Empty seats are sticked with “Reserved National Front” prior to the arrival of supporters at a meeting with French far-right National Front Party leader, Marine Le Pen, and Far right National Front party regional leaders in Paris, France, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. The party leader, Marine Le Pen, was asked on French TV about Trump’s comments to close all borders to Muslims until America’s “representatives can figure out what the hell is going on”.
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The first round of the regional elections in France, held on December 6, confirmed the National Front’s position as France’s most popular party. “Maybe when they know there is another party, they will reform the country”. If the two Le Pens win their regions, the anti-immigration National Front will shatter France’s current political landscape – and Marine Le Pen will boost her chances in France’s 2017 presidential campaign. Marechal-Le Pen, running in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region, would take 46 percent of the vote, according to the poll, while her conservative rival Christian Estrosi would get 54 percent.
“They can do nothing against the survival instinct of the people”, Le Pen said, urging supporters to vote massively in Sunday’s decisive second round vote to counter what she called a “state defamation campaign… unworthy of a modern democracy”. “We have moved from a two-party system to a three-party system”, stated Jean-Yves Camus, a far-right professional at the Institute of International & Strategic Relations in Paris.
When the ballots were counted after the first round last weekend, the party was ahead of its mainstream rivals in six of 13 mainland France regions, with almost 28 percent of the national vote.
Once regarded as a radical fringe party, the National Front has been riding a wave of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-establishment sentiment and has made steady gains in recent years. The councils in that run France’s 13 “super-regions”, created by Hollande from 22 smaller ones, can’t pass laws of their very own. But they control sizable budgets, dispensing money for economic development, arts and culture.
Ms Le Pen has reaped the rewards of her efforts to “de-demonise” the party bequeathed by her former paratrooper father Jean-Marie Le Pen.
A combative Ms Le Pen has slammed such tactics as “undemocratic” and accused her opponents of “intellectual terrorism” in seeking to block her party’s path to power. But she insisted that being part of the French republic means complying with “our customs and our way of life”.
Marechal-Le Pen makes it clear she opposes her grandfather’s anti-Semitic remarks, which triggered the feud, but embraces his overall message, including the fear that Islam will overtake French civilization.
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But she also said that National Front regions would “open each file” when deciding on subsidies for associations and other interests and “stop, reform or continue”.
