Populist leader Marine Le Pen has reportedly abandoned plans to take France out of the European Union after realizing it’s not what the people want, a senior party official told the Telegraph.
Le Pen lost the presidential runoff election against pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron by a wide margin earlier in May. The National Front party (FN) is now looking to rebrand itself to attract voters, starting with one of its core issues.
“There will be no Frexit,” Bernard Monot, FN’s chief economic strategist, told the Telegraph Sunday. “We have taken note of what the French people told us.”
Monot said the party’s eurosceptic stance takes focus away from issues of law and order, immigration and the clash with Islam.
“I continue to think that the euro is not technically viable but it makes no sense for us to keep insisting stubbornly,” Monot told the Telegraph. “From now on our policy will be to renegotiate the EU treaties to give us more control over our budget and banking regulations.”
The party will hold a forum after parliamentary elections next month to come up with a new platform.
Le Pen has not addressed the party’s stance on the EU since her election defeat, but she promised “a deep transformation” in her concession speech.
“The National Front must also renew itself,” Le Pen said in an address to supporters after the results came in. “I will therefore start the process of a deep transformation of our movement … I call upon all patriots to join us.”
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