POLITICS
Le Pen to appoint eurosceptic Dupont-Aignan PM if elected French president
2017-04-30 11:28 GMT+8
Editor
Wang Lei
Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen announced Saturday that if she wins France's May 7 runoff she would name eurosceptic Nicolas Dupont-Aignan as her prime minister.
Le Pen told a press conference that she and Dupont-Aignan, who lost in the election's first round with 4.7 percent of the vote and endorsed her on Friday, shared a "common project that we will promote together."
French presidential election candidate Marine Le Pen (R) and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (L) during a press conference in Paris, France on April 29, 2017. /VCG Photo
"We will build a national unity government that will bring together people chosen for their skills and their love of France," Le Pen said.
During the bruising campaign, Le Pen has attempted to wear down lingering resistance to her National Front party's tainted brand by portraying her centrist rival Emmanuel Macron as an elitist money man.
Polls give him a commanding lead of up to 20 points over Le Pen in the runoff but show the gap narrowing slightly after Macron's sluggish start to his second-round campaigning.
Le Pen says she wants to build up France's borders, take it out of the eurozone and hold a referendum on the nation's EU membership.
Hollande urges French to vote for Macron
President Francois Hollande urged the French on Saturday to choose Macron over Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election, telling voters it was their duty to Europe as well as France.
Hollande had previously said he would vote for his former economy minister but had not given voting instructions.
French President Francois Hollande addresses a press conference at the end of a special EU leaders' meeting of the European Council to adopt the guidelines for the Brexit talks in Brussels, Belgium on April 29, 2017. /VCG Photo
French presidential election candidate Emmanuel Macron answers questions during a meeting ahead of the second and final round of the presidential elections in Chatellerault, western France on April 28, 2017. /VCG Photo
Polls show Macron winning on May 7 with about 59-60 percent, but the momentum has been with Le Pen, who has clawed back about five percentage points over the past week.
"One has to take the ballot paper, the Macron one, and consider it as the ballot that will prevent (the country) from the far right," Hollande said on the sidelines of a European Union summit devoted to Brexit.
Voters had a responsibility towards Europe as well as France, he said, a reference to Le Pen's anti-EU stance.
"The consequences would be high if France were to turn away from Europe. The choice of the French people is a choice for France but also for the European Union."
(Source: AFP, Reuters)
Related stories:
Copyright © 2017
SHARE
- EXPLORE
- MORE
FOLLOW US
