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Russia’s Putin hosts French presidential hopeful Le Pen in Kremlin

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President Vladimir Putin met French far-right party leader Marine Le Pen in the Kremlin on Friday, March 24, handing her a potential boost to her campaign to win next month’s presidential election in France, Reuters reports.

Putin told Le Pen Moscow reserved the right to meet any French politician it wanted and that she represented “quite a fast-growing element of European political forces.”

“Of course I know that the election campaign in France is actively developing,” said Putin. “We do not want to influence events in any way, but we reserve the right to talk to representatives of all the country’s political forces.”

A meeting with Putin is a coup for Le Pen and could help her burnish her foreign policy credentials. While increasingly popular in France, she has struggled to get any backing abroad apart from support offered by other far-right parties.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told reporters on a conference call that Putin and Le Pen had not discussed the possibility of Russia offering any financial help to her political party.

Le Pen, who has said she admires the Russian leader, was visiting Russia at the invitation of Leonid Slutsky, head of the lower house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

Earlier on Friday, Le Pen had cut short a schedule of events in the Russian parliament to meet Putin.

Reporters had been told she would give a news conference at the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, after meeting Russian lawmakers, but she did not turn up for the event at the designated time.

On Friday morning, Le Pen explained to Russian parliamentarians why she opposed European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow over its role in the Ukraine crisis.

She also said that Russia and France needed to unite to fight global terrorism, a sentiment later echoed by Putin who has long advocated teaming up with the West to take on the Islamic State group.

Le Pen blasts EU, NATO, praises Trump

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(DW) French National Front leader Marine Le Pen has sharply criticised multi-lateral governance and praised the new Trump administration. She also called for a new approach towards Russia, Syria and African nations.

France’s far-right presidential front runner Marine Le Pen sounded a full-throated rejection of global trade deals and multilateral governance, defending in soaring terms Thursday the importance of cultural identity and national independence.

In a keynote foreign policy speech in Paris, Le Pen offered withering criticism of the European Union and NATO and decried what she essentially described as Western meddling in countries like Iraq, Syria, Libya, Russia and Turkey that she claimed have increased instability, broken bilateral promises and betrayed the wishes of the people.

“I don’t want to promote a French or a Western system. I don’t want to promote a universal system,” Le Pen told a packed audience of reporters, diplomats and supporters in an elegant conference hall near the Champs Elysees. “To the contrary, I want to promote a respect of cultures and peoples.”

Le Pen’s lofty discourse offered a stark counterpoint to the Front National’s more abrasive grassroots image as an anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, populist party. She described France under her governance as a champion of “oppressed people, which speaks out for the voiceless and carries something powerful and great.”

She also took no questions and continued calmly on after a bare-chested Femen protester sought to interrupt her before being carried, still shouting, out of the room.

Scandal over EU funds

A pair of polls out Thursday confirmed Le Pen remains the favored candidate in a presidential race that has been full of surprises, despite being mired in an ongoing scandal over the alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay for several Front National staff. Still, almost every survey to date shows her winning the first round of presidential elections in April, but failing to prevail in a May runoff.

For 48-year-old Le Pen, Thursday’s speech was the second chance in a week to burnish her foreign policy credentials. European leaders have snubbed her, but she had better luck earlier this week in Lebanon, where she met with the country’s president and prime minister. She also stirred controversy by cancelling a meeting with the Lebanese grand mufti after refusing to wear a headscarf.

“Going to Lebanon showed she could look presidential,” says Philippe Moreau Defarges, senior fellow at the French Institute of International Relations in Paris. Noting the country was both a former French colony and held an important Christian community – a key theme for the National Front – he added, “it allowed Mrs. Le Pen to look like both a patriot and a Christian.”

Old and new themes

Le Pen’s address touched on some familiar themes, as she railed against the European Union, NATO and free trade. But she also waded into new territory – or at least offered new nuances – as she described forging a new relationship with Africa based on “frankness, respect and mutual cooperation.”

Le Pen increases first round lead in French election: poll

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FILE PHOTO – Thierry Legier (L), the bodyguard of Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, stand near as she visits the Salon des Entrepreneurs (Entrepreneurship fair) in Paris, France, February 1,… REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

French far right leader Marine Le Pen has increased her lead in the first round of France’s presidential election, though she is still seen being beaten by a wide margin in the runoff, a BVA-Salesforce poll published on Thursday showed.

The National Front head would win 27.5 percent of the vote in the April 23 first round, up 2.5 percentage points from the last time the poll was conducted on Feb 4.

Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron was seen coming in second in the first round with 21 percent of the vote, down one percentage point, followed by conservative Francois Fillon at 19 percent, also down one percentage point.

In the May 7 runoff vote, Macron was seen beating Le Pen 61 percent to 39 percent while Fillon was seen winning the presidency with 55 percent to 45 percent.

However, because the poll was conducted on Sunday and Monday, it did not reflect the impact of the latest developments in the fast moving campaign, which has seen Fillon lose an early poll lead after being investigated over public funds he paid his family.

The poll did not take into account the possibility of veteran centrist Francois Bayrou running. On Wednesday, Bayrou announced that he would not run and would instead support Macron, which analysts say should give him a boost.

Also on Wednesday Le Pen’s chief of staff was put under formal investigation as part of a probe into alleged misuse of EU funds to pay parliamentary assistants.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-poll-idUSKBN16208I?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=58ae5f7104d301549ae11730&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

France’s Le Pen cancels meeting with Lebanon’s Grand Mufti over headscarf

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The National Front (FN) party leader was on a three-day visit to Lebanon to bolster her credentials as a presidential candidate when she walked out of a meeting with one of the country’s foremost religious leaders before it started.

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has cancelled a meeting with Lebanon’s Grand Mufti. The far-right leader refused to wear a headscarf for the tete-a-tete with one of the country’s foremost religious figures.

Shortly after arriving at Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel-Latif Derian’s office, an aide tried to give Marine Le Pen a headscarf to put on, which she immediately refused to wear. According to the Associated Press, she was thereupon told that customs were different in Lebanon, prompting Le Pen to walk back to her car and leave.

“You can pass on my respects to the Grand Mufti, but I will not cover myself up,” Le Pen told reporters. She reportedly added that she had met in the past with the grand mufti of Egypt’s Al Azhar, one of the world’s top Sunni clerics, without having to wear a veil.

The press office for the grand mufti meanwhile said that Le Pen’s aides had been informed beforehand of their requirement for her to wear a head covering for the meeting. The statement further remarked that “(t)he mufti’s office regrets this inappropriate behavior in such meetings.”

During her visit to Lebanon, France’s far-right presidential candidate is also scheduled to meet with Lebanese right-wing Christian party leader Samir Geagea and with the Maronite Christian patriarch.

Le Pen’s refusal to wear the head covering is far from unique: Many other female politicians from around the globe including Angela Merkel, Ursula von der Leyen, Hillary Clinton and former US First Ladies Laura Bush and Michelle Obama all refused to wear veils on diplomatic visits to Saudi Arabia, where every female who lives there is required to have her head and body covered in public.

A group of female Swedish officials came under criticism last week for wearing headscarves during a visit to Iran.

France Protects al-Qaeda Affiliates, Should Help Russia Instead Le Pen

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1026825551Instead of helping Russia to crash Islamic militants in Syria, France is doing the opposite – helping al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, said Marine Le Pen, the leader of French National Front party.
Le Pen criticized the French government, stating that it sides with the duplicitous policies of the United States. One can’t trust Washington’s policies anymore, Le Pen said on her Twitter account.

While Russia is fighting ISIL, trying to solve the Syrian crisis, France is “protecting” al-Nusra fighters, who represent the al-Qaeda terrorist organization in Syria, the French politician argued.

 

Instead of doing this senseless job, France should have been fighting ISIL alongside Russia in the Middle East, Le Pen said.
Meanwhile, Russia started precision airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria on September 30, following a request from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.As of Friday, the Russian Air Force has carried out about 140 strikes against terrorist positions, destroying command centers, training camps and ammunition depots. Russian warships in the Caspian Sea also fired 26 cruise missiles on ISIL targets on Wednesday.
Currently, Le Pen’s National Front party has the largest number of seats in the European parliament among all French parties.
Earlier this week, Le Pen accused French President Francois Hollande of failing to stand for France’s national interests and following orders of Washington and Berlin.

Source: sputniknews.com

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Paris: Known Islamists must be expelled from France, Le Pen says after train attack

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Marine Le Pen © Charles Platiau / Reuters

Marine Le Pen © Charles Platiau / Reuters

People known to have ties with radical Islamist groups must be expelled from France and not allowed back, the leader of the right-wing National Front Marine Le Pen said, after a suspected Islamist gunman was apprehended on a train.

“Foreigners who are known to have ties with radical Islamism must not only be filed in databases of the special services, but also immediately expelled from French territory, if they live in France. And anyway they must not be allowed entry,” said the French politician known for her anti-immigrant stance.

The statement came a day after a man, reported to be a 26-year-old Moroccan previously red flagged by Spanish special services for having Islamist ties, was restrained by passengers on a high-speed Thalys train. The man was carrying several weapons, including an assault rifle, and apparently intended to go on a shooting rampage.

Le Pen said in the case of the man, Ayoub El Khazzani, the French special services had demonstrated poor handling of information concerning potential security threats.

“The system doesn’t work because it doesn’t allow for the true question to be asked: why does France allow in a foreign citizen, who is known to be dangerous and connected to a murderous ideology,” she said.

READ MORE: French high-speed train attacker ‘connected with radical Islamists, visited Syria’ – minister

“France today is a constant target for the barbarous criminals who take advantage of the lack of borders in the EU and the Schengen zone,” Le Pen added, saying that France should reestablish its national borders.

A Frenchman and two American soldiers who happened to be in the car prevented the potential massacre on the Thalys train, which was en route to Paris from Amsterdam. The would-be terrorist stabbed one of the US nationals in the altercation. Another man, famous French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, cut his hand breaking the glass on the emergency stop button.