An Interview with Marine Le Pen

Source: Spiegel Online, June 10

Two Extracts

Spiegel: Ms. Le Pen, having won 25 percent of the French vote, your Front National party stands as one of the primary beneficiaries of the May 25 European Parliament election. How could such a thing come to pass?

Le Pen: The French want to regain control of their own country. They want to determine the course of their own economy and their immigration policies. They want their own laws to take precedence over those of the European Union. The French have understood that the EU does not live up to the utopia they were sold. It has distanced itself significantly from a democratic mode of operation.

• • • • •

Spiegel: Why are you supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin in his position against Europe in the Ukraine crisis?

Le Pen: I do not support Putin against Europe. This is a caricature. I support a federalist Ukraine. The EU poured fuel on the fire by proposing an economic partnership to a country known to look half to the East and half to the West.

Spiegel: Do you admire Putin?

Le Pen: I have a certain admiration for Vladimir Putin because he doesn’t allow decisions to be forced upon him by other countries. I think he focuses first and foremost on what is good for Russia and the Russians. As such, I have the same respect for Putin that I do for Ms. Merkel.

Spiegel: Putin isn’t a democrat.

Le Pen: Oh really? He isn’t a democrat? There are no elections in Russia?

Spiegel: There is no freedom of the press, for example.

Le Pen: But you think that there is real freedom of the press in France? Ninety-nine percent of the journalists are leftists!

Spiegel: That’s what you think. But journalists aren’t killed and they aren’t locked up.

Le Pen: To be honest, there are many things said about Russia because they have been demonized for years at the behest of the USA. It is part of the greatness of a European country to develop one’s own opinion and to not view everything through the US lens. We have no lesson to teach Russia if we concurrently roll out the red carpet to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China.

Spiegel: So you are more opposed to the US than you are in favor of Russia?

Le Pen: The Americans are trying to expand their influence in the world, particularly in Europe. They are defending their own interests, not ours. I am in favor of a multi-polar world in which France once again takes its position as the leader of non-aligned states, not with the US, not with Russia and not with Germany. One should strive to be neither slave nor master.

Spiegel: Ms. Le Pen, we thank you for this interview.