{"id":291423,"date":"2017-02-05T16:37:24","date_gmt":"2017-02-05T16:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=291423"},"modified":"2017-02-05T16:37:24","modified_gmt":"2017-02-05T16:37:24","slug":"france-election-far-rights-le-pen-rails-against-globalisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/02\/france-election-far-rights-le-pen-rails-against-globalisation\/","title":{"rendered":"France election: Far-right’s Le Pen rails against globalisation"},"content":{"rendered":"
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has launched her presidential election manifesto with a twin attack on globalisation and radical Islam.<\/p>\n
The candidate of the National Front (FN) told supporters in the eastern city of Lyon that globalisation was slowly choking communities to death.<\/p>\n
Her party is promising to offer France a referendum on EU membership if a renegotiation of terms fails.<\/p>\n
France goes to the polls on 23 April in one of the most open races in decades.<\/p>\n
The incumbent Socialist President, Francois Hollande, is not standing for a second term.<\/p>\n
The FN is styling itself as the original anti-establishment party, with its leader hoping to cash in on the “time for change” feeling generated by Donald Trump’s election and the Brexit vote in Britain.<\/p>\n
BBC Paris correspondent Lucy Williamson says the party, which has never won more than a third of the popular vote, has been trying to soften its image recently, in order to broaden its appeal.<\/p>\n
Opinion polls suggest she will win the first round but lose the second.<\/p>\n
‘Local revolution’<\/strong><\/p>\n Arguing that the FN was the party of the French people, Ms Le Pen said she wanted a “free, independent and democratic country”.<\/p>\n Globalisation, she said, meant “manufacturing by slaves for selling to the unemployed” while the FN solution was a “local revolution” guided by “intelligent protectionism and economic patriotism”.<\/p>\n She said the EU was a “failure” which had “kept none of its promises”, and she promised to renegotiate French membership fundamentally, and would call a referendum on leaving if the attempt failed.<\/p>\n Referring to the knife attack at the Louvre this week, she warned of the threat of radical Islam, painting a dark picture of a France under the “yoke of Islamic fundamentalism” where women would be “forbidden to enter cafes or wear skirts”.<\/p>\n France has about five million Muslims – the largest Islamic minority in Western Europe.<\/p>\n Earlier, FN deputy leader Florian Philippot predicted a new appetite for politics inspired by Brexit and Mr Trump.<\/p>\n “People are waking up,” he told the audience in Lyon on Sunday. “They see Brexit, they see Trump and they’re saying to themselves: ‘It’s worth going to vote’.”<\/p>\n