Blaming the bloc for France’s social and political woes, Ms Le Pen said the 28-member union was behind a “social, economic and cultural Chernobyl,” in a crude reference to the Ukrainian city that was obliterated in a 1986 nuclear accident. Europe is a “graveyard of failed promises,” she told a crowd of supporters during a rally in the north-eastern French town of Metz, adding that the May 23-26 elections were a “battle of the utmost importance”. Ms Le Pen also had the support of Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the hardline leader of the far-right League party, who urged voters to back his French ally in a video message broadcast at the campaign meeting.
Mr Salvini, one of Emmanuel Macron’s fiercest critics, said: “We need to give those humiliated and cheated by Macron their dignity back.”
Mr Salvini has recently called on nationalist parties scattered across the EU Parliament to join forces and form a new alliance, which Mrs Le Pen called the European Alliance of Nations.
But if an alliance does emerge after the vote, it will have to pick a leader, with Mrs Le Pen and the Italian populist looking set to battle it out for the post.
