French far-right leader Marine Le Pen eyes early presidential election

By Makini Brice

PARIS (Reuters) – French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Wednesday that she was preparing for an early presidential election, saying President Emmanuel Macron’s time in office was all but over.

Le Pen, who has brought her anti-immigrant National Rally (RN) party from fringe status into the political spotlight, is seen as a leading presidential contender. She faced off against Macron in 2017 and captured an even greater share of the vote in 2022, when Macron won another five-year term.

“I am preparing for an early presidential election, out of precaution, taking into account Emmanuel Macron’s fragility, what little institutional levers he has left,” she said in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper.

“Emmanuel Macron is finished or almost finished,” she said, adding that Macron was diminished both domestically and internationally. “He has angered everyone. He has no more influence in the European Union,” she said.

Macron has repeatedly said he would not resign. Asked for reaction, the Elysee said: “The president has already expressed himself on this matter.”

Le Pen faces her own political challenges. She and other members of her party have been accused of using funds from the European Union to pay party workers in France.

She has denounced the case as a political witch hunt. If convicted, she could be banned from seeking public office for five years. The trial is expected to close in March.

For more than a decade, Le Pen has sought to rid RN of the xenophobic and racist image it acquired under the nearly 40-year leadership of her father, ex-paratrooper Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Following European Parliament elections, in which Le Pen’s party made electoral gains, Macron called snap parliamentary elections that he promised would bring more clarity.

Instead, no single party won a majority, leaving Le Pen and her party with considerable influence. The fractious parliament has cost Macron one government so far, when Le Pen’s party banded together with the left to back a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

One poll found that Le Pen had received a boost in support after the vote, though some experts cautioned it carried political risk for her.

The National Rally said that Barnier’s 2025 budget, in which he had sought to reduce France’s surging budget deficit by raising some taxes and cutting spending, failed to account for voters’ concerns about the cost of living.

“Our position has not changed,” Le Pen told Le Parisien.

She said she was encouraged by discussions she had with France’s new prime minister, veteran centrist Francois Bayrou, though he has not yet named a government and has drawn criticism from his handling of a cyclone that hit the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte.

“He says he will listen to us but he is not the first one to say that,” Le Pen said.

(Reporting by Makini Brice; additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by Ros Russell)