Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the frontrunner in next year’s French presidential election, formally launched her campaign on Sunday with a promise to restore order and national confidence.
As France faces one of its most turbulent periods in years, Le Pen cast herself as the best placed to navigate what she described as mounting economic, social and security crises.
“We are not living through the end of the world but the end of a world, their world,” she said of her political opponents.
Le Pen chose to make her first campaign address in Orleans, home to Joan of Arc, the 15th-century warrior heroine revered by nationalists as a symbol of patriotism and sovereignty.
Addressing a crowd of cheering supporters, she promised “zero tolerance” policing and said restoring security was the state’s first duty.
Mass protests over living costs and inequality last weekend descended into looting and vandalism.
