Marine Le Pen Leads Far-Right Fight to Make France ‘More French’
Le Pen, the leader of the National Front, vowed to clamp down, expel, stamp out
and restrict immigration, and to make France "more French." The tough talk was met with thunderous chants of "This is our home!" from a hall packed with 5,000 supporters waving French flags, many bused in from all over southern France.
A poll conducted for Le Monde and published on Tuesday said she would get only about 30 percent of Mr. Fillon’s voters in the second round — not nearly enough, according to Joël Gombin,
a National Front specialist at the University of Picardy Jules Verne, who said she must get more than 50 percent of former Fillon supporters to have a shot at winning the presidency.
By ADAM NOSSITERAPRIL 20, 2017
MARSEILLE, France — Slipping in polls in the final days before the start of France’s presidential voting on Sunday, the far-right
leader Marine Le Pen is rallying her base by hardening a line — already very hard — on her principal campaign theme: immigration.
She promised a "moratorium" on immigration "as soon as I take office"; an end to family reunifications — the longstanding
and divisive policy of allowing into the country family members of immigrants; the expulsion of illegal immigrants, "because it is the law"; the expulsion of "S-files" who are foreigners; and cutting medical help to illegal immigrants.
Le Pen’s words on immigrants, she said, "went straight to my heart." Odile Ferrero, 60,
a retired home health worker, said her town, Aubagne, was "stuffed" with immigrants.
Tough talk on immigrants is what her supporters want from her,
and on Wednesday night at the Dôme, a metal-covered arena in a run-down neighborhood of Marseille, set back from the port, they were not disappointed.
"They want to transform France into a giant squat." "But it’s up to the owner to decide who can come in," Ms.