Marine Le Pen Hails ‘Extremely Positive’ Dutch Elections

French far-right Front National (FN) party president Marine Le Pen (L) and Dutch far-right
GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP/Getty Images
Chris Tomlinson

Despite Dutch anti-mass migration politician Geert Wilders coming second in the Dutch national elections this week, French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen called the result “extremely positive”.

Earlier this week, the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) under the leadership of anti-Islamisation politician Geert Wilders came second in the national elections. Many in politics including Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and the media claimed Wilders coming second means the end of the populist movement sweeping Europe.

French anti-mass migration presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has firmly disagreed, Tiroler Tageszeitung reports.

Ms. Le Pen called the result which saw the PVV increase its seats in the parliament “extremely positive”. The vote also led to the total collapse of the Dutch Labour party which went from 25 per cent of the vote in 2012 to only 6 per cent, losing the majority of its seats in the parliament.

“I would have been disappointed if he had slipped or stagnated, but he has risen and the parties in power have fallen heavily,” Le Pen noted. Le Pen, who leads the French Front National, is also an MEP and a member of the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group along with the PVV and several other populist parties across Europe.

“For Wilders this is extremely positive, which is the proof of the reach of our joint ideas in the different European countries,” she added.

In six weeks, Marine Le Pen will head to her own election fight as the first round of the French presidential elections approaches. Le Pen has maintained a steady lead in polling for weeks for the first round and is currently at around 28 per cent according to polls released Friday.

Le Pen is running on a platform of anti-mass migration, anti-Islamisation and has said that she will pursue a course that would see the French leave the euro and reinstate the Franc as well as potentially leave the European Union altogether.

The Front National leader is expected to face Emmanuel Macron in the second round in May as conservative Republican candidate François Fillon has been tarred by financial scandals involving fake jobs for his family members.

Initially, Macron was seen as easily defeating Le Pen as early head-to-head polls gave him a substantial lead. Since then, Le Pen has been closing the gap between her and Macron with latest polling showing that the difference is approaching single digits.

Despite the media and political establishment claiming the Durch elections have hurt the anti-globalist populist movement, the polling results show a clear pattern of increased support for Le Pen and the movement labelled the “Patriotic Spring” by Geert Wilders.

 Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson@breitbart.com

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