(conservative) Marine Le Pen and France's Front National sense their time has come

[alp227]

At the foot of the bronze statue of an armour-clad Joan of Arc, outside the Front National headquarters on the outskirts of Paris, someone had laid two wreaths of perfect white lilies to mark the 600th anniversary of the martyr's birth.

The French far right has long claimed the peasant girl who became the scourge of the English as its symbol, rebuffing recent attempts by Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party to wrest her from them.

Today, six centuries on and exactly three months from France's presidential election, Joan's legend has never seemed so relevant to backers of the FN's charismatic leader, Marine Le Pen. Once again, France must free itself from unwelcome foreign intervention and national pride must be restored. Is this Le Pen's moment?

The conjunction of the eurozone crisis, the loss of France's triple-A credit rating, and rampant unemployment, currently at a 12-year high, has given unexpected credibility to Le Pen's anti-Europe, anti-immigration stance. The economic storm has created what political pundits and pollsters believe may be a now-or-never moment for the Front National after 40 years spent largely in the political backwaters.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/21/marine-le-pen-front-national

[MADem]

1. That charming accent and impeccable style can't conceal a brutal racism.

She can make the outfit seem fresh and cheerful and inclusive, but anyone who has seen this shit in their lifetime knows it for what it is--and what it is, is disgusting:

The French political elite was given a short, sharp lesson in not underestimating the FN in 2002. In a completely unexpected scenario, Jean-Marie Le Pen knocked the Socialist candidate out. He lost in the second-round run-off, but the incident provoked a bout of national shame and self-loathing that left deep scars.

Jean-Marie Le Pen's hectoring antisemitism and bullying rhetoric could not sustain the success. But in January 2010 Marine Le Pen was elected the FN's president and overhauled the party.

She dumped the shaven-haired bully boys nominally responsible for "security" at FN rallies for fresh-faced girls in jeans and crisp T-shirts, and abandoned the neo-Nazism and outdated references to the second world war. She even voiced support for homosexual marriage.

There were flashes of Le Pen senior in her railing against Muslims praying in the streets – which she likened to the Nazi occupation – "corrupt" politicians, European technocrats, and that old FN chestnut, immigration. And while it was generally agreed that she was softer and cleverer than her father, the fundamental ideology of the FN seemed to have changed little.

Like father, like daughter. Ugh!

[bemildred]

2. One longs to have Hitchens comment on her lusty, dominating womanhood.