LE PEN ARRIVES TO CHILLY WELCOME
Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far right Front national, arrived Friday in Montreal for a weeklong visit to Quebec and the French possession of St. Pierre and Miquelon.
News of her visit sparked immediate condemnation in Quebec, with Parti Québécois MNA Bernard Drainville telling a Radio- Canada host she is not welcome.
“She should get off the plane and get right back on and go home,” said Drainville, who as a PQ minister championed a charter of values that one academic compared to the Front National’s “nationalism of resentment.”
Front national representative Sébastien Chenu, who is travelling with Le Pen, told Radio- Canada that a meeting with unnamed federal politicians has been scheduled and a meeting with provincial politicians is “under construction.”
The office of Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard offered a terse “no” when asked whether any government members would be meeting Le Pen. The leaders of the opposition PQ and Coalition Avenir Québec said they would not meet her either, as did Bloc Québécois president and MP Mario Beaulieu.
Roger Rode, Front National’s secretary for St. Pierre and Miquelon, said he was disappointed to learn of the hostility expressed toward Le Pen’s visit to Canada.
Informed that Drainville had advised Le Pen to board a plane back home, he said, “He must be a Communist. Do you have Communists in Canada?” Rode, a retired small businessman, said Le Pen should be free to visit where she pleases.
“We’re in the 21st century, living in modern countries. I think there is freedom expression in Canada, and freedom of movement,” he said.
An agenda posted on Le Pen’s website says she will hold one news conference Sunday in connection with the international Journée de la francophonie and another one in Montreal on Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for the French consulate in Montreal said Le Pen is in Canada as part of a nine- member European trade delegation. Le Pen is a member of
SHE SHOULD GET OFF THE PLANE AND GET RIGHT BACK ON AND GO HOME.
the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, which is visiting Canada “with a special focus on the EU- Canada trade agreement,” according to the committee’s website. The trade agreement is coming up for ratification in the European Parliament.
Le Pen’s name had originally been on a list of European parliamentarians scheduled to meet the House of Commons standing committee on international trade Tuesday, but the committee was informed this week that she would not be part of the meeting.
Le Pen, daughter of Front national founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, has led the anti-immigration party more into the mainstream, mounting a serious challenge in last December’s French regional elections before the left and the traditional right teamed up to block the Front national.