Jury awards teen pop group OMG Girlz $71.5 million in battle with toy maker over "L.O.L." dolls
Union workers at Hawaii's largest hotel go on strike
Eleven candidates, including incumbent, to compete in Moldova presidential vote
IAEA chief sees willingness from Iran to re-engage on nuclear file
US expected to announce billions in Ukraine aid after Congress fails to include extension in stopgap government funding bill
US video game actors call strike on maker of popular game 'League of Legends'
Starbucks CEO Niccol says committed to "engage constructively" with workers union
NASA pushes back Crew-9 mission launch to Saturday
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday expressed concern over the political situation in France, where Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally came out well ahead in a first-round vote of national snap elections.
The comments mark the first time Scholz, a Social Democrat, has expressed a clear political preference with regard to France.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
Germany and France form the backbone of the European Union and a political change in either country could shift the balance in the entire bloc.
Germany itself is seeing rising support for the far-right Alternative for Deutschland, which currently score second in opinion polls, although national elections are not due until autumn next year.
July 7 will see the second round of France's parliamentary election.
KEY QUOTES
- Scholz described the situation in France as "depressing".
- "In any case, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the French, whom I love and appreciate so much, the country that means so much to me, will succeed in preventing a government led by a right-wing populist party from being formed," Scholz said.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
