Marine Le Pen has never been so close to winning France’s highest office

a photo with her!” shrieks a breathless teenaged girl, after securing a selfie with a beaming Marine Le Pen. The nationalist-populist leader, who on April 24th meets Emmanuel Macron in the run-off for the , was on a walkabout in a crowded Provençal village over the Easter weekend. To watch the celebrity welcome offered to Ms Le Pen, as she stoops to hug children or poses for photos with passers-by, is to understand how far she has softened and broadened her appeal. But what are the chances that she could actually go on to win the presidency?Ahead of the on April 10th, Ms Le Pen led a smart, grass-roots campaign. She criss-crossed the country, heading into the rural areas and small battered towns where her vote is strongest, and studiously avoiding Paris. Styling herself the voice of “the people” against the capital’s elite, and promising to stem the rise in the cost of living, the leader of a party once considered beyond the pale campaigned as a soothing, unifying figure. Ms Le Pen came second in that vote, with 23%, five points behind Mr Macron.