The announcement comes just a day after she reached the second round of the French election, where she will face the candidate with no party, Emmanuel Macron.
Le Pen told France 2 that France was approaching a “decisive moment”. She told French TV she needed to be above partisan considerations. “I have always considered that the president is the president of all the French,” she said. “Under this banner, he or she must unite all the French.
“Tonight, I am no longer the president of the Front National. I am the presidential candidate.”
“I will be above partisan considerations,” she added. Le Pen scored very highly in rural and so-called “peri-urban” areas. She has pledged to protect “forgotten France” from austerity, globalisation and immigration.
While opinion polls suggest Macron is the favourite for the second round, Le Pen said: “We can win, we will win.” Marine tweeted that “all patriots should rise up against uninhibited globalization”.
"Je souhaite le rassemblement le plus large des patriotes face au représentant de la mondialisation décomplexée." #JT20h pic.twitter.com/UmhKWIvzWf
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) April 24, 2017
Jacques Lévy from the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne, pointed out that the map of the Le Pen vote almost mirrors that of the “no” vote in the 1992 referendum on the Maastricht treaty and Macron’s mirrors the “yes” vote.
Le Monde editorialist François Fressoz, said French EU divisions were ignored by the establishment after the country rejected the 2005 constitutional treaty. Subsequent leaders however “behaved as if this consultation [on EU membership] never took place”.
Macron’s plans to “relaunch” the EU, may therefore not be very popular, as the combined scores of Eurosceptics Le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and nationalist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan add up to around 46 percent of the vote.
Europe’s political establishment is almost hysterical in their condemnation of Le Pen, and rushed to back Macron, arguing that it had “no choice” but to support the globalist Europhile ex-banker in order to survive.
An insider also told Express.co.uk that Florian Phillipot could take over the campaign while Le Pen organises a more centrist manifesto to unite France. Le Pen has removed the party’s name, as well as her last name, from campaign posters to attract voters from both sides of the political campaign.
Le Pen published a video on the Front National, Monday April 24, thanking her supporters, also on the internet, for helping her in the election. On Thursday evening she will be speaking at her first rally after her first round victory in Nice.