Donald Trump’s election in the U.S. has given a new boost to conservative leaders in what may be the next major populist battleground, France, where far-right leader Marine Le Pen is convinced that her anti-immigration, anti-Islam views can lead her to the presidency in five months.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy, running to get his job back, says that Trump’s election shows that politicians must listen to “the wrath of the people.”
“Mr. Trump wants to defend American interests? Fine, I want to defend French interests and those of Europe. What Americans allow themselves, why should we refuse that for France?” Sarkozy said in a rally in the southern city of Nice, France on Tuesday night.
Sarkozy is facing tough competition in his party’s two-round primary that starts Sunday. Polls have repeatedly placed him behind ex-prime minister Alain Juppe.
Another major contender, former prime minister Francois Fillon, is gaining popularity as he also presents himself as an alternative to Sarkozy.
Lucas Moulin, a 19-year-old supporter of Sarkozy who attended his Nice rally, told the Associated Press that Trump’s victory can give his preferred candidate “strength and credit in public opinion.”
“He presents himself as an anti-system candidate, with an anti-elite speech, like Trump, who won,” Moulin said.
Sarkozy is campaigning on some of Le Pen’s favorite issues, including strong anti-immigration and security measures, in the hope to attract votes from the far-right.
Le Pen, who doesn’t face a primary, opened her campaign headquarters for the April-May election in an upper-class Paris neighborhood on Wednesday.
She has chosen a blue rose to illustrate her campaign as “the symbol of the people being able to make possible what the elites constantly present as impossible . . . My election at the presidency has been called impossible for months now, it is up to the people to make it possible,” she said in her speech.
All recent polls suggest that she could reach the final run of the two-round presidential election next year. The same polls also indicate that in the end, she would lose to any major contender from the right or from the left.
Asked about Le Pen’s chance to win the election next year, French political analyst Dominique Moisi told the AP that “I would be, and I think most people are becoming now, much, much more prudent than before. I mean: we were wrong twice,” referring to the unexpected Brexit vote and Trump’s election. “We don’t want to be wrong a third time.”
Moisi said an “anti-Trump effect” might also have an impact on the conservative primary. If so, Juppe could benefit from votes from people who fear Le Pen and consider him as in best position to defeat her.