Who is Marine Le Pen, far-right French leader, challenging Macron?
Marine Le Pen promises French far right will rein in aid to Ukraine
As France gears up to vote in the final round of the rushed parliamentary elections on Sunday (Jul 7),National Rally's (NR) Marine Le Pen remains in the driving seat to dethrone Emmanuel Macron and form thefirst far-right government since World War II.
Le Pen's father Jean-Marie Le Pen founded NR (known as National Front between 1972 to 2018) which she joined in 1986 and later became the vice president in 2003. She succeded her father as the president in 2011 but remained in his shadows.
To craft her own identity, Le Pen, a twice-divorced mother of three, removed her father from the party in 2015 amidst a host of controversies.
She ran for presidency in 2012, 2019 and 2022, albeit unsuccessfully. However, in the last two instances (2019, and 2022), she secured 33.9 per cent and 48.5 per cent of the votes respectively against Macron.
Watch |France elections: What are Marine Le Pen's plans for France?
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What does Le Pen stand for?
Le Pen, akin to his father's core anti-immigration beliefs, remains stubborn on the issue. She has repeatedly called for lowering the number of immigrants permitted to enter France.
Le Pen's party has also proposed the restriction of the rights of immigrants to access some social services in France, including housing, and has supported the services’ preference for French nationals.
Under Le Pen, NR is also advocating the prohibition of Muslim women wearing headscarves in public spaces.
In a recent interview, Le Pen chalked out her plans regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, stating that she would barUkraine from attacking Russia with French-supplied weapons and would stop any plans to deploy French troops to Ukraine to support the instructors already posted there.
Le Pen has claimed that if she wins the presidency, Paris would withdrawfrom NATO's integrated command structure.
Le Pen's rise to the top, however, has not gone down well in certain sections of French society. French football star Kylian Mbappe recently warned that the country was in a“catastrophic” political situation.
“I think now, more than ever, you need to get (out to vote).It is an urgent juncture. We cannot let our country fall into the hands of these people. It is pressing, we saw the results, it is catastrophic," said Mbappe during the ongoing European Championship.
“We really hope this is going to change, that everyone is going to rally together to go and vote, and vote for the right party.”
The final round of voting begins at08:00 (06:00 GMT) on Sunday and the first exit polls will be made public just 12 hours later.A party must win 289 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly for an outright majority.
(With inputs from agencies)