Marine Le Pen, France's far-right candidate in the next national election to succeed President Emmanuel Macronin six months, was to give her first campaign speech on Sunday, a day after protests sweeping the country again flared into violence. Le Pen – the frontrunner according to surveys –is seen to be benefiting in the polls from the convulsions France has been going through for weeks, punctuated by mass rallies and violent clashes on Saturday and a week earlier. More than 400,000 people marched in major French cities on Saturday to protest against the rising cost of living, with clashes erupting after groups of masked protesters broke away from the demonstrations.
Police made more than 1,300 arrests and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez blamed much of the violence on "ultra-left" extremists. To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading.
To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Similar nationwide protests a week earlier also descended into unrest, following four weeks of student demonstrations over the poor state of France's schools. Unions and Yellow Vest protesters have vowed to keep up their street marches in the weeks ahead, pointing to a febrile period as the elections draw near.
Read moreFrance’s far right gathers as Le Pen prepares her presidential campaign Le Pen, who will address 10,000 members of her National Rally (RN) party in the city of Orleans, has accused Macron's centrist government of being soft on violent protesters and lacking authority. Police were on Sunday filtering traffic going into Orleans, after thousands of counter-protesters opposed to Le Pen and her anti-immigration, nationalist RN marched in the city on Saturday chanting anti-fascist slogans. Police put their numbers at 13,000, while organisers estimated the turnout at twice that.
One protester on Saturday, 35-year-old yoga teacher Antonine Rochet, said: "One of the risks of the National Rally coming to power, beyond the implementation of its policies, is the atmosphere it could create." "If the far right comes to power, we fear things will become much worse," she added. Another anti-fascist rally was called for Sunday on the southern outskirts of Orleans. If Le Pen wins the two-stage presidential elections in April and May, she has vowed to cut the cost of living through capped household energy bills, reduced taxes and trimming France's contribution to the European Union.
She is also critical of NATO and of France's support of Ukraine against Russia's invasion. The RN has sought to reinforce its law-and-order credentials by backing police during the unrest. French voters, angry over Macron's perceived detachment over his two terms and his recent orders to curb the protests, are turning to more extremist politics, polling shows.
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