France: I want a France that is part of a strong Europe,' says Emmanuel Macron

Emmanuel Macron says he is the candidate for a "strong Europe" ahead of a presidential election run-off against Marine Le Pen.

Macron qualified ahead of his far-right rival for the second round of voting, due to take place on April 24.

"I want a France that is part of a strong Europe, that continues to forge alliances with the major democracies to defend itself," he said at his election night headquarters.

Note EU-Digest: President Emmanuel Macron won the first round of the French Presidemtial elections today, against radical right wing and pro-Putin, Marine Le Pen, who like former US President Donald Trump and British PM Boris Johnson, whom based on on their history, can not be trusted.

Read more at: 'I want a France that is part of a strong Europe,' says Emmanuel Macron | Euronews

France Presidential Election: 'We’re not trying to influence events', Putin tells Le Pen

In an unprecedented move, the Russian president has met with a candidate for the French presidency in Moscow.

The meeting between the leader of the far-right eurosceptic FN party Marine Le Pen and Vladimir Putin has reignited fears of Russian support for far-right groups in Europe.

Putin told Le Pen he had no intention of influencing the French elections.

“We are trying to maintain relations with the ruling authorities and opposition representatives too. We don’t want to influence in any way the events underway.”

Le Pen said, if elected, she would consider what she had to do to swiftly lift EU sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

“For a long time I’ve called for France and Russia to resume cultural, economic, and strategic relations, especially now when we are facing a major terrorist threat,” Le Pen told Putin.

With the first round of elections just a month away, opinion polls show Le Pen making it through to the second round of the election on May 7, but then losing to centrist candidate Macron.

Read more: 'We’re not trying to influence events', Putin tells Le Pen | Euronews

EU: Immigrants and refugees: Le Pen, Petry and Wilders all trying to cure the symptoms not the cause - by RM

The European Destruction Team

Senior members of Alternative for Germany cut short a meeting Monday with the Central Council of Muslims, accusing the group of failing to renounce religious beliefs that they claim clash with the German constitution.

The confrontation came days after the party — known by its acronym AfD — launched a campaign against the construction of a mosque in the eastern state of Thuringia, joining up for the first time with the group known as the Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West.

When you read all the nonsense the so-called right-wing nationalist parties, specially those in France, Germany and the Netherlands are saying, reporting and announcing, you can only wonder if the electorate has gone crazy, or if the existing political leadership just does not have it together anymore?

This is the reason why Europe has a refugee problem

The large flow of immigrants to Europe is certainly not because they find Europe such a wonderful or great place to be living in, but mainly because we, together with our so-called "allies",  have bombed their cities, homes and countries into oblivion.

As the saying goes - "you always harvest what you sow".

Geert Wilders (Holland), Marine Le Pen (France) and Frauke Petry (Germany) have taken full advantage of the fact that our present European political leadership have never dared to tackle the true cause, as to why all these refugees came to Europe.

Obviously the electorate, which had been kept in the dark by their political leaders on the true cause  and reasons of the refugee influx into Europe, unfortunately resulted in the fact they started  listening to the garbage coming out of the mouths of Wilders. Le Pen and Petry,.

They put the blame of the refugee problem on national Government policies, related to immigration and refugees, not on the real cause of the refugee problem re: the military involvement of EU countries in the Middle East wars.

Instead the Ultra-Right focused on Islamophobia, decay of national economy/sovereignty. and the functioning of the  EU,  without producing any plan to back-up their arguments .

It is a sad state of affairs and will not get better unless the EU and its member states take a more independent direction and stance when it comes to military alliances and foreign policies.

If the nationalist succeed in breaking up the EU - no country in Europe will be able to stand-up on their own against the manipulations of the USA, China or Russia. It is as simple as that.

EU-Digest ©

French Presidential elections: Hollande beats Sarkozy and both heading to French vote runoff

With 75 percent of the vote counted, Hollande had 27.9 percent of ballots cast and Sarkozy 26.7 percent, according to figures released by the Interior Ministry after final polls closed.

Le Pen was in third with 19.2 percent of the vote so far. In fourth place was leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon with 10.8 percent, followed by centrist Francois Bayrou with 9.2 percent and five other candidates with minimal support.

Turnout was also surprisingly high, projected by polling agencies at about 80 percent, despite concern that a campaign lacking a single overarching theme had failed to inspire voters.

EU-Digest

France24: France's Sarkozy moving closer to far-right leader Le Pen - by Rory Mulholland

For the complete report in France24 click on this link

France's Sarkozy moving closer to far-right leader Le Pen - by Rory Mulholland

The call by a top Sarkozy advisor for the introduction of proportional representation in parliamentary elections was the latest proof that Sarkozy has been "seeking to move closer to the National Front," said the centrist presidential candidate Francois Bayrou. Proportional representation would make it easier for smaller parties such as Le Pen's National Front to enter parliament, in which under the current first-past-the-post system they fail to get any seats. Sarkozy, who has broken with outgoing President Jacques Chirac's policy of freezing out the National Front, will take pole position in the first round of voting on April 22 and has a good chance of winning the decisive second round two weeks later, opinion polls say.