French must come first, far-right leader Marine Le Pen says at presidential campaign launch

HENIN-BEAUMONT, France - Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, a frontrunner in the French presidency race, signalled on Sept 13 that she would favour French citizens over foreigners, defending her long-held principle of “national priority”.

Speaking seven months before France’s presidential polls, Le Pen, 58, said that under her presidency French people would “have priority in their own country”, regardless of their skin colour, religion, or origin.

“We will guarantee all French citizens a natural and fair right, as is done in every country in the world,” she said in the first major campaign speech of her fourth presidential bid, speaking in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, the far-right’s stronghold.

French nationals would enjoy “more rights in France than others,” Le Pen said to around 2,000 supporters, with Jordan Bardella, head of her far-right National Rally party, seated in the front row.

Le Pen has her best-ever chance in 2027 to win the Elysee, with polls showing her well ahead in a first round of voting and posing at least a major threat to any rival in the second round.

The policy of “national priority” would apply to housing, Le Pen said, adding that French citizens should receive preferential access to social housing.

One of her priorities would be to increase housing supply, Le Pen said, adding that she wanted various environmental regulations scrapped.

“There is nothing, my friends, more rewarding than the feeling of harmony in one’s home and being able to say: ‘I am at home’,” she said.

“This presidential election will decide everything: either we allow our country to sink deeper into the quicksand of old habits and wrongdoing, or we choose the surge of renewal that we want and that will lead to France’s rebirth,” she added.

The far-right leader did not address a series of controversies that have dogged her party in recent weeks, including claims of policy differences with 31-year-old Bardella, Le Pen’s choice for prime minister in the event of victory.

Le Pen is running despite an appeals court in July upholding a graft conviction, a verdict she is seeking to overturn with the country’s highest court. AFP