Meeting Marine Le Pen

The Front National leader is keen to sound off on the EU, immigration and capitalism – but not on her party’s Vichy links

There’s no mistaking the Front National’s headquarters in the western Parisian suburb of Nanterre. Outside the entrance stands a martial statue of a Joan of Arc in full body armour. Inside there is a garish, gigantic plastic coq gaulois. Further inside sits the party’s leader, Marine Le Pen, a handsome 42-year-old blonde in heels, tailored jeans, frilly blouse and no make-up. Bob Tyrrell, editor-in-chief of the American Spectator, and I have been granted what is (for foreign media) a rare audience with the most forceful new character in French politics.

It is impossible to dismiss Le Pen or her party as a fringe force in French politics. Since being elected party leader eight months ago, she has been nothing short of a phenomenon. She is a smash hit in the television studios and narrowly trails Nicolas Sarkozy in the opinion polls ahead of next year’s presidential elections.