PRESIDENTIAL candidate Marine Le Pen blasted globalisation and Islamic culture in her closing speech at a two-day National Front party conference.
She called them “two totalitarianisms” threatening France.
To applause and cries of “On est chez nous” (We are in our land), Le Pen served up the grand themes of the party that have made her a leader in early polls for the spring presidential election.
“We are at a crossroad. This election is a choice of civilisation,” she said, asking whether her three children and other young citizens would have the rights and culture of the current generation, adding: “Will they even speak our French language?”
Le Pen unveiled her 144 “commitments,” a nationalist agenda that envisions France free from the EU and Nato, with work and healthcare for its own citizens amid drastically reduced immigration.
Running on a campaign slogan of "In The Name Of The People", Le Pen called for French “patriots” on the left and right to join with her.
Her National Front party has taken heart in the disarray of the left with the unpopularity of Socialist President Francois Hollande, who decided not to seek a new mandate.
The right’s leading candidate, Francois Fillon, has been caught up in scandal, opening the way for maverick Emmanuel Macron, who could face off Le Pen.
Le Pen has been a leader in early polls, which suggest she will come top in the April 23 first-round vote but will not win the May 7 run-off.
Le Pen told the crowd in Lyon that globalisation is “erasing” France and Islamic fundamentalism is “planting itself in some neighbourhoods and vulnerable minds”.
Le Pen listed Muslim veils, mosques or prayer in the streets of France as unacceptable cultural dangers that “no French person attached to his dignity can accept”.
“When you arrive in a country, you don’t start violating laws, demanding rights,” she said, in reference to what she calls “massive immigration”.
“There will be no other laws and values in France but French.”
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