PM May surprised most people last week by announcing that the UK is to hold a snap election on June 8th. Outlining her motivation for calling an early election, something she had previously ruled out, PM May said “[T]he country is coming together but Westminster is not” Her concern is that such large and all-too-visible parliamentary divisions over Brexit hinders her government’s ability to get the best deal out of Brussels [1]. This all sounds very laudable – PM May putting the UK’s economic and financial interests before her personal political ambitions [2]. However, the move is not entirely selfless, it is

French surveyors of public opinion have done a good job so far, with the results from Sunday’s first round of the French presidential race very close to the final set of polls. In line with our central forecast, it is Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen who proceed to the definitive round on 7 May, with the vote reportedly split 61/39 in favour of the centrist candidate. Refresh the chart in your browser | Edit chart in Datastream Absent a dramatic shift in sentiment, the polls — which were largely accurate in predicting the first-round outcome — ought to give us

With the first round of the French presidential election becoming a four-horse race, markets are right to worry about a Marine Le Pen — Jean-Luc Mélenchon runoff on 7 May. Indeed, momentum behind Mr Mélenchon has seen him become the most credible candidate on the left, triggering heightened uncertainty in financial markets. In our view, French and peripheral yield spreads remain too low, underpricing the risk of the next president of France being a eurosceptic. As political events in Europe unfold, our newly launched section on Thomson Reuters Chartbook, called “European elections”, will provide a useful tool for those who