The campaign of leading French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron says he has been the target of a “massive and coordinated hacking attack” following the release of what it said to be the campaign’s internal documents online just ahead of the election.

Late Friday, Macron’s campaign staff said the “cyber attack” led to the release of thousands of emails and other documents, slamming it as an attempt at “democratic destabilization, like that seen during the last presidential campaign in the United States.”

According to local press reports, nearly nine gigabytes of data were posted on a profile called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a site that allows anonymous document sharing. However, it was not immediately clear who was responsible for posting the data or whether any of the information was genuine.

In a statement, Macron’s political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed that it had been hacked. It issued a statement saying, “The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and coordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information.”

The campaign files spread on social media shortly before midnight on Friday. when the 39-year-old, centrist Macron and his ultra-right rival Marine Le Pen officially concluded political campaigning for Sunday’s presidential poll. Macron’s aides slammed the leak as “unprecedented in a French electoral campaign.”

“Clearly, the documents arising from the hacking are all lawful and show the normal functioning of a presidential campaign,” Macron’s aides declared in a statement.

This is while the pro-European Union and pro-business former banker is leading his anti-establishment rival with a comfortable margin of nearly 62 percent to 38 percent, according to latest polls. Le Pen has said she wants to copy Britain’s example and hold a referendum on France’s EU membership, prompting serious concerns in capitals across the bloc.

A former economy minister under Socialist President Francois Hollande, Macron is a pro-trade reformer, who left the government last August to concentrate on his new political movement En Marche, which has drawn 250,000 members in 12 months. Meanwhile, a French Interior Ministry official refused to comment on the hacking, citing French rules that forbid any commentary likely to influence an election.

Moreover, the presidential election commission said in a statement that it would hold a meeting later on Saturday after Macron’s campaign informed the body about the reported hacking attack. The commission further called on the media to be cautious about publishing details of the emails considering that campaigning had ended, and publication could lead to criminal charges.

France is the latest nation to see a major election overshadow by allegations of manipulation through cyber hacking. In January, US intelligence agencies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering the hacking of parties linked to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in a bid to influence the polls on behalf of her Republican rival Donald Trump.

Source: Presstv

European Council President Donald Tusk has warned of “impossible” Brexit negotiation after UK Prime Minister Theresa May accused Brussels of meddling in Britain’s election. “These negotiations are difficult enough as they are. If we start arguing before they even begin they will become impossible,” Tusk told a Thursday news conference alongside Norway’s prime minister.

“The stakes are too high to let our emotions get out of hand, because at stake are the daily lives and interests of millions of people on both sides of the Channel,” the former Polish premier said. “We must keep in mind that in order to succeed we need today discretion, moderation, mutual respect and a maximum of goodwill,” he added. The remarks came hours after European Parliament President Antonio Tajani insisted that “no one is trying to influence the outcome of the election campaign in the United Kingdom.”

On Wednesday, May accused the EU of using Brexit as an excuse to influence the outcome of Britain’s upcoming general election. Speaking after a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, May told reporters at 10 Downing Street that the “bureaucrats of Brussels” were hoping to sway voters by making “threats” against the country. She also attacked the European media, saying they had “misrepresented” her government’s stance on negotiations concerning the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

French centrist presidential candidate Emanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen have exchanged barbs at their only televised debate prior to the Sunday presidential runoff in France. The duel on Wednesday night was rife with verbal clashes between the two presidential hopefuls, who discussed an assortment of controversial issues on economy, national security, and foreign policy.

During the two-and-a-half hour debate, Le Pen tried to highlight her flagship policy of “France-first” nationalism, including a crackdown on illegal immigration, scrapping the euro currency, and holding a referendum on European Union (EU) membership.

Macron, for his part, called for political openness, pro-market reforms, and the slashing of public spending. At one climactic point, Le Pen branded the former economy minister as “the candidate of the elite” and a “darling of the system.” Macron called her a “liar” and a “parasite of the system” in response.

On foreign policy, the 48-year-old candidate of the far-right Front National (FN) party accused her rival of being “submissive” toward German Chancellor Angela Merkel, taking a dig by saying, “France will be led by a woman, either me or Mrs. Merkel.”

Le Pen also accused Macron of having “no plan” on national security and of adopting an “indulgent attitude” toward the terrorist threats faced by the country. The 39-year-old centrist replied that he would be “uncompromising” on terrorism, which he described as the biggest issue of the next few years in France.

Accusing his rival of “hate-filled speech,” Macron warned that Le Pen’s bellicose rhetoric would divide France and lead to “a civil war.” In a final blow, Macron reproached his rival for her policies and said, “I’m sorry, Madame Le Pen; France deserves better than you.”

In an opinion poll immediately conducted by Elabe pollsters for BFM TV after the heated debate, some 63 percent of the people interviewed found the pro-EU former economy minister more convincing versus 34 percent for the leader of the FN party.

Macron and Le Pen won the first round of voting in France’s presidential election on April 23. Macron finished first with 24 percent, ahead of Le Pen with 21.3 percent. They will now have to contend in the runoff, scheduled for May 7. Nearly 47 million voters are eligible to vote on that day. France’s outgoing President Francois Hollande urged voters last week to back Macron and reject Le Pen.

Culled from Presstv

French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has warned that the European Union will not survive if far-right leader Marine Le Pen becomes president.

“The European Union, weakened by Brexit, would not be able to withstand the new shock that would be constituted by the arrival in power in France of a government that is openly europhobic,” wrote Cazeneuve in a column in the Liberation newspaper on Tuesday.

He further called on the country to vote for front-runner Emmanuel Macron in the decisive May 7 presidential run-off.

Macron, 39, and Le Pen, 48, won the first round of voting in the presidential election on April 23. Macron finished first on 24 percent, ahead of Le Pen with 21.3 percent.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair has announced his plan to “get his hands dirty” with domestic politics again, 20 years after beating John Major to enter Downing Street.

In an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper published on Monday, Blair said he is returning to politics in order to fight against the UK leaving the European Union (EU).

Blair led the Labour Party to a landslide victory on May 1, 1997 – two decades ago today — ending its 18 years in opposition and winning 418 seats, the most the party has ever held. He led Labour from 1994 to 2007.

Blair said he will not be standing in the June general elections, but added that he wanted to launch a political movement to formulate the policy debate as Britain begins its two-year-long complex negotiations to leave the EU.

The 63-year-old, whose ten-year tenure as the British PM was marred by his controversial decision to join the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, admitted that he would face intense criticism for returning to politics.

Source: Presstv

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron have advanced to France’s presidential runoff scheduled for May 7. According to the preliminary results released late on Sunday, the two candidates are engaged in a close race as a spokesman for defeated candidate, François Fillon, says he has suffered ‘huge disappointment’. French interior ministry says with 33.2 million votes counted, Macron is leading with 23.11 percent of the votes and Le Pen with 23.08 percent. According to AFP, if this result is finally approved, it would put the eurosceptic, anti-immigration Le Pen within striking distance of the presidency in the forthcoming election.

Nearly 47 million voters cast their ballots on Sunday under tight security to decide whether to back a pro-EU centrist newcomer, a scandal-ridden veteran conservative who wants to slash public spending, a far-left eurosceptic admirer of Fidel Castro, or a first woman president who would shut borders to refugees and ditch the euro.

The final outcome of the French presidential poll is being anxiously monitored around the world as a sign of whether the populist tide that saw Britain vote to leave the EU and Donald Trump’s election in the United States is still rising or starting to ebb. Emmanuel Macron, 39, is a centrist ex-banker, who set up his party just a year ago. Before Sunday election, he was the opinion polls’ favorite to win the first round and beat Le Pen.

Months of campaigning has been marred by scandals, which have left many voters agonizing over their choice. A survey from Harris Interactive estimated the final abstention rate at 21.5 percent, while one from Ifop-Fiducial for Paris Match and CNews put the abstention rate at 19 percent.

The abstention rate was 20.52 percent in 2012, according to Interior Ministry figures. About 50,000 police and 7,000 soldiers have been deployed around France to protect voters in the wake of a policeman’s killing on Thursday.

France’s ultra-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has highlighted themes such as immigration and national identity to excite her supporters at a Paris rally as she leads a tight race with her three top rivals.

The Monday rally came as the country’s unpredictable presidential campaign neared its finish just a week before the first-round polls will be held to narrow the field of 11 to a May 7 runoff vote between the top two vote getters.

Le Pen is competing with independent centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron for the lead in polls, while hard-left rival Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative Francois Fillon begin to close the gap.

According to the latest polls, Macron and Le Pen currently lead polls with 22 and 23 percent respectively, while Melenchon and Fillon follow behind with 19 and 21 percent, meaning that they all have a chance to reach the runoff since as many as a third of eligible voters reportedly remain undecided.

During her speech at the rally, Le Pen — who claims France has been subjugated by the European Union and waves of immigration – described the upcoming vote as “historical.”

“What is being played next Sunday is an issue of civilization,” she said, vowing to end the borderless Schengen Treaty so France can control its frontiers and thus stop both immigration and “the terrorist threat.”

“We opened the door of the house of France to the mafia, to terrorists who quickly understood the benefits they could get from our incredible powerlessness and send their soldiers of hate among the migrant flows to hit our country in the heart,” Le pen said.

Clashes broke out between riot police and scores of opponents of Le Pen’s anti-immigration National Front Party ahead of her rally, delaying its start. Demonstrators also threw rocks at police forces, who in turn fired tear gas.

Macron, the former economy minister in the Socialist government and one-time investment banker, pledged an “open, confident, winning France” in contrast with his far-right and far-left rivals.

Melenchon, who is enjoying a late poll surge, also campaigned on a barge floating through the canals of Paris on Monday as conservative candidate Francois Fillon took his tough-on-security campaign to the southern French city of Nice, which suffered a bloody truck attack last year.

Meanwhile, Fillon’s austerity-focused campaign has been damaged by accusations that he misused taxpayer funds to pay his wife and children for government jobs that they allegedly did not perform. French investigators are probing the allegations as Fillon denies any wrongdoing.

The Socialists’ campaign has suffered from internal divisions as well as the dismal image of Socialist President Francois Hollande, who remains so unpopular that he is not seeking a second term.

France’s presidential race is being closely watched internationally as a key gauge of populist sentiment, mainly promoted by Le Pen, with her nationalist program presented under the slogan “In the Name of the People.”

Presstv

Top European officials have reacted to the recent referendum in Turkey by calling on Ankara to choose its next steps carefully and seek broader consensus in implementing constitutional reforms. Turkey held a referendum on a package of constitutional changes on Sunday. Later in the day, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had campaigned heavily for a “Yes” vote, declared victory.

The reforms will change Turkey’s parliamentary system into a presidential one; the office of the prime minister will be abolished; the president will appoint the cabinet and an undefined number of vice-presidents, and will be able to select and remove senior civil servants without parliamentary approval.

The changes would also potentially keep Erdogan in power until 2029. He has already been there since 2003. Erdogan said after the voting that 51.5 percent of the voters — 25 million people — had supported the reforms. Yet, almost as many people were opposed to them, meaning that an all-encompassing alteration in Turkish politics would proceed to take effect in spite of opposition from almost half of the electorate.

Pointing to that aspect of the vote, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in a joint statement called “on the Turkish authorities to seek the broadest possible national consensus” in the implementation of the reforms. The Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member, also issued a statement on Sunday, saying that, “In view of the close result, the Turkish leadership should consider the next steps carefully.”

“It is of utmost importance to secure the independence of the judiciary in line with the principle of rule of law enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights,” said the Council’s Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland. He said the Council “stands ready to support the country [Turkey] in this process.”

The European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, Kati Piri, also described the reforms as “a major shift away from European values.” “Erdogan’s autocratic behavior has deeply polarized Turkish society and harmed the economy,” she said. The final results of the referendum will be announced in about 10 days after objections have been considered. The Turkish opposition has already challenged the results, saying it would want some 60 percent of the ballots recounted.

Erdogan has called the referendum results “very significant” because, according to him, it was the first time change was being brought about peacefully and not through military coups, a regular feature of decades of Turkish politics. But a population almost evenly divided over the constitutional changes could prove difficult to govern, which would in turn provide a basis for political violence.

Three people were killed in a gunfight between two groups at a school that was being used as polling station in the southeastern province of Diyarbaki on Sunday. The shootout erupted after the two groups of relatives started arguing over political disagreements during the voting, reports said. Erdogan himself survived a coup in July last year. He has since been overseeing a crackdown on putschists and their sympathizers. Some 47,000 people have been detained and 120,000 fired or suspended from their jobs in the purge. Turkey has been under a state of emergency since that coup attempt.

Source: Presstv

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for stronger ties with France in order to ensure the European Union’s future a day after Britain triggered the formal process of leaving the bloc. Steinmeier visited Paris on Thursday on his first foreign trip as president since he was elected last month. He met French President Francois Hollande to discuss the path forward after the Brexit vote.

“I’m glad that the Germans and the French are ready to keep moving forward side by side,” he said in a joint statement with Hollande. “Whether we want it or not, Germany and France will have to assume a greater responsibility … to build Europeans’ hopes,” Steinmeier added.  For his part, Hollande said the two countries needed to move forward “arm in arm” to create “the Europe of tomorrow”.

Hollande warned against “the trap of nationalism” that EU counties faced, adding that the members needed to show greater commitment to EU solidarity. The two European heavyweights are encountering new challenges after Britain’s exit from the European Union.  On Thursday, Hollande told UK Prime Minister Theresa May on behalf of the 27 remaining EU member states that the conditions of the Brexit must be settled.

“First, we must begin discussions on the modalities of the withdrawal, especially on the rights of citizens and the obligations arising from the commitments that the United Kingdom has made,” Hollande told May on phone. After the conditions is settled, “we could then open discussions on the framework of the future relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union,” he said, according to a statement released by the Elysée Palace.

Downing Street, however, said it believed negotiations between London and Brussels regarding the Brexit and the conditions for future cooperation between Britain and the EU bloc “should take place in parallel.” May wrote in articles published in several European newspapers on Thursday morning that she wanted the UK’s new relationship with the EU to ensure the region’s security remained intact.

Presstv

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has triggered the formal, two-year process of withdrawing Britain from the European Union (EU), likely to be the most complex London has held since World War Two. Launching the process of Britain’s exit from the EU, popularly known as Brexit, was announced by the prime minister on Wednesday at the UK Parliament, after more than 40 years of membership in the bloc.

On behalf of May, British Ambassador to the EU Tim Barrow hand-delivered a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk in Brussels to officially notify the EU of Britain’s decision to withdraw from the bloc. The six page letter invoked Article 50 of the EU Treaty, the mechanism for starting Britain’s divorce process.  In her speech to Parliament, which was planned to coincide with the letter’s delivery, May urged the country to come together as it embarks on a “momentous journey.” “The Article 50 process is now under way and in accordance with the wishes of the British people, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union,” she said. “This is a historic moment from which there can be no turning back.”

Brussels is expected to deliver its first response to London on Friday, followed by a summit of EU leaders on April 29 to adopt their own guidelines, possibly taking weeks before formal talks start. The United Kingdom held a referendum last June in which Britons voted by a 52-48 percent margin to leave the EU, the first member state ever to do so. However, there is a chance that the Brexit negotiations will break down and the UK will be forced to exit the EU without any deal in place. The EU is determined to preserve its own unity and has said that any Brexit agreement must not encourage other member states to leave the bloc.

Although Britain as whole voted to leave the EU, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay in the bloc. The Brexit referendum has prompted nationalists in Scotland and Northern Ireland to call for a referendum on independence from the United Kingdom. There is broad consensus among economists that Brexit will have a prolonged effect of the British economy and will ultimately diminish output, jobs and wealth to some degree. Many business leaders are also concerned about May’s decision to leave the EU single market, a free trade area of 500 million people, fearing its impact on jobs and economic growth.

Presstv