Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front party, would win the first-round of a presidential election if it were held today, a poll of French voters shows.
Le Pen took over the leadership of the National Front from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in January this year. A lawyer and twice-divorced mother-of-three, the bottle-blonde 42-year-old is as firmly right-wing as her predecessor.
In December she provoked outrage by suggesting that weekly closure of streets in French towns to allow Muslim prayers was "an occupation" in a speech which mentioned World War II.
The tactic is evidently working: the Harris poll suggested that Le Pen would get 23 per cent of the vote in a presidential election held today, with Sarkozy and Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry trailing with 21 per cent apiece.
The current icon shows Polistra using a Personal Equation Machine.