IT may not be an analogy Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s handlers might comfortably offer, but if the saga of his leadership, and particularly when it might end, was imagined as a dance of the seven veils then Mr Kenny can have only one, or at the very most two, veils left ahead of tomorrow’s Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting where it is expected but not certain, that he will clarify when he will shed the last veil. 

France will elect a president tomorrow and, if the opinion polls are correct, centrist Emmanuel Macron will defeat the National Front’s Marine Le Pen. A poll released yesterday showed that the pro-EU Mr Macron has extended his lead.

EU leaders should be considering to what extent they would be able to work around a Le Pen presidency, writes Mark Leonard.