Le Pen leads the polls

The Independent reports:

France was shocked yesterday by an opinion poll which suggested that the far-right leader Marine Le Pen could win the first round of the presidential election next northern spring.

Although the poll was framed in a rather dubious way, and one out of three people gave no opinion, the outcome was a deep humiliation for President Nicolas Sarkozy and a stark warning to his bickering would-be centre-left rivals.

Le Pen has now doubled her opinion poll score in the space of four months – from 12 per cent to 23 per cent – revealing a deep anger with French politics-as-usual among voters of both the Right and the Left.

Le Pen is smarter than her father. She holds her own in political debates, and avoids the extreme positions of her father. She is anti free trade and generally left wing economically, but also rails against liberalism. She is anti-privatisation and anti-monetarist.

On the EU she wants it changed to a loose confederation, and advocates leaving the Euro.

In terms of immigration, her policy is to have a moratorium. She is anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia and supports capital punishment for child kidnapping and/or the murder of children or the elderly.

I do not think she will be elected President of France, but there is a real possibility she will make it into the final round of voting. In fact the most likely person not to make the final round is President Sarkozy at the moment. But April 2012 is still a long way off.