Islamism European Threat

The European elections May 22 are around the corner and Marine Le Pen’s far right Front National is going to raise eyebrows. FN wants out of the EU and in the interim no further expansion of the EU. Marine Le Pen and FN are anti-immigration and especially opposed to the cultural problems France faces with Islamist immigrants. Here is an update, including commentary on Le Pen’s differences with the U.K.’s far right UKIP.

Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front, has launched an outspoken attack on Nigel Farage for labelling her party racist in his campaigning for the European elections at the end of May.

Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, Ms Le Pen said the Ukip leader’s stance was a ploy intended to surpass her in the role of EU’s leading eurosceptic after the elections, in which both their parties are vying for victory in their respective countries.

“Of course. Clearly it’s the main reason for his behaviour. It’s an old story between France and England,” she said.

Mr Farage, rejecting the FN for its “anti-semitism and general prejudice”, has made an alliance in France with a fringe eurosceptic Gaullist group.

Expressing her irritation at his “tactical choice”, Ms Le Pen said the two had met a number of times: “I have had good contacts with him, and we met members of Ukip in London. There are Ukip members who don’t understand his aggression against us.”

She accused Mr Farage of being “dishonest” for “using arguments against the FN of which he himself has been a victim”.

“[UK premier David] Cameron said Ukip was a bunch of drunks and racists. [Mr Farage] is no better,” declared Ms Le Pen

Ms Le Pen, buoyed by polls showing the FN with a clear chance of topping the European poll in France, said she would not need Ukip to form a strong group of hardline anti-Brussels parties in the parliament which she said would seek to “block all the federalist advances of the EU”.