The leader of France’s far-right National Front party came out on top in a new poll on potential 2017 presidential candidates. The survey, published in Marianne on Thursday, pitted Marine Le Pen against French President Francois Hollande, former President Nicolas Sarkozy and other potential candidates.
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Le Pen is the daughter of National Front founder and controversial French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen. Since she took over the National Front’s leadership, the party has surged to the top of the polls. The latest survey by polling firm BVA puts the party’s popularity at 28 percent, just two percentage points shy of President Hollande’s Socialist Party. Marine Le Pen ran for president unsuccessfully in 2012.
