Macron blames rivals for ‘sense of disorder’ in France
President Emmanuel Macron has accused his political opponents of fuelling unrest and destabilising his government, as France faces one of its deepest political crises in years.
“The political forces in parliament which voted out [former prime minister] François Bayrou and the political forces that sought to destabilise Sébastien Lecornu are solely responsible for this sense of disorder [in France],” Macron told reporters in Egypt, where he is attending the Gaza peace summit today.
“At this moment in time, France is being watched. And the message it must convey is one of stability and strength. And so, it is everyone’s duty to work towards stability. Not gamble on instability,” he added.
“I’m not making any bets,” Macron said. “I want the country to move forward.”
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National Rally leader Jordan Bardella accuses Socialist party of “backroom deals” to dodge no-confidence vote
The far-right National Rally leader Jordan Bardella has accused France’s Socialist party (PS) of striking covert deals with the government to avoid backing a no-confidence vote against Emmanuel Macron’s administration.
Speaking outside his party’s Paris headquarters, Bardella claimed the Socialists were “wheeling and dealing in the corridors of Matignon to try to buy themselves off on pension reform” rather than standing by their principles.
“The PS must come out of the shadows. Are they with Emmanuel Macron or are they in opposition? This is the moment of truth,” he said.
“We can’t keep going like this, hiding behind backroom arrangements,” Bardella continued. “Those who choose to prolong the way Emmanuel Macron is damaging our country will have to answer to the French people.”
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday hailed the “extraordinary” Gaza ceasefire as bringing hope that US president Donald Trump could broker an end to the Russian invasion of his country, AFP reports.
“When peace is achieved for one part of the world, it brings more hope for peace in other regions,” Zelenskyy said on social media.
He added: “If a ceasefire and peace have been achieved for the Middle East, the leadership and determination of global actors can certainly work for us too, in Ukraine.”
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Updated at 15.41 CEST
A nine-year-old girl has been found dead at her home in Sarreguemines, northeastern France, in what prosecutors believe was a suicide linked to school bullying.
Regional education officials said they were “shaken by this tragic event,” while prosecutors confirmed an investigation was under way.
Former prime minister Gabriel Attal expressed his condolences, writing on social media: “Bullying is a scourge, a slow poison that erodes self-confidence and can lead to the worst.”
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Macron blames rivals for ‘sense of disorder’ in France
President Emmanuel Macron has accused his political opponents of fuelling unrest and destabilising his government, as France faces one of its deepest political crises in years.
“The political forces in parliament which voted out [former prime minister] François Bayrou and the political forces that sought to destabilise Sébastien Lecornu are solely responsible for this sense of disorder [in France],” Macron told reporters in Egypt, where he is attending the Gaza peace summit today.
“At this moment in time, France is being watched. And the message it must convey is one of stability and strength. And so, it is everyone’s duty to work towards stability. Not gamble on instability,” he added.
“I’m not making any bets,” Macron said. “I want the country to move forward.”
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France is heading for its biggest wheat stockpile in two decades as a collapse in demand from Algeria and China narrows export options, despite merchants profiting from slow Russian shipments to grab sales to Egypt and Asia, analysts said.
The lack of French exports to Algeria and China in the past year due to diplomatic tensions with Algiers and Beijing cutting overall imports, means the EU’s biggest wheat producer now faces a surplus of 4 million metric tons annually, Reuters reports.
That demand gap and global oversupply have pushed wheat prices towards five-year lows, squeezing French farmers already under pressure from cheaper eastern European rivals.
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Sébastien Lecornu has thanked the country’s armed forces in a farewell message posted on social media, praising their “commitment and courage” and calling higher defence spending “essential” to national security.
Lecornu, who briefly returned to the defence ministry after his first short-lived resignation as prime minister, said he was leaving the post “with a sense of duty fulfilled” after more than three years overseeing France’s military modernisation.
He paid tribute to soldiers killed in service and urged the armed forces to continue adapting to a “harsher world,” saying their mission remains vital “so that France remains France.”
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The Dutch government addressed a potential risk to both Dutch and wider European economic security when it took control of Dutch chipmaker Nexperia, taking it out of China’s Wingtech hands, a European Commission spokesperson said on Monday.
“We recall that protecting technology security is a priority of the EU’s Economic Security Strategy. And going forward, we would continue engaging with the Dutch authorities as we look at next possible steps,” the spokesperson told reporters.
The Dutch government said it made the move due to worries about the possible transfer of crucial technology to Wingtech.
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Preliminary results from Kosovo’s weekend municipal elections showed most key municipalities heading to runoffs, highlighting the country’s ongoing political fragmentation — and underscoring continued tensions in Kosovo-Serbia relations.
Most major Albanian-majority municipalities, including the capital Pristina, appeared headed for a runoff, according to the preliminary results released Monday.
In contrast, all but one of the majority ethnic Serb municipalities were won by the Srpska Lista, the dominant Serb party seen as closely aligned with Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic, AP reported.
About 2.1 million voters in the small Balkan nation voted Sunday for mayors for 38 municipalities and about 1,000 seats on town councils. Election officials said preliminary turnout was 40%, less than four years ago and the parliamentary polls earlier this year.
According to the Central Election Commission, 21 municipalities will proceed to a runoff to be held on 9 November after no candidate secured more than 50% of the vote, the threshold required to win outright.
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In other news, German investigators and banking watchdog BaFin have shut down over 1,400 illegal domains in eastern Europe that were involved in cybertrading fraud, officials said in a joint statement on Monday.
Dubbed Operation Heracles, the probe was conducted by Baden Wuerttemberg state criminal police and BaFin, Europol and Bulgarian authorities in an effort to crack down on those facilitating the use of fraudulent trading accounts, Reuters reported.
Users of the websites were directed to brokers operating from call centres abroad who would encourage them to invest large sums. For many it took months to notice that their money was not being invested, the authorities said.
“The perpetrators are becoming increasingly professional,” said Birgit Rodolphe of BaFin. “They use artificial intelligence to churn out illegal websites and use them to lure investors into traps.”
This operation follows a previous shutdown of 800 illegal domains in June of this year. There have since been 20 million attempts to access them.
“The measures significantly weakened the criminal actors by specifically disabling their technical infrastructure,” the authorities said.
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Portugal’s far right suffers setback in local elections
Portugal’s far-right Chega party has been dealt a sharp setback in municipal elections, winning just three mayoralties out of 308, far below the 30 it had predicted after its surge in national politics earlier this year.
The result marks a steep fall from Chega’s 23% share in May’s parliamentary election, which made it the country’s official opposition. On Sunday, its vote share dropped to about 12%, with the party finishing behind independents and even the Portuguese Communist party in total mayorships.
The ruling centre-right Social Democratic party (PSD) emerged strongest, securing 136 municipalities, including Lisbon and Porto, up from 114 four years ago. The centre-left Socialists won 128.
Chega’s leader, André Ventura, admitted the results were disappointing. “Today we took a first step in that direction, but we are still far from that goal,” he said, arguing that building local roots was key to future national power.
Read the Guardian Europe correspondent Jon Henley’s report here:
Andre Ventura, president of the Chega party, gestures to supporters on election night for the local elections. Photograph: José Sena Goulão/EPAShare
