The scene is an exhibition hall packed with 4,000 people last Saturday on the outskirts of Reims, the eastern French city where medieval kings used to hold their coronations. Surrounded by bodyguards, Marine Le Pen walks across the floor to loud, slightly mystical music, fist-bumping flag-waving supporters, towards the stage where a floor-to-ceiling blue M is glowing. The backdrop to the nationalist politician’s presidential launch echoes the giant V erected by Gen Charles De Gaulle in Paris in 1958 to mark the adoption of France’s current constitution (signifying both Victory in that year’s referendum and the dawn of the Vth…

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