French Presidential Election 2017: Marine Le Pen proposes two-currency system as 'euro is dead'

Paris: French far-right National Front leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Sunday proposed a dual currency system for France, a national currency for its home economy and another for international trade as, in her opinion, the “euro is dead”. [caption id=“attachment_3415306” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Marine Le Pen. Reuters[/caption] “We will have a national currency like all other countries, and a common currency together,” Le Pen said in an interview with French daily Le Parisien, meaning that a new French franc would be a currency for everyday domestic use and the euro would be for “large companies trading internationally”. According to Le Pen who faces centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron in the second round of the Presidential election on May 7, the euro is “largely responsible for mass unemployment” in France because it has not “adapted” itself to the French economy, Efe news reported. She added that, if she wins the presidency, she will negotiate with the European Union (EU) the recovery of four “essential” sovereignties: territorial, legislative, economic and monetary. If those EU negotiations failed, she would submit the euro question to the French people via referendum. “If they vote no, then I will resign,” the presidential hopeful said. Le Pen’s proposal to abandon the euro has generated unease, as polls show 70 per cent of the French wish to remain inside the European single currency. Exactly how she would pull-out from the euro also has created some degree of confusion, even within the ranks of Le Pen’s Front National party. Regarding her “patriotic” alliance with Eurosceptic right-wing party Debout La France, led by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a former rival, Le Pen said she had to modify some of her proposals. Among others, free schooling for immigrant children that she wished to temporarily ban. Speaking of her duel with Macron, who is ahead in the polls, Le Pen considers she might win and, in her opinion, Macron is already getting nervous by his “feverish and aggressive” stance.