Given the extreme economic mess socialist president Francois Hollande has made in France, it should not be too shocking to discover a surge in the popularity of the National Front, a far-right, eurosceptic political party led by Marine Le Pen.



A recent poll by Le Nouvel Observateur shows the National Front is in the lead for the first time ever.



Poll Results







To show just how far the socialists have fallen out of favor, UMP is a center-right political party, once led by former president Nicolas Sarkozy who lost the last presidential election to Francois Hollande.



Le Pen "Ready for Elysee"



National Front leader, Marine Le Pen tells news agency ANSAmed 'I am ready for Elysee'.



Le Pen spoke in an interview with ANSAmed on the same day an IFOP survey for the Nouvel Observateur showed her right-wing party leading in the polls ahead of the 2014 European elections - an absolute first for France.



"Yes, I feel I am ready for the Elysee", Le Pen assured ANSAmed over the phone.



She is "not surprised" at the results of the survey.



"Today we are the leading party. The Socialists and the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) can only win if they make a deal and form a pact of national unity", added Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughter, who came in third after current Socialist President Francois Hollande and outgoing UMP president Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 presidential elections.



Le Pen went on to explain that hers "is not an extreme right party" but rather a "patriotic, extremely democratic one". It stands for more "popular referendums" with a "Gaullist vision" of national sovereignty and independence.



"Also, we are not against a market economy", she continued.



Asked whether she thinks her party resembles Italy's anti-establishment, anti-euro 5-Star Movement (M5S), Le Pen said that "there is no movement like ours right now. Ours is a mature party, with 40 years of history behind it. The M5S movement is a recent one, born of citizens' exasperation at the current crisis".



Le Pen, who opposes the EU and the single currency, reiterated the need to liberate France from the yoke of the Brussels technocrats - and of others.



"It's time to put an end to the status quo. We no longer want to be vassals of the United States or the Gulf monarchies", she warned.

French actor Alain Delon said he supports France’s far-right party, the National Front, in an interview published in a Swiss newspaper on Wednesday. The movie star was popular in the 1960s and was once referred to as the “male Brigitte Bardot.”



French film star Alain Delon has come out in support of France’s far-right political party the National Front (FN).In an interview published on Wednesday in the Swiss daily Le Matin, the actor, whose career has seen him appear in some 100 films, described the National Front’s growth as “uplifting.”



Delon went to on to say that he “approves” the party’s progress, which he attributed to a general sense of gloom due to what, he called, was a lack of political action.



“The National Front, like the MCG [Geneva Citizens’ Movement] in Geneva, is very important…I encourage it and I perfectly understand it,” he said in comments published in the newspaper.



“For years, the Le Pen father and daughter team [Jean-Marie, former head of the National Front, and Marine, its current leader] have been fighting, but they’ve been fighting a lonely battle,” he said. “Now, for the first time, they are no longer alone. They have the French people…And that it’s reaching Geneva, that’s incredibly important. They’re fed up there too.”

France24 reports French Legend Delon 'Supports' Far-Right Francois Hollande is toast. What follows remains to be seen. But a healthy dose of euroscepticism and anti-Brussels sentiment should be a welcome event to anyone rightfully fearful of the socialist nannycrats in Brussels.Speaking of which, European Parliamentary Elections will be held between May 22 and May 25, 2014.It will be a welcome state of affairs (as well as quite entertaining) to see Euroskeptic UKIP party leader Nigel Farage get some good company in parliament.Here is a very entertaining speech by Farage to parliament in September 2013.Mike "Mish" Shedlockhttp://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com