Upon coming to power in 1958, Charles de Gaulle insisted upon the necessity of a "European Europe". In a projected second round, both men would attract enough voters from the centre and left to decisively defeat Le Pen. In the wake of the Brexit vote, Le Pen could scarcely contain her satisfaction. Among the ways Le Pen has transformed the party founded by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is to have turned inside out its relation to Europe. Though he hotly refuses such comparisons, Mélenchon's reasoning and rhetoric echo that of his ideological opposite and nemesis, Marine Le Pen.

Source: New Zealand Herald June 29, 2016 23:48 UTC