World
French National Assembly election: What’s at stake and what to expect?
French voters will cast their ballots on Sunday in the first of two rounds to elect 577 members of the National Assembly, as country looks set to enter a new political era.
The elections come after French President Emmanuel Macron called for a snap vote triggered by a crushing defeat to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (NR) party at the European Parliament elections on June 9.
Polls suggest the coming elections will confirm the trend. NR leads strongly with 36 percent of the vote, followed by left-wing bloc Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) at 28.5 percent, trailed by Macron’s centrist alliance – Ensemble – with 21 percent.
If the results echo the polls, Macron might have to cohabitate with an antagonistic prime minister, regardless of who is elected.
How do the French elections work?
Voting opens at 06:00 GMT and is expected to end at 16:00 GMT in most of the country, but polling stations in Paris and other major cities will stay open until 18:00 GMT.
To win a majority in the National Assembly, a party or alliance needs 289 seats — just over the halfway mark in the House. Macron’s outgoing coalition fell short of that number, limiting its ability to push through its legislative agenda.
For the verdict on any of the 577 seats to be called on Sunday, July 30, two conditions need to be met. First, the voter turnout needs to be at least 25 percent. Second, a candidate needs to win an absolute majority of votes cast.
In a multiparty system like France’s, that typically means that many, if not most, contests go to a second round of voting – scheduled this time for July 7.
Only those candidates who secure at least 12.5 percent of the vote in the first round can stand in the second round, effectively narrowing the field of contestants.
Why is this election so different?
Traditionally, National Assembly elections are held straight after the presidential vote, and so reflect the same popular mood. The result is a prime minister from the same political party as the president, who then can implement policies with a strong mandate.
But those power dynamics have now shifted and for the first time in 22 years, France will have a state of cohabitation: a deeply unpopular president ruling alongside a government elected in as a vote of dissatisfaction against Macron himself.
“It will mark the beginning of a new way of governing and the end of the presidential agenda,” said Emmanuel Dupuy, president of the Institute for European Perspective and Security Studies, a think tank on diplomacy and political analysis. “Macronism has already almost collapsed and it will exit the election totally wiped out,” he said.
How did we get here?
Macron first came to power in 2017 riding a wave of support, as he pledged to create a centrist bloc, lacing the moderate left and right together. But it didn’t take long before his language started sounding too aloof to the ears of people in the suburbs – he got the nickname Jupiter. His economic reforms were too right wing to liberals who had previously backed him; and his way of governing was seen as too despotic by many right and left voters.
Now, the election could mark an end to Jupiter’s solo show, as France looks set to enter a new political era.
“He runs the country like a CEO of a company,” said Samantha de Bendern, associate fellow at Chatham House. “But a country is not a company and he failed to build alliances with partners – Macron is a loner,” de Bendern said.
One of the starkest signals of his isolation was the Yellow Vest movement – a period of violent protests in 2018. What started as workers on lower-middle incomes infuriated by planned increases in diesel taxes snowballed into a wider movement against the president’s perceived bias in favour of the elite. His second mandate was marked by a highly contested bill in 2023 to raise the country’s retirement by two years which turned into another huge domestic challenge as he faced widespread opposition.
And while he won a second mandate in 2022 – in good measure by scaring, rather than attracting, voters over the prospect of the far right taking over the presidency – the tactic seems to have tired many. “There is a feeling of anger – people are fed up with showing this scare for Le Pen while being forced to vote for Macron to keep out the far right,” de Bendern said.
What is Le Pen’s ‘dediabolisation’?
Meanwhile, Le Pen has meticulously crafted a so-called dediabolisation – de-demonisation – strategy over the past two decades, aimed at broadening the party’s base while tempering its radical discourse to distance itself from many references that had made the NR too toxic to several voters.
The party has long been associated with notorious racists, and xenophobic and anti-Semitic slurs. Her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, once convicted of hate speech for saying that Nazi gas chambers were “a detail of history”, was expelled from the party in 2015. Le Pen convinced the moderate right instead that she was not a threat to democracy and conquered areas traditionally close to the far left, especially in the Communist Party, promising social welfare policies and tight restrictions on migrants.
“Many [by voting NR] are expressing their opposition to a system that they feel is depriving them of what they deserve in favour of people, mostly foreigners, who are getting benefits that are not due,” said Baptiste Roger-Lacan, historian and political analyst with a focus on far-right parties in Europe.
Today, the party’s candidate to be the country’s prime minister is Jordan Bardella, an impeccably dressed 28-year-old man who looks like a mix between a Wolf of Wall Street and Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent. Yet he comes from the suburbs and speaks to his tens of thousands of followers not just on the street but also on TikTok. He has no experience in governance.
On the other side, far to centre-left parties have united under the New Popular Front. Its most vocal cause has been its support for the Palestinian cause amid the war in Gaza, a position that has earned the grouping popularity among young voters and the Muslim community.
By contrast, the NR has firmly supported Israel condemning “pogroms on Israeli soil” and attacking the leader of the far-left La France Insoumise party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, for failing to call the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel “terrorism” – something that has caused friction within the bloc itself.
What would a far-right win mean?
The most serious repercussion of a win for the NR is going to be on the domestic front. While the party now says anti-Semitism is a problem of the left-wing party, it has shifted its focus against migrants and Muslims. France is home to Europe’s biggest Muslim community, with families settled there for several generations.
While Bardella did not specify what “specific legislation” he would push for to fight “Islamist ideologies”, he said in the past the party would work to ban the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in public spaces and to make it easier to close mosques.
The RN has also made its top priority the adoption of stringent border controls, the scrapping of birthright citizenship – a practice that for centuries has been granting citizenship to those born in France to foreign parents – and the introduction via constitutional referendum of the “national preference”, a system by which someone would be excluded benefits from social security rights unless with a French passport.
“Clearly the NR is still xenophobic so any foreigner has something to lose, any foreigner who has not a European heritage would have to lose something if the NR were to be elected,” Roger-Lacan said.
And what about foreign policy?
With his eyes on power, Bardella has been softening or reversing some of the party’s traditional positions. He made a U-turn on Ukraine saying he was committed to keep providing military support to Kyiv, while pushing back against critics’ allegations of some party members’ links to the Kremlin.
Still, considering Macron’s unwavering stance on Ukraine and France’s role as a pillar of the European Union, a Bardella-led government not committed as much to the European project, would mark a shift.
During a news conference on Monday, Bardella said he opposes sending French troops and weaponry capable of striking targets on Russian soil.
“He is in a phase where is trying to reassure the non-NR electorate, and possibly future EU partners, but clearly the party gaining power would add a lot of tension between France and the rest of the EU,” said Roger-Lacan, who is also former deputy editor-in-chief at the think tank Le Grand Continent.
Unlike Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who had transitioned towards more Atlantic, pro-NATO, pro-EU positions years before her election victory in 2022, Roger-Lacan explains, the NR’s conversion “sounds extremely contextual”.
Still, should the far right win the elections, observers note, it could end up abstaining from creating too much tremor, should it win the elections, as the group is playing the long game. It’s ultimate goal: capturing the presidency in 2027.
World
Trump-backed ‘El Tigre’ looks to crush cartels, end Colombia’s socialist era in pivotal election
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As Colombia heads into a pivotal presidential runoff on Sunday, conservative outsider Abelardo de la Espriella is riding a wave of voter frustration over crime, cartels and economic uncertainty.
His rise comes as outgoing President Gustavo Petro faces mounting political turmoil, turning the election into a high-stakes battle over the future of one of America’s most important allies in Latin America.
De le Espriella’s campaign is built on a platform of law and order, anti-cartel crackdowns and repairing U.S.-Colombia relations as he faces leftist politician Iván Cepeda in the presidential runoff. Cepeda is from Petro’s socialist party.
COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT PETRO THREATENS MILITARY RESPONSE AFTER TRUMP WARNS COLOMBIA MAY BE NEXT TARGET
Colombia’s presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, of the Defensores de la Patria party, speaks behind bulletproof glass during his closing campaign rally in Medellin, Colombia on May 24, 2026. Colombia will hold presidential elections on May 31. (Jaime Saldarriaga/AFP Via Getty Images)
In a region increasingly defined by larger-than-life political figures, de la Espriella is known universally as “El Tigre,” and has transformed his nickname into a political movement. Campaign rallies feature tiger imagery, merchandise and slogans built around strength and fearlessness.
He has openly embraced comparisons to President Trump, presenting himself as a political outsider willing to confront entrenched elites, challenge progressive orthodoxies and restore what supporters describe as strength and order to government.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro delivers a speech during a troop recognition ceremony at the Jose Maria Cordova Military Cadet School in Bogota on March 11, 2025. (Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)
Earlier this week Trump endorsed him stating in part on social media that: “Colombian Presidential Candidate, “El Tigre (THE TIGER),” Abelardo de la Espriella, is a Smart, Strong, and Tough Leader, who fights tirelessly for, and loves, his Great Country and People, just like I do for the United States of America.”
Trump added, “Because of his tremendous accomplishments in life, and his political support for me, it is my Honor to give Abelardo my Complete and Total Endorsement. GET OUT AND VOTE FOR “EL TIGRE” ABELARDO DE LA ESPRIELLA — HE WILL NOT LET THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OF COLOMBIA DOWN. It will rise to a new height of Greatness!”
President Donald Trump, left, waves as he greets El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele as Bukele arrives at the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
TRUMP DOUBLES DOWN ON COLOMBIA CRACKDOWN, CALLS PETRO ‘LUNATIC,’ VOWS TO END ALL US PAYMENTS OVER DRUGS
Aside from the Trump comparison, he’s also been likened to El Salvador’s President Bukele. Like Bukele, he has built a political brand around toughness, disruption and public frustration with crime. His campaign rhetoric frequently emphasizes restoring state authority and defeating criminal organizations through overwhelming force.
Petro’s ally, Iván Cepeda, has pledged to continue the administration’s social and economic agenda while expanding negotiations with armed groups.
Cepeda’s campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment on his campaign and hopes for the country.
Colombia’s presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda, of the Pacto Historico party, speaks to supporters during his final campaign rally in Barranquilla, Atlantico department, Colombia on May 24, 2026. (Vanessa Romero/AFP via Getty Images)
Carlos Chacón, executive director of Instituto de Ciencia Política (ICP), a think tank in Colombia told Fox News Digital, “Colombia is torn between two models and two visions: the leftist model, which seeks to increase state intervention in the economy, a model already proven to generate fiscal deficits and economic crises; a model that prioritizes negotiations and appeasement over security, resulting in the strengthening of criminal networks nationwide; and, above all, a model whose political agenda is to alter the Constitution.”
US SANCTIONS COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT AND FAMILY OVER DRUG TRAFFICKING ALLEGATIONS
Chacón said the difference between the two candidates is clear, saying that Abelardo’s model “favors free enterprise and seeks to ensure security, regain territorial control, downsize the state, revitalize strategic sectors, and mend international relations, would be implemented entirely within the framework of the 1991 Constitution.” He added, “Abelardo has never spoken of replacing the constitutional model with an authoritarian one, as is the case with the project proposed by Petro, Cepeda.”
Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo De La Espriella of the political movement Defenders of the Homeland reacts after the results of the first round of the presidential election, in Barranquilla, Colombia May 31, 2026. (Sergio Acero/reuters )
One of the recurring themes of de la Espriella’s campaign has been rebuilding a close relationship with Washington and pursuing a more aggressive security partnership against narcotrafficking and armed groups. He has advocated U.S.-backed operations against narco-terrorist camps and stronger bilateral cooperation on security issues.
De la Espriella rise comes as the outgoing Colombian President Petro faces a battle over allegations of improper involvement in the country’s presidential election. The head of Colombia’s congressional investigative commission has proposed suspending president Petro while authorities examine allegations that he improperly intervened in the presidential campaign on behalf of his political movement.
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A supporter of Colombia’s presidential candidate for the Defensores de la Patria party, Abelardo de la Espriella, takes a selfie as she awaits his arrival to his last campaign rally in Barranquilla, Colombia, on May 23, 2026. Colombia will hold presidential elections on May 31. (Vanessa Romero/AFP via Getty Images)
The proposal has triggered fierce debate across Colombia, with supporters describing it as necessary accountability and critics arguing it exceeds constitutional authority. Petro has denied wrongdoing and remains in office.
The outcome of this election will help determine not only the future of Colombia’s security strategy, but also the trajectory of one of Washington’s most important allies in the Western Hemisphere.
Current and former Ukrainian officials are to return honours bestowed upon them by Poland after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was stripped of the country’s highest state honour.
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Tensions have been rising between Kyiv and Warsaw since Zelenskyy named a military unit after the controversial World War Two Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
In response to the move, Poland’s far-right president, Karol Nawrocki, announced that he was stripping Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy said he had sent the Order back to Poland, posting a photo to social media appearing to show it being packaged up ready to be shipped.
“We believed that the Order of the White Eagle, awarded in 2023, was meant for the Ukrainian People and our army,” he wrote, adding that Ukraine was “grateful to the Polish People for their support and cooperation”.
Cracks in the alliance?
Nawrocki has insisted that the decision was “not directed against the Ukrainian people” and that Poland would continue to support Ukraine.
Even so, many in Ukraine saw Nawrocki’s move as an attack.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, was the first to react, announcing that he would return the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, which he received in 2022.
The head of the Office of the Ukrainian President, Kyrylo Budanov, and Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, followed suit by relinquishing their Officer’s Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
The second, third and fifth presidents of independent Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma (1994–2004), Viktor Yushchenko (2005–2010) and Petro Poroshenko (2014–2019), also all announced that they were giving up their Order of the White Eagle honours.
Poroshenko made it clear that he had taken the decision in reaction to the Polish president’s move, but that it was in no way directed against the Polish people.
Yushchenko also stressed that he was acting in solidarity with Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian army, while calling Nawrocki’s decision “irresponsible”.
How did the crisis begin?
On 27 May, Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree naming the Independent Special Operations Centre “North” of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces as the “Heroes of the UPA”.
He said he had taken the decision “in order to restore the historical traditions of the national army and in view of the exemplary execution of the missions assigned in the defence of the territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine”.
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, was a Ukrainian guerrilla force formed in October 1942 in Volhynia, in north-western Ukraine, as the military wing of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B), an ultranationalist movement led by Stepan Bandera.
While fighting both the German army and Soviet forces, the organisation carried out massacres of the Polish population in Volhynia.
The decision has gone down particularly badly in Poland, and Nawrocki said he had learned of the move “with great sadness”.
“This is not how you build relations between nations,” he said on Friday, adding that glorifying the UPA gave Russian propaganda “a lot of oxygen for disinformation”.
The Polish president doubled down on Saturday, justifying his decision to withdraw the Order of the White Eagle from Zelenskyy by saying that his actions had overstepped the mark.
Some have argued that only Russia stands to gain from the breakdown in relations.
Poland has been one of Ukraine’s main allies since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees and serving as a logistical hub for Western aid bound for Kyiv.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said he was convinced that, given the historical context, only Russia could profit from a Polish-Ukrainian dispute.
Sikorski shared a comment by journalist and columnist Witold Jurasz of the newspaper Onet, who argued that by stripping Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the Order of the White Eagle, Nawrocki had indeed won a moral victory but had also suffered a defeat – and, with it, so had Poland as a whole.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government is at odds with Nawrocki, criticised Zelenskyy’s decision, while stressing that the Ukrainian leader had assured him that he had not intended to offend Poles. He called on the two nations not to lose their solidarity and not to let “history ruin our future”.
For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who had earlier described the Polish president’s decision as “a strategic mistake… from which only Russia will benefit”, expressed his gratitude to Poles who do not support escalating tensions with Ukraine.
“I wish to thank every Pole who has clearly expressed their stance against escalating tensions with Ukraine. We are staunch supporters of the same approach,” he wrote on X.
“We are wise nations, always able to find a way out of a difficult situation. We are bound by a difficult history, a shared future, and the threat from our age-old enemy – Moscow,” he added.
Russian officials – who have repeatedly invoked the Second World War as a means to justify Moscow’s invasion by claiming it is a fight against “neo-Nazis” in Ukraine – have welcomed Nawrocki’s decision.
“The Polish president has finally stripped (Zelenskyy) of the Order of the White Eagle,” said former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
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Day 1,578 of WW3: The UN Security Council will meet on Monday to address Russia's latest strikes on cultural and religious sites, including the attack on Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. ANGH, of course. This is your Saturday Ukraine discussion
