In the streets, rioters looted shops, torched cars and set fire to buildings. In the Élysée Palace, outgoing French President Emmanuel Macron confronted the damage to both his nation’s cities and his centrist political project, now in disarray just as it should have been reaching its culmination.
\n\nAmid the chaos, one clear winner sat behind a wide wooden desk beside a pristine French flag, casting herself as the leader-in-waiting of Europe’s third-largest economy.
\n\nMarine Le Pen was already topping the polls ahead of April’s presidential election, a vote that could mark the ultimate breakthrough for her far-right agenda. But during an eight-minute video address Sunday, she pointed to the violent unrest across France as living proof that mainstream politics had failed and that her proposed crackdowns on immigration and lawlessness were now essential.
\n\n“Our country is caught in a vise, even held hostage, between violence and powerlessness,” Le Pen said in a speech delivered ahead of Macron’s own address. She promised “restored authority and security” and that “anyone who causes damage must pay for it.”
\n\nThe crisis marks a potential inflection point for Le Pen, France and the far right in Europe as a whole.
\n\nFor years Le Pen has…
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business