Le Pen praises Cameron multiculturalism speech

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front party, Thursday praised British Prime Minister David Cameron for his recent declaration that multiculturalism had failed.

Le Pen, daughter of French nationalist politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, claimed Cameron's speech in Munich last week proved that he endorsed her party's ideas and that attitudes were changing in Britain and Europe.

"It is exactly this type of statement that has barred us from public life for 30 years," the recently elected Le Pen told the Financial Times newspaper.

"I sense an evolution at European level, even in classic governments. I can only congratulate him," she added.

A spokesman for Cameron's Conservative party told the newspaper: "She has clearly failed to understand the prime minister's speech."

Cameron's speech, in which he called for a "muscular liberalism" and for public money to be diverted away from groups who did not share British values, caused an outcry in his own country.

The speech echoed one made by Germany leader Angela Merkel in October last year in which she claimed multiculturalism had "utterly failed" in her country.

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