Le Pen gets a lift from the far-left
PARIS — The far-right leader Marine Le Pen faces an uphill battle in France’s presidential runoff. But she saw daylight through a window Tuesday from an unlikely source: her defeated counterpart on the far left.
Alone among all of France’s major political personalities, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of his own “France Unsubjugated” movement, who finished fourth in Sunday’s voting, has refused to endorse Ms. Le Pen’s opponent, the former economy minister Emmanuel Macron.
Mr. Mélenchon’s critics say his obstinacy is petulant, wounded pride that can only help Ms. Le Pen’s National Front. But it also speaks to the passions that Mr. Macron, a seemingly mild-mannered centrist, provokes in large parts of the French electorate, far left and far right, who share a view of the former investment banker as an incarnation of evil market culture.
As populism and anger over the effects of globalization energize much of the electorate, Mr. Mélenchon’s stand has added an element of uncertainty into the final round of voting on May 7.
Philippe pleads guilty
MIAMI — Guy Philippe, an elected Haitian senator and former police commander who eluded capture in Haiti for more than a decade, pleaded guilty Monday in Miami federal court to a drug-related, money-laundering conspiracy charge that could send him to prison for at least nine years.
Philippe, arrested in January, admitted he accepted between $1.5 million and $3.5 million in cocaine profits from Colombian traffickers for allowing them to use Haiti to ship cocaine to Miami and other parts of the United States between 1999 and 2003. The following year, Philippe led a revolt to oust Haiti’s president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
By pleading guilty, Philippe avoided the risk of a trial next month with possible conviction on the main drug-conspiracy charge — and a potential life sentence.
His punishment will be up to U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga, who could give him a maximum sentence of 20 years at a hearing set for July 5. But under the federal sentencing guidelines in his plea agreement with prosecutors, Philippe, 49, faces nine to 11 years in prison.
Israel, Germany meeting
JERUSALEM — It was hardly the first time a toplevel meeting had been canceled over hard feelings. But when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called off a session with the German foreign minister here Tuesday, it seemed a sharp reflection of the tension within Israel, and with its allies, these days.
Israeli and German officials said the cancellation of the top-level meeting planned for later in the day came after the German minister of foreign affairs, Sigmar Gabriel, met with the group Breaking the Silence, which opposes the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Mr. Netanyahu has accused the group of “slandering” Israeli soldiers.
Mr. Gabriel arrived in Israel on Monday, the day Israelis mark Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s a particularly sensitive time for Jews who remember the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazi regime and the millions of Jews murdered during World War II.
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