France’s far-right National Front, buoyed by improving poll numbers, is aiming for big gains in municipal elections next year and the top spot in the European parliament ballot, its leaders said at the party’s annual convention yesterday.
The two 2014 elections, the first since the Socialists came to power in 2012, will dominate the political agenda in the eurozone’s second-largest country for the next nine months.
In a strategic shift for a party long content with attracting protest votes in national polls, the National Front says it wants to build a local base with the March municipal elections as a step to one day ruling the country – ambitions that are a growing headache for mainstream parties.
“Our strategy is to win as many municipalities as possible and get hundreds of city councillors elected to be there for the long run.
“It’s a condition for winning at the national level and the presidency,” party leader Marine Le Pen told reporters at the convention.
“We have every reason to work with enthusiasm because we’ll be in power in the next 10 years,” said the 45-year-old, who replaced her paratrooper father as party chief in 2011.
Opinion polls show the party is gaining ground as both the Socialists and the main conservative opposition UMP agonise over how to counter the far right and appeal to voters.
We have every reason to work with enthusiasm as we’ll be in power in the next 10 years
More than a third of voters say they are sympathetic to the ideas of the party, whose agenda focuses on concerns about immigration, rejection of Europe and disillusion with mainstream politicians, a survey showed earlier this week.
All in all, the National Front hopes to see 1,000 to 1,500 candidates elected to city councils, its secretary general, Steeve Briois, said.
Although the number is a small share among France’s more than 36,000 municipalities, it would be a big increase from the 60 won in the last municipal elections in 2008.
The party has even more ambitious plans for May’s European Parliament elections where Eurosceptic, nationalistic parties usually do well.
“We can be first in the European elections, I’m certain about that,” Briois said, adding that party officials were in contact with the Dutch anti-Muslim party of Geert Wilders about cooperation for the election.
“The issues discussed in this election are the ones we’ve always focused on,” he said, citing the impact of European integration on immigration, security and jobs.
Academic Sylvain Crepon, an expert on the National Front, says that while the party is aiming for incremental increases in municipal seats to progressively build credibility, it has a shot at an outright victory in the EU vote.