Le Pen Loses Luster, Signaling Far Right’s Retreat in France, and Maybe Beyond<br />that But one day they’ll cry out to the National Front to rescue them,<br />Jean Messiha said that There’s been a recomposition of French political life,<br />Pascal Gannat said that We’ve renounced our position of being the nationalist party of the right,<br />By ADAM NOSSITERJUNE 16, 2017<br />SOISSONS, France — Just this spring, Marine Le Pen’s presidential campaign drew vast crowds who enthusiastically<br />embraced her National Front’s stridently nationalist, anti-immigrant vision of France.<br />Le Pen once dreamed of leading the principal opposition party to Mr. Macron<br />and of marshaling a hundred or more parliamentary deputies to push the Front’s harsh nationalist agenda.<br />"They abstained because they think that with this unjust voting system we have been subjected to for years" — winner take all, instead of proportional — "they don’t think they will elect anybody who can represent them."<br />But there is wide agreement that the Front’s problems go way beyond poor turnout.<br />Mr. Macron has blasted into insignificance not only the National Front, but the traditional right and left parties as well.
