France’s right-wing firebrand Jean-Marie Le Pen bid adieu on Saturday to the National Front party he founded nearly 40 years ago with an impassioned defense of his polemic anti-immigration, anti-Islamic platform.
In his final speech as party president, the 82-year-old nationalist was unapologetic, insisting that “unceasing immigration” poses a threat to the French way of life.
Le Pen harped on what he sees as the transformation of “Christian and secular France in an unbelieving France on the path of Islamization.”
He appealed to his audience of about 1,800 supporters, saying it was up to them to ensure the National Front’s future success — under a new leader.
“I entrust you with the destiny of our movement, its lasting, its unity, its pugnacity,” Le Pen told the audience of the party congress in the central city of Tours. “It’s still time ... to join us, to sign up for the decisive battle which will open a new era for France.”
Le Pen’s successor at the head of the party was to be announced yesterday, but French media reports have said his daughter, Marine La Pen, handily won a vote that pitted her against the party’s longtime No. 2, Bruno Gollnisch. A report in Le Figaro said she’d garnered 67 percent of party members’ vote.
A 42-year-old mother of three, Marine Le Pen is widely seen as the kinder, gentler face of a party known for its extreme stances.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia