Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Front National in France, says David Cameron is now her role model

The leader of the far-right Front National in France says she is taking inspiration from David Cameron's leadership of the UK.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Marine Le Pen praised the prime minister for his stance on the EU and his recent efforts to strengthen British sovereignty.

I am so happy to see David Cameron doing in the UK what I want to do for France.

He’s using the months ahead of the referendum to get what he wants for his country, and we want that too, more sovereignty for France and more freedom.

While Cameron negotiates with the European Council president Donald Tusk on Britain's membership of the EU, Le Pen has reportedly attempted to distance herself from her own party's extremist wing.

Nevertheless, Front National still hold a staunchly anti-EU, anti-immigration stance - with Le Pen hoping to win seats in regional elections next month by stoking fears around high unemployment and the concentration of refugees and economic migrants in the country's north-west.

The 47-year-old has suggested she would like to see France leave the eurozone and scrap the Schengen agreement which allows the free movement of workers across the continent.

Threatening to leave the EU, she believes, could help win concessions for France and, as Bloomberg reports, she currently has a strong showing in polls ahead of the presidential elections in 2017.

In the past, Front National has been accused of fielding "racist, bizarre and geriatric candidates", and despite Le Pen's newfound middle-ground rhetoric, there are still fears that an "authoritarian, nationalist, anti-immigrant and anti-European" worldview lies underneath.

HT BuzzFeed News

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