France elections: Le Pen 'steps aside' as party leader.

[BIAD]

A very strange decision...

France elections: Le Pen 'steps aside' as party leader.

'Far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has announced
that she will step down as leader of her National Front (FN) party.



The move comes just a day after she reached the second round of the
French election, where she will face Centrist Emmanuel Macron.



"This evening I decided to take my leave of the presidency of the National
Front," she told TV channel France 2. "I will be above partisan considerations."

It is not clear if her decision will be permanent. She told France 2 that France
is approaching a "decisive moment".

Ms Le Pen took over the FN leadership from her father in January 2011 and
helped her party secure big gains in regional elections.

She won 7.6 million votes on Sunday - the strongest ever result for a FN
candidate, and 2.8 million more than her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, won in
2002.

Her party wants to slash immigration, clamp down on free trade, and overturn
France's relationship with Europe...'
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