The people of France may finally have had enough.
CNN reports populist candidate Marine Le Pen is leading in the polls as the message of her National Rally Party is resonating with voters who have been witnessing rampant violence in Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux and other cities. Even the historic city hall in Limoges, which survived two world wars, was severely damaged by fire started by rioters.
Le Pen is tackling the issue of immigration since she attributes much of the recent violence toward delinquents who live in France’s poor urban areas, which happen to be the home of many immigrants.
When the protests broke out, news reports said protesters were fed up with overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, long school days, and deteriorating conditions.
However, the increase of violence, looting, and destruction of public property revealed that the problem went far beyond dissatisfied students.
Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch, stresses better classrooms is not the issue.
“This is not remotely about the schools. That may have been the initial pretext, but we see people out there waving Palestinian flags, Tunisian flags, Algerian flags and so on. What do those have to do with it? If these are young, assimilated migrants, loyal French citizens who just want better conditions, what’s with their national flag?” Spencer questions.
The message is very clear, he says.
“This is a movement that has nothing to do with France at all, except as a rebellion against and rejection of France. These people are asserting their Islamic identity. That’s what ties all those countries together. We’re talking something that could topple the French Republic and create an Islamic state there,” Spencer states.
Le Pen, he says, must overcome two very big electoral obstacles.
“If it’s a decisive victory, then she'll win in a landslide. The problem is that if it’s close, then there will be fraud. There’s also, of course, the Muslim vote. In the last election, if it had not been for the Muslim vote, Le Pen would have won then. If it's close, once again, they'll put over the Left,” Spencer says.
