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way at the two ons and funtrying to restrong points, her electors,” Bruno Jeanbart, deputy chief executive of French pollster Opinionway, said in a telephone interview. He said the slight slide in Le Pen’s support could be due both to the race tightening closer to the voting date, and to minor protest candidates stealing votes from her.
Strong voter participation
“A worry for Le Pen is that voter participation could turn out to be strong, and she would need more votes to get through to the runoff,” he said. “People are going to rallies, watching the TV debates, there’s suspense and many people will think their vote will count.”
Le Pen said she is “extremely sensitive to the martyrdom of the Jews,” adding that the only issue was “juridical,” whether the Vichy regime was France or not.
“I consider that Vichy was not France. French people can commit crimes without France being criminal.”
Her rivals are “incapable” of protecting the French from Islamist fundamentalism, Le Pen said in the interview, pledging to expel “the day after my election” foreign nationals on a security list for suspected links to radical groups. At a rally in the village of Pageas in central France on Thursday, Le Pen’s nervousness was visible. For the first time she attacked Jean-Luc Melenchon, the far-left candidate who’s gaining in the polls. She said he would add €100 billion (Dh389.5 billion) in taxes and quipped that “with him everyone will be equal because everyone will be poor.”
Le Pen replied curtly in her radio interview when queried about French investigative magistrates asking the European parliament to lift her immunity over her use of a European parliamentary allowance to pay for party work in France. “It’s normal, it’s a completely standard procedure,” she said. “I’m not surprised.”
Asked whether she would abandon politics if she loses the presidential election, Le Pen fired back: “No, I am not like Macron, I am not one-shot. I fight for my country and I will always fight for my country.”
Helene Fouquet is a contributor for Bloomberg and John Follain is Rome correspondent and award-winning author.