Surprise swing in support of National Front
THEY HAVE names like Abdallah, Habiba and Mourad. Their parents came to France from north Africa in the 1950s and they grew up in the banlieue’ ghettos. They face unemployment and racial discrimination, and they sympathise with the rioters of 2005. And next month they will vote for Jean-Marie Le Pen.
It might appear to defy logic for Muslim voters to choose the founder of France’s National Front (FN) at April’s presidential election, but there is evidence that – for a variety of motives – a number are willing to break what used to be a rigid political taboo.
For some it is fear of unchecked immigration; for others Le Pen’s France-first economic policies. Some like his traditional stand on moral issues like abortion and the family; others favour his anti-Americanism and identification with the people of Iraq.Some beurs’ – especially the young – will vote for him because of their visceral hatred for the mainstream right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy; others out of a nihilistic urge to “smash the system”.
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