Marine Le Pen, more polished in form but also radical in substance, according to a study

Europe 1 with AFP 08:30, April 04, 2022

The far-right presidential candidate has tried, since her arrival in 2011 at the head of the National Front (now National Rally), "to adopt a much smoother communication" but her positioning is "just as radical" , particularly on cultural and migratory issues, writes this center of reflection classified on the left.

According to a study by the Jean-Jaurès Foundation published on Monday, Marine Le Pen has polished her speech but her program remains just as radical.

“If de-demonization is not programmatic, it is clearly discursive,” says this study.

Marine Le Pen "a little soft"

On the form, this "de-demonization" was favored by the "harsher rhetoric" of his rival, Eric Zemmour, and a "stricter line" of the so-called moderate right of LR, as well as by the presidential party LREM, in a context of "transformation of the media landscape" favoring a "normalization of radical right ideas".

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin thus accused Marine Le Pen of being "a little soft" during a televised debate in February 2021, while LR deputy Eric Ciotti pleaded for a "French-style Guantanamo" and that Valérie Pécresse, future candidate, established a "link" between terrorism and "the most recent immigration".

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If on the economic level, the FN moved, in the 2000s, from neoliberalism to "social-populism", from the anti-tax party to a "tax on financial wealth" and to measures in favor of purchasing power, it is "always radical" on cultural issues, underlines the Foundation.

Establish self-defense for law enforcement

Marine Le Pen always proposes "strong measures to promote law and order".

She thus promised in Brest in February to establish in particular a self-defense for the police.

She regularly rejects "multiculturalism", considering that "massive immigration prevents assimilation".

"Do not come as you are but become as we are," said his lieutenant Jordan Bardella.

In terms of migration, its program has "hardened" since 2010, according to the Foundation.

It plans for 2022 to include in the Constitution the "national priority" which will deprive foreigners of several benefits.

She also wants, like Eric Zemmour, to expel illegal immigrants, foreign criminals and delinquents, and foreign S-files, as well as foreigners who have been unemployed for more than a year.