Calls for 'Frexit' from French far-right ramp up

Amid increasing calls for Frexit from France's right-wing eurosceptic National Front party, a far-right French mayor called to rename a street in the southern French town of Beaucaire in honor of Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

He announced his move via Twitter saying the Beaucaire city council's 23-to-9 vote in favor of the decision.

His move was hailed by pro-Brexit groups and Twitter accounts. "A Mayor in France has named their new road 'Rue du Brexit' to pay tribute to our vote for independence!" said a pro-Brexit account, Leave.EU, as reported by France24.

The far-right leader of the Front National Marine Le Pen urged EU member states to end Brussels' hegemony while calling for the delivery of a referendum on France's EU membership. Her remarks over Frexit came after the Berlin terror attack, which is seen as a recent cross-border security failure.

"Frexit will be a part of my policy," Le Pen said in an interview with Greek newspaper Dimokratia, as reported by the Sunday Express. "The people must have the opportunity to vote for the liberation from slavery and blackmail imposed by technocrats in Brussels to return sovereignty to the country," she added.

Resistance to immigration, anti-EU and anti-Eurozone are central issues to the campaign platform of National Front leader Marine Le Pen in her bid for the French presidency in elections next year.

Le Pen, the National Front leader, wants to stop what she calls "massive" immigration and is urging an exit from the European Union and the 19-nation Eurozone currency. Opinion polls suggest the leader of the National Front (FN) will finish second in next year's presidential election, but she is hoping for new momentum after Donald Trump's victory in the United States.

The National Front has made gains since Marine Le Pen took over party leadership from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. While the elder Le Pen did make it to the second round of the presidential elections against Jacques Chirac in 2002, the traditional conservative and left parties rallied to keep him from reaching the Elysee Palace.

Marine Le Pen has worked to make the far-right party more palatable to the mainstream.

While the National Front only holds four seats in the French parliament, it performed strongly in the European elections in 2014. In 2017, Le Pen is expected to win the first round of the presidential elections with around 25 percent and lose the second round with around 30 percent, according to opinion surveys.

For two years, disaffection with mainstream politics and disarray among her opponents has played into Marine Le Pen's agenda. However, as the days tick down to election year in France, events may have started to dim her presidential prospects. Since late November, the anti-immigrant, anti-globalization far-right National Front candidate's showing in opinion polls has slipped from about three out of 10 voters to one in four.

The choice on Nov. 27 of Francois Fillon as Le Pen's main conservative challenger in the Republicans party primary was among the first signs of trouble. She put a brave face on the victory for the former prime minister, whose socially conservative views on abortion and gay marriage are attractive to many Le Pen supporters and helped land him the ticket ahead of the more centrist Alain Juppe. Another hurdle for Le Pen is the youthful Emmanuel Macron's announcement on Nov. 16 that he too will run for president as an independent candidate who rejects the traditional politics of left versus right.