Marine Le Pen could win France’s upcoming presidential elections next year in the wake of Donald Trump’s shock U.S. victory, Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, warned Thursday. His comments came as Le Pen, leader of the far-Right Front National, suffered a political setback after a French court ruled that her estranged father Jean-Marie, known for his anti-Semitic outbursts, must remain the party’s “honourary president”. Le Pen was among the first European politicians to congratulate the Trump on his win and has praised his opposition to free trade, globalization and the “warmongering interventions that are the source of the huge migratory waves that we are enduring”. Republican Alain Juppe, a former prime minister, has been polling to come top ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, and his ex-prime minister Francois Fillon. Le Pen threw her father of the party last year for reiterating his view that the Nazi gas chambers were a mere “detail” of history and defending France’s collaborationist wartime leader, Marshall Petain.

Source: National Post November 18, 2016 19:11 UTC