Le Pen wants France's National Front to be renamed 'National Rally'

[webfact]

Le Pen wants France's National Front to be renamed 'National Rally'

By Simon Carraud

 

Marine Le Pen, National Front (FN) political party leader, announces the new staff, during National Front's congress in Lille, France, March 11, 2018. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

 

LILLE, France (Reuters) - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen proposed her National Front party be renamed the "National Rally" on Sunday, in a bid to shed a brand associated by many voters with racism and anti-Semitism and facilitate alliances with other parties.

 

Speaking at a party congress meant to help her reassert her authority following her defeat to President Emmanuel Macron last May, Le Pen said the party's priority should be to gain power, which could only be achieved through a coalition with allies.

 

"Our goal is clear: power," Le Pen told party cardholders gathered in the northern city of Lille, who cheered her speech denouncing immigration, globalisation and a federal Europe.

 

"We were originally a protest party," she said. "There should be no doubt now that we can be a ruling party."

 

The new name - "Rassemblement National" in French, meaning rally or union - is meant to show the party's new willingness to rally other parties behind it, and drop antagonistic connotations of the old Front, she said.

 

In a concession to the old guard, the party will keep its red-white-and-blue flame logo, she said.

 

The idea of changing the party's name was only approved by a narrow majority of National Front members, with 52 percent backing it on Saturday, according to figures provided by the party. They will get to vote again on the new name by post.

 

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the 89-year old far-right veteran who founded the party in 1972, called the name change political "suicide" in an interview with Reuters last month.

 

"The National Front name is associated with an epic and glorious history, which no-one should deny," Marine Le Pen said. "But you know it is for many French people a psychological barrier."

 

Rebranding the party is also a way for Marine Le Pen to signal a clear break from her father's toxic legacy. On Sunday, he was finally banished from the party, marking the end of a bitter power struggle since the daughter took over in 2011.

 

FOCUS ON IMMIGRATION

 

In her speech, she slammed Macron's On The Move party as the embodiment of globalists cut off from France's roots. "In Macron's France, to be on the move is to be a nomad. Just like migrants and tax evaders," she said.

 

Although she lost last year's election, Marine Le Pen's efforts to clean up the party's image have paid off to some extent. She won a third of the vote in the run-off, almost double her father's best showing in his 40 years at the party's helm.

 

She watered down her anti-euro stance, which has proved unpopular beyond the party's core fans, after the election, refocusing the party on migration and security as other far-right parties in Europe have done.

 

"Legal and illegal immigration are no longer bearable," she said to rousing applause.

 

Standing unopposed at this weekend's congress, she was reelected with 100 percent of the votes.

 

Her strategy is also showing signs of tempting some in the conservative Republicans party to forge an alliance.

 

"The National Front has evolved, let's look at whether a deal is possible," Thierry Mariani, a former minister in Nicolas Sarkozy's government, told the Journal du Dimanche. That was quickly slapped down by the Republicans' spokeswoman.

 

However, it remains unclear whether rebranding the party will be enough to change its extremist image among the wider public.

 

In an Ifop poll published on Sunday, 63 percent of the French said the National Front would present a threat for democracy if it gained power.

 

(Reporting by Simon Carraud, writing by Michel Rose, Editing by William Maclean and John Stonestreet)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-12

 

[FreddieRoyle]

A name change is a fine idea, it is true that the association with Jean-Marie has proven toxic. The bigger problem in the western world and France is no exception is that the voting process needs modernizing. The democratic system was invented at a time long ago when citizens worked, payed taxes, abided by the law and genuinely had love for their country. These days after the globalists have run amok for 3 or 4 decades the population has been partially replaced by foreigners that actively hate France, refuse to work and live on handouts and freebies all the while pushing for an end to secular democracy. The solution? Well for a starter only income tax payers should be allowed to vote. Let's get some pride back into European countries.

 And for the umpteenth time can we stop labelling parties that wish to retain their countries culture and not actively and purposefully replace their traditional inhabitants with foreigners as "far right?! It is absurd.

[mrdome]

Front/rally - same <deleted>. I guess she asked papa Putin (I just noticed how close to the French "putain" that reads what he favored?

[Gecko123]

A bitter old woman. Her time has passed. Inviting Steve Bannon to the NF congress certainly won't help change this party's extremist image. Bannon told the audience, "Let them call you racist, let them call you xenophobes, let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor."

 

By the way, does anyone doubt this same reactionary counsel wasn't warmly embraced by Trump when Bannon was in the West Wing?

[mrdome]

Thank you for reminding me. Here, Le Pen is trying hard to make the party appear more acceptable and less extremist and Bannon undermines all that in a 30 seconds sound bite (in the style of those trying to make Roy Moore look normal just before the AL election). If she invited him, she really isn't very smart. Still not getting how he's poison for those on whose side he claims to be.

[Tchooptip]

 No, it was not renamed the National Rally but "Le Rassemblement National", in France no one would know at all what is the National Rally, 

so IMHO translating a political party's name is RI-DI-CU-LOUS

[mrdome]

8 minutes ago, Tchooptip said:

 No, it was not renamed the National Rally but "Le Rassemblement National", in France no one would know at all what is the National Rally, 

so IMHO translating a political party's name is RI-DI-CU-LOUS

Well, this was just done for our benefit in other countries; just like everyone understood that the original name was always "Front Nationale" and not "National Front".

 

I doubt the media in the non-French speaking countries will suddenly switch to their new French name from now, so ridiculous (for you) it will stay just as it was during all these years.

 

Alternatively, Le Pen could come up with a decent name that's actually different and better and not reminding folks of a bunch of neo-Nazis looking for a fight but she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Also, gotta love how her real life papa immediately poo-poo'd her suggestion but then holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen really can't change anymore. The apple does not fall too far from the tree, as history tends to show.

[mfd101]

There are of course any number of ways of translating 'rassemblement' into English, depending on context: gathering, union, party ... perhaps 'National Party' might be the most appropriate in the circumstances.

[KiChakayan]

Just funny how these Nazi movements think they can fool voters.. Will work only with people of IQs below 80.

[Jingthing]

16 minutes ago, KiChakayan said:

Just funny how these Nazi movements think they can fool voters.. Will work only with people of IQs below 80.

Oui. Walks like white nationalists, quacks like white nationalists -- they're white nationalists.

 

Edited March 12, 2018 by Jingthing

[blazes]

Jean-Marie le Pen can be heard repeating King Lear's famous words as he discovers, too late in life, the difficulties of raising daughters....

 

"'How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child".

[simple1]

5 hours ago, FreddieRoyle said:

<snip> not going to quote poisonous extremism

Rants against "Globalists", suggest enacting policy to remove the right to vote for citizens, support politicians who want to align to Putin's de-facto dictatorship etc, etc etc - all memes of today's far right.

Edited March 12, 2018 by simple1

[CharlesSwann]

Fair enough, but the party is only a temporary expedient anyway. Once the point of contention is remedied - ie, the immigration issue - the party will evaporate. Equating them with Nazis is obtuse. They don't want to kill anyone, they just want to get their country back from the encroachers.

[simple1]

6 hours ago, CharlesSwann said:

Fair enough, but the party is only a temporary expedient anyway. Once the point of contention is remedied - ie, the immigration issue - the party will evaporate. Equating them with Nazis is obtuse. They don't want to kill anyone, they just want to get their country back from the encroachers.

Factually, exactly what in French governance has been usurped by 'migrants'.

Edited March 12, 2018 by simple1

[CharlesSwann]

4 hours ago, simple1 said:

Factually, exactly what in French governance has been usurped by 'migrants'.

Not sure what you mean by governance being usurped. It's about the quality of life of the French people, about their sense of cultural integrity being eroded, such as walking down the street and not feeling like a stranger in your own country because of the sudden mass appearance of other cultures.

 

No need to put  'migrants' in inverted commas as if it's a misnomer.  The definition is simple enough: people migrating from a poorer country to a richer country for a better life - that is, economic migrants.

Edited March 13, 2018 by CharlesSwann

[simple1]

19 minutes ago, CharlesSwann said:

Not sure what you mean by governance being usurped. It's about the quality of life of the French people, about their sense of cultural integrity being eroded, such as walking down the street and not feeling like a stranger in your own country because of the sudden mass appearance of other cultures.

 

No need to put  'migrants' in inverted commas as if it's a misnomer.  The definition is simple enough: people migrating from a poorer country to a richer country for a better life - that is, economic migrants.

So you are just talking to emotional responses by some individuals; no need to quote far right slogans. Legal measures are already underway by EU governments to better facilitate the removal of rejected asylum seekers i.e. economic refugees.

 

Look up the BBC policy definition of 'migrants' for news reporting, which is very reasonable, then you will comprehend.

Edited March 13, 2018 by simple1

[CharlesSwann]

45 minutes ago, simple1 said:

So you are just talking to emotional responses by some individuals; no need to quote far right slogans. Legal measures are already underway by EU governments to better facilitate the removal of rejected asylum seekers i.e. economic refugees.

 

Look up the BBC policy definition of 'migrants' for news reporting, which is very reasonable, then you will comprehend.

The BBC lost credibility a long time ago. The liberal agenda they are forcing down everyone's throats is on display daily. They are partly responsible for the rampant liberalism that has got Europe into this mess.

The definition of economic migration is is simply as I have stated it. Anything else is a cavil. Nor should the issue is not to be obfuscated with talk of genuine asylum seekers. We are talking about people wanting a better life and not caring what effect they have on someone else's culture.

 

EU governments are responsible for the immigration - no point appealing to them either or relying on their 'legal measures'.

'Far right' groups like France's National Front will naturally appear when the mainstream politicians fail on such a big issue. Nobody should be surprised. I use inverted commas for 'far right' because their members are not far right on every issue, only on immigration, and as I said, such parties will disappear when the immigration issue that prompted them to form is remedied.

 

To underestimate the emotional response to immigration is to completely fail (or refuse) to understand the situation. Perhaps you could explain why you feel no sympathy for the local people who are made to feel alienated in their own country? For my part, I take great interest in other cultures, and have travelled widely to appreciate them in an unadulterated state. When I return to my own country, I would like to find my own country in an unadulterated state and not 'multiculturalised' beyond recognition.

 

Some diversity is good. I would suggest 5% maximum. More than that, as we see, causes problems, which are easily avoided with some simple rules:

- Border controls should prevent unauthorised entry in the first place.

- Welcomed immigrants should be of sufficient educational and professional standard and be able to speak the language and prove they understand they culture.

- Work visas should be time-limited and permanent residency should be subject to at least 5 years of probation.

- Asylum seekers should be required to return their own countries as soon as conditions improve.

- Those not conforming to above standards should be required to leave. There will be much whining, but the upheaval in returning to their original country, culture and language is far less than the upheaval they endured in migrating to a country of alien culture and language, therefore the appeal on humanitarian grounds is not valid.

 

Sorted.

 

[simple1]

1 hour ago, CharlesSwann said:

The BBC lost credibility a long time ago. The liberal agenda they are forcing down everyone's throats is on display daily

First two sentences totally lost interest in reading further - rabid right of centre blah blah blah

Edited March 13, 2018 by simple1