Marine Le Pen wins 100% support to stay chief of France’s Front National

Marine Le Pen was re-elected with 100 percent of the votes cast as the leader of France’s far-right Front National in party congress vote results given Sunday. There were no other candidates.

Marine Le Pen during her re-election as head of the Front National at the party's congress on 30 November 2014 in Lyon. REUTERS/Robert Pratta

This marks the beginning of Le Pen’s second term as chief of the far-right party which was co-founded by her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972. She was first elected as the leader of the party in January 2011, succeeding her father.

The ballot comforted a bid she is widely expected to make for France’s presidency in 2017 elections. In a speech at the convention on Saturday, Jean-Marie Le Pen had renewed his faith that his daughter would one day become President.

The Front National party election came a day after France’s main opposition party, the right-wing UMP, elected former President Nicolas Sarkozy as its leader.

French President François Hollande’s abyssal unpopularity makes analysts believe the 2017 presidential elections could see Marine Le Pen and Sarkozy as the two final candidates.

Since taking leadership of the far-right Front National in 2011, Le Pen has become quite popular among the French and has managed to soften the xenophobic extremist image the party had held under her father.