It is these two themes that best enable us to understand what sort of party the Front National is. The French Right has always been a complex phenomenon. From 1789 onwards it has had its counter-revolutionaries. It has also had its liberals. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing would be a good example of an   Orléanist liberal. A third tradition has been Bonapartism. By the end of the 19th century this tradition had been transformed into a form of national populism. Some people have argued that it is to this tradition that Gaullism belongs. It is also a tradition that easily straddles the Left/Right divide.

This is the voice one hears from Marine Le Pen and the Front National. At its heart is an appeal to the people, to the whole nation, regardless of social class or any other distinction. As that appeal has to be direct and unmediated, it entails a distrust of parliamentary democracy and of politicians. Your values, Le Pen tells her audiences, are my values. With this comes the regular denunciation of elites, the privileged, (usually foreign) oligarchies and what Le Pen, like earlier representatives of this tradition, describes as the "feudalities" who control the French state and subvert France's wealth. 

As for France itself, in a changing and threatening world, it is in decline and under threat of social disintegration. Only a strong leader and, as Le Pen insists, a strong state can afford protection from its many enemies. It is from this perspective that Le Pen can argue that the Front National is not a party of the extreme Right but the "patriot party".

What will the future bring? François Fillon, Sarkozy's former prime minister, is talking openly about the need for an electoral alliance with the Front National. If the opinion polls are to be believed, the party will make significant gains in local elections next March. It could well win May's European elections.

Should this occur, what comes next is anyone's guess. François Hollande is well protected by the French constitution and he still has more than three years of his mandate to run. In all probability he will seek to form a new government at some point in the near future. But this is hardly likely to turn the situation around. Were he to call a general election, the Socialist Party would be wiped out.

 So, it looks as if the ball will remain in Marine Le Pen's court for some time to come. Meanwhile the black government minister Christiane Taubira is openly subjected to racist abuse and the government scarcely responds. We can only look on with a mixture of fascination and horror.