Marine Le Pen seeks alliance with Ukip to bring down EU
'As a strictly non-racist and libertarian party, Ukip will be ploughing our own furrow,' insists Farage
MARINE LE PEN, leader of the French far-Right party Front National, has proposed joining forces with Ukip to bring down the EU's "Berlin wall of Brussels".
Speaking from her Paris headquarters, Le Pen said Ukip has far more in common with the Front National than it would like to admit.
But Ukip leader Nigel Farage has ruled out an alliance, saying: "We don't intend to do a political deal at any point with French National Front."
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He added: "As a strictly non-racist and libertarian party, Ukip will be ploughing our own furrow in Europe with parties with which we are happy to do business and make a stand against the EU's political union."
Le Pen, who has joined forces with Dutch anti-Islamic leader Geert Wilders, believes Ukip is avoiding an alliance due to "electoral considerations" and might reconsider in the future.
"They say they're not in agreement with us. My foot," she told the Daily Telegraph. "OK, we don't have the same economic policies [but] they share our point of view on the European Union and immigration: everyone must control his borders, European technocrats must disappear, the European Soviet Union must collapse, everyone must have their own currency, their economic policy and decide in their own home."
Front National could emerge as the leading party in France's European elections with the backing of 24 per cent of voters, according to one poll by research firm Ifop.
It is just one of several anti-immigration and anti-EU parties gaining ground in Europe, where many have lost faith in the ability of the European Union to help kick-start their faltering economies, says the Telegraph.
"How to improve the European Union?" asks Le Pen. "By making it collapse. We brought the Berlin Wall down. I want to bring the Brussels wall down. I expect one thing only from the European system and that's for it to explode."
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