{"id":315043,"date":"2017-04-30T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2017-04-30T06:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=315043"},"modified":"2017-04-30T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2017-04-30T06:00:09","slug":"france-election-marine-le-pen-would-make-dupont-aignan-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/04\/france-election-marine-le-pen-would-make-dupont-aignan-pm\/","title":{"rendered":"France election: Marine Le Pen would make Dupont-Aignan PM"},"content":{"rendered":"
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has said she will make a defeated rival her prime minister, if elected.<\/p>\n
Ms Le Pen, of the far-right National Front (FN), chose Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, of the mainstream nationalist “Stand Up France” in an apparent bid to attract his voters.<\/p>\n
Mr Dupont-Aignan had already backed Ms Le Pen for the second round.<\/p>\n
Ms Le Pen faces centrist Emmanuel Macron in the second, decisive round of voting, which takes place on 7 May.<\/p>\n
Mr Dupont-Aignan, who got 4.7% in the first round, stood on a platform of leaving the euro and scrapping the European Union, higher ethical standards for elected officials, and focusing on the fight against jihadist terrorism.<\/p>\n
He said it was time to stop treating Ms Le Pen as untouchable.<\/p>\n
The BBC’s Hugh Schofield, in Paris, says the alliance between the two right-wing parties is symbolically important as it is the first time the FN has formed a pact with a mainstream political party.<\/p>\n
Ms Le Pen’s manifesto has been adapted to take in some of her putative prime minister’s policies.<\/p>\n
But the new alliance is less likely to appeal to the nearly 20% of French voters who cast their first round ballot for left-winger Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon, correspondents say.<\/p>\n