Her Own Voice

Now that Jean-Marie Le Pen is inching his way into semi-retirement, it is, at long last, time for Marine Le Pen to take the helm of the Front National. Until now, she has been an excellent speaker, debater and symbol. If she lost the mayoral election in Hénin-Beaumont a few months ago it was not her fault. A concerted anti-Le Pen campaign was successfully waged by Sarkozy's UMP party, affiliated suddenly and only for the occasion with every other party to form a coalition that intimidated the voters to such a point that they voted to keep the deplorable conditions in which their Socialist mayors had held them hostage for so long.

But now it's time to look ahead to the regional elections coming up in March. Novopress has this update:

Marine Le Pen (...) has chosen her campaign poster. A deliberate shift away from traditional posters, it is closer to that of a show-biz star than to a female politician, with its image reminiscent of the child from Forbach who became the most popular icon of French song: Patricia Kaas. Even reminiscent of Johnny Halliday!

With her slogan "The Voice of the People" - understood "the little white guy", as they used to say in Africa - the vice president of the Front National hopes to occupy the populist niche in a region that has been profoundly affected by the ravages of globalism, where the unemployment rate has reached such levels that nothing appears able to stem the growing uncertainty.

Notice that the tricolor flame, logo of the Front National, appears on the poster, but not the name of the party. "Marine Le Pen" is henceforth a unique trademark.

We will wait and see. But on the whole, I think this is a very good change in the right direction. At least she is appealing to a white conservative base that senses the danger it is in. Let's hope she has learned a few bitter lessons from her father's cynical tendencies and from the fiasco of the 2007 presidential election, for which she was primarily held responsible.

In the long term, the FN will have to try to win over the Identitarians who tend to be regionalists (the FN favors centralization, as far as I know). They will also have to try to win back those who jumped ship after 2007, as well as the smaller splinter groups that have formed in opposition to Marine, for whatever reason. Many Catholics may have to compromise some of their values when they vote for her, but they compromised infinitely more when they voted for Nicolas Sarkozy.

She will be greatly assisted in her task by the immigrants themselves - provided they continue to commit acts of violence. It is the violence in everyday life that finally spurs sleeping minds to awaken. So long as the violence and degradation of the once very pleasant French life-style we all envied continue unabated, Marine Le Pen can count on lots of new members.