Le Pen bids for Fillon followers

FRANCE: Marine Le Pen has compared herself to Donald Trump, saying that she was the only one who could save France from decline and terrorism.

At a rally in Nantes, the leader of the National Front appealed to supporters of Francois Fillon, the conservative mired in scandal, to vote for her to revive France and fight globalisation and terrorism.

‘‘You see America with Trump,’’ Le Pen, 48, said. ‘‘In this new world that is emerging, I am the best placed to speak in the name of France.’’

Fillon, 62, and Emmanuel Macron, 39, the centrist candidate, were agents of the globalised order and ‘‘no longer believe in France’’, she said.

Citing Trump’s election and the Brexit vote, she said that her plan for France was ‘‘in tune with the great planetary movement which consists of the awakening of the peoples [and] the return of national frontiers and national pride’’.

The crowd of 3500 chanted ‘‘Marine president’’, before she led them in singing La Marseillaise.

Protesters had prevented hundreds of Front supporters from reaching the rally by blocking the motorways. A dozen anti-Le Pen demonstrators were arrested in Nantes on Sunday.

Le Pen, who leads polls for the first round of the election in April, has switched from promises of social protection back to her nationalist themes, to woo Right wing voters disappointed by Fillon, the candidate of the mainstream Republicans party.

Front officials said that Le Pen had ignored Florian Philippot, her deputy and architect of her pitch to the working-class vote, to target the Catholic nationalist right who flocked to Fillon in the Republicans’ primary election in November.

Fillon was level with Le Pen in polls before it emerged that he had employed his wife and two of their children on the parliamentary payroll for 13 years. Prosecutors have handed the case to judges for a criminal inquiry. No charges are likely before the elections.

Fillon a former prime minister, denies all the allegations.

Le Pen has claimed that three criminal investigations into her affairs are driven by Left wing judges.

While the investigation into Fillon has led to support for him falling, the investigation into Le Pen’s use of European parliament funds has had almost no impact. An Odoxa poll yesterday showed her up one point, to 27 per cent, in first-round voting intentions. Macron had risen three points to 25 per cent and Fillon fell one point to 19 per cent.

Le Pen would lose to Macron in the second round by 39 per cent to 61 per cent, and by a slightly smaller margin to Fillon, polls suggested. - The Times