Marine Le Pen has softened her father’s toxic brand – and could well win

Marine Le Pen has gone a long way to ensure that the sins of the father are not borne by the daughter. Far enough to win the Presidency of the Fifth Republic? The polls suggest probably not, but then again…

The father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founded the National Front party in 1972. In 2018 the daughter changed its name to National Rally in a bid to distance it from its racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim roots. She had already expelled her father from the party and ostracised him in a bitter public row. She has softened the party’s edges to make it, and herself, electable. In this weekend’s first round of voting in the Presidential election it will be a surprise if she does not go through to the 24 April run-off along with the incumbent, Emmanuel Macron.