Le Pen: Brexit domino effect ‘will bring down Europe’

Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right Front National party, has said the Brexit vote has set off a domino effect that “will bring down all of Europe”. She said the British and Americans had pulled off “coups” in 2016 and predicted that 2017 would be the “year the people of continental Europe woke up”. Ms Le Pen is seen as highly likely to make the run-off for the French presidency in May, while the right-wing nationalist party, Alternative for Germany, is expected to make significant gains at the election there in September. Speaking at a meeting of nationalist leaders from major European countries in the German city of Koblenz, Ms Le Pen said the EU was a “system of oppression” and added: “We are experiencing the end of one world and the birth of another.”

The first real blow struck against the old order, the thing that will set off the domino effect that will bring down all of Europe, is Brexit - a sovereign people has decided to leave an agreement of the powerful, to decide its own destiny.

Marine Le Pen

The far-right leaders met under the slogan “Freedom for Europe” with the aim of strengthening ties between their parties, whose nationalist tendencies have hampered close collaboration in the past. Also at the meeting were Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch far-right Freedom Party (PVV) who was last month convicted of discrimination against Moroccans, and Matteo Salvini of the Northern League who wants to take Italy out of the euro.

Politics