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French far-right aims for success at local, EU elections
By Ingrid Melander
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - 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.
The two 2014 elections, the first since the Socialists came to power in 2012, will dominate the political agenda in the euro zone'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 councilors 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 weekend convention in Marseille.
"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.
The party has a long way to go before it could be included in any government, but opinion polls show it is gaining ground as both the Socialists and the main conservative opposition UMP agonize over how to counter the far right and appeal to voters.
More than a third of French 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. . . .
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