French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen on Wednesday accused her rivals of turning a blind eye to Islamic terrorism ather last major rally before the first round of a nailbiting race for president. Police fired teargas and arrested four people after around 500 people demonstrated against Le Pen ( see pic below) and tried to march towards the rally. Polls show Le Pen, 39-year-old centrist Emmanuel Macron, conservative former prime minister Francois Fillon and hard left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon locked in a tight four-way race ahead of Sunday's first round of voting. Jean-Yves Camus, an academic and expert on the FN, told AFP that Le Pen had returned to the "fundamentals, and particularly immigration" in the final run-in. Le Pen demands removal of EU flagSome analysts have also depicted the French election as a sort of referendum on the European Union, with Le Pen proposing to a referendum on France's membership of the 28-country club and scrap the euro common currency.

Source: The Local April 19, 2017 22:18 UTC