annual ritual in France for political leaders to make a new year’s address. Time was that Marine Le Pen, the leader of the, formerly the National Front), did so from the back room of a boxy building in Nanterre, on the drab outskirts of Paris. In those days the party she took over in 2011 from her father, Jean-Marie, was more about low-budget protest and fringe provocation than taking power.on the swanky Avenue Hoche in Paris, a step away from the Champs-Elysées. The symbolism was potent.
Ahead of European Parliament elections in June, and to reboot his government, Mr Macron has installed a counterpoint to Mr Bardella as prime minister: the 34-year-old Gabriel Attal. Six years apart, each uncommonly poised in debates, the pair have faced each other in television studios before. Already, Mr Attal is proving far more popular than his boss, with a 53% approval rating, 17 points higher than Mr Macron’s.
unexpectedly backed his recent immigration bill, embarrassing the government and allowing Ms Le Pen to claim an “ideological victory”. Finding a way to resist nationalist-populism challenges centrists across Europe. Rational argument is a flimsy tool against its simplistic certitudes. Back in 2017, during a presidential debate, Mr Macron famously exposed Ms Le Pen as unfit to govern, when she confused two big French firms and failed to explain her unfathomable currency policy. The more her party does its homework, the harder this argument will be to make.