OVER the past couple of years, a number of far-right leaders have cropped up across Europe.

From the Alternative for Germany Party to the Danish People’s Party, the “Donald Trump effect” has been gaining prominence across the continent in response to acts of terrorism and the refugee crisis.

But no western country has been hit harder by large-scale terrorist attacks than France in recent times, and National Front party leader Marine Le Pen believes she’s the answer.

Ms Le Pen is staunchly anti-immigration, anti-Muslim and pro-“Frexit” — France exiting the European Union a la the UK.

Just this month, Ms Le Pen sparked fresh controversy after proposing that the children of illegal immigrants should be refused public school places as part of tough proposals to restrict state services.

“I’ve got nothing against foreigners but I say to them: If you come to our country, don’t expect that you will be taken care of, treated [by the health system] and that your children will be educated for free,” Le Pen said. “That’s finished now, it’s the end of playtime.”

Her popularity is not to be understated, with polls in the lead-up to the French election consistently showing the far-right leader will make it to the final round against Francois Fillon.

But if you thought Ms Le Pen was conservative, you haven’t met her niece, Marion.

As it stands, the 27-year-old may prove to be a thorn in her own family’s campaign.

EUROPE’S MOST RIGHT-WING MILLENNIAL

Marion Marechal-Le Pen is a polarising figure, and certainly not your average millennial.

Also a member of the National Front party, the 27-year-old’s views are even more conservative than her aunt’s — so much so that she’s been dubbed Europe’s “poster child for the far right”.

At just 22 years old, Marion was elected MP for Vaucluse’s 3rd constituency in 2012, in the country’s south, making her the youngest MP in France’s modern political history.

Like her aunt, the younger Le Pen is heavily opposed to Muslim immigration.

During the Nice terror attacks in July this year, before there was any known link between the tragedy and extremist groups, she immediately gathered her followers and blamed “Islamism”.

“You are with us and against Islamism, or you are against us and for Islamism,” she said. “Those who choose the status quo become complicit with our enemies.”

In a separate instance, she organised a protest against plans to bring 30 teenage asylum seekers from Afghanistan to the nearby town of Grambois.

“It is not the hate of others, it is love for Provence, love for France,” she shouted at a rally of hundreds of demonstrators and counter-protesters, according to the New York Times.

She said asylum seekers come to France to receive generous welfare cheques at the expense of French natives struggling to find employment.

In an interview after the rally, she said she is “against this completely crazy plan to redistribute migrants”.

The European project “is a failure”, she said. “We need to build another Europe.”

The Le Pens are no longer just a right-wing fringe group. In a country where 230 people have been killed in terror attacks over the past 18 months, the party’s popularity has swelled immensely.

It doesn’t hurt that Marion is brutally outspoken. She once stood up in the French Parliament and accused then-Prime Minister Manuel Valls of behaving like a “moron”.

He was so visibly furious by her words that his hand began shaking uncontrollably as he responded to her remarks, in a video that went viral.

While her aunt refused to play a major role in the campaign against marriage equality in 2013, Marion has expressed her disdain for it, saying it will “open the door to polygamy”.

“Once you break away from the natural framework of a man and a woman, you could have other minorities who want their form of love recognised by the state,” she told the Telegraph earlier this year.

“If you endorse homosexuality [in marriage], why not polygamy?”

But Marion is possibly best known for her controversial views on abortion, because it’s an issue on which she’s repeatedly clashed with her aunt.

Earlier this month, she sparked outrage after saying “France should end the full and unlimited reimbursement of abortion”.

In an interview with far-right Catholic magazine Present, Marion said: “Instead of putting in place targets, abortion quotas in health establishments, financial support should be given to centres that accompany isolated or hesitant women.

“Full and unlimited abortion should be reversed, because women are responsible and should be treated as such.”

Her aunt’s right-hand man Florian Philippot issued an icy response on behalf of the party, saying the girl was “alone” and “isolated” in holding such a view.

“What counts is what the presidential candidate says, what the movement says, what our presidential project says, namely no questioning of abortion, full reimbursement of abortion,” he told BFM TV.

But despite their family ties, Marion’s conservative views may drive a wedge in the party ahead of the election.

PROBLEM MAKER

Marine Le Pen has redefined what it means to be a member of the “far-right”.

She’s deliberately distanced her party from skinheads and Neo-Nazis, instead embracing left-wing causes like gay rights and women’s equality to further her central party line on stopping immigration.

As The Guardian noted in a feature last month, this is an effective strategy in that her party then depicts Muslim immigrants as the primary threat to such minority groups.

“As fear of Islam has spread, with their encouragement, they have presented themselves as the only true defenders of western identity and western liberties — the last bulwark protecting a besieged Judaeo-Christian civilisation from the barbarians at the gates,” the article read.

But this puts Marine at odds with her fiery niece. The younger, more socially conservative Marion routinely speaks at odds with the so-called “new right”, although she’s certainly won the far-right Catholic vote.

Their conflicting stances have sparked media reports of a “family feud”, with speculation the party is at risk of a major split before next year’s election.

But despite this, the National Party, often criticised as being fueled by fear and xenophobia, has the most support among French millennials according to polling.

An Odoxa report released this month found roughly one in five French people aged 18-34 back the party.

While it’s forecast to finish second in the polls, the Le Pens are hoping for new momentum after Mr Trump’s victory in the United States.

This means huge changes could be coming up for France — if the party can actually get itself together.