Marine Le Pen shed tears of joy after her triumph in European Parliament elections on Sunday. When she arrived after midnight at a Parisian night club for the victory celebration with her fellow party members, the head of the far-right Front National (FN) embraced fans and family before letting the champagne flow. Marine's father Jean-Marie, who was re-elected to the EU body for the seventh time, was also on hand to congratulate his daughter. "It was a historic victory," he said.
By Monday morning, the emotional evening had already been forgotten and strategists were once again busy at work at the party's headquarters in Nanterre. Until Sunday's election, the Front National had occupied but three seats in European Parliament -- one each for Marine, her father and his political companion Bruno Gollnisch -- and had led a largely unnoticed existence on the political fringes in Brussels. Now, though, the party's caucus will grow by 21 representatives.
After pulling in a triumphant 25 percent of the vote, the Front National will now have the largest number of seats of any French political party in the European Parliament. Marine Le Pen has every intention of using the party's presence at parliament's headquarters in Strasbourg and Brussels for political gain. Some within the far-right in France are already considering their political futures -- all the way up to the presidential palace in Paris. » | Stefan Simons in Paris | Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Triumph für Marine Le Pen: Frankreich im Schockzustand » | Von Stefan Simons, Paris | Montag, 26. Mai 2014
