In a cafe on a tree-lined boulevard in Montelimar, a southern French town best-known for its sticky nougat, Julien Ro-chedy is working on his speech. Young, fashionably bearded and sporting both a well-cut suit and a braided black bracelet, he might be finalising a business presentation, or the launch of a fashion brand. In fact, Mr Rochedy is preparing for a public meeting of the National Front, the right-wing party led by Marine Le Pen. The National Front (fn) has no local office in Montelimar, nor any historical hold here. The town's narrow streets carry no posters for the evening's meeting. But in France's 2012 presidential election, Ms Le Pen grabbed 21% of Montelimar's first-round vote-more than she did nationwide. So the fn is fielding Mr Rochedy as a candidate in the mayoral elections to be held in March. "I've come here a bit like a missionary," he says cheerfully. That evening a few hundred people turn out, curious to hear Mr Rochedy and his star guest, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, the 24-year-old niece of the party leader and one of the fn's two deputies in parliament.
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