French politicians get their collective "culottes" in a bunch as Marine Le Pen outclasses Sarkozy...

The leader of France's far-right National Front party is more popular with voters than president Nicolas Sarkozy, an opinion poll has revealed.

Marine Le Pen would gain an unprecedented first-round election victory if the French were asked to vote for a new president today. France will go to the polls to elect a new president in May next year, but the results of the survey, published in Sunday's Le Parisien newspaper and based on an opinion poll by the Harris Institute, come at a time when Sarkozy's popularity continues to plummet.

The findings have revived the spectre of 2002 when Jean-Marie Le Pen – Marine's father – knocked socialist candidate Lionel Jospin from the country's opposition out of the presidential race in the first round before losing to Jacques Chirac. More...

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