François Fillon causes party row by calling for end to treating the far-right National Front as a political pariah, but analysts see it as merely a tactic.
Right-wing MP Hervé Mariton led the parliamentary opposition to the controversial bill on same-sex marriage that recently passed into law. Now Mediapart can reveal that his parliamentary assistant has close links with the extreme right, and even stood as a candidate for a radical far-right group when she was a student. The MP insists he had no idea about the woman's political affiliations when he hired her and says that she is now leaving his employment. Marine Turchi reports on an affair that once again raises the issue of links between the mainstream UMP and the far right in French politics.
While this year’s presidential elections in France saw the first return to power of a socialist administration in 17 years, it also landmarked a significant resurgence of the French Front National (FN) party, whose candidate and leader, Marine Le Pen, scored the highest share of the vote the far-right has ever reached in a presidential poll, attracting more than 6.4 million voters. But behind her national score, Le Pen arrived first-placed among the ten candidates in one out of six municipalities across the country. A French researcher has now completed a study of the populations where Le Pen did best, and his findings contradict a number of clichés about its grass-roots supporters. Michaël Hajdenberg and Mathieu Magnaudeix report.
Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande attacks Nicolas Sarkozy for wooing far-right vote and using state ressources on unofficial campaign.
