French far right champion tops opinion poll (for President)

Source: AFP

AFP - A shock poll showed far-right champion Marine Le Pen leading the race for the French presidency on Sunday, as incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy faced claims he is fuelling anti-Muslim sentiment.

An opinion poll conducted by Harris Interactive for Le Parisien newspaper put the National Front leader Le Pen's likely support in next year's vote at 23 percent, against 21 percent for the centre-right's Sarkozy.

The survey itself must be taken with a pinch of salt. It was conducted online, a method sometimes seen as less accurate than telephone polling, and it presumed that Socialist leader Martine Aubry would be in the race.

International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has signalled he is preparing to declare himself as a candidate for the Socialist Party's nomination -- and other polls have shown him favourite if he does.

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20110306-french-far-right-champion-tops-opinion-poll

I would like to see a meeting halfway: Respect for both histories, and a coming together based on that. I don't see it happening, though.

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dunno how much id put into that..

Online polls can have value when they're properly secured and have real samples.

Even scarier, in a way: fascism with a human face. :scared:

'The government has passed a law banning the full-face Islamic veil -- worn by only a tiny handful of France's five to six million Muslims -- from public places. The ban is due to come into effect next month.

Sarkozy last month declared that "multiculturalism is dead" and said he wanted to see a "French Islam and not an Islam in France", while his party has called for a national debate on religious practice in a secular state.

Meanwhile, the president last week reached out to his conservative base, hailing France's "Christian heritage" in a speech in a Catholic pilgrim town.

The left, and many Muslim groups, sense a cynical plot. They accuse Sarkozy of stirring up disputes that can only increase tensions in French cities, all in the service of 2012 presidential electoral mathematics.

"It's doubtless a plan by Nicolas Sarkozy to boost the National Front in order to find himself in a head-to-head with them in the second round, and disqualify the left," said Socialist parliamentary leader Jean-Marc Ayrault.'

translating going on here:

It's "Jean Marie Le Pen" (head of the "National Front" party, extreme right wing party).

It's a 'shocking' poll. Not sure what a 'shock' poll would be, unless it was something like a 'shock jock.'

of the Front National: http://www.frontnational.com/

Edit: You're right, though: 'shocking' poll would be more correct. Maybe they used the term 'shock' poll in order to try to sound more 'americanized' than 'anglicised'?

was some sort of Franglish going on. Who'd have thought that a reprehensible reptile like Jean Marie would name his daughter such a lovely name, even though she's no doubt as reprehensible as he was and is.

Ie. potentially even more dangerous (and electoraly succesful).

Remember, French presidential elections use a run-off system. Being able to draw 23% for a far-right agenda only means 77% of respondents don't support LePen. Would you consider a poll showing that 23% of Americans would vote for Sarah Palin in 2012 evidence that she's destined to be our 45th President? What's scandalous about this poll result is not the 23% for LePen, but that Sarkozy can't even get that much.

He figures that if he faces the far-right in the second round he will win, while if he faces the Socialists he will be in more trouble. His campaigns to stoke fear of immigrants and promote the message that multiculturalism is dead are designed to bolster the National Front and knock the Socialists out in the first round.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/03/20113713536262847.html

"Sarkozy last month declared that "multiculturalism is dead" and said he wanted to see a "French Islam and not an Islam in France", while his party has called for a national debate on religious practice in a secular state. The left, and many Muslim groups, sense a cynical plot. They accuse Sarkozy of stirring up disputes that can only increase tensions in French cities, all in the service of 2012 presidential electoral mathematics.

"It's doubtless a plan by Nicolas Sarkozy to boost the National Front in order to find himself in a head-to-head with them in the second round, and disqualify the left," Socialist parliamentary leader Jean-Marc Ayrault, told AFP news agency.

(T)he left is training its fire not on Le Pen, but on Sarkozy - accusing him of stirring dangerous anti-Muslim opinion.

The National Front has always been an anti-immigration party, but under Marie Le Pen, it has attempted to shed its racist image and concentrate the debate on the place of Islam in French society, picking up votes as it has done so."

As AFP says "to take with a pinch of salt".

The plurality candidate does not necessarily win in French elections. Le Pen would undoubtedly lose a two-way contest against either Sarkozy or a Socialist presidential candidate.