French populist leader Marine Le Pen kicked off her presidential campaign Saturday with the hopes of pulling off a Donald Trump-style upset in April.
Le Pen and her National Front (FN) colleagues mirrored Trump’s rhetoric during the campaign launch in Lyon. The party has struggled to survive run-off elections in the past, but the election of Trump has given the party a real boost ahead of the election.
“We were told Donald Trump would never win in the United States against the media, against the establishment, but he won,” Jean-Lin Lacapelle, a top FN official told the conference. “We were told Marine Le Pen would not win the presidential election, but on May 7 she will win!”
Le Pen announced a 144-point platform to give “freedom” back to the people. Main points include abandoning the euro as France’s currency, a referendum on European Union membership and increasing taxes on imports and foreign labor and curbing migration.
“The aim of this program is first of all to give France its freedom back and give the people a voice,” Le Pen said of the manifesto.
Le Pen is expected to win the first round in April, but she trails her opponents in polls of possible second-round contingencies. Conservative candidate Francois Fillon has slipped to third place as scandal over questionable employment of his his wife as an aide is blooming. Centrist Emmanuel Macron has now emerged as the favorite to win the presidency.
“This presidential election puts two opposite proposals,” Le Pen said. “The ‘globalist’ choice backed by all my opponents … and the ‘patriotic’ choice which I personify.”
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