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| Europe |
| French election 2017: Marine Le Pen leading the race as polls open |
| 2017-04-23 |
| [Telegraph] Polls have opened in the first round of France’s most unpredictable and high-stakes presidential election in decades, with far-Right leader Marine Le Pen and the maverick centrist Emmanuel Macron leading the field. A Le Pen victory could lead to the collapse of the European Union, experts warn, but after the victory of Donald Trump in the US and the Brexit vote in Britain most agree that there is no safe bet in the French race. Unprecedented security measures were in place to keep voters safe as they cast their ballots, with 50,000 police officers and 7,000 soldiers deployed across the country to try to prevent any new radical Islamist attack. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 Everyone is on edge today, so things will be reported, and anything real will get international play. From the article, time stamped at 2:28 p.m.: Shooting in western France ‘not terror related’, as false alerts see several polling stations evacuated From David Chazan in Paris: A man was injured by gunfire in Rouen, western France, as million of French voters cast their ballots in the presidential election, three days after the murder of a policeman in Paris. Local media reported that the man was injured in the legs and rushed to hospital after “at least two shots” were fired in the city centre. The shooter was reported to be on the run. Initial reports suggested that the incident was not terror-related but arose from a dispute between two people who knew each other. Earlier security scares led to the evacuation of several polling stations around the country but all turned out to be false alerts. Voting was briefly suspended at two polling stations in the eastern town of Besançon after a car was driven very slowly towards one of them, and then abandoned with its engine running. A rifle was found inside, but Le Parisien newspaper reported that it was not terror-related but a “common law case”. In Saint-Omer, northern France, two polling stations were evacuated and a security cordon was set up after a suspicious car was spotted, the Voix du Nord newspaper reported. Bomb disposal experts checked the car and gave the all-clear. In Haguenau, eastern France, a cool box was found with electrical wires protruding from it about 60 metres from a polling station. Water was sprayed on it and it was found to be empty. Army soldiers patrol past posters showing faces of the candidates for the first-round presidential election near a polling station in Paris In Paris, a polling station in the 20th arrondissement was briefly closed after a car considered suspicious was parked nearby. It was checked and voting resumed after about 20 minutes. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2017-04-23 11:10 |
| #2 First the UK. Frexit coming? Germany going to follow once Merkel is gone? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2017-04-23 09:20 |
| #1 If a terror attack happened today, while voters are going to the polls, think the press would cover it honestly? I don't |
| Posted by: Frank G 2017-04-23 09:19 |