Posted May 06, 2017 12:49:40

Photo: Marine Le Pen last month made it to the final round of the Presidential election. (Reuters: Jean-Paul Pelissier)

The youngest of three daughters, Marine Le Pen was just four years old when her father Jean-Marie became the National Front's first leader in 1972.

The party developed a reputation for far-right nationalism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism — Jean-Marie Le Pen repeatedly called the Holocaust "a mere detail of history".

In 1976, the Le Pen family apartment in Paris was bombed, and although no-one in the family was injured the explosion tore through the building, destroying 12 units and injuring six neighbours.

Police believed the attack was politically motivated but never caught those responsible.

The attack had a lasting impression on the Le Pen family's youngest daughter.

Friends at school were told by their parents to stay away from her and hostility towards her father and his views became the norm.

As Ms Le Pen later put it: "A cordon sanitaire [sanitary cordon] was created around us. Don't go near the Le Pens."

Young Marine developed a thick skin and got used to being treated like an outsider, a badge she has since worn with pride.

A road trip from the picturesque countryside in northern France to the suburban sprawl of metropolitan Paris reveals voters feel mainstream politicians have failed them.

In the early years of the National Front her father remained a fringe political figure.

In 1981 he failed to garner the 500 signatures of "grand electors" needed to run for president, but by 1988 his supporter base had grown and he was able to win close to 15 per cent of the vote in the presidential election.

As Le Pen built his political base, his daughter made her way through law school.

She worked as an attorney in Paris from 1992 to 1998, at one stage defending illegal immigrants who faced deportation.

Her political break came at the age of 30 when she became a councillor in the old industrial region of Henin-Beaumont — and around the same time she took over as head of the National Front's legal office.

As she built her public profile, her father reached his political peak, making it to the final round of the presidential election in 2002.

The parties of the left and right united behind Jacques Chirac to repel Le Pen's challenge — he polled just under 18 per cent of the vote in the final round.

Photo: Supporters of Marine Le Pen hold flags at her May Day rally in Villepente. (Reuters: Charles Platiau)

Detoxifying the National Front's tainted brand

After the 2002 election Jean-Marie Le Pen's popularity began to slide and in 2005 he was given a suspended sentence for comments that violated French law on Holocaust denial.

The stylish former investment banker and political newcomer has shocked pundits and is now a serious contender for France's presidency.

At the next election his vote dropped to 10 per cent and in 2011 Ms Le Pen took over the leadership of the party her father had led for nearly 40 years.

In 2012 she gained 18 per cent of the votes in the first round of presidential election, the National Front's best ever vote.

The new leader was determined to detoxify the National Front's tainted brand — she was more socially liberal than her father, speaking out in favour of women's rights and attracting gay voters.

She targeted what she described as the "illegal occupation" of France by Muslim immigrants, comparing Islam to a form of totalitarianism.

In doing so, she tried to reach out to voters her father had alienated, saying that in certain districts where the Muslim population was high, "it is not good to be a woman, homosexual, Jewish, even French or white".

Ms Le Pen began a policy of "de-demonising" the party, eventually expelling her father from the National Front after he had repeated his remarks about the Holocaust.

Photo: This Sunday night Australian time, Emmanuel Macron will go head-to-head with Marine Le Pen. (Reuters: Eric Gaillard)

The times soon suited her.

A series of Islamist terrorist attacks in France helped reinforce her views with voters that Islam was a threat to the Republic.

Protracted double-digit unemployment helped feed her anti-globalisation, pro-protectionist message on the economy.

A deeply unpopular Socialist president, Francois Hollande, allowed her to peel off voters from the left in the old industrial towns in the North East of the country.

Le Pen unlikely to fade away

Last month she made it to the final round of the Presidential election with 21 per cent of the vote — the best ever result for the National Front.

The following day she announced she was temporarily stepping down from her party's leadership, widely seen as an attempt to broaden her appeal beyond the party's traditional base.

Emmanuel Macron is now the favourite to become the next president of France, but for Marine Le Pen, even a loss will represent a victory of sorts, writes Lisa Millar.

Whether she has done enough to convince a majority of French voters that the National Front is a different party from the fringe movement founded by her father remains to be seen.

In the last fortnight of the election campaign opinion polls have consistently suggested that Emmanuel Macron leads his rival by 60-40.

But as we saw in the US election and the Brexit vote, in a country without compulsory voting absenteeism can have a major impact on the final result.

If the polls are right and Ms Le Pen ends up losing, don't expect her to fade away.

She is a resilient woman and will be ready to have another crack at the presidency in five years' time.

Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, france