September 2011
As we’ve reviewed earlier, the candidate for the extreme-right Marine Le Pen, has demonstrated she can be a strong opponent in the next 2012 presidential elections, along with the current president Nicolas Sarkozy. There are still seven months left for France’s presidential elections, and this September ratings have placed Marine Le Pen ahead of the mainstream candidates for the elections, with a separation of five percentage points from president Sarkozy.
Although there has been a recent slip in her popularity during the past weeks, one of the reasons for the success of Marine Le Pen is the constant support she has received from sympathizers and people during several conferences she has held during her campaign. She intends to recover from this slip by holding a conference in the French southeastern city of Nice next September 10 and 11. According to Joseph Bamat from France 24, “Le Pen will deliver her keynote speech at the National Front conference. Her address may seem ill-timed, but in fact it suits a party that has always painted itself as a counterforce to France’s political and social establishment.”
When France and all the world is focusing on the near 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist attacks; according to Jean-Yves Camus, a political scientist and expert on France’s far right, Marine Le Pen “is part of a generation that is really hungry for power” and for this reason she needs to keep on with a tighter schedule of public appearances to attract more sympathizers.
Knowing Marine Le Pen, the conference taking place at Nice will probably be focused on immigration, the Muslim world, and the Greece debt. Are these issues she focuses on still enough to attract new voters and recover from her slip? We’ll have to wait and see.
· Bamat, Joseph. (2011, September 9). “Far-right targets 2012 presidential vote at Nice rally”. France 24. Retrieved from http://www.france24.com/en/20110908-france-national-front-conference-far-right-marine-le-pen-2012-elections-nice
· Bamat, Joseph. (2011, September 22). Le Pen: ‘The US model cannot be applied to France’. France 24. Retrieved from http://www.france24.com/en/20110922-france-far-right-marine-le-pen-interview-american-model-greece-national-front
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