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World elections

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Keir Starmer UK Labour leader

How will Keir Starmer change the UK?

As a Labour government gets set to take the reins after 14 years of Conservative rule, what will Starmer do with power in his first 100 days and beyond?

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Britain’s Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer.

UK voters head to polling stations to hand Tories a thumping

On election eve, opinion polls suggest a Labour landslide of historic proportions. But the many tight three-way contests could still deliver a surprise.

  • Hans van Leeuwen

Yesterday

A hung parliament would risk policy paralysis for the rest of President Emmanuel Macron’s presidency.

French candidates bow out in bid to block far right

More than 200 have confirmed they will not stand in Sunday’s second round voting for France’s 577-seat national parliament.

  • Updated
  • Sudip Kar-Gupta and Dominique Vidalon
Boris Johnson at the campaign event this week.

Boris Johnson in surprise late move to avert Tory wipeout

Making his first public appearance of the campaign, the former prime minister said Labour would “destroy so much of what we have achieved”.

  • Alex Wickham
The Conservative government has sowed the seeds of its own downfall.

Why angry Britain will this week finally dump the Tories

Five PMs, five elections and a three-ring circus: over 14 years, the Conservative government sowed the seeds of its own downfall – and leaves a mixed legacy.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
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This Month

Pro-Palestinian protesters in London this year. Some candidates are hoping to mobilise Muslim votes in this week’s election.

Campaigners seek to harness Gaza anger among UK Muslim voters

Britain’s ‘Muslim Vote’ campaign is looking to win enough votes to send a strong message to the new parliament.

  • Muvija M and Hannah Ellison
Protesters demonstrate against the far-right’s win in elections, at Place de la Republique in Paris.

France’s parties scramble to keep far right from power

Stocks and the euro rose as some second-round candidates could be pulled to try to boost the vote against Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party.

  • Updated
  • Leila Abboud, Adrienne Klasa and Brian Johnston
Supporters of France’s Marine Le Pen celebrate National Rally’s result.

France teeters towards dysfunction as vote puts far-right at ‘gates of power’

Emmanuel Macron’s gamble looks set to usher in a populist government or a paralysed parliament, unless voters rally to him in the poll’s July 7 second round.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen
Marine Le Pen avoided any triumphalism, warning that victory was not secure.

Macron’s reckless gamble leaves French voters with invidious choice

Thanks to Macron’s miscalculations, the eurosceptic, anti-immigration RN has a shot at securing an absolute parliamentary majority in the second round of voting on July 7.

  • Ben Hall
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen gestures after delivering her speech following the release of polling projections.

Victory no certainty for Marine Le Pen as France faces second vote

Sunday night was a major victory for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. However, round two of this lightning contest is far from an electoral slam dunk for the right.

  • Updated
  • Henry Samuel
Marine Le Pen after the release of poll projections: “The French have shown in a vote without ambiguity their will to turn the page.”

Le Pen’s far-right party set to come first in French vote

The National Rally was projected to get between 33 per cent and 34.2 per cent of the vote, putting them in pole position for a second-round run-off.

  • Updated
  • Ania Nussbaum, Samy Adghirni and William Horobin
Marine Le Pen reacts as she meets supporters and journalists after the release of projections based on the actual vote count in select constituencies.

Euro rises as Le Pen’s party set for smaller victory than feared

Initial results had the far right in front of Macron’s centrist alliance and the left-wing alliance but with less support than it needs to win the second round.

  • Alice Gledhill and Aline Oyamada
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer can work and work with “ridiculously small amounts of sleep”, according to one of his ex-girlfriends.

The productivity hack that really does boost careers

Physical stamina is an oddly overlooked superpower in working life. But although it will take you a long way, it won’t always be enough to achieve enduring success.

  • Pilita Clark

June

Far-right National Rally party president Jordan Bardella poses for a selfie after voting in Garches, outside Paris.

Far-right looms as France votes in snap elections

France is voting in parliamentary polls that President Emmanuel Macron called this month, a gamble that has thrust the country into uncertainty over its future.

  • Updated
  • Johnny Cotton
Hardline former Iranian Saeed Jalili casts his ballot in a polling station, in Tehran on Friday.

Iran’s election pits reformist against ultra-hardliner

Iran will hold a runoff presidential election to replace the late Ebrahim Raisi after the top candidates failed to secure a majority.

  • Updated
  • Sussanah George
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French far-right leader Marine Le Pen speaks with National Rally president Jordan Bardella at party headquarters on EU election night.

France’s far-right ‘dream ticket’ chases election victory

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen anointed her youthful protege as prime minister in waiting, but the office may come sooner than either expected as France votes.

  • Leila Abboud
Opposition Leader Keir Starmer and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak go head to head in a sometimes feisty BBC debate.

With nothing left to lose, Sunak goes on the attack

A sharper-sounding prime minister is betting that sowing fear might save the Tory furniture even if it can’t prevent an election loss.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Marine Le Pen after a press conference in Paris this week.

France’s election could trigger market shockwaves, BoE warns

The Bank of England’s alert comes before Sunday’s first round of voting. Polls now show the populist right potentially closing in on a parliamentary majority.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Jordan Bardella: “I think the French are ready for change.”

What the far right’s Jordan Bardella would do as France’s PM

The 28-year-old chief of the National Rally party said in an interview that he was confident of winning an outright majority in legislative elections starting this weekend.

  • Leila Abboud and Ben Hall
Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak. The head-to-head debate in Nottingham was the prime minister’s last chance in a set-piece event to try to turn around a Conservative campaign.

Rishi Sunak uses TV debate to try to avert Tory electoral meltdown

With new opinion polls pointing to a massive Labour majority, the PM came out fighting, insisting that Sir Keir Starmer would raise taxes and allow spending to spiral.

  • George Parker, Lucy Fisher and Rafe Uddin

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/world-elections-ho0