(CNN) The leader of France’s far-right Front National party, Marine Le Pen, has applauded US President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban and said a backlash to the measure was in “bad faith.”
Trump signed an executive order Friday barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for the next 90 days and suspending the admission of all refugees for 120 days.
The order also indefinitely suspends the Syrian refugee program.
Dubbed a “Muslim ban” by many, the order has been condemned by the countries affected and Western European leaders.
“I think that most of the reactions are in bad faith,” Le Pen, who is expected to be a frontrunner in France’s presidential elections in April and May, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
“It is a temporary measure. It targets six or seven countries, countries that of course are responsible for terrorist threats.
“So I think Donald Trump and his intelligence services wanted to set up criteria and conditions to avoid having potential terrorists enter the United States, where they might commit attacks, the same way that France was the victim of attacks,” she said, pointing out that many Muslim-majority countries have a permanent travel ban against Israeli citizens.
When asked whether she would impose a similar ban in France, she avoided answering directly, saying only that France had to be “very vigilant” and to secure its borders.
“France no longer has any borders because of the EU,” Le Pen said.
