Right-Wing Makeover: The Spindoctor Behind the New Front National

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/success-of-front-national-in-france-partly-thanks-to-florian-philippot-a-952945.html



France's right-wing populist party Front National stands to make significant advances in upcoming local elections and in the European vote in May. One reason for its current success is 32-year-old chief strategist Florian Philippot.

Right-Wing Makeover: The Spindoctor Behind the New Front National
By Mathieu von Rohr
February 14, 2014 – 04:17 PM

It is a cold, icy day in winter and Florian Philippot is strolling through the streets of Forbach, the town where he would like to be elected mayor. People hurry up to shake his hand, a store-owner hands him a cookie and the woman at a café next to the train station offers him a coffee. An old Tunisian man puts his arm around Philippot's shoulders.

Philippot is the candidate for Front National (FN), a party designated as "extreme right" in France, but he is received with open arms on his walk through Forbach. Nobody blocks his path, nobody insults him. Who, after all, should be afraid of this nice young man?

~snip~

Florian Philippot is a calm 32-year-old who is not particularly tall or handsome. His youth, however, lends him a trustworthy appearance. His polished shoes and well-tailored greatcoat makes him look like the elite-school graduate that he is. Philippot isn't just any candidate. He is the deputy head of the Front National, the party's chief strategist and the most important advisor to his boss, Marine Le Pen.

~snip~

Until just a few years ago, the Front National was considered to be little more than a collectino of unelectable, racist outsiders. Now, though, it is seeking to establish a reputation as a professional movement with friendly candidates and operatives. More than anyone else, Philippot is symbolic of the change. The party has never had a figure quite like him: He has been a high-ranking official in the Interior Ministry's inspector general's office and he is a graduate of the top schools HEC and ENA, where many of the country's elite are educated.

[Laelth]

1. Vomit. n/t

-Laelth