Far Right Marine Le Pen is Disastrous Close to Becoming the Next President of France
Could Marine Le Pen become France’s first far-right president?
Polls put the nationalist leader neck and neck with incumbent centrist Emmanuel Macron on Monday, a day after the first round of voting in the presidential election, leaving Europe on edge for a result that could send shockwaves across the West.
The pair now face off in the second round on April 24, a rerun of the presidential battle in 2017.
Back then Macron beat Le Pen, 66 percent to 33 percent. But this time it’s too close to call: A poll from iFop for the broadcaster TF1 on Monday showed Macron at 51 percent, a lead so slim it’s within the margin of error. Another poll, from the research firm Ipsos, showed Macron on 54 percent — still well within striking distance for Le Pen, whose fortunes have risen as the campaign has progressed.
France and the wider European community are now facing the possibility of something unthinkable just months ago: a Euroskeptic, anti-immigrant French leader who has pledged to leave NATO and is seen as friendly toward Russia.
Le Pen, 53, is running for president for a third time and would become France’s first female president if she wins. The far-right leader has softened her public image in recent years in an effort to overcome traditional opposition to her candidacy.
Her party changed its name from the National Front to the National Assembly and she has sought to appear as a concerned patriot intent on addressing the rising cost of living for ordinary people while Macron, 44, has been focused on the war in Ukraine.
But her policy platform is no less radical.
Le Pen wants to ban Muslims from wearing headscarves in public and to drastically reduce immigration from outside Europe. She has pledged to hold a referendum to reduce the rights of immigrants and foreigners, giving priority for housing, jobs and social security benefits to French people — setting up a potential legal fight with the European Union.
Hers is an ideology traditionally seen on the fringes of French politics. Not any more.
“She is without doubt closer than she’s ever been” to winning, said Rainbow Murray, a professor and expert on French politics at Queen Mary University in London. “In the last two elections I was asked again and again whether Le Pen could win it and I said, ‘No, not a chance.’ This is the first time I’m hesitating.”
In 2002 Le Pen’s father, the fervent far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, caused a huge shock by getting through to the second round of the presidential race.