Almost two thirds of French voters have said the National Rally (RN) is right to want certain benefits and rights reserved for French citizens, according to a poll published days before Marine Le Pen made the idea the centrepiece of her presidential campaign.
Some 64 per cent agreed with that proposition in the Ipsos bva-CESI barometer for La Tribune Dimanche, published on September 12. The survey questioned 1,000 people online on September 9-10.
Some 56 per cent considered the party less extreme than in the past, against 50 per cent when Ipsos last tested the question in April 2017, and 53 per cent said it could restore order in the country, up from 42 per cent.
Half said the RN had the best proposals on immigration or Islam and 48 per cent judged it ready to govern.
Doubts have not disappeared. Some 66 per cent agreed that people around Le Pen still defended extremist ideas, though that figure was 78 per cent in 2017.
Some 49 per cent described the party as a real danger to democracy, against 62 per cent nine years ago, and 52 per cent said an RN government would weaken French influence inside the European Union.
Le Pen returned to her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont, northern France, on September 13 for the first major speech of her fourth presidential bid. She described national priority as a natural and just right and presented it as her first social measure.
The principle would apply to social housing, with French citizens given preference in the allocation of publicly funded homes. She also promised to repeal the SRU law, which obliges mayors to reserve part of their housing stock for social units, and to scrap planning and environmental rules she blamed for the shortage of homes.
Any such preference would run into the EU’s ban on discrimination on grounds of nationality between citizens of member states.
Le Pen is standing again after the Paris Court of Appeal upheld her conviction for misusing European Parliament funds on July 7 but reduced her period of ineligibility, restoring her right to contest the election. Surveys since then have shown her leading in every scenario tested.
The RN said it would open its campaign formally in Orléans on October 25. The first round is due on April 18, 2027.
The same barometer recorded immigration as a leading personal concern for 31 per cent of respondents, four points higher than in July and 63 per cent among RN sympathisers. Purchasing power came first on 54 per cent.
President Emmanuel Macron registered 16 per cent of favourable opinions, the lowest of his time in office. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu stood at 20 per cent.
