‘Best placed to face new world of Trump, Modi’
‘PLAGIARISM’
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said on Tuesday she was better placed than her rival, centrist Emmanuel Macron, to defend France’s interests in what she called the “new world” of U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Le Pen, who rails against “uncontrolled globalization”, hopes to channel the same nationalist, antiestablishment sentiment that propelled Trump to the White House and spurred Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, and become the first woman to lead France. She bills Macron, a pro-EU former investment banker, as a stooge of banks and elite.
“I think I’m best placed to talk to this new world that’s emerging, to talk to the Russia of Putin, to the United States of Trump, to talk to the Britain of (Prime Minister Theresa) May ... to talk to the India of (PM Narendra) Modi,” she said in an interview.
She said that was “because all of those countries are more or less turning their backs on the ideology of free trade, of competition and of undermining social protection. “So I feel much more in line with their political philosophy than with (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel’s,” she said.
Despite the Brexit vote, Britain says it remains a defender of free trade. Trump has said he wants trade deals to work for US.
Le Pen goes into Sunday’s decisive run-off as the clear underdog, according to opinion polls. While her