THE FRENCH FRONT NATIONAL

The French Front National

The French Front National

The cheerful, slightly awkward man with a shock of white hair that was once, briefly, the highest ranking politician of the extreme right in Europe. In a dirty night in Metz in eastern France, is heading to a restaurant full of French patriots, aged from 80 to four. He walks like a mixture of an MEP and a university professor (both of which he is) and a seriously small town mayor (who is not).

His title is Bruno Gollnisch. You have probably never heard of him, though he once was, for 10 months in 2007, the president of a far-right group in the European Parliament, which includes some of the most extreme and aggressive nationalism in the EU. For many years, Mr. Gollnisch, 60, has been the number two man loyal to a large part of the world has heard, Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder and president of the National Front, the extreme right French party.

Mr. Le ballpoint, 82, leaves in January. Mr Gollnisch believes that now is their turn to govern one of the most successful - ultra-nationalist movements in Europe - and feared. But there is somebody in his way, Mr. Le Pen Marine, daughter, 42.

The interior campaign to do well Mr. Le Pen will end in January with the votes of 75,000 party members before a conference in Tours. In recent days, the campaign has become very unpleasant. The type of poison that the NF paranoia usually directs the rest of the world (particularly immigrants and mainstream politicians) have turned inward, against the part of aspiring leaders. Or rather, especially against an aspiring leader: Marine Le Pen.

In some extreme right-wing newspapers and web sites ultra-Catholic, Ms. Le Pen, has been branded a "rogue outlaw religion" and a "coward" woman surrounded by "opportunistic, unscrupulous Jews and perverts" . She has been accused by the editor of a right-wing magazine, Rivarol, "having adopted two official religions of the Fifth Republic, abortion and the Holocaust."

Ms. Le Pen, a pro-abortion, twice divorced mother of three, is accused by the ultra-Catholic web site e-Deo to surrender to the "evil." What's more, e-Deo says, she is a "feminist" and "always" carried the jeans.

Why so much hate? Marine Le Pen promises that she can take the national federation to a new level. Upon leaving the provocations of his father and his obsession with the past, by adopting a more modern and moderate, and dropping some socially conservative positions, believes that the national federation may go beyond its powerful presence in the margins fatal French politics. You can win and govern.

What attracts many people. Marina is widely favored to win the party leadership in January. Opinion polls suggest he would take votes from President Nicolas Sarkozy and finished third in the first round of the 2012 presidential election.

For others in the party, everyone is talking about expanding and modernizing the movement sounds like heresy. Its hallmark, and pride is that they are standing outside and at the same ...