THE AUSTRALIAN: IN a modest office in the drab Paris suburb of Nanterre, a tall, confident blonde sketches out her hopes of beating Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential election early next year.
Marine Le Pen, 42, daughter of Jean-Marie, France's far-right bogeyman, is predicting coming second in the first round and knocking out the President in a replay of 2002 when her father stunned Europe by eliminating Lionel Jospin, the Socialist and favourite. "I think the surprise can be repeated and I am not the only one to think it," Ms Le Pen told The Times.
A few years ago, that would have sounded preposterous but the prospect is now serious, not least in the eyes of Mr Sarkozy's own camp as the unpopular President struggles to regain favour. Jean-Francois Cope, the new leader of Mr Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), sees Le Pen fille as "a major danger for our political family and the political life of France".
A less frightening but still formidable version of Jean-Marie, 88, Ms Le Pen is to be anointed by a congress this weekend as leader of the party that her father founded in 1972. She will then launch a presidential campaign on a tide of popularity never seen by her rabble-rousing father.
With her softer, modern discourse, Ms Le Pen is enjoying a political windfall because the hobbyhorses of the National Front (FN) - Muslims, immigrant-related crime and globalisation - have gone mainstream. "Time has proved us right in a quite spectacular fashion," said Ms Le Pen. "Our old themes, opposition to the euro, the EU, immigration, have taken on a different light. People are saying that this party that was stigmatised was right." With a touch of the apocalypse beloved of her father she added: "This touches the future of European civilisation." >>> Charles Bremner, The Times | Friday, January 14, 2011
THE AUSTRALIAN: French ethnic taboos on trial: RACIAL tensions in France have been laid bare at the trial of one of the country's high-profile journalists accused of inciting hatred. >>> Charles Bremner, The Times | Friday, January 14, 2011
