A new poll by public opinion firm Ifop in France has indicated that the Front National under Marine le Pen has increased its support to be neck and neck with the centre-right opposition UMP and the Socialist Party at 21 percent.
The poll makes uncomfortable reading for those parties, particularly in the lead-up to next years’ European Parliamentary elections, which, unlike elections to the French parliament, are held on the obviously fairer proportional representation system.
Along with elections to the European Parliament, 2014 will bring local, municipal elections to France.
Last February, the Front National opened a ‘candidate’s college’ called “Campus Bleu Marine,” in an effort to boost the party’s representation in local authorities throughout France.
In 2002, Jean-Marie Le Pen sent shockwaves throughout the political world by outpolling Socialist candidate and incumbent French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin in the first round of the presidential elections.
The build-up in support for the Front National was highlighted by a march of thousands of supporters through activists marched in Paris on May 1.
The march is held every year to celebrate national hero Joan of Arc.
Ms Le Pen, a fervent critic of the European Union, in a speech after the march in front of Paris’s famed opera building, said France had “shut itself away in the darkness of Europe.”
“[France] is sinking into an absurd policy of endless austerity… because it’s about always saying yes to Brussels, to Berlin of course, and to financial moguls in all circumstances,” she said.
In one recent opinion poll, when asked who respondents would vote for if an election was called immediately, former president Nicolas Sarkozy came first and Le Pen second, far ahead of Hollande in third. His Socialist government has been deeply affected by the economy, and a scandal involving ex-budget minister Jerome Cahuzac who was charged with tax fraud for siphoning hundreds of thousands of euros into a secret foreign bank account.
Since his election last May 6, Hollande’s approval rating has fallen faster and further than any other president’s since the founding of France’s Fifth Republic in 1958.
As a result, the National Front says it has gained more followers, including Socialists unhappy with their government. The party is looking to municipal elections next year, where it hopes to gain control of several towns or cities.
Steve
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Now it could get interesting!
If she hasn’t been compromised, it would follow that the old order will do something, anything to stop her getting power.
How are those charges against her going, where she mentioned the Nazi’s?
Steve
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Imagine if France becomes the saviour of European countries from their fate.
frederickdixon
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The Front National is part of a Europe wide process of national renewal which, however stuttering and patchy it is at present, has the potential to be as transforming as the events of 1968. Those latter events accelerated Europe’s descent into the darkness, the rise of the FN and similar movements may signal that the darkness is passing. Alex Kurtagic has said that we may not realise that the Left has fallen until after the event.
The English arm of this movement is, in the English way, rather understated compared with the dramatic rise and street presence of the FN. It is, in fact, UKIP. However inadequate and even bogus UKIP may be, its rise signals a yearning by very many English people to win their country back. To respond adequately to this yearning UKIP will have to harden its position or be replaced by something better.
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Brigadier
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An excellent promotional video by the FN, who have really cemented themselves as the main opposition to the current regime in recent months. To poll over 20% in opinion polls, outside of election time, demonstrates a party being taken seriously by the electorate. The presentation of their annual Joan of Arc rally in Paris is very impressive, as is their website https://www.frontnational.com, and their video productions. Golden Dawn in Greece have a similarly successful internet presence.
frederickdixon is right to say that at present, British resistance to the current regime is manifesting itself in the form of UKIP, a typically reserved English response. Notable though is the fact that UKIP also now boast a number of elected local politicians in Wales and even an MLA in Ulster. It is obvious that the tide is turning and events are transpiring which will advance our struggle. It is almost unprecidented in modern British electoral politics for a party the size of UKIP to make such sweeping breakthroughs at County Council level, becoming the opposition in Lincolnshire and possibly other counties.
The British people have taken the first steps towards rejecting their established regime party of choice which we can only welcome and encourage.
Let us wish our allies in France, Greece and across Europe Godspeed in their struggle.