"The king of fake news and of white supremacists at an FN summit... why am I not surprised? Change of name but not of the political line," said the head of Macron's centrist Republic on the Move party, Christophe Castaner.Bannon's arrival was also questioned by former party head Jean-Marie Le Pen, from whom Marine took over the leadership in 2011.Speaking in Paris, he dubbed the American's visit "paradoxical" and "not exactly the definition of 'de-demonisation'" which daughter Marine has sought to give the party.Marine Le Pen is running unopposed for a third term and her address Sunday will see her trying to turn a page on the anti-Semitic, openly racist party of her former paratrooper father. "Without a name change we will not be able to forge alliances. She had earlier been suspended for comparing migrants to "vermin".But party members credit Marine Le Pen with massively expanding the party's support, doubling its score from 5.5 million votes in the 2002 presidential election to 10.6 million, or almost 34 percent, in 2017.- Rematch in Europe? -Le Pen is hoping for a rematch with Macron in next year's European elections, by forming alliances with other eurosceptic parties around the bloc.At home, she is banking on divisions between pro-Macron centrists and rightwingers tearing his party apart, making the FN France's biggest party of the right.

Source: Egypt Today March 10, 2018 15:45 UTC