French far-right leader Marine Le Pen today proposed a ban on Muslim headscarves in all public places, seeking to build on a record recent poll putting her almost neck-and-neck with President Emmanuel Macron. If accurate, the survey indicates that Macron and Le Pen are set to duel for the presidency for the second time. 'It's the highest she has ever been at,' said Jean-Yves Camus, a French political scientist specialised in the far-right, while adding that it was 'too early to take the polls at face value'. These challenges are unlikely to be fully resolved in the fifteen months before the next election and will be inherited by the next French president. A re-run of the Macron-Le Pen contest of 2017, which all polls currently show as the most likely outcome, could increase the abstention rate and disillusionment with the French political system.

Source: Daily Mail January 29, 2021 17:12 UTC