French Elections: Step 1 in New Far Right March
Le Pen has been digging the terrain of discontent around France, and in Henin-Beaumont — a Socialist bastion for decades — she is counting on a win in municipal elections that begin Sunday, the first of a string of electoral tests she hopes will catapult her National Front to the forefront of French political life.
Le Pen’s party, which disdains the European Union and globalization and fears that Islamic culture will subvert French civilization, is aiming to leverage the municipal vote to build a grassroots base upon which to draw ahead of May elections for the European Parliament and the French presidential vote in 2017. She wants to officially scrub away the racist stigma that has long clung to the National Front and ultimately to upend the French political system by winning broad support for the party’s “patriotic” doctrine.
More: HENIN-BEAUMONT, France: French Elections: Step 1 in New Far Right March