{"id":10929,"date":"2013-10-08T08:52:27","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T08:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=10929"},"modified":"2013-10-08T08:52:27","modified_gmt":"2013-10-08T08:52:27","slug":"le-pens-party-wins-big-in-by-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=10929","title":{"rendered":"Le Pen’s party wins big in by-election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marine<\/a>
Marine Le Pen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two far-right candidates in France have won 50 per cent of the vote in a single by-election.<\/p>\n

The success on Sunday night was described as a ‘warning shot’ to mainstream politicians who are accused of letting ordinary people down over issues like immigration.<\/p>\n

Front National (FN) candidate Laurent Lopez took 40.4 percent of the vote in the first round of voting in the south eastern town of Brignoles.<\/p>\n

Another far-right party, the ‘Parti de France’, took 9.1 percent.<\/p>\n

The centre-right UMP, France\u2019s main opposition parliamentary party, came second with 20.9 percent.<\/p>\n

The result led to Marine Le Pen, the leader of the FN – which wants to call a halt to new arrivals – today saying that her party is ‘already the main party in France.’<\/p>\n

Its support has been rising consistently, with recent opinion polls suggesting it could take around 16 percent of votes in municipal elections scheduled for next March.<\/p>\n

Analysts say economic mismanagement by the ruling Socialists, including record unemployment, have all contributed to the FN’s success.<\/p>\n

But it is the contentious issue of immigration, especially from eastern European and Muslim countries, which the FN particularly focuses on.<\/p>\n

It says that spiralling crime figures are the result of lax European Union policies which allow thousands of undesirables to enter France.<\/p>\n

Shanty towns full of Roma gypsies have, for example, begun springing up on the edges of major cities like Paris and Marseille.<\/p>\n

The spokesman for the Socialist party called for the left to unite against the rise of the FN. He said the by-election result was a ‘warning shot’ ahead of the municipal elections – the first real electoral test since President Francois Hollande’s Socialists came to power<\/p>\n

David Assouline, spokesman for the Socialist party, called for the left to unite against the rise of the FN.<\/p>\n

Mr Assouline said the by-election result was a ‘warning shot’ ahead of the municipal elections – the first real electoral test since Francois Hollande’s Socialists came to power last year.<\/p>\n

‘It proves what we have been saying for months,’ Mr Assouline added. ‘When the FN stands strong and tall, the left must absolutely be united from the first round.’<\/p>\n

The UMP will battle against the FN candidate in the second round of the Brignoles poll on October 13th.<\/p>\n

The Socialist party had no candidate in the by-election and had publicly supported the far-left PCF party, which was eliminated in the first round.<\/p>\n

Mr Assouline said his party now called on Brignoles residents to vote for the UMP candidate in the second round rather than let the FN in.<\/p>\n

Annoyed at constant references to the FN’s extremism, Mrs Le Pen said last week: ‘We are absolutely not a party of the right. Those who think that are making a total analytical error.<\/p>\n

‘I’m considering seeking a judicial ruling that the description ‘extreme right’ is a pejorative term deliberately used to damage the Front National. For journalists to label the FN like this is unethical, biased and intellectually sloppy.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two far-right candidates in France have won 50 per cent of the vote in a single by-election. The success on Sunday night was described as a ‘warning shot’ to mainstream politicians who are accused of letting ordinary people down over issues like immigration. Front National (FN) candidate Laurent Lopez took 40.4 percent of the vote … Continue reading “Le Pen’s party wins big in by-election”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[6813,1064,6812,2821,6814,999],"class_list":["post-10929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-front-national-fn","tag-immigration","tag-mainstream-politicians","tag-marine-le-pen","tag-record-unemployment","tag-socialist-party"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/marine.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10931,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10929\/revisions\/10931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}