France’s New Far-Right Leader

France's conservatives are keeping it in the family: Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the right-wing National Front party, is passing leadership of his 38-year-old movement to his daughter. Marine Le Pen, 42, is articulate and telegenic, and expected to broaden the party's appeal. The National Front, known for its anti-immigrant rhetoric and opposition to Islam, earned about 12 percent of the country's vote in the last presidential election, and Le Pen is expected to run in 2012. Her candidacy could hurt incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy, of the center-right Union for a Popular Movement, by siphoning off his conservative support. Worry about a challenge from the right is one reason Sarkozy played on anti-immigrant, anti-crime themes this past year and deported Roma immigrants who had overstayed their visas. Jean-Marie Le Pen, now 82, ran for president five times, and beat a socialist candidate to make it to the final runoff with Jacques Chirac in 2002.