Marine Le Pen has done a big job to "un-demonise" her party. She's sacked her father and accepted several people from the Left. Dogged defence of the secular school system (her father supported the "school cheque" making it possible for Catholic schools to exist), socialist ideas such as retirement at age 60 (during the debate Macron even derided it for being a Mitterrand failure) and repeated defence of Jews and gays against "Muslim fundamentalism" (also during the debate).
Only thing that is left from her Father's "fascism" is of course migration control and what she has added is hysterical Islamophobia (repeated during the debate, no Islamic headscarves at uni!) but that is very much compatible with all the pro-Israeli intellectuals who are omnipresent on the French media. Mr Cukierman who is the chairman of the CRIF (French equivalent for AIPAC) said she was "irreproachable". All this Islamophobia and fanatical defence of secularism is of course exactly what I abhor in her agenda and rhetoric (just like in Wilders') but least we can say is that it's a very different party than in the days of her father. She's pretty much in line with all the "moderate" parties in this respect.
Only thing that is left from her Father's "fascism" is of course migration control and what she has added is hysterical Islamophobia (repeated during the debate, no Islamic headscarves at uni!) but that is very much compatible with all the pro-Israeli intellectuals who are omnipresent on the French media. Mr Cukierman who is the chairman of the CRIF (French equivalent for AIPAC) said she was "irreproachable". All this Islamophobia and fanatical defence of secularism is of course exactly what I abhor in her agenda and rhetoric (just like in Wilders') but least we can say is that it's a very different party than in the days of her father. She's pretty much in line with all the "moderate" parties in this respect.