| Author (Person) | Negrier-Pascaud, Mathilde |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Cardiff EDC |
| Series Details | May 2018 |
| Publication Date | 02/05/2018 |
| Content Type | News |
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Further information and backgound: On May 1st, France’s Marine Le Pen led a rally of Europe’s far-right in the southern French city of Nice to try to energize their campaigns ahead of next year's European Parliament elections. Le Pen used Nice - a French Riviera hub that boasts a diverse population - to forward her anti-immigration stance, saying it has "suffered from very strong pressure from migration that has partly changed the face" of the city. Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front (FN) party, was joined by other European far-right representatives whose parties are part of the Movement for a Europe of Nations and Freedom (MENF). The MENF is the biggest party in the loose parliamentary grouping, which hopes to secure significant gains in the 2019 election. Among those who attended were representatives of the Polish Congress of the New Right, the Czech Republic’s SPD party and Bulgaria’s Volya and the secretary general of Austria’s far-right FPÖ, Harald Vilimsky, whose party entered government in December. She set out her vision for "another Europe" on Tuesday during a gathering of European populists in Nice. "Europe is a good idea but the European Union is killing it," Le Pen said to hundreds of supporters. The EU is having "catastrophic consequences for our countries," she said, adding that she hoped to "fundamentally change" the union from within. "The possibility of obtaining a majority to change Europe is not so far-fetched. It's up to us to build this historic victory," Le Pen said. Far-right populist parties have celebrated a slew of electoral successes in Europe in recent months. The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) entered the German parliament with 13 percent of the vote, while Hungarian nationalist Victor Orban was elected to a third term last month. Le Pen's decision to hold her rally in Nice on May 1 rather than attend the annual May Day rally held by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in Paris also showed her attempt to place distance between herself and the highly controversial 89-year-old founder of the FN. Earlier this year, the party severed its final ties with him by eliminating his title of honorary president-for-life. Since her loss at the presidential election, Le Pen has been trying to cleanse it of the racist stigma that has clung to its image while maintaining the party's core closed-borders agenda. In March, former White House strategist Steve Bannon tried to re-energise the party by speaking at a congress in France with some commentators warning that support from figures like Bannon could hinder the party's rebranding efforts. Elections for the European Parliament are scheduled for May 2019. |
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| Countries / Regions | Europe |
