THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: PARIS: It is a measure of the inroads Marine Le Pen has already made in the French political debate that she now splits opinion in the rarefied world of Parisian intellectuals.
On the one hand, Bernard-Henri Levy, the philosopher, still thinks she reeks of sulphur. According to him, the youngest daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, 82, the long-standing National Front leader, is ''even more dangerous than her father''.
Yet on the other, Elisabeth Levy, the editor of Causeur magazine, suggests Miss Le Pen might well ''be truly breaking away from the old French extreme-right, to create something new''.
Yesterday marked a potentially pivotal moment for French politics. At a party conference in Tours she was to be formally declared winner of a postal ballot to elect a new leader of the National Front, the party created by her father and reviled for decades even among some of the most conservative French.
He has bowed out and is giving way to his daughter, a twice-divorced single mother with an infectious laugh and a no-nonsense manner, mitigated by charm, who represents a younger, more open-minded and more politically dexterous generation - and a far greater challenge to the two traditional parties. >>> Anne-Elisabeth Moutet | Monday, January 17, 2011
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THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Jean-Marie Le Pen signs off with anti-semitic comment: French far right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen handed control of his party to his daughter Sunday with a parting shot that maintained his reputation for controversy, joking about a Jewish reporter's nose. >>> Telegraph’s Froeign Staff | Sunday, January 16, 2011
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Marine Le Pen becomes Front National leader: A pivotal moment for French politics? : The election of Marine Le Pen as leader of the far-Right Front National could mark a watershed moment for French politics, writes Anne-Elisabeth Moutet. >>> Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, Paris | Sunday, January 16, 2011
