Marine Le Pen is Shopping for Allies at the EU Parliament

Nidra Poller

Follow the story in real time:

Having outdone the major opposition party—UMP—and trounced the governing Socialists in last week’s European elections, Marine Le Pen went off to Brussels today, looking for allies. If she can form a block of at least 25 deputies representing seven different countries, she will drastically improve her chances to influence EU policy while sharing in the perks: funding, chauffeur-driven cars, offices, legislative privileges, etc. The Front National itself has 24 Eurodeputies; the problem is finding the 7 nations. More or less assured of her alliance with Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party, the Austrian FPO, Belgium’s Vlams Blang, she is hard put to find the missing allies. Both UKIP and the Danish People’s Party have ruled out any alliance with the FN. On the other hand, Marine Le Pen can’t risk alliances with blatantly anti-Semitic antidemocratic parties like Golden Dawn, Jobbik, and other minor parties of similar persuasion.

What do committed and potential allies know about the Front National? Apparently not much. Marine Le Pen has pursued a forceful normalization strategy to rid the Front National of the sleazy image shaped by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen and upheld by party leaders and rank & file over the past 40 years since its founding. For some mysterious reason this window dressing has been respected by French media and gone unnoticed, with rare exceptions, in international media.

One of these exceptions, Gatestone Institute, links to Marine Le Pen’s foreign January 22^nd foreign policy press conference, where she presents a superficially reasonable foreign policy and a seemingly brilliant advisor, Aymeric Chauprade, political scientist, author, professor, advisor, world traveler, and more. You don’t have to understand French to see how professional it looks. But you have to listen very carefully to Mme. Le Pen’s presentation to recognize the underlying values, affinities, logic, passion, and motives. (summarized in the Gatestone article http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4160/marine-le-pen-chauprade)

Does it have anything to do with the anti-jihad hopes pinned on the Front Natinal by well-informed thinkers with no hateful undertones? Does it have anything remotely concerned with the hopes of Europeans for relief from Eurabian oppression?

Aymeric Chauprrade, Marine Le Pen’s foreign policy chief—imagine him Minister of Foreign Affairs in a future Le Pen government—believes that we are victims of an Atlantico-Zionist conspiracy. Big banks, American imperialism, and Zionism are conspiring to rule the world and ruin the decent European citizen who wants to live a decent life in a sovereign nation. Chauprade believes that the CIA infiltrates jihadi groups and triggers human bomb explosions when and where it suits the evil American purposes. These jihadis, as he describes them, are sort of sleepy misguided losers who would sit around smoking pot if the Americans didn’t push them into senseless action. 9/11 for example: an inside job, a prime example of American manipulation of otherwise innocent Muslims.

Listening carefully to Marine Le Pen’s major foreign policy statement it is clear that the arch-enemy is not Islam or Islamization, it is the United States of America. Marine Le Pen accuses the French government of increasingly falling under the influence of the United States to the point of making friends with Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, France should improve relations with Iran and Russia. Though the Front National is opposed to nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, Iran should be allowed to develop nuclear power for peaceful civilian purposes. Iran should have been invited to the Geneva 2 Conference on Syria. The Americans and Germans impose sanctions on Iran while sneaking in by the back door in preparation for juicy business as soon as the sanctions are lifted… or before.

Marine Le Pen will give a press conference from Brussels shortly. An update will follow. BFM TV reports that Nigel Farage of UKIP, who is in fierce competition to form a Eurexit group, met with a delegation from Italy’s Northern League, allegedly committed to Marine Le Pen’s alliance. 

Nidra Poller