French politics pits cats against dogs

CATS AND dogs have become the new weapons in France’s image-politics wars. Things began to heat up late last year when Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally (formerly the National Front), revealed that she had passed an exam to become an accredited cat-breeder. Her feline fervour was already well known. Ms Le Pen considers cats to be “part of the family” and once accused a Doberman belonging to her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, of killing one of her treasured mogs. But this latest twist looked suspiciously like part of a bid to soften the image of a leader who has sought to distance herself from her father’s inflammatory far-right politics.Just as Ms Le Pen has tried to tone down her strident style ahead of next year’s French presidential election, so have cuddly pictures of her six cats appeared with persistent regularity on her Instagram account. She has even set up a separate anonymous account, dedicated to her Bengal and Somali breeds. “I’m not interested in the money,” purred Ms Le Pen; “I just want cats to be better treated.” If I care for my cats, she seems to say, I would care for the country too.