Take, for example, the inbreeding between the media and the political elite — journalists Anne Sinclair (Dominique Strauss-Kahn), Christine Ockrent (Bernard Kouchner), Béatrice Schönberg (Jean-Louis Borloo), Marie Drucker (François Baroin), Isabelle Juppé (Alain Juppé), Audrey Pulvar (Arnaud Montebourg) and, of course, Valérie Trierweiler, to name but a few. The absence of male journalists coupled with female politicians is a fair reflection of the sexual balance of French politics.

The result of such high-profile endogamy is collusion between the media and the political executive, and inevitably this compromises French democracy. A similar collusion applies to the political and business elites. The financial scandals involving goverment ministers which have come to light under Presidents Sarkozy and Hollande do not speak well of the transparency of the executive power.

The resulting effect upon the lower strata of society is a loss of confidence and respect, not just in the governing elites but also in the institutions which are supposed to represent and defend their rights: the courts, the police and even the fire service. There is a tangible frustration which is compounded by the failure of the centralised state school system. This once-great educational edifice, which imbued every French child with a sense of national identity, now seems unable to deliver either knowledge or a job. Little wonder that Marine Le Pen, leader of the Front National, is way ahead of Hollande in the polls.

The inexorable construction through the back door of a federal European state by the French ruling elites, and the general impression of a lack of transparency in European matters, have left many French people sceptical about the true intentions of their political leaders. Recent scandals involving EU institutions have shattered what little was left of the average voter's confidence in their integrity.

The latest in a long line involves the Eulex mission in Kosovo led by the French until 2012, set up to investigate graft and corruption among gangsters and politicians, many of whom are suspected of organ trafficking. It is the EU's biggest foreign mission and has cost the taxpayer €1 billion since being set up in 2008, but leading members are now accused of taking huge bribes from the very people they are investigating, and of quashing internal Eulex probes.

While racial and social tensions rise and France stagnates, Marine Le Pen's electoral promises of giving back to the French people a say will not fall on deaf ears in the 2017 presidential election. Nevertheless, she has yet to unshackle herself from twin legacies of her father: racism and anti-Semitism.

Now that her party is backed to the tune of a €9 million loan by First Czech-Russian Bank, a France under her leadership will be one which espouses a Europe that stretches from the Atlantic to Vladivostok, not from Washington to Brussels. At a triumphal rally in Lyons after being re-elected leader at the end of November, she said of Hollande and the newly re-elected conservative UMP leader Sarkozy: "You messed everything up. They gave you a treasure, France, and a diamond, its people. You have ruined the one and abandoned the other."
Sadly, this is rhetoric which in these benighted times is in danger of chiming with a France that General de Gaulle would scarcely recognise.