France

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Front National (FN)

Central Figure: Marine Le Pen

Ideology: The FN opposes immigration, the welfare state, and the European Union. They previously advocated sending non-European immigrants back to their countries of origin, but now they reserve such treatment for foreign-born criminals.

The FN was founded by the crypto-fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1972. Jean-Marie Le Pen stepped down earlier this year and handed control of the party to his daughter, Marine.

Marine is more liberal than her father on social issues such as abortion, but maintains the Front's hard stance on immigration and the threat posed to France by Islamic culture. Marine's ambition is to move the party and it's nationalist ideology into the mainstream by focusing on issues besides Islam and immigration. She is skilled at triangulation, even arguing that the rise of Islam is a threat to French Jews and gays.

Power: The FN currently holds no seats in the National Assembly, but their influence on public discourse is undeniable. Though the party was crushed in 2007, they have surged in recent local elections. In the 2011 Cantonal Election, the FN took 15% of the vote, just over one point behind Sarkozy's UMP.

This year, the Front only ran candidates in a minority of local races, but still managed to nearly match Sarkozy's UMP in share of the vote. Some opinion polls now show Ms. Le Pen leading in the presidential race. The huge gains in popularity are mostly attributed to the new leadership of Marine Le Pen. The UMP has already tried to woo the far-right with heavy-handed laws that target Muslim minorities.

Source: Guardian, Telegraph, BBC, Connexion France