“‘We cannot be seduced,’ she said, brimming with confidence after her party secured 46pc of the vote a week ago. Her candidate trounced the ruling Socialists in their own bastion of Villeneuve-sur-Lot. ‘The euro ceases to exist the moment that France leaves, and that is our incredible strength. What are they going to do, send in tanks?’ ‘Europe is just a great bluff. One side there is the immense power of sovereign peoples, and on the other side are a few technocrats,’ she said. It is her defence of the French welfare model and her critique of capitalism that gives her a Leftist hue — some call it 1930s national socialism — so far in outlook from Britain’s UKIP.”
