France's Le Pen: Longshot Political Bid

French far right presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen, right, sings the French national anthem with his daughter Marine, left, during a far right meeting in Lille, northern France, Sunday Feb. 25, 2007. Jean-Marie Le Pen's far right National Front party rallied thousands Sunday around his pledges to halt immigration, pull France out of NATO and slash taxes if he becomes the nation's next president. (AP Photo/ Michel Spingler) (Michel Spingler - AP)

Convicted several times of anti-Semitism and regularly accused of xenophobia and racism, the gifted orator says he reflects the yearnings of France's silent majority.

Candidates on left and right, though, are working to avoid a repeat of 2002.

The Socialists are keen to smooth over the divisions that fractured the left-leaning voters at the time. Sarkozy, now the interior minister, has tightened immigration rules in what some see as a bid to siphon far-right votes from Le Pen.

Before Le Pen's speech, his daughter Marine, a major force in his campaign, laid out the party's campaign platform. In a restrained speech free of her father's emotional rhetoric, she called for an end to immigration.

She also pledged "efficient, applicable solutions" to the problems of French voters, including $47 billion in tax cuts.

Supporters dressed in Napoleonic army uniforms took the stage, as a speaker recalled the days of French glory. The crowd cheered a message of support sent by Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and a far right politician in Italy.

When party members gathered in Lille's congress hall on Saturday, some 1,000 of their opponents marched through this northern French city denouncing Le Pen's policies as racist and destructive.

A wily strategist, Le Pen has been a fixture in French politics for decades. He lost an eye in a street fight in his youth, and later became a paratrooper and Foreign Legionnaire who fought in Indochina and Algeria.

Even if his presidential bid fizzles, Le Pen remains a force to be reckoned with in France _ and beyond. He is a key player in a new far-right faction in the European Parliament that is pushing to limit immigration and resist the EU's drive for closer integration.