Safeguards Against Le Pen’s Far-Right Are Starting to Unravel
- Left-leaning alliance emerges as Le Pen’s main challenger
- Some centrists say won’t back leftists in order to stop Le Pen
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The far-right leader of the National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, has added surprising new supporters ahead of France’s legislative election as the traditional norms that have kept nationalist groups out of power are falling apart.
One of France’s most prominent Jews said he would consider voting for Le Pen rather than an alliance of left wing parties that has emerged as her main challenger. A former spokeswoman to French President Emmanuel Macron said she’d abstain rather than vote against the far right if she was faced with the same choice, citing allegedly anti-semitic comments by the far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon.