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| Fighting in Syria shows no sign of diminishing despite the extensive international diplomacy |
French President Francois Hollande has described the US-Russia deal on Syria's chemical weapons as an "important step" towards the much bigger goal of a political solution to the civil war.
But in a TV address Mr Hollande said: "The military option must remain; otherwise there will be no pressure."
Mr Hollande said a vote on a new UN Security Council resolution on Syria could be agreed by the end of the week.
On Monday he will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss the issue.
The president said sanctions will be enforced to coerce Syria into dismantling or handing over its chemical weapons if Damascus fails to comply.
"It is necessary to include the threat of sanctions if the agreement and the aims of the Security Council resolution aren't carried out,'' he said.
"But the next step has to be finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis."
'Too hawkish'
On Monday Mr Hollande and his Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius will meet Mr Kerry and British Foreign Secretary William Hague to discuss the wording of the new draft resolution.
Mr Hollande insisted that that there was no place for President Assad in a future Syria
The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says that France takes a hawkish position on Syria - and a majority of French people think it is too hawkish.
But the government has made a commitment to the Syrian coalition and it is worried that the US-Russia agreement will strengthen the position of President President Bashar al-Assad.
Mr Hollande said that there is no place for President Assad in a future Syria - "not him and not the jihadists".
Our correspondent says that the president's refusal to rule out airstrikes - which are still seemingly still on the table - was tough talk.
But it is not yet clear whether his views will be reflected in the UN resolution once it is finally approved.
President Obama on Sunday also welcomed the agreement as a "foundation" that could eventually lead to a political settlement of the Syrian civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people over the last two years.
He said that the US was in a "better position" to prevent President Assad from using poison gas again because of the deal hammered out by Mr Kerry and Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.
After being first drafted in Paris, the UN resolution will be taken to Moscow where it will be validated by President Vladimir Putin.
Continue reading the main story
Agreed target dates
- Completion of initial on-site inspections by November
- Destruction of production and mixing equipmentby November
- Complete elimination of all chemical weapons material and equipment in the first half of 2014
Russia and China have consistently blocked resolutions at the UN Security Council designed to introduce sanctions against President Assad.
On Sunday a Syrian government minister said that the deal was a "victory" that averts war.
The framework document says Syria must provide full details of its chemical weapons stockpile within a week - with the arsenal to be eliminated by mid-2014.
If Syria fails to comply, the deal could be enforced by a UN resolution with the use of force as a last resort.
The US had threatened to attack Syria which it blames for a chemical attack in August which killed hundreds.
President Assad's government denies the allegations and has accused the rebels of carrying out the attack.
The UN's chief chemical weapons inspector has handed in his team's report into the incident to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said that the secretary-general will brief a closed session of the Security Council on its contents on Monday morning and will also brief the 193-member General Assembly later on in the day.
Syria recently agreed to join the global Chemical Weapons Convention, and the UN said it would come under the treaty from 14 October.
The framework deal was announced on Saturday after three days of talks in Geneva between Mr Lavrov and Mr Kerry.
"We welcome the agreement," Syrian Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar told Russian news agency Ria Novosti, giving his country's first reaction.
"It's a victory for Syria achieved thanks to our Russian friends."
'Last-ditch' option
However the timetable for the process is described by analysts as extremely ambitious.
It envisages Syria providing a full inventory of its chemical weapons within one week, all production equipment being destroyed by November, and all weapons being removed from Syria or destroyed by mid-2014.
A report into last month's chemical weapons deaths in Syria is now in the hands of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Mr Kerry and Mr Lavrov said that the UN resolution could be sought under Chapter VII of the UN charter, which allows for the use of force.
But throughout the Russian foreign minister has insisted that force should remain a last-ditch option.
Russia and the US have agreed on an assessment that the Syrian government possesses 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and precursors, according to a US official.
The US believes the materials are located in 45 sites, all in government hands, half of which have useable quantities of chemical agents.
But it is thought that Russia does not agree on the number of sites, nor that they are all under the government's control.
On Sunday the Syrian National Coalition, the main umbrella opposition group, demanded in a statement that the ban on chemical weapons be extended to the Syrian government's use of ballistic missiles and air power against civilian population centres.
Fighting continued inside Syria on Sunday, with heavy shelling reported by government forces on suburbs of Damascus, where fierce fighting has been taking place for several days.
More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against President Assad began in 2011.
Millions of Syrians have fled the country, mostly to neighbouring nations and millions more have been internally displaced within Syria.
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| The Portuguese government has put in place tough austerity measures post-2011 |
Representatives from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank have begun their latest audit of Portugal's economic health.
A raft of reforms was promised by Portugal's leaders in return for its May 2011 bailout.
The visit from the so-called troika will determine whether the country receives its next instalment of bailout funds.
It is expected to meet the criteria.
The visit was originally expected to take place in July of this year, but was postponed following a political crisis.
Fears as costs soar
There are fears that Portugal's economy remains volatile, and borrowing costs have climbed again in recent months.
The yield on a benchmark 10-year Portuguese government bond soared above the 7% barrier earlier this summer. That is the level at which other European countries have sought a bailout.
However, while unemployment in Portugal is amongst the highest in the eurozone, especially amongst the young, the country reported growth of 1.1% for the second quarter of 2013, after a boost to its export market.
Portugal received 78bn euros ($102bn; £67bn) in May 2011, in return it began a tough austerity programme.
The Portuguese government says it is on track to emerge from the bailout programme in June 2014.
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| Afghan policewomen such as these officers in Herat are frequently targeted by militants |
The attack on Lieutenant Negar - known only by her surname - comes after her female predecessor was killed.
A spokesman for the governor of Helmand said that Lt Negar was shot on Sunday near the police headquarters in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gar.
Lt Negar was rushed to hospital and is expected to survive.
Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission says violence against women has increased sharply over the last two years, and donor nations have expressed fears that advances in women's rights could be at risk when Nato-led troops withdraw next year.
Paralysed
Lt Negar was shot by a gunman on a motorbike, officials say.
Helmand Provincial governor's spokesman Omar Zawak told the AP news agency that the 38-year-old suffered a bullet wound to the neck.
He said that a medical team is trying to prevent her from being paralysed as a result of the injury.
Lt Negar served as a sub-inspector in the police criminal investigation department in Helmand.
She took over from Islam Bibi, a well-known police officer who was shot dead in July by unknown gunmen as she headed to work on her motorbike.
The commander of 32 female police officers, Lt Bibi, 37, was known as a role model for other women in the conservative province.
Several prominent Afghan women have been attacked or kidnapped in recent months.
Earlier this month the Taliban released a female member of parliament who they had held hostage for a month.
In August, insurgents ambushed the convoy of a female Afghan senator, seriously wounding her and killing her nine-year-old daughter.
In 2008 gunmen in Kandahar killed Lt-Col Malalai Kakar, the country's most prominent policewoman and head of Kandahar's department of crimes against women.
Philippine soldiers are closing in on a few dozen armed rebels whose group stormed the southern city of Zamboanga on Monday, forcing thousands to flee.
The army said about 50 rebels had been killed and 40 more captured during a week-long siege that has brought the city of one million to a standstill.
The gunmen were reported to have taken about 100 civilians hostage, but most have now been freed, officials say.
The rebels are thought to belong to one of a number of separatist groups.
Their presumed leader, 71-year-old guerrilla-turned-politician Nur Misuari, has said little since the siege began.
A government attempt to broker a ceasefire apparently faltered because Nur Misuari wanted safe passage out of Zamboanga for the gunmen.
Continue reading the main story
Philippines conflicts
- Insurgency in the south involving MNLF, MILFand numerous splinter groups fighting for independence largely on racial grounds
- Small hard-line Islamist group Abu Sayyaf known to carry out extremely violent attacks, mostly in south
- Communist rebellion by New People's Army, one of the world's longest-running insurgencies
Analysts say he is angry because his faction of the once-powerful Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has been sidelined in government peace talks.
Last month he declared a whole area of the southern Philippines to be an independent state, but said he would pursue separation by peaceful means.
The gunmen arrived in Zamboanga on Monday by boat, and apparently tried to march on the city hall to hoist their flag.
When they failed, they took hostages.
The military said they launched a full assault on Friday when the gunmen set fire to buildings and left aid workers and civilians injured.
"We are gaining ground. We've taken back some of the areas from them. We are still moving forward," said Lt Col Ramon Zagala on Sunday.
He said some rebels had been caught trying to flee in civilian clothes, while others had surrendered.
He did not know how long it would take before the army restored full control.
More than 60,000 people have fled the violence, and at least four civilians were said to be among the dead.
The MNLF signed a peace deal with the government in 1996 and Nur Misuari served as the leader of an autonomous region until 2002, when he was removed amid criticism of his leadership.
Since then, his group has largely remained on the sidelines of the peace process, occasionally attacking soldiers around the Sulu islands, south-west of Zamboanga.
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| Watch: Lucy Williamson reports from the border between the two Koreas |
South Korean workers have returned to the Kaesong industrial park in North Korea, five months after work was halted amid high political tension.
Trucks and cars began crossing the border into North Korea at exactly 08:00 (23:00 GMT Sunday).
More than 800 South Koreans were due to cross to the jointly-run centre for what is being called a trial restart.
The zone, just inside North Korea, is home to 123 South Korean factories that employ more than 50,000 North Koreans.
It is the last functioning inter-Korean joint project and a key source of revenue for Pyongyang.
But the North withdrew all of its workers in April, as ties between the two Koreas deteriorated in the wake of Pyongyang's 12 February nuclear test.
Reopening the complex has taken months of negotiation.
Joint management
South Korea's Unification Ministry said a total of 820 managers and workers planned to cross into the complex on Monday, with 400 to stay there overnight.
Continue reading the main story
Kaesong Industrial Zone
- Launched in 2003, largely financed by the South to increase co-operation
- More than 120 factories employ 50,000 North Koreans in manufacturing industries, with goods exported to the South
- Complex as a whole produced $470m worth of goods in 2012 - the biggest contributor to inter-Korean trade
- South Korean companies pay more than $80m a year in wages to North Korean workers
They will be inspecting production facilities to assess how quickly a full restart can be implemented after five months of inactivity.
The restart is being described as a trial but more than half of the South Korean companies had asked North Korean employees to report for work, the ministry said.
Negotiations on resuming operations at the complex faltered for weeks on South Korea's insistence that safeguards must be in place to prevent any future unilateral shut-down of the site by North Korea.
But the two sides have now set up a joint management committee to run operations at Kaesong, which last week set a restart date for the complex.
The committee has also reached agreement on smoother access to the site for South Koreans by expanding permitted border crossing times and is negotiating about improving communications there.
The Koreas have also agreed to open the site to foreign investors - a move seen as making it harder for North Korea to unilaterally close the complex again.
South Korean firms will be exempt from taxes for the rest of the year, to offset losses incurred while the complex was closed.
Continue reading the main story
Timeline: Korean tensions
- 12 Dec: North launches a rocket, claiming to have put a satellite into orbit
- 12 Feb: North conducts underground nuclear test
- 11 Mar: US-South Korea annual military drills begin
- 30 Mar: North says it is entering a "state of war" with South
- 2 Apr: North says it is restarting Yongbyon reactor
- 3 Apr: North blocks South workers from Kaesong industrial zone, then on 9 Apr pulls its workers out
- 7 Jul: Two Koreas reach initial agreement to reopen Kaesong complex
- 16 Jul: Kaesong restart begins
But some local businessmen remain worried about the risks of doing business with Pyongyang.
"Honestly, I still feel a bit nervous, because you never know whether the North will change its mind in the future," a textile company manager told the French news agency AFP. "Who knows if a crisis like this won't happen again?" he said.
The shutdown was the first for the Kaesong complex since it was opened more than a decade ago.
It came during a period of very high tension on the Korean peninsula.
The 12 February nuclear test led to expanded UN sanctions which, along with an annual US-South Korean joint military drill, angered Pyongyang.
It threatened attacks on multiple targets in the region, prompting warnings - and displays of high-tech military hardware - from the US.
Tensions have eased somewhat in recent weeks, however.
The two Koreas have also recently agreed to hold the first reunion of families separated by the division of the peninsula after the 1950-53 Korean War later this month. It will be the first such reunion in 10 years.
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| The salvage project has so far cost more than 600m euros |
One of the one of the largest and most daunting salvage operations ever attempted is set to begin with an attempt to pull the shipwrecked Costa Concordia vessel upright.
The Italian Civil Protection agency said the sea and weather conditions were right for the attempt.
Engineers have never tried to move such a huge ship so close to land.
Thirty-two people died when the cruise ship hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio in January 2012.
It has been lying on its side ever since.
Salvage workers are attaching giant metal chains and cables to the ship, which weighs more than 114,000 tonnes and is roughly the length of three football fields.
Five people have already been convicted of manslaughter over the disaster, and the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, is currently on trial accused of manslaughter and abandoning ship.
Huge challenge
The salvage operation is due to begin at 06:00 (04:00 GMT) on Monday.
The BBC's Alan Johnston at the scene of the operation says that everything about the project is on a colossal scale.
More than 50 enormous chains and winches will be used to roll the ship - twice as heavy as the Titanic - up onto her keel.
By the end of Monday it should be sitting on a specially prepared underwater platform of steel and concrete.
Our correspondent says that only after the ship is back up on her keel will it be possible to inspect it fully and begin to plan the next stage - the effort to repair and re-float it - and eventually tow it away to be destroyed.
The head of the operation, Nick Sloane, told AFP news agency that it was now or never for the Costa Concordia, because the hull was gradually weakening and might not survive another winter.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Sergio OrtelliGiglio mayorIslanders can't wait to see the back of it”
Engineers will try to roll the ship up using cables and the weight of water contained in huge metal boxes welded to the ship's sides - a process called parbuckling.
This procedure must be done very slowly to prevent further damage to the hull, which has spent more than 18 months partially submerged in 15 metres (50ft) of water and fully exposed to the elements.
If the operation goes wrong, environmentalists warn that toxic substances could leak out into the sea. But booms and nets are in place to try to catch anything that emerges from the wreck.
For the people of Giglio, the salvage operation will be an important moment - and a special prayer was said during Sunday Mass.
Giglio mayor Sergio Ortelli said that the removal of the ship would bring an end to "a huge problem that we have in our port and that we want to solve as soon as we can".
"Islanders can't wait to see the back of it," he said.
The small island's economy depends hugely on tourism and the presence of the wreck has discouraged visitors.
How the Costa Concordia capsized
The salvage project has so far cost more than 600m euros ($800m; £500m) and could cost a lot more by the time the operation is complete.
NEW DELHI: India on Sunday successfully test-fired for the second time a nuclear-capable missile that can strike the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai, officials said.
Ravi Gupta, a spokesman for the Defence Research and Development Organisation, said the latest test of the Agni-V brought the missile a step closer to being inducted into India’s arsenal at some point in 2014 or 2015.
The missile was launched early Sunday morning from Wheeler Island off India’s east coast.
The missile has a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) and was first successfully tested in April last year. It’s seen as a boost to India’s efforts to counter China’s regional dominance and become an Asian power in its own right.
China is far ahead of India in the missile race, with intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching anywhere in India.
India’s longest-range missile is currently the Agni-III, which has a range of 3,500 kilometers (2,100 miles), leaving it short of many major Chinese cities.
The Agni-V is a solid-fuel, three-stage missile designed to carry a 1.5-ton nuclear warhead. It stands 17.5 meters (57 feet) tall, has a launch weight of 50 tons and was built at a reported cost of 25 billion rupees ($486 million).
It can be moved across the country by road or rail and can be used to carry multiple warheads or to launch satellites into orbit.
India already has the capability of hitting anywhere inside archrival Pakistan, but in recent years its increased defense spending has been focused on countering a perceived Chinese threat. India and China fought a war in 1962 and continue to nurse a border dispute.
India has also been suspicious of Beijing’s efforts to increase its influence in the Indian Ocean in recent years.
Gupta said the new Agni, named for the Hindi word for fire, should not be seen as a threat.
“We have a declared no-first-use policy. Our program is for deterrence and for peace,” he said. AP
A surface-to-surface Agni-V missile is launched from the Wheeler Island off the eastern Indian state of Odisha September 15, 2013. India successfully test-fired for a second time a nuclear-capable missile on Sunday that can reach Beijing and much of Europe, bringing a step closer production of a weapon designed to strengthen its nuclear deterrent. REUTERS/Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation
Read more: India retests missile able to reach Chinese cities - Latest - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/latest/india-retests-missile-able-to-reach-chinese-cities-1.356512#ixzz2eyl3Qten
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - France's far-right National Front, buoyed by improving poll numbers, is aiming for big gains in municipal elections next year and the top spot in the European parliament ballot, its leaders said at the party's annual convention.
The two 2014 elections, the first since the Socialists came to power in 2012, are set to dominate the political agenda in the euro zone's second-largest country for the next nine months.
In a strategic shift for a party long content with winning protest votes in national polls, the National Front says it wants to rule the country one day and start building a local base in the March municipal ballot - ambitions that are a growing headache for mainstream parties.
"Our strategy is to win as many municipalities as possible and get hundreds of city councillors elected to be there for the long run. It's a condition for winning at the national level and the presidency," party leader Marine Le Pen told reporters at the weekend convention in Marseille.
"We have every reason to work with enthusiasm because we'll be in power in the next ten years," said the 45-year-old, who replaced her paratrooper father as party chief in 2011.
The party has a long way to go before it could be included in a government, but opinion polls show it is gaining ground as both the Socialists and the main conservative opposition UMP agonize over how to counter the far right and appeal to voters.
More than a third of French voters say they are sympathetic to the ideas of the party, whose agenda focuses on immigration, Europe and security and on the failures of mainstream politicians, a survey showed earlier this week.
The UMP, already deeply divided since Nicolas Sarkozy lost the 2012 presidential election, is shaken by near-daily rows over whether to veer more towards the National Front's agenda. A growing number of UMP supporters want to pursue alliances with the party on a municipal level, long considered a taboo move.
For the Socialists, who devoted part of their own summer convention last month to a debate over the role of the National Front, the popularity of its anti-austerity, anti-EU stance is a headache at a time when President Francois Hollande must rein in budget deficits. Hollande's popularity is at record lows for this stage in his presidential term.
Some 16 percent of those surveyed in a CSA poll plan to vote for National Front candidates in the municipal polls, the survey showed on Friday, four points more than six months ago.
All in all, the National Front hopes to see 1,000 to 1,500 candidates elected to city councils, its secretary general Steeve Briois told Reuters.
Although the number is a small share of France's more than 36,000 municipalities and the party is unlikely to win a majority in many city councils, it would be a big increase from the 60 won in the last municipal elections in 2008.
A THUNDERBOLT?
The party has even more ambitious plans for the May European Parliament elections. Eurosceptic, nationalistic parties traditionally do well in the poll, a growing worry for mainstream parties throughout Europe as frustration over austerity mounts.
"We can be first in the European elections, I'm certain about that," Briois told Reuters with a wide smile.
"The issues discussed in this election are the ones we've always focused on," he said, citing the impact of European integration on immigration, security and jobs.
French academic Sylvain Crepon, an expert on the National Front, says that while the party is aiming for incremental increases in municipal seats in order to progressively build credibility on the ground, it has a shot at an outright victory in the EU vote.
"It can play on the protest vote, in a context of doubt about the EU and the euro," he said. "It could become, just for this election, symbolically, the first party of France, or the second. That would be a thunderbolt."
Once famous for Jean-Marie Le Pen's outbursts on immigration and anti-Semitic remarks, the party has worked to spruce up its image since his daughter took the helm.
But despite the media-friendly, open attitude and the youth of many supporters who chat in the alleys around the convention site in Marseille, the party's agenda remains essentially unchanged.
Briois and others said in Marseille they support ending subsidies to local NGOs which help the Roma people or serve halal meals, for instance. And Marine Le Pen's platform for the 2012 presidential election included the idea of giving "national priority" for French citizens, code for giving benefits only to families who have at least one French parent.
Jean-Marie Le Pen got hundreds cheering and clapping with a speech on Saturday when he denounced immigration and Islamism as "fatal scourges" for France.
The two 2014 elections, the first since the Socialists came to power in 2012, are set to dominate the political agenda in the euro zone's second-largest country for the next nine months.
In a strategic shift for a party long content with winning protest votes in national polls, the National Front says it wants to rule the country one day and start building a local base in the March municipal ballot - ambitions that are a growing headache for mainstream parties.
"Our strategy is to win as many municipalities as possible and get hundreds of city councillors elected to be there for the long run. It's a condition for winning at the national level and the presidency," party leader Marine Le Pen told reporters at the weekend convention in Marseille.
"We have every reason to work with enthusiasm because we'll be in power in the next ten years," said the 45-year-old, who replaced her paratrooper father as party chief in 2011.
The party has a long way to go before it could be included in a government, but opinion polls show it is gaining ground as both the Socialists and the main conservative opposition UMP agonize over how to counter the far right and appeal to voters.
More than a third of French voters say they are sympathetic to the ideas of the party, whose agenda focuses on immigration, Europe and security and on the failures of mainstream politicians, a survey showed earlier this week.
The UMP, already deeply divided since Nicolas Sarkozy lost the 2012 presidential election, is shaken by near-daily rows over whether to veer more towards the National Front's agenda. A growing number of UMP supporters want to pursue alliances with the party on a municipal level, long considered a taboo move.
For the Socialists, who devoted part of their own summer convention last month to a debate over the role of the National Front, the popularity of its anti-austerity, anti-EU stance is a headache at a time when President Francois Hollande must rein in budget deficits. Hollande's popularity is at record lows for this stage in his presidential term.
Some 16 percent of those surveyed in a CSA poll plan to vote for National Front candidates in the municipal polls, the survey showed on Friday, four points more than six months ago.
All in all, the National Front hopes to see 1,000 to 1,500 candidates elected to city councils, its secretary general Steeve Briois told Reuters.
Although the number is a small share of France's more than 36,000 municipalities and the party is unlikely to win a majority in many city councils, it would be a big increase from the 60 won in the last municipal elections in 2008.
A THUNDERBOLT?
The party has even more ambitious plans for the May European Parliament elections. Eurosceptic, nationalistic parties traditionally do well in the poll, a growing worry for mainstream parties throughout Europe as frustration over austerity mounts.
"We can be first in the European elections, I'm certain about that," Briois told Reuters with a wide smile.
"The issues discussed in this election are the ones we've always focused on," he said, citing the impact of European integration on immigration, security and jobs.
French academic Sylvain Crepon, an expert on the National Front, says that while the party is aiming for incremental increases in municipal seats in order to progressively build credibility on the ground, it has a shot at an outright victory in the EU vote.
"It can play on the protest vote, in a context of doubt about the EU and the euro," he said. "It could become, just for this election, symbolically, the first party of France, or the second. That would be a thunderbolt."
Once famous for Jean-Marie Le Pen's outbursts on immigration and anti-Semitic remarks, the party has worked to spruce up its image since his daughter took the helm.
But despite the media-friendly, open attitude and the youth of many supporters who chat in the alleys around the convention site in Marseille, the party's agenda remains essentially unchanged.
Briois and others said in Marseille they support ending subsidies to local NGOs which help the Roma people or serve halal meals, for instance. And Marine Le Pen's platform for the 2012 presidential election included the idea of giving "national priority" for French citizens, code for giving benefits only to families who have at least one French parent.
Jean-Marie Le Pen got hundreds cheering and clapping with a speech on Saturday when he denounced immigration and Islamism as "fatal scourges" for France.
MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - France's far-right National Front, buoyed by improving poll numbers, is aiming for big gains in municipal elections next year and the top spot in the European parliament ballot, its leaders said at the party's annual convention.
The two 2014 elections, the first since the Socialists came to power in 2012, are set to dominate the political agenda in the euro zone's second-largest country for the next nine months.
In a strategic shift for a party long content with winning protest votes in national polls, the National Front says it wants to rule the country one day and start building a local base in the March municipal ballot - ambitions that are a growing headache for mainstream parties.
"Our strategy is to win as many municipalities as possible and get hundreds of city councillors elected to be there for the long run. It's a condition for winning at the national level and the presidency," party leader Marine Le Pen told reporters at the weekend convention in Marseille.
"We have every reason to work with enthusiasm because we'll be in power in the next ten years," said the 45-year-old, who replaced her paratrooper father as party chief in 2011.
The party has a long way to go before it could be included in a government, but opinion polls show it is gaining ground as both the Socialists and the main conservative opposition UMP agonize over how to counter the far right and appeal to voters.
More than a third of French voters say they are sympathetic to the ideas of the party, whose agenda focuses on immigration, Europe and security and on the failures of mainstream politicians, a survey showed earlier this week.
The UMP, already deeply divided since Nicolas Sarkozy lost the 2012 presidential election, is shaken by near-daily rows over whether to veer more towards the National Front's agenda. A growing number of UMP supporters want to pursue alliances with the party on a municipal level, long considered a taboo move.
For the Socialists, who devoted part of their own summer convention last month to a debate over the role of the National Front, the popularity of its anti-austerity, anti-EU stance is a headache at a time when President Francois Hollande must rein in budget deficits. Hollande's popularity is at record lows for this stage in his presidential term.
Some 16 percent of those surveyed in a CSA poll plan to vote for National Front candidates in the municipal polls, the survey showed on Friday, four points more than six months ago.
All in all, the National Front hopes to see 1,000 to 1,500 candidates elected to city councils, its secretary general Steeve Briois told Reuters.
Although the number is a small share of France's more than 36,000 municipalities and the party is unlikely to win a majority in many city councils, it would be a big increase from the 60 won in the last municipal elections in 2008.
A THUNDERBOLT?
The party has even more ambitious plans for the May European Parliament elections. Eurosceptic, nationalistic parties traditionally do well in the poll, a growing worry for mainstream parties throughout Europe as frustration over austerity mounts.
"We can be first in the European elections, I'm certain about that," Briois told Reuters with a wide smile.
"The issues discussed in this election are the ones we've always focused on," he said, citing the impact of European integration on immigration, security and jobs.
French academic Sylvain Crepon, an expert on the National Front, says that while the party is aiming for incremental increases in municipal seats in order to progressively build credibility on the ground, it has a shot at an outright victory in the EU vote.
"It can play on the protest vote, in a context of doubt about the EU and the euro," he said. "It could become, just for this election, symbolically, the first party of France, or the second. That would be a thunderbolt."
Once famous for Jean-Marie Le Pen's outbursts on immigration and anti-Semitic remarks, the party has worked to spruce up its image since his daughter took the helm.
But despite the media-friendly, open attitude and the youth of many supporters who chat in the alleys around the convention site in Marseille, the party's agenda remains essentially unchanged.
Briois and others said in Marseille they support ending subsidies to local NGOs which help the Roma people or serve halal meals, for instance. And Marine Le Pen's platform for the 2012 presidential election included the idea of giving "national priority" for French citizens, code for giving benefits only to families who have at least one French parent.
Jean-Marie Le Pen got hundreds cheering and clapping with a speech on Saturday when he denounced immigration and Islamism as "fatal scourges" for France.
The two 2014 elections, the first since the Socialists came to power in 2012, are set to dominate the political agenda in the euro zone's second-largest country for the next nine months.
In a strategic shift for a party long content with winning protest votes in national polls, the National Front says it wants to rule the country one day and start building a local base in the March municipal ballot - ambitions that are a growing headache for mainstream parties.
"Our strategy is to win as many municipalities as possible and get hundreds of city councillors elected to be there for the long run. It's a condition for winning at the national level and the presidency," party leader Marine Le Pen told reporters at the weekend convention in Marseille.
"We have every reason to work with enthusiasm because we'll be in power in the next ten years," said the 45-year-old, who replaced her paratrooper father as party chief in 2011.
The party has a long way to go before it could be included in a government, but opinion polls show it is gaining ground as both the Socialists and the main conservative opposition UMP agonize over how to counter the far right and appeal to voters.
More than a third of French voters say they are sympathetic to the ideas of the party, whose agenda focuses on immigration, Europe and security and on the failures of mainstream politicians, a survey showed earlier this week.
The UMP, already deeply divided since Nicolas Sarkozy lost the 2012 presidential election, is shaken by near-daily rows over whether to veer more towards the National Front's agenda. A growing number of UMP supporters want to pursue alliances with the party on a municipal level, long considered a taboo move.
For the Socialists, who devoted part of their own summer convention last month to a debate over the role of the National Front, the popularity of its anti-austerity, anti-EU stance is a headache at a time when President Francois Hollande must rein in budget deficits. Hollande's popularity is at record lows for this stage in his presidential term.
Some 16 percent of those surveyed in a CSA poll plan to vote for National Front candidates in the municipal polls, the survey showed on Friday, four points more than six months ago.
All in all, the National Front hopes to see 1,000 to 1,500 candidates elected to city councils, its secretary general Steeve Briois told Reuters.
Although the number is a small share of France's more than 36,000 municipalities and the party is unlikely to win a majority in many city councils, it would be a big increase from the 60 won in the last municipal elections in 2008.
A THUNDERBOLT?
The party has even more ambitious plans for the May European Parliament elections. Eurosceptic, nationalistic parties traditionally do well in the poll, a growing worry for mainstream parties throughout Europe as frustration over austerity mounts.
"We can be first in the European elections, I'm certain about that," Briois told Reuters with a wide smile.
"The issues discussed in this election are the ones we've always focused on," he said, citing the impact of European integration on immigration, security and jobs.
French academic Sylvain Crepon, an expert on the National Front, says that while the party is aiming for incremental increases in municipal seats in order to progressively build credibility on the ground, it has a shot at an outright victory in the EU vote.
"It can play on the protest vote, in a context of doubt about the EU and the euro," he said. "It could become, just for this election, symbolically, the first party of France, or the second. That would be a thunderbolt."
Once famous for Jean-Marie Le Pen's outbursts on immigration and anti-Semitic remarks, the party has worked to spruce up its image since his daughter took the helm.
But despite the media-friendly, open attitude and the youth of many supporters who chat in the alleys around the convention site in Marseille, the party's agenda remains essentially unchanged.
Briois and others said in Marseille they support ending subsidies to local NGOs which help the Roma people or serve halal meals, for instance. And Marine Le Pen's platform for the 2012 presidential election included the idea of giving "national priority" for French citizens, code for giving benefits only to families who have at least one French parent.
Jean-Marie Le Pen got hundreds cheering and clapping with a speech on Saturday when he denounced immigration and Islamism as "fatal scourges" for France.
