leaving the site. The Louvre already was being heavily guarded after an extremist attacker targeted soldiers near the museum during the presidential campaign. Paris police said the evacuation was a "precautionary measure."

If Le Pen wins, she plans to celebrate at the Chalet du Lac in the Bois de Vincennes, a vast park on Paris' eastern edge.

The most closely watched and unpredictable French presidential campaign in recent memory ended with a hacking attack and document leak targeting Macron on Friday night. France's government cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, is investigating the hack, which Macron's team says was aimed at destabilizing the vote.

France's election campaign commission said Saturday that "a significant amount of data" — and some fake information — was leaked on social networks following the hacking attack on Macron. The leaked documents appeared largely mundane, and the perpetrators remain unknown.

The fate of the European Union may hang in the balance as France's 47 million voters decide whether to risk handing the presidency to Le Pen, who dreams of quitting the bloc and its common currency, or to play it safer with Macron, an unabashed pro-European who wants to strengthen the EU.

Global financial markets and France's neighbors are watching carefully. A "Frexit" would be far more devastating than Britain's departure, since France is the second-biggest economy to use the euro. The country also is a central pillar of the EU and its mission of keeping post-war peace via trade and open borders.

The vote will help gauge the strength of global populism after the victories last year of a referendum to take Britain out of the EU and Donald Trump's U.S. presidential campaign. In France, it is a test of whether voters are ready to overlook the racist and anti-Semitic past of Le Pen's National Front party.

Le Pen has broadened the party's appeal by tapping into — and fueling — anger at globalization and fears associated with immigration and Islamic extremism. Macron has argued that France must rethink its labor laws to better compete globally and appealed for unity and tolerance that Le Pen called naive.

Either candidate would lead France into uncharted territory, since neither comes from the mainstream parties that dominate parliament and have run the country for decades. The winner will have to try to build a parliamentary majority in elections next month to make major changes.___

John Leicester in Paris, Alex Turnbull in Henin-Beaumont and Chris den Hond in Le Touquet contributed.

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Is Official France, Now Becoming Anti-Israel?

Israeli Students Denied Tours at Louvre, Sainte-Chapelle

By Ahuva Balofsky June 16, 2015 , 9:30 am

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“As for the congregation, there shall be one statute both for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you, a statute for ever throughout your generations; as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD.” (Numbers 15:15)

image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/louvre-paris-france.jpg

(Photo: Benh Lieu Song/ Wiki Commons)

In the latest incident of suspected French anti-Semitism, Israeli students set to visit Paris at the end of the month were denied reservations for guided tours at two important cultural sites, reported Haaretz Monday. The group, from Tel Aviv University, was told at each location that there were no spaces available.

Professor Sefy Hendler, an art history professor at the university, called the world-famous Louvre and nearby Sainte-Chapelle cathedral last month. Both institutions told him they were booked solid and could not reserve tours for his 12 students, despite offering multiple date options at the Louvre. Hendler then called back under a false name, pretending to be from fictional institutions based in Italy and Abu Dhabi, and was able to make the reservations for the same dates.

“It surprised me that a place that receives nine million visitors a year didn’t find room for us,” Hendler told Haaretz, referring to the Louvre, “even though we asked to tour in the middle of the week.”

Hendler considered cancelling the planned trip, but ultimately turned the matter over to Francois Heilbronn, president of French Friends of Tel Aviv University, the group sponsoring the trip. Heilbronn contacted both institutions, as well as French Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin.

Heilbronn was told the reservations system at the Louvre is almost entirely automated, but the administration responded saying it was “disturbed” by the incident nevertheless and was launching an internal investigation.

In a communique cited by The Times of Israel, museum officials said an overflow of reservations in the computerized system led to the initial refusal, a situation which was resolved by the time Hendler called back under false pretenses.

“In a way, we are victims of our success. We receive on average 400 reservation requests per day and offer 15-minute-long visits. But demand is twice as large as supply,” the statement said. It noted, too, that a request from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, made later, was accepted by the system.

image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/useful_banner_manager_banners/8-H2H-GIF-Banner.gif

Sainte-Chapelle’s reservations, by contrast, are handled by human beings. Philippe Belaval, the president of the National Monuments Center, which administers Sainte-Chapelle, said an investigation revealed recurring irregularities, but it was as yet unclear whether discrimination was involved in the denial.

Belaval said “disciplinary measures” would be taken, but that the individual responsible had  “never expressed hostility towards Israel.” He apologized for “compromising the treatment of requests” and a lack of “rigor and professionalism.”

Hendler sees both responses as excuses. “It’s clear to me that when you say no to Israelis, it’s a discriminatory and racist act. They don’t care whether you’re left- or right-wing. They simply don’t want the Israeli in the narrow sense through which they view him. It’s an incident that I simply don’t understand,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Jean-Francois Carenco, the governor of the Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, has asked the prosecutor’s office to launch its own investigation into the suspected illegal discrimination.

“What was the idea? That if we don’t see the ‘Mona Lisa’ then the occupation would end? It’s completely foolish,” Hendler said, adding: “Beyond the Israeli question, France has extraordinary cultural treasures, and the French conception is a universal conception – that we are opening culture to everyone, including Russians, even though there are those who don’t like [President Vladimir] Putin, and to Israelis, even though there are those who don’t like [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu.

“From the moment that you start choosing whom you are opening the museums to,” he noted, “ultimately, you will admit only citizens of the Western democracies who think exactly as you do.”

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/43512/latest-french-anti-semitism-denies-israeli-students-tours-at-louvre-jerusalem/#MABgAQHxMm5xhPjm.99