Twice divorced, Marine Le Pen is also noticeably less hardline on the moral issues that had strong appeal for the Front National's early supporters. She accepts the legalisation of abortion and civil partnerships for gay couples. Although she opposed the recent law on same-sex marriage, she attended none of the massive demonstrations organised by its opponents. Having previously been largely dependent upon the votes of working-class males, under her leadership the Front National is gaining support among the young and the retired, and especially among women. Above all, Marine Le Pen insists that it is wrong to describe her party as belonging to the "extreme Right".

So what are the Front National's policies? These were clearly set out before 4,500 rapturous party members in a recent speech by Marine Le Pen in Marseilles. The predominant theme was the restoration of national sovereignty. In terms of specifics, this was taken to mean withdrawal from the EU and the euro, the protection of the French economy from "unfair" competition and the forces of globalisation, priority for French citizens in jobs and housing, an end to mass immigration, a tough stance on law and order issues and a reassertion of French cultural identity. It also means a strong and independent France in defence and foreign affairs. 

When we look at the rhetoric used to spell out these policies they become more interesting. For example, the euro is described as a "German invention" designed expressly to suit German interests and to weaken French industry and agriculture. A France without any control of its borders is at the mercy of "the high priests of the European Union". With great relish Le Pen talked of the removal of the EU flag from all public buildings. A "patriotic" protectionism would defend France from the world of "international finance", from "speculators" and from "voracious big bosses" in search of cheap labour. The fight against crime is a fight against "the terrorism of the streets". A people is terrorised, Le Pen proclaimed, before it is subdued. 

Illegal immigrants are equated with "organised gangs of criminals", "traffickers" and "itinerant thieves". They flourish because of the "leniency" — in French the word is the more powerful laxisme — of the state. If French power and identity are being destroyed it is by an enemy that cannot be seen and that seeks to construct a "supranational and illegitimate identity at the exclusive service of the market". 

An independent France means not only a withdrawal from Nato and opposition to intervention in Syria but putting an end to a situation where France is the "whore of pot-bellied emirs" and the "mistress" of America. Most alarmist of all, a failure to adopt the Front National's policies, Le Pen concluded, runs the risk of condemning France to "disunion, insurrection and perhaps civil war". 

When she came to summarise her programme Le Pen did so with the simple and seemingly inoffensive slogan of "Work, Justice and Production", but she also called for a new style of politics — no more false promises and no more defeatism, she told her audience — and a rebuilding of France's political institutions. Two themes stand out here. The first is Marine Le Pen's view that France has been betrayed by a political class divorced from the daily realities of French men and women and who are indifferent to the fate of the country. The second is that the only voice that should be heard is the voice of the people.