French parliament

Two Bulgarian women have emerged as contenders in the upcoming French parliamentary elections, representing the far-right "National Rally" party, as reported by BGNES.

Slavka Mihailova and Ivanka Dimitrova have advanced to the second round of voting scheduled for July 7.

European markets reacted positively to the results of the first round of parliamentary voting in France, with the euro strengthening on the foreign exchange market and stocks opening higher on Monday. Marine Le Pen's National Rally secured the lead in the election, but with a smaller margin than anticipated by pre-election polls.

US President Joe Biden has personally extended an apology to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the delayed delivery of arms earlier this year. The passage of over 60 billion USD in military aid faced hurdles in the US Congress, primarily due to opposition from Republicans in the House of Representatives.

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said he hoped a summit hosted by Switzerland this month on bringing peace to Ukraine could hasten a fair end to the conflict.

"The inaugural peace summit could become a format that would bring closer a just end to this war," Zelensky told the French parliament in an address more than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The French parliament on Monday voted to anchor the right to abortion in the constitution, making France the first country in the world to offer explicit protection for terminating a pregnancy in its basic law.

The increasing anti-Semitism occurred after the Israeli attack on Gaza, AP reported.
Prime Minister lisabeth Bourne, representatives of several left-wing conservative parties, as well as centrists of President Emmanuel Macron, and supporters of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, attended the march in the French capital.

The French Parliament passed a law to regulate the activities of social media influencers in an attempt to limit the promotion of dangerous products and trends, reports Prof. Nelly Ognyanova in her "Media Law" blog. The project of two MPs was supported by the entire political spectrum.

French President Emmanuel Macron's highly unpopular pension law passed another hurdle after the Constitutional Council rejected the opposition's second proposal to hold a referendum to limit the retirement age to 62, Reuters reported.

Macron has defied fierce union opposition and weeks of sometimes violent protests against his plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Day 399 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

"The law on the reform of the pension system was adopted in the French parliament and, if it passes the control of the constitutional council, then sooner or later it will have to be the topic for negotiating table, because regardless of the fact that the law has been adopted, it needs to be implemented, and that will not work easily because the unions in France are very influential," Duan Guja