Free Republic

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front Party, vowed that if she is elected the country’s president she would ban all public displays of religious symbols and clothing, including kippot. Le Pen made the statement during an interview on Sunday with France’s BFM-TV. She is expected to seek the country’s presidency in 2017. She heads the third-largest party in France. Le Pen is seeking to broaden an existing law, called the headscarf ban, that does not allow conspicuous displays of religious symbols in public schools to include all public areas. She called the ban a struggle against...

ROME (AP) — Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front party, warned Italy Tuesday to prepare to "accept half of the world population" if it starts taking in economic refugees. Le Pen on Monday toured an immigrant center in Lampedusa, a small Italian island where thousands of would-be migrants fleeing unrest in North Africa and the Mideast have landed. She said she learnt from her visit that the majority of migrants were men aged between 20 and 30, who "are obviously economic refugees."

PARIS French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen claimed Wednesday his National Front party has been "submerged" with prospective members and supportive e-mail since rioting erupted in heavily immigrant communities near Paris. In an interview with The Associated Press, Le Pen described the recent violence as "just the start" of conflicts caused by "massive immigration from countries of the Third World that is threatening not just France but the whole continent." Le Pen said people with immigrant backgrounds who commit crimes should be stripped of their French nationality and sent "back to their country of origin." Reminded that the vast majority...