Far-right party in France finishes just behind Sarkozy's party. Socialists came in first in local

elections.

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1627660.php/INTERVIEW-Marine-Le-Pen-far-right-leader-making-waves-in-France

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was revelling Monday in her first electoral success since taking the reins of the National Front after the party made strong gains in local elections at the weekend. Le Pen's party scooped up 15 per cent of the vote in Sunday's council elections, only marginally behind President Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement party (17 per cent), which came second to the Socialist Party (25 per cent).

Le Pen seized on the 'historic' score as proof that the National Front was 'no longer a protest vote' but a 'vote of adherence' to the party's anti-immigration, anti-Europe platform.

The result in the last election before next year's presidential vote has heightened concern that Le Pen could be one of the two candidates left at the presidential run-off stage. Two of several recent polls showed Le Pen coming second to the as-yet-unknown opposition Socialist Party candidate ahead of the unpopular Sarkozy, in a possible replay of the 2002 election in which her father Jean-Marie Le Pen was the runner-up.

The gains follow strenuous efforts by Le Pen to rid the party of the jackbooted image of her father and campaign on themes where far-right and traditional right-wing parties are increasingly finding common cause. Like Muslim immigration.

I hope Le Pen knocks Sarkozy into third place in the presidential elections next year. That would make it easier for the Socialist candidate to win.

Le Pen wants to soften her party's far-right image, but it is still an anti-immigrant, anti-EU party.

Otherwise I don't see "anti-Muslim" as being much of a platform.