The National Front’s antiliberal, anti-Semitic platform was for decades locked out of national politics by the mainstream parties’ cordon sanitaire. But under the new leadership of Marine Le Pen, the party has disavowed some of it’s more openly fascist positions in favor of a more specifically anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant platform, and is steadily gaining favor in the country: in local elections this March, the National Front won 15 percent of the vote, only one percent less than President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party.
Marine Le Pen at a news conference in December 2010 during which defended her remarks comparing overflowing Mosques in France to the Nazi occupation.
Credit: Reuters Pictures
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