France will hold the first round of early elections to the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on Sunday.
Polling stations mostly opened at 08:00 local time (09:00 Kiev time), the end of voting at most polling stations will take place by 18:00 (19:00 Kiev time), however, in some cities and departments the schedule of polling stations may differ. In particular, in major cities, including Paris, the French will be able to cast their vote until 20:00 (21:00 Kiev time).
The first results are expected to appear after 20:00 local time (21:00 Kiev time).
Voters will have to elect 577 parliamentarians, with 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.
According to the procedure, if a candidate wins a majority of votes in the first round with a turnout of more than 25%, he or she immediately gets a seat in parliament. If no candidate is elected, there is a second round.
As a rule, one round is not enough to determine the winner of the French parliamentary elections. This time the second round is scheduled for July 7.
In the elections there is a bloc of left-wing parties called “New Popular Front”, the coalition “Together”, including, in particular, the party “Renaissance”, founded by Macron, as well as the right-wing party “Republicans”. The main intrigue of the election, however, is how many seats the far-right Rassemblement Nationale party, affiliated with Marine Le Pen, which won France’s European Parliament elections earlier this month, will be able to win.
According to the latest pre-election polls, Rassemblement Nationale can count on nearly 40 percent of the vote in the first round, which could give the party between 250 and 280 seats in the lower house, while 289 seats are needed for an absolute majority. A coalition of the Left is likely to come in second place, while the Together coalition is likely to come in third.
Early elections in France are being held after French President Macron’s Renaissance party lost to the far-right Rassemblement Nationale in the June 9 European Parliament elections. On the same day, the French leader announced the dissolution of the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, and called early parliamentary elections.
Earlier the analytical center Experts Club presented an analytical material about the most important elections in the countries of the world in 2024, more detailed video analysis is available here – https://youtu.be/73DB0GbJy4M?si=eGb95W02MgF6KzXU.
Subscribe to Experts Club YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/@ExpertsClub
The Verkhovna Rada may fill the vacancies in the Cabinet of Ministers at one of its upcoming plenary sessions, Ukrainian parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said.
“I am convinced that literally in the near future the Verkhovna Rada will return to personnel issues and our task is to fill the government,” Stefanchuk said on the air of a national telethon on Saturday.
He emphasized that one of the next plenary sessions of the parliament could be devoted to personnel issues.
According to Stefanchuk, it is necessary to move away from the practice of “acting ministers in certain areas.”
“There should be a minister, a full-fledged member of the government who fulfills the tasks entrusted to him by the people of Ukraine in the area of the executive branch entrusted to him,” the speaker noted.
Since August 2023, the sea corridor created by the Ukrainian Navy has exported 55 million tons of cargo, of which more than half (37.4 million tons) were agricultural products, the Ministry of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure (MinRestore) reports.
“During the 10 months of operation of the Ukrainian Sea Corridor, a record amount of cargo was transported – 55 million tons of cargo – the cargo turnover of the ports of Greater Odesa,” the report says.
The Black Sea ports handled 1,954 thousand vessels.
Approaching the ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi are 68 vessels, exporting almost 2 million tons of cargo, the Ministry of Reconstruction said.
In early June of this year, it was reported that the sea corridor had exported 50 million tons of cargo since its launch, with 1737 vessels handled in the ports.
Google Translate has added the Crimean Tatar language to the list of available translations.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine noted in the social network X: “Thank you @Google for this crucial initiative, which demonstrates that the rich linguistic and cultural heritage of Ukraine’s indigenous peoples is valuable to the international community.”
The number of registration actions in the field of state registration of rights to real estate in the first quarter of 2024 by 38%, and in the field of business – by 23%, said the head of the Office of counteraction to raiding of the Ministry of Justice Viktor Dubovik.
“Starting from 2020, I am of the opinion that the number of registration actions is one of the important indicators of economic activity in the state. Because the majority of registration actions are revenues to the budget in the form of administrative fees, the emergence of new rights and obligations of citizens and businesses, as well as the presence of demand for the services of notaries and state registrars,” his words are quoted on the website of the Ministry of Justice.
Dubovik specified that for the first three months of 2024 was made 2 million 605.73 thousand registration actions on the real estate and 263.48 thousand – on business, while for the same period in 2023 – respectively 1 million 887.60 thousand and 214.26 thousand.
At the same time, according to his data, the number of complaints received by the Office in the field of real estate increased even more significantly – up to 699 from 290 in the first quarter of last year, while in the business sector the situation, on the contrary, improved: the number of complaints decreased to 115 from 119.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan discussed the security situation in Europe and the South Caucasus on the margins of the Dubrovnik Forum in Croatia.
“I thanked Armenia for participating in the first Peace Summit in Switzerland and informed my counterpart about further work on the implementation of the Peace Formula on the way to a just and sustainable peace in Ukraine,” Kuleba wrote on social network X.
The ministers also focused on ways to deepen bilateral ties and international cooperation, especially in light of Ukraine’s future membership in the EU.