The spectre of a Muslim “invasion of Europe” will be invoked on the Italian island of Lampedusa today when Marine Le Pen, the new leader of the National Front (FN) in France, turns up there to bolster her campaign to unseat President Sarkozy in a year’s time.
The far-right leader will use her appearance on the island to dramatise her warnings that France and Europe risk losing their identities under a tide of immigration that could swell further with the upheavals in North Africa.
About 8,000 people have landed on Lampedusa’s beaches since the revolt in Tunisia began in January. Travelling with Mario Borghezio, an MP from Italy’s Northern League, Ms Le Pen said that she wanted to see the “frontlines” of the immigration crisis to “get an idea of what’s going on”.
Ms Le Pen, 42, who succeeded her father Jean-Marie as FN leader in January, stirred cheers from hundreds of followers in the Mediterranean port of Toulon on Saturday when she predicted “the imminent disappearance of the French people by dilution” from immigrants.
As the softer face of France’s old hard right, Ms Le Pen has successfully harnessed unease over immigration, crime and Europe in recent months, playing off Mr Sarkozy’s own efforts to woo NF voters with the same themes.
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The charm of Le Pen fille has worked so well that polls show her in reach of knocking out Mr Sarkozy or his Socialist opponent in the eliminating first vote in the two-round presidential election in April 2012. Her father eliminated Lionel Jospin, the Socialist, in the 2002 contest, which was then won by Jacques Chirac.
Mr Sarkozy’s play for the hard right has dismayed members of his centre-right Government who see it as ineffective and morally repugnant.
Meanwhile, the Socialist party has failed to pick a presidential candidate, prompting François Hollande, a former party leader, to say: “The collapse of Nicolas Sarkozy has created a political vacuum which the Socialist Party has not been able to fill.”