Far-right Le Pen could win French presidency in 2022, minister warns

Bruno Le Maire says the possibility ‘must be opposed’

Marine Le Pen winning the 2022 presidential election is a ‘political possibility’, finance minister warns (AFP via Getty Images)

Far-right politician Marine Le Pen could win France’s next presidential election, a minister has said.

Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, said the possible election of the National Rally leader, known for her xenophobic views, as the country’s president has to be “opposed”.

Ms Le Pen lost to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 election.

Opinion polls indicate the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a convicted racist and former National Front president, will be Mr Macron’s main challenger in the planned election next year.

On Saturday, the French finance minister said: “The election of Marine Le Pen, we all know that is a possibility.”

Mr Le Maire told BFM television: “It is a political possibility and it must be opposed.”

Speculation has mounted that Ms Le Pen could win the next presidential election by capitalising on the coronavirus pandemic and its economic impact.

Mr Macron’s handling of Covid-19 has divided opinion, with some people saying he has done better than other European leaders, while others in France accuse his administration of incompetence.

The country has recorded more than 81,000 deaths and around 3.4 million infections since the start of the pandemic, and faced criticism for the slow rollout of its vaccination programme.

Ms Le Pen heads the far-right National Rally party, previously known as the National Front.

Last month, she proposed a ban on wearing Muslim headscarves in all public areas in France, claiming it was an “Islamist” item of clothing as she labelled “Islamist ideologies” as “totalitarian and murderous”.

During the 2017 election campaign, she claimed France was under the threat of two “totalitarianisms” – economic globalisation and Islamic fundamentalism – and vowed to suspend immigration, which she claimed would “protect France”.

In 2016, she called Donald Trump’s election as US president “an additional stone in the building of a new world”.

Additional reporting by agencies