- Title: Attack-struck Nice divided over Le Pen vote
- Date: 27th April 2017
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (French) LOCAL NATIONAL FRONT OFFICIAL, LIONEL TIVOLI, SAYING: "People are starting to realise that it doesn't just happen elsewhere, that unfortunately attacks affect all of France, and that Islamism is starting to develop into a spider's web across our country, and that we are no longer safe anywhere. People's concerns are linked to insecurity, immigration problems." EXHIBITION SPACE "PALAIS NIKAIA" WHERE LE PEN WILL LATER HOLD A RALLY / PEOPLE SHOPPING IN MARKET SIGN READING: "PALAIS NIKAIA" VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SHOPPING IN MARKET (SOUNDBITE) (French) 56-YEAR-OLD MARKET TRADER WHO LIVES NEAR NICE, DOMINIQUE GRION, WHO IS A RECENT NATIONAL FRONT VOTER SAYING: "I completely agree with the fact that she says our country should give priority to French people, taking into account that all the people you see here - even if they're not the same colour, we are all French. It's true that today our country is open to the entire world with social progress, and its normal that everyone benefits from it, but I think those who pay their taxes here should benefit first." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SHOPPING IN MARKET (SOUNDBITE) (French) 29-YEAR-OLD MARKET TRADER WHO WORKS IN NICE AND IS FROM AVIGNON, HASSAN ARAM, SAYING: "Lots of people (in Muslim, immigrant communities) are nonetheless afraid (over a Le Pen win.) Everyone is free to choose. We understand in French politics, with everything that's happening in France right now, people are afraid so they feel they have to go vote for Marine Le Pen. They don't have to, but clearly there are lots of people who prefer Le Pen." ROOFTOPS IN OLD TOWN FERRY AT SEA
- Embargoed: 11th May 2017 16:23
- Keywords: presidential election Nice Marine Le Pen attack July 14 Bastille Day
- Location: NICE, FRANCE
- City: NICE, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA0076E6CNK7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Along Nice's famed seaside Promenade des Anglais, life has slowly returned to normal since the deadly Bastille Day truck attack last July that left 86 people dead - but painful memories still linger in the city.
Taking a break from his morning jog, 62-year-old Dominique Eche gets tears in his eyes as he recalls the Islamic State attack which took place there last year.
The sports coach, whose children jumped on the beach below to avoid the truck that ploughed in the crowd, gets angry discussing the far-right National Front's (FN) stance on the attack.
"It's appalling to try and benefit from such attacks, to say 'with me, it wouldn't have happened in that way'," he said on Thursday (April 27), hours before FN presidential candidate Marine Le Pen speaks at a big election rally in Nice.
Eche spoke in the part of the promenade where the attack took place. Next to him, workers erected bollards to prevent trucks from accessing the pavement.
The FN has seized on a series of Islamic States attacks that have hit France over the past two years to insist that its hardline platform of shutting down borders, expelling foreigners on intelligence watch lists and clamping down on immigration would make voters safer.
Le Pen and other FN officials have even said some of these attacks would have been avoided had they been in power.
One in four voters backed Le Pen in Nice in the presidential election's first round on Sunday (April 23) and just over one in five overall in France, and she qualified for the second round, alongside centrist Emmanuel Macron.
While Le Pen's first round score in Nice improved by two percentage points since the 2012 election, this was a smaller increase than her national score.
Gilles Ivaldi, a specialist of the FN at the University of Nice, said this was partly because the local mainstream right was strong in Nice, and on a quite hard line itself on issues like security.
Local FN representative Lionel Tivoli said party membership in the Alpes Maritimes department Nice has jumped from 740 members two years ago to 3,500-4,000 now, with a spike in registration after the attacks.
"We are no longer safe anywhere. People's concerns are linked to insecurity, immigration problems," Tivoli said in the FN's local headquarters, where volunteers were preparing to campaign for Le Pen.
At a market outside the venue where she will later speak, traders were divided over Le Pen. Dominique Grion said she was needed to reign in immigration, while 29-year-old Hassan Aram said Muslim communities were afraid of her and her potential presidency. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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