Faced with election defeat, Le Pen now wants to focus on overhaul of Front National policy, not Frexit

PARIS, France - Defeated French presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, who had famously stated during her election campaigning that she would, as her main priority, pull France out of the European Union - has now abandoned her bid.

Le Pen is instead preparing for an overhaul of the Front National policy as leading figures within her party are set to meet to discuss a change in policy direction. 

Earlier this month, Le Pen lost the second round of the French election to Emmanuel Macron, who became the youngest leader of France after Napoleon. 

Bernard Monot, the party’s chief economic strategist said in a statement, “There will be no Frexit. We have taken note of what the French people told us. I continue to think that the euro is not technically viable but it makes no sense for us to keep insisting stubbornly. From now on our policy will be to renegotiate the EU treaties to give us more control over our budget and banking regulations.”

The 48-year-old Le Pen had made withdrawing France from the Eurozone and holding an EU referendum as her central policies during the campaigning. 

Now, despite her defeat, Le Pen has vowed to maintain her opposition to the single currency.

She said in a statement, “It may hurt me but what other solution is there? Am I supposed to lie and pretend that it is possible to pursue our patriotic policies while we are still in the euro? I am very well aware that the subject of the euro has seriously unsettled the French, almost to the point of irrationality. We will have to take this into account, discuss it, and reflect on it.”

Le Pen added, “We can do nothing under the current structure in Europe, and the euro is the keystone. Not a single one of our measures will ever see the light of day. The euro is not a currency. It is a political weapon to force countries to implement the policies decided by the EU and keep them on a leash.”

Meanwhile, the new French president, Macron is preparing to try and win a parliamentary majority for his fledgling political movement En Marche! (On the Move!) in the legislative elections scheduled next month.

After a divisive general election, Macron is faced with the crucial challenge of unifying the French people.

In the first round of the election last month, over 48 percent of voters opted for parties that wanted either a full withdrawal from the EU, or a radical change in Eurozone policy.

According to Professor Brigitte Granville, a French economist at Queen Mary University of London, “What this campaign did was to start a debate on the euro for the very first time. The French media have refused to discuss it before because the euro and EU are an absolute religion for the French elites. Macron wants more Europe and a common fiscal policy but he has to be careful. This is not what the French people want. They don’t like being little midgets under the complete domination of Germany.”