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The gruesome attack on Charlie Hebdo has rallied the French political class, including the magazine’s former critics, behind the banner of “national unity”. But the leader of France’s National Front says she has been left out. Wednesday’s shooting, in which 12 people were killed, including some of France’s most celebrated cartoonists, triggered poignant and spontaneous demonstrations across France, where many held aloft pens to voice support for freedom of expression. The outpouring of grief and solidarity underscored France’s attachment to a cherished tradition of satirical cartoons that goes back to the French Revolution. It also belied the inherently controversial nature...

After a year of unprecedented electoral success, Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigrant, anti-EU National Front party is attracting more members than ever before in the 42-year-old party’s history, French media has reported. The National Front party has a total of 83,000 members—the highest number in the history of the party, according to the Huffington Post, citing an “internal party source”. […] In contrast, the governing Socialist party, which counted 170,000 members in December 2013, has seen a decline in recent months. The center-right UMP party claims to have around 268,000 members, according to Metronews. And the centrist UDI claims to have...

France's far-right National Front was projected to win European Parliament elections in France on Sunday with 25 percent of the vote, with exit polls putting Francois Hollande's Socialists in a lowly third place behind the center-right UMP.

Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front, blamed the European Union for declaring a new Cold War on Russia that would hurt all concerned, Russian media reported on Saturday as she paid an official visit to Moscow. Europe-Russia relations are at their lowest ebb in decades after President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea prompted the EU to impose sanctions on dozens of prominent Russian officials and lawmakers. However Le Pen, along with other Eurosceptic leaders of the far left and nationalist right, believe the original fault lies with Brussels for offering closer ties with Ukraine, a move Russia...

France's ruling Socialist Party suffered humiliating losses on a day dubbed "Black Sunday" in a local vote marked by breakthrough successes for the far-right National Front and the historic election of a first female mayor of Paris. On a day dubbed "Black Sunday" by one Socialist lawmaker, the National Front (FN) won control of at least fourteen towns, according to the interior ministry and was on track to claim 1,200 municipal council seats nationwide, its best ever showing at the grassroots level of French politics. It was also a night to savour for France's main opposition, the centre-right Union for...

France’s far-right National Front party (FN) hailed an “exceptional” showing in the first round of the country’s local elections Sunday, after winning historic levels of support in a number of towns and cities. Early estimates showed FN candidates leading in the eastern town of Forbach and the southern towns of Fréjus, Avignon, Perpignan, Villeneuve-sur-Lot and Beziers, putting the party in pole position for the second round of voting on March 30th. The news was even better for the FN in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, where the party’s candidate Steeve Briois took a majority of the vote at 50.26 percent,...

European Elections on the 25 May 2014. That the National Front exceeds the UMP and the PS becomes the largest party in France. This scenario has been advanced for the second time in a poll on Sunday. This survey FIFG for JDD credited with 23% of the vote the National Front. A higher score to 17.9% of Marine Le Pen in the presidential 2012. The UMP (21%) and PS (18%) totals are exceeded, but according to the pollster, none of the three parties is assured of his place on the podium, taking into account the margin of error, estimated at...

… Brignoles surprised France last week by giving the far-right a 49.5 percent landslide in the first round of its local by-elections: 40.4% of votes went to National Front candidate Laurent Lopez and 9.1% to another far-right group, Parti de France. The anti-immigration National Front led by Marine Le Pen draws much of its support from the southeast, but this city of 17,000 people still claims a Communist mayor.The outcome of the ballot is relatively unimportant. It will decide one seat in the local council, or canton. The National Front is not even certain to win the run-off poll on...

France’s National Front party has come out top in a poll on how French voters intend to cast their ballot in next year’s EU elections. A poll by IFOP for Le Nouvel Observateur, published Wednesday (9 October), found that 24 percent of those asked said they will vote for the anti-immigration, anti-Muslim National Front party. … The party won a record 18 percent of the vote in last year’s presidential election, with its leader Marine Le Pen credited with bringing in previously unwooed parts of the electorate. …

The most striking proof that the Arab anti-Israel cause is a common meeting ground for both Nazis and Communists --and that the Arabs welcomed supporters of both ilks-- lies in the friendship of Carlos, the notorious master terrorist who served the PLO, with Fran*ois Genoud, an old Nazi, one of the leading Nazis in pre-War Switzerland, later a financier who provided funds for Habash's faction of the PLO. "Carlos" (his nom de guerre) was what is called a "red diaper baby." His fabulously rich father, a Venezuelan lawyer and owner of estates, gave "Carlos" the name Ilich, Lenin's patronymic, as...

Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, Jean Marie Le Pen's 22-year old granddaughter has become France's youngest MP in modern political history, clinching one of two seats for the far-Right National Front – its first in a quarter of a century. Miss Maréchal-Le Pen, a law undergraduate, came top in her constituency in the southeastern Vaucluse department wtih 49.09 per cent of the vote after a rival Socialist refused to bow out to her mainstream Right rival. Her grandfather, who founded the anti-immigrant, anti-EU party and turns 84 this week, was by her side last night to toast her victory. His party won...

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front party, was on Saturday preparing to hand over the reigns to his daughter Marine, after four decades in the job. His departure will mark the end of an era for the anti-immigrant party that has shaken up French politics. Party members were gathering in the western city of Tours where Le Pen, 82, is to farewell the party he founded in 1972. Police were deployed around the conference centre in Tours, where rights groups and left-wing political groups said they planned peaceful demonstrations. Marine Le Pen, 42, is expected to...

MARINE LE PEN tried her best to flee her father and politics, she says, oppressed by the infamy of her inheritance, which followed her everywhere. But now she is widely expected to succeed Jean-Marie Le Pen as leader of the National Front, the persistent far-right party preaching French purity and exceptionalism, opposing immigration and the European Union, and which she wants to bring into the media age. More and more, she is the face of the party in television debates and national campaigning. “It’s amazing to see how destiny can mock you sometimes,” she said in a long interview at...

It looks like a political oxymoron, but Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front is poised to strike an alliance with France's large immigrant Muslim community. A generation after France's right-wing party began its surge with a tough anti-immigration campaign tinged with both racism and anti-Semitism, three factors are coming into play that could spell a strategic realignment. These factors, which are still little grasped outside political circles in France but will have an enormous impact, include: * The Islamicization of France is largely a fait accompli. It is assumed that 6 to 8 million citizens or residents of France, 10% to...

In an exclusive interview with EJP, Marine Le Pen, vice-president of the French  extreme-rightist Front National party talks about revisionism, anti-Semitism in France, Middle Eastern politics and French immigration policy. The 37-year-old daughter of extreme-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was elected a member of the European Parliament in June 2004. She joined the European Parliament France-Israel study group and is planning her first visit to Israel. European Jewish Press : You are planning a visit to Israel. This seems new for the Front National. Has any important member of the party been on such a mission before? Marine Le Pen: No, this...

French socialists have refused to attend a meeting of national political leaders on Europe's future, in protest against the presence of far right representatives from the National Front. The consultation on "European perspectives after the 29 May 2005 referendum" - the date of the French rejection of the EU Constitution - was organised by prime minister Dominique de Villepin. Amongst other things, economic harmonisation within the euro group and the creation of European high technology centres were to be discussed. Socialist leader Francois Hollande said that by including the National Front in the meeting, Mr Villepin was contributing to the...

Europe's far right parties are considering forming a pan-European movement. Filip Dewinter, the leader of an extremist separatist party in Belgium, told the Vienna-based News on Thursday that they were considering creating an extreme right grouping in the European Parliament. This would encompass Austria's Freedom Party, Italy's Lega Nord, France's National Front, the Dutch New Right Party and Dewinter's own Vlaams Belang - all strongly anti-immigrant. Dewinter said he is considering Jörg Haider, leader of Austria's Freedom Party, to be the head of the movement. "I've had several talks with Jörg Haider and have the feeling that he's interested in...

An extreme Muslim group was today warned to abandon plans to stage a demonstration in Trafalgar Square amid fears of a race riot. Ken Livingstone and the London Assembly told the leader of Al Muhajiroun to call off the gathering planned for tomorrow or risk prosecution under London by-laws. Far-Right groups such as the British National Party and the National Front are planning a counter demonstration and the Mayor is worried that the event will descend into violence. Al Muhajiroun triggered outrage in 2001 when it praised the September 11 hijackers as "the Magnificent 17". It has been condemned by...

It was autumn 1996. Four men were sitting around me in a central London pub. Little distinguished them from the passing commuters. Other than their baseball caps, jailbird tattoos, or talk of white revolution, they might have been just about anyone. Those four men were the leaders of a notorious neo-nazi gang called Combat 18 - the 1 and 8 in the name signify the position of “A” and “H” ("Adolf Hitler") in the alphabet. The gang was connected to Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, a violent “white power” music scene, numerous football hooligan “firms”, and the British National Party...

MANCHESTER, England -- Angry demonstrators emptied a garbage can on the car of French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen on Sunday after he spoke in support of the anti-immigration British National Party. Shouting "Nazi scum, off our streets!" about 100 demonstrators slowed Le Pen's car as he tried to leave a hotel in Altrincham on the outskirts of the northern city of Manchester. Le Pen, who has been convicted of racism and anti-Semitism at least six times in France, was appearing at two British National Party events Sunday despite some demands that he be barred from the country. At a...