Marine Le Pen claims ‘opposition’ mantle after bitter defeat

Holding a blue rose and French flag at what she hoped would be a celebration for Marine Le Pen, Euryanthe Mercier sighed with disappointment after the National Front notched up a worse than expected vote in Sunday’s presidential election.

Ms Le Pen took just 35 per cent of the votes against centrist Emmanuel Macron, according to initial predictions, below the 40 per cent that the polls had predicted and the 45 per cent that some were expecting a few months ago.

But as Ms Mercier pointed out, the 11m votes the FN received in the presidential election was the best in the far-right group’s 45-year history — more than double the 5m that Ms Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, took in 2002. “We are now the second party in the country,” she said. “It is up to us to confront the globalist agenda of Macron.”

The idea of victory buried in the evening’s defeat was taken up by Ms Le Pen when she addressed supporters. “We are now the opposition party in France,” she said as the crowd shouted: “Thank you Marine.”

She urged supporters to look towards elections for the National Assembly next month. “I call on all the patriots to join us in order to take part in the decisive battle that is waiting for us after this evening,” she said.

Ms Le Pen also hinted at a plan to reshape the party, perhaps changing its name, to create a group to encompass all those opposed to globalisation. “The National Front . . . must deeply renew itself in order to rise to the historic opportunity and meet the French people's expectations . . . I will propose to start this deep transformation of our movement in order to make a new political force,” she said.

FN officials, milling around the post-election party sipping sparkling wine, said that they planned more alliances with other Eurosceptic and nationalist figures in France to compete in the legislative elections next month. Steeve Briois, interim head of the party, said that only Ms Le Pen could rally France against the “globalist” agenda of Mr Macron.

An Opinionway-SLPV Analytics poll found on Thursday that En Marche!, the party founded by Mr Macron just a year ago, could win between 249 and 286 national assembly seats, making it the largest party. The FN, meanwhile, would win just 15 to 25 seats, according to the poll.

But by turning itself into a broader Eurosceptic “movement”, the FN hopes to add to this number. FN officials pointed out that in the election first round 49 per cent of votes went to candidates who were hostile to the EU and wanted to erect trade barriers.

“This election has already been a defeat for the system,” said one FN official.

Changing the FN’s name would also be a significant step in Ms Le Pen’s strategy of “detoxifying” the party, trying to rid it of its associations with some of the darker elements of the European far right. Mr Le Pen, who founded the party in 1973, has been repeatedly convicted of anti-Semitism.

Despite all the strategising and optimism, some in the room were simply disappointed with the result — and pointed a finger at some of the weaknesses of Ms Le Pen’s campaign. Accusations were made that she failed to speak enough to centre-right voters and spent too much time courting her base.

Most pointed to her performance in the debate last week with Mr Macron, which was considered poor by many. “She was not herself in that debate,” said Anne Duchess, an artist and FN supporter. “She seemed angry and petulant.”