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Geoff Russ: French nationalist Marine Le Pen would be the anti-extremist choice

European decline has given rise to nationalist parties

PARIS — For almost 10 years, the French political establishment has portrayed defeating Marine Le Pen as a duty. Every cycle, they roll out the same rhetoric and warnings about the nationalist right and Le Pen’s National Rally (Rassemblement National), and French voters have held their noses and voted for the guardians of a fading European political system.

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At next year’s presidential election, there may no longer be a single member of France’s political establishment left to face Le Pen. One of the more likely candidates to challenge her is Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a 75-year-old radical left-winger who leads France Unbowed (La France Insoumise). Opposed to traditional French culture and anything else that people recognize as culturally or socially European, Mélenchon is the real French radical, who wishes to even rename the French language.

Geoff Russ: French nationalist Marine Le Pen would be the anti-extremist choice Back to video

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If Mélenchon runs, French voters are........

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