Marine Le Pen - Leader, France's National Front HARDtalk


Marine Le Pen - Leader, France's National Front

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will now have to be separated from The European Union is suffering a

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crisis of confidence in its currency, its economic prospects

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and its leaders. So could this be a moment of opportunity for the

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populist politics of the far right? Well, I have come to the European

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Parliament in Strasbourg to meet MarineLePenn, the leader of

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France's National Front. She is running for the French presidency

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and there is no doubt that French voters are unhappy with statas quo.

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Are they ready for the LaPenn brand of Nationalism? Well come to

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HARDtalk. Merci. Politics, they say, is a battle between hope and fear.

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Right now there is a very difficult situation across Europe. In France,

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the economy is very bad. People are unhappy. Do you offer the French

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

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I asked the question because I looked at your rhetoric and this is

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something that you said not so long ago. You said, "I call on all of

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the sovereignists and patriotic forces to support me against the

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euro federalism being defended by Sarkozy and socialist leader

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FrancoisAllond. You actually make it sound like France is at war in

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I But why do you think consistently the French public rejects your

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notion that France has to withdraw from the euro, withdraw from the

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European Union and place itself in some sort of a bunker, building

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high walls around itself? The French people have looked at that

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

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option and they have rejected it Your language is so dramatic - and

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here is the final thing you said on the current political debate - you

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said that Sarkozy was a "collaborate tor with the financial

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markets and the big bankers". Sarkozy, you said, does not like

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France. I have to tell you, this sort of language, the anger you are

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expressing reminds me very much of the sort of language we heard in

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

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If we are going to talk about economic detail, let's get into it.

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If you want to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate next

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spring, you have to do more than just use your powerful language

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against Sarkozy and the others. You are going to have to convince the

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French people that your economic plan makes sense. So let's just

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have a look at it. You say you want to withdraw from the euro. Of

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course I've read it. It is very striking. You say you want to

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withdraw from the euro as soon as possible. You say you want to

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impose price controls to deal with what might be hyper inflation. You

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say that you want the State to intervene on a massive scale to run

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all of the important public services. You are including

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transportation, energy, as well of course as health care, education. A

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massive extension of nationalisation. This doesn't make

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

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Before we go any further, do you accept if you withdraw from the

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euro, France will suddenly face a massive debt problem because your

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debts will still be valued in euros, your own Frank if you return to the

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Frank will be devalueed massively, there will be hyper inflation,

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France to be -- No. -- hang on. That is your plan of the economic

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

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observatory in Paris will face an Well, if I may say so - it all

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sounds wonderful. You have a smile on your face and you sound so

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confidence about it, but are you not not aware that the French

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Government is saddled with debt and international ratings agencies have

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a negative watch on France and may well be downgrading it from Triple

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A status any time now. The this is the reality already and your

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programme according to all of the economists I have read would make

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A quick question. Just a very brief one. Did you right now feel that

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the French economy is strong? Many people look at it and they see an

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economy that, frankly compared with Germany, is extraordinarily weak.

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You make it sound as if France was to go it alone and leave the euro

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

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everything would be fine. It is not A fineal thought on economics. You

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talk a lot about protectionism, you talk about protecting France from

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unfair competition from China, from India and elsewhere. I mean, all of

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the growth right now in the world economy is coming from China, India,

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Brazil, a host of other developing and emerging ecomonies - if you put

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up all of these protective walls around France, how is France going

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to expand its exports, build a Newcombe pettive economy and

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

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actually partake of growth in the We've talked a lot about economics.

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Let's move on to a different aspect of your political ambition. You

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want to win the French presidential election next spring. People in

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France will perhaps look at you and they will try to establish in their

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own minds whether you are politically on the same wavelength

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travelling in just the same direction as your father, who of

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course led the French Nationale for three decades. What would you say

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to that? Are you taking the party in a new direction or the same

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Forgive me for interrupting, but would you now be prepared to say

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that your father made some serious You've talked about the demonision

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of the front national of your party, you know as well as I do that under

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your father's leadership the party was perceived by many in France to

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be racist and anti-Semitic and time and again your father got no

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trouble for making comments which appear to French people to be both

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racist and anti-Semitic. Are you prepared to disown the sorts of

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But you, yourself, said in the summer, you said, "I have damage to

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repair between the Front Nationale and the French people", so if you

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are not prepared to actually say that some of the things that your

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father believed in and said were wrong, how are you going to repair

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

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And I know that when in the French media you have been described as an

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extremism, you have been very angry. You refuse to accept that you are

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of the far-right. You just say you are of the right. But how does this

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fit with some things that you yourself have said and let's move

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on to the immigration issue. Just a year ago you I think in a French

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television appearance, you talked to Muslims praying on the streets

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of French cities and you said, "It is an occupation. There are no

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tanks, no soldiers, but what they do is an occupation of French

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territory." That is just plain An occupation, was that the right

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

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You say you are backed by a lot of people. You are also opposed by a

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lot of people and your language makes them very angry. The

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President of the council representing associations of black

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people in France says the problem with you is that you are just

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modernising and repackaging a form Under your father's leadership, the

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National Front believed in the repatriation of immigrants, sending

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them back home. Is that something Do you think that the French people

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are as interested in discussing immigration in the way that you do

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as perhaps they were even in the election of 2002, 10 years ago when

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your father actually got to the second round of the presidential

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election? I just look at figures that show right now 45% of French

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people say that unemployment is their No. 1 concern. Only 10% said

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that immigration was their primary concern. It seems to me that the

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Apology for the loss of subtitles for 41 seconds

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French public have moved on and But you know much better than me, I

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am sure, that a whole raft of academic studies in recent times

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have shown that in many, many ways immigration far from costing France

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the billions and billions of euros that you claim is actually saving

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France money because, because as academics have pointed out, it is

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reducing the tax burden on an Before we end, I just want to think

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about the forthcoming presidential race. Who is a bigger threat to

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your ambitions, do you think? Nicolas Sarkozy or Francois

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Well, we will and I guess you have been looking at the opinion polls

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just as closely as I have and what I notice is you had a spike where

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you reached almost 20% in the polls, but you have gone down again and it

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seems to me that your numbers have gone down to about 13% because of

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the Eurozone crisis. People have been looking very carefully at your

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economic programme and they just don't fine it credible. That is

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