Far-right candidate in France slams globalization
LYON, France — French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen blasted globalization and Islamic fundamentalism in her closing speech Sunday of a two-day National Front party conference, calling them “two totalitarianisms” threatening France.
To applause and cries of “On est chez nous” (We are in our land), Le Pen served up the grand themes of the party that have made her a leader in early polls of the spring presidential election.
On Saturday, the party published Le Pen’s 144 “commitments,” a nationalist agenda that envisions a France unshackled from the European Union and NATO and that ensures work, health care and other services for its own citizens amid drastically reduced immigration.
Echoing U.S. President Trump’s “America First” pledge, Le Pen proposes amending the French Constitution to include the words “national preference.”
The right’s leading candidate, François Fillon, has been caught up in a corruption scandal, opening the way for maverick centrist Emmanuel Macron — who could face off with Le Pen.
Le Pen listed Muslim veils, mosques or prayer in the streets of France as unacceptable cultural dangers that “no French person ... attached to his dignity can accept.”
Among her 144 commitments is to limit immigration to 10,000 and restrain family reunification policies that has allowed many immigrants, mainly from former French colonies in North Africa, to bring in relatives.