We could be looking at a great realignment of the political positions in Europe
Step inside an office building in the town of Nanterre, just west of Paris, and you are confronted by what the nostrils register as an odor of the past, for it’s a rare thing these days to encounter the lingering taint of cigarette smoke in public spaces. The trail of it leads upstairs to a corner office and to the woman who has, in the past few months, come to dominate French newspapers and chat shows, where she is depicted variously as the new face of European bigotry or a herald of a new European political realignment.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front Party, greeted me with an aggressive handshake and the abrupt body language of a person who has a lot to do. It was mid-March. A flurry of polls had just come out showing that she would beat Nicolas Sarkozy if the French presidential election were held at that moment (the election will take place a year from now), and she was working hard to press her advantage.
She wore a simple navy blue suit and no jewelry, and her hair was pulled back somewhat haphazardly, with stray wisps dangling. Her gaze is steely, but her eyes have humor in them. Her deep voice, with its smoker’s rasp, carries authority.