Things are Getting Very Loud on the Western Front: Marine Le Pen Wins Record Victory for Front National in French Elections; Return of the Nation?

 

 

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

Thanks to PG County Expat, who remarks,

Hey, let's celebrate by torching some cars.

 

Marine Le Pen wins record victory for Front National in French elections
Marine Le Pen's far-Right Front National party has scored its highest ever percentage of the vote, exit polls in France show

By Henry Samuel, Nanterre
8:28P.M. BST 25 May 2014
Telegraph
2185 Comments

France’s far-Right Front National was on course for an historic victory in European elections on Sunday night, coming top in a national election for the first time in its 42-year history in a score it said represented a “massive rejection” of the EU.

Early exit polls placed the anti-European, anti-immigrant party first with 25 per cent of the vote – a result that was even better than expected.

The result put the FN well ahead of the opposition centre-Right UMP party, on
20.6 per cent, which lost nine percentage points compared to 2009.

The ruling Socialists clinched a paltry 14.1 per cent, the second drubbing they have received in nationwide elections in two months after suffering heavy losses in municipal elections in March.

President François Hollande has called a crisis cabinet meeting on Monday morning to discuss his next move after this latest rout for his party.

Estimations suggest that the FN was on course for clinching 24 seats in the European Parliament – a major jump from the three it won in 2009 – with the UMP taking 19, the Socialists 13 and the Greens six.

To cheers and strains of the Marseillaise at party headquarters in Nanterre, west of Paris, a jubilant Marine Le Pen, FN leader, said: “The sovereign people has proclaimed that they want to take back their destiny into their own hands.

“Our people demands one type of politics: they want politics by the French, for the with the French. They don’t want to be led anymore from outside, to submit to laws.”

The result, she insisted, translated into a "massive rejection of the European Union".

"We must build another Europe, a free Europe of sovereign nations and one in which cooperation is freely decided. Tonight is a massive rejection of the European Union. If through the incompetence and weakness of our leaders Germany has become the economic heart of the European Union, then France has been and will be the political heart of Europe.

“What is happening in France heralds what will happen in all European countries, the return of the nation."

The result was a triple victory for the Le Pen family as Marine came top with 32.6 per cent in her constituency in the north west of France, Jean-Marie was in first position on 28.9 per cent in the South East and Louis Aliot, Miss Le Pen’s partner, scored 23.7 per cent – in pole position - in the South West.

Lumping the two main French political parties together - Left and centre-Right - Jean-Marie Le Pen, FN founder and honorary president, said: "This is a defeat, a rout for the 'UMPS'.

"Parliament must be dissolved," he said, calling on Manuel Valls, the prime minister, to resign.

Mainstream French politicians had been warning for days that first place for the FN, which wants to scrap the euro and “tear down the Berlin wall of Brussels”, would be catastrophic for France’s image in Europe and the wider world.

Mr Valls, the Socialist prime minister, described the result as a “very grave moment for France and Europe”.

“This result is more than a new warning: it’s a shock, an earthquake,” he said, pledging to push on with reforms “faster - there isn’t a moment to lose”.

Miss Le Pen, 45, appears to have been buoyed by slightly higher-than-expected turnout, estimated at 42.5 per cent – a little more than in 2009 - as her electorate traditionally stays away from EU elections.

Nationally, the FN appears not to have suffered any backlash against the comments of her father last week, who last week claimed that an epidemic of the deadly Ebola virus could solve the world’s population problems and immigration pressure on Europe “in three months”.

The results spell bad news for the opposition UMP, whose current boss, Jean-François Copé, is facing allegations that he allowed a business run by friends to cheat the party by overcharging for election events, and possibly bill for conferences that never took place.

Speaking beforehand, one UMP MP warned there would be “blood on the walls” if the party – which has been bitterly divided over its EU policy - fares poorly.

"Heads will have to roll,” he told Le Parisien.

Mr Copé, whose job is on the line, put a brave face on the result, saying: "It's above all a huge disappointment, but it's also the expression of the French's people's gigantic anger and exasperation towards the politics led by François Hollande."

Seeking to explain why his party failed to beat the FN, Mr Copé said: "We were more divided in the European elections (than in previous local ones in which they came first). This troubled part of our electorate."

But the knives were out on Sunday night for Mr Copé, and a fresh leadership battle looked on the cards.

"The UMP's credibility has been hit," said François Fillon, the former prime minister, who intends to run for president in 2017.

Alain Juppé, another former conservative prime minister, said: "This score is a severe defeat for the Right and centre".

"The UMP must change. We must have full clarity on what has happened."

The Socialists had hope to cling on to a score comparable with 2009, in which they mustered 16.5 per cent to come second. But in the event, the result was worse than their predictions.

President François Hollande’s entourage have already let it be known that there will be no reshuffle as in March, when Mr Hollande fired his prime minister after his Socialist Party suffered historic losses in municipal elections.

But one senior Hollande aide warned: “Tonight is the start of the crisis.

“The shock will be felt here and will spark a new crisis of authority for Hollande.”

Miss Le Pen plans to forge an EU parliamentary group called the European Freedom Alliance with the Dutch Freedom Party, or PVV, of Geert Wilders, along with the Austrian Freedom Party, Belgian Vlaams Belang, Italian Lega Nord, Slovak National Party and Sweden Democrats.

However, in a setback, the PVV fared far worse than expected last Thursday –coming fourth behind pro-EU parties – amid claims by its most senior MEP that it had paid the price of joining forces with Miss Le Pen.

Nigel Farage, head of the UK Independence Party is adamant he will steer clear of “any sort of pact with the Front National after these elections”.

"However impressive Marine Le Pen is, the Front National carries toxic baggage," he told The Telegraph last week.