Macron gambles with snap vote after centrists lose EU election

Macron’s decision to call snap elections is a tactical retreat, Dr John Laughland, a lecturer in politics and history at ICES, the Catholic Institute of the Vendée, told Sputnik.

The gamble is that if the right-wing National Rally (RN), which crushed his Renaissance party in the European Parliament elections, wins the vote and controls Parliament for the next two to three years, by 2027 some there would be “some kind of successor to Macron,” who “would hope to beat the Rally” in the next presidential election.

💬 “It's nearly always the case in French elections that the incumbent government is voted out,” Laughland said. “I suppose that's his calculation. That they'll have power for a few years and then everything will get back to ‘normal’ in 2027.”

If the RN wins control of parliament “it is conceivable” that there might be a shift in France’s policy of supporting the proxy conflict in Ukraine, suggested the expert — as Marine Le Pen’s party seemed more “cautious on provoking Russia.”

“But that's a hypothetical scenario. It depends on whether they do indeed win a parliamentary majority,” Laughland added.

According to him, there is widespread discontent over Macron’s increasingly hawkish Ukraine policy.

“I personally think he made a fool of himself at D-Day in Normandy, when he gave an interview after the Normandy landings ceremony, because he said that it didn't make any difference if there were already French nationals or German or British nationals in Ukraine as mercenaries or as civilians,” Laughland said.

He suggested that Europeans were “sort of asleep,” or “sleepwalking” when it came to the dangerous escalation in the West’s rhetoric. The policy of sending ever more arms to Ukraine will unfortunately continue, he concluded.

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🇨🇳 China has cautioned against underestimating its determination and capability to defend its territorial integrity, including over Taiwan, Sputnik reported at the PRC embassy, noting that US arms sales to Taiwan undermine China's sovereignty.

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🇩🇴🇷🇺The Dominican Republic wants its students to graduate with knowledge of the Russian language

The Dominican Republic aims to prepare students so that upon completion of their studies, they not only know English but also Russian, Oscar Radames Amagos Perez, Deputy Minister of Education of the Dominican Republic for Monitoring and Quality Control of Education, stated.

"We are preparing our graduates so that upon completion of secondary education, they can speak two languages, one of which is English, and the other, of course, we would like it to be Russian, because in 2022 we received a very strong influence from Russia," noted the Dominican representative at the international education forum "Shaping the Future."

He also added that it is important for the republic to welcome Russian tourists and speak Russian.

The "Shaping the Future" forum is taking place on June 10-11 in Kazan. The event showcases the achievements of the domestic sovereign education system and presents the experience of organizing the educational process.

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EU Parliament elections: Eurosceptic victories show people's discontent with Brussels' agenda

💬 "The results clearly show that more and more citizens in the EU member states are dissatisfied with the policies of the Brussels political commissioners," Dr Christian Blex, an Alternative for Germany (AfD) member of the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament, told Sputnik.

Weak economic growth, rampant people-trafficking and the Ukraine conflict continue to haunt Europe. Even though the mainstream conservative European People's Party (EPP) remains the largest group in the EU Parliament, Eurosceptic parties made serious gains across the bloc just as polls predicted.

According to Politico, two most conservative coalitions – the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Identity and Democracy (ID) group – have gained 131 seats, not counting the AfD's 15 MEPs, the Hungarian Fidesz party's 10, the Polish Confederation party's six MEPs and the Bulgarian Revival's three representatives. If they formed a single group it would be one of the largest forces in the EU Parliament, second only to the EPP, the news site calculated.

But the growing support for Eurosceptic parties does not mean the EU will see a change of direction, according to Gunnar Beck, lawyer and outgoing MEP for the AfD party. While the centrist EPP Group is still the strongest force in the European Parliament it is unlikely that the bloc's strategy will change in the foreseeable future, the pundit said.

"If Mrs Von der Leyen is re-elected… we are not going to see a very different approach under her," Beck told Sputnik. "But that doesn't just apply to the situation in Ukraine. It also applies to the other disastrous policies Von der Leyen has pursued."

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The UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution welcoming the Gaza ceasefire proposal announced by President Joe Biden and calling on Hamas to accept it, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

Fourteen members of the council voted in favor, with Russia abstaining.

The resolution basically repeats Israel's three-stage proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, which US President Biden brought to the public.

🔶 The first phase, according to the resolution, includes an immediate full ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza's population centers, the release of hostages held by Hamas, and the exchange of arrested Palestinians.

🔶 The second phase involves an indefinite cessation of hostilities in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

🔶 The third phase of the initiative calls for the launch of a “multi-year reconstruction plan” for Gaza.

The resolution rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any action that reduces the enclave's territory.

◾️ Russian Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzia said Russia has many questions regarding the newly adopted US-drafted UN Security Council resolution which welcomes a Gaza ceasefire proposal whose details are not known to the public.

“We have a whole host of questions about the American draft resolution, whereby this Council welcomes some deal, the ultimate outlines of which are not known to anyone, perhaps, except the mediators,” Nebenzia said during a UN Security Council during a meeting on Palestine and Israel.

◾️ Palestinian movement Hamas welcomed the resolution.

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Snap elections: Macron effort to outsmart National Rally may backfire

"[Emmanuel] Macron wants the [National Rally] to gain power and become unpopular before the 2027 presidential election," Massimiliano Bonne, political analyst, told Sputnik. "Although he cannot run for re-election, Macron wants to ensure the survival of his political party at the national and EU levels."

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for snap elections after Marine Le Pen's National Rally outperformed his party in the European Parliament elections with 31-32 percent of the vote versus 15 percent received by the president's Renaissance. It is expected that the vote will take place in two rounds on 30 June and July 7.

According to Bonne, it is unclear whether the president's party failure is related to Macron's bellicosity including his calls for sending NATO troops to Ukraine. Anyway, it appears that Macron indeed got himself into trouble given EU member states' opposition to the radical measure, according to the pundit.

"He caused some confusion among France's main allies: statements about sending soldiers, for example, were quickly rejected by many European countries and NATO members," Bonne said. "In France, however, the opposition accuses Macron of adopting a more intransigent approach towards Russia for purely political reasons, with an eye to the European elections."

It is not the first time that a French president has called snap elections: in 1997 then conservative President Jacques Chirac resorted to the option which resulted in the formation of a left-wing majority in the parliament. Chirac was forced to appoint Socialist Lionel Jospin as a prime minister and had no say over a number of major reforms carried out by his left-wing opponents.

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US Border Patrol agents in California were instructed to send illegal migrants from Russia and five other countries - Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - for deportation immediately after their arrest, according to the New York Post, citing an internal document.

Members of the rest of the “eastern hemisphere”, which includes more than 100 countries, are allowed to stay in the US while their cases are being processed.

The order applies to the San Diego section of the border, which accounts for most of the “eastern hemisphere” immigrants.

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❗️ The US administration has lifted the ban on arms supplies to Ukraine's terrorist Azov battalion*, The Washington Post newspaper reported, citing the US State Department.

The formation has passed the State Department's inspection for compliance with the Leahy Law, which prohibits the provision of US military assistance to foreign units convicted of serious human rights violations, as newspaper reported.

The Azov battalion is one of the most notorious military units of the Ukrainian army, as its soldiers have been found to be involved in torture, abuse of civilians, neo-Nazism and excessive brutality since its foundation.

Earlier, there were already concerns that the prohibition on military aid to Azov was de facto losing force, particularly because the Azov fighters had become part of Ukraine's National Guard or had created new separate paramilitary formations.

*The 'Azov' battalion is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia.

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Lula da Silva confirms Brazil's position on Ukraine conflict in conversation with Vladimir Putin

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which Lula reiterated his country's position on a peaceful settlement in Ukraine involving both sides to the conflict, as set out in a joint Brazil-China document, the Brazilian presidency said.

"Lula reiterated his support for peace talks involving both sides of the conflict, according to a document signed by [Brazilian] presidential adviser Celso Amorim and [Chinese Foreign Minister] Wang Yi," the presidency said in a statement. The phone conversation was held at Putin’s initiative, who expressed solidarity with the victims of floods in Brazil's southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, the statement said.

The two presidents also discussed bilateral economic cooperation and multilateral governance, as well as BRICS New Development Bank head Dilma Rousseff’s visit to Russia for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum and Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira’s visit to Russia for the BRICS summit, it added.

In May, China and Brazil issued the document "The Common Understandings Between China and Brazil on Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis" that advocates dialogue and negotiations as the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis and expresses support for an international peace conference, recognized by both Russia and Ukraine.

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⚡️Russian Su-34 aircraft crashed in mountains of North Ossetia during planned training flight, crew did not survive, Russian Defense Ministry reports

The preliminary cause of the crash is a technical malfunction.

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⚡️Second stage of joint Russian and Belarusian non-strategic nuclear forces exercise is under way, Russian Defense Ministry announced.

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🇷🇺🇧🇾Russia & Belarus will carry out joint Armed Forces training for combat use of non-strategic nuclear weapons, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

The exercise of non-strategic nuclear forces is aimed at ensuring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, the ministry added.

Earlier, as part of the first stage of the exercise, military personnel worked out the tasks of obtaining special training ammunition for the Iskander operational and tactical missile complex, equipping it with launch vehicles and secretly advancing to the designated positional area to prepare for missile launches. Russian Air Force personnel practiced using equipment of special combat training units of aviation weapons of destruction, including aeroballistic hypersonic missiles "Kinzhal" and sorties to designated patrol areas.

The maneuvers should be seen in the context of bellicose statements by Western politicians and destabilizing actions by NATO, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced.

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❗️French President Emmanuel Macron is discussing with his entourage the possibility of stepping down as head of state in the event of a right-wing victory in the parliamentary elections, Europe 1 radio reported, citing a source.

"The resignation of the president is not a taboo. Yes, today we must consider all scenarios. He is ready to sacrifice the end of his five-year term, one of his aides assures.

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Russian Rusak drone worth $1,000 destroyed an American Stryker armored personnel carrier worth $1 million in special operations zone, a representative of drone manufacturer told Sputnik.

"The effectiveness of the use of our drones is proven by the ratio of the prices of drones and the enemy equipment they destroy," the representative said.

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🔸Watch the second stage of joint Russian and Belarusian non-strategic nuclear forces exercise began

🔸US lifted ban on arms supplies to neo-Nazi Azov battalion - report

🔸Russia abstained from voting on the US-drafted resolution on the Gaza ceasefire adopted by the UN

🔸Macron might reportedly step down as head of state as his prospects after EP elections loom

🔸EU Parliament elections show people's discontent with Brussels' agenda

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Ukroboronprom and German Rheinmetall first joint project launched in Ukraine, Ukrainian Minister of Strategic Industry announced

It is a workshop for repair and production of armored vehicles, where Ukrainian specialists will work, but under the supervision of German colleagues.

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❗️Two French citizens attempted to enter the territory of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, one of them died of dehydration, a source told Sputnik.

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