Refusal

Paris—The leader of France’s resurgent, anti-immigrant far right, Marine Le Pen, is refusing to endorse either candidate in the country’s presidential runoff and said Tuesday she will cast a blank protest ballot. Le Pen, who came in a strong third place in the first round of voting April 22, told her supporters at a big rally in Paris to “vote according to your conscience.” She assailed conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has borrowed some of Le Pen’s rhetoric about immigrants and Muslims in his campaign, accusing him of impoverishing the French and giving up too much sovereignty to the European Union. Sarkozy has borrowed some of Le Pen’s rhetoric about immigrants and Muslims in his campaign, and is hoping to win over the more than 6 million voters who supported her in the second round Le Pen threw cold water on Sarkozy’s attempts to woo her voters. “I will cast a blank ballot,” she said. “Each one of you will make your choice,” she said, while insisting that she herself could not endorse Sarkozy or Socialist challenger Francois Hollande. Polls favor Hollande. Observers say Le Pen is distancing herself from Sarkozy in hopes of becoming the face of the French opposition under a Socialist leadership.—AP