French presidential candidate Le Pen calls for tighter border controls

PARIS, March 23 (KUNA) -- Second-placed French presidential candidate and National Front leader Marine Le Pen on called on Thursday for tighter European borders, greater security cooperation and tougher action against radicalism in the wake of the London attack on Wednesday.
The extreme-right leader, who is polling second in surveys of voter intentions for the first round of presidential balloting on April 23, told BFM Television that countries must better cooperate and share intelligence more in the fight against terrorism.
"We must control our borders," she said, noting that Europe is facing "low cost" terrorism, a reference to the ramming and knife attack at the London parliament.
What Le Pen overlooked, apparently, is that a number of attacks in Europe over the past years have not involved individuals from outside of Europe but "home grown" terrorists born and bred in European countries, even if there are indications some attacks were ordered by so-called Islamic State from Syria or Iraq.
Le Pen also advocated clamping down on Islamist radicalism in France and expelling and revoking the French nationality of dual-nationals involved in terrorism.
"To fight terrorism we first need to take our borders under control and expel radicalised foreigners," she told BFM.
"We must immediately expel those who have links with fundamentalism," the National Front leader urged.
Le Pen is polling 25 percent according to first-round voter intentions for the April ballot and she is expected to contest the face off with centrist, independent candidate Emmanuel Macron in a run-off on May 7. However, she is predicted to lose that battle, credited with 35 percent of votes compared to 65 percent for Macron, a Harris poll indicated Thursday. (end) jk.gta