Nine months before the presidential election, the candidates could well be the unpopular incumbent, Francois Hollande, his equally unpopular predecessor, Nicholas Sarkozy, and the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, says Noah Barkin

The race to be the next president of France could come down to voting for whoever will do the least damage, writes Noah Barkin. 

CJ Stander has earned plaudits for his captaincy of Munster in trying times but the last throes of the season are set to bring different issues for his leadership as the race for European qualification goes down to the wire.

In the build-up to his Test debut against Wales last Sunday, CJ Stander said he got three phone calls that helped him prepare for what would be a man-of-the-match performance.

CJ Stander’s performance? It had nothing on his rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann, apparently.

During the past year, right-wing populist politicians have been on the march, in France, the US and even in Germany, where chancellor Angela Merkel’s generous response to the migration crisis has left her exposed, politically, as never before.

French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen will go on trial for comparing Muslim street prayers to wartime Nazi occupation, party officials and the prosecutor’s office said yesterday.

Three topless women from the Femen activist group, making Nazi salutes, disrupted a May Day speech by French far-right leader Marine Le Pen attacking her political rivals.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France’s far-right Front National (FN), said he would not seek its ticket to stand in regional polls later this year, taking some of the sting out of a damaging public row with his daughter Marine, the party leader.

Get a taste of some of the interesting and quirky happenings in Europe from our Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill.

France’s far-right National Front made gains in municipal elections, sparking calls for left and right-wing parties to stop its advance.

Telegraph Avenue

France’s far right National Front will sue Madonna after she screened footage of party leader Marine Le Pen with a swastika superimposed on her face at a concert in Paris on Saturday, a party official said.

IN setting a record score for the far right in Sunday’s French presidential election, Marine Le Pen has set the stage for her National Front to try and break into parliament at a legislative election in June.