Poll rulings back far right
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The extreme-right National Front was unfairly beaten in a hotly contested city council election last year, France's supreme judicial authority has ruled, and the election is to be re-run. The Council of State found that the winning candidate in Dreux, an ailing industrial town west of Paris, breached electoral rules on combining professional and political activity.
All the councillors of the centre-right majority resigned yesterday on learning of the judgment against their mayor, Gerard Hamel, a Gaullist, precipitating new elections. A similar judgment is believed to be imminent in the case of Vitrolles, north of Marseille, where the incumbent mayor defeated a National Front candidate in the second round of the election, but is now accused of exceeding campaign spending limits.
In both towns the National Front easily topped the poll in the first round, but lost the second round after two weeks of frantic attention from mainstream parties, which staffed expensive centrally-located campaign centres and rushed in floods of posters and literature.
Both they and the media treated the towns as bellwethers of French opinion that could not be "lost". In the event three cities, Orange, Marignane and Toulon - which had not been subject to this treatment - fell to the National Front.
In Dreux, the National Front candidate, Marie-France Stirbois, is now back on the campaign stump, and the Front's leaders are basking in what they call the "degeneracy" of the country's political establishment.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments