Marine Le Pen is using fashion as a political weapon

In September, Marine Le Pen travelled to Brachay, a microscopic right-wing commune in northeastern France. Despite its diminutive size, this French locality has the greatest percentage of Front National voters – 72 per cent – so its politicians consider it emblematic. With her raucous gusto, produced thanks to decades of smoking, Le Pen regaled the local, mainly middle-aged assembly with a Trump-like speech, claiming she was there to listen to ‘les oubliés de la France’, the forgotten voices of this country, all 59 of them.

There she was, in an outfit the French media appropriately described as ‘Madame Tout Le Monde’. In other words, Madame Everybody (if not quite Anybody) — a qualifier that would suit most of her sartorial choices these last few years. The outfit included a black v-neck zip-up blouse revealing her solid arms, matched with loose trousers. It looked like something a busy mother might wear, but it was hardly the outfit of an aspiring president.