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From Our Own Correspondent: France and Sri Lanka

France and Sri Lanka

21/03/2014

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, France and Sri Lanka

The National Front move into the mainstream; playing rugby in Sri Lanka

In the border town of Forbach, Emma Jane Kirby finds many who are planning to vote National Front for the first time; Alex Preston meets the Sri Lankan rugby team.

On Sunday, voters head to the polls for the first round of local elections in France. In the town of Forbach, near the German border, Emma Jane Kirby discovers that for many who are tired of the mainstream, a vote for the National Front is looking increasingly tempting. 

Rugby isn't a sport one would normally associate with Sri Lanka. Yet as Alex Preston found out, it's building a national team. Though as he discovered, if you want a call-up, it helps to have relatives in high places.

Presenter: Pascale Harter
Producer: Polly Hope

Photo: Florian Philippot (2nd R), French far-right Front National (FN) party vice-president and candidate for the March 2014 municipal election in Forbach, speaks, flanked by FN president Marine Le Pen (2nd L), FN departmental president Eric Vilain (L), and Patricia Bruckmann (R), candidate on Philippot's electoral list, during a press conference to present his electoral lis in Forbach, eastern France, on March 7, 2014. 
Photo credit: JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP/Getty Images

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