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France's Le Pen vows to fight on after Macron wins: A look at her campaign
"I will continue the fight for France and the French people," Le Pen said in a defiant speech. Here’s what Le Pen stood for in her presidential campaign.
Marine Le Pen - unbowed by her third failed bid for the presidency - on Sunday promised her supporters that she will keep up the fight in the June parliamentary elections. "I will continue the fight for France and the French people," Le Pen said in a defiant speech. She called her result “a shining victory,” saying that “in this defeat, I can't help but feel a form of hope.”
"I fear the next five years will not break with the contempt and the brutal policies of the last five years and Emmanuel Macron will do nothing to repair the divisions in our country," the 53-year-old was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.
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Here’s what Le Pen stood for in her presidential campaign
1. In her latest attempt to win the presidency, Le Pen tapped into anger across the country over the rising cost of living, the decline of many rural communities and what was called general disenchantment with Macron.
2. During her campaign, Le Pen pledged to dilute French ties with the 27-nation EU, NATO and Germany, according to an AP report, and the moves that would have shaken Europe’s security architecture as the continent deals with its worst conflict since World War II.
3. Le Pen also spoke against the EU sanctions on the Russian energy supplies and expressed worries about the impact on French living standards from these sanctions. During her campaign, she also faced heat for her ‘closeness with the Kremlin.’
4. Le Pen also confirmed her plans to ban the Muslim headscarf in public spaces - a "uniform imposed by Islamists", as she called it during her campaign as per news agency AFP. In a live head-to-head debate with Macron on Wednesday, Le Pen said, "I think we need to introduce a law against Islamist ideology. I'm not fighting against a religion, I'm not against Islam, which is a religion that has a place (in France)."
5. Le Pen also spoke of her ‘national preference’ plan where French workers would be prioritised over foreigners in jobs. She also stood for exclusion of non-citizens from social benefits.
Whether Le Pen is able to hang on until the next presidential vote in 2027 is unclear, but in an interview with Reuters in March she refused to rule out a fourth run at the Elysee Palace.
(With inputs from Reuters, AP)
