Marine Le Pen eager to start her bid for the French presidency, mocks her opponents' primaries as cockfights

Ms Le Pen hopes that anti-establishment sentiments sweeping both sides of the Atlantic will bode well for her presidential bid

Marine Le Pen has dubbed herself the ‘candidate of the people’ (EPA)

Far-right National Front party leader Marine Le Pen has said she is eager for France's presidential election campaign to start, portraying herself as the “candidate of the people” and mocking her opponents' primaries as cockfights.

Opinion polls consistently show the anti-immigration, anti-EU politican makindg it to the second round of the 2017 election. Her ratings have been boosted by worries over Europe's refugee crisis and concerns over Islamist attacks.

However, the same polls also show Ms Le Pen losing the second-round runoff – to be held in early May – prompting her to make further efforts to polish her and her party’s image. Attempts include a campaign poster sporting the slogan “France brought to peace”, which does not bear the party's name or logo.

“I'm very relaxed, keen to start this presidential campaign,” Ms Le Pen told reporters. “I am eager for the match to start, to debate issues that are essential to the survival of our country as it is now.”

She was speaking at her party's annual rally, this year in the Mediterranean town of Frejus, where the mayor, David Rachline, is a rising party star and Ms Le Pen's campaign manager.

Ms Le Pen, who was the sole French major party leader to support Brexit and is also the only one to support US Republican candidate Donald Trump, hopes to benefit from rising anti-establishment sentiments amid voters on both sides of the Atlantic.

“I am, and will be, in this presidential election the candidate of the people who have been forgotten and scorned over the 20 past years,” she said at the start of the rally.

Ms Le Pen mocked the bitterly fought primaries of France's conservatives and centre-right – which will pit ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy against former Prime Minister Alain Juppe and other candidates – in November and that of the Left, scheduled for January. She said they were battles of egos and described them as cockfights.

Mr Rachline and Ms Le Pen’s niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, both told Reuters that the party's campaign would only fully start once those two primaries were over.

“It is very complicated to launch a campaign when you don’t know who your opponents are” Ms Marechal-Le Pen said, while insisting the National Front believed it could win the presidential election, despite the opinion polls.

“I’m not saying it will be easy,” she said. “But a lot of the pieces of the puzzles are falling into place.”

She pointed to security concerns among voters after various deadly attacks in France, and at Britain's Brexit vote as possible drivers of support.

Mr Rachline said Ms Le Pen would focus on asking voters “whether France should regain its independence” and “whether it will, or will not, let radical Islam grow.”

Reuters