Madame Frexit set for triumph after Paris terror attack
MARINE Le Pen was today poised for a historic breakthrough in France’s nail-biting presidential race. The far-right leader is confident her chances of winning the election’s first round have been strengthened by last week’s terrorist murder of a police officer on the Champs-Élysées.
But with the country on high alert as voters head to the polls, 48-yearold Le Pen – dubbed ‘Madame Frexit’ for threatening to follow Britain out of the EU – was accused of using the shooting for her own ends.
Her campaign has been dominated by anti-Islam and antiimmigration rhetoric and critics said she has used the violence to stoke further hostility. She is locked in a duel with centrist front-runner Emmanuel Macron, 39, a staunch defender of the single market.
If, as expected, Le Pen and Macron are successful in the first round of voting today, they will face each other in the run-off on May 7.
But analysts say the battle for the Élysée Palace is by no means a two-horse race.
Le Pen has moved from 22% to 23% in the latest opinion poll while her three rivals have all lost half a percentage point of support. Macron dropped back to 24.5%, while republican candidate François Fillon and leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon were back on 19%.
Experts said a Le Pen victory in the first round could lead to a drop in the value of the euro.
Kathleen Brooks, of City Index Direct, said: ‘I think if Le Pen wins today by a wide enough margin, then the euro will fall significantly, possibly to the lowest levels we’ve seen this year.’
Le Pen’s father, the convicted racist Jean-Marie Le Pen, caused shockwaves around the world in 2002 when he came second in the first round. However, he then went on to lose to Jacques Chirac by a landslide of more than 80%.
But Marine Le Pen is convinced she can go one better by positioning herself as the candidate who is toughest on terror.
She had pledged to ‘immediately reinstate border checks’, to expel foreigners and to ban all immigration, whether illegal or not. Her supporters include the US President Donald Trump who said the most recent terror attack in Paris would ‘have a big effect on the presidential election’ because the French people ‘will not take much more of this’.
But French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve accused Le Pen of ‘shamelessly seeking to exploit fear and emotion for exclusively political ends’. Mr Cazeneuve pointed out that Karim Cheurfi, the 39-yearold responsible for the murder of traffic officer Xavier Jugelé, 37, was a born and bred Frenchman.
Le Pen has called for negotiation with Brussels on a new EU, followed by a referendum. She has also called for the closure of extremist mosques, priority for French nationals in social housing and a retirement age fixed at 60.
Macron forged a reputation with his ‘Macron Law’, a controversial reform bill that allowed shops to open more often on Sundays. On security, he has said France is paying for the intelligence jobs cuts made when Fillon was PM.
‘Euro could fall to the lowest levels this year’ ‘Shamelessly exploiting fear for political ends’