The resistible rise of Marine Le Pen

ALMOST 13 years have passed since the then leader of the Front National (FN), Jean-Marie Le Pen, shocked the world by reaching the run-off in the presidential election of 2002. The far-right party, now led by his daughter, Marine, came first in last year’s European elections. It is expected to be top again in the first round of local elections on March 22nd, with perhaps 30% of the vote. Back in 2002 Le Pen was so widely loathed that the left and the right rallied around Jacques Chirac, who won the run-off easily. Today, by contrast, there is no such united front. Instead, mainstream politicians openly speculate about Ms Le Pen reaching the second round in the 2017 presidential election—and, just conceivably, winning it.Ms Le Pen is a more appealing political leader than her father. To detoxify the FN’s brand she has shed much of the neo-fascism, racism and anti-Semitism it once embodied. She is working hard to strengthen the party’s foundations, so that it is acquiring not only more voters but also more members and greater political experience. The party has 1,500 councillors and two deputies in the National Assembly. The transformation of the FN’s image is striking: even among young people, to be a supporter is no longer taboo. Indeed, voting FN has become semi-respectable (see ).