'Foreigners are taking over' Le Pen CONDEMNS 'multi-conflict' society as election looms
MARINE Le Pen stepped up her anti-immigration rhetoric on Wednesday night as she spoke about France’s security concerns with just days to go before the first round of voting in the presidential election.
Ten thousand people support Marine Le Pen at final rally
Speaking to supporters in Marseille, Ms Le Pen accused her rivals of being prepared to allow “immigrants to turn France into a gigantic squat”.
The Front National leader said: “Are we going to be able to live as French for much longer when entire neighbourhoods are taken over by foreigners?
Le Pen is among the frontrunners as the electorate get set to vote on Sunday
"A multicultural society is a multi-conflict society.”
The Front National’s historically far-right approach has been softened during the election campaign as Ms Le Pen tries to appeal to more voters – but in recent days she has reverted to the hardline tack associated with her father, the party’s founder.
Her new approach was applauded by her supporters, who chanted “la France aux français” (France for the French) - a slogan associated with Front National’s xenophobic and anti-Semitic past.
Le Pen’s visit to Marseille comes just days after two French nationals were arrested in the city, accused of plotting an ISIS-style attack on an unknown presidential candidate.
The French interior minister, Matthias Fekl, confirmed: "These two radicalised men, born in 1987 and 1993, of French nationality, intended to commit in the very short-term - by that I mean in the coming days - an attack on French soil."
Thousands of supporters turned out to see Le Pen's last rally before Sunday's vote
A multicultural society is a multi-conflict society
He added that "a definite attack had been headed off”.
Le Pen’s Marseille rally was met with protests as hundreds of people took to the streets to demonstrate against the presidential hopeful’s appearance in the city.
The protesters, who were mainly young people, sported masks, hoods and even helmets while launching firecrackers in the direction of the police.
Hundreds of people came out to protest Le Pen's rally
Banners read: “The Extreme Right, you can’t fight at the ballot box.”
One protester, Marie, said: “Marine Le Pen coming to Marseille, a city of strong immigration, is provocation. I protest because when the extreme right is in power, it will be over.”