00:03Hello and welcome to The Cube, Euronews' fact-checking show.
00:07We've had Brexit, but what about Frexit?
00:10A number of social media posts are claiming that Marine Le Pen,
00:14the far-right candidate in France's 2027 presidential election,
00:18is promising a referendum on the country's EU membership
00:21if she wins the keys to the Elysee Palace next year.
00:24The posts, primarily in Spanish, provide no further detail,
00:28and that's our first clue that the claims are false.
00:31Le Pen is not calling for a Frexit referendum if she becomes president.
00:35It is true that the national rally politician is a harsh critic of the EU,
00:40and she did indeed want to champion the idea of a vote to leave the bloc.
00:44She celebrated the Brexit result in 2016,
00:47and made leaving the EU and giving up the euro
00:50two of her flagship proposals in her 2012 and 2017 presidential campaigns.
00:55But she's since abandoned the idea, shifting instead to wanting to radically reform the EU from within,
01:02stripping Brussels of most of its power and transforming it into a loose alliance of nations.
01:07Even if Le Pen did become president and held a Frexit referendum,
01:11should be unlikely to win.
01:13A study by Pew Research earlier this year showed that support for the EU in France
01:18has risen from 38% in 2016 to 52% in 2026.
01:24A YouGov poll from late 2025, meanwhile,
01:27found that 49% of French people would vote to remain in the EU,
01:31against 27% who would vote to leave.
01:34Le Pen, who's currently leading in the polls,
01:36has indeed suggested putting other issues to a public vote
01:39if she wins the presidency next year.
01:41These include a referendum on combating so-called Islamist ideologies,
01:46such as banning wearing the veil in public,
01:48and a vote on amending France's constitution to curb immigration.
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