From Ukraine to immigration, here's how far-right leader Marine Le Pen seeks to remake France

As France’s National Rally (RN) party appears set to wrest the country’s parliament from the centrists, party leader Marine Le Pen has outlined how she intends to recast France in the far-right’s mould.

France will vote in the second round of parliamentary elections on Saturday. Le Pen’s RN party won the first round of elections on June 30 and is also widely expected to win the second round. The centrist coalition of French President Emmanuel Macron, who announced snap elections last month, is staring at a rout.

At a time when Europe is facing the most serious security challenge since the World War II and much of Europe is dealing with deep questions of identity and immigration, Le Pen has indicated that she intends to fundamentally reshape the country domestically as well as in terms of its foreign and defence policies.

In an interview with CNN, Le Pen said that she would bar Ukraine from striking inside Russia with French-supplied weapons and would stop any plans to deploy French troops to Ukraine to support the instructors already posted there.

“If Emmanuel Macron wants to send troops to Ukraine and the prime minister is against it, then there are no troops sent to Ukraine. The prime minister has the final say,” said Le Pen in an interview with CNN’s Christine Amanpour.

Le Pen did not elaborate on this as the defence and foreign domains remain the prerogative of the French president.

We support Ukraine but we have red lines, says Le Pen

Le Pen has said that she would not allow France to become a “co-belligerent” in the Ukraine War.

Being a co-belligerent would mean being a party to the war. Le Pen has said that being party to the war and French military’s deployment to Ukraine are her red lines.

At the same time, Le Pen said that her party has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has supported Ukraine — except for the two red-line issues.

“What Russia has done here is violate Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty, violate Ukraine’s freedom, and bring war to Ukraine. From the outset, we have condemned Russia in the matter and we have supported Ukraine throughout these two years, indicating we have two red lines which were sending French troops to the Ukrainian territory, because the French are, I believe, totally opposed to this, and the delivery of long-range weapons that could hit Russia and therefore make France a co-belligerent in this conflict,” said Le Pen.

Le Pen’s stand is in sharp contrast to Macron’s who has not ruled out deploying troops to France and was among the first leaders to allow Ukraine to hit targets inside Russia. Macron, like some other European leaders, has interpreted the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the biggest security threat to Europe since the World War II and has said that Ukraine is merely the first one to be targeted and if Russia is not dealt with, the expansionist designs may harm other countries in the Europe as well. Le Pen’s stand runs against the hawkish position of Macron on Europe’s security.

Le Pen proposes curbs on immigrants’ rights

Le Pen’s party has supported ending the automatic right to citizenship for people born to foreign parents in France, according to CNN.

The RN has also called for severely restricting citizenship by naturalisation.

The RN has also proposed the restriction of rights of foreigners to access some social services in France, including housing, and has supported the services’ preference to French nationals.

The anxieties around illegal immigration and the failure of the centrist and leftist governments of Europe is among the major drivers for the far-right parties in the continent.