Marine Le Pen, France’s far-right leader, yesterday staged a final push before the second round of regional elections, pledging to “ruin the life” of the Socialist government.
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The National Front won far more votes than its mainstream rivals in the first round last Sunday, securing nearly 30% of votes overall and taking the lead in six out of 13 regions.
Le Pen came first in the opening round with more than 40 percent of the vote in the northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie. The second round of the regional elections will take place on December 13, 2015.
The condemnation of Donald Trump crossed worldwide borders and party ideologies this week, the tycoon’s assertion that all Muslims should be barred from entering the U.S. receiving widespread opprobrium from right and left around the world.
There’s no denying that Le Pen and her party have done better than ever in an election that actually gives them power over anything in France (last year’s European Parliament election, which the National Front won, doesn’t count). Where, after the terrorist attacks on Paris this year, Sarkozy or Hollande appeared weak, appeasing and fearful of the mob-like response of the demos, Le Pen appeared strong, and willing to assert a French national identity, willing to say what France stands for.
For Marion Marechal Le Pen, the National Front leader’s niece who is running in the southern region, the course may also end with a defeat.
The electoral triumph of Marine Le Pen’s National Front is about the economy more than it is about fear or xenophobia.
He feels “no hesitation”, he said, in urging voters to back the Republicans to keep the FN from power – as they did in 2002 when voters flocked to Jacques Chirac in a presidential run-off against Jean-Marie Le Pen.
But a poll by the TNS-Sofres institute and the LCI TV channel showed her being beaten by Xavier Bertrand of the centre-right Republicans in the north, by 53 percent to 47 percent. “There is one option which is that of the far right which, basically, preaches division”.
Le Pen talked tough in her bid to capture votes.
“They just did not perform as well as expected and it shows the Republicans party really under pressure from the National Front”, he said.
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”. Both regions have large Muslim populations.
One of those is Agnes Deloume, 52, a freelance fashion designer from Paris, who said she always voted for the center-right Republicans and will again Sunday.
Earlier Thursday, Le Pen vowed, if elected to head the north, to bring suit against the French state over the situation in Calais, where thousands of migrants are camped in hopes of reaching Britain.
The same poll indicated that the Republicans’ candidate in the south, Christian Estrosi, would score a clear victory over Marechal-Le Pen by 54 percent to 46 percent.
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