World
French right in commanding position as 'fed up' voters prepare to send Macron message in elections
FRANCE – When the French go to the polls this Sunday, the result will likely reflect an unprecedented move to the right in what could lead to the most conservative parliament since the country was liberated in WWII, experts say.
The reasons come down to unhappiness with immigration, a weak economy, a cost-of-living crisis and dissatisfaction with the current centrist government, especially among younger voters.
“Right now, France is seeing its biggest shift to the right,” Matthew Tyrmand, adviser to conservative political candidates and parties across Europe told Fox News Digital. “This is democracy at work—the people are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.”
RIVALS BLAST MACRON FOR FEARMONGERING AFTER FRENCH PRESIDENT WARNS ‘CIVIL WAR’ ON HORIZON
Marine Le Pen, President of the National Rally group in the National Assembly, joins Jordan Bardella, President of the National Rally (Rassemblement National), at the final rally before the recently held European Parliament election on June 9th (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Tyrmand continued, “The people of France are fed up with their cloistered Parisian leadership living high on the EU hog while their cities burn, youth unemployment remains high, crime continues to rise, racially motivated attacks and violence on native French persists.”
It’s the same factors that led the right-leaning National Rally to win 31.4% of the votes, the largest share of any French party in the European Union elections earlier this month. That National Rally, which was founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972, has reinvented itself over the past few years under the leadership of Le Pen’s daughter Marine, and now aided by the 28-year-old president of the party, Jordan Bardella.
Unfettered immigration, which totaled more than 320,000 last year plus undocumented migrants, has many French voters worried. “It’s more to do with instability and violence than about immigrants taking away jobs from the French,” says Leo Barincou, a Paris-based senior economist for Oxford Economics. “You have crimes that made headlines that were immigrant-related; That’s what’s pushing the rejection of immigration.” Some of those events included terrorist attacks, murders and assaults. Another factor swaying voters against more immigration is the cost imposed on taxpayers for social benefits,” he told Fox News Digital.
FRENCH RIVALS MACRON, LE PEN DECRY JEWISH GIRL’S GANG RAPE AS ANTISEMITIC ATTACK SENDS PRE-ELECTION SHOCKWAVE
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech, Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Paris. President Emmanuel Macron is addressing French voters on Wednesday for the first times since he has called snap national election following a crushing defeat of his party by the far-right in the European vote. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
The threat of violence may be one of the factors driving younger voters to demand deportation of some immigrants. There’s been enough passion around this topic to prompt some musicians to make a song distributed on social media sites that’s become popular among Gen-Z, people aged 11-26. Lyrics include “I won’t leave, Yes, you will leave. And sooner than you think.”
The economy under Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party hasn’t done well either. The cost-of-living crisis following the invasion of Ukraine sent inflation to 6.3% in February last year and subsequently fell to 2.1% recently. Youth unemployment remains at double-digit levels. Plus, the level of home building has trended lower over the last decade, making it more expensive for young people to rent. “If you have a cost-of-living crisis, whoever is in charge will bear the cost of that,” says Konstantinos Venetis, director of global macro at TS Lombard in London. “Inevitably, when you get complaints from voters, then whoever is waiting to come into power will have an advantage.”
Rassemblement National (RN) President and electoral list leader, Jordan Bardella poses for a selfie with supporters during a campaign rally for the European elections in Montbeliard, eastern France, on March 22, 2024. (Photo by PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo by PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP via Getty Images)
However, Venetis notes that France’s economy is certainly no worse than other major European Union countries, such as Germany and Italy, and maybe even better than those. “This year is supposedly the year that the economy is going to bottom out,” he says, meaning that economic growth looks set to improve. He says that’s likely to be powered by more government spending, perhaps even at an EU level.
Still, many younger voters and those who live in rural areas voted heavily for National Rally in the EU election earlier this month, and there would seem to be little reason to expect a different result this time. “There were very few places where the far right wasn’t first,” Barincou said. The places that weren’t right-leaning included Paris, which fits with a long-standing narrative that people who work in professional jobs in large urban cities tend to take a progressive political stance, he says.
AT 28, JORDAN BARDELLA SHAKES UP FRENCH POLITICS: ‘PEOPLE ACROSS FRANCE HAVE WOKEN UP’
French riot police use tear gas to disperse demonstrators during a pro-Palestinian rally at the Republique Square in Paris, France on October 12, 2023. (Photo by Ibrahim Ezzat/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Ibrahim Ezzat/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The likely passionate youth vote for National Rally may partly be driven by the youthful Bardella, who not only communicates his thoughts on TikTok but is also barely older than many in the Gen-Z cohort. “I am not too surprised he’s popular with younger voters,” says Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex in New York told Fox News Digital. “I remember young people being excited about former president Barack Obama being one of the youngest U.S. presidents.”
A National Rally-led parliament, if it were to happen, would likely not lead to France leaving the EU or the single-currency Eurozone, Elias Haddad, a senior markets strategist at banking company Brown Brothers Harriman told Fox News Digital. “If the right wing come to power, the dynamics between France and EU will be a bit more complicated but not a threat to the monetary union,” he says.
Firefighters extinguish burning vehicles during clashes between protesters and police, after the death of Nahel Merzouk, in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, France. ( REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq)
Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen looks like she’s planning for a win, suggesting that Bardella, as Prime Minister, should be involved with decisions on military defense. While nominally the French president is the head of the armed forces, the constitution states, “The prime minister is responsible for national defense.”
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The French parliamentary system requires up to two rounds of voting. If one party doesn’t get an overall majority in the first vote, then the top two parties will battle it out in a second poll. The latter would occur on July 7 if required. As of Friday, polls suggested that National Rally could get 37% of the vote.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Virginia’s bid to restore a congressional map that would have given Democrats a chance to pick up four seats in the closely divided House of Representatives.
The court’s order, issued without any noted dissent, is the latest twist in the nation’s mid-decade redistricting competition. It was kicked off last year by President Donald Trump urging Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines and was supercharged by a recent Supreme Court ruling severely weakening the Voting Rights Act that opened up even more winnable seats for the GOP.
In recent days, the justices have sided with Republicans in Alabama and Louisiana who hope to redo their congressional maps to produce more GOP-leaning seats following the court’s voting rights decision.
But the Virginia situation was different, stemming from a 4-3 ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court that struck down a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly passed just last month.
The state court found that the Democratic-controlled legislature improperly began the process of placing the amendment on the ballot after early voting had begun in Virginia’s general election last fall.
The Supreme Court typically doesn’t intervene in state court proceedings unless they present an issue of federal law. Virginia Democrats had hoped to persuade the justices that the Virginia court misread federal law and Supreme Court precedent that hold that, even if early voting is underway, an election does not happen until Election Day itself.
Virginia’s amendment had been intended as a response to Republican gains in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and to blunt a new map in Florida that just became law. Once the Virginia amendment passed, it briefly turned the nationwide redistricting scramble into a draw between the two parties.
That was unraveled by the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision.
The state’s attorney general, Democrat Jay Jones, slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, saying it was another example of what he described as a national attack on voting rights and the rule of law.
“Let’s be clear about what is happening. Donald Trump, Republican state legislatures, and conservative courts are systematically and unabashedly tilting power away from the people for Trump’s political gain,” Jones said in a statement issued late Friday night.
The state’s top Democrats had disagreed about whether it was even too late for help from the Supreme Court. “Time grows short, but it is not yet too late,” lawyers for the Democratic leaders of the legislature as well as the state told the justices in a brief filed Friday.
A day earlier, the office of Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger already had confirmed that the state will hold this year’s elections under the current districts established in 2021. Last month, Virginia Commissioner of Elections Steve Koski said a court order was needed by this past Tuesday to set the district lines for primary elections on Aug. 4.
Spanberger reacted to Friday’s decision by saying both courts had nullified the votes of the more than 3 million Virginians who cast ballots in the April 21 special election.
“These Virginians made their voices heard — casting their ballots in good faith to push back against a President who said he’s ‘entitled’ to more seats in Congress before voters go to the polls,” she posted on her X account.
The leader of the state Republican Party said the justices made the right call.
“Wisely, the Supreme Court of the United States has confirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Virginia,” state party chairman Jeff Ryer said. “This should once and for all put to rest the Democrats’ effort to disenfranchise half of Virginia.
___
Associated Press writer Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.
World
Trump says Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, killed in US-Nigerian operation
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
President Donald Trump announced late Friday that U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out an operation that killed a global ISIS leader.
Trump identified the terrorist as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he described as ISIS’s second-in-command globally.
“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump continued. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans.”
100 US TROOPS LAND IN NIGERIA AS ISLAMIC MILITANTS THREATEN WEST AFRICA REGIONAL SECURITY
President Donald Trump sits at a table monitoring military operations during Operation Epic Fury against Iran at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 2. (The White House via X Account/Anadolu/Getty Images)
Trump also thanked the Nigerian government for its cooperation in the mission.
“With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished,” he added.
Additional details surrounding the mission were not immediately available.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
US MILITARY IN SYRIA CARRIES OUT 10 STRIKES ON MORE THAN 30 ISIS TARGETS: PHOTOS
The announcement comes after U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried out multiple strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria in February as part of a joint military effort to “sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network.”
CENTCOM said U.S. forces struck ISIS infrastructure and weapons-storage targets using fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft.
DEADLY STRIKE ON US TROOPS TESTS TRUMP’S COUNTER-ISIS PLAN — AND HIS TRUST IN SYRIA’S NEW LEADER
The U.S. military carried out ten strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria following a December ambush that killed U.S. troops. (CENTCOM)
Trump told reporters on Jan. 27 that he had a “great conversation” with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“All of the things having to do with Syria in that area are working out very, very well,” he said at the time. “So, we are very happy about it.”
CENTCOM announced in February that more than 50 ISIS terrorists had been killed or captured and more than 100 ISIS infrastructure targets struck during two months of targeted operations in Syria.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The U.S. launched Operation Hawkeye Strike in response to an ISIS ambush that killed two U.S. service members and an American interpreter Dec. 13, 2025, in Palmyra, Syria.
Fox News Digital’s Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said Israeli attacks have killed 2,951 people since March 2 with at least 8,988 wounded.
Published On 16 May 2026
-
Rhode Island5 minutes agoWhat’s the most expensive property sold in RI? May 16 real estate transactions
-
South-Carolina11 minutes agoSouth Carolina Lottery Mega Millions, Pick 3 results for May 15, 2026
-
South Dakota17 minutes agoNebraska softball defeats South Dakota via comeback in NCAA Regional opener
-
Tennessee23 minutes agoMother of slain Tennessee deputy pushes for nationwide domestic violence registry
-
Texas29 minutes agoWinning numbers drawn in Friday’s Texas All or Nothing Night
-
Utah35 minutes agoOwl found stuck in a concrete mixer in Utah is on the mend and flying free
-
Vermont41 minutes ago
VT Lottery Mega Millions, Gimme 5 results for May 15, 2026
-
Virginia47 minutes ago
Virginia Lottery Mega Millions, Pick 3 Night results for May 15, 2026