Le Pen Says Macron Should Take Harder Line With Boris Johnson

(Bloomberg) -- French far-right leader and presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen said incumbent Emmanuel Macron should be more forceful when confronting U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson over their countries’ post-Brexit disputes.

“We must raise our voice with the U.K.,” Le Pen said, adding that Macron should demand the British government license French fishermen to work in U.K. waters as agreed under Brexit.

Macron’s administration “keeps repeating threats without ever acting,” she told reporters at an event in Paris. “Either you don’t speak or you act.”

France and the U.K. are stuck in a fight over fishing rights, with Macron’s government recently threatening to disrupt trade flows to and from the U.K. if French vessels remain without permits. 

Le Pen said Brexit negotiators had failed to implement the U.K.’s divorce agreement with the European Union, taking a swing at the man who was once chief negotiator and is now running against her as the presidential candidate of the traditional conservative party, Michel Barnier.

The far-right firebrand is under pressure in opinion polls by the rise of nationalist television pundit Eric Zemmour, who is poaching some of her supporters. Le Pen is now seeking to claw back support by focusing on her economic program and the need to improve the living standards of everyday French.

Regarding the EU’s push toward green energy, she said, responding to a question from Bloomberg at the same event, that France should buy 6 new nuclear reactors and reiterated her plan to dismantle wind turbines and extend the life of existing nuclear plants in France.

“My rival is still Emmanuel Macron,” she said. “But you keep asking me about Zemmour.”

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