France

PARIS, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Valerie Pecresse, who has described herself as "one-third Thatcher, two-thirds Merkel", has won the French conservative Les Republicains (LR) ticket for the 2022 presidential election and will now aim to thwart Emmanuel Macron's re-election bid.

Opinion polls have so far shown the 54-year-old head of the Paris Ile-de-France region winning about 11% of the votes at best in next April's election, giving her little chance of making it to a second-round runoff, let alone winning it.

PARIS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Valerie Pecresse, a moderate conservative who served as minister under former President Nicolas Sarkozy, will go into a runoff as favourite to be picked as the centre-right Les Republicains' candidate in the French presidential election in April.

Pecresse will face Eric Ciotti, a staunch right-winger among the party ranks, in the runoff. The winner will head the party's bid to return to power for the first time in a decade.

PARIS (AP) — Greeks who are over age 60 and refuse coronavirus vaccinations could be hit with monthly fines of more than one-quarter of their pensions — a get-tough policy that the country’s politicians say will cost votes but save lives.

In Israel, potential carriers of the new omicron variant could be tracked by the nation’s domestic security agency in seeming defiance of a Supreme Court ruling from the last go-round.

02 Dec 2021; MEMO: French populist and media pundit Eric Zemmour announced on Tuesday that he is standing as a candidate in next year's presidential election with a chilling message for Europe's Muslims. The 63-year-old, who has been called a far-right "Jewish anti-Semite", peddled the racist and infamous "great replacement" conspiracy theory in a video announcing his candidacy.

GRANDE-SYNTHE, France, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Police on Tuesday tore down a makeshift camp near the northern French port of Dunkirk where scores of migrants who say they are fleeing war, poverty and persecution in the Middle East were hunkered down with hopes of reaching Britain.

Armed officers entered the camp, which runs along a disused railway line, before workers in protective suits pulled down tents and plastic shelters.

PARIS (AP) — A far-right former TV pundit with multiple hate-speech convictions officially entered the race for France’s presidency on Tuesday and warned his supporters that they will likely be called racists for backing his anti-immigration and anti-Islam views that have already shaken up the election campaign.

The launch of Eric Zemmour’s run for the presidency made official a candidacy that had been gathering steam for months before it then stumbled of late — notably after the 63-year-old raised a middle finger at a woman who did likewise to him over the weekend.

CALAIS, France (AP) — At the makeshift camps in France near Calais and Dunkirk, migrants are digging in, waiting for their chance to make a dash across the English Channel despite the deaths of at least 27 people this week when their boat sank a few miles (kilometers) from the French coast.

Police have stepped up patrols in recent days and the weather has worsened, making this a bad time to attempt a crossing. But most migrants say the tragedy won’t prevent them from climbing into a flimsy inflatable boat packed with up to 50 people in hopes of reaching Britain.

GUADELOUPE, Nov 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France has postponed a mandatory coronavirus vaccination requirement for health workers in Guadeloupe and Martinique, after the measure spurred several days of widespread protests and unrest in the French Caribbean territories.

In a statement on Friday, the French health ministry said the implementation of the vaccination requirement – also in place in mainland France – would be pushed back until Dec 31 to allow for dialogue.

CALAIS, France (AP) — France reacted with anger and dismay on Friday to Britain’s latest proposals for dealing with the deadly flow of migrants between their shores, ramping up a battle of wills over dangerous crossings of the English Channel that killed 27 people in a sinking this week.

PARIS (AP) — France is launching a new process for women to formally report domestic violence and sexual and other abuse, circumventing police stations where many victims feel uncomfortable filing such complaints.

The measure comes after tens of thousands of women in France shared testimonies online about police victim-blaming them or mishandling complaints as they reported sexual abuse. The government has also come under pressure in recent years to better protect women from deadly domestic violence.