51�Թ�

Lainey Brown and Elysee Diaz each had three hits.

And Marine Le Pen has been widely portrayed, with something close to certainty, as France's president-in-waiting, as the nation's most popular politician, cruelly robbed of her near-inevitable procession towards the Élysée Palace.

One person who will now be facing extra scrutiny is Le Pen's almost but not quite anointed successor, 29-year-old Jordan Bardella, who could be drafted in as a replacement presidential candidate if Le Pen's own "narrow path" towards the Élysée remains blocked on appeal.

He had interrupted a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace and went back there for what he called a "tête à tête dinner" after the interview.

French President Emmanuel Macron got straight on the phone to Donald Trump and, separately, to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday night, after fellow leaders of Europe's biggest military powers left the glittering Élysée Palace in Paris.