French Election: Marine Le Pen Refuses to Endorse Sarkozy

May 01, 2012 from Al Jazeera English

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has delivered a further blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy's hopes of re-election by refusing to endorse him and telling her six million supporters to make their own choice at Sunday's ballot. "I will not grant my trust, or a mandate, to these two candidates," she told supporters on Tuesday at an annual commemoration of Joan of Arc, the national saint her group favors to the May Day celebrations held by international labor and leftist parties. "On Sunday, I will cast a blank ballot." Jacky Rowland reports.

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Marine Le Pen

Marine Le Pen is a lawyer by profession, a French right-wing politician and the president of the Front National, the third-largest political party in France, since 16 January 2011. She is the youngest daughter of the French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, former president of the... Explore this topic

Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy is a French politician who served as the 23rd President of France from 16 May 2007 until 15 May 2012. Before his presidency, he was leader of the Union for a Popular Movement. Under Jacques Chirac's presidency he served as Minister of the Interior in Jean-Pierr... Explore this topic

French presidential election, 2012

A presidential election was held in France on 22 April 2012, with a second round run-off held on 6 May to elect the President of France. The incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy was running for a second successive and, under the terms of the constitution, final term in the election. The ... Explore this topic

May Day

May Day on May 1 is an ancient Northern Hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Explore this topic

Far-right politics

The far-right refers to the highest degree of rightism in right-wing politics. Far right politics involves support of strong or complete social hierarchy in society, and supports supremacy of certain individuals or groups deemed to be innately superior or preferable who are to... Explore this topic

Le Front National

The National Front was a francophone Belgian far-right political party. The party's ideology advocated a strong unitary Belgian nationalism and strongly opposed immigration and also tried to attract Flemish voters. The party's acting leader was Patrick Cocriamont. In the 2003 ... Explore this topic

Politics of France

France is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, in which the President of France is head of state and the Prime Minister of France is the head of government, and there is a pluriform, multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legisla... Explore this topic

François Hollande

François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande is the 24th and current President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra. He was previously the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008, and the Deputy of the National Assembly of France for Corrèze's 1st Constituenc... Explore this topic

France

France, officially the French Republic, is a unitary semi-presidential republic located mostly in Western Europe, with several overseas regions and territories. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine ... Explore this topic

Protest vote

A protest vote is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate the caster's dissatisfaction with the choice of candidates or refusal of the current political system. In this latter case, protest vote may take the form of a valid vote, but instead of voting for the mainstream cand... Explore this topic

Also See

Marine Le Pen

Nicolas Sarkozy

French presidential election, 2012