Marine Le Pen - The next president of France?

Is she the next French president?

France may be in for a surprise:

For the first time, a poll shows France's extreme-right National Front leading over the two big mainstream political parties in view of he European Parliament elections in May 2014.

 

In the poll published in the weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, 24% of those surveyed said they would back the anti-immigrant party, compared with 22% for the centre-right UMP of former President Sarkozy and 19% for the governing Socialist Party.

Marine Le Pen immediately declared that she is ready to be France's next president:

Le Pen spoke in an interview with ANSAmed on the same day an IFOP survey for the Nouvel Observateur showed her right-wing party leading in the polls ahead of the 2014 European elections - an absolute first for France.

''Yes, I feel I am ready for the Elysee'', Le Pen assured ANSAmed over the phone. ''I can't stand those who say we're not competent enough'' to lead the country, she added.

She ''is not surprised'', she says, at the results of the survey.

''Today we are the leading party. The Socialists and the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) can only win if they make a deal and form a pact of national unity'', added Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughter, who came in third after current Socialist President Francois Hollande and outgoing UMP president Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential elections.

Le Pen junior took over from her father as party chairman in a congress in Tours in 2011, and has been trying to change the party's image from one of racism and xenophobia to a more moderate version ever since.

''The French are clear-headed. A lot of people are becoming aware'' of France's true situation, she said. Which explains the support of personalities such as actor Alain Delon, who publicly announced he favors the FN in an interview with Swiss daily Le Matin. Le Pen went on to explain that hers ''is not an extreme right party'' but rather a ''patriotic, extremely democratic one''. It stands for more ''popular referendums'' with a ''Gaullist vision'' of national sovereignty and independence.

''Also, we are not against a market economy'', she continued. --

Le Pen, who opposes the EU and the single currency, reiterated the need to liberate France from the yoke of the Brussels technocrats - and of others.

PS

For the first time ever, it appears that the next European election will become really interesting. France is definitively not the only country where you can expect results that which should worry the Eurocrats ...