MArechel Le Pen is going well too!
Marion Marechal-Le Pen has already turned heads by becoming France's
youngest-ever MP.
Now the polls suggest the 25-year-old National Front (FN) candidate
looks set to win the first round of Sunday's vote in the south-eastern
Provence-Alpes-Cotes-d'Azur region.
She was chosen to replace her 86-year-old grandfather, FN founder
Jean-Marie Le Pen, as head of the far-right party's campaign in the crucial
region.
He was expelled after a feud with his daughter, Marine Le Pen, who now
leads the party and has tried to distance it from accusations of racism and
anti-Semitism.
While the youngest Le Pen may be young and photogenic, experts say her
looks should not distract from the hardline views she embodies.
Poster girl
Born in 1989, Marion Marechal-Le Pen grew up in the manor house west of
Paris that became home to several generations of Le Pens.
Her mother, Yann Le Pen - once an FN events organiser - is the second of
Jean-Marie Le Pen's three daughters.
Samuel Marechal, a former FN politician, married Yann and raised Marion
as his daughter - although the couple later divorced.
In 2013, Marion Marechal-Le Pen sued
L'Express newspaper for invasion of privacy after it revealed that her natural
father was the late journalist and diplomat Roger Auque, who was held hostage
for months in Lebanon. The newspaper wasordered to pay €10,000 (£7,200) in damages (link in French)..
She studied law at
university and married fellow FN politician Matthieu Decosse last year. They
have a baby girl, Olympe.
At
the age of two, Marion Marechal-Le Pen appeared on a FN campaign poster being
cuddled by her grandfather.
Despite
her far-right DNA, she insists she was not brought up to be a ready-made FN
firebrand.
Speaking to the UK's Telegraph newspaper in 2012, she said: "Contrary
to what everyone thinks, in my family we didn't talk about politics at home and
we're free to make our own choices."
However, she was a
member of the FN by the age of 18 and two years later stood in 2010 regional
elections in Yvelines near Paris.
'True French'
Observers
say she appeared shy at times, stumbling over her words.
But
any hint of nerves soon began to disappear.
In
2012 she was elected the youngest ever MP to sit in the French parliament.
And
she arrived in her constituency of Carpentras, in the south-eastern region of
the Vaucluse, determined to clear her grandfather's name.
In
1990, FN supporters had been accused of desecrating a Jewish cemetery in
Carpentras, something Jean-Marie Le Pen always denied.
Her
charm offensive was a success and the young Parisian was quickly accepted in
the south, where FN support has long been strong amid tensions over immigration
A conservative
Catholic, she has played a leading role in anti-gay marriage rallies, favouring
what she calls the "traditional family".
She
has repeatedly spoken of the "true French" identity, demanding
Muslims in France adopt values rooted in Christianity.
And
one phrase she has repeatedly use of herself is that she is a "Francaise
de souche" - of native French stock.
"She
has in effect replaced her grandfather, who used to run in the same region,
from whom she borrows her worldview and her rhetoric," says Professor
Cecile Alduy, an FN expert at Stanford University.
"She
says exactly the same things as he used to, except for the anti-Semitic comments
he indulged in, but she presents [herself] much better, as a young, fresh,
joyful 25-year-old."
Draws large crowds
Even
if they do not agree, many voters in the run-up to the December regional
elections seem able to forgive her more hardline views, says political
journalist Francois Tonneau, who has followed her campaign for local newspaper
La Provence.
It
is not just her bright smile that helps get people on side, he adds.
She
regularly draws large crowds at her "happenings", talking at length
to voters in the street.
Unlike
her colleagues, she is rarely challenged, Mr Tonneau says - perhaps because she
is yet to shoulder much political responsibility.
Mr Tonneau notes she
often stands with her hands in her pockets - an attempt, he believes, to break
the image of the "hypocritical male politician".
The
affect of media training is clear, and she has a large, mostly young and male
team of advisers behind her.
"For
a party with a traditionally masculine image, it has proven extremely useful to
put forward another prominent female politician alongside Marine Le Pen,"
says Aurelien Mondon, a lecturer in French politics at the University of Bath.
Balance between old
and new
As
well as the support in the street, she has a strong presence on social media
and in the press.
In
April 2015 she appeared to leave France's Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls
flustered after calling him a "cretin" in a parliamentary speech. The
video went viral.
It
was a perfect opportunity to raise the profile of the youngest scion of a party
ambitious for power.
As
well as her public image, observers say Marion Marechal-Le Pen's appeal lies in
her ability to maintain a certain independence.
Mr Mondon says she
has "managed to strike a balance between her modern image and her extreme
views, at times at odds with the party leadership".
"Her
more traditional approach, often described as closer to Jean-Marie Le Pen's,
has also helped assuage the more radical part of the party," he adds.
"While
this is proving particularly useful in the south-east, it may end up creating a
schism similar to that which took place in the past between different visions
of the FN."
