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Anti-EU parties eye gains in European election: France’s Le Pen

Anti-EU parties expect to win a greater share of European parliament seats in May elections as they field more candidates and look to cooperate in alliances, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Friday.

Nationalist parties have won power or gained ground in recent years in Italy, Germany, Hungary, Greece and Austria, tapping into anti-elite sentiment with an array of messages against migration and EU influence.

“Sovereigntist parties.. the patriotic parties, those who want less European Union, eurosceptic parties, will probably see much better results than five years ago,” Le Pen told foreign reporters at her National Rally (RN) party office in the Nanterre suburb of Paris.

Anti-European parties may win more than a third of EU parliament seats, allowing them more influence on policies such as trade and migration inside the bloc, according to a study by the European Council on Foreign Relations.

In the study released on Thursday, the ECFR cited recent polls showing anti-EU far-right parties such as Le Pen’s RN and Euro-sceptic conservative parties could rise from 23 to 28 percent of seats in the parliament.

“They could even gain more than 30 percent of seats if their popularity continues to grow or if some of the fringe members of the mainstream join them. If they cross the one-third threshold, this would signify a qualitative change in the EU,” ECFR said.

Le Pen did not give forecasts for the outcome in the May vote, but she said those parties were presenting more candidates than at the last EU parliament election in 2014.

“We are campaigning for the European elections with a clear idea: the EU is killing Europe and to save Europe we have to turn our back on that political organisation,” she said.

Le Pen, who triumphantly made it into the second round of France’s presidential election in 2017, only to lose to Emmanuel Macron, said her National Rally party welcomed cooperation among anti-EU parties.

While divided on ideological and personal issues, anti-European parties could align in support of a range of ideas: from abolishing sanctions on Russia to blocking the EU’s foreign trade agenda, the ECFR report said.

The last two years have seen a rise in popularity for nationalist parties, including Italy’s ruling coalition of anti-establishment Five Star Movement and League.

Alternative for Germany (AfD), which opposes multiculturalism and immigration policies, in 2017 became the country’s third largest party. In Spain, far-right VOX party in December was part of a rightist coalition that won a regional election in Andalusia, ousting socialists after 36 years in power.