Le Pen's political legacy

Jean-Marie Le Pen is still the leader of France’s Front National. He received international attention when, in April of 2002, he beat the former Socialist primer minister Lionel Jospin, going on to lose to Chiraq in the run-off. But now a younger face is representing FN in an upcoming regional election: Marine Le Pen, Jean-Marie’s daughter. At 35, her pedigree is perfect for an FN candidate: she graduated from Paris’s most prestigious law school in 1994, practiced as a barrister for six years and then became FN’s legal adviser as well as the leader of FN’s youth movement.

She is a candidate to be one of 209 councilors for the Ile-de-France, the country’s most important regional economy, comprising Paris and its seven neighboring departments. If elected, she will be part of the Regional Assembly, France’s second tier of national government.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, her agenda is the same as her father’s: renegotiate France’s EU membership, curtail immigration and asylum, give housing and benefits priority to frnch nationals ahead of immigrants and foreigners, reform the gigantic welfare state, increase police powers and introduce harsher sentences, and abolish income tax for all but the very wealthiest.

The election results will be determined by the end of March.