Marine Le Pen: chip off the old block, or making the FN suddenly acceptable?

This is a taster and a question rather than the full Monty.

I will have something to say about my first meeting with the Front National leader who is currently taking French politics by storm, threatening its biggest upheaval since, well, the last one. But my say will have to wait a few days.

Three recent polls have Mme Le Pen reaching the second round of next year's presidential elections. Two of them suggested she would actually top the first poll, eliminating one of the mainstream candidates.

Sarkozy is so unpopular, and the socialists in such disarray, that you simply cannot rule it out. Her old Papa, Jean-Marie, did it in 2002; some will remember that socialists then turned out in force, wearing nosepegs or not, to ensure Chirac walloped him in the decisive second vote.

For now, though, I'd be interested to hear what Salut! readers think. Over to you.