France's Le Pen campaigns in countryside, gathers endorsements
BNC
2017-03-03
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French far-right presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen received an endorsement on Friday (March 3) from the mayor of Le Vaudoue, a village of 800 people just south of Paris.
The mayor, Pierre Bacque, told Reuters he had recently left the French conservative party The Republicans in the aftermath of the allegations against presidential candidate Francois Fillon that he misused public funds to pay his wife for work she may not have done.
Fillon, who turns 63 on Saturday, this week promised to fight "to the end" despite the scandal and being placed under formal investigation.
"It's a democratic gesture before all else. But, moreover, it's true, several of the National Front's ideas and those of Marine Le Pen suit me. Not all of them but some," Bacque said of his endorsement of Le Pen.
Residents of Le Vaudoue expressed mixed views on the matter.
"Her political ideas, her language, all this, I like it. She really is my idol," said retiree Giselle Caille.
"She scares me. She scares me, her ideas scare me, her story scares me, her proposals too," said another village resident Nicolas, a computer scientist.
Le Pen arrived at the town hall to a cheering crowd and proceeded to a meeting room where Bacque officially signed his endorsement in front of the media and a crowd of a few dozen supporters.
"In this 2017 election, we will have the endorsements needed because we have an important number of elected officials thanks to the last regional elections, to the last municipal elections and to the last departmental elections," Le Pen said of the 500 endorsements needed to run in the presidential race.
The National Front leader also said a few words about her EU parliamentary immunity being lifted on Thursday for tweeting pictures of Islamic State violence.
"I was profoundly shocked. You know, we are used to being persecuted by all means possible and imaginable. The last to date, I was sued by the public prosecutor's office for having wanted to defend the honour of my electors who are millions of French people and who were accused of having a ideology close to Daesh (Arabic acronym for Islamic State)," she said.
Centrist Emmanuel Macron would come top in the first round of France's presidential election ahead of far-right leader Le Pen, according to an Odoxa poll, the first to show Macron with a first-round lead.
The former economy minister would win 27 percent of the vote in the April 23 first round followed by Le Pen at 25.5, leaving conservative Francois Fillon eliminated at 19 percent, the poll showed.
The mayor, Pierre Bacque, told Reuters he had recently left the French conservative party The Republicans in the aftermath of the allegations against presidential candidate Francois Fillon that he misused public funds to pay his wife for work she may not have done.
Fillon, who turns 63 on Saturday, this week promised to fight "to the end" despite the scandal and being placed under formal investigation.
"It's a democratic gesture before all else. But, moreover, it's true, several of the National Front's ideas and those of Marine Le Pen suit me. Not all of them but some," Bacque said of his endorsement of Le Pen.
Residents of Le Vaudoue expressed mixed views on the matter.
"Her political ideas, her language, all this, I like it. She really is my idol," said retiree Giselle Caille.
"She scares me. She scares me, her ideas scare me, her story scares me, her proposals too," said another village resident Nicolas, a computer scientist.
Le Pen arrived at the town hall to a cheering crowd and proceeded to a meeting room where Bacque officially signed his endorsement in front of the media and a crowd of a few dozen supporters.
"In this 2017 election, we will have the endorsements needed because we have an important number of elected officials thanks to the last regional elections, to the last municipal elections and to the last departmental elections," Le Pen said of the 500 endorsements needed to run in the presidential race.
The National Front leader also said a few words about her EU parliamentary immunity being lifted on Thursday for tweeting pictures of Islamic State violence.
"I was profoundly shocked. You know, we are used to being persecuted by all means possible and imaginable. The last to date, I was sued by the public prosecutor's office for having wanted to defend the honour of my electors who are millions of French people and who were accused of having a ideology close to Daesh (Arabic acronym for Islamic State)," she said.
Centrist Emmanuel Macron would come top in the first round of France's presidential election ahead of far-right leader Le Pen, according to an Odoxa poll, the first to show Macron with a first-round lead.
The former economy minister would win 27 percent of the vote in the April 23 first round followed by Le Pen at 25.5, leaving conservative Francois Fillon eliminated at 19 percent, the poll showed.
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