France's far right party - the National Front – have voted for their new leader, and unsurprisingly they have opted for Marine Le Pen to succeed her aging father at the helm.Jean-Marie Le Pen, now 82 years of age, decided it was time to step down from leading the party he founded and will be best remembered for causing a considerable political shock wave back in 2002 when he came second in the first round of presidential elections before eventually losing to the then incumbent President Jacques Chirac.
He will remain as an MEP and sit alongside his daughter Marine who joined him there in Brussels in 2004.
The ‘FN’, with its anti-immigration agenda, has been shunned by France's main parties and Mr Le Pen has been the subject of widespread criticism on many occasions for his remarks, such as is in 1987 when he caused outrage when he dubbed Nazi death camps a mere "detail of history".
But Ms Le Pen, who won more than two-thirds of the postal vote, has said she wants to break with its xenophobic, anti-Islam image and is confident the FN can become part of mainstream politics.
Her appearance and life-story do make her more media-friendly and credible, even if her similarly tough anti-immigrant stance remains highly controversial. Indeed, only last month she proved herself equally capable of making headlines when she compared Muslims praying in the streets outside overcrowded mosques in France to the Nazi occupation.
Today at a press conference in Strasbourg, the new FN leader confirmed that the party under her leadership will continue to value and work to build on the formal alliance with the British National Party – a statement met with glee by Nick Griffin…
