Le Pen's world: French nationalism at heart of campaign
Borders are so secure that illegal immigration no longer fuels fears of terror attacks or drains public coffers.
A series of deadly extremist attacks, 10 percent unemployment and frustration with mainstream politics have helped make the party she has worked to detoxify a potentially viable alternative.
The other is former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, a conservative who would slash the ranks of civil servants and trim state-funded health care — an untouchable area for Le Pen whose campaign slogan is "In the Name of the People."
Le Pen believes her chance of victory has been bolstered by Britain's decision to leave the European Union and Donald Trump's election to the U.S. presidency, for her revelatory signs of a world in transition with nationalism and protectionism the new watchwords.
Le Pen insists she has no problem with followers of the Islamic faith, but wants people who espouse radical political ideas in the guise of religion to be put on trial and expelled before they install Sharia, or Islamic law, in France.
The National Front's No. 2, Florian Philippot, said last weekend that Le Pen's platform calls for extending a 2004 law banning "ostensible" religious symbols like Muslim headscarves from French classrooms to include the streets.
A former leader of the hard-core Identity Bloc in Nice, Philippe Vardon, joined National Front ranks and quickly won a councilor spot in regional elections.
[...] she set the tone with her New Year's greeting to the French, a "wish of combat" to defeat political adversaries she contends represent the interests of banks, finance, the media — the "system" she decries.