Marine Le Pen at the Zenith

She spoke before a full house at the Zénith theater, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. A full house means somewhere between 6000 and 7000 people. She was in full command according to reports. I will try to have more on this event later. 

Note: The following account was added Thursday night April 19, at 10:00 p.m.:

On Tuesday night, during her last and biggest meeting of the campaign at the Zénith in Paris, Marine Le Pen promised to prove the "system" a liar, and to "show them that they are wrong", as she called on a massive mobilization to send her to the second round of the presidential election. From Le Parisien:

"Alone against all!" With this slogan, the Front National candidate took on a resolutely populist tone and once again sent all her adversaries packing as she presented herself as the only "useful vote" of the election.

First, Nicolas Sarkozy, "yesterday a compulsive candidate, today exhausted from his own lies," then "Senator Mélenchon", copiously booed, "who conspires with Patrick Buisson and dreams of being vice-minister in a Socialist government."

Note: Buisson is (or was) a right-wing journalist. He is now the unofficial adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy. His relationship with Mélenchon has been discussed at various sites, but I have not researched the topic.

Then, before an audience of 6000 Front National partisans, the Socialist candidate got his due: "The Socialist Party of François Hollande is great (…) He has allowed entire branches of his party to be corrupted, to steal from the poor. He goes to London, to The City to reassure the bankers and is knighted by the Financial Times that finds his belt-tightening policies are just fine."

Calling the votes for Sarkozy "totally useless", she hammered home that the "only vote that will count is the vote for Marine Le Pen". She then launched into an appeal to older people, one category that has resisted her in the polls.

Five days from the first round, Marine Le Pen is credited with an average of 15% - 16% by public opinion polls, still at least ten points behind the two leaders. The only exception made known Tuesday evening and welcomed with satisfaction by the FN, was a CSA Institute poll showing a drop to 24% for Sarkozy and a rise to 17% for Marine Le Pen.

"We'll show them they're wrong," promised Marine Le Pen who denounced the "know-it-alls", the "experts", the journalists, the pollsters, in short, anyone she could connect to the "globalist elite".

"Aristocrats of the System! Set one more place at your table on Sunday, the people are coming to dine," she hurled. "We will win! We will win!", her fans responded.

She denounced at length the Europe of Brussels, the "common dream" of all her adversaries. She made the "Nation-State" the only defense that would save the systems of social protection (i.e., social benefits should be only for the French). Then she lashed out against the debate that the European Commission is about to launch on unemployment, where minimum salaries would be determined according to the sector of the economy.

Note: The above is requires an explanation. I believe Brussels wants to deregulate the parameters for determining a minimum wage, allowing each sector to determine its own minimum. Marine Le Pen opposes this on grounds that France is accustomed to one minimum wage. (In the United States there is a federal minimum wage [$7.25] and state minimums that may be the same, or higher or lower. The higher figure is the one that prevails.)

"A fragmentation bomb, the annihilation of the right to work," she warned, denouncing the euro, but not mentioning her plans to withdraw from the euro zone.

Marine Le Pen definitively won over the audience with her virulent speech on immigration, once again raising the specter of the "Franco-Algerian" Mohamed Merah. "More immigration means more unemployment, more crime, more deficit, more debt, a crushing burden," insisted the chairman of the Front National, who refused the accusation of xenophobia. "We are passionately Francophiles!" she proclaimed, as the crowd, heated up, responded as at a soccer match: "This is our home! This is our home! This is our home!"

"And because this is your home, you have the right not to want any more of these Franco-Algerians like Mohamed Merah," she replied to her public.

And as a final appeal to rally at the voting polls, Marine Le Pen cried: Make yourselves heard", "shout your anger", and "get moving".