In a piece for The Local, the editorial director of one of France's leading regional newspapers has defended his paper's unprecedented anti-National Front campaign which has infuriated Marine Le Pen, before Sunday's regional elections.
French regional newspapers, which outsell their national counterparts, rarely take a strong editorial line in the run-up to elections.
But that was until La Voix du Nord, which serves the Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region in the far north of France made its stance clear this week in the run up to next Sunday's first round of voting in the regional elections.
Why we had to act
“We are a newspaper of information, not one of opinion. We examine the left and right and we don’t support any political party.
“But we do have convictions and certain values which have been in place since our creation during the French Resistance. We are attached to the values of the Republic, to liberty and to pluralism.
“Our values are just not compatible with the ideology of the National Front and their constant distortions, exaggerations and obsessions.
“We haven't told readers who to vote for but tried to explain exactly who the National Front are. We are reminding them of the difference in values and at the same time doing our work as journalists to inform our readers of the programme of the National Front, as we do for all parties.
“It is our job to go beyond the appearances. The National Front play a game of duplicity and ambiguity, trying to show the voters that the party has been de-demonised, but behind that visage they are still radical.
“In their programme we found a phrase that mentioned the need “to wipe out bacterial immigration”. The party has since claimed it was an error, but it was there.
Val says It is up to us all to speak out, well done this editor, a very brave move.
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