National Front becomes a national political force as champion for French sovereignty, safety
By Kathryn Blackhurst; LifeZette:
National Front party leader Marine Le Pen just accomplished a feat that just months ago was deemed laughable and entirely impossible by international global elites: placing in second place in the first of two French presidential elections and qualifying for the run-off election May 7.
Le Pen ultimately placed second with 21.7 percent of the vote while independent centrist Emmanuel Macron of the progressive En Marche! party clinched first place with 23.7 percent of the vote in a breathtakingly close contest among a crowded field of 11 presidential candidates. In the final days before Sunday’s elimination round, four main contenders rose above the pack: Le Pen, Macron, center-right François Fillon of the Republican Party and far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the France Unbowed movement.
The almost meteoric rise of the nationalist Le Pen and her populist movement has been compared to President Donald Trump’s astonishing electoral upset and the United Kingdom’s June 23 “Brexit” vote to exit the European Union. Le Pen’s stunning victory, entering the runoff stage of the French contest, has proven momentum remains strongly with voters across the western world who believe globalist policies have gone too far.
Trump teased the outcome of the election Sunday, tweeting hours before the results poured in, “Very interesting election currently taking place in France.”
Very interesting election currently taking place in France.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017
Le Pen accomplished the incredible feat of taking the National Front — a right-wing nationalistic party that long was considered to stand at the fringe of French politics — and bringing it to the forefront of the French political debate.
In fact, Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, led the National Front party from 1972 – 2011 when his daughter took the reigns.
Under Jean-Marie, the National Front struggled excruciatingly with its initially extremist image. The party attracted many accused of racism and anti-semitism, among other unsavory views, and Le Pen took it upon herself to purge the party of those members and redeem its image as more mainstream. She even expelled her father from the party he once led in 2015 after he uttered another bout of controversial statements.
Like his daughter, Jean-Marie once edged out the competition against nearly ever expectation to become a presidential finalist in 2002 against the unpopular incumbent President Jacques Chirac in his bid for a second term. Jean-Marie’s success stunned the French and the world at large when he edged out his far more mainstream competitors and led to an intense election autopsy analyzing the French electorate’s political climate and the pollsters’ pre-election accuracy.
Chirac, however, won the run-off election against Jean-Marie in the largest landslide the French had ever seen by garnering more than 82 percent when almost all other French political parties rallied behind the unpopular incumbent president as the lesser of two evils.
But in 2017, Le Pen rode the worldwide wave of populism to clinch her position as a presidential finalist by running on a winning platform that called for the restoration of national sovereignty amid global pressures.
Amid the last couple of turbulent years France has faced, the electorate found itself dealing with illegal immigration, the ongoing refugee crisis, threats of radical Islamic terrorism, national sovereignty, economic woes, membership in the EU and an intense wave of anti-globalization. And Le Pen’s vision spoke to many concerned voters.
“France has signed over important sovereign rights. There is too much tolerance to terrorism, lack of independence and self dominion [as] external authorities rule the country,” a 21-year-old Le Pen voter named Jacques told The Guardian. “I was usually socialist but in the recent years France has changed dramatically. France is not the country I was born in.”
Le Pen unapologetically ran on a platform that fully embodied the populist-conservative and anti-globalization spirit that captured U.S. and U.K. voters. With the campaign slogan of “economic patriotism” and the promise to help France “remain France,” Le Pen promised to “Make France Great Again,” an homage to Trump’s own slogan.
But as Anderson Cooper pointed out to Le Pen in interview that aired March 5 on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” the polls once said “you can’t win,” much like they once said of Trump and of Brexit.
“[The polls] also said that Brexit wasn’t going to happen, that Donald Trump wasn’t going to be elected — wasn’t even going to be his party’s nominee,” Le Pen responded. “Well, they’re saying that less and less now. They are much more cautious — much more cautious.”
Although the latest polls just prior to the French election indicated the four frontrunners were neck-and-neck, roughly 25 percent of voters still remained undecided on the election’s eve. Some have wondered maybe the latest terrorist attack in France that occurred Thursday in Paris may have aided in last-minute decisions for Le Pen.
Trump himself suggested such an idea in a tweet Friday in which he said, “Another terrorist attack in Paris. The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!”
Another terrorist attack in Paris. The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2017
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