A record one-third of French people are sympathetic to the ideas of the country’s far-right National Front party, an annual survey revealed on Wednesday.
A year after Marine Le Pen stunned France by winning 17.9 percent of the vote in the first round of last May’s presidential elections, it appears the influence of her far-right National Front (FN) party remains strong.
According to the annual barometer by TNS Sofre carried out for French media, 32 percent of French people say they are either “absolutely” (6%) or “quite” (26%) in agreement with the party’s ideas.
That figure represents a rise of 14 percentage points since 2010. The last time the poll showed such levels of support for the party was in October 1991.
“What is striking is that there has been no post-election drop,” as seen after the 1995 and 2002 presidential elections, Emmanuel Riviere, head of Opinion TNS-Sofre told AFP.
The poll also revealed 35 percent of French people believe the FN party, which won two seats in last year’s parliamentary elections, “has the ability to participate in government”. And in another record, only 47 percent of respondents now believe the party is a danger to democracy, a record low in the poll.
The TNS-Sofre survey comes just two weeks after a separate opinion poll revealed most French people believe “there are too many foreigners in France” and 74 percent think “Islam is not compatible with French values”.
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