>LE PEN AND FRENCH FAR RIGHT ACHIEVE RECORD POPULARITY
...
>Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far-Right National Front (FN), has gained
>record levels of support - without saying a word in public. According to a
>survey in the news magazine Le Point last week, 22 per cent of the French
>population has a "favourable opinion" of Mr Le Pen - up five per cent from
>the previous month. The rating is far higher than the 16 per cent
>popularity which Mr Le Pen scored in polls four years ago...
A worrying figure, but notice that the Telegraph's spin in the headline is nowhere justified in the story. First of all, a 'favourable opinion' of Le Pen is not the same thing as a vote for him or a 'favourable opinion' or vote for the far right in toto. Secondly, this is not a record figure at all. In 2002, Le Pen was given a 'very favourable' rating by 22% of voters (but that still left a 74% unfavourable rating, as I suspect would be the case today):
http://www.ipsos.fr/CanalIpsos/poll/7542.asp
One curious fact about Le Pen's supporters is that they were most likely out of all voters to approve of George W Bush. Even the centre-right voters overwhelmingly rejected Bush and hoped Kerry would win the election in 2004:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/viewsofamerica/story/0,,1327466,00.html
Partly it must be because of the shift of racism toward Muslims and Arabs rather than Jews:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/61/144.html
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