hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. polling stations have opened across france, in the final round of voting for parliamentary elections. at stake is control of the 577 seat national assembly, where the liberal party founded by president emmanuel macron has held sway for the last five years. but, president macron s candidates are facing strong opposition in the form of an alliance of left wing parties. our paris correspondent hugh schofield told me more a big challenge, surprising challenge, this time, but from the left. this coalition which has been created by the force of will of one man, jean luc melenchon, the man who came third in the presidential election, who came from the far left of french politics but by dint of personality and tactical genius has got all of the left or most of the left into his camp and persuaded the very demoralised socialists, communists and greens to fly under his banner, and together, as a group, they are set to
hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. polling stations have opened across france, in the final round of voting for parliamentary elections. at stake is control of the five hundred and seventy seven seat national assembly, where the liberal party founded by president emmanuel macron has held sway for the last five years. but, president macron s candidates are facing strong opposition in the form of an alliance of left wing parties. our paris correspondent hugh schofield told me more about battle facing macron s party. the big challenge, the surprising challenge, not from the far right, this time, which he faced in the presidential election, but from the left, this coalition which has been created by the force of will of one man, that isjean luc melenchon, the man who came third in the presidential election, a character from the far left of french politics, but by dint of personality and technical genius, if you like, has got all the left or most o
set to bring the rail network to a grinding halt from tuesday they are the biggest strikes in decades. instead of 20,000 trains on a normal day, just one in five services may run. government says children heading to take exams or patients to medical appointments will face disruption. but under pressure to take part in talks with the unions it says it won t. train operating companies have to settle this. i don t think there is any need for the strikes at all and i appeal directly to people working for the railways, you are being led down a cul de sac by the union leadership telling you there is no pay rise when there is, trying to create some kind of class war when there is none to be had. we want people to be paid more, we want to sensible reforms and modernisation of our railways so we can run it for the passengers. the government says it has spent billions propping up the railways in the pandemic and it now wants to see them modernised. the union which was part of the cost
hello and welcome. ukraine s application to join the european union looks set to take a step forward today. senior eu officials will give their recommendation on whether to grant the country what s known as candidate status . but it s a long and complicated process to actually become a member. in his nightly address, president zelensky said ukraine has never been closer to the european union than it is now. here s azadeh moshiri. ukraine s president called it a truly historic day, describing a visit to kyiv by some of europe s most powerful leaders. from france, germany and italy, three of the eurozone s largest economies as well as romania, and while president zelensky has grown accustomed to receiving politicians who wish to see the war first hand, this time he had clear demands, more weapons and shoring up support for ukraine s candidacy to the european union. translation: ukraine has felt the support of four powerful european states at once and in particular support for