If the the far-right Marine Le Pen and the independent centrist Emmanuel Macron square off in the second round of the presidential election, it will be a first in 60 years, says Zaki Laïdi.         

The left-wing laggards in France’s presidential campaign are talking about uniting, a move that may elbow out centrists from the second round and improve the anti-euro Marine Le Pen’s chances of victory.

French presidential hopeful Manuel Valls has pledged to tax US imports if Donald Trump pulls America out of the global climate deal reached in Paris in 2015 and declares "economic war on Europe".

President François Hollande replaced his maverick leftist economy minister with a former Rothschild partner yesterday, in a reshuffle intended to reconcile his efforts to revive the stagnant French economy with deficit-cutting orthodoxy. 

Police raids across the south of France over the sale of horsemeat unfit for human consumption have led to the arrest of 21 people.

Riot police today patrolled suburbs west of Paris that have seen cars torched and a police station attacked amid tensions linked to authorities’ handling of France’s ban on Muslim face veils.

The head of the French wholesaler at the centre of the storm over the sale of horse meat labelled as beef said today that he has proof his company is innocent.

The French meat wholesaler Spanghero is to blame for fraudulently labelling horsemeat as beef, a minister says.

Companies in Romania, Cyprus, the Netherlands, and France have now been implicated in the horsemeat saga that has seen huge percentages of horse being sold as beef in ready-made meals.

Europe’s horse meat scandal is spreading, as French consumer safety authorities say companies from Romania, Cyprus and the Netherlands were part of a supply chain that resulted in horse meat being disguised as beef in frozen lasagne sold around the continent.

French president-elect François Hollande signalled to Germany yesterday that he will not be deflected from his drive to change Europe’s focus from austerity to growth after German chancellor Angela Merkel rejected any economic stimulus on credit.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy will announce his bid for re-election tonight, setting the stage for what he hopes will be a dramatic comeback against his poll-leading Socialist rival, a source in his office said.

A FRENCH novelist will file a criminal complaint today accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape, her lawyer said, throwing fresh uncertainty into a fierce national debate about whether the former International Monetary Fund chief can return to his country’s presidential race.

FRANCE’S President Nicolas Sarkozy remained defiant yesterday after massive street protests against his plan to raise the retirement age from 60, vowing to push on with an “essential” reform.