The striking blonde is not only enjoying her role as the wildcard that could upset next year's presidential election, but is profiting from a confluence of events that has made her look less the "devil's daughter" - as she has been called – and more a political diviner.
A decade ago, when the far-right FN warned abandoning the franc for the euro was madness and vowed to pull France out of the common currency, the idea was dismissed as nationalistic folly. Today, the economic crisis engulfing the eurozone, has made the once preposterous idea if not a possibility, then at least a possible solution to the continent's financial woes.
The remarkable turnaround is not lost on Miss Le Pen, who suffers neither false modesty nor self-doubt.
"Much of France now realises we were right to sound the alarm, because what we warned for a long time would happen, is now happening," she says.
"There is a normalisation of our movement that is incarnated by my personality. The effect has contributed to making our analyses more credible.
"Left voters have been betrayed by a political discourse that has no sense. Right voters have been betrayed by a party that has not kept its promises. This has allowed me to position myself as one of the three main candidates." » | Kim Willsher, Paris | Sunday, September 25, 2011
