FN Party President Marine le Pen, seen here at a campaign rally in 2012.
Marine Le Pen and France’s far right Front National (FN) may well become dominant on the French political front as a result of the upcoming May22/25 European elections. FN is strongly nationalistic and wants to shut off the immigration spigot and ship out all immigrant noncontributors to French society. FN is young, aggressive and gaining traction fast. The big losers are the out-of-touch Socialists of Francois Hollande who figure to take a first class drubbing in the upcoming European elections. American politicians would be wise to pay careful attention to what is going on here in France. I have been watching FN gaining traction for the last three years and now payday is set to arrive for Frances old-guard left. DW reports:
According to current polls, the Front National has reached a level of just over 20 percent, and could still emerge as the strongest party in the European elections on May 25. One reason for the party’s growing popularity is the frustration with the lack of economic success achieved by the government of French President Francois Hollande. And the French are increasingly skeptical about Europe.
A recent study by pollster Ipsos says that 74 percent of the French who cast their ballot in the European elections aim to express their mistrust of the EU. In Germany, it’s a mere 50 percent. In France, only 48 percent of interviewees replied that EU membership is “good,” compared with 63 percent in Germany.
The FN’s anti-Europe slogans are welcome to many crisis-stricken French people whose government has told Brussels it needed more time to adhere to the budget deficit limit.
When the party presented its candidates for the European elections at a press conference on April 22, its slogan came as no surprise: “Go vote for less Europe.”
Marion Marechal-Le Pen accompanies her aunt Marine and her grandfather Jean-Marie to campaign rallies, gives interviews and poses for pictures. “Europe is a new form of hegemony that we need to fight,” the 24-year-old says. It’s the third generation of Front National supporters who claim that more than ever, it’s about “France’s liberty.”
The traditional parties in France have so far failed to find a response to the question of how to counteract old positions wrapped in new slogans and keep the far-right party from repeating its series of election successes in future.
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