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Dublin: 10 °C Sunday 26 May, 2013

France: Marine Le Pen set to run in presidential election

The far-right candidate has secured the support of 500 elected officials, as required for those standing in the French presidential election.

Image: Claude Paris/AP/Press Association Images

FAR-RIGHT LEADER Marine Le Pen has secured the support required to run in the French presidential election.

The National Front candidate has gained support of 500 elected officials, after noting last week that she was finding it difficult to secure the endorsement needed to stand.

Le Pen is currently ranked third in the latest opinion poll by Ifop, following the Social Party’s Francois Hollande and the incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy, who are in second and first place respectively, reports the BBC.

The poll indicated that Sarkozy would secure 28.5 per cent of the vote on the first round, Hollande would get 27 per cent, Le Pen 16 per cent and Centrist candidate Francios Bayrou 13 per cent.

All French presidential candidates were required to have signed endorsements of 500 elected local officials by 16 March. It was speculated that if Le Pen had failed to win endorsement her supporters would have voted for Sarkozy.

Le Pen’s campaign has shifted from the traditional anti-immigration stance of the National Front, and is now focusing agitating for France to leave the euro and erect protectionist barriers, reports Reuters.

Immigration has traditionally been a hot button issue in French politics because the country has applied policies based on integration for several decades – a focus which has routinely been criticised by politicians on the right. Last week, Sarkozy announced that he believed there were too many immigrants in France and promised to halve the number of arrivals to the country if he is re-elected next month.

In February, Le Pen lost a legal battle in her bid to run for president, with the Constitutional Court ruling that her backers’ names must be made public.

The first round of the election will take place on 22 April, followed by another on 6 May.

French far right presidential candidate must reveal her backers>

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Comments (18 Comments)

  • Le Pen is a fascist pure and simple. The National Front party that she leads is a fascist movement.
    Fascist do not believe in freedom or democracy. They may use democracy for a time before dictatorship – Hitler, Mussolini and co. We need to fear the growing far right movement – theirs is a philosophy of exclusion and hatred.

    She may look like the acceptable face of the National Front but she is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
    They are a dangerous and ruthless party.

    Reply
    • Progress 13/03/12 #

      Look the ideologies of Fascism or Socialism or Communism are dead belief systems that have no relevance to today. The days of unified theories and prisms through which one can distill all information and events are over.

      Many on the so call far right are very left in economics, many on the left are deeply embedded in the establishment and live like lords. The radical left is dominated by the middle class, where radical politics seems only to focus nowadays on internationalism rather than economic fairness or a progressive society.

      You may be right, you may be wrong, its never as clear cut as it is made out to be. One thing is certain though, if the left of the last 100 years, is to have any future it is going to have to move away from the dogmatic approach and the formulated language that has become like a prayer. Engage with people for once, rather than preach. Be relevant to their needs, rather than look in to your own bourgeoisie heart.

      Either the left starts to radically rethink its dogma, the blind faith it has in it, or else it dies off and reforms in another form, that is useful to people and that ensures a better society.

      Reply
    • You are either very innocent or very stupid – probably both. Ensuring a better society for you and your fascist fellow travelers, no blacks , no jews, no gay people, no people with disabilities, no equality for women and on and on.
      Yours is a dark and terrible politics, you hands are covered in blood. I will fight your filth philosophy till I draw my last breath.

      Reply
    • Progress 14/03/12 #

      David.

      It’s that kind of melodramatic bull that has left wing politics in a hole as capitalism is on its knees. Where did I say I was against Jews, gays, blacks etc etc. Who am I meant to have killed.

      Have a long talk with yourself and leave the No Pasaran talk to the history books. Your analysis is straight out of the 40′s, how is it in anyway pertaining to working class people today.

      You see what you want to see.

      Reply
  • The Fascists have not gone away. They pedal hatred and intolerance and make it appear acceptable, she doesn’t fool us. She is as evil as her old man was. Vive Le France! Vive Le Republic! Hollande for President!

    Reply
    • The French Socialist Party are the establishment, as much as Sarkozy is. They couldn’t care less about the welfare of that country or its people. They are also defined by corruption.

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    • Extream right wing propaganda will not deter me from exposing Le Pen and her National Front fellow travelers.
      I would urge people to read her and her fathers views on many political and social issues. They are textbook facisists. Long live democracy and freedom!

      Reply
    • What are you on about. Marine Le Pen is a democratically elected politician, she has never advocated change from the democratic system or the right of the French people to determine their own affairs.

      Long Live Democracy and Freedom indeed. Long live liberty in France, the return to French Republican values begins here. As Marine Le Pen said herself, France needs a new beginning, commentating at the time of the revolutions sweeping across the Middle East.

      “There isn’t that much difference between the French people and the Tunisian people or Egyptian people,” she said. “The French want justice – political justice, democratic justice, social justice – they want ethics from their political class. The French are suffering. They are permanently being asked to make sacrifices and yet there’s a political-financial caste that is reaping all the benefits of the economic situation and awarding itself endless privileges.”

      The financial caste that are firmly entrenched above the people are the French Socialist Party and Sarkozy’s UMP and the variants that they fritter between. They are the ones that are a existential threat to democracy, freedom and equality in France and their fellows across wider Europe.

      Reply
    • Y

      Reply
    • Ye realise that ye’re not French right?

      Reply
  • I am worried with the growing global trend to veer towards right-wing politics in these times of economic and social difficulty. I will use an extreme example in saying that Hitler came to power during a similar time, we would not wish that the same sort of thing would happen again.

    Reply
  • Great to see. I know she won’t win but hopefully she’ll come a strong 2nd. The staid complacency of the French Republic needs to be challenged and overturned. Going from the tweedledum variant of Sarko to the tweedle of Hollande is only going to end in disaster.

    Liberté, égalité, fraternité and a renewal of the Republic.

    Best of luck Marine!

    Reply
  • Marine Le Pen : Sea Biro.

    Reply

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