France's Le Pen cozies up to the tea party.

[pampango]

Almost incredibly, the U.S. Tea Party movement and many other conservatives have increasingly identified with the same candidate: Marine Le Pen, nominee of the National Front Party for president of France in elections next April. In large part because of her hard-line position on immigration and opposition to some international organizations such as the European Union and NATO, the 43-year-old Ms. Le Pen has been watched and even applauded by a number of Americans on the Right. Prior to an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., on Wednesday, the controversial candidate had meetings with Rep. and presidential hopeful Ron Paul (R.-Tex.) and freshman Rep. Joe Walsh (R.-Ill.), the first Tea Party candidate to be nominated for Congress in 2010.

While not offering any criticism of Putin’s heavy-handed rule or his stage-managed succession to Medvedev, Le Pen denounced the European Union as non-democratic, and noted that “its people were mad at (Greek Prime Minister Georgios) Papandreau for organizing a referendum” on EU-crafted economic reforms for Greece. This is tantamount, she added, to a “Sovietic Union of Europe.”

Having long called for France to “get out of NATO,” the presidential hopeful denounced the international defense organization for its recent mission in Libya. In Le Pen’s words, what is unfolding in the “so-called Arab Spring” is “worse than what was existing” because “Sharia law is the future of Tunisia and Libya,” and Egypt is experiencing a “vision of Islamization.”

But the same candidate who wants France out of NATO and the EU made it clear she is not critical of all international organizations, and agreements. ... Although Le Pen considers the Euro “an idiotic currency,” she apparently has no problem with an international currency, because the Havana Charter proposed such a currency, known as the “bancor.” She also praised the charter (which 53 countries signed, but which failed because the U.S. would not sign it) for its “reasonable protectionism that encourages cooperation in trade among nations in order to bring an end to ‘unbridled free trade.’”

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47325