Marine Le Pen vows to put France first

She appealed to the same nationalist sentiments employed by US President Donald Trump and British Brexiters to launch her bid for the French presidency in a rousing speech in the city of Lyon.

FN party’s deputy leader Florian Philippot said before he introduced Le Pen: “People are waking up. They see Brexit, they see Trump and they’re saying to themselves: ‘It’s worth going to vote.'”

Le Pen told her cheering audience that under her leadership France’s national interests would take precedence over what globalists have ordered, in a clear nod to US President Donald Trump’s victorious “America First” and successful Brexit supporters in the UK urging voters to “Take back control”.

“We will be all about the local, not the global,” Le Pen said adding that not only a globalised financial world but also “a globalisation from below, via mass immigration” should be resisted.

Anti-immigrant sentiment in France is high, especially in the wake of multiple terrorist attacks, including a massacre in Paris on November 13, 2015 that claimed 130 lives and a truck attack in which children too were killed in Nice last year.

“We do not want to live under the yoke or the threat of Islamic terrorism,” she said, promising a “zero tolerance” approach to crime.

Just days ago, French police at the Louvre in the French capital, stopped a jihadist wielding two machetes allegedly shouting “Allahu Akbar”.

Le Pen told her audience that she would consider a referendum similar to the one in Britain. “If the EU does not submit, then I will ask the French to vote in the referendum to resign from this nightmare,” she said.

She also questioned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO’s role in fighting terrorism, reinvigorating once more the race for the Elysee Palace.

In unveiling her party programme ahead of her speech, she highlighted 144 measures, including the re-introduction of border controls, strict limits on immigration, a return to the country’s pre-euro franc currency and the prospect of leaving NATO.

She did however not include the re-introduction of the death penalty in France in the 2017 programme, but rather the possibility of stripping binational offenders linked to terrorist networks of their French citizenship.

Polls show that Le Pen will likely be among France’s two top presidential candidates. She could be facing former Economics Minister and presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, as his poll ratings have increased in the wake of corruption allegations against the former frontrunner, conservative politician Francois Fillon,

Recent polls predict that Macron will come in second or third place in the first round of voting – and might face Le Pen in the run-off vote, which pollsters say would see Le Pen easily beating the system candidate Macron.

Macron has distanced himself from the very unpopular Socialist Party, of which he used to be a member, creating his own movement for his presidential campaign: “En Marche!” But his association with the Socialists might linger in the minds of voters.