It's Le Pen vs. Melenchon in Sunday's French parliamentary vote
Her aims of undoing the euro currency, shrinking immigration, protecting “Frenchness” and fighting what she calls Islamization have won her fans among extreme right movements around Europe. The potential impact of a Le Pen victory in the Henin-Beaumont region is so great that France’s leading voice on the far-left, fourth-place presidential finisher Jean-Luc Melenchon, decided to run for the same parliamentary seat to thwart her chances.
Her ultimate plan is to “explode” the mainstream right of former President Nicolas Sarkozy to become the main opposition to Socialist President Francois Hollande. Her party claims to be the sole ally of French sovereignty in a multicultural, globalized nation under the boot of Brussels, the governing seat of the European Union.
Le Pen’s anti-globalization mantra and disavowal of the euro find resonance in this joyless red brick town where unemployment is at some 20 percent and factory after factory has closed down. Her drive against “Islamization” also gets listeners, even though the Muslims here are largely descendants of North Africans of France’s former colonies who came to help work the now-shuttered mines.
The 11th precinct, with Henin-Beaumont at its center, is a no-holds-barred battle between the noisy extreme left campaign by Melenchon — his campaign truck blasting music and decked with portraits of the radical left candidate — and Le Pen’s unusually sedate extreme right fight. In a changing world, “The National Front represents a France that no longer exists,” said Melenchon during a visit to a nearby open-air market, arriving on the heels of Le Pen.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/marine-le-pens-far-right-gets-chance-to-change-france-in-sunday-parliamentary-vote/2012/06/07/gJQAkthNLV_story.html
In the latest polls the Socialist party is leading and expected to win control of the French parliament. Let's hope that happens.
It will be interesting to see how the head-to-head race between Le Pen and Melenchon is decided.
