Page 29 - bon-dia-aruba-20220411

A29
world news Dialuna 11 aPRil 2022

In France, it’s Macron vs. Le Pen, again, for presidency

(AP) — Incumbent Emman- minds: the soaring costs for
uel Macron will face far-right The election outcome will food, gas and heating due to
nationalist Marine Le Pen in have wide international in- rising inflation and the reper-
a winner-takes-all runoff for fluence as Europe struggles to cussions of Western sanctions
the French presidency, after contain the havoc wreaked by on Russia.
they both advanced Sunday Russian President Vladimir
in the first round of voting Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Polling agency projections
in the country’s election to Macron has strongly backed put both Macron and Le Pen
set up another head-to-head European Union sanctions on course to improve their
clash of their sharply oppos- on Russia while Le Pen has 2017 first-round showings,
ing visions for France. worried about their impact highlighting how French
on French living standards. politics have become increas-
Polling agency projections Macron also is a firm sup- ingly polarized. Macron was
and a partial official count of porter of NATO and of close expected to capture a sizeable
votes showed France teeing collaboration among the Eu- first-round lead of around Macron that they urged their blue ballot envelope in the
up a repeat of the 2017 runoff ropean Union’s 27 members. 28% support, ahead of Le supporters Sunday to shift northern town of Henin-
that made Macron the coun- Pen’s projected 23%-24% their second-round votes to Beaumont, she said “given
try’s youngest-ever president With two-thirds of votes of the vote. Melenchon was the incumbent. Melenchon, the situation in the country
— but with no guarantee this counted, Macron and Le Pen credited with about 20% sup- addressing supporters who and in the world,” the elec-
time that the outcome will be had pulled comfortably clear port. sometimes shed tears, repeat- tion outcome could deter-
the same. of hard-left leader Jean-Luc edly said: “We must not give mine “not only the next five
Melenchon, out of the two- Both Macron and Le Pen one vote to Mrs. Le Pen.” years, but probably the next
Addressing his support- candidate runoff in third now need to reach out to vot- 50 years” in France.
ers who chanted “five more place. ers who backed the 10 presi- Describing herself as “pro-
years,” Macron warned that dential candidates defeated foundly worried,” defeated In the 27-member EU, only
“nothing is done” and said Macron, a 44-year-old politi- on Sunday to win in round conservative candidate Val- France has a nuclear arsenal
the next two weeks of cam- cal centrist, won by a land- two. erie Pecresse warned of “the and a U.N. Security Council
paigning for the April 24 slide five years ago but he chaos that would ensue” if veto.
second-round vote will be is bracing for a far tougher Le Pen seemed to target Me- Le Pen was elected, saying
“decisive for our country and second round against his lechon’s left-wing supporters the far-right leader has nev- To beat Le Pen in the runoff,
for Europe.” 53-year-old political nemesis. in particular by promising er been so close to power. Macron must pick apart her
Le Pen is promising seismic “social justice” and fixes for Pecresse said she would vote years-long rebranding effort
Claiming that Le Pen would shifts for France — both do- “a France torn apart.” for Macron in the runoff. to make herself seem less ex-
align France with “populists mestically and internationally treme, a makeover that has
and xenophobes,” he said: — if elected as the country’s “The French people honored Pollsters suggest that just a even highlighted her love of
“That’s not us.” first woman president. me by qualifying me for the few percentage points could cats. Macron has accused Le
second round,” Le Pen said. separate the familiar foes in Pen of pushing an extrem-
“I want to reach out to all Macron for months had Her supporters celebrated the second round. The run- ist manifesto of racist, ruin-
those who want to work for looked like a shoo-in to be- with champagne and inter- off campaign is likely to be ous policies. Le Pen wants
France,” he said. He vowed come France’s first president rupted her speech with chants far more confrontational to roll back some rights for
to “implement the project of in 20 years to win a second of “We’re going to win!” than round one, which was Muslims, banning them
progress, of French and Eu- term. But National Rally largely overshadowed by the from wearing headscarves in
ropean openness and inde- leader Le Pen, in a late surge, Yet some of her defeated ri- war in Ukraine. public, and drastically reduce
pendence we have advocated tapped into the foremost is- vals were so alarmed by the immigration from outside
for.” sue on many French voters’ possibility of Le Pen beating After Le Pen dropped off her Europe.

Food prices soar to record levels on Ukraine war disruptions

(AP) — Prices for food Nations said Friday. is No. 2. from Russia and Ukraine
commodities like grains FAO said the war in Ukraine have threatened food short-
and vegetable oils reached The U.N. Food and Agri- was largely responsible for “There is, of course, a mas- ages in countries in the
their highest levels ever culture Organization said the 17.1% rise in the price of sive supply disruption, and Middle East, Africa and parts
last month largely because its Food Price Index, which grains, including wheat and that massive supply disrup- of Asia where many people
of Russia’s war in Ukraine tracks monthly changes in others like oats, barley and tion from the Black Sea re- already were not getting
and the “massive supply international prices for a bas- corn. Together, Russia and gion has fueled prices for enough to eat.
disruptions” it is causing, ket of commodities, averaged Ukraine account for around vegetable oil,” Schmidhuber
threatening millions of 159.3 points last month, up 30% and 20% of global wheat told reporters in Geneva. Those nations rely on afford-
people in Africa, the Mid- 12.6% from February. As it is, and corn exports, respective- able supplies of wheat and
dle East and elsewhere the February index was the ly. He said he couldn’t cal- other grains from the Black
with hunger and mal- highest level since its incep- culate how much the war Sea region to feed millions of
nourishment, the United tion in 1990. While predictable given Feb- was to blame for the record people who subsist on subsi-
ruary’s steep rise, “this is re- food prices, noting that poor dized bread and bargain noo-
ally remarkable,” said Josef weather conditions in the dles, and they now face the
Schmidhuber, deputy direc- United States and China also possibility of further political
tor of FAO’s markets and were blamed for crop con- instability.
trade division. “Clearly, these cerns. But he said “logistical
very high prices for food re- factors” were playing a big Other large grain producers
quire urgent action.” role. like the United States, Can-
ada, France, Australia and
The biggest price increas- “Essentially, there are no ex- Argentina are being closely
es were for vegetable oils: ports through the Black Sea, watched to see if they can
that price index rose 23.2%, and exports through the Bal- quickly ramp up production
driven by higher quotations tics is practically also coming to fill in the gaps, but farm-
for sunflower seed oil that is to an end,” he said. ers face issues like climbing
used for cooking. Ukraine is fuel and fertilizer costs exac-
the world’s leading exporter Soaring food prices and dis- erbated by the war, drought
of sunflower oil, and Russia ruption to supplies coming and supply chain disruptions.