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‘A fascist supporting open sewer’: People are furious at the Daily Mail’s Marine Le Pen front page

Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, celebrates after early results in the first round of 2017 French presidential election, in Henin-Beaumont, France, April 23, 2017.
Marine Le Pen, French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, celebrates after early results in the first round of 2017 French presidential election, in Henin-Beaumont, France, April 23, 2017.

REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

Centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen will face off in the second round of the French election on May 7 — and people are in no doubt which side the Daily Mail is taking.

The British tabloid newspaper reacted to the results by plastering the words "The new French revolution" in all caps on Monday's front page.

It was accompanied by bullet points saying there had been a surge in the polls for the far right, that traditional parties had been "wiped out," and that French voters would now have a say in "Frexit" given Le Pen despises the EU.

The front-page has provoked some strong reaction on social media with many condemning the newspaper's apparent sympathies with a far-right party.

Guardian columnist Owen Jones compared the paper to an "open sewer."

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/856272381677105152
A paper which once backed the Nazis is now cheering on French fascists. This paper is a fascist supporting open sewer. https://t.co/TpwHZMHdjN

Others questioned the emphasis on Le Pen, even though Macron triumphed in Sunday's vote and is now favourite to become France's next president.

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/856420489237061632
Daily Mail getting excited over fascists again https://t.co/A31dPdW9xZ Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/856281031917408257
* ignores pro-European came first
* ignores pro-European 20 point lead
* invents a Le Pen surge pic.twitter.com/lWMhCs4CSN Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/856422634380304384
Like Dr Strangelove no longer able to hold down his saluting arm, the Daily Mail can no longer hold in its true feelings. https://t.co/87Im5bgLDE

Some Twitter users compared the Daily Mail's front page to an infamous editorial entitled "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" written by the paper's publisher in 1934, which praised the German Nazi party.

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/856262569295740929
Am I reading too much into this or is the Mail going full "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" and siding with Le Pen? pic.twitter.com/ta46amgkdu Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/856423318160855040
Now, as in the 1930s, the Daily Mail is cheering on fascism.#GE17 #GE2017 #Brexit #Remain pic.twitter.com/4ZogyiLE5n

Le Pen and her party are often likened to fascists due to their extreme anti-immigration, anti-Islam stances and the party's long history of anti-semitism.

A fringe party for decades, the Front National has emerged in the last few years as a leading force in French politics. For the first time since the 2002 elections — when Le Pen's father got to the second round of the presidential elections before being crushed by conservative Jacques Chirac — the party is now in the second round once again.

Le Pen, the head of the anti-globalisation, anti-EU Front National and Macron the centrist pro-EU head of the En Marche! party he founded a year ago will now go head-to-head in the next two weeks before the second voting round, which will take place on Sunday, May 7.

So far, all polls are pointing to a landslide victory for Macron over Le Pen.

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SEE ALSO: France's politicians are uniting against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen