Far-right Marine Le Pen campaigns as French ‘voice of the people’

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has described France as a nation that would put its people’s voices at the centre of the political process if she is elected president in 12 days.

Ms Le Pen, a solid nationalist, faces centrist President Emmanuel Macron in a presidential run-off on April 24.

He placed first and Ms Le Pen second in Sunday’s first-round presidential vote that eliminated 10 other candidates.

Both Ms Le Pen and Mr Macron are now aggressively campaigning to win an election that could upend France’s system of governance and Europe’s dynamics should Ms Le Pen be victorious.

Such a system was demanded two years ago by the sometimes violent yellow vest movement for social and economic justice that challenged Mr Macron’s government as being too business-friendly.

In Sunday’s first round of voting for the country’s next president, the far-right, including Ms Le Pen and two other parties, together won 32% of the vote, compared with Mr Macron’s 27.8% support, although he was the top individual candidate.

Still, that means far-right voters can be expected to factor into France’s political future not just in the next two weeks, but for years, even if Ms Le Pen loses.

Ms Le Pen also wants two-thirds of the 577 seats in France’s lower house of parliament to be allotted by the proportional system to better reflect voters’ choices.

Her anti-immigration National Rally party currently holds eight seats.

Ms Le Pen claimed that democracy would be the main beneficiary of these changes, giving citizens who represent what she calls “the France of the forgotten” a say in how they are governed.

Having referendums can contribute to France’s democratic culture, Ms Le Pen said on Tuesday at a news conference in the Normandy town of Vernon.

“During my mandate, I count on consulting the only expert that Emmanuel Macron never consulted – the people,” Ms Le Pen said.

Ms Le Pen would also return the French presidency to a seven-year non-renewable mandate, instead of the current five-year term that can be renewed once.

“I want to be the president who gives back the people their voice in their own country,” she said.

The French constitution would have to be revised to make possible the referendum concept, and vital subjects such as nuclear power could not be put to a vote.

Also needing a constitutional change would be Ms Le Pen’s plan, if elected, to ban Islamic headscarves in French streets.

That is a big step further than current laws, which have banned headscarves in classrooms since 2004 and face coverings in the streets since 2010.

“We must leave no space, not a thumb space,” for Islamists, Ms Le Pen said, adding that she wants to “liberate” French Muslim women from the yoke of radicals.

France has faced several deadly attacks by Islamic extremists in the past decade, including the 2015 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead.