National Front's Philippot Says Le Pen Is `Uncontested' Leader

(Bloomberg) -- National Front vice president Florian Philippot said Marine Le Pen remains the “uncontested” leader of the party even after her heavy defeat in Sunday's French presidential election.

“She drove us to the best result we've ever had, it's not a failure for her,” Philippot said on Europe1 radio. “I'm sure we made errors, everyone makes errors and we will reflect on how we can do better.”

Philippot said the alliance Le Pen struck with a smaller nationalist party led by Nicolas Dupont-Aignan for the presidential election will continue for June's parliamentary elections. “I think we can do a very good result at the legislatives,” he said.

Le Pen took 34 percent of the vote to 66 percent for Emmanuel Macron, according to the latest tally, an even bigger loss than predicted by the final polls.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Kevin Costelloe