parliamentary election

After numerous media appearances, Macron and Le Pen are facing each other in a TV debate tonight, which Barclays' analyst Francois Cabau dubs "Crucial."

According to Barclays, this debate is key for two main reasons: 1) it will allow Le Pen to clarify her views on Europe (that she has tried to soften to a large extent recently in an apparent move to attract Fillon's voters) which are arguably a weak point on her side; and 2) it may be seen to, informally, mark the start of the campaign for the legislative elections.

Some further thoughts from Barclays:

LePen Euro Frexit Panic Over – "For Now"

by John Stepek, Editor of Money Week

OK, drama’s over.

The French election has turned out pretty much exactly as expected.

Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

The Dutch elections on Wednesday have provided a whole bunch of Orwellian narratives. PM Mark Rutte’s right wing VVD party, actually the ‘business’ -or should we say ‘rent-seekers’ in 2017- party, who lost some 20% of the seats they had obtained in the previous parliamentary election in November 2012, down from 41 to 33 seats, is declared the big winner. While Geert Wilders’ very right wing party, PVV, won 25% more seats -it went from 16 to 20- and is the big loser.

Following the under-reported chaos in Paris this week, as muslims and Antifa took over the streets following allegations of police brutality, Holland's outspoken anti-immigrant, anti-EU party leader Geert Wilders promised to crack down on "Moroccan scum" who he said were making the streets unsafe and urged the Dutch to "regain" their country as he launched his election campaign on Saturday.

Germany’s Social Democrats narrowed the gap with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bloc to the closest in more than four years, reinforcing a poll bounce after they chose outsider Martin Schulz to challenge Europe’s longest-serving leader. As Bild reports, the 6-point surge in opposition support was the biggest ever recorded for the party... and may explain why German sovereign risk spiked to its highest since Brexit.