Emmanuel Macron’s troubles open up space for Marine Le Pen

MARION ANNE PERRINE LE PEN never really meant to go into politics. It was her eldest sister, Marie-Caroline, who was thought destined to follow in the footsteps of their father, Jean-Marie, co-founder in 1972 of France’s far-right National Front. Marine, as she became known in childhood, was the baby of the family, the third blonde daughter, who set out to make a career as a lawyer. Yet for the past ten years, for reasons of chance and guile, it is Marine Le Pen who has run the party she renamed National Rally. And in 12 months’ time it is her name that will appear on the ballot paper at the next French presidential election, for the third consecutive contest. Is it time to think the unthinkable?To dwell on the possibility, however slim, that Ms Le Pen might seize the presidency unsettles the liberal-minded. The very discussion of it offers her oxygen and confers legitimacy on a candidate who once compared Muslims praying in the street in France to the Nazi occupation. Yet the odds of a Ms Le Pen victory are no longer close to zero. With covid-19 infections soaring again and a vaccination campaign only now taking off, Emmanuel Macron’s rating is slipping. After a president on the right (Nicolas Sarkozy), the left (François Hollande) and the centre (Mr Macron), a disenchanted electorate may be tempted to try something different. The main reason voters tend to back her party is that they are fed up with all the others.