PARIS (AP) – French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen says the spring election will pit nationalists and patriots like herself against those in favor of globalization, the European Union and immigration.
Speaking Friday at an annual horse fair outside of Paris – where she donned a cowboy hat and mounted a horse – Le Pen said Socialist President Francois Hollande’s decision not to seek a second term won’t change her strategy. Hollande made the announcement late Thursday.
Le Pen predicted that Prime Minister Manuel Valls will run instead as the Socialist presidential candidate, facing her and conservative former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who won the right’s primary, among others.
“You know, I don’t believe in this left-right fracture. On the one side are nationalists, patriots. On the other, globalizationists, Europeanists and so, by definition, immigrationists,” she said, making up her own descriptions.
Valls, meanwhile, praised Hollande’s decision not to run and defend Hollande’s economic record without saying if he plans to seek the presidency himself, as many assume he will.