France’s far-right begin soul-searching talks as Le Pen looks for fresh start

France's far-right National Front (FN) began meeting Friday for a soul-searching exercise after leader Marine Le Pen was routed in May's presidential election.

Published: 21 July 2017 13:05 CEST

France's far-right begin soul-searching talks as Le Pen looks for fresh start

Photo: AFP

The two days of discussions at FN headquarters outside Paris are the start of a process that could overhaul the party, including a possible name change, as it seeks a fresh start.

“We will take stock of the elections and look at what worked and what didn't,” Le Pen, 48, told France 2 television ahead of the meeting.

She said the FN would then hold a “wide consultation” with party members, which will probably take place in September.

Le Pen, running on an anti-EU and anti-immigration platform, was beaten by 66 percent to 44 percent by 39-year-old centrist Emmanuel Macron in the May 7 runoff.

Her campaign for that decisive second round was widely criticised, especially her poor performance in a head-to-head TV debate with Macron.

In the parliamentary elections that followed, the FN won just eight seats in the 577-member National Assembly, below its target of 15 seats, as Macron's centrist party obtained a comfortable majority.

One policy position that the FN looks set to dump is its proposal to pull France out of the euro.

In the eyes of many commentators, the pledge became a millstone around Le Pen's neck during the campaign as polls showed most French voters did not support it and the party sought to fudge its stance in the final days before the runoff.

“I think that on this monetary issue we could in fact reverse our stance,” FN secretary general Nicolas Bay told FranceInfo radio.

“I think we need to listen to what the French people said. We did not convince people with this idea.”

But the party's deputy leader Florian Philippot, a strong supporter of the euro withdrawal policy, warned against calling into question the party's entire programme.

He said Le Pen needed to be able to speak to the French electorate “on issues beyond the traditional subjects of the National Front, such as immigration and crime”.

Le Pen has previously said there are “many things to change”, including the name of the party she inherited from her father, FN co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.

France has in recent weeks been shaken by a series of attacks on schoolchildren by their peers, in particularly the fatal beating earlier this month of Shemseddine, 15, outside Paris.

The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party has accused Attal of not doing enough on security as the anti-immigration party soars ahead of the government coalition in polls for the June 9th election.

Speaking in Viry-Chatillon, the town where Shemseddine was killed, Attal condemned the “addiction of some of our adolescents to violence”, calling for “a real surge of authority… to curb violence”.

“There are twice as many adolescents involved in assault cases, four times more in drug trafficking, and seven times more in armed robberies than in the general population,” he said.

Measures will include expanding compulsory school attendance to all the days of the week from 8am to 6pm for children of collège age (11 to 15).

“In the day the place to be is at school, to work and to learn,” said Attal, who was also marking 100 days in office since being appointed in January by President Emmanuel Macron to turn round the government’s fortunes.

Parents needed to take more responsibility, said Attal, warning that particularly disruptive children would have sanctions marked on their final grades.

OPINION: No, France is not suffering an unprecedented wave of violence

Promoting an old-fashioned back-to-basics approach to school authority, he said “You break something – you repair it. You make a mess – you clear it up. And if you disobey – we teach you respect.”

Attal also floated the possibility of children in exceptional cases being denied the right to special treatment on account of their minority in legal cases.

Thus 16-year-olds could be forced to immediately appear in court after violations “like adults”, he said. In France, the age of majority is 18, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Macron and Attal face an uphill struggle to reverse the tide ahead of the European elections. Current polls point to the risk of a major debacle that would overshadow the rest of the president’s second mandate up to 2027.

A poll this week by Ifop-Fiducial showed the RN on 32.5 percent with the government coalition way behind on 18 percent.