Le Pen may gain youth vote

With the French presidential elections getting ever closer, Marine Le Pen seems to be attracting the youth to the higher echelons’ of her party, in a bid to gain the important youth vote.  The Front National’s departmental secretary is a young bright thing called Laurent Price.  What’s even more interesting is that his family, who are from a working class background, have always voted for the Socialist’s.  Price recently claimed that young people were joining Front National in their droves, proud to be associated with a party that promises them jobs and patriotism, perhaps blissfully unaware of their divisive tactics.

The Front National  claim that they are not a racist party, yet this week in a bid to create controversy, Marine claimed that all meat prepared in the Paris region were done so using Islamic halal traditions, where it may be more like 2.5%.  This claim was of course denied by the authorities and meat producers.  Islam is second to Christianity in France and the country has tried to deal with this in different ways, notably banning the wearing of the niqap in public.

The Front National like the BNP carefully to prey on the working class discontentment with rising unemployment, the Euro and religion.  Like the BNP, Le Pen aligns herself as a candidate of the people in contrast to Sarkozy’s association with the rich and powerful.  Le Pen’s campaign also gained a boost when Brigitte Bardot a former screen star, endorsed her campaign.  If Le Pen is to get officially onto the presidential ballot, she will need more open supporters like Bardot as she recently lost a constitutional battle to keep the names of her supporters anonymous.  Now that her supporters in secret must reluctantly come out in the open, hopefully Le Pen will not gain the 500 names needed to get onto the ballot.  However if Marine loses the French presidential election, which she is likely to, it is likely she made stand in the parliamentary elections that follow shortly after.

Mr Hollande is currently riding high in the polls and so there would be no need for Le Pen’s rising popularity with the youth to push Hollande into anti-immigration rhetoric.  Hollande will also be visiting London soon to help promote the new Northern Europe candidate Axelle Lemaire among French expats and inevitably boost his own campaign.  There is a large French community within the UK, with many of them registered to vote. If Hollande can capitalise on their vote, we will see a socialist president in May 2012.  Mr Hollande is currently riding high in the polls.  

This article was also published on the blog left foot forward click here to read http://www.leftfootforward.org/category/clean-politics/