Le Pen announces eurosceptic PM pick, if elected

Far-right French presidential hopeful says she and defeated rival Dupont-Aignan share a ‘common project that we will promote together’

By AFP 29 April 2017, 3:15 pm

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Former French presidential election candidate for the right-wing Debout la France (DLF) party Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (L) and French presidential election candidate for the far-right Front National (FN) party Marine Le Pen, look at each other upon their arrival for a joint statement at FN headquarters in Paris, on April 29, 2017. (GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)

PARIS — Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen announced Saturday that if she wins France’s May 7 runoff she would name eurosceptic Nicolas Dupont-Aignan as her prime minister.

Le Pen told a press conference that she and Dupont-Aignan, who lost in the election’s first round with 4.7 percent of the vote, shared a “common project that we will promote together.”

“We will build a national unity government that will bring together people chosen for their skills and their love of France,” Le Pen said.

During the bruising campaign, Le Pen has attempted to wear down lingering resistance to her National Front party’s tainted brand by portraying her centrist rival Emmanuel Macron as an elitist money man.

Polls give him a commanding lead of up to 20 points over Le Pen in the runoff but show the gap narrowing slightly after Macron’s sluggish start to his second-round campaigning.